Category Archives: Evolution

Michigan State Universitys renowned Long-Term Evolution Experiment a remarkable 34-year biological drama in flasks, with bacteria competing for resources and fighting for dominance is itself evolving.

The bacterias main stage frozen vials containing some 75,000 generations has been moved from MSUs Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building to Texas. Richard Lenski, its scientific founder and gamemaster, is passing its care and feeding on to a former Michigan State postdoctoral researcher.

Yet the bookends of news articles in high-profile international science magazines this month signal that MSUs future with the LTEE is less about glowing obituaries and more about chapters still being written.

Lenski wryly documented the migration of his microbial colleagues on his @RELenski Twitter account: Bon voyage, #LTEE! Enjoy your new locale, even if your Erlenmeyer flask homes and DM25 diets are exactly the same as you've been evolving in and adapting to for the last 75,000 generations! Now keep on evolving, my friends bacteria and humans alike!

The experiment was started in 1988 by Lenski, the John Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbial Ecology in the MSU College of Natural Science. He began with 12 populations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteriaidentical ancestral strains placed into identical environmentsto see how similarly or differently they would evolve. For years he and his team fed them and protected their tiny universes from disruptions. In return, the bacteria reproduced quickly, allowing evolutionary-minded scientists to ask questions about evolution that would take many human lifetimes to provide.

For the full story, visit natsci.edu

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Evolution-in-a-flask experiment moves, but not the science - MSUToday

In 1928, George Whitney placed ice cream between oatmeal cookies and dipped the entire dessert into melted chocolate (via The Original It's It). Nearly two decades later, Jerry Newberg sold sandwiches of vanilla ice cream and chocolate wafers at baseball games (per News Nation Now). This set the foundation for more delicious creations.Richard LaMotta made the "chipwich" in 1978, which, according to The Original Chipwich, was the first time ice cream found a home between chocolate-chip cookies.

Since then, modifications to the frozen sandwich have spanned the globe. In Vietnam, for example, ice cream is scooped onto pieces of bread and topped with peanuts (via Street Food and Travel). Bastani-e nooni, the Persian ice cream sandwich, places pistachio, rose, and saffron ice cream between vanilla wafers (perAtlas Obscura).BRIT + CO has tracked down all sorts of other modifications: ice cream folded into what looks like small pies and sandwiches made with churros. (For more inspiration, check out our Ice Tea Creamand Choco Taco-Inspiredrecipes). It's clear the ice cream sandwich train left the station long ago, and there's no telling where it might go next.

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The Historic Evolution Of The Ice Cream Sandwich - Tasting Table

Image source: Getty Images

The Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) share price was among the worst performers on the ASX 200 during the 2022 financial year.

The gold miners shares lost 47% of their value during the 12 months.

Interestingly, the majority of this decline came in the final month of the financial year following the release of an abject update.

Investors were selling down the Evolution share price in June after the company revealed that it expects to record a decline in production in FY 2022 with higher than expected costs.

Evolution is forecasting total production of 640,000 ounces with an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of approximately $1,250 an ounce.

This compares to 680,788 ounces and an AISC of $1,215 an ounce a year earlier.

This update didnt go down well with analysts at Credit Suisse. In response, the broker reiterated its underperform rating and slashed its price target by 28% to $2.70.

Elsewhere, analysts at Citi responded by retaining their neutral recommendation (now with a high risk rating) and cutting their price target by 28% to $3.30.

Citi appears to believe the companys outlook is extremely cloudy and isnt expecting any cash generation for a few years.

Citi explained:

Theres a lot to unpack after todays higher-cost, lower ounce outlook including read-through to the rest of our coverage. In Nov21, EVN had expected to do +900koz in FY24 @ A$1050/oz vs todays 800koz @ $1240/oz. Weve cut our TP from $4.60/sh to $3.30/sh trimming EBITDA by almost 20% next year.

After todays +21% sell off vs XGD -7%, EVN is now trading on ~0.90x P/NAV. EVNs usually hefty valuation premium is gone. On our gold deck and including debt repayments, were not expecting EVN to make any cash until FY25, and that hinges on Red Lake. We thus assign a High Risk rating; without conviction on the Red Lake turnaround, Mungari plus our sideways tracking gold price its hard to be more positive here.

All in all, it looks set to be a tough few years for the company. In light of this, it isnt overly surprising to have seen the Evolution share price fall so hard over the last 12 months.

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Why did the Evolution share price crash 47% in FY22? - The Motley Fool Australia

FW: Against a backdrop of evolving cyber and data privacy regulations, how important is it for the automotive sector to be proactive in protecting data? What are the potential consequences for an automotive company that falls victim to a cyber attack or data breach?

Karniyevich: As a cyber attack or data breach can have an impact on the safety of the driver and passengers, in the context of connected vehicles it is of vital importance for manufacturers and security vendors to be proactive in protecting data and to address the risk of hackers attempting to exploit connected vehicles vulnerabilities. Besides reputational damage, an automotive company that falls victim to a cyber attack or a data breach will likely face a fine under the GDPR, as well as the European cyber security regulations, in particular the Network & Information Systems (NIS) Directive which will soon be replaced by the NIS2 Directive and which introduces a new and expanded EU cyber security regime also covering the road transport sector. In addition, the supervisory authority will likely investigate the organisations compliance practices and highlight any areas that fail to meet the applicable requirements.

