The Tarrasch Defence

Are you looking for an active defence against 1.d4? Look no further! The Tarrasch Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5) is one of Blacks most ambitious ways to meet 1.d4.

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A major school of chess sprang up afterWorld War Iwith an assault by central European masters on Steinitzs approach to the centre and thedogmaticrules set down by Tarrasch. The Hypermoderns, as they were known, delighted in showing how the guidelines of the previous generation could be violated profitably. In one of his favourite openings,Aron Nimzowitschbegan with three pawn advances followed by a move by his queen. His colleagueRichard Rtiwrote that the new generation was interested not in rules but in exceptions.

The most important exceptions concerned thecentre squares, chiefly e4, e5, d4, and d5. The Hypermoderns believed that the central pawn structure that had been a goal since Philidor could be a liability because it provides the opponent with a target. It was not the occupation of the centre that was desirable but rather its control, they argued. Gyula Breyer, one of the Hypermoderns, summed up their approach when he joked, After the first move 1.e4 Whites game is in the last throes.

Nimzowitsch's "My System" is a hypermodern opus

At the heart of Hypermodernism was a new approach to theopening. The two leading members of the new school, Rti and Nimzowitsch, attacked Tarraschs emphasis on building a solid centre in the first dozen moves, starting with 1.e4 or 1.d4. Rti often began a game with 1.f3 and did not advance more than one pawn past the third before the middlegame had begun. Instead, he and the other Hypermoderns rediscovered thefianchetto, or development of a bishop on its longest diagonali.e., b2 and g2 for White, b7 and g7 for Black. Fianchettoed bishops had been a favourite of Howard Staunton in the 1830s but fell out of favour after Morphy popularized open centres. Rtis idea was to attack the centre with pieces posted on the wings. In one of his most controversial maneuvers, he shifted his queen to a1 to emphasize the power of his bishop at b2.

Reti - A Repertoire for White

Starting with 1.Nf3 the Reti is designed for those players who like strategy, manoeuvres and plans. Bologan presents a repertoire based on 1.Nf3 giving you options for all major replies.

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The Hypermoderns invited their opponents to advancepawnsin the centre and in some cases tried to provoke them. For example,Alexander Alekhine, a future world champion who explored Hypermodern ideas in the 1920s, developed an opening that consisted of meeting 1 e4 with 1f6 in order to tempt White to advance to e5, where the pawn might later come under fire.

Alexander Alekhine| Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nimzowitsch also played originally in the opening. Previously, masters almost automatically answered 1.d4 with 1d5 so as not to allow White to dominate the centre with 2.e4. Nimzowitsch, however, played 1f6 with the idea of controlling the crucial e4 square with minor pieces, a bishop pin of a White knight at c3 and/or a fianchettoed bishop at b7. His systems, known as the Queens Indian Defence and Nimzo-Indian Defence, remain among the most popular in competitive play.

Nimzowitschs exploration of openings that had been previously explored and found wanting led him to another Hypermodern tenet: the voluntary surrender of the centre. Steinitz had claimed to have originated this idea, but Nimzowitsch elaborated on it in several games and in his writings. For example, a common pawn chain occurs in the centre, when White pawns occupy d4 and e5 and Black pawns occupy d5 and e6. Tarrasch had shown how Black obtains counterchances by attacking the enemy centre by advancing the c-pawn to c5 and f-pawn to f6. Tarraschs opponents tried to maintain the chain of White pawns on their squares. But Nimzowitsch tried to find the right time to exchange Whites pawns (dxc5 and, afterf6, then exf6). His goal was to occupy the deserted squares at d4 and e5 with his minor pieces i.e., bishops and knights.

Nimzowitsch was also influential in the development of defensive ideas of prophylaxisthe anticipation, prevention, and restraint of the opponents play.

Master Class Vol.3: Alexander Alekhine

On this DVD GMs Rogozenco, Marin, Mller, and IM Reeh present outstanding games, stunning combinations and exemplary endgames by Alekhine. And they invite you to improve your knowledge with the help of video lectures, annotated games and interactive tests

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By the late 1920s the new approach to the centre had been quicklyassimilated. Most of the worlds leading masters, even Capablanca and Tarrasch, had tried Hypermodern openings. The next generation, which emerged in the 1930s and, after the interval ofWorld War II, the late 1940s, sought to find exceptions to other rules. The leaders of the next generation came from theSoviet Union, whose players dominated the world championship from 1948 to 1972.

The Soviets were distinguished by the high priority they placed on gaining the initiative, a willingness to accept pawn structures even Lasker had considered bad, a new appreciation of differences in material, and a concentrated approach to pregame preparation.

The Soviets valued theinitiative the ability to force matters more than most positional considerations. While the Hypermoderns and Lasker often challenged their opponents to make the first aggressive moves, the Soviets regarded the initiative as vitally important. When defending, they rejected the solid if passive approach of Steinitz and Tarrasch and tried to generate a counterattack.

The striving for the initiative led the Soviets to modify Hypermodern ideas about the centre by analyzingopeningsto finddynamic, tactical play regardless of pawn coordination or centre control. For example, David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky showed in theKings Indian Defense how White could be allowed a free rein to occupy the centre by advancing the c-, d-, e-, and even f-pawns. But Black could obtain counterplay by advancing the e-pawn to e5 and exchanging it on d4 a surrender of the centre that had beenanathemato Tarrasch.

Since the Hypermoderns had demonstrated that Black did not have to meet 1 e4 with 1e5, the Soviets devoted enormous attention to the most aggressivealternative, theSicilian Defense (1c5), which also involves a surrender of the centre. Although White gains more space and mobility, Boleslavsky showed how Black could find equalizing counterchances by advancing the d-pawn one square and the e-pawn two squares. This creates a hole at d5 and makes the d-pawn backward but enables Black to maximize use of the c-file and attack the White e-pawn.

Master Class Vol.10: Mikhail Botvinnik

Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion

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The Soviets sought unstable positions, in which each player had several pluses and minuses.Mikhail Botvinnik, the first Soviet master to win the world championship, popularized a variation of the French Defense in which Black exchanges a good bishop in order to ruin Whites pawn structure. Botvinnik accepted several weak squares because of the absence of the bishop and was often forced to castle queenside, rather than kingside. But his games revealed rich resources for counterplay on kingside or queenside.

Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky | Photo: J.D. Noske, Nationaal Archief

Another means of obtaining the instability cherished by the Soviets was by material sacrifices. Russian masters from the 1930s to the 50s were especially fond of trading a rook for a bishop or knight. Such sacrifices had been used since theRomanticera as part of a kingside attack. But the Soviets used it instead to obtain positional compensation, such as to ruin an opponents pawn structure or improve their own or to eliminate a powerful enemy bishop or knight.

Botvinniks major contributions included finding an optimal way of preparing for a game. He studied the strengths and weaknesses of opponents he was likely to meet in the near future. He analyzed the amount of time he had spent on particular moves in order to think more efficiently. He played training games to test his nerves and concentration skills under conditions simulating tournament playeven encouraging an opponent to smoke cigarettes.

But most of all Botvinnik developed highly complex opening systems, in openings such as the QueensGambitDeclined, English Opening, French Defense, and Nimzo-Indian Defense. Instead of discovering a new opening move that might win a single game and then become useless, Botvinnik tried to work out complicated systems that would last for years. For example, his analysis of theQueens Gambit Declined in the late 1930s won games for him nearly 10 years later. Typically, the Botvinnik Variation of the Queens Gambit Declined leads to a highly unbalanced middlegame in which Black sacrifices a pawn and ruins his kingside pawn structure but obtains excellent chances on the queenside, where Black has four pawns to Whites two. His approach to the opening had a great influence during the 1950s and 60s as leading masters tried to analyze openings as far as the 20th or 25th move.

Master Class Vol.6: Anatoly Karpov

On this DVD a team of experts looks closely at the secrets of Karpov's games. In more than 7 hours of video, the authors examine four essential aspects of Karpov's superb play.

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The most important changes in chess thinking after 1970 concerned a more practical approach to competition. The Soviets maintained that by unbalancing a position they placed an onus on each player to find the best moves. In quieter positions, second-best moves could be permitted. But in sharp positions, the Soviets said, failing to find the correct move would often mean losing the initiative or turning an advantage into a disadvantage.

A new attitude became evident in the games of Fischer and his successor as world champion, Karpov, in the 1970s. The pragmatist approach holds that games are decided not by brilliant moves but by bad ones made under the influence of a shortage of time. There are only a few times during a game when a player must find the best move, the pragmatists believed. The Soviets perfectionism led to an increase in games ending in middlegame victories. The pragmatists shifted the emphasis slightly toward the endgame.

There were also some subtle changes in thinking from the 1970s through the 90s about conducting the late opening and early middlegame stages of a game. Among them was a depreciation of thebishop: The Hypermoderns had attacked Tarraschs high opinion of an unobstructed bishop and said a bishop could profitably be traded for a knight. The post-Soviet players often traded bishop for knight for minimal compensation. They also often exchanged their good bishop, the one less encumbered by pawns, and retained their bad one for slight positional compensation.

Read the full chess article at Britannica.com

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Britannica: The Evolution of Chess Theory (Part 3) - Chessbase News

WASHINGTON Grilled under oath for dozens of hours on Capitol Hill, at least three current and former U.S. officials have all made the same startling admission: a coveted White House visit for the new Ukrainian leader had been explicitly conditioned on his agreeing to investigations that could have helped President Donald Trumps re-election.

