The Mandalorian season 2, episode 6, "Chapter 14: The Tragedy," has Baby Yoda use the Seeing Stone on Tython, but just what does the Force show him?

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian season 2, episode 6, "Chapter 14: The Tragedy."

Din Djarin takes Grogu to Tython in The Mandalorian season 2, episode 6, "Chapter 14: The Tragedy" and places him atop the Seeing Stone, but what does Baby Yoda see in his Force visions? Mando was instructed by Ahsoka Tano to take Grogu to Tython, an ancient Jedi planet that's incredibly strong in the Force. There, Ahsoka said, Baby Yoda would be able to use the Force to choose his path, while also making himself known to any Jedi who may be able to find and help him.

Mando fulfils his end of the bargain and, after a few brief moments where it may seem like nothing is going to happen, so does Baby Yoda. Sitting on the Seeing Stone, he eventually taps into the Force, going into a trance-like state while a Foce field forms around him, preventing Din from getting to him when he's in danger. Grogu spends most of "The Tragedy" inside this Force field, seemingly either having visions or reaching out to someone or something through the Force, but exactly what isn't shown, and once he's done he's captured by Moff Gideon and his Dark Troopers.

Related:All The Evidence That Baby Yoda Is The Real Chosen One

While The Mandalorian season 2, episode 6 doesn't offer much of a hint into what Baby Yoda experiences inside the Force, there are a few main possibilities. Of course, Force visions aren't always completely decipherable or logical, and it may have been that Grogu simply saw a string of different images, similar to Rey's "Forceback" in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (although that itself was due to her rare Force power, psychometry). Other Force visions in Star Wars have tended to be a little clearer, if not always obvious: Luke Skywalker was able to sense his friends were in danger, while during the Clone Wars Yoda himself had a vision of Order 66, but wasn't able to stop it. Since they tend to be somewhat darker, then it's possible that Baby Yoda foresaw grave danger too, especially since the episode is called "The Tragedy."

Since the idea of using the Seeing Stone was for Baby Yoda to choose his path, then it's possible that his Force visions were of what would happen if he trained as a Jedi. This again isn't an unusual plot device - it's something that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker revealed happened to Leia - and with Grogu's Jedi backstory recently being raised and Mando trying to reconnect him with that, it'd be a logical option. With that, then it may be that he sees himself being trained by the most likely Jedi Master he could have at this stage: Luke Skywalker. Luke will attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order in a few years from this point, and so Baby Yoda could have a vision of that happening and then its dark fate at the hands of Kylo Ren, which would be suitably foreboding, and may be enough to ward him off wanting to be a Jedi.

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The Mandalorian: What Did Baby Yoda See In The Force? - Screen Rant

Winter is definitely coming and while half of the world turns dark and cold, Israeli DJ and producerYaniv Biton, better known as MR.BLACK is here to keep all of us warm with hisnew psy-trance/big-room hit Feel The Fire featuring Richie Loop on the vocals, released viaShowteks label SKINK Records.

By mixing the two most energetic genres, Feel The Fire definitely lives up to its name. MR.BLACK worked with Jamaican vocalist and producer, Richie Loop to create this banger, spicing up the song with a special reggae vibe, created by his catchy vocals. MR.BLACK has demonstrated his incredible producing skills yet again, by smoothly turning the song upside down from chill, reggae sounds toa full festival mainstage banger with pounding basslines and big room sound effects. In addition to the hybrid track, MR.BLACK has produced an alternative mix as well, which is a rather radio-friendly version of the original song, keeping Richies amazing vocals and changing the psy-trance rhythms to future house and Brazilian bass melodies, bringing back real summer vibes. This way, the song will not only fit dance music stages to pump up the volume, but sunset performances too, as a perfect mood setter.

Althoughwe still have to wait for MR.BLACKs upcoming album, Hybrid to drop, make sure to listen to his new song Feel The Fire featuring Richie Loop, available now on all streaming platforms here.

See the original post:

MR.BLACK brings the heat with reggae rave anthem 'Feel The Fire' on Showtek's label - We Rave You

The discovery of a ceiling painting, believed to be of a Datura flower, and the subsequent research conducted at Pinwheel Cave, California, is the first clear evidence that hallucinogens were taken at a rock art site, said Dr. David Robinson, a lecturer in archeology at the University of Central Lancashire.

His teams findings were published Nov. 23 in PNAS, the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

Pinwheel Cave is a traditional site of the Chumash, a Native American people that inhabited the coastal regions in California. They would enter a trance-like state, thanks to the entheogens contained in the plant Datura. Their descendants are the Tejon tribe of California.

Many cultures use Datura as a sacred visionary plant; they have been used for at least 3,000 years in the Southwest, per archeological evidence.

Entheogens are defined as psychoactive substances that cause changes in peoples sense of perception, consciousness and behavior to further spiritual elevation in a sacred context. They are typically used in ritual ceremonies. Well-known entheogens include ayahuasca and peyote.

The primary way of taking Datura was in an event called the Toloache ceremony, a coming-of-age ceremony for adolescents, usually boys but sometimes girls, said Robinson. The hallucinogenic brew helped participants commune with the dead.

What they would do is they would sequester the initiates, around puberty, and they would prepare a drink called the Toloache. An elder who had experience doing this would go find the plant, and often talk to it and ask for permission to use the plant. Precise amounts were used because of the toxic and potentially fatal nature of the substance.

The whole point of the ceremony, Robinson said, was to induce this entry into and encounter with the supernatural in order for the initiates to acquire power animals. Anthropologists call them familiars. Different groups call them different things, but basically the central idea in California was that you tried to get allies in the supernatural who would then be your advocates and helpers throughout the rest of your life, said Robinson.

The study supports the altered states of consciousness (ASC) theory, proponents of which argue that hallucinogens have influenced the prehistoric making of images in caves and rock shelters.

Debates have raged over the relationship between trance and rock art, but until now there had been no unambiguous evidence of the consumption of hallucinogens from anywhere in the world, the study claims.

Even though Native Californians are historically documented to have used Datura to enter trance states, little evidence exists to associate it with rock art, the study said. So the authors undertook a multi-analytical approach of the contents of the cave and have confirmed the presence of the plant Datura wrightii, which is also known as sacred datura.

The study says that archeological evidence and chronological dating shows the site was well utilized as a temporary residence for a range of activities from Late Prehistory through Colonial Periods.

This indicates that Datura was ingested in the cave and that the rock painting represents the plant itself, serving to codify communal rituals involving this powerful entheogen. These results confirm the use of hallucinogens at a rock art site while calling into question previous assumptions concerning trance and rock art imagery, the study said.

Speaking about whether the pinwheel rock art image was something that people saw and drew during the trance or whether it was something that was created afterwards, as a sort of symbolic reminder, Robinson said: The thing this research shows and the thing that all this rock art indicates, within sites where people producing food and spending a significant amount of time, is that there is a communication process going on between the artist and the community.

Thats the important part. Thats when it becomes far more important to me than a shaman going off and sequestering himself and then experiencing something and nobody ever sees that rock art. Its about telling society about this process of mystification. Its talking about the mystical in the group so they can understand their world and understand the things they are going through, in particular with the Datura at Pinwheel Cave. The art there is about educating them about what their world is all about.

In traditional Chumash narratives, there is a figure called old woman Momoy who transformed into the plant Datura after her daughter was eaten by a coyote. Datura is used in modern medicine, Robinson said, most notably for its compound scopolamine, which is used in healing. It treats motion sickness, and nausea and vomiting after surgical operations, and for its compound atropine, which is used to treat lower heart rates and reduce salivation before an operation, among other uses.

The study, part of the Unravelling the Gordian Knot Project, was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). For a list of the scientists involved, click here.

(Edited by Fern Siegel and Matthew B Hall)

Read the original:

Study: Ancient California Teens Took Hallucinogens as Part of Sacred Ritual Free Press of Jacksonville - Jacksonville Free Press

November's techno chart wraps up the monthly series for 2020. It was a nutty year for sure but our favorite techno producers kept things relatively sane for us with their exciting and creative creations. This past month's highlights include a few album like Eats Everything's debut, Drumcomplex's third full-length, and Robert Hood's 10th ever album on Rekids! Lots to enjoy in this month's chart and beyond so go out and buy (or stream) these new albums to show your support.

See past techno charts here.