Ballhausen: Stakeholders within the automotive sector should be keen to consider privacy requirements as early as possible. While it may be possible to implement some solutions even at an early stage, such as making the privacy policy available through a user interface, many requirements will need to be considered when products and services are planned. For example, data collection devices may need to be built to exclude specific data from being collected to comply with section 63e of the German Road Traffic Regulation, otherwise the respective device may be prohibited or temporarily taken off the market by a competent authority. These are just two examples of the potential consequences of failing to comply with privacy requirements. In addition, the competent authorities have a whole set of potential measures at their disposal, which range from inquiries to fines. Furthermore, in the event of a data breach which leads to the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data, the data controller is obliged to notify the competent authority and potentially also inform the affected individuals. At the same time, cases in which individuals bring claims directly against the data controller continue to rise. To avoid these risks, the requirements and necessary security measures should be carefully considered as early as possible in the development process.

FW: In your experience, are current levels of data security deployed by automotive companies generally sufficient to address cyber risks?

Karniyevich: With smart car connectivity increasing, the growing use of data and the emergence of semi-autonomous cars, new cyber security risks and threats are developing. Security measures deployed by automotive companies need to be constantly updated to take into account recent cyber security developments to eliminate or mitigate the potential risks, especially as these attacks threaten the security, safety and privacy of vehicle and all other road users. As highlighted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), there have been some experimental remote attacks on autonomous cars cameras and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems, showing effective camera blinding, making real objects appear further than their actual locations or even creating fake objects. In addition to malicious sensors and manipulations, other attack vectors have been demonstrated, such as global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) spoofing and fooling AI-based functions, with the famous example of trapping a self-driving car by just drawing a chalk circle around the vehicle. Such attacks may lead to data breaches, vehicle immobilisation, road accidents, financial losses, and even endanger road users safety.

Ballhausen: In our experience, automotive companies are generally very keen to ensure data security. The sector is used to dealing with security requirements. Data security requirements are often seen as an additional set of security requirements which must be met. Nonetheless, automotive companies have faced data breaches and personal data collected by automotive companies has been lost. With an increase in cyber security attacks, it is safe to assume that the number of security issues and data breaches will increase and that despite all efforts, many of todays security measures are not yet sufficient.

FW: What technical and organisational measures do data controllers in the automotive sector need to adopt to ensure compliance with relevant legislation?

Karniyevich: From the perspective of a data controller, to ensure compliance with data protection regulations, automotive companies need to ensure they have access to hardware and software security, taking advantage of best practices and current security standards, beginning with design and manufacturing to operation and retirement. In addition, in-vehicle network security should be ensured to protect the processed personal data, such as location data, navigation history, call history, microphone recordings and so on. Finally, as vehicle systems need, in some circumstances, to communicate with cloud-based security services to detect and correct threats, cloud security services need to be implemented in a secure manner.

Ballhausen: The technical and organisational measures that need to be adopted depend on various factors. There are, of course, principles such as the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services, as referred to in article 32 of the GDPR. However, this ability needs to be ensured through different means, such as if you take access control to ensure confidentiality, for example. If the personal data is processed within a vehicle, access control measures may be limited to password protection and potentially encryption or pseudonymisation, whereas it will generally be possible to restrict the access to personal data processed on servers in a data centre, such as part of a smart or cloud solution, physically. Furthermore, the level of security that needs to be achieved depends on the sensitivity of the personal data being processed. The more sensitive the data, the higher the security measures that need to be implemented. Therefore, there is not one definitive set of technical and organisational measures that must be adopted by data controllers in the automotive sector. Instead, data controllers should carefully consider what personal data they will be processing, the sensitivity of this data and the security measures available to them in a specific setup.

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Evolution of the automotive sector data privacy and cyber security Financier Worldwide - Financier Worldwide

In todays highly-connected and instantaneous world, we have access to a massive amount of information at our fingertips.

Historically, however, this hasnt always been the case.

Time travel back just 20 years ago to 2002, and youd notice the vast majority of people were still waiting on the daily paper or the evening news to help fill the information void.

In fact, for most of 2002, Google was trailing in search engine market share behind Yahoo! and MSN. Meanwhile, early social media incarnations (MySpace, Friendster, etc.) were just starting to come online, and all of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the iPhone did not yet exist.

Every so often, the dominant form of communication is upended by new technological developments and changing societal preferences.

These transitions seem to be happening faster over time, aligning with the accelerated progress of technology.

Each new wave of media comes with its own pros and cons.

For example, Connected Media was a huge step forward in that it enabled everyone to be a part of the conversation. On the other hand, algorithms and the sheer amount of content to sift through has created a lot of downsides as well. To name just a few problems with media today: filter bubbles, sensationalism, clickbait, and so on.

Before we dive into what we think is the next wave of media, lets first break down the common attributes and problems with prior waves.

Before the first wave of media, amplifying a message took devotion and a lifetime.

Add in the fact that even by the year 1500, only 4% of global citizens lived in cities, and you can see how hard it would be to communicate effectively with the masses during this era.

Or, to paint a more vivid picture of what proto-media was like: information could only travel as fast as the speed of a horse.

In this first wave, new technological advancements enabled widescale communication for the first time in history.

