Category Archives: Evolution

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Sheila Heti is famous for writing about herself. Her early fiction is abstract, sometimes fable-like, but her breakthrough 2010 novel How Should a Person Be? comes explicitly from her life: it helped launch the autofiction craze of the past decade, and portrays sex, friendship, artistic ambition, and rootlessness with jarring honesty. Her 2018 follow-up, Motherhood, contains the same self-expository impulse, directed at the decision to have or not have children. Both books mix granular detail with philosophical questioning; both are written in plain prose that gives even their dirty sections an oddly nave air. Indeed, navete is key to both novels: it saves Heti's self-examination from seeming self-obsessed.

But autofiction has lost its innocence. Twelve years ago, it was innovative; now, it can often feel derivative, fake or tired. Its stars Rachel Cusk, Karl ve Knausgaard, Ben Lerner, Tao Lin have either moved on or are trying to. So is Heti. Her tough-to-classify new novel, Pure Colour, forsakes both autobiography and detail, though it retains her commitments to philosophy and to the spirit of innocence. In theory, its story is both straightforward and grown-up: Mira, the protagonist, is an aspiring art critic who gets sidetracked by grief over her father's death. In practice, however, Pure Colour can feel less like a real novel than like a bedtime story for adults: it mixes real and surreal elements, often veering into creation myth or Socratic-style dialogue. It is, frankly, difficult to say how successful the result is: Pure Colour is simultaneously wise and silly, moving and inscrutable. It is also indisputably working hard to be new. Reading it is refreshing, even when it fails to satisfy, which is more than I can say about the majority of conventional novels, which try less hard for lesser rewards.

Pure Colour consists, basically, of two loosely twined narrative strands: Mira and creation. In Heti's idiosyncratic mythology, God is an artist, and our present world is merely a "first draft." Plants, in their infinite silence, are "the audience of creation"; humans, who love to complain, are art critics. In Pure Colour, being a critic is like being a rabbi or a sage: a rarefied, close-to-God role, if performed correctly. (Speaking as a critic, I would say this is the book's most fantastical element, including a long passage in which Mira turns into a leaf.) Critics and artists, in the novel's cosmogony, were created to be spiritually akin to birds, beholding the earth from above. Everyone else is either a bear, devoted to those in their immediate grasp, or a fish, committed to bettering the situation of the many.

Heti's three-animal split is appealing in the way of an Enneagram or Myers-Briggs test: picking your animal is fun, if only superficially revealing. Much of her mythology falls into this category. Ditto her explicit philosophizing, which covers social media, climate collapse, and various other contemporary troubles and crises. Pure Colour would have no staying power were it not for the Mira plot, which Heti constructs via the bird-fish-bear device.

Mira, unsurprisingly, is a birdafter all, she is the star of a book in which art criticism is the peak of humanity. She isn't very skilled in her role, though, and plainly wishes that she were a bear like her dad or a fish like her crush, Annie. Indeed, her birdiness is a source of sorrow and failure. She cannot reciprocate her dad's bearish affection properly; nor can she get Annie, whose attentions are fishily divided, to concentrate on her. In fairness to Annie, Mira's efforts are no good. She is far more attracted to beauty than to Annie; it bears noting that sex, which seems to bemuse her, appears in the novel only in the form of metaphorical language, never as a physical act.

Mira's confusion and unhappiness give Pure Colour its depth, especially after her father dies. Without him, her world feels "stripped of any arrows, any direction, any sense." Her sorrow takes her in surreal directions and leads her to strange philosophical conclusions, yet, even at its weirdest, it is palpable. In fact, Pure Colour works better when it's weird than when it isn't. Heti is very good at getting readers to share Mira's sad, baffled wonder.

Some may argue that Mira is herself a Heti stand-in, on the grounds that Heti's father passed away in 2019. But to read Mira as her creator, or as any real person, would be to miss the book's point. Pure Colour aims to refresh readers' perceptions of the world as we see it: to turn what seems set and complete into an "anarchic, scrappy" first draft. Its creation passages mainly fail to do so, but its Mira passages succeed. Often, I wished Heti had stuck to the latter. But without the insistent innovation of the former, would I have been ready or willing to look at the world anew? Hard to say.