And when Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, was asked point blank, under oath, whether that constituted a "quid pro quo," he did not dispute it, people with knowledge of his testimony said.

As impeachment proceedings march forward, a string of conflicting narratives from Trump, U.S. officials and the Ukrainians has centered on a different question: whether Trump ever overtly linked a freeze in military aid with his demand that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy investigate his political opponents and when the Ukrainians learned of it. Trump and many Republicans argue that if the Ukrainians were in the dark, any allegation of wrongdoing by Trump falls apart.

"You cant have a quid pro quo with no quo," Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said in comments tweeted out by Trump on Wednesday.

But in some 65 hours of testimony details of which have been previously reported along with public comments from Trump, his aides and allies, a portrait is emerging of a quid pro quo that evolved over time, with the president progressively upping the ante when his demands were not met.

What started as a bid to leverage Zelenskiys hopes for a White House meeting took on added dimensions as the Ukrainian leader mentioned his desire to buy Javelin missiles from the United States and Trump, in a separate move, put $391 million in military aid on hold.

The evolution of Trumps efforts to commit the Ukrainians to investigations that could help his re-election may explain the discrepancies in the accounts given to House investigators about whether Trump ever said explicitly that the freeze in aid was linked to his and Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giulianis demands and to whom he might have said it.

In the end, he may not have needed to say it out loud.

Both acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and former White House official Fiona Hill testified that by early July, the Ukrainians had learned from Trumps emissaries that Zelenskiy wouldnt get a White House visit unless he agreed to Giulianis demand that he publicly commit to investigate supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election and Burisma, the natural gas company tied to former Vice President Joe Bidens son Hunter.

Zelenskiy never did commit to the investigations, and wasnt granted his White House visit.

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In the midst of all that, Trump appears to have increased the cost of refusing his demands. He directed that U.S. military assistance scheduled to be delivered to the Ukrainians be unexpectedly held back, as even his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has acknowledged.

Taylor, in testimony that Democratic lawmakers described as leaving them gasping, discussed hunting for answers from other U.S. officials about why the aid was frozen after learning about it from a budget staffer on a conference call. Taylor said that one White House official Alex Vindman had told him that Sondland had told a top Zelenskiy aide the money wouldnt flow until Zelenskiy committed to investigate Burisma.

Sondland even told Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin the aid was held up until the Ukrainians agreed to the investigation, Johnson told The Wall Street Journal.

In Sondlands telling, according to the individuals with knowledge of his testimony, that assertion was based on his own speculation that Trump was applying the same conditions to the military assistance that he had to a Zelenskiy meeting not on anything Trump explicitly said. In fact, when asked about it separately by both Sondland and Johnson, Trump repeatedly denied there was any quid pro quo, according to Sondlands testimony, text messages given to Congress and a statement from Johnson. Trump has repeated that assertion in public.

To be sure, the testimony from Sondland a political appointee and a major donor to Trumps inauguration who calls himself a lifelong Republican, was in many ways less damning to the president than the testimony from career diplomats such as Taylor and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. The White House has tried to undercut the credibility of their testimony by dismissing them as radical unelected bureaucrats.

Yet even on its own, Sondlands testimony described a tit-for-tat arrangement that meets the basic definition of a quid pro quo. In his deposition, he acknowledged that the conditions were so clear that he and the former U.S. envoy for Ukraine talks, Kurt Volker, conveyed them to the Ukrainians, the individuals said.

Still, Sondland maintained to the incredulity of many Democrats that he didnt know until much later that Burisma was tied to Bidens son. That assertion and Sondlands claims that he couldnt recall other key moments of interest to House investigators led to significant frustration among Democrats, lawmakers and others briefed on his testimony said.

Spokespersons for the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry declined to comment.

As House investigators seek to piece together the presidents actions on Ukraine over the last several months, they are dependent on a parade of witnesses who each have only partial visibility into what transpired behind the scenes.

Hill and Taylor both testified that the normal channels for conducting diplomacy on Ukraine and keeping relevant officials in the loop were circumvented by Giuliani and a troika of officials deputized by Trump to run a shadow policy on Ukraine: Sondland, Volker and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

And as text messages among many of those individuals show, even they were left struggling in real time to figure out what was happening from their perches in disparate parts of the world: Taylor in Kyiv, Sondland in Brussels, Perry and Hill in Washington and Volker shuttling back and forth between the United States and Ukraine.

A third possible leverage point Javelin anti-tank missiles was introduced during Trumps July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, the call that prompted a whistleblower complaint and ultimately triggered the impeachment proceedings.

Zelenskiy, according to a memo detailing the call later released by the White House, said Ukraine was almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes against Russian aggression.

I would like you to do us a favor, though, Trump immediately replied, before asking Zelenskiy to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine. He invoked a debunked conspiracy theory about a hacked Democratic National Committee server ending up in Ukraine and also mentioned Bidens son.

By that time, the $391 million in military aid had already been suspended, although there are no indications the Ukrainians knew that at the time of the Zelenskiy call. Taylor testified that in his meetings with Ukrainian officials in late July and most of August, the Ukrainians appeared unaware of the freeze, although The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Ukrainians were aware by early August.

The Javelin missiles, though, were separate from the military aid that Trump had quietly suspended in mid-July.

The $391 million in aid to Ukraine was divided into two buckets to be doled out by the State Department and the Defense Department. The State Department funds, for example, were to be given to Ukraine to then use to buy military equipment from U.S. defense manufacturers.

The Javelin missiles, on the other hand, were to have been bought by the Ukrainians using their own money, according to a foreign military sale notification from the Trump administration to Congress. That sale 150 missiles at a cost of $39 million was approved earlier this month.

Its unclear whether Trump, when he responded to Zelenskiys missile ask by requesting a favor, was aware that Javelins were not part of the aid hed just suspended.

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Impeachment hearings depict a quid pro quo that evolved over time - NBC News

From the film Bayandalai Lord of the Taiga. Courtesy, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.Calgary

There a Spanish film about a Basque painter drawing inspiration from the Norwegian Svlabard archipelago near the North Pole. Theres a German film about a French paraglider exploring the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. Theres an Austrian film about Nigerian BMX riders. Yet another Spanish film tells the story of a reindeer herder from the Dukhas tribe in Taiga.

If there is a theme to this years Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, its that the celebration of mountain culture is an increasingly borderless, global and diverse phenomenon.

From the film Winterland by Nic Alegre. Courtesy, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.Nic Alegre / Calgary

We are seeing different types of people represented on screen, says festival director Joanna Croston. Theres more people of colour. Indigenous stories are being told as well, not just Canadian indigenous but international indigenous as well. Its exciting for us to have a different type of narrative other than the colonial, white narrative that would have been representative of the 50s and large nations going to conquer peaks. That has changed a lot.

From the film Queen Without Land by Asgeir Helgestad. Courtesy, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.Calgary

The festival does not date back to the 1950s, but it is celebrating its 44th year. That makes it the second-oldest mountain film festival in the world, behind only the 67-year-old Trento Film Festival in Italy. The festival, which runs until Nov. 3, will screen 100 films from 19 countries. More than 100 filmmakers will be visiting from around the world.

All films are finalists, up for 10 prizes that are divided into sub-genres.

It may be little known to Calgarians and also to people in the Bow Valley just how prestigious the Banff festival is and how it is held in high regard across the planet, says Croston. For a lot of filmmakers, its a life dream recognized to be on our stage and accept an award but also just to have their films screened here. The competition is really competitive.

From the film The Pathan Project by Jean Louis Wertz. Courtesy, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.Calgary

In fact, there were 450 entries this year for the festival. As with all filmmaking, the boost in technology has democratized mountain films. Its no longer solely the domain of established filmmakers with access to big budgets. The films range from being a few minutes long to feature-length and are mostly non-fiction. But they are still judged on narrative, character development and the technical skills of the filmmaker. Increasingly, entries have an environmental theme. Skiing and other mountain sports are still big topics.

But there is also a common thread that links many of the hundreds of films that enter the competition.

The idea of the indomitable human spirit is always a big theme for us, Croston says. People overcoming obstacles; those may be life obstacles or they may be physical mountains. Thats always a prevalent theme and its never really gone away. It was probably in the first festival we held and its still around. I think people are looking for an escape from their everyday lives.

The festival is expected to attract 20,000 people from around the globe. For the past 25 years, a version of each years lineup travels to different countries. The festival now goes to 43 countries, holds 1,100 screenings and attracts 500,000 spectators. The first stop is in Great Falls, Mont., a week after the Banff festival ends.

When we get visitors from other nations visiting Banff, a lot of the temporary workers who come to town for the ski season, for example, they will have heard of Banff through the world tour we offer, says Croston. In some cases, they dont even know its a town. They think Banff is an acronym because weve got this double-f on the back of our name, they think it sounds for film festival. When they discover we are actually a place, they get quite excited about that.

The Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival runs from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3. For a schedule visit banffcentre.ca/banff-mountain-film-book-festival

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Banff festival explores the evolution of global mountain culture through film - Calgary Herald

Rewind the clock 25 years 1994 was the year of fax machines, SyQuest disks and video cassette recorders but it was also the year that gave birth to the beginning of digital advertising. With the creation of the first banner ad for a website called HotWired.com the industry entered a new age of innovation and changed the course of advertising forever.