Newspapers, books, magazines, radios, televisions, movies, and early websites all fit within this framework, enabling the owners of these assets to broadcast their message at scale.

With large amounts of infrastructure required to print books or broadcast television news programs, it took capital or connections to gain access. For this reason, large corporations and governments were usually the gatekeepers, and ordinary citizens had limited influence.

Importantly, these mediums only allowed one-way communicationmeaning that they could broadcast a message, but the general public was restricted in how they could respond (i.e. a letter to the editor, or a phone call to a radio station).

Innovations like Web 2.0 and social media changed the game.

Starting in the mid-2000s, barriers to entry began to drop, and it eventually became free and easy for anyone to broadcast their opinion online. As the internet exploded with content, sorting through it became the number one problem to solve.

For better or worse, algorithms began to feed people what they loved, so they could consume even more. The ripple effect of this was that everyone competing for eyeballs suddenly found themselves optimizing content to try and win the algorithm game to get virality.

Viral content is often engaging and interesting, but it comes with tradeoffs. Content can be made artificially engaging by sensationalizing, using clickbait, or playing loose with the facts. It can be ultra-targeted to resonate emotionally within one particular filter bubble. It can be designed to enrage a certain group, and mobilize them towards actioneven if it is extreme.

Despite the many benefits of Connected Media, we are seeing more polarization than ever before in society. Groups of people cant relate to each other or discuss issues, because they cant even agree on basic facts.

Perhaps most frustrating of all? Many people dont know they are deep within their own bubble in which they are only fed information they agree with. They are unaware that other legitimate points of view exist. Everything is black and white, and grey thinking is rarer and rarer.

Between 2015 and 2025, the amount of data captured, created, and replicated globally will increase by 1,600%.

For the first time ever, a significant quantity of data is becoming open source and available to anyone. There have been massive advancements in how to store and verify data, and even the ownership of information can now be tracked on the blockchain. Both media and the population are becoming more data literate, and they are also becoming aware of the societal drawbacks stemming from Connected Media.

As this new wave emerges, its worth examining some of its attributes and connecting concepts in more detail:

The Data Media ecosystem is just beginning to emerge, but here are some early pioneers we like:

Growth in data journalism and the emergence of these pioneers helps give you a sense of the beginnings of Data Media, but we believe they are only scratching the surface of what is possible.

In a sense, its easier to define what Data Media isnt.

Data Media is not partisan pundits arguing over each other on a newscast, and its not fake news, misinformation, or clickbait that is engineered to drive easy clicks. Data media is not an echo chamber that only reinforces existing biases. Because data is also less subjective, its less likely to be censored in the way we see today.

Data is not perfect, but it can help change the conversations we are having as a society to be more constructive and inclusive. We hope you agree!

The rest is here:

The Evolution of Media: Visualizing a Data-Driven Future - Visual Capitalist

New details have emerged about Volvo Cars' future electric vehicle plant in Slovakia, which will start building next-generation EVs in 2026 after a $1.25 billion investment.

The automaker's first new factory in Europe since 1965 will build cars based on a successor to the EV-only SPA2 platform, which will soon underpin Volvo's upcoming flagship SUV and the Polestar 3 sister modelboth expected to enter production at the carmaker's plant in Charleston, South Carolina later this year.

Volvo Cars' head of global manufacturing, Geert Bruyneel, confirmed to Automotive News Europe that EVs made in Slovakia will use a successor to SPA2 and said the architecture will be the company's most advanced at the start of production.The evolution of the SPA2 architecture planned for Kosice will be done by Volvo and shared with sibling brands owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding, such as Polestar, Geely, Lynk & Co, and Lotus.

Bruyneel and Volvo's head of industrial strategy, Erik Severinson, declined to say which car would be made at thenew factory in Kosice, Slovakia. The carmaker uses the current generation of SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) on models such as the Volvo XC90 and XC60 midsize and compact luxury SUVs, so it would be logical to build an all-electric successor to the XC60 at the new plant.

4 Photos

Another model that would fit the bill is a future electric crossover codenamed V546 that will slot between the XC60 and XC90 in size when it debuts sometime in 2025.

Volvo's new plant in Slovakia will utilize megacasting for large aluminum body parts, Severinson revealed, adding that the switch to the new technique for car construction will mark "the next generation in our technology journey."

"The new plant in Slovakia gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put the most efficient state-of-the-art factory in place."

Volvo Cars' head of global manufacturing, Geert Bruyneel

Asked whether Volvo plants to add battery or electric motor production at the Kosice factory, Bruyneel said that while those decisions still need to be made, Volvo has room to expand if needed.

The Swedish carmaker's next flagship SUV, which will replace the XC90 as the brand's flagship and will inaugurate the SPA2 platform, will be fully electric. Volvo hasn't yet disclosed the model's name, but has said it will break the tradition of using alphanumeric names on future vehicles.

The name Embla appears to be among those considered after it was discovered that Volvo filed for trademark protection last October for it, which in Norse mythology is the name of the first woman.

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Volvo's New Euro Plant To Build EVs Based On An Evolution Of SPA2 - InsideEVs

Seven years agoonly seven!Peter Dawson, the retiring CEO of the R&A on the eve of the 28th playing of the Open Championship at the Old Course, initially dismissed a question of whether the venerable links were on the brink of extinction.