In the interest of letting the music speak for itself, an elusive producer from Berlin set up the alias, SYCUM to release two brilliant, new tunes via Kompakt Extra. Including this suspenseful piece of music that might fit well among the classic trance of the early '90s. To say the least, it's an absolute beauty that deserves your undivided attention.

Robert Hood's 10th L.P., Mirror Man is out now via Rekidsand it's a 16 track journey through various moods of techno. Some of the highlights include "The Cure" and "7 Mile Dog" which were previously released a couple of months ago on his Nothing Stops Detroit EP but other than that, the album is ripe with new techno including this brilliant one titled, "Falling Apart."

For just the 8th release on Charlotte De Witte's KNTXT imprint, she's invited Alignment back for a second outing that is outright stacked with huge tunes. Four in all are included and all are amazing but by process of elimination, I've chosen "Injection" as the one to go mental for.

These Drumcode all-stars linked up for the first time and the result was a three-track package that includes this next-level, genre-crosser which should reach multiple audiences.

Forthcoming on Dense & Pika's debut L.P., this Matthew Dear collaboration gets rinsed inside-out by Ryan James Ford and the result is this highly original banger. Turn it up.

Hardcore, industrial techno in full effect on this introspective banger courtesy of Sara Landry via CRISIS OF MAN.

Truesoul's most released artist returns to his welcome home with three varied tunes including this excellent one which is very easy on the ears.

This very intelligent piece of techno features on Drumcomplex's excellent, studio album, The Story Of Now.

Self-described as sci-fi techno, this psychedelic adventure features astronaut dialogue over hypnotic loops and repetitive rhythms.

Trance strikes again as yet another classic from the once shunned genre gets a beefy update to match today's sound. "Strange World" is the title of the tune from the year 2000 and Joyhauser does a spectacular job of bringing it up to date 20 years later. Bravo!

For his debut on 1605, Mark Reeve collaborated with the boss himself, UMEK! The track is titled, "Message" and it features a powerful kick drum that not only stutters, but punches hard as hell as well. Fasten your seatbelts, this track is large.

Scottish producer, Stephen Brown has been holding down Detroit style techno since the mid '90s when he was unleashing tunes on the famed Djax imprint. Here he is 25 years later doing his thing with a stellar remix on Anja Schneider's Sous Music imprint.

Ramon Tapia's remix of this classic trance record was getting a lot of attention so he gracefully sought out the publisher and was granted permission to release this banging, new version.

Eats Everything's debut album is out now via own imprint, EI8HT and it's aptly eight tracks deep. Highlights include a Felix Da Housecat collaboration and of course, this wonky, jacker playfully titled, "Moan."

After almost five years of cutting his teeth on stellar labels like Steyoyoke and Afterlife, Innellea makes his well-deserved debut on Diynamic via their Picture series. It's a mini-LP that features six cuts including this dizzying wonder he's titled, "Mar's Moon."

Stream November's techno chart uninterrupted via the playlist below:

Read this article:

The 15 Best Techno Tracks of November 2020 - Magnetic Magazine

30/11/2020 - This years gathering, which was held purely online, has handed out its most high-profile awards to the Spanish production directed by Fon Cortizo and to Daria Woszeks Polish effort

9 fugas by Fon Cortizo and Marygoround by Daria Woszek

As announced in a previous article (see the news), for its 2020 edition, the Gijn International Film Festival was held on the FICX.TV, festhome and filmin platforms, and in addition, it split its official selection into three strands, dubbed Retueyos, Albar and Tierres en Trance. In Retueyos, the Best Film Award was split between 9 fugas[+see also: filmreviewfilmprofile] by Galician helmer Fon Cortizo and Marygoround[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Daria Woszekfilmprofile], the colouristic feature debut by Polands Daria Woszek (which also snagged the Best Actress Award for its lead, Grazyna Misiorowska), in accordance with the verdict of the jury, consisting of Pilar Monsell, Michael Zam and Mihai Chirilov. Furthermore, the Best Actor gong was conferred upon the lead in Poppy Field[+see also: filmreviewinterview: Eugen Jebeleanufilmprofile], Romanian thesp Conrad Mericoffer, while the Distribution Award went to Stray by Elizabeth Lo (USA).

In the Albar official selection, the jury made up of Carlos Marques-Marcet, Pilar Palomero and Isabel Orellana decided that the title deserving of the Best Feature Award was First Cow, the latest outing by the USAs Kelly Reichardt, while the Special Jury Prize was bestowed upon Austrian duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel for their work on Notes from the Underworld[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmelfilmprofile], and the Distribution Award was given to the Argentinian-French co-production Isabella[+see also: trailerfilmprofile], helmed by Matas Pieiro.

In Tierres en Trance, the FIPRESCI Awards ended up going to Chaco (Bolivia/Argentina) by Diego Moncada, which was deemed Best Feature in this sidebar, and La calle del agua (Spain), which earned Celia Viada Best Director. The latter filmmaker also picked up a further six trophies: the Alma Award for Best Screenplay for a Spanish Film, the DCP Deluxe Award, the RTPA Award for Best Asturian Feature, the Audience Award for Distribution in the Tierres en Trance competition, the main Audience Award and the Europa Joven Award.

In the Push-Play Work in Progress session, which rewards projects in development (see the news), Destello bravo by Ainhoa Rodrguez was singled out with the DCP Deluxe Award, while the recipient of the OpenECAM Award was La mala familia by Nacho A Villar and Luis Rojo. The FICX Pro-LAB prize-winners were as follows: the Asturias Paraso Natural Film Commission awarded an incentive to the project Manual de la siega by Samuel Fernandi, while the OpenECAM Award was presented to Sin voz, set to be directed by Ana Izarzugaza.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Retueyos Official Selection

Best Feature Award (ex aequo)Marygoround[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Daria Woszekfilmprofile] - Daria Woszek (Poland)9 fugas[+see also: filmreviewfilmprofile] - Fon Cortizo (Spain)

AISGE Award for Best ActressGrazyna Misiorowska Marygoround (Poland)

AISGE Award for Best ActorConrad Mericoffer - Poppy Field[+see also: filmreviewinterview: Eugen Jebeleanufilmprofile] (Romania)

Distribution AwardStray - Elizabeth Lo (USA)

Albar Official Selection

Best Feature AwardFirst Cow Kelly Reichardt (USA)

Special Jury Prize for Best DirectorTizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel Notes from the Underworld[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmelfilmprofile] (Austria)

Distribution AwardIsabella[+see also: trailerfilmprofile] Matas Pieiro (Argentina/France)

Tierres en Trance Official Selection

FIPRESCI Award for Best FeatureChaco Diego Moncada (Argentina/Bolivia)

FIPRESCI Award for Best DirectorCelia Viada Caso La calle del agua (Spain)

Youth Jury AwardComo el cielo despus de llover Mercedes Gaviria Jaramillo (Colombia/Argentina)

Other awards

Spanish Film Jury Award for Best Spanish Feature in the Official Selections, Enfants Terribles and EsbillaBetween Dog and Wolf[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Irene Gutirrezfilmprofile] Irene Gutirrez (Spain/Cuba)Special MentionTransocenicas Meritxell Colell and Luca Vassallo (Spain/Argentina)

RCSERVICE Award for the Director of the Best Spanish FilmIrene Gutirrez Between Dog and Wolf

Alma Award for Best Screenplay for a Spanish FilmCelia Viada Caso La calle del agua

DCP DELUXE AwardCelia Viada Caso La calle del agua

CIMA Jury Award for Best Female-directed FeatureWildland[+see also: filmreviewtrailerinterview: Jeanette Nordahlfilmprofile] Jeanette Nordahl (Denmark)

(Translated from Spanish)

More:

9 fugas and Marygoround are the winning European titles at the Gijn Film Festival - Cineuropa

A file photo of Britains Prince Harry and Meghan in Sydney, Australia (AP photo)

By Reya Mehrotra

Whatever they might do or not do, the British royals are rarely out of news. Diana continues to evoke interest years after her death, with BBC recently conducting an inquiry whether her famous interview to Martin Bashir in 1995 was secured through unethical means. Harry and wife Meghan shook the world when they renounced their royal duties and privileges, and with Meghans powerful article recently describing her miscarriage, the world is tuned to the royals yet again. The couples recent book, Finding Freedom, just reinforces that interest.