To celebrate the digital advertisings quarter-of-a-century anniversary, Adobe has released its Now were 25. Digital advertising grows up report which features a range of interviews and research to reflect on how far digital has come and predict where its headed.

Adobes senior account manager Lizzie Blundell will highlight some of the reports key findings in a webcast hosted by The Drum. In the session, she will trawl digitals history and recall various milestones, such as the birth of DoubleClick, Apples first iPhone release and the recent changes to GDPR regulations to consider what effect the dotcom movement had for marketers. She will also assess what problems were solved for advertisers and think about how global advertising spends have changed over this period.

Obviously, the digital landscape has completely changed in the last 25 years, with personalisation and targeting becoming essential parts of the creative process something Adobe Advertising Cloud Creative now enables.

The webcast will also reveal some of the key challenges that have evolved throughout this timeframe, citing ad fraud and a lack of consistent metrics as some of the pitfalls marketers are dealing with. Blundell will look at the total spend of digital ads across various social media platforms to work out how marketers can maximise their coverage and get around these platforms walled gardens.

Data has become increasingly important in recent years both for measuring and capturing consumer information yet Blundell will remind advertisers of the power and responsibility they now have. The report also expects personalisation and increased data protection to be consistent areas of focus for marketers, and Blundell will discuss the industrys need for more connected metrics to improve measuring customer engagement.

She will also consider the changing structure of the industry and the effect of advertisers increasingly creating internal teams for traditionally outsourced functions and how this will change client-agency relationships.

The webcast will also explore the opportunities that will become available to marketers in the next 25 years taking us up to 2044. Fusion power, virtual telepathy and Chinas space program are expected to be new spaces for advertisers to explore.

Although its difficult to predict just how advertising will evolve in that time, theres no doubt that the industry is on course for another evolution.

The current climate for digital advertising conjures up a flurry of industry woes over data privacy, security, and ownership. But the silver lining is the dawn of redefined digital experiences that turns advertising into an essential part of an experience-led strategy and makes the most of a market worth more than half a trillion dollars, said Keith Eadie, VP and general manager of Adobe Advertising Cloud.

Find out what the future of the industry will look like by tuning into the webcast, thats taking place on 5 November 2019.

Register your interest for free here and download the full report now.

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The evolution of the digital industry: Looking back on the last 25 years - The Drum

Communication plays an essential role in our lives. Humans started with signs, symbols, and then made progress to a stage, where they began communicating with languages. Later computing and communication technologies came. Machines began communicating with humans and in some cases, with themselves also. The communication created the world of the internet, or as we technically know the Internet of Things(IoT). Here is the evolution of speech recognition technology that involves machine learning.

The internet gave rise to new ways of using data. Using this, we can communicate directly or indirectly with machines by training them, which is known as Machine Learning. Before this, we have to access a computer to communicate with machines.

Research and development are beginning to eliminate some of the use of computers to a great extent. We know this technology as Automatic Speech Recognition. Based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), it allows us to interact with machines using our natural language in which we speak.

The initial research in the field of Speech Recognition has been successful. Since then, speech scientists and engineers aim to optimize the speech recognition engines correctly. The ultimate goal is to optimize the machines interaction according to the situations so that error rates can be reduced and efficiency can be increased.

Some organizations have already started the development of fine-tuning speech recognition technologies. For more than a decade, Virginia based GoVivace Inc. has continually specialized in the design and development of speech recognition technologies and solutions.

Automatic Speech Recognition(ASR) technology is a combination of two different branches Computer Science and Linguistics. Computer Science to design algorithms and to program and Linguistics to create a dictionary of words, sentences, and phrases.

The first stage of development starts with speech transcriptions, where the audio is converted into text, i.e., speech to text conversion. After this, the system removes unwanted signals or noise by filtering. We have different voice speeds while saying a word or sentence, so the general model of speech recognition is designed to account for those rate changes.

Later the signals are further divided to identify phonemes. Phonemes are the letters that have the same level of airflow, like b and p. After this, the program tries to match the exact word by making a comparison with words and sentences that are stored in the linguistics dictionary. Then, the speech recognition algorithm uses statistical and mathematical modeling to determine the exact word.

One type of system is accomplished with learning mode and other as a human dependent system. With developments in Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Big Data, speech recognition technology achieved the next level. A specific neural architecture called long short term memory bought a significant improvement in this field. Globally, organizations are leveraging the power of speech at their premises at different levels for a wide variety of tasks.

Speech to text software includes timestamps and confidence score for each word. Many countries do not have their language embedded keyboards, and a majority of people do not have an idea of using a specific language keyboard, though they are verbally good at it. In such cases, speech transcriptionshelp them to convert speech into text in any language.

The other use of this technology is in real-time. Tech done in real-time is known as Computer Assisted Real-Time translation. It is basically a speech to text system which operates on a real-time basis. Organizations all over the world perform meetings and conferences.

For maximum participation by global audiences, they leverage the power of live captioning systems. The real-timecaptioning system converts the speech to text and displays it on the output screen. It translates the speech in one language to the text of other languages and also helps in making notes of a presentation or a speech. These systems convert speech to text that is also understood by hearing-impaired people.

Apart from speech to text, the technology spreads its branch into the biometric system, which created voice biometrics for authentication of users. Voice biometric systems analyze the voice of the speaker, which depends on factors like modulation, pronunciations, and other elements.

In these systems, the sample voice of the speaker is analyzed and stored as a template. Whenever the user speaks the phrase or sentence, the voice biometrics system compares them with the stored template and provides authentication. However, these systems are facing a lot of challenges. Our voice is always affected by physical factors or emotional state.

The recent developments in biometric voice systems operate by matching the phrase with the sample. After this, it analyzes the voice patterns by taking psychological and behavioral voice signal into consideration. Also, the developments in voice biometrics technology are going to help enterprises where data security is a significant concern.

Analytics play an essential role in the development of speech recognition technology. Big data analysis created a need for storing voice data. Call centers started using the recorded calls for training their employees. Since customer satisfaction is now the primary focus of organizations around the globe. Now, organizations want to track and analyze the conversation between executives and customers.

With Call Analytics applications, organizations can monitor and measure the performance and analytics of call. This call analytical solution enhances the performance of services provided by call centers. Through this, one can classify their customers and can serve them better by giving faster and favorable responses.

Research in speech recognition technology has a long way to go. Until now, the program can act on instructions only. Human communication feel does not exist entirely with machines. Researchers are trying to inculcate the human responsiveness into machines. They have a long way to go in the innovation of speech recognition technology.

The primary feature of research concentrates on how to make speech recognition technology more accurate. For human language understanding, we need more accuracy. For example, a person raised a question, how do I change camera light settings? This question technically means that the individual wants to adjust the camera flash. So significant concentration is on understanding the free form language of humans before answering specific questions.

So overall, machine learning with speech recognition technology has already made its way into the organizations globally and started providing effective and efficient results. Very soon we might be seeing a day where the automated stenographer would get promoted and start taking an active part in organizing the meetings and presentations.

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Evolution of Speech Recognition Technology - ReadWrite

Are we alone in the universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events occur frequently, improbable events occur rarely or once. Our evolutionary history shows that many key adaptations not just intelligence, but complex animals, complex cells, photosynthesis, and life itself were unique one-off events and therefore highly improbable. Our evolution may have been like winning the lottery only far less likely.

The universe is astonishingly vast. The Milky Way has more than 100 billion stars, and there are over a trillion galaxies in the visible universe, the tiny fraction of the universe we can see. Even if habitable worlds are rare, their sheer number there are as many planets as stars, maybe more suggests lots of life is out there. So where is everyone? This is the Fermi paradox. The universe is large and old, with time and room for intelligence to evolve, but theres no evidence of it.

Could intelligence simply be unlikely to evolve? Unfortunately, we cant study extraterrestrial life to answer this question. But we can study some 4.5 billion years of Earths history, looking at where evolution repeats itself, or doesnt.

Evolution sometimes repeats, with different species independently converging on similar outcomes. If evolution frequently repeats itself, then our evolution might be probable, even inevitable.

And striking examples of convergent evolution do exist. Australias extinct, marsupial thylacine had a kangaroo-like pouch but otherwise looked like a wolf, despite evolving from a different mammal lineage. There are also marsupial moles, marsupial anteaters, and marsupial flying squirrels. Remarkably, Australias entire evolutionary history, with mammals diversifying after the dinosaur extinction, parallels other continents.

Other striking cases of convergence include dolphins and extinct ichthyosaurs, which evolved similar shapes to glide through the water, and birds, bats, and pterosaurs, which convergently evolved flight.

We also see convergence in individual organs. Eyes evolved not just in vertebrates, but in arthropods, octopi, worms, and jellyfish. Vertebrates, arthropods, octopi, and worms independently invented jaws. Legs evolved convergently in the arthropods, octopi, and four kinds of fish (tetrapods, frogfish, skates, mudskippers).

Heres the catch. All this convergence happened within one lineage, the Eumetazoa. Eumetazoans are complex animals with symmetry, mouths, guts, muscles, a nervous system. Different eumetazoans evolved similar solutions to similar problems, but the complex body plan that made it all possible is unique. Complex animals evolved once in lifes history, suggesting theyre improbable.