Forced to elaborate, Dawson emphasized that the Old Course has held up for generations, and that golfs governing bodies will work to ensure it will last well into the future as a strong challenge.

Seven years later, Dawson has moved on, the ruling bodies have floated a more aggressive line of ideas on controlling the driving distance of the pros and the Old Course stands again at the crosshairs, essentially unchanged from what it was seven years ago, or in actual effect, forever. Will it still be enough to test the best?

Seven years ago, the short-hitting Zach Johnson won at St. Andrews with a 15-under-par score that would have won all but two previous Opens played at the Old Course dating back to when before par was even a thing. Of the last seven Opens played at the Old Course since 1984, double-digits under par has won the title six times. Since the turn of the century and the introduction of solid core balls and titanium drivers to elite mens professional golf, the average winning score at Old Course Open Championships has been 16 under, and the prospect of record low scores is only a couple of benign summer days away.

Jordan Spieth said as much at the Genesis Scottish Open last week. Asked if the Old Course might now be too easy, he barely hedged. I think it might be, he said. I think if it's like it was this morning out here [calm], it's just a wedge contest, really. The back nine just doesn't show the same teeth that it normally does.

But I don't know what else necessarily could be done. You know, it was not necessarily built for today's technology. But I think that even a nice ten to 15 miles an hour would do something to it.

Given its historic place, the perception is that the Old Course has just sat there unchanged all these centuries as golfers and their tools have gotten better. In truth, though, it has evolved, almost constantly. According to Scott Macpherson, a golf course architect who has studied the Old Course through all its changes for his book The Evolution of the Old Course, the introduction of the Haskell ball led to a lengthening of the course by roughly 200 yards. By the 1920s, a map done by Alister Mackenzie showed the yardage to be nearly 6,600 yards. By the 1940s, it was over 6,800 yards and well above 6,900 yards in the 1960s. But since 2000, and the modern ball and club era, its added nearly 400 yards. Throughout, tees have been lengthened or repositioned at new angles, even stretched outside the normal boundaries of the original links itself, adjustments that might seem grotesque to some while others might call it a natural evolution.

Its trying to find a sensitive way to do it that will protect the integrity of the course, Macpherson said recently on his podcast Golf Design Matters.

But as Golf Digests veteran Old Course observer John Huggan has pointed out, all those new tees will have competitors at the 150th Open walking an extra 2,000 yards back and forth. Thats a far cry from a course where in its early days the tee for the next hole was just two club lengths from the actual hole of the last.

Whats telling of course is that since the 2015 Open, there have been no dramatic changes other than a longer tee at the par-three 8th hole that was used for the Senior British Open in 2018. It is as if the R&A wants the distance question that has bubbled up since the last visit to St. Andrews to be settled once and for all by how the Old Course stands up to the games elite players now. Or, perhaps, how it doesnt.

No. 2: Par 4, 452 yards

While even the iconic first and 18th holes have changed over the last two centuries (there used to be a giant bunker in the center of the mammoth, 129-yard-wide fairway), the changes in the middle of the course are more extensive. Most recently, that starts with the second hole, where the new tee installed for the 2005 Open has taken the once 400-yard par four and stretched it to 452 yards and pushed the tee essentially onto a portion of The Himalayas, the putting course to the right of the Old Courses first fairway as shown in this flyover video.

But as is the case throughout the Old Courses changes, the reason isnt a lengthening for lengthenings sake. Rather, its about the iconic 112 bunkers and their relevance in the modern game. When the 2nd hole was stretched, the main motivation was to restore the effectiveness of Cheapes Bunker, which has been around since the 1800s. Though its size has dwindled over time, it was rebuilt in 2017 to restore some aggressiveness, or what Macpherson recently referred to in an article for Through the Green magazine as waiting to ambush errant balls like black holes swallowing stars.

A players fear of the bunkers at St. Andrews stems largely from the knowledge that the length of their captivity by any one of the sandy hostage-takers is influenced by factors out of their control, Macpherson wrote. Elite golfers are highly adept and skilful, but the bunkers vary in depth, shape and size, and the severity of the imprisonment is determined by a stronger, more cosmic and unpredictable force deeply interwoven into the fabric of life and golf that of chance.

Cheapes bunker found itself about 250 yards from the tee for much of the second holes modern existence, but now its more like 300 yards to carry from the longer tee as shown in this flyover clip.

Its larger size and more penal revetted face might take driver out of players hands, but PGA Tour ShotLink data indicates 98 percent of players have recorded at least one drive this year that carried 300 or more yards, making its new distance from the tee already questionable. Of course, there are accounts that Bobby Jones while winning the 1927 Open played the second hole, then 401 yards, with a pitch to the green. And in 2005, its first year at its longest, current length, Tiger Woods hit a 3-wood off the tee in the final round that bounded nearly the length of Cheapes but ended up safely in the middle of the fairway, never threatening it. Its scoring average, which jumped in the 2005 and 2010 Opens, actually played easier in 2015 at 452 yards than it did in 2000 at 411 yards. Still, as Macpherson writes, with a strong sea breeze it could become a menace, particularly as the second hole in the four-hole aggregate playoff.