Diana had once told her son, You can be naughty. Just dont get caught. It seems Harry took only the first part of the advice seriously. Often caught partying and in the middle of troubles, Meghan bought much-needed balance in his world. In finding love, he found himself. The normalcy-craving prince and the girl from another normal world instantly bonded. The first few chapters of the book follow a Harry-in-trance as he meets Meghan and the dawn of their love before transcending into the trials and tribulations that are a part and parcel of the royal life, and the infamous Megxit.

Harry had grown in his mothers liberating shadow. Growing up, he had everything in the world, yet found joy in plastic Happy Meal toys. Often finding himself a misfit, he found a woman who, like his mother, mirrored his drive to support those on the margins of society. But when it became too much, he rebelled just like his mother.

As for Meghan, she was destined for greatness right from the start. Growing up, she dreamt of becoming the president of the US, and at 11, the sparkling young girl brought down a sexist TV commercial and made world leaders take note. Perfecting every role she slipped into, be it in the academia, as an actress or as the royal wife, she strived for excellence. Like him, revolting against convention as what she did. Her anonymous blog, The Working Actress was a tell-all about actors losing roles because of appearance rather than talent. Her tryst with racism had begun early on. When on The Wendy Williams Show, Meghan was labelled Prince Harrys girlfriend, Priyanka Chopra had quipped, Also Meghan Markle the actress, Suits, her achievements. And she, indeed, was much more than just the title the royal association brought along. Six years in Suits and the actress had a successful lifestyle website The Tig, named after her favourite wine Tignanello and close associations with the whos-who of Hollywood.

Written by royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family comes across as just what it isa story that the world already knows, only with some fresh details, the story of the royal couples frustration with the media, the intrusion of their privacy and lack of support from the royal family. The book offers glimpses into their private meets, parties, getaways, associations and early dates that have been hidden away from the world, but the majority of the chapters focus and narrate what is already knownher growing up years, Harrys unshackled ways, his wild party phase, the hounding by the press, her transition, her fallout with her father and the growing quest for freedom from it all.

And because of this the book falls flat in retaining attention. The events narrated are rather too fresh in public memory to be read yet again. With The Crown playing out Dianas tryst with the media currently and the book describing in length Meghans own stereotypical, racist and discriminatory trial, the book can be read in the context of media and monarchy. One would rather hope for The Crown to extend one another season dedicated to the paradoxically opposite brothers.

Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal FamilyOmid Scobie & Carolyn DurandHarperCollinsPp 368, Rs 599

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Harry, Meghan and memories of Princess Diana: The dark side of royalty - The Financial Express

Everyone knows that duo W&W (consisting ofWillem van Hanegem and Ward van der Harst) are famous for producing some of the most energetic tracks in electronic dance music history. Every track they release is a surefire hit, and one of them wasLift Off!.

Lift Off! celebrates a massive anniversary this month as it has just turned eight years old. Released back in 2012 back when the duos career was well and truly lifting off, this track propelled them to fame and secured their spot as ones to watch. Cementing their signature style and making sure everyone knew all about it, this track did wonders in terms of streaming numbers. With well over 5 million hits on the radio edit version of the track on Spotify, it was also featured in such compilation albums asTrance Anthems Top 60andMiami 2013which was mixed byMYNC,R3HABandNari & Milani. Its fair enough to say that this track made a huge impact on the scene, and everyone was listening to it at the time, and even now it is still timeless and as fresh as ever.

The commanding bass sets the track up for the earth-destroying drop, which invites the listeners to jump up and down in rhythm to the track. Infectious and energetic, this is what W&W are all about, and the track was a perfect introduction to those that hadnt heard of them before. Do you remember when you heard this track for the first time? Let us know in the comments!

Image credit: Rukes.com

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W&W iconic festival anthem 'Lift Off!' turns 8 years old - We Rave You

In the world of electronic music, standing out isnt always easy. But there is perhaps no artist more unique, or more memorable than Australian trumpeter and DJ, Timmy Trumpet. His reputation speaks for itself, and has been built over the course of many stand-out performances all over the globe. The energy that Timmy Trumpet commands while on stage is second to none, and has earned him his position as one of the worlds most energetic performers within the electronic music community and beyond.

The classically trained jazz musician has thrived over the last few years, having amassed over 1.5 billion collective streams through a diverse discography that has formed the basis of his stellar artistic reputation. As a multi-platinum selling artist who has amassed a number of accolades during his time in the industry, Timmy Trumpet continues to prove exactly why his support continues to grow exponentially on a global basis. We caught up with Timmy Trumpet to talk isolation, his livestream proposal, and much more.

Hey Timmy, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. How have you been doing over the last few months? How has the pandemic affected your day-to-day life? Have you been able to take any positives from the current circumstances?

Im great! My family and loved ones are blessed with good health. Im one of the fortunate ones. My day to day life is very different without tour- ing but its been great to be home in Australia spending time with family and friends. There are positives. I try to find them in every situation. I think the biggest lesson of 2020 is to never take anything for granted.

Its great to hear that. The video for your recent hit Diamonds was shot completely in isolation, can you tell us a bit about your experience in creating the video, and the message behind it?

Image Credit: Timmy Trumpet (via Facebook)

Continued here:

Timmy Trumpet: I love people and that's what I miss the most about touring - We Rave You

If you are interested in getting into the world of Trance, you may be wondering what exactly is the difference between Techno and Trance. While both of them can be considered to be similar, Techno is actually a more aggressive and harder type of Trance. Techno Trance is also often thought of as being more extreme.

Techno Trance is one that utilizes very fast beats. This is something that is often found in electronic music videos, but can also be used in more mainstream genres. Techno is often characterized by a fast tempo, although many tracks are still faster than normal. When listening to Techno, you will notice that there is less than usual ambient music in the mix, and this is what makes it such an intense experience.

Trance is a slower and more soothing type of music. The tempo of Trance is often slower as well, although some tracks can go up to almost triple time. Trance has more effects than Techno, but there is more space between each beat. Many people consider the genre to be somewhere in between heavy metal and jazz. There is also less emphasis on tempo, as in most tracks in the genre, there are a number of different notes played at once.

The differences between Techno and Trance are not only in tempo but in the music. While some Trance tracks utilize synthesizers, some tracks include only instruments. Many techno songs use drums and synthesizers, and sometimes, these songs use keyboards as well.

In general, the music that is most often found in Techno Trance is techno, although there are also many Trance tracks that use very similar sounds. This is because the synthesizers in Techno are usually played on their own. Although this is common, there are also tracks where a synthesizer plays back to the main drumbeat and this is considered to be techno as well. Some DJs may even mix the two genres together and combine them for a very unique sounding track.

There are also some major differences in the sound of Trance and Techno. Trance music is usually quiet and meditative. This is a key factor in the sound of Trance, because this type of music allows listeners to be more relaxed. Trance and allow themselves to become totally enveloped in the song.

Techno is typically louder and faster, but can also have some very fast rhythms. Because of this difference, many people think that Techno can be more intense than Trance. However, when listening to Techno, you will notice that there is less background sound as compared to trance. This is what makes it different from Trance as well.

Some DJs like mixing both types of music together for a unique sound. However, you will find that most of the Trance tracks that you hear are made exclusively for DJs and other producers. Techno is a bit harder and more intense compared to Trance. Although there are some Trance tracks that are very fast.

Techno is also a little different from Trance in the way that it tends to sound very loud. This is because the synthesizers are played so fast that they are easily heard over the main drumbeat. Many of the tracks that you hear on the radio are made by DJs who use these synthesizers for a very fast rhythm. It is this loud sound that makes many people think that Techno is loud as well.

Techno is often created with many different sounds such as heavy beats and different types of percussion. However, there are also times when only one instrument is used as a drumbeat. It is possible to use more than one drumbeat at a time in a Techno song, but this is not very common. Most tracks are just one or two drumbeat tracks being played at the same time.

In order to create a Trance track, you need to be able to listen to a lot of music. To produce a Trance track, a DJ needs to know a lot of different music and know which type of music will suit his or her music styles.

Trance is much harder than Techno. Therefore, many DJs prefer to only play tracks that are much harder and faster than normal. Although it takes more effort, many DJs believe that this is necessary for the Trance sound to stand out. They believe that the slower songs and slower tempo help to keep the energy in Trance.

Continued here:

What Are the Differences Between Trance and Techno? - One EDM

During this time of year I get out early and ski for a few hours. The runs are quick, I cant say as much for the lines, and my patience is also on a short fuse. When the winter really begins, I can escape into those parts of the mountain that I know are quiet, where the trees and the distant stream under the snow are the only living things speaking to me.