Surprisingly, many critical events in our evolutionary history are unique and, probably, improbable. One is the bony skeleton of vertebrates, which let large animals move onto land. The complex, eukaryotic cells that all animals and plants are built from, containing nuclei and mitochondria, evolved only once. Sex evolved just once. Photosynthesis, which increased the energy available to life and produced oxygen, is a one-off. For that matter, so is human-level intelligence. There are marsupial wolves and moles, but no marsupial humans.

There are places where evolution repeats and places where it doesnt. If we only look for convergence, it creates confirmation bias. Convergence seems to be the rule, and our evolution looks probable. But when you look for non-convergence, its everywhere, and critical, complex adaptations seem to be the least repeatable and, therefore, improbable.

Whats more, these events depended on one another. Humans couldnt evolve until fish evolved bones that let them crawl onto land. Bones couldnt evolve until complex animals appeared. Complex animals needed complex cells, and complex cells needed oxygen, made by photosynthesis. None of this happens without the evolution of life, a singular event among singular events. All organisms come from a single ancestor; as far as we can tell, life only happened once.

Curiously, all this takes a surprisingly long time. Photosynthesis evolved 1.5 billion years after the Earths formation, complex cells after 2.7 billion years, complex animals after 4 billion years, and human intelligence 4.5 billion years after the Earth formed. That these innovations are so useful but took so long to evolve implies that theyre exceedingly improbable.

These one-off innovations, critical flukes, may create a chain of evolutionary bottlenecks or filters. If so, our evolution wasnt like winning the lottery. It was like winning the lottery again, and again, and again. On other worlds, these critical adaptations might have evolved too late for intelligence to emerge before their suns went nova, or not at all.

Imagine that intelligence depends on a chain of seven unlikely innovations the origin of life, photosynthesis, complex cells, sex, complex animals, skeletons, and intelligence itself each with a 10% chance of evolving. The odds of evolving intelligence become 1 in 10 million.

But complex adaptations might be even less likely. Photosynthesis required a series of adaptations in proteins, pigments, and membranes. Eumetazoan animals required multiple anatomical innovations (nerves, muscles, mouths, and so on). So maybe each of these seven key innovations evolve just 1% of the time. If so, intelligence will evolve on just 1 in 100 trillion habitable worlds. If habitable worlds are rare, then we might be the only intelligent life in the galaxy, or even the visible universe.

And yet, were here. That must count for something, right? If evolution gets lucky 1 in 100 trillion times, what are the odds we happen to be on a planet where it happened? Actually, the odds of being on that improbable world are 100%, because we couldnt have this conversation on a world where photosynthesis, complex cells, or animals didnt evolve. Thats the anthropic principle: Earths history must have allowed intelligent life to evolve, or we wouldnt be here to ponder it.

Intelligence seems to depend on a chain of improbable events. But given the vast number of planets, then like an infinite number of monkeys pounding on an infinite number of typewriters to write Hamlet, its bound to evolve somewhere. The improbable result was us.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Nick Longrich. Read the original article here.

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Here's the probability that something like humans evolved on other planets - Inverse

The definition, significance and meaning of luxury have evolved over the centuries. From the time of erstwhile Maharajas and royalty with their luxe styles to haute couture Parisian and international luxury design houses, it has been a long journey.

Luxury has different meanings, it is a subjective experience. For the famed designer Ritu Beri, luxury is getting to sleep. For many, it is comfort.

At the Luxury League, a session called The Luxury of Fashion, Beauty, Wellness and Grooming was held. Put together by the famed styling doyen Rashmi Virmani, the session featured emerging designers. Among the panellists were Gaurav Gupta, Founder of Akaaro; Chinar Farooqui of Injiri; Sonal Verma of Rara Avis; Rina Singh of Eka and Nakul Bajaj of Darveys.

They collectively agreed that when they are designing, its about comfort, evolution and utilization of Indias vast and varied crafts and techniques.

Rina Singh said, Luxury changes from one point in time to the next point. Fashion is an experience. It is meaningful; one breathes it and lives it.

Indian designers are very skilled, talented and understand the local indigenous crafts of India. Gaurav Gupta said, Indian designers dont need to go to the West for validation at all.

Sonal Verma is grabbing attention in the stylish handbags domain. Having participated in a variety of international trade shows, she has been able to take her Indian brand global. She said, I have like-minded women interested in my craft. I get buyers from stores all over. They connect through Instagram, informing me of their visit to India. Definitely technology has played a huge role for these millennial designers.

Chinar Farooqui, a textile designer said at the event, Our country has been highly skilled with textiles, handcrafted and woven to amalgamate with luxury for centuries. But yes, highly skilled craft and artisanal products are expensive. So luxury is about like-minded consumers for sure.

Nakul Bajaj talked about how the luxury industry has changed. He said, We have seen a huge bump up of 250% growth spurt from 2013-2019. Not just with the high net worth individuals, but also in terms of more markets and consumers who desire to buy luxury. The consumer base is evolving to be more varied and diverse. Advent of online retail platforms has helped a lot.

All these young and talented designers think that advancement of technology has enabled them to carve a path for themselves in the clothing and accessories design space.

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Emerging designers on the concept and evolution of luxury - The Sunday Guardian

Much ink has been spilled over the rise and fall of the It bag, but things were pretty clear-cut at Tokyo Fashion Week. There were no clunky box bags in sight and no ladylike top handles; even New Yorkers go-to cross-bodies were in short supply. Bags were rarely the story in any of the photographs Kira took for Vogue Runway, in fact. Tokyos most stylish guys and girls took a different approach to storage, tucking their belongings into utility vests, harnesses, belt bags, or simply jackets with enormous pockets. Who needs a $4,000 tote when all the stuff you needphone, keys, wallet, and show ticketsis secured snug against your body?

We have a feeling convenience wasnt really the draw, though. The uniformly black, silver-buckled looks we saw evoked a survivalist sensibility our Vogue Runway colleague Steff Yotka coined warcore last year. Its a trend that trickled up from the streets and onto the fall 2019 menswear runways, including Prada, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Balmain, Dior Men, Ambush, and Dries Van Noten. Miuccia Prada said she wanted to offer clothes for a very tough world; Kim Joness luxe tactical vests resembled armor at Dior Men; and Ambush seemed to nod to a dystopian future. All seemed to suggest that in this day and age we should be ready for anythingonly take the essentials you can keep safely on your person.

Tokyo Fashion Week street style has a history of being on the cutting edge of trends, so you can expect to see more apocalyptic gear in the months to come. Get started with Gannis zippered cotton vest or Amiris suede harness, among other options below.

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The Evolution of the Hands-Free Accessory at Tokyo Fashion Week - Vogue

Dont let looks deceive when considering Land Rovers smallest SUV, the Range Rover Evoque. Since its U.S. debut in 2011, it has been a fashion-forward beauty marque for the brand, more like a sporty coupe than a utility vehicle. But the completely redesigned 2020 Evoque gets more brains with the beauty, although a little more electronic evolution would be appreciated, too.

The large wheel and raised ride height communicate control and security.

(Range Rover)

Among the new features are more sustainable interior materials (Eucalyptus Textile and Ultrafabrics) and more safety and driver-assist technologies, a mild-hybrid engine option and a ground-view camera at the front underbody. Also interesting is an artificial intelligence algorithm to (somehow) provide a calming and comfortable cabin.

The wide and long panoramic glass roof is standard on the First Edition.

(Range Rover)

As a Land Rover, the Evoque got a 4-inch-deeper fording depth to 23.6 inches while keeping its original street-jewelry appeal. And owners can use the ClearSight Ground View camera to watch for transfer case-busting rocks when off road, but the view is like having a clear floorboard to watch for potholes or tall curbstones.

The redesign added more and larger small-storage areas, such as in the door panels, which have room for large bottles.

(Range Rover)

Evoque is sold in three all-wheel-drive models: the basic Evoque starts at $43,645; the higher performance R-Dynamic MHEV ranges from $47,595 to $56,795; and the one-year-only First Edition at $57,845; pricing includes the $995 freight charge from Halewood, U.K.

Comparables might include the Acura RDX, Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Audi Q5, Infiniti QX50, Jaguar F-Pace, Mercedes-Benz GLC and Porsche Macan.

Among the new features are more sustainable interior materials, such as Eucalyptus Textile and Ultrafabrics. The interior styling is clean, lean and contemporary with quality materials and spot-on assembly.

(Range Rover)

The footprint of the new model is almost identical to that of the previous model, but with a slightly longer wheelbase. The cabin now feels more midsize than compact with more elbow room, more back-seat knee room (0.8-inch) and more small storage areas (including a larger glove box and center armrest console). The cargo area is 6 percent larger and wider.

The less-angular styling is more rounded at the rear, somewhat like the downsized Range Rover Velar, but better. The interior, too, is fitting of a $60,000 luxury SUV, at least in the First Edition.

The First Edition tester was optioned with twin packages that most drivers would appreciate. The Configurable Dynamics, $335, allows the user to set preferences for engine response and gearbox shift points, steering force and suspension stiffness. But the two-stage option is paired with Adaptive Dynamics, $715, which adds electronic air springs to balance comfort and agility, Range Rover says. The total package adds $1,070.

Engines

Both engine options are turbocharged, 2.0-liter four-cylinders with a nine-speed automatic. The transmission is well calibrated for shift points, up or down, and I never felt the need to use the paddle shifters.

The 246-hp, Ingenium 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder has 269 lb.-ft. torque from 1,300-4,500 rpm. Fuel economy ratings are 20/27/23 mpg city/hwy/combined. I worked up to 18.2 combined mpg, on premium fuel.