As always with a links but especially at the Old Course, its the wind that provides the main challenge. The lengthening of holes, the squeezing of fairways, the growing of rough, even expanding bunkers and contouring the surrounding troughs that serve to draw balls into them may all be window-dressing without the omnipresent unseen hazard that is the wind flow off St. Andrews Bay. According to weather statistics, the wind blows 6-20 miles per hour almost a third of the time in St. Andrews in the month of July. But more than 10 percent of the time it is relatively calm. Still, at the 2015 Open at St. Andrews, play was suspended for an entire day while the wind blew at 40 miles per hour.

No. 4: Par 4, 480 yards

Wind or not, the changes to the Old Course have a direct and simple motivation. As Dawson said back in 2005, We want to reinstate the old decisions players had to make. An even stronger case in point is the fourth tee for the 150th Open, which will be nearly a full football field longer than it was for the 35th Open in 1895 as this flyover video shows.

The tee has moved back three times since that 1895 Open, all in an effort to force players to decide how to navigate a patch of hillocks and gorse that separates the safer left side of the fairway from the more aggressive and rewarding right side.

When more than 30 yards were added to this hole, named Ginger Beer, for the 1946 Open, players that had easily flown the trouble in the 1939 Open now found themselves squarely in the middle of it. Now, at 480 yards, No. 4 opens with the old uncertainty of a lengthy carry, now at 290 yards. Still, the leaders in the last three Opens had little difficulty in flying over that trouble, Tiger Woods even carrying it with his old 3-wood. The 4th hole has played consistently over par in large part because of a mound that fronts the green and a bunker short right that has gotten closer to the putting surface in recent years. Approach shots are rarely played aggressively here.

No. 14: Par 5, 614 yards

Even the longest hole on the course, the par-5 14th, might not provide the trouble it should, despite playing 614 yards, or 50 yards longer than it did 25 years ago. The hole is famous for the collection of bunkers known as the Beardies that guard the left side and the enormous pit called Hell Bunker that thwarts all but the best or most conservative second shots. But again, the changes in tee length and location have changed the effectiveness of these hazards, the fear factor has become almost a non-factor, except when the wind blows. In the 2015 Open, when the wind was up for three of the four rounds, it was one of only five par five holes on the PGA Tour that year with a scoring average over par. Its such a spooky tee shot when the winds this way, golf commentator Ken Brown noted at the time.

In the early days, players had to fly tee shots on the 14th over the Beardies, but too often now they are almost like a garnish on the hole, Macpherson said. It is rare that the Old Course adds a bunker these days, but he believes a fourth added to the Beardies could inject some fear back into the tee shot. Instead, players now club down to more easily navigate the out of bounds up the right, but somewhat uncharacteristically for a links, theres rough along an out-of-bounds stone wall that further pinches the fairway, presumably to push a players aim more toward the Beardies.

Another 200 yards or so beyond the Beardies is Hell Bunker, but it, too, seems only a minor distraction these days. Players often can safely and easily play to the 5th fairway, although that often leaves a blind third shot. And while Jack Nicklaus famously took four whacks to get out of Hell in 1995, he only found himself in there after a poor shot with a 4-wood, not a club any current player is likely using on that hole. As Macpherson writes, Today, this bunker is a museum piece for modern professionals with their 200 mph ball speeds and towering shots, so Hell is all but reserved for mortals and tourists.

No. 17: Par 4, 495 yards

The meanest and perhaps most controversially altered is the legendary 17th, the Road Hole. Its been the toughest hole on the PGA Tour each year the Open has been played at St. Andrews, and in 2015, it averaged 4.655, a higher score to par than any hole played anywhere in the last seven years. While it played at 450 yards or more for over a century, the Road Hole was a par 5 into the 1950s. Its probably why Ben Crenshaw once said, The reason the Road Hole is the greatest par-4 in the world is because it's a par-5."

Long a fearsome hole, when Rory McIlroy hit a 7-iron into the green to make birdie at the 2009 Dunhill Links Championship, the 17th was clearly playing differently than when Tom Watson had to go at it with a 2-iron and made bogey to lose the 1984 Open. But when the R&A decided to push the tee nearly 40 yards back and to the right for the 2010 Open, it had to go beyond the courses previous out of bounds to find room. In fact, left of the current tee are the out of bounds stakes for the 16th hole.

In a way, the 17th typifies the way the Old Course has had to wrestle with the issue of distance perhaps more impractically than any famous course in the world. The current championship layout now occupies sections of the neighboring New and Eden courses,the Himalayas putting course and in the case of the tee at 17, the grounds of the St. Andrews Links Golf Academy. From the sky, the 17th hole today looks like a mistake. The tee is blocked by a hotel while the fairway angles blindly and unreceptively away from any reasonable line off the tee. Throw in the addition of meaty rough to the left, and a road and a stone wall behind an impossibly pinched green shape, and you have a hole that seems like it was cut out of Robin Williams famous golf monologue.

All this is before we get to the disaster-inducing Road Hole bunker. The most severe pot bunker on the property, the Road Hole pit appears on maps of the Old Course dating to the 1830s at least. Its location hasnt changed but the size, shape and depth have fluctuated over the last 50 years. You could see out of it in the 1870s, as you could in the 1970s, but over the last 50 years its gotten small enough to be barely the size of a water closet and then increasingly wider and deeper. Now, not only can a player not see the green once hes in the bunker, any approach shot coming from the middle or left of center almost routinely is played out to the right away from the bunker, particularly when the flag is cut just over the bunker in the middle of the green (like it will be in the final round of the Open).