Lily Meyer is a writer and translator living in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Excerpt from:

'Pure Colour' by Sheila Heti imagines evolution with art critics on top - NPR

Joey Ingelhart/E+ via Getty Images

Back in December, I was charmed by Evolution Petroleums (EPM) hands-on balance sheet management. The company was debt free, paid an attractive 6% dividend and was benefiting from high natural gas prices. Since that previous article, Evolution has reported on its financial results for its second quarter. Thanks to the strong commodity prices, that quarter was exceptionally strong and Evolution was able to hike its quarterly dividend by a third without jeopardizing the strength of its balance sheet. Its hardly a surprise to see the company pop up in the list of "top rated stocks" with Quant Rating of 4.97. I think thats well deserved and Ill fine-tune my investment thesis in this article.

Evolutions financial year ends in June which means the company recently reported on its second quarter of FY 2022, and that quarter ended in December. The company produced a total of just under 5,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day and approximately 65% of the oil-equivalent production rate consisted of natural gas. Evolution Petroleum benefited from the high natural gas prices as the average received price was just over $5/Mcf.

Evolution Petroleum Investor Relations

As you can see above, Evolution saw its NGL production drop to almost nothing but this is related to the rejection of ethane in the Barnett Shale. This had a negative impact on the NGL production but boosted the natural gas production by about 20% as the operator of the field wanted to maximize the natural gas production rate.

The total revenue in the second quarter came in at $22.3M and after deducting the operating expenses and overhead expenses, Evolution reported a pre-tax income of $8.6M and a net income of $6.8M which is the equivalent of $0.20 per share. Thats an EPS increase of approximately 25% thanks to the higher commodity prices.

Evolution Petroleum Investor Relations

Evolution Petroleums free cash flow also shows a similar increase. The company did not provide a detailed Q2 cash flow statement but its easy enough to compare the H1 statement with the Q1 statement.

In the first six months of its financial year, Evolution Petroleum reported an operating cash flow of $13.9M and after adding back the investment in the working capital position, the adjusted operating cash flow was approximately $15.4M. The total capex was just $0.5M resulting in a positive free cash flow result of $14.9M.

Evolution Petroleum Investor Relations

As Evolution Petroleum generated an adjusted operating cash flow of $6.8M and recorded a capex of $0.4M in the first quarter of the year, it generated an operating cash flow of $8.8M in the December quarter resulting in a free cash flow of just over $8.6M. Divided over 33.7M shares outstanding, the adjusted free cash flow per share generated in the December quarter was just over $0.25/share.

This makes it rather easy to understand why the company decided to hike its dividend. The quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share was increased to 10 cents per share on a quarterly basis and this still represents a payout ratio of less than 50% based on the normalized production results.

As of the end of December, Evolutions balance sheet contained $13.6M in cash while it only had $4M of debt resulting in a net cash position of $9.6M or approximately 30 cents per share.

Evolution still sees a lot of potential to grow at an affordable cost. The company will be paying US$55M to acquire two separate assets which will increase the oil-equivalent production rate by more than 60%. As you can see below, the acquisitions will also add about 17 million barrels of oil-equivalent to the reserve estimate while more aggressively increasing the exposure to gas as the Jonah Field acquisition is very gas-heavy.

Evolution Petroleum Investor Relations

After completing the acquisitions, Evolution Petroleum will still be a gas producer but oil and NGLs will continue to play an important role.

The transactions are fully funded using the credit facility and existing cash, and Evolution Petroleum confirmed the debt ratio will remain below 1X the anticipated pro-forma EBITDA. Thats easy to believe as the EBITDA in Q2 FY 2022 was already almost $10M before including the impact of the new acquisitions.

Evolution Petroleum Investor Relations

I still like the financial discipline of Evolution Petroleum and although the two new acquisitions are rather sizeable, the strong oil and gas price will likely allow Evolution to rapidly reduce the net debt again. Despite spending $55M on acquisitions, I think the net debt will come in below $40M as of the end of the March quarter.

Meanwhile, the operating cash flow and free cash flow will increase thanks to the bump in the total production rate. The capex will likely increase as well as Evolution is planning to spend approximately $2M on the existing assets and the Williston Basin acquisition, and we can likely expect some capex to be spent on the Jonah field as well. Using an average natural gas price of $4, I expect Evolution Petroleum to generate in excess of $10M per quarter in free cash flow (the interest expenses and slightly higher H2 capex will reduce the impact of the higher production rate) and I expect the company to end the financial year with a net debt position of less than $25M.