(Mark Maynard)

The base 246-horsepower engine has 269 foot-pounds of torque from 1,300-4,500 rpm. In standard driving mode, the performance is tuned for fuel economy, which is challenged by a curb weight of 4,000 pounds and the underarmor for off-road durability. The official mileage ratings, comparable with others in the segment, are 20 mpg city, 27 highway and 23 mpg combined on premium fuel. I could only work up to 18.2 mpg, but the onboard readout never went below 17 mpg.

There can be plenty of forza by moving the shifter left a notch to Sport and then selecting the Dynamic mode to tweak suspension and steering rates. It sharpens the throttle response for more consistent acceleration on takeoff. In my week of testing, I figured out that the fuzzy logic of the algorithms will adapt to driver style, and once it figures out your driving style, it quickens or relaxes the performance. If you like that quickness, it helps to exercise the accelerator pedal frequently so the system remembers you are a lead foot. But it doesnt take long for the system to default to casual driving.

The R-Dynamic model with mild-hybrid (MHEV) powertrain brings 296 hp, but the system is only about a 1 mpg improvement over the base engine, at 21/26/23 mpg city/hwy/combined.

The MHEV system adds a 48-volt lithium-ion battery and electric motor with engine-mounted belt-integrated starter generator. The hybrid function captures energy normally lost during deceleration and braking, then pipes it to the under-floor battery. At speeds below 11 mph, the engine shut offs while the driver applies the brakes. When pulling away, the stored energy will boost acceleration. The added boost from a stop helps fill the gap between stepping on the accelerator pedal and waiting for the turbocharger to spool up power.

Range Rover cites 0-60 mph acceleration in 6.3 seconds for the Dynamic MHEV, which is about 140 pounds heavier than the base model, which has a 0-60 time of 7 seconds.

Drivability

All models are four-wheel-drive but the system runs in front-drive until there is loss of traction and more power is sent to the rear axle. The Terrain Response System has traction settings for grass-gravel-snow, mud-ruts, sand, and automatic, which lets the computers decide.

The steering response is quick and balanced with complete cooperation from the sport-tuned but not harsh suspension. But its high-riding stance and wheel travel allow some lean and rebound in cornering and zipping through freeway exit loops. And the turning circle, with 21-inch tires, seems wider than the stated 38.1 feet. Four-wheel-disc brakes have 13.7-inch front rotors and 11.8-inches rear, or 12.8 inches rear on Dynamic models.

Cabin

The interior styling is clean, lean and contemporary with quality materials and spot-on assembly.

The cabin is well soundproofed and ride quality is very refined (with the electronic suspension), particularly on the jiggle-monotony of concrete highways. The reasonably trim frontal mass does not whip up wind noise and there was no grainy harshness from the Pirelli Scorpion all-season tires.

Theres just enough ride height to give an open view down the road with sightlines that are reasonably open at the side mirrors. Even the smallish back window was no problem, particularly with the wide-screen rearview camera for parking.

The wider cargo area has a tall floor and low ceiling, which isnt ideal for loading a bulky stroller but there is plenty of luggage room for a getaway.

(Range Rover)

The 16-way power front seats are firm and supportive without wedgie-inducing bolsters.

The broad shift console is a stylish statement but short on space to drop a phone and other daily junk and stuff. An open shelf of space below the console does have room for a phone, but there are no charging ports to go with it. And there are just two charging USBs in the vehicle, both of which are in the center front armrest console box, along with a 12-volt plug and a SIM card slot. There also are no grab handles above any of the doors, which could be a budget cut or have to do with interference at the edges of the wide and long panoramic glass roof. It is a showpiece, with a power-opening shade, even though it does not open.

Dual touch screens for infotainment and vehicle settings are the future but still not all that easy to use without taking eyes from the road. And there were gremlins in the lower screen that occasionally switched off the AC and thwarted fan speed adjustments and temp control. Sometimes a shut down and restart would bring back all controls, and sometimes it needed an overnight rest.

The ClearSight Rear View Mirror transforms into an HD video screen at the flip of a tab on the base of the mirror. It can be a smart feature when rear views are blocked by cargo or passenger heads. But for me, who wears eyeglasses, the initial glance is a blur as my eyes crunch to quickly react, so I dont use it.

And I couldnt really tell if the Smart Settings artificial intelligence algorithms did anything to read my mind and automate climate settings, seat position or media preferences. But its good to know that when cars drive us they also will try to make us comfy.

Back seat

While the added knee room is helpful, the Evoques back seat is still tight on adult legroom (33.8 inches max, depending on whos up front), but the bench seat bottom is long and supportive. And there are no charging USBs.

Cargo

The wider cargo area has a tall floor, no seatback releases to help with folding the 40/20/40 back seat and no basement storage, which is packed with the spare tire. There is 21.54 cubic feet of space (floor to ceiling) behind the back seat or 50.5 cu. ft. with the seats folded, providing about 5.3 feet of length. Its not ideal space for stashing a stroller, but there is plenty of luggage room for a getaway. Bikes will have to go on the roof.

As buyers continue to walk away from sport coupes and even sport sedans, the Evoque is a contemporary alternative that has gotten better with age.

The footprint of the new model is almost identical to that of the previous model, but with a slightly longer wheelbase.

(Nick Dimbleby)

2020 Land Rover Evoque First Edition

SPECIFICATIONS

FEATURES

PRICING

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2020 Range Rover Evoque: an evolved beauty marque - The San Diego Union-Tribune

October 25, 2019 -Blockchain technology, which is already making an impact in healthcare, will evolve in four phases over the next decade, predicted Gartner.

The high-tech research firm advised chief information officers to experiment with some level of block based on an understanding of the consequences for their companies from their choices.

Beyond operational improvements and increased efficiency, fully mature blockchain complete solutions will allow organizations to re-engineer business relationships, monetize illiquid assets and redistribute data and value flows to more successfully engage with the digital world. That is the real business of blockchain, said David Furlonger, distinguished research vice president, Gartner Fellow, and co-author of the book The Real Business of Blockchain: How Leaders Can Create Value in a New Digital Age.

To unlock this potential, CIOs should use a framework to help their organizations better understand the timing of investments and the value proposition for blockchain usage based on different solution archetypes, Furlonger added.

The four phases of blockchain evolution are:

Blockchain-Enabling Technologies

These technologies furnish the basis for developing future blockchain applications. They can also be used as part of nonblockchain resources, such as enhancing operational efficiency. Such technologies include cryptography, distributed computing, peer-to-peer networking, and messaging.

Blockchain-Inspired Solutions

These solutions use the basic technologies but only three of blockchain's five elements: distribution, encryption, and immutability. While some of these solutions use tokenization, they are not decentralized enough to use tokens to create new value exchange systems. Such solutions often seek to reinvent existing processes that are unique to a particular organization or sector while retaining centralized controls.

Blockchain-Complete Solutions

Such approaches provide the full blockchain value proposition using all five components distribution, encryption, immutability, tokenization, and decentralization. Blockchain-complete solutions incorporate tokenization enabled by smart contracts and decentralization. These technologies permit trading in new forms of value, such as new types of assets, and break monopolies on current forms of value marketing processes, such as online exchange and digital advertising. Though not immediate, the proliferation of blockchain-complete solutions will push organizations to explore new ways of operating with greater degrees of decentralization than they have now, said Christophe Uzureau, research vice president at Gartner and co-author of the book.

Enhanced-Blockchain Solutions

Technologies like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and decentralized self-sovereign identity (SSI) should become more integrated with blockchain networks after 2025. The resultant advanced blockchain solutions will extend the kind of customer and value that will be tokenized and traded, enabling many smaller transactions that would not be available through conventional methods.

The evolution of blockchain cannot be ignored. Blockchain-complete solutions will begin to gain traction in about three years. Only slightly further out lies a future business and societal environment that includes IoT and AI in which autonomous and intelligent things own assets and trade value, predicted Furlonger.

Business leaders who fail to do scenario planning or experiment with the technology, and delay consideration of the two fundamental blockchain components, decentralization and tokenization, risk being unable to adapt when blockchain matures, he concluded.

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Blockchain Technology to Evolve in 4 Phases, Predicts Gartner - HITInfrastructure.com

The Cooper Hardtop was an engineering marvel when it arrived in 1959 because of its compact powertrain packaging that used a transverse engine layout and front-wheel drive. This layout allowed for four passengers in the cabin, despite the tiny overall footprint.

12 Photos

While originally meant to be inexpensive transportation, the Mini turned out to be a fantastic performance car, too. Racer and auto manufacturer John Cooper saw the possibilities, and the Mini Cooper was born. A larger displacement engine and better brakes made for a potent competition machine for rallying and on circuits.

The Mini was a huge success in the 1960s, but it stuck around for a lot longer. Tiny design evolutions continued through 2000, but the tweaks never altered the model's classic shape. The first big change happened when BMW took over Rover Group and decided to rejuvenate the vehicle by launching Mini as a separate brand.

The original Mini became an automotive icon of 1960s Britain both in the streets and on the track. Even after that initial heyday, the little vehicle managed to stick around with only minor changes until 2000. Then BMW revived the model a few years later and built a whole brand around it.

The talented artists fromBudget Direct Car Insurancecreated these images that chronicle the Mini's changing interior over the years. Things started quite basic with just a single, circular gauge on the bare dashboard. For many years, the Mini used center-mounted gauges, and BMW revived this look when it revived the brand.