I catch myself in these moods, stomping around in my ski boots at the end of my couple hours, returning home to the winter quiet a little peeved and then I promptly snap out of it. And the next day, I try to do better. I get on the mountain, I stand in line, but instead of focusing on the covered-up faces of the people around me, I look up. My day often begins when I enter the Gondola One maze and shift my attention to Pepis Face, how the snow has such a lopsided relationship with the angle of the slope.

The day progresses when I finally enter the gondola. I look off to the left and see the distinct rabbit figure of Riva and then below as the frontside chutes either look inviting or a little worse for wear. I have observed these runs for a long time and it takes discipline to look anew.

When it comes to learning from people of the mountain, there is no better teacher than Nan Shepherd. Shepherd lived most of her life close to the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland and toward the end of World War II, she wrote a slim, yet very wise book speaking to what she found in those mountains. This book, The Living Mountain, is special in its universality. She writes: Well, I have discovered my mountain its weathers, its airs and lights, its singing burns, its haunted dells, its pinnacles and tarns, its birds and flowers, its snow, its long blue distances.

I am young, but I have spent significant time on Vail Mountain in the winter. There is something soothing about sliding upon beaten-down snow in the early season. As I carve turns on groomers, concentrating on each sweep as I drive my outside ski, I am also traveling a path that a stranger tread before me. Or perhaps, not even a stranger, it could be my neighbor, or a friend. Their tracks, I am also adding to, layering them. And these people who are skiing before me and after me, experiences separated by days or maybe even seconds, while our thoughts are certainly singular, there are some we share, too. Shephard makes a familiar observation of the cold: cold air smacks the back of the mouth, the lungs crackle Frost stiffens the muscles of the chin Her words echo back to me as I breathe in that crisp sip.

In the early season, I like pushing myself in ways that I usually do not when the snow is good. How do I take different routes on a mountain I have been skiing my whole life when space is limited? Where can I find an unseen view of the Gore? Can I push my imagination and take a different run each time? Can I ski the same run five times and learn something new from each descent? Once I get to know the mountain in this way, when I reach nowhere in particular, but have gone out merely to be with the mountain as one visits a friend with no intention but to be with him, I think I get a sense of why Shepherd dedicated so much time to the Cairngorms.

It is therefore when the body is keyed to its highest potential and controlled to a profound harmony deepening into something that resembles trance, that I discover most nearly what it is to be. I have walked out of the body and into the mountain, Shepherd says.

I do my best skiing when I let go. When I focus on what I hear, what I touch, I can vibrate with that keyed frequency. In the early season, the abrupt transition from chalked snow to ice, the particular feeling of my neglected edges on that ice and the next day, the anchored speed of newly-tuned skis carrying me over those same rough patches with grace, these are the textures of December. All of those feelings require a sort of creativity, I think, and most definitely training. A sensitivity to being open to minute changes.

Knowing another is endless. And I have discovered that mans experience of them enlarges rock, flower and bird. The thing to be known grows with the knowing, Shepherd says.

This morning, I will not go through the motions. I will hoist my skis on my shoulder and walk to the gondola, pass through the maze, try to smell the storm in the trees, layer on yet another slice of memory over the old, click into my bindings, ascertain whether chair 3 or 4 has the longer line, and then ski. And do it again, carve, want to do it better. Only knowing the mountain when she is at her best is not truly knowing her. Any kind of frustration often means I am not engaging my imagination.

Anna Suszynski is a staff editor at the Vail Daily. She can be reached at asuszynski@vaildaily.com. Follow her on Instagram at annasuszynski or on Twitter at anna_suszynski.

Anna Suszynski is a staff editor at the Vail Daily. She can be reached at asuszynski@vaildaily.com. Follow her on Instagram at annasuszynski or on Twitter at anna_suszynski.

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Suszynski: Knowing through imagination | VailDaily.com - Vail Daily News

AS Pro Kapital Grupp informs that it has prolonged the redemption date of 24 500 Pro Kapital Grupp convertible bond PKG5 29.11.2014 (in the registry under EEK 7.00 PRO KAPITAL GRUPP VAHETUSVLAKIRI PKG5 10-2020, hereinafter referred to as Convertible Bonds PKG5) by 2 years. The new redemption date of convertible bonds PKG5 is 29 November 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the redemption date).

AS Pro Kapital Grupp has submitted the relevant application to the Nasdaq Central Depository of Securities Estonian branch to change the redemption date of Convertible Bonds PKG5. In the process of issuing the second trance of new non-convertible bonds EUR 8.00 PRO KAPITAL GRUPP VLAKIRI 20-2024 on 27 November 2020 15 746 convertible bonds PKG5 were cancelled as they were used as payment when scubscribing for the new non-convertible bonds.

In total, Convertible Bonds PKG5 were prolonged with total value of 68 600 euros and 10 844 convertible bonds PKG5 are going to be redeemed with total value of 30 363.20 euros.

Convertible bonds PKG5 bear an annual interest of 7% and give the holders of the convertible bonds the right to exchange one convertible bond for one share of AS Pro Kapital Grupp. The issue price of each convertible bond is 2.80 euros.

In order to subscribe for the shares of AS Pro Kapital Gruppand exchange the bonds, the bondholder must submit an application to the Company at least 10 (ten) Business Days before the Exchange Date. The Exchange Date shall be each Business Day (a day other than (a) a Saturday, (b) a Sunday, (c) Estonian national holiday, (d) public holiday or (e) another day when the registrar of the Register does not register securities) until the expiration date of the Bond, i.e. until the date of its redemption.

Allan RemmelkoorMember of the Management BoardPhone: +372 614 4920Email: prokapital@prokapital.ee

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Notice of prolongation of redemption date and partial redemption of convertible bonds PKG5 - GlobeNewswire

What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters? Mr. Biden asked. He is recklessly encouraging violence. He may believe tweeting about law and order makes him strong but his failure to call on his supporters to stop seeking conflict shows just how weak he is.

The latest social media outburst by the president came just days after he accepted the nomination for a second term in an election in which he has been trailing for months. Mr. Trump sought to capitalize on any momentum generated by the Republican National Convention, posting a series of tweets asserting that he is actually leading in polls.

A new poll by Morning Consult, however, showed that Mr. Trump had narrowed Mr. Bidens lead but that the president still trailed. The survey, conducted on Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Republican convention, found Mr. Biden ahead 50 percent to 44 percent, a six-point lead compared with the former vice presidents 10-point advantage a week ago after his own convention. Another poll by Yahoo News and YouGov likewise showed Mr. Bidens lead shrinking to six percentage points, down from nine points.

A post-convention bounce is typical in presidential years but it does not always last, and an ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that Mr. Trump did nothing to improve his own standing with voters, only 31 percent of whom reported a favorable view, roughly the same as before the Republican convention. Democrats, however, are growing more concerned that Mr. Trump is successfully using violence in the streets after police shootings of Black Americans to energize his own supporters and tar Mr. Biden and his party as weak on law and order.

In that vein, many of Mr. Trumps Sunday morning tweets focused on the violence in Portland, where the shooting death of a man exacerbated an already tense situation. The man was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland area that has clashed with protesters before.

Updated August 27, 2020

Mr. Trump repeatedly assailed Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland for resisting federal help and delighted in showcasing a peaceful protest held at the mayors own home on Friday, even retweeting a post accusing the Mr. Wheeler of committing war crimes. Rather than calling for calm, Mr. Trump seemed to justify aggressive action against demonstrators by his supporters.

The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing, Mr. Trump wrote, as he retweeted a journalists post reporting that Trump supporters were firing paintballs and pepper spray, including at the reporter. The people of Portland wont put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!

Continue reading here:

Trump Embraces Fringe Theories on Protests and the Coronavirus - The New York Times

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that 100,022 test results were reported to New York State yesterdaya new record high. Hospitalizations dropped to 429, a new low since March 16, and intubations dropped to 47, a new low since March 14. New York State's infection rate has been below 1 percent for 23 straight days. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available atforward.ny.gov.

"Yesterday's highest-ever number of tests and infection rate of 0.69 percent are great news, especially when you consider what's going on around the country and around the world,"Governor Cuomo said."The state is doing extraordinarily well, and again, kudos to allNew Yorkers because there's no mystery as to how this happens. It's a social action and it's the community of the people of the State of New York acting out of mutuality and concern for one another. Everyone should continue to wear masks, socially distance and wash their hands, and local governments should continue to enforce state guidance so we can get through this together."