The current dividend is costing the company just under $3.5M per quarter and is not at risk. That being said, Id prefer Evolution Petroleum to hold off on additional dividend increases as Id prefer the company to deploy its capital on similar small-scale acquisitions.

I have a long position in Evolution Petroleum and I'm very happy to hold this position. If the natural gas price continues to cooperate, Evolution could easily be a $10 stock as that would still represent a market cap of less than $350M.

Read the original here:

Evolution Petroleum Delivers: Strong Cash Flows Result In A Dividend Hike - Seeking Alpha

The Takeaway

Microorganisms like tuberculosis bacteria develop drug resistance over time as mutations accumulate in their genomes. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists have discovered this evolution is not completely random, as some letters and segments of the genetic code are more prone to mutation. By predicting which mutations are more likely to occur in pathogens, scientists can design better drugs and treatments against them.

In the face of natural selection, genetic mutations set some individuals up for success. A single change to the sequence of a gene can give an organism an advantageand if that mutation is passed to future generations, it may shape the fate of the species.

Now, scientists have determined that evolutionary adaptation is steered in part by an imbalance in the types of mutations that tend to crop up in genomes most often. For a variety of reasons, certain letters or segments of the genetic code are more prone to mutation than others. Understanding the impact of this mutational bias could help scientists predict how pathogens and cancer cells are most likely to evolve resistance to the drugs used to treat them. That, in turn, will aid the design of new drugs and treatment strategies.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor David McCandlish, who led a study with collaborator Joshua Payne at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, points out that there is often more than one genetic solution to a problem. In the case of bacteria exposed to an antibiotic, for example, dozens of different mutations can confer an ability to resist the drug. But certain paths to resistance are more common than others. Hundreds of different drug-resistance mutations have been found in tuberculosis (TB) bacteria isolated from patients, McCandlish says, but some of these are 100 times more common than others.

McCandlish and his colleagues analyzed thousands of adaptive changes found in three different microorganisms, including bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The researchers determined that the types of genetic changes that accumulated during adaptive evolution, both in natural and laboratory settings, are indeed the classes of mutations that occur most frequently. They reported these findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noting several factors that influence how closely the adaptive changes found in a population mirror the spectrum of mutations in that species.

The relationship was strongest, McCandlish says, when populations experienced few beneficial mutations per generation. He explains:

If that number is low, it means that the population is really just waiting for any mutation that can get the job done. And if the number is high, what it means is that probably there are going to be several different mutations that can solve this problem, and the one that were going to see at the end of the process is just the one that solves it best.

Written by: Jennifer Michalowski, Science Writer | publicaffairs@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455

Funding

John Templeton Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Simons Center for Quantitative Biology

Citation

Cano, A.V., et al., Mutation bias shapes the spectrum of adaptivesubstitutions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, Vol. 119. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119720119

Stay informed

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest discoveries, upcoming events, videos, podcasts, and a news roundup delivered straight to your inbox every month.

Newsletter Signup

Read more from the original source:

Getting a step ahead of TB's drug resistance evolution - cshl.edu

It seems obvious to most people that businesses of all types are changing, adapting, and evolving in response to the Covid Virus and its effects on business.Observing this is continual daily everywhere.

Discussing this with business owners, management, staff, and employees of all types of business and companies, confirm that business management, attitudes, operations, strategies, human resources, communications and marketing, revenue-generating parts of the business is changing quickly and evolving.

Restaurants are now focusing more on the take-out, pick-up, and catering side of the business.

Enhancements and changes for more sanitation of the restaurants, employees, food preparation, and food packaging for take out/pickup are all advancing and evolving.

Social distancing and wearing masks are now part of daily life and work.

Some cultures are struggling with this since they are not used to this. The USA is struggling with this with 35-45% seeming to object to this.

Retail stores have the same issues with customers and evolving as well with these things.

Stores are controlling and managing this but this is a challenge.

The stores are now focusing more on their online websites and selling online with home delivery.

Inventory levels are declining in the stores forcing customers to shop online via the internet.

There is an increasing demand for home delivery services and logistics. This is creating new jobs.

Clothing stores have declining sales because many people are working out of their house now and do not need to buy so much office business clothing.

Auto sales are declining since people are not driving as much so they do not need new autos as much and the same for auto repairs and new tires sales.