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Check Out The Mini Cooper Interior's Evolution Over The Decades - Motor1.com

BP upstream chief executive Bernard Looney will take the reins from CEO Bob Dudley early next year, with investors eager to understand what this means for the FTSE 100 giant.

The U.K.-based oil and gas major announced Friday that Dudley, who has worked with BP for 40 years and held the position of CEO for almost a decade, will be replaced by Looney on February 5, 2020.

In a press release, BP Chairman Helge Lund said that it was a logical time to make the announcement "as the company charts its course through the energy transition."

Dudley, who is 64 years old, has decided to step down after the delivery of the firm's 2019 full-year results on February 4, 2020. He will then retire on March 31 later that year.

Looney, 49, will continue with his current role until February 5, at which point he will take the reins from Dudley and join the BP board.

"I think one thing that has really marked Bernard's tenure as the head of upstream is a move towards digitalization and he has also had a very strong focus on cost control," Jason Gammel, senior oil and gas analyst at Jefferies, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Friday.

"So, those are things that are evolutionary in some respects. But digitalization for the industry could be revolutionary as well."

Gammel said that while Dudley's legacy has been "absolutely outstanding," Looney's track record made him a "great" choice to become CEO of the energy giant next year.

Shares of BP had risen by more than 1% by early Friday afternoon.

Looney has run BP's upstream business since April 2016 and has been a member of the firm's executive management team since November 2010.

The upstream division includes 17,000 people operating across almost 30 countries and produces around 2.6 million barrels equivalent of oil and gas a day.

An Irish citizen, Looney joined BP in 1991 as a drilling engineer and worked in operational roles in the North Sea, Vietnam and the Gulf of Mexico.

Former WPP CEO Martin Sorrell told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday that Looney is likely to find making his mark at BP more difficult than when Dudley first took charge in 2010.

That's because Looney is "taking it over at a time when things are in relatively better shape."

Sorrell added that Looney would likely be forced to take his time in revising BP's traditional operation.

"The trend is towards transforming at relatively low speeds and I think that's the big issue that all companies face in digital transformation," he said.

"You have to take big hits because if you're trying to restructure a legacy operation which has outlived its purpose and is not for purpose, you have to make legacy cuts and you have to take hits to the balance sheet that shareholders are often unwilling to take."

Dudley took over as CEO of BP on October 1, 2010 in the wake of the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe killed 11 people and threatened the company's existence.

His job was to try to restore the company to a position it held before the explosion, managing the company's balance sheet as it faced billions of dollars' worth of penalties and clean-up costs.

More recently, BP agreed to a request from shareholders in May for greater detail and transparency on how each capital investment decision would align with the Paris climate agreement an international accord that seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

Last month, Dudley said BP would sell some of its most carbon-intensive projects and reduce investment in others to try to improve the firm's environmental footprint.

The energy giant has been targeted by climate activist groups on numerous occasions in recent months, with demonstrators increasingly angry about the lack of progress toward a lower-carbon future.

"The new CEO has an opportunity to turn the page on years of denial, inaction and prevarication," John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace U.K. told CNBC via email.

"BP should now pivot away from fossil fuels, shift to renewable energy and support a just transition for its workers," Sauven said.

Greenpeace has urged BP to end exploration projects for new oil and gas and switch to investing only in renewable energy.

In an apparent reference to Greenpeace's demands when speaking to CNBC earlier this year, Dudley said: "The reality is it is going to take all forms of energy to solve this. One of the groups wants us to go 100% into renewables (but) it has got to be a race to reduce emissions not a race to renewables."

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Evolution or revolution? BP's incoming CEO tasked with navigating energy transition - CNBC

In 1919, when Edward W. Bullard had just returned to the United States after serving in the cavalry in France, he saw skyscrapers going up all across the country, and dams and bridges were growing ever larger.

These projects brought new life to cities after World War I, but they also presented new dangers for the construction workers who placed girders, poured concrete and pounded nails.

Mr. Bullard, whose father had a business making carbide lamps and other supplies for miners, had an idea: What if the company built a helmet for miners and other laborers, modeled on the metal helmet he and the other soldiers known as doughboys had worn overseas?

The Bullards cobbled one together, and that was the birth of the hard hat, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Hard hats are now so ubiquitous that they often go unnoticed. They are often embellished with union stickers and American flags, perched on the heads of men and women ambling to work, lunch coolers in hand. They are reliable props for V.I.P.s at ribbon cuttings, and in the crowds at political rallies.

The safety helmets, along with gas masks and umbrellas, have taken a symbolic role this summer in Hong Kong, where demonstrators have been wearing them at rallies to protest the influence of Chinas government in the semiautonomous region.

Theyve also become emblems of authority, revealing much about their owners. A shiny new hard hat can suggest a neophyte. But a well-worn one represents experience as easily as a carpenters broken-in tool belt or a loggers weathered but well-oiled boots. Even the color can denote status: Some workplaces require one color for employees, another for contractors and yet another for apprentices.

Now in its fifth generation of family ownership, Bullard makes millions of hard hats each year for tens of thousands of customers, primarily at its headquarters in Cynthiana, Ky., said the companys chief executive, Wells Bullard.

The company even has a Turtle Club, whose members have been saved by their hard hats. Its motto: Shell on head, youre not dead.

Bullards first hard hat was called the Hard Boiled hat. It was made of steamed canvas and leather (metal was too expensive), was covered with black paint and featured a suspension system. Orders surged in the 1930s when engineers building the Golden Gate Bridge required workers to wear Bullard hard hats, which were upgraded to protect against falling rivets. Standard hard hat design has evolved over the years, from canvas to metal to fiberglass and, eventually, to plastic.

In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which required that hard hats be used on many job sites.

As the industry grew, Bullard faced more competition, from companies like Honeywell, Kask, MSA Safety and 3M.

Over the years, the popularity of hard hats surged beyond safety requirement to status symbol, said Beth Rosenberg, an associate professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

During Bostons Big Dig construction project, she wondered why construction workers were not wearing respirators and hearing protection where it would have been advisable, even though nearly everyone on the $24 billion project wore a hard hat. Compliance was so high that even those not required to wear hard hats donned them. This prompted her and a colleague to research the social history of hard hats for a 2010 paper.

Dr. Rosenberg said hard hats had become associated with masculinity and patriotism. There was a confluence of social factors that made hard hats cool that has not happened with hearing protection or respirators, she said.

The term hard hats even became shorthand for working people with a conservative patriotism, and New York tabloid reporters still use the term to denote construction workers.

Bullard said it did not make gender-specific hard hats, but acknowledged that women were a fast-growing part of the construction industry. In 2016, 9 percent of construction workers in the United States were women, according to a report from the National Association of Women in Construction.

Over the years, hard hats have prevented injuries in a wide range of workplaces.

William Ross Aiken, an electrical engineer who became a pioneer in TV technology, recalled the close call he had while working in a shipyard during World War II. I was saved by my hard hat once when some metal fell 60 feet from a gantry crane and hit me on the head, he said in a 1996 oral history for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It made a big dent in my aluminum hat, but it saved my life.

Didier Bonner-Ganter, an arborist in Maine, does not remember being hit by a tree while working on a logging crew during his college years, but does remember standing in the forest with a sore shoulder, and his hard hat on the ground next to him, newly cracked. He does not know what would have happened to him if he had not been wearing a hard hat, but said, It certainly would have been worse.

Scott Storace was a project manager on a residential high-rise in San Francisco when a worker dropped a metal scaffolding coupler from six floors up.

The hard hat did its trick, he said. Its got that little bit of room between where it sits on your head and where the hard plastic is, and that cushioned the blow.

Ms. Bullard, the company chief, said she heard a lot of stories like these.

She said her great-grandfather would still recognize the hard hats the company produced today.

The technology of the hard hat really hasnt changed so dramatically in 100 years, she said. Theres a suspension, and theres a shell.

But changes are coming. Ms. Bullard said her companys products were evolving not only to protect workers from falling objects, but also to protect them when the workers were the falling objects.

Early next year, Bullard will introduce a new line of hard hats with foam padding and integrated chin straps, similar to climbing helmets, but designed for industrial workers, and with their input.

Head protection reinvented, Ms. Bullard said. One hundred years ago, we invented it, and now were reinventing it.

Falls are the No. 1 killer on construction sites, said G. Scott Earnest of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. A 2016 report from the agency found that more than 2,200 construction workers died from traumatic brain injuries from 2003 to 2010.

Dr. Earnest said he believed redesigned hard hats could better protect falling workers.

The next generation, the ones that are just starting to be seen on construction sites, are a lot more like a helmet a mountain climber might wear, or a hockey player, or a kid on a bicycle, he said. Anything we can do to provide better protection for construction workers is important, because its a very hazardous industry.

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The Evolution of the Hard Hat - The New York Times

When Sleater-Kinney formed in the mid-1990s, they were a rock 'n'roll powerhouse from the start. Between Corin Tucker's commanding vocals, Carrie Brownstein's fierce guitar riffsand (eventually) Janet Weisss signature drumming, the trio quickly became one of the most influential bands of theera.

Sleater-Kinney has evolved since the '90s and just released their ninth studio album, "The Center Won't Hold." And while the album contains Sleater-Kinney's essential ingredients, it was produced by musician Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent.