Governor Cuomo also reminded Western New York residents that ongoing rapid testing is being conducted at eight sites in the region. Residents can call 833-NYSTRNG to make an appointment. On August 27, the governordeployed a testing SWAT teamto Western New York to address the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in the region. He also announced the eight sites, which can be found here:

Delavan-GriderCommunity Center

877 E. Delavan Ave.

Buffalo, NY 14215

True Bethel Baptist Church

907 E. Ferry St.

Buffalo, NY 14211

Northwest Buffalo Community Center

155 Lawn Ave.

Buffalo, NY 14207

Dunkirk Fire Murphy Training Grounds

665 Brigham Road

Dunkirk, NY 14048

SUNY ECC North

6205 Main St.

Williamsville, NY 14221

Union Fire Company

1845 Union Road

West Seneca, NY 14224

John A. Duke Senior Center

1201 Hyde Park Blvd.

Niagara Falls, NY 14301

YWCA of the Niagara Frontier

32 Cottage St.

Lockport, NY 14094

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,734 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 11 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

Of the 100,022 test results reported to New York State yesterday, 698, or 0.69 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

REGION

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Capital Region

0.5%

0.7%

0.6%

CentralNew York

0.8%

0.4%

0.8%

Finger Lakes

0.3%

0.5%

0.6%

Long Island

0.5%

0.6%

0.8%

Mid-Hudson

0.9%

0.8%

0.8%

Mohawk Valley

0.1%

0.6%

0.5%

New York City

0.6%

0.7%

0.7%

North Country

0.8%

0.2%

0.4%

Southern Tier

0.5%

0.4%

0.3%

WesternNew York

1.2%

1.2%

1.6%

The Governor also confirmed 698 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 434,100 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 434,100 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

2,764

10

Allegany

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Governor Cuomo Announces New Record High Number of COVID-19 Tests Reported to New York State - ny.gov

Lock down the village, test everybody, and isolate the positives. It really works, Andrea Crisanti says.

By Douglas StarrAug. 27, 2020 , 12:00 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Andrea Crisanti was on a 30-hour flight from Italy to Australia for a conference on 22 February when some disturbing news appeared on his phone. Italy had just had its first COVID-19 death, and more cases were accumulating fast. He asked conference organizers to move his talk to the first day, and made the grueling trip back home after that. Its something I do not recommend, he says.

Crisanti, head of the microbiology department at the University of Padua, already knew trouble was coming and had geared up his lab to do large-scale testing for the new coronavirus. As it began to devastate his nation, Crisanti put his university and region at the forefront of the fight with an all-out campaign of testing and quarantine, even when that meant defying conventional wisdom.

A soft-spoken 65-year-old with graying hair and soft brown eyes, Crisanti has a matter-of-fact way of stating his opinionseven when he opines that something is bullshit. Hes an innovative person who knows his own worth and has confidence in his judgments, says Jules Hoffmann, a Nobel Prize winner and professor of integrative biology at the University of Strasbourg. His decisiveness helped rein in his regions outbreak and show the rest of Italy how to tame the virus, which hit the country early and hard.

Crisanti, who trained in immunology and biotechnology in Rome before spending 25 years at Imperial College London, was used to fighting another scourge: malaria. Last fall, the University of Padua recruited him to continue his research on genetic strategies to block mosquito reproduction. But when news about the coronavirus began to emerge from China, Crisanti immediately shifted his focus.

In late January, when Chinese scientists published the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus, Crisanti began to test university students returning from China, symptomatic or not. He had conducted a few hundred tests when the regional health department told him to stop. Guidelines from the World Health Organization and Italys National Institute of Health said to test only patients with symptoms, he was told. Crisanti says the restriction made no sense: I know very few infectious diseases where asymptomatic people do not play a major role.

Thats where things stood when he got word of the first Italian COVID-19 fatality. The patient was from Vo, a prosperous village in the region of Veneto, about 50 kilometers west of Venice. The regions governor ordered a 2-week quarantine of the town and testing of almost all 3300 residents. Anyone who tested positive was put on lockdown.

At the time, anecdotal reports were emerging from China about asymptomatic transmission, but no one had produced definitive evidence. Crisanti saw Vo as an ideal place to conduct an epidemiological experiment: a small population, universally tested, whose progress could be monitored closely. He got approval to retest everyone in the village 9 days after the first round of testing.

The numbers confirmed his thinking about asymptomatic transmission. In the first round of testing, 73 residents were positive for the virus. More than 40% of them had no symptoms yet had levels of the virus similar to those who were visibly ill. The Vo study also confirmed that isolating people helps stem transmission. Everyone who had tested positive was confined to their home, regardless of whether they had symptoms. By the second round of testing, a week and a half later, the number of positives had dropped to 29; they, too, were isolated. A third round of tests 2 months after the second found no positive cases.

If you want to eliminate a cluster you have to lock down the village [or neighborhood], test everybody, and isolate the positives, Crisanti says. It really works.

Crisanti persuaded the regional government of Veneto to test anyone with even the mildest of symptoms, and to trace and test their contacts as well. The effort targeted medical personnel and essential workers, such as supermarket cashiers. It helped that Veneto has a long tradition of taking strong public health measures, dating back to the invention of the quarantine during the 14th century plagues. (The word quarantine is derived from the word for 40 days in an old Venetian dialectthe period for which incoming ships had to anchor in the harbor to avoid bringing in plague.) The regions infrastructure was ready for a pandemic, with a health care policy that emphasizes decentralized primary care. In this case,that meant sending well-equipped nurses to test people at home or admitting them to small local hospitals with dedicated COVID-19 units.

In contrast, neighboring Lombardy, the prosperous region in which Milan is located, has emphasized large, urban hospitals offering first-rate surgical and specialty care. That system backfired in the pandemic, funneling sick people into the hospitals, which in turn became sources of infection. Lombardy became the worst affected region of Italy, with 2.5 times the number of cases and four times the number of deaths per capita as Veneto.

From the beginning, Crisanti was prescient. In late January he ordered enough reagent to process half a million swabs; then had his lab analyze the reagents and begin to produce its own. Thus, when other regions were running short, Veneto had a surplus of reagents. Later he ordered a piece of equipment that could process tests at high speed, tracking down a demo machine in London when he couldnt procure one through the usual means because of heightened demand from the pandemic. We got the only one in Italy, he says. The machine quadrupled his laboratorys throughput to more than 6000 swabs per day. Along the way, Veneto became an example of the value of extensive testing, tracing, and isolationand ensuring the means to do it.

Newspapers hailed Crisanti as the father of the swabs, and the rebel scientist, for his defiance of official policy in the early days of the pandemic. He received the Lion of Veneto award for his service to the region, the seal of the city of Padua, and was honored by a special concert in Vo. Yet it hasnt all been smooth. As the outbreak began to abate, the regions governor, Luca Zaia, downplayed Crisantis contribution in comments to the press and claimed that he and his government deserved credit for taming the virus. Eager to reopen Veneto for tourism, Zaia became irritated by Crisantis insistence to go slow and turned to other scientists for advice. The freeze-out became so severe that in July, Crisanti said he would resign from the regions advisory board, only to be talked out of it by colleagues and admirers.

Now, theres a truce between the scientist and the politician. It may have been a joint effort, says Antonio Cassone, professor emeritus of medical microbiology at the University of Perugia. But Andrea proved essential.

Moving forward, Crisanti is analyzing the genetic and blood samples his team collected during the Veneto outbreak to learn more about individual susceptibility and antibody response. He remains undaunted by his encounter with politics. The most important thing is to convey simple, clear, and honest messages, he says. And if you dont know something just say it openly. People need to know the truth.

Read more:

How Italy's 'father of the swabs' fought the coronavirus - Science Magazine

We're making this important information about the pandemic available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider joining others in supporting independent journalism in Alaska for just $3.23 a week.

It might feel like the COVID-19 pandemic has been going on forever. But the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is still relatively new. Questions abound, and information from public officials is at times contradictory or confusing.

As the weeks and months push on, we want to know what questions you might have about COVID-19, and we want to help answer them.

Have a question of your own? Fill out the form at the bottom of this article.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, which reports all of the states COVID-19 data, recently changed the way it reports testing data.

Before, the department reported all of the test results it received each day on that day. Now, instead of displaying results based on the day the department received them, it is displaying them based on the day the tests were conducted.