Computer sales are increasing, and auto sales and auto repairs are declining since many people are now working out of their homes instead of driving into the office and workplace through traffic daily.

There is an increase in unemployment in some jobs and business sectors and an increase in others especially logistics, warehousing, truck drivers, and home delivery drivers.

Some businesses cannot stay in business with the Covid Virus situation.

Restaurant Buffets where food is put out on tables in the open, for all that you can eat and serve yourself, is not able to meet the sanitation and social distancing requirements and needs.

These businesses are closing or changing to provide only take out, carry out, catering.

The air quality is increasing and getting better because of fewer people driving to work every day.

Less travel and fewer autos on the road mean a decrease in gas demand so gas prices are decreasing.

Companies are now having many of their office staff and management work from their own house remotely.

This is a major attitude change, management change and operations change.

Video conferencing is being utilized far more now instead of traveling to customers and meeting in an office.

Companies are finding that they are actually more productive with this and there are substantial cost savings with not having to support company offices. They can now utilize the space for other things that can help the business to grow. Companies also are finding that many highly talented people who previously they could not hire due to relocation was not acceptable or desirable, now can attract more of these highly talented people since they can work remotely.

When in-person meetings are needed and required, video conferencing technology is utilized or such meetings are held to a minimum and staff travel by airplane to a major airport selected as the central point to meet, and local business conference and meeting rooms are rented for the day for such.

The airlines business has decreased significantly with some estimates being a 50-60% decrease because business travel has decreased so much as well as personal travel decreasing.

For social distancing airlines cannot pack people into the airplanes, elbow to elbow so close anymore.

More people are staying home to entertain or entertain outside of the house on the lawn or grass.

This is causing a big demand for lawn chairs to sit on outside.

Since there are more people working from their homes now, there is a big demand for home improvement products to repair the house or update and remodel. In the USA, house building products and wood lumber is in such high demand that prices have increased significantly causing new housing and new buildings cost to increase.

Home furniture and home dcor stores are busy with sales increasing since people are at home more and see the need for such.

There is a high demand for higher-level air quality equipment for all businesses and companies.

Cleaning supplies and sanitation supplies for higher-level sanitation requirements are in high demand.

Personal hygiene protection products such as masks and medical gowns are in high demand.

With company factories, they are reorganizing the facilities to provide more social distancing.

Some companies, businesses, products, and services are increasing sales while others declining.

Due to the Covid Virus students from many schools, grade schools, elementary schools levels are now learning from home online with a computer, and teachers are learning how to do this.

A lot of new computers are being sold with the increase of demand and need.

Parents are learning how to help their children to learn and how to help motivate them as well. This is a very big challenge for the parents and the students.

Same for college and universities. Online classes are taking the place of classrooms and teachers are learning how to teach online and students are learning how to learn online and motivate themselves.

It is so important and critical for businesses and companies to creatively adjust and make bold changes and improvements for growing the business and staying profitable in business with the current Covid Virus situation and challenges.

Even now, many businesses and companies are re-evaluating their products, services and their capabilities to expand their products and services into things in high demand.

All businesses need to be doing the same thing.

This is progressively helping these businesses and companies to grow significantly, both in sales and profits.

There are a lot more changes with businesses and consumers happening right now and I have only mentioned just a few in this article to help open up your eyes to it, to help you be more aware and think about it more.

Once you are more aware of this, you will automatically and naturally start seeing it more. This may even take over much of your thinking and observing.

Businesses are evolving and changing due to the Covid Virus.

Consumer behaviors, needs, and attitudes are changing and evolving.

There will be a lot more changes to come and all will evolve.

Many of the business changes will most likely progress even though the Covid Virus will eventually get managed better and have inoculations/vaccinations for it.

Do not expect all of the business changes to go back to the way things were before Covid.

Written by Michael Marshall.

Have you read?

#Best CEOs In the World Of 2022.#TOP Citizenship by Investment Programs, 2022.#Top Residence by Investment Programs, 2022.#Global Passport Ranking, 2022.#The Worlds Richest People (Top 100 Billionaires, 2022).

Track Latest News Live on CEOWORLD magazine and get news updates from the United States and around the world. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the CEOWORLD magazine. Follow CEOWORLD magazine on Twitter andFacebook. For media queries, please contact: info@ceoworld.biz

Read more from the original source:

The Covid Virus is Stimulating the Evolution of Business - CEOWORLD magazine

Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co

16 February 2022

Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com.