Clark helped add a new industrial and electronic element to the band, a sound that was a departure from the groups previous albums. Shortly following the records release, Weissleft the group after 20 years as their drummer.

Maureen McCollum of WPR's "BETA"caught up with Carrie Brownstein who you may also recognize from the comedy show "Portlandia."They talked about life after Weiss and the bands musical evolution.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Maureen McCollum:I've been a fan of yours for many years now. Youre one of those few bands that I feel like I'm growing up alongside, like Im witnessing and experiencing your musical evolution with you in some ways. Can you talk about that evolution and where you are right now as a band?

Carrie Brownstein: We've been a band for 25 years. Corin Tucker and I started this band way back in 1994 when we were still in college in Olympia, Washington.

When you start out, I think very few musicians imagine themselves one, five, 10 years down the road let alone over two decades. I think a goal with every record, every transition has been to challenge ourselves to do something different, to defy expectations. Eventually, we just reached a place where we wanted to set the bar higher for ourselves and to have a sense of freedom.

When you finally get to making your ninth studio album, which we just did, it really felt like, "What else do we have to prove?"

Our goal is to make music that doesn't sound like the last thing we did and to still enjoy it. To come at it with a sense of gratitude and always to do it with a sense of integrity and passion. To need it as much as the fans do because we understand that people want to feel seen and heard in our songs. We need to approach it with that same kind of urgency and that same sense of wanting to connect and belong within the context of music.

So yeah, that's kind of been our journey and we're sometimes as surprised as anyone that we're still making music. But we don't take it for granted at all.

MM: With this new album, "The Center Won't Hold,"the sound of the music is completely different. But, your message and your lyrics are still so on course with who you are as a band. You have songs about longing, technology, the daily grind, working through dark times. So while it might sound sonically different, I still hear you as a band.

CB: Yeah I mean, fundamentally this is a band that's always merged the political and the personal. That's a very popular idea right now, but it's one we've been doing for a long time a lot of other artists have as well. When we were surveying the political and cultural landscape, there is a sense of tumultuousness and fractiousness. We wanted to couch that in a more personal narrative and really speak to how chaos and anger and trauma and despair has an effect on the body, specifically the female body and the female psyche. I think a lot of this record is an exploration of that.

Those are themes that we've been grappling with on multiple albums. Your songwriting is who you are in the present day. So as you change and grow and age, your perspective on things shifts. The stories also reveal themselves in new ways and stretch out in new patterns. It's not uncommon to kind of go back and wrestle with the same ideas. Each time you return to that struggle, you're approaching it differently. That's kind of the nice thing about longevity you get to retool things.

MM: Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent, produced this album. Can you talk about how she pushed you musically in different directions?

CB: It started with just a change in methodology, where Corin was up in Portland and I was down in Los Angeles. Because we were not always writing in the same room although we did sometimes we were sending ideas back and forth on our computers and writing as much on synthesizer and keyboards as we were on guitar. So, the demos already had a different sonic palette.

And then Annie talked a lot about sounds that were kind of corrosive and ugly, kind of creating a paradox where you had some grittier sounds paired with a lot of melody. Those two worlds were kind of existing simultaneously.

Corin was listening to a lot of Depeche Mode. I was listening to a lot of Ministryand Nine Inch Nails. And I think for Annie, especially with Nine Inch Nails, that's a vernacular that she really embraces.

I think we really saw the studio as an instrument in and of itself. So it became, you know, an act of discovery and not just documentation,which is a little new for us. Really, each song is a planet. Each song was just something that we could completely immerse ourselves in one at a time.That was something that Annie, aka St. Vincent, really encouraged from us maximalism and a lot of imagination applied to each individual track.

MM: Yeah, it almost has this dystopian sound.

CB: Yeah, I think thematically we were circling around that sense of dystopian ideas. I think we wanted to match that sonically with things feeling tense and dire. Then, pairing that with choruses that really were bright, so that it didn't feel like a cynical record. I think cynicism is its own form of toxicity. We wanted glimmers of hope throughout.

MM: I want to ask you what your take is on the current state of music. I'm looking at some acts that you've been associated with over your career with Sleater-Kinney. So, we can look at Lizzo, who opened for you thelast time your band played in Wisconsin. She's experiencing this meteoric rise. Another band you're somewhat associated with,Bikini Kill, they reunited this year. How are you processing musically what's going on right now? And how does Sleater-Kinney fit into that?

CB: I usually process things as a fan, you know? I love checking out new music. I like buying records. I like going to shows. I try to have a sense of curiosity. I tend to usually be listening to new stuff although, obviously, there's a ton of old stuff to dig through as well.

I think we're in a great, great time for music. It's accessible. It's copious. It is genre-bending and very fluid. It just feels like it has a powerful place right now. Certainly there's more diversity of artists and genres and that's really great.

I don't know how Sleater-Kinney fits into that landscape. I guess that's not really for me to determine that's for other people to figure out. We just we do what we do and hopefully people like it.

MM: I have to ask about some of the transitions within your group. Obviously longtime drummer Janet Weiss left the band. You've picked up Angie Boylan as a new drummer. Can you talk aboutworking with a new drummer and tell us a little more about Angie? Is that going to change the sound of Sleater-Kinney?

CB: I mean, we've never played these songs live, so I don't think that's going to be ... It's not like the songs from "The Center Won't Hold" have been out in the world live. I think for us, we're just looking forward to the future. We were sad that Janet left and we also wanted to continue. We really feel like it's a privilege to play in a band.

I think Angie is the really great drummer. I don't I think it's just about wanting to play the songs. We played a show in Raleigh and the response was great. For us, it's just about chemistry on stage and enjoying it.

In the live context, I think of all the disparate sounds on each record. You know the differencebetween "The Hot Rock" and "Dig Me Out" is massive. The difference between "The Woods" and "All Hands On The Bad One" is massive. So, there's always been these variations between albums, but it's in the live show that it all comes together under the umbrella of Sleater-Kinney. For us, it's just important to have a really powerful show and connect with the audience.

Sleater-Kinney will return to Milwaukee for a show at The Pabst Theater on Oct.16, 2019, with special guest Shamir. Below is a video of Sleater-Kinney's "Entertain," performed the last time the group played in Wisconsin in 2015.

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Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein On The Band's Evolution, Defying Expectations - Wisconsin Public Radio News

New research by Kent astrophysicists reveals vital clues about the role recycling plays in the formation of life in our universe.

By investigating the different stages in the life journey of stars and gaining new knowledge about their evolutionary cycle, scientists at the Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science have discovered more about a crucial stage in the emergence of life in our universe. Their research reveals for the first time how matter discarded as stars die is recycled to form new stars and planets.

Scientists have long known that the materials that make up human life were not present during the beginnings of the universe. Elements such as carbon and oxygen form deep inside stars and are released when the stars explode. What has not been clear is what happens to these materials in the vast majority of stars which do not explode and how they are then extracted to contribute to the development of new planets and biospheres.

In their paper Numerical simulations of wind-driven protoplanetary nebulae I. near-infrared emission, which was published by the Royal Astronomical Society on September 12, 2019, Professor Michael Smith and PhD student Igor Novikov have discovered this vital missing link. By carrying out 2-D modelling on their Forge supercomputer, which mapped the pattern of light emitted from stars under different environmental conditions, the research team were able to understand how the material ejected is transferred and mixed with interstellar gas to form new astronomical objects.

For the first time, the physicists simulated the detailed formation of protoplanetary nebula. These are astronomical objects that develop during a stars late evolution. They modelled the formation of the shell of materials that is released as the star ages. These shells form planetary nebulae, or ring-shaped clouds of gas and dust, which are visible in the night sky.

The study revealed how the gas and energy expelled by stars are returned to the universe, and in what forms. It found that the elements produced by dying stars are transferred through a process of fragmentation and recycled into new stars and planets.

Professor Smith said: Initially, we were perplexed by the results of our simulations. We needed to understand what happens to the expelled shells from dying red giants. We proposed that the shells must be temporary, as if they stayed intact life could not exist in our universe and our planets would be unoccupied.

The shells are not uniform. Most are likely to be cold and molecular. They disintegrate into protruding fingers and so lose their integrity. In contrast, warm atomic shells remain intact. This provides vital clues about how carbon and other materials are transferred and reused within our universe. Our civilisation happens to exist when the generation of recycled material is at its highest. That is probably no coincidence.

Reference: Numerical simulations of wind-driven protoplanetary nebulae II. Signatures of atomic emission by Igor Novikov and Michael Smith, 12 September 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz2377

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Vital Clues Revealed About Recycling in the Evolution of Life in Our Universe - SciTechDaily

In todays digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a monthly look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new, and it aims to appreciate how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level.

I think a lot about power buttons these days. With modern devices especially smartphones we dont really use them as power buttons, because our phones are never really off. But thats a double-edged sword, because while they dont actually power on our phones, we press them more than ever: my iPhone Xs power button probably gets pressed dozens of times every day now.

And its that iPhone power button that I specifically want to talk about: the one on Apples most recent Face ID iPhones. When Apple killed the home button with the iPhone X, it also killed the hardware trigger for Siri you cant press and hold a home button that doesnt exist, after all.

Power buttons are a subtle reflection of trends in modern technology. When smartphones first came about, nearly every phone had a power button on top of the device. As screen sizes grew, and that top edge got farther and farther away from the reasonable reach of most thumbs, the power button migrated to the side. When screens grew larger and home buttons went extinct, the power button got built-in fingerprint sensors. And Apple is no different: the iPhone power button experiences the same trends.