Doing so better portrays when people are getting tested and smooths out day-to-day variability caused by lags in test completion, such as fewer tests being completed on weekends or labs that might have backlogs, according to the department.

Since COVID-19 tests can take a few days to return results, it looks like there were fewer tests conducted recently. But officials at the department say thats because they just dont have the results for the most recent tests yet.

The states health department sends out a recap of the previous weeks COVID-19 data every Wednesday, which helps paint a more specific picture of the pandemic in the 49th state.

In their most recent summary, Alaska health officials wrote that in March, many of the states cases were related to travel. In April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled but as more Alaskans have started to travel since June, more cases are now again tied to travel.

The most recent week saw 61% of Alaskas cases tied to secondary or community transmission. And, the largest increase in cases has been among people in their 20s and 30s.

The spread of COVID-19 among people at social gatherings, community events, churches and bars in addition to the spread of the virus within families has significantly contributed to Alaskas rising case counts, a previous report said.

Anchorage continues to see cases citywide, Anchorage Health Department medical officer Dr. Bruce Chandler said during a briefing on Aug. 21. He said Anchorage had identified infectious cases at a child care facility, an adult care facility, a shelter and an athletic team group residence, as well as cases involving employees at several local businesses.

Im sure there are others that havent come to our attention, Chandler said.

There are thousands of people who are still at a high risk for the virus in Anchorage. Plus, even if people have no symptoms at all, they can be highly infectious to others nearby, he said.

Seven people from Anchorage had died with COVID-19 in the past month, Chandler said Aug. 21 a number that has since risen.

I think some of those people would well be alive if wed done a better job of protecting them from the virus, Chandler said.

Inbound passengers Alex Koehler and Melissa Engelhardt listen to instructions from Marvell Robinson at the COVID-19 testing site in the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on July 17, 2020. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

For context: Alaska has changed its rules for incoming travelers. Since Aug. 11, nonresidents arriving into the state have been required to take a COVID-19 test before departing or pay $250 for a test at the airport.

So far, the state hasnt had to deal with someone refusing to get tested at the airport after arriving without proof of a test, according to Coleman Cutchins, clinical pharmacist and testing coordinator with the state.

But if people do refuse, the airport screeners will ask for their contact information so the state can come up with a plan, he said on an Aug. 20 call with reporters. If a person truly cannot afford a test, the state might find a way for the person to get tested for free and quarantine until they get their results, he said.

False positive test results showing that someone has the illness when they actually dont are not common in coronavirus testing. The test for the virus is highly specific, according to the states health department, meaning it almost never gives a false positive.

However, false negatives, which show that someone doesnt have the virus when they really do, can happen. This might happen if its too early in someones illness to detect COVID-19.

Jesse Guyer, left, and Callie Palmer, right, hike Little O'Malley Peak in Chugach State Park on Aug. 22, 2020. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

The states epidemiologist, Dr. Joe McLaughlin, uses Anchorages trail system, he said during a recent public video call. Navigating the outdoors comes down to personal choice, he said.

If someone tests positive for COVID-19, anyone who was within 6 feet of them for more than fifteen minutes is deemed a close contact, which means walking past someone on the trail doesnt fit that category.

Now, certainly, if the person is breathing hard and were to cough right on you, like give you a direct face shot of a cough, you might get exposed to COVID if theyre infected, McLaughlin said.

When hes out hiking, McLaughlin said, hell step off the trail, turn his head or will even hold his breath if he starts to get too close to someone.

But, if someone is at a higher risk for COVID-19, he said they should take more precautions.

Similarly, the states chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said her kids use the grumpy dog theory, meaning to stay away from people the way youd keep a grumpy dog away from people along trails. They often dive into the woods and go 6 feet off the trail, Zink said.

She also keeps a mask around for crowded trailheads and wears one if she goes blueberry picking by a trail where others might show up.

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Alaska coronavirus Q&A: How are people here getting COVID-19? And what's the deal with testing numbers? - Anchorage Daily News

Since the discovery of the virus that causes COVID-19, the daily news cycle has become swamped with updates about how the pathogen spreads, what the bug does to the body and what solutions might finally bring an end to the pandemic.

But staying up-to-date on all the latest coronavirus news can be a challenge. To help keep you informed, we at Live Science have compiled a short list of standout news stories from the week these are the ones that really caught our attention.

Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history

Researchers reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in a man in Hong Kong. The news initially came out on Aug. 24 in a press release from the University of Hong Kong, and the formal study was published Aug. 25 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. But don't panic an expert called the case "a textbook example of how immunity should work."

The 33-year-old was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26 and had mild symptoms at the time, including a cough and fever. The man was released from the hospital on April 14 after testing negative for the virus twice, but he tested positive again during an airport screening on Aug. 15. The virus that infected the man the second time around carried several genetic differences to the first one, suggesting that the man had been infected by a new variant of the virus that subtly mutated through time, as all viruses do. But the man showed no symptoms of illness the second time, hinting that his body retained some immunity against the pathogen.

"While this is a good example of how primary infection can prevent disease from subsequent infection, more studies are needed to understand the range of outcomes from reinfection," Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the Yale School of Medicine, wrote on Twitter.

Since this news came out, two more cases of reinfection have been confirmed in Europe, and one in the U.S., The New York Times reported. Like the Hong Kong case, the two European cases showed milder or no symptoms during the second infection; however, the U.S. patient developed severe symptoms and scientists are investigating several theories as to why. We don't yet know how commonly reinfection occurs, how often people develop severe symptoms the second time around or what these trends mean for vaccine development that information will only come from further research.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) abruptly changed its COVID-19 testing guidance, stating that those who have come in contact with an infected person don't necessarily need a test if they are not in a high-risk group or showing symptoms of the disease.

Prior to the change, the CDC recommended that all close contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 also be tested, given that we know the virus can spread before people show symptoms, and that testing close contacts helps keep outbreaks in check. The Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dr. Brett Giroir told CNN that the new guidelines are intended to encourage tests to be used "appropriately," and not to reduce the number of tests given overall. But public health officials say the guidance directly conflicts with scientific evidence.

"These testing recommendations make no scientific sense, unless there are plans to demand isolation of all known contacts of COVID-19," said Krys Johnson, an assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Temple University in Pennsylvania. Especially as schools and universities reopen, the U.S. should be testing more asymptomatic people for the virus, not fewer, she said.

In response to outcry from public health officials, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield clarified the new guidance on Aug. 27, saying "testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients," but should be prioritized for symptomatic people, people with risk factors for severe infection and people at high risk of exposure. However, at the time of this verbal statement, the official guidance on the CDC website remained unchanged.

Last week, we highlighted news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not authorize the use of blood plasma to treat COVID-19 patients without more data from clinical trials. This week, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the treatment without any additional data in hand.

Emergency use authorization allows doctors to administer an unapproved medical treatment "when there are no adequate, approved and available alternatives," and patients don't need to be enrolled in a clinical trial to receive the therapy, according to the FDA website. But infectious disease experts and public health officials argue that convalescent plasma therapy which uses antibody-rich plasma from people who have recovered from a disease has not earned this seal of approval.

To demonstrate that plasma helps COVID-19 patients recover, scientists must conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs), wherein participants randomly receive either plasma or the standard of care; outcomes can then be compared between the two groups without bias. RCTs of plasma have proven difficult to organize, given that the supply of eligible plasma and number of people sick with COVID-19 varies from region to region.

With many RCTs for plasma still underway, the authorization of the treatment could make recruiting patients for these trials even more difficult. While patients in an RCT randomly receive either plasma or the standard of care, patients treated under the emergency authorization would not be subject to this randomization; the guarantee of plasma outside of an RCT could make participating in the trials a hard sell.

If RCTs do get derailed, it will be harder to collect solid evidence that plasma therapy works.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Coronavirus news of the week (VIDEO) - Live Science

The scary thing finally happened: someone caught the coronavirus twice and got sicker the second time around. A 25-year-old man in Nevada got COVID-19 in March, got better in April, and got sick again in May. He had worse symptoms on the second bout, bad enough that he had to be hospitalized.

Three other cases of confirmed reinfection were also reported this week: one in Hong Kong (the first documented case) and two in Europe. These dont necessarily make me any more worried about our vaccine prospects, though, and they dont mean the pandemic will go on forever. We have four documented cases of reinfection. But thats out of the 24 million cases of this disease so far, and rare shit happens. Most experts expected that wed see at least a few.