February 12 this year marks the 213th birthday ofCharles Robert Darwin, known as the "Fatherof the Theory of Evolution" according to which evolution ofthe species is driven by a process of natural selection. Namely, aprocess by which random variations in a subject's phenotype(i.e., characteristics) that increase the suitability of thesubject to a changing environment and its ability to reproduce, aregenetically maintained in the population and cause an evolution andcreation of new species.

As exciting and revolutionary as the theory of evolution hasbeen (and still is), Darwin did not"invent" it and it cannot be regarded asan "invention".

An invention is a creative achievement which usually developsfrom a hypothesis, a scientific discovery, or an experimentaldiscovery, and always includes an element of humanintervention. The hypothesis or the scientific discovery bythemselves are not an invention. They cannot be owned by anyone andcan certainly not be patented.

A patentable invention according to the Israeli PatentLaw is a product or a process in any technological field that isnew, inventive, useful, and industrially applicable.

Therefore, no matter how novel and inventive a theory or an ideamay be, abstract scientific theories are notpatentable.

One of the main reasons for that is the question of theusefulness and industrial applicability of the scientific theory assuch. The brilliant laws that govern the process of evolutionaryselection do not have a direct use or industrial applicability, andif such use is found, it may be regarded as an invention only ifthe proposed product or process involves a modification of thenatural processes.

And last, but not least, in the case of evolution, Darwin (aswell as other less celebrity scientists such as Alfred RusselWallace) crafted an ingenious theory based on its carefulobservation of Nature. If so, who after all can bedefined here as an inventor?

Perhaps the finches of Galapagos.

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Intellectual Property from Israel

Abou Naja

As industries race to gain a legal monopoly on their unique innovations through marks registration, we are inundated with an ever-increasing number of products with

See the original post:

Could Darwin Have Patented The Theory Of Evolution? - Intellectual Property - Israel - Mondaq News Alerts

Is there a better duo than 76ers guard James Harden and 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey?

OK, so the answer might be that there is in fact a better duo out there, but there's no denying that Harden and Morey have developed quite the partnership over the years.

The two now enter a new chapter as Morey's Sixers motioned to acquire Harden from the Nets at the 2022 trade deadline. And who was the first person to greet Harden when he got off the plane in Philadelphia? You guessed it.

While Harden won't officially suit up for Philadelphia until after the All-Star break, his official introduction as a Sixer is the perfect time to look back at the timeline of the relationship between him and Morey over the years.

Oct. 29, 2012 Morey, who was entering his sixth season as Rockets GM, orchestrated a major trade ahead of opening night by acquiring Harden from the Thunder.

Harden, who was the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, was entering his third NBA season and viewed as a promising young talent. Morey, however, saw much more.

I think hes a great, great player. I think hes already playing at an All-Star level and is going to be a perennial All-Star and those players are rarely traded so I thought, frankly, it was going to work out there. Im very happy for the Houston Rockets that hes here.

Then when we were able to talk to James it was real exciting because I think our goals and his goals are aligned: We want to win a championship and this is a place where he can win a championship as a foundational player for a team.

Not only did Morey call 23-year-old Harden "foundational" but he also correctly predicted that Harden would be an All-Starthatseason, which was the first of 10 consecutive selections.

On Oct. 31, 2012, Harden signed a five-year extension with the Rockets worth $80 million.

July 20, 2015 Morey, a savvy tweeter, takes to Twitter to joke that anyone disagreeing with Harden being deserving of MVP of the 2014-15 season over Warriors guard Stephen Curry. The joke is based on the viral "meet me in Temecula" story involving a Kobe Bryant fan one year prior.

He would again express disappointment in the MVP process in 2017.

June 21, 2017 Morey signs a four-year extension to remain GM of the Rockets through the 2021-22 NBA season.

July 8, 2017 Just two weeks later, Harden signs the richest contract in NBA history at the time a four-year extension reportedly worth $228 million to remain with the Rockets through the 2022-23 season.

June 25, 2018 At the NBA Awards, Morey is named Executive of the Year and Harden is named MVP of the 2017-18 NBA season.

Aug. 15, 2019 During an appearance on the 100 Thieves' "Selfmade" show, Morey, wearing a Harden shirt, says "it's just factual" that Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan.

Oct. 18, 2020 Days after it was reported that Morey would step down from his post as the Rockets GM, he took out a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle to confirm the reports.