And while its actual size is only a couple feet wider for this Open than past versions, the slopes around the bunker catch shots (and some putts), funneling them into the sand and up against its tall revetted face like the kind of hazard you might see at Captain Hooks Adventure Golf & Arcade.

But it is hard to say the 17th hole is contrived to be so devilish when, for the most part, its been that way before Old Tom Morris re-designed the course. And in large part thats true of all the holes at the Old Course. The tweaks have come, as Macpherson says, because the Old Course, and design in general, is always a response to whats happening in other parts of the golf sector. When the Haskell ball came out, what did the Old Course do in response to this new powerful ball? They extended the Old Course by roughly 200 yards. And theres certainly been periods where the Old Course has had these increases and then theres been a plateau for some period of time, and then theres another change.

But Macpherson believes that average driving distances today are approximately 80 yards greater than they were a century ago. If that is true, he thinks the Old Course would have to stretch to at least 7,800 yards to offer the same challenge. But that kind of real estate is no longer possible, of course. He thinks ball and club technology has taken more than a bite out of the Old Course. Rather, its left it with little bite, and not just for elite players. He noted amateur and former pro tennis star Tim Henman made birdie recently at the 17th with a 6-iron. A recent study of recreational golfers by ShotScope, the stat-tracking GPS game-analytics system, showed the Old Course to be the third easiest on the Open rota (only Troon and St. Georges are easier), and showed that all but scratch handicap players beat net par when they play the Old Course. Not only that, average golfers are four times more successful getting up and down from the Road Hole bunker than they are missing the green long.

Macpherson played and caddied at St. Andrews for almost a quarter century. He says his 3-handicap isnt always tested by the Old Course these days.

I am certainly not tearing it up, and when the wind blows it can be very tricky, but it is pretty gettable for many golfers these days, and Ive seen that happen. he said. So I am not convinced it is monumentally difficult nowadays. I just dont think the course holds the terrors it once did. Maybe that's a good thing. Certainly its very playable for golfers of all abilities. Even my 11-year-old son, who played it on a cold and wet day last November, got around and had fun.

Like former Open champion Lawrie, Macpherson believes a very low score is possible at the Old Course this year, even something in the 50s. But as he laments the declining challenge, he also recognizes something else at work beyond technology. Do you think theres a case to abandon par at this point, and think well, actually we cant extend the Old Course in any reasonable way so lets not even try?

These are the best golfers in the world with the technology theyre currently allowed to use so lets put to one side this concept of par, which was invented in 1891, and let these guys just play the best golf they can. And if they shoot 58, so be it. Congratulations to them.

Of course, Macpherson also knows thats not how the ruling bodies see a major championship test. He knows the R&A will want rigor as much from its venue as from its champion. Whether the former can be provided or the latter required remains to be seen, but if the answer at the 150th Open turns out to be an anti-climactic and resounding No, it seems likely now there will be fundamental changes to ensure it never happens againchanges this time that may not involve the course. But so it is with the Old Course and change. Sometimes it is forced upon it, sometimes it forces that change upon the game.

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Open Championship 2022: A deep-dive look at the subtle but ongoing evolution of the Old Course - GolfDigest.com

Stephen Buranyi misses some key points in his article (Do we need a new theory of evolution?, 28 June). Darwin saw novel speciation as resulting from natural selection acting on anatomical variants, but that simple skeleton needed fleshing out. It took a century of research, for example, for us to understand the importance of inheritance in very small populations if novel variants were to become predominant.

The major problems in understanding evolutionary change today are as follows. First, working out how anatomical variants form and this is hard because we dont yet have a full understanding of how normal embryology works (evolution, it has been claimed, is development gone wrong) and can only rarely recognise a favourable mutation. Second, unpicking the generally opaque processes of selection (there are at least four independent reasons why zebra stripes would be favoured). Third, understanding why substantial evolutionary change seems so slow, albeit that this is what the fossil record demonstrates. This is the topic that excites the community that Buranyi discusses, even though modern molecular genetics and systems biology show that heritable novelties can form more rapidly than they realise.

The deeper problem is that evolutionary change involves the complete scale of nature, from DNA mutation to climate change, so of course there can be no unifying theory. The difficulty for scientists is that convincing experimentation is hard and slow.Prof Jonathan BardOxford

Those biologists who are critical of current Darwinian orthodoxy and who want to modify the theory in the direction of the extended Darwinian synthesis need to take things further. They need to recognise that all living things are purposive. They pursue goals without necessarily being aware of it the ultimate goal being survival and reproductive success.

Purposive action can, in a multitude of ways, influence what has survival value and thus influence the future course of evolution. Purposive action that results in living in a new environment, or pursuing new kinds of food, can change what has survival value for that creature and its offspring, and thus can influence the future course of evolution. Foxes hunting rabbits breed rabbits better able to escape; and rabbits escaping breed foxes better able to catch them.

Above all, when animals make discoveries and learn from one another, cultural evolution becomes possible, and that can have a massive impact on subsequent evolution, as the case of human evolution, and the evolution of language, show.