For months, there have been occasional, anecdotal reports of people testing positive for COVID-19 twice. None of those were proven to be reinfections. For most of those people, the second test probably picked up residual, dead virus that was still floating around in peoples noses and throats after their first infection.

In these reinfection cases, though, researchers actually analyzed the virus from the first time the people got sick and compared it to the virus from the second time they got sick. In each case, the two viruses had slightly different genetic sequences, showing that the second positive tests werent just leftover virus.

Heres the other important thing: in the Hong Kong case, the second infection caused no symptoms at all. That means his immune system probably recognized the virus from the first infection and kept it in check. We dont know why that didnt happen for the man in Nevada. He wasnt tested for antibodies the first time he got sick, so its possible that he just didnt make any. Thats the more encouraging option. The other possibility is that he had antibodies, but they made the infection worse (it happens with other viruses, like dengue).

Case studies only answer one question: can you catch COVID-19 twice? But thats about all they do. Mostly, they raise questions rather than answer them. How common is reinfection? How infectious are people if they get sick a second time? Are people who dont generate many antibodies the first time they contract the virus the only people who can catch it again?

The pandemic feels like its gone on for 1 million years, but in a more real way, the coronavirus has only existed in the human population for about nine months. Scientists have learned so much, so fast, but theres still a long way to go. The human immune system is weird and confusing, and its squaring off against a new, never-before-seen virus. Its going to take time to understand whats happening.

Oh, and the other thing this is a reminder that even if youve already had COVID-19, you still need to be careful.

Heres what else happened this week.

Biogen conference likely led to 20,000 COVID-19 cases in Boston area, researchers say

In February, before we knew the extent of COVID-19 in the US, 175 biotech executives gathered for a conference in Boston. At that meeting, the virus spread from attendee to attendee and the outbreak eventually led to tens of thousands of cases all around the world, according to one analysis. The study shows that even a small gathering can have wide-ranging, devastating ripple effects on the course of the pandemic. (Jonathan Saltzman / The Boston Globe)

Four scenarios on how we might develop immunity to Covid-19

Months into the pandemic, scientists still arent sure what happens to our immune systems after we recover from COVID-19. Most researchers think people will have some protection against the virus, but they still dont know what that protection will look like. Stat News broke down some of the possibilities. (Helen Branswell / Stat News)

FDA authorizes Abbotts fast $5 COVID-19 test

The Food and Drug Administration authorized a $5, 15-minute COVID-19 test that works like a pregnancy test: a nasal swab gets inserted into the bottom of a test card and a colored line appears if the sample is positive for the coronavirus. Its a big step forward, experts say. (Nicole Wetsman / The Verge)

Moderna Says Covid-19 Vaccine Shows Signs of Working in Older Adults

The drug company ran a small study testing their COVID-19 vaccine candidate in people over the age of 56, and it found they produced the same types of immune response that younger people did. This doesnt mean that theyre protected from infection with the coronavirus we still need data from much bigger trials to prove that. But it is a promising sign: older peoples immune systems are weaker than younger peoples, and vaccines sometimes dont work as well for them. (Peter Loftus / The Wall Street Journal)

What if the First Coronavirus Vaccines Arent the Best?

While companies like Moderna and Pfizer are racing to collect data on their COVID-19 vaccine candidates by the end of the year, dozens of other companies are moving at a slower pace. Theyre building their vaccines using different types of technology than the ones at the head of the pack, and some researchers think they may have more staying power. The first vaccines may not be the most effective, Ted Ross, the director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia, told The New York Times. (Carl Zimmer / The New York Times)

What happened in Room 10?

Reporter Katie Engelhart investigated the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, the first virus hotspot in the United States. Something clearly went wrong but who was to blame?

Later, the story of the Life Care outbreak would be flattened by the ubiquitous metaphors of pandemic. People would say that COVID-19 hit like a bomb, or an earthquake, or a tidal wave. They would say it spread like wildfire. But inside the facility, it felt more like a spectral haunting. A nurse named Chelsey Earnest said that fighting COVID was like chasing the devil.

(Katie Engelhart / California Sunday)

Were Living The News: Student Journalists Are Owning The College Reopening Story

On college campuses around the country, student journalists are tirelessly documenting reopening plans and COVID-19 outbreaks. It takes a toll. We are scared because not only is this news that were writing about for other people to hear, were also hearing about it ourselves for the first time usually when were writing about it, Brandon Standley, managing editor at UNCs The Daily Tar Heel, told NPR.

(Elissa Nadworny and Lauren Migaki / NPR)

More than numbers

To the more than 24,775,245 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.

To the families and friends of the 837,908 people who have died worldwide 181,779 of those in the US your loved ones are not forgotten.

Stay safe, everyone.

Originally posted here:

A case of coronavirus reinfection shows the complexities of the pandemic - The Verge

A woman spits into a tube so that her saliva can be tested for the presence of the novel coronavirus.

By Robert F. ServiceAug. 24, 2020 , 5:00 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

First, a technician pushes a pencil-length swab to the very back of your nasal passages. Then you pay $100 or more, and wait days for an answer. But faster, cheaper, more pleasant ways to test for the novel coronavirus are coming online. This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for two tests that sample saliva instead of nasal fluid, and more innovations are likely after FDA relaxed rules to allow new tests to be adopted more quickly. One candidate was announced last week: an experimental test, potentially faster and cheaper, that analyzes saliva in a new way.

There is real promise here, says Anne Wyllie, a microbiologist at Yale University who helped develop one of the new tests authorized this month. Takanori Teshima, chief of laboratory medicine at Hokkaido University, who also reported successful results testing saliva, agrees. It will have a big impact worldwide.

When SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory virus that causes COVID-19, emerged in December 2019, researchers scrambled to develop tests to detect the virus. Initially, they turned to a long-trusted technique for diagnosing respiratory infections: looking for viral genetic material in mucosal fluid, thought to be the best hunting ground for a respiratory virus, collected from deep in a patients nasal passages. Thats where the 15-centimeter swab comes in. The swab goes into a plastic tube with a chemical mixture that stabilizes the virus during transport to a diagnostics lab. There, technicians extract its genetic material and load it into a machine to carry out the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which amplifies snippets of genetic material unique to the virus.

The procedure accurately identifies infections about 95% of the time. But the test is uncomfortable and, because collecting the swab requires close contact with patients, it puts medical personnel at risk of contracting the virus. Nobody wants to do that job, Teshima says.

Testing saliva for SARS-CoV-2 was no sure thing. Studies with other respiratory diseases showed saliva tests identified only about 90% of people for whom swab tests indicated an infection. But the appeal of an easier and safer test for the new coronavirus led researchers to try. People being tested simply drool into a bar-coded plastic tube, seal it, and drop it in a pouch thats shipped to a lab for PCR analysis. Because the procedure directly tests the fluid responsible for transmitting the virus between people, it may give a better indication of who is most contagious, says Paul Hergenrother, a chemist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), who led his universitys saliva test development.

As early as 12 February, researchers in Hong Kong and China reported inClinical Infectious Diseasesthat they couldidentify SARS-CoV-2 from salivain 11 of 12 patients whose swabs showed virus. Since then, groups in the United States, Singapore, and Japan have confirmed and further simplified the procedures, cutting out costly steps such as adding specialized reagents to stabilize the virus during transport and extract the genetic material.

In May, Wyllie and Yale colleagues teamed up with the National Basketball Association, which provided $500,000 to develop Yales saliva test; the test is now used for frequently testing players. On 4 August, the Yale team posted a preprint on medRxiv that said its saliva testagreed with swab results 94% of the time, at a cost of as little as $1.29 per sample, roughly 1/100 as much as commercial swab-based tests. On 15 August, FDA granted emergency approval for the SalivaDirect test, so that other FDA-approved labs can use the protocol. Last week, the agency extended approval to the UIUC test given its similarity to the Yale test. UIUC is now using its saliva test to test all 60,000 students, faculty, and staff twice a week, so they can isolate infected individuals as quickly as possible. Testing saliva makes sense scientifically, and it makes sense logistically, Hergenrother says.

Anew saliva test for RNA viruses, such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2, was reported last week inScience Advancesby researchers at the University at Albany. It could be even faster and cheaper because it does not need expensive lab equipment such as PCR machines. Rather than amplifying RNA to identify the virus, the approach uses snippets of DNA that bind to short, unique sections of RNA and change them from linear strands to loops. That alters how the RNA behaves in a common lab procedure known as gel electrophoresis, making it easy to detect. This is innovative, Wyllie says.