In his letter to Houston and the Rockets organization, Morey penned that "James Harden changed my life," adding that he could dedicate an entire page to Harden.

Nov. 2, 2020 Morey is hired as the 76ers President of Basketball Operations.

Dec. 28, 2020 As Morey settled into his new post with the 76ers, he inadvertently sent out an automated tweet celebrating the one-year anniversary of Harden breaking the Rockets' franchise assist record.

It turned out to be a pricy mistake as Morey was fined $50,000 for violating the league's anti-tampering policy as Harden was still a member of the Rockets at the time.

Jan. 14, 2021 After publicly demanding a trade from the Rockets, Harden was linked to Morey's 76ers before ultimately being traded to the Nets.

Feb. 10, 2022 With Harden privately requesting a trade from the Nets, Morey and the Sixers again emerged as suitors.

This time, a deal was done at the trade deadline with Morey and Harden reuniting in Philadelphia.

Feb. 15, 2022 Harden is officially introduced as a member of the 76ers.

With a history that dates back nearly a decade, Morey has always been a believer in Harden and in turn, Harden has made Morey look like a genius more often than not.

They might not bethebest duo there is, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a similar relationship between an executive and a superstar in all of professional sports.

See the original post:

James Harden and Daryl Morey: The evolution of a one-of-a-kind relationship - Sporting News

Remarkably, this year marks the 30th anniversary of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR debut at Riviera. Needless to say, the game (and players equipment) has changed a whole lot over three decades.

For a bit of perspective, take look at the driver Tiger used in 1992 versus 2022:

Its almost hard to believe that in 1992 Tiger (just 16 years old at the time) averaged 263.3 yards off the tee in his first two rounds at Riviera. For perspective, the event winner, Fred Couples, averaged 282.5 yards in those same first two rounds of the tournament.

Embed from Getty ImagesThe question is, how well do you think you could hit Tigers old 1992 driver with its small stainless steel head and Tour Gold shaft?

Cover image via PGATOUR.com

Golficity co-founder, host of The Golf Podcast, always looking for more laughs and less bogies.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THESE STORIES

See the original post here:

The Evolution of Tiger Woods' Driver - 1992 Versus 2022 - Golficity

There was a time when Paige Spiranac took everything said to her on social media very personally. Every hate-filled comment, every off-color joke about her physical appearance, every jab at her golfing ability during her playing days stung a little harder than the last.

This caused her to become a staunch advocate against cyberbullying, a worthy cause. Looking back, though, Spiranac believes she could have handled some of the more fair criticisms differently. Now she can be seen regularly jabbing fellow tour pros on Instagram and Twitter, where she's amassed a combined following of just over 3.7 million. A hypocritical heel turn? No, Spiranac explained as our guest on this week's episode of "Be Right." Just part of her social-media evolution.

"It was really hard, because when people would come at me, it was about my golf game," she said. "As we all know, your ego is so tied in to how you play, and publicly for people to be like 'You suck, you need to quit,' that was really hard for me and I took it very personally.

"My early interviews I talked a lot about cyberbullying, and I was kind of dealing with other things behind the scenes, so I was a big advocate for that. Things have progressed where I've stopped playing professionally and now social media has become my career. It was hard because now I want to have a 'hot take,' but sometimes it comes at the expense of someone else, and not in a way that's bullying. Now I'm tweeting stuff about players, and it's funny, but I would get so upset about that before [if it were me], but it's not really bullying. I was just soft. I was a huge baby. You do have to have a good sense of humor, you have to be able to laugh things off."

Spiranac has become much better at laughing things off, like when she sarcastically tweeted over the weekend "I can't believe [Harry] Higgs would oversexualize himself for attention," referring to Higgs pulling his shirt up over his eyes and revealing his dad bod on the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale. "I would NEVER." More than a few folks who didn't get the joke instantly flooded her mentions with some variation of an "isn't that what you do?!?" response.

"Welcome to Twitter," Spiranac said.

In addition to being a social media influencer, Spiranac is now an ambassador for the PointsBet Sportsbook, which will debut a weekly free-to-play pick 'em contest in partnership with the PGA Tour for this week's Genesis Invitational. Spiranac gave us her picks for this week at Riviera, as did we, and we discussed much more, including all the chaos at the WMPO. Please, have a listen to the full episode below:

See the original post:

Paige Spiranac on her social-media evolution, and why the Waste Management Phoenix Open is good for golf - GolfDigest.com

The ad tech industry has seen its fair share of changes over the last decade, marked by substantial shifts in the sector each year.