We need a new, unified version of Darwinian theory that recognises that the purposive actions of living things play a vital role in evolution. This is very definitely not Lamarckism, although too many biologists have denied the Darwinian role of purposive action in evolution for fear that that commits one to Lamarckism. For more about this, see chapter 6 of my 2020 book Our Fundamental Problem: A Revolutionary Approach to Philosophy.Nicholas MaxwellEmeritus reader, science and technology studies, University College London

Surely theres no problem with having several conflicting theories of evolution? Eventually the fittest will survive.Pete BibbySheffield

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Scientists are still fleshing out Darwins theory of evolution - The Guardian

Schwazze Will Host A Grand Opening on July 9, 2022 To Debut The Remodeled Star Buds In Aurora, Colorado

DENVER, July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Schwazze, (OTCQX: SHWZ) (NEO: SHWZ), a vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico, announces the evolution of the Star Buds brand with the remodel of two Star Buds cannabis dispensaries in Colorado. Schwazze will debut the first Star Buds dispensary to display the brand evolution and renovation on July 9, 2022 at its Montview store located at 10100 E Montview Blvd, Aurora, CO 80010.

SCHWAZZE LOGO (CNW Group/Schwazze)

Star Buds is a premier marijuana dispensary that offers a wide selection of products and best-in-class service. The Star Buds evolution is designed to capture a 70s retro persona; fun-loving, easy-going, and one that never lets you down. The Star Buds evolution highlights that each location is more than a dispensary, as they embody a nostalgic presence about the good times, while also helping customers find their way.

The Star Buds brand evolution moves away from a color theme traditionally used within the cannabis industry and incorporates a warmer color scheme of kelly green, yellow, and orange. The dispensaries feature in-store signage that highlight distinctly unique Star Buds phrases such as, "Good Vibes This Way," "Find Your Happy," "The Freshest Greens Served Daily," including brand pillar messaging of the Company's core values: "Top Quality, Widest Selection, Stellar Service." The new design provides an enhanced consumer experience and more space for budtenders to better serve customers.

"We're proud to debut the Star Buds brand evolution, driven by the team at Schwazze, to offer our customers a fun, colorful environment that combines the traditional bud bar model with a shop-the-store, more hands-on experience," said Collin Lodge, Vice President of Retail for Schwazze. "As owners of Star Buds in Colorado, our stores are entering a new era that aligns perfectly with our mission of offering the widest selection of top quality products with stellar service."

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The festivities celebrating the debut of the first Star Buds brand evolution and renovation kick off on Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 11 am. The first 50 customers will receive a backpack filled with Star Buds branded swag. The celebration will feature games, giveaways,a social media scavenger hunt, and representatives from various prominent cannabis brands, such as Wana, O.Pen, Willie's Reserve, Ripple and more. The dispensary, located at 10100 E Montview Blvd, Aurora, CO will offer in-store discounts all weekend.

In late summer 2022, Schwazze will complete the remodel of Star Buds Glendale located at 492 S Colorado Blvd, Glendale, CO 80246. The brand evolution and remodel follows the acquisition of 13 Colorado Star Buds locations in March of 2021. The acquisition and brand evolution of the Star Buds retail spaces are part of a proven integration, which has grown the total number of Colorado dispensaries to 23 along with four cultivation facilities.

Star Buds N. AuroraAurora10100 E Montview BoulevardAurora, CO 80010

Grand Reopening CelebrationSaturday, July 9, 202211 am to 3 pm

About Schwazze

Schwazze (OTCQX:SHWZ, NEO:SHWZ) is building a premier vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico and will continue to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated regional leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices.

Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "plan," "will," "may,", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to consummate the acquisition described in this press release or to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, * the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, (xi) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws, and * out ability to satisfy the closing conditions for the private finding described in this press release. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

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Schwazze Debuts Star Buds Brand Evolution With The Remodel Of Star Buds Aurora, Colorado - Yahoo Finance

The first time the titular God of Thunder appears in 2011s Thor, the Asgardian hero is obscured by a swirling cloud of dust after landing in New Mexico. As a result, he is struck by a van and knocked out cold before even getting the chance to introduce himself. The next time Chris Hemsworths Thor appears, though, its on the day that the prince of Asgard is to be crowned its new king.

As Thor struts his way through Odins throne room, past a crowd of adoring Asgardians, he flips his ancient, mystical hammer in the air as if it were a toy, roaring back at his fans and relishing the spotlight. When a group of Frost Giants are caught stealing from Asgards weapons vault moments later, interrupting Thors coronation, the prince decides to act against his fathers wishes and leads a small team of warriors to the Frost Giants homeworld to essentially start a war. The God of Thunder acts like a petulant child when Odin intervenes and reprimands him for his disobedience, and in turn, Thor is exiled to Earth so that he can learn to become worthy of his mighty hammer and the power that comes with it.

The Thor that will return for an eighth MCU film appearance (excluding cameo-sized roles) later this week in Thor: Love and Thunder has changed tremendously from the one first seen in those introductory Thor scenes. In his first two solo movies, Thor and 2013s The Dark World, Thor shifts from being an arrogant manchild who cares only about glory and succeeding his father to the Asgardian throne to, well, still being an arrogant manchildbut at least one who becomes capable of subordinating his selfish desires to the greater good, and understanding that he is better suited to be Asgards protector than its king. But while the character was still figuring out what sort of god he wanted to be, Marvel Studios was trying to decide what to do with the Thor franchise after two lackluster films.