A relaxation of FDA rules announced last week could lead to still more variants. The new rules allow approved clinical labs to use tests they have developed without any additional approval step. In a tweet, Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called FDAs decision Huge news!! because it would encourage labs to develop novel tests. It may also help speed development ofrapid tests that look for viral proteinsrather than genetic materialan efficient way to screen large numbers of asymptomatic people.

We dont need one test to be the end all and be all, Wyllie says. We just want options.

Originally posted here:

New drool-based tests are replacing the dreaded coronavirus nasal swab - Science Magazine

OLIVIA, MINN. Tom Revier said he knew his cattle operation was in for a jolt when the Chinese government cordoned off the city of Wuhan because of the coronavirus.

That scared the heck out of me, he said. First time that I can recall a large city being quarantined.

This year has forced his farm, Revier Cattle Co., Minnesotas largest beef cattle operation, to shift how it raises animals and sells meat.

The farm near the central Minnesota city of Olivia is unusual in that it bypasses the commodity beef market to sell its own brand directly to customers.

About 50% of pre-COVID sales were to restaurants and food service. The business that was lost because of restaurant shutdowns had to be made up at the grocery store.

The biggest story for us was the transition from food service or restaurants to retail, said Revier, the fifth-generation owner of the farm. That was a big shift for us.

When he first heard about the trouble in China, Revier called ranchers raising his cattle out west to tell them to keep the animals longer than usual. By March, restaurants were shutting down across the country, beef prices had fallen by about a third, and his farm was running about half-full as his animals kept grazing in the Dakotas and eastern Montana.

The Revier model of raising cows in a specific way for a unique brand of beef is one strategy for weathering the vagaries of cattle farming. But amid a pandemic that has reshaped the way Americans get their food, it has been tested. And its an option thats only available to big farms.

Were about as small as you can be to do what weve done, Revier said.

Reviers great-great-grandfather started the farm in 1867 and it was a classic diversified, small operation cows, turkeys, hogs.

Now Revier can raise about 10,000 Black Angus cattle in Olivia at any one time. Compared to feedlots in Kansas, Texas and other states to the west, the operation is small. Its massive for Minnesota, though.

Revier, who pushed the Black Angus angle at his family farm, tried to start his own brand of beef called Medallion.

When I first did Medallion I didnt want to put my name on a box, Revier said. What I did back then was really vertical. We tried to do it all ourselves. We did the delivery, the selling, from the packing plant to distribution and sales. We learned that what were really good at is farming and producing cattle. Thats what we do best.

Having scrapped the brand, Revier still wanted to brand his beef to get a better price, and when he met a former Cargill executive named Paul Hillen, he found a kindred spirit.

Hillen, who was also a veteran of Procter & Gamble, was working in private equity at the time and brought distribution and marketing experience to the Revier farm.

The beef was the high-quality, sustainable beef Revier advertises now, but it was sold into the commodity beef market.

He was selling his cattle to other packing plants, but they were kind of trading off of his story, Hillen said.

Revier put his name on the box in November 2017. They now send the cattle to a packinghouse in Aberdeen, S.D., where the meat is cut into wholesale ribs, shipped under the Revier brand and sold through regional distributors.

We started working with packers without cattle, packing our cattle and beef, and using distribution and supply chain pieces that already existed, Revier said. We didnt need to own delivery trucks.

By the time COVID-19 hit, Revier was selling meat in 21 states, 300 grocery stores, and more than 2,500 restaurants. Last fall, they started selling to Cub Foods, where some beef in the service case is from Revier, and they launched Revier ground beef at Cub in the spring.

Some workers at the Aberdeen packinghouse contracted COVID-19 and the operation had to reduce production. But unlike hog farmers, cattle producers can leave the animals grazing and take them to slaughter at a later time. Revier got back to full capacity in early May.

Revier and Hillen stress the consistency of their meat. Cows get different diets in different parts of the country, so the meat at the grocery store can taste different on different days.

Revier cows always eat the same diet ground corn and corn bran and distillers grains in all different shades of brown and yellow.

In Minnesota, some of the biggest farms the Riverview and Lewiston dairies, for instance come under the most criticism from environmental groups. But their scale does allow them to do things smaller farmers cant.

The manure from the pens and barns gets flushed into a treatment plant that separates the liquid from the solid. They get fertilizer and fuel for methane from the liquid while the fluffy solid is used for bedding for other livestock.

Like the owners of the Riverview dairies not too far away, Revier wants to convert methane into clean natural gas. For now, the raw gas is flared from pits covered in black tarps.

The cows are big but timid, shying away from visitors, even Hillen and Revier.

Their pens are clean and the concrete is grooved so they cant slip as easily. Keeping the cows calm reduces stress and makes the meat more tender, Revier said.

The hope right now is that customers will notice the difference and keep paying a little extra for their beef.

People want to know where their food comes from or at least I think they do, Revier said. How its raised, where it comes from.

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How Minnesota's biggest beef producer is weathering the coronavirus - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A week passed, then another, and Mr. Loaiza still did not know if the aid had arrived. On June 23, the landlord texted him. Jhon, u said u were vacating the home last weekend. Is the home vacant now?

Mr. Loaiza felt emptied out and powerless; impotent, he told me. He began to lose sleep, and the stress snaked through his body like poison. Mr. Loaiza thought seriously about killing himself. He had never before entertained that obliterating thought, but the sheer hopelessness of the situation was suffocating. Marshals that carry out evictions are full of suicide stories: the early morning rap on the door followed by a single gunshot from inside the apartment, the blunt sound of giving up. From 2005 to 2010, years when housing costs were soaring across the country, suicides attributed to eviction and foreclosure doubled.

Mr. Loaiza pushed through it, the pull to sleep, to bury himself, and with the rent assistance seemingly stalled, he began calling friends in San Antonio, asking if they would consider taking his family in. No one had room. Finally, friends in Florida offered two rooms in their home and storage space in their garage. Mr. Loaiza and Ms. Bedoya began packing and scrubbing the apartment, hoping to receive their security deposit back. To afford the U-Haul, Mr. Loaiza jumped at the first job opportunity he found, joining a construction crew working inside a large building.

Jhon, Is the home now vacant? Mr. Acosta again texted on July 1. It was. At dawn, the family had begun their trek east. Mr. Loaiza drove the U-Haul, while Ms. Bedoya and the girls followed in the family car. A few hours in, Mr. Loaiza began to feel sick, feverish. It got so bad that Ms. Bedoya took to keeping her husband on the phone to make sure he was lucid.

A legal aid lawyer from St. Marys volunteered to represent Mr. Loaiza and Ms. Bedoyas case in their absence. The day before the eviction court hearing, the lawyer called the Neighborhood and Housing Services Department to inquire about the familys stalled rental assistance payment. She learned that $3,000 had in fact been issued to the landlord, and that he had cashed the check weeks earlier, on June 19, days before he texted Jhon about vacating the house. (Mr. Acosta did not consent to an interview, despite multiple requests, but he did tell me by text that the tenant vacated the home in order to find work elsewhere. The court records will show that. Mr. Loaiza told me that he moved because he felt forced from his home and that he had never told Mr. Acosta that he was moving for job opportunities.)

All this pain the stress so crippling that suicide begins to appear as relief, the severing of church and school ties, friendships; uprooting a family from community and work it wasnt for $3,190. If it was for anything, it was for $190. The lawyer tried calling Mr. Loaiza, over and over, but she couldnt reach him. By that time, he was already in Florida, lying in a hospital bed with Covid-19.

Rent its the greediest of bills. For many families, it grows every year, arbitrarily, almost magically, not because of any home improvements; just because. Demand, they say, when they hand you a new lease with a stiff rent hike. Or costs are rising. What they mean is: Because I can. And unlike defaulting on other bills, missing a rent payment can result in immediate and devastating consequences, casting families into poverty and homelessness. If you cant afford enough food, you can usually qualify for food stamps. If you miss a mortgage payment, you typically have 120 days before your bank can initiate the foreclosure process. But if you cant pay your rent, you can lose your home in a matter of weeks. During the first half of July, landlords collected 37 percent of total rent from families living in Class C properties typically older stock, home to low- and moderate-income workers compared with 80 percent during the first three months of the year.

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When the Threat of Eviction Meets the Threat of Coronavirus - The New York Times