To name a few: the launch of Prebid in 2015, the switch from a second-price to a first-price auction, video outstream implementations, privacy, identity, contextual advertising, and server-side technologies, amongst many others.

All these evolutions happened within a relatively small period of time and contributed to a drastic change in the way publishers monetise their inventory. Thus, navigating this fast-paced environment nowadays is a real challenge.

So, as a new year begins, many digital media actors might wonder: where exactly does the industry stand at the moment? How do all these innovations affect the market overall? And where is all of this complexity driving the industry towards?

During its first webinar of the year, Pubstack will be discussing the challenges and opportunities that await us during 2022, plus how to tackle them, so that publishers can refine their plans for the year ahead.

By the end of the session, you will have an overviewof the global ad tech market consolidation and rebound over the last year; the different server-side solutions on the market, and how they work; and much more.

The event will take place on Thursday, February 24th, 2021 at 3:00 pm CET (9:00 am EST). Register here.

Read the original here:

Pubstack Announce 'State of Programmatic and Evolution Perspectives for 2022' Webinar - ExchangeWire

In a recent study, an Indian researcher traced the tectonic evolution and the nature of the Greater Maldive Ridge (GMR) --- a very crucial geodynamic features in the western Indian Ocean whose origin has been the centre of many a scientific debate.

The study can help reconstruct the original Gondwanaland break up and dispersal that led to present-day configuration of continents, continental fragments, and formation of ocean basins in the Indian Ocean.

The Maldive Ridge is an aseismic ridge that is not associated with earthquake activities. This ridge, located in the western Indian Ocean, southwest of India, is not well investigated. It is of paramount importance to gain knowledge on the structure and geodynamics of aseismic ridges (as it provides valuable inputs towards understanding the evolution of ocean basins).

The study by the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, has chalked the possible geological cross-sections along the GMR for the first time with the help of satellite-derived high-resolution gravity data. The researchers postulated that the GMR may be underlain by an oceanic crust. The results from their study can provide additional constraints in understanding the plate-tectonic evolution of the Indian Ocean, better.

The research work carried out by Dr. Priyesh Kunnummal under the guidance of Dr. S.P. Anand provides the crustal architecture and the state of gravitational equilibrium between Earth's crust and mantle (isostasy) of the Greater Maldive Ridge segment of the larger Chagos-Laccadive Ridge (CLR) system. Their study, based mainly on the interpretation of gravity anomalies (small differences in the pull of gravity caused by the lateral variations of density within the subsurface) with broadband seismic and refraction seismic data, provided for the first time a three-dimensional picture of the variation of Moho along the Greater Maldive Ridge and the adjoining ocean basins. The depth to the boundary between the earth's crust and the mantle or the Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho) over the GMR was systematically mapped along with the finer variation of effective elastic thickness (Te) at the place. The research related to Te variations and isostatic compensation has been published recently in the journal 'Gondwana Research'.

IIG team found that Moho is deeper over the Maldive Ridge (MR) segment and shallows southwards in the Deep Sea Channel region (DSC). However, the effective elastic thickness (a proxy for the strength of the lithosphere) values were lower over the MR compared to DSC region. Maldive Ridge and Deep Sea Channel region may probably be oceanic in nature with the presence of underplated materials associated with the Reunion hotspot volcanism. The research suggests that Maldive Ridge might have formed in the close vicinity of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge (where creation of a new ocean floor occurs due to divergent motion of lithospheric plates or spreading centre). Meanwhile, the DSC region was under a long transform fault (offset between the spreading centres, which neither create nor destroy lithosphere), which hindered melt production and gave rise to gap between Chagos and Maldive Ridge during the Plume-ridge interaction.

Satellite-derived gravity anomalies are very helpful in deciphering the crustal architecture where traditional shipborne geophysical data are either not available or scanty.

"The study provides new insights into the crustal architecture, isostatic compensation mechanism, and the tectonic evolution of the Greater Maldive Ridge, said Dr. Priyesh.

(With Inputs from PIB)

Excerpt from:

Tectonic evolution of Greater Maldive Ridge traced in western Indian Ocean - Devdiscourse