In Thor, Marvel chose Kenneth Branagh to set the tone for the franchise and its star, bringing in the noted Shakespearean filmmaker and actor to lend his dramatic touch to the ancient world of Asgard and its royal family. (In an interview with The Washington Post in 2011, Branagh even likened Thor to the reckless Prince Hal and Loki to his Hotspur in Henry IV, and he saw similar themes and conflicts in Thor as Hamlet and Henry V.) For The Dark World, the studio turned to future Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, but she left the project over concerns about the script and was replaced by Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor. Even then, the movie that Taylor made was not at all the one he had envisioned or wanted to see himself. In the first two Thor films, the franchise felt aimless, and the growth of its lead character was stifled. The movies were often too dramatic and self-serious for their own good, caught in a strange tonal midpoint between The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars; Thors story had heavy fantasy and sci-fi elements, unfolding on various planets in modern times. The fact that characters would speak as if they were written by the Bard didnt help, either.

And then, for the third installment, Thor: Ragnarok, Marvel called on Taika Waititi to direct.

[Thor] is the franchise that has the least amount of identity, Waititi told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release of Ragnarok in 2017. It sort of doesnt know what it is yet. So I came in saying, Well it could be THIS. I ignored the source material and even the first two films and tried to do my own thing.

Even before Ragnarok hit theaters to near-universal acclaim and an improved performance at the box office compared to its predecessors, fans could see Hemsworths Thor in a new light and witnessed the impending tonal shift for the franchise in a pair of mockumentary-style short films directed by Waititi and released in 2016 and 2017. The two-part Team Thor series reveals what the God of Thunder was up to while he was sidelined in 2016s Captain America: Civil Warnamely, how he moved to Australia and roomed with some guy named Darryl. But above all, the shorts were a showcase for the heros underutilized secret weapon: his humor.

Comedy is key to the success of Ragnarok, and Marvel selected Waititi, whose previous credits included What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, to lead the charge in creating this tonal shift. [Marvel Studios] wanted it to be a departure from what they had done before, Waititi told THR in the same 2017 interview. And Chris had wanted to do something that felt less familiar. The secret weapon to all of this was letting Chris be more himself, because he is very funny and that part of Thor was not exploited in the right ways. I know he wanted to do more in the other movies, but there are just so many characters. And the other ones, like Iron Man, have already been established a bit stronger.

Speaking to ET Canada ahead of the release of Ragnarok, Hemsworth expressed similar sentiments about a need for change when asked about his past MCU appearances: They were all a lot of fun, but I just became a little sick of what I was doing, Hemsworth explained. It became too familiar, I felt like Id built these walls on what the characters expectations were and what he could and couldnt do. So in [Ragnarok], we just sort of broke the mold, and anything that was familiar, we just threw it out the window and tried something different.

In Thor and The Dark World, much of the movies comedic relief was entrusted to supporting players like Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), while Thors chances to be funny were rather few and far between. But Waititi keyed in on those sparing moments from the character, such as when Thor smashed a coffee cup with glee in Thor, or when he casually hung his hammer on a coat rack in The Dark World, both of which were improvised by Hemsworth, according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. In Ragnarok, Funny Thor is unleashed in full force, while characters that never really worked in previous movies, like the Warriors Three, die quick deaths to make room for the likes of Korg, the rock warrior voiced by Waititi, and the Grandmaster, an absurd villain embodied by Jeff Goldblum, whos basically playing himself.

Few moments in Ragnarok serve as a better representation of the difference between the former Thor films and the characters new comedic direction than the early scene that sees Thor returning to Asgard to discover that Loki has disguised himself as Odin. After making a fool of Surtur, the fire demon, Thor arrives in Asgard to find a theatrical production in progress that depicts the death of Loki. With Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neill playing Asgardian actors, the in-world performance is melodramatic and wildly over the top. It also happens to be a spoof of Lokis actual (faked) death from The Dark World, which was unironically just as melodramatic. Ragnarok even goes as far as using some of the same lines.

The reimagination of Thor in Ragnarok brought new life to the franchise, and to the character as well, as Thors new comedic side followed him into Infinity War and Endgame as he left his hyperdramatic image further behind. (Fortunately, the misguided Fat Thor phase that transpired between Waititis films comes to an end early in Love and Thunder.) Its also a big reason, with Love and Thunder, Thor will become the first MCU franchise to earn a fourth installment.

Even with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) gone, Hemsworths Thor remains, and the latest entry in the Thor saga looks to recreate everything that worked in Ragnarok while reinventing itself in new ways. There are flying goats and new gods, and Natalie Portman returns as Jane Foster after sitting out Ragnarokand this time, she plays a role that allows her to be much more than Thors love interest. In Love and Thunder, Foster is set to pick up Odinsons broken, famed hammer and become the Mighty Thor herself.

On Friday, Thors journey continues, and the evolutions of both the character and the franchise are ongoing. Those bleached eyebrows may be long gone, but if Love and Thunder can build off of the success of Ragnarok, and if Hemsworth gets his wish to remain in the role, Thor might just stick around for whatever apocalyptic crossover event awaits the MCU in the years to come.

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The Evolution of Thor, Marvels Mainstay - The Ringer