So when Apple killed the home button, it changed two things about the power button, too. First, the power button on the iPhone X is twice as big as prior models, so its always easy to press it. And it now activates Siri when held down, instead of offering the shutdown prompt (the other main function of the iPhone home button). Both of these shifts make sense, logically. iPhones were getting bigger, and making the button easier to press is a natural extension of that. And as the last major button left on the phone, having the power button trigger Siri was essentially the only option (short of adding some kind of dedicated Siri button, anyway).

But the side effect is that the power button on current iPhones cant actually do the one thing its supposed to: actually turn the phone on and off (a separate command that requires holding it and the volume up button together is needed to actually shut the phone off entirely).

It was a frustrating change at first, but the difference is a positive one, I think. I use Siri for simple tasks like setting alarms and adding reminders to return Amazon packages far more than I did to turn off my phone. And putting that function in the power button which I nearly always have a thumb on when holding my phone, even more so than the home button makes it even more accessible. Plus, the bigger button is just more enjoyable to press, especially on brand-new devices when the click is still nice and crisp.

Some Android phones are following this trend, too: the Note 10s power button doesnt shut off the phone, and OnePlus phones can be customized to launch Assistant with a short press.

Even as were starting to see phones that eschew buttons entirely, some kind of hardware to turn on a device is still needed. And as smartphones continue to get increasingly innovative and fresh designs, its a safe bet that the power button will continue to change along with them.

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The iPhone Xs power button reflects the evolution of the smartphone - Circuit Breaker

I was born in Brooklyn in the early 90s. Upon learning how to walk, my first journeys were along 5th Avenue in Sunset Park. Gentrification seems to be planting its roots here now, but back then it was a sprawling ethnic community mostly comprised of immigrant families.

I remember knowing Anchor Savings Bank, the grey-columned edifice at the corner of 5th Ave and 54th Street, was a bank long before I understood the concept of a bank. It looked a lot like Gringotts, the fictional bank of choice of wizards everywhere, and still does. Theres something about its architecture that screams important money things happen here.

My mom had an account at Anchor. Wed walk there on random weekday afternoons (she didnt work at the time) to deposit cash my father brought home from his musical gigs over the weekend. Shed make note of the transaction by hand in a little booklet given to her by the bank. Sometimes shed check on her valuables stored in the vaults downstairs. It was all very physical, and so very different from the world of digital banking we know today.

Fast forward a few years, and Anchor Bank became Dime Savings Bank of New York. Wed moved to Staten Island in the late 90s, so I never saw what happened inside. Outside, the building still resembles Gringotts. Dime Savings Bank of New York was eventually bought out by Washington Mutual, which failed and in turn became part of the assets sold by the FDIC to JP Morgan Chase. Yup, today the very first bank I ever knew is a Chase branch.

Chase is, of course, one of the largest financial institutions in the world and the largest bank in America. This story of how my mothers local Anchor Savings Bank became Chase says a lot about banking as a whole. Mergers, acquisitions, and a few financial crises have reduced a once diverse industry to an arguable oligopoly. Its worth noting that JP Morgan Chase now resembles something more like a conglomerate of technology companies than the bank it once was.

All that said, community banks are still alive and well, and very much in the game. The Economist reports that although their numbers have been falling, small banks are in fair shape. According to the FDIC, nearly 5,000 community banks reported an average return on equity of 10.6% last year less than bigger banks, but nearly two percentage points more than in 2017 and the most since the financial crisis.

In the full article, The Economist suggests a simple explanation: they know their customers. Community banks have long thrived on the personal connections with their customers and communities, and many are still family-owned and operated businesses. Collectively, many of these banks form the Independent Community Bankers of America a small but solid coalition of local and regional financial institutions. According to The Economist, almost every congressional district across the U.S. is home to at least one ICBA bank.

The financial services landscape looks entirely different than it once did, and few could have predicted the impact of non-bank entities on the industry. The evolution is far from over though, especially as banks grapple with entirely new forces like cryptocurrencies. But no matter whats to come, banks large and small will likely figure out a way to evolve along with shifts in technology, the market, and consumer demand.

Weve recently launched a Community Bank Consortium to help local and regional financial institutions expedite digital transformation and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving banking landscape. As the financial services space continues to evolve to include new players, The Walker Group is dedicated to helping community banks navigate the complexities of the industry and identify the right partnerships to stimulate growth. Contact B MEDIA to learn more about the Community Bank Consortium and get involved.

Summary

Article Name

The Evolution of the Bank on the Street Corner

Description

The financial services landscape looks entirely different than it once did, and few could have predicted the impact of non-bank entities on the industry. The evolution is far from over though, especially as banks grapple with entirely new forces like cryptocurrencies.

Author

Bethany Frank

Publisher Name

PaymentsJournal

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The Evolution of the Bank on the Street Corner - PaymentsJournal

An international research team led by Giuseppe Marram from the Institute of Paleontology of the University of Vienna discovered a new and well-preserved fossil stingray with an exceptional anatomy, which greatly differs from living species.

The find provides new insights into the evolution of these animals and sheds light on the recovery of marine ecosystems after the mass extinction occurred 66 million years ago. The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Stingrays (Myliobatiformes) are a very diverse group of cartilaginous fishes which are known for their venomous and serrated tail stings, which they use against other predatory fish, and occasionally against humans. These rays have a rounded or wing-like pectoral disc and a long, whip-like tail that carries one or more serrated and venomous stings. The stingrays include the biggest rays of the world like the gigantic manta rays, which can reach a wingspan of up to seven meters and a weight of about three tons.

Fossil remains of stingrays are very common, especially their isolated teeth. Complete skeletons, however, exist only from a few extinct species coming from particular fossiliferous sites. Among these, Monte Bolca, in northeastern Italy, is one of the best known. So far, more than 230 species of fishes have been discovered that document a tropical marine coastal environment associated with coral reefs which dates back to about 50 million years ago in the period called Eocene.

This new fossil stingray has a flattened body and a pectoral disc ovoid in shape. What is striking is the absence of sting and the extremely short tail, which is not long as in the other stingrays, and does not protrude posteriorly to the disc. This body plan is not known in any other fossil or living stingray. Since this animal is unique and peculiar, the researchers named the new stingrayLessiniabatis aenigmatica, which means bizarre ray from Lessinia (the Italian area where Bolca is located).

More than 70 percent of the organisms, such as dinosaurs, marine reptiles, several mammal groups, numerous birds, fish and invertebrates, disappeared during the fifth largest extinction event in the Earths history occurred about 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous. In marine environments, the time after this event is characterized by the emergence and diversification of new species and entire groups of bony and cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays), which reoccupied the ecological niches left vacant by the extinctions victims. The new species experimented sometimes new body plans and new ecological strategies.

From this perspective, the emergence of a new body plan in a 50-million-year-old stingray such asLessiniabatis aenigmaticais particularly intriguing when viewed in the context of simultaneous, extensive diversification and emergence of new anatomical features within several fish groups, during the recovery of the life after the end-Cretaceous extinction event, states Giuseppe Marram.

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Header Image One of the three fossils of Lessiniabatis aenigmatica (MNHN F.Bol.566) from the famous fossil site of Monte Bolca (Italy) preserved as part and counterpart. The specimen is housed in the Museum National dHistoire Naturelle of Paris.

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Fossil fish gives new insights into the evolution - HeritageDaily

Professor Coyne, it seems, never evolved a divine sense organ, which he laments. Without a divine sense organ, Jerry Coyne cannot believe in God, though he doesnt lament that.

Writing at Why Evolution Is True, Coyne explains that because he cannot sense God, therefore God does not exist. Ironically, Coyne cites English broadcaster David Attenborough, a Darwinist who ought to be Coynes ally, who is agnostic because he muses about a hive of termites (Darwinists are always thinking in terms of insects). The termites work busily, not noticing Attenborough observing them, because they lack the sense organs to see him. Attenborough wont commit to atheism because he thinks that his inability to see God may be termite-like. Hes missing the organ, so he might as well keep his options open.

Coyne thinks hes missing the same organ, but takes his evolutionary impasse as positive evidence of Gods non-existence. If God exists, Coyne reasons, He would have evolved Coyne better.

The irony of the whole thing is that Coynes lament about his sensate inadequacy is itself the product of his capacity for reason, which is his actual divine sense organ. It was right under his nose (or above his nose) all the time. God is immaterial spirit, and we can only know Him by reason and love Him by will. Our senses alone arent evolved to know or love immaterial Reality.

I pointed this out to Coyne, with all the politeness I could muster given the nature of the argument, and I suggested that Coyne might use his newly located reason-organ more effectively.

Coyne, still not using it effectively, replied:

There are many problems here. First of all, even if God is not a physical thing, nearly all Christians the theistic ones think that God interacts with the world in a physical way. After all, God sent his son/alter ego down to Earth as a scapegoat to be killed for our sins, thereby expiating us. IDers believe thatGodThe Intelligent Designer either brought new species into being or made the requisite mutations to promote their appearance. Indeed, the very concept of Intelligent Design presupposes that empirical evidence science and observation itself inevitably brings us to the concept of an Intelligent Designer. And that evidence is sensed by sense organs.

God is indeed not physical, but He has physical effects in the world. In fact, most things in nature are His effects, excepting chance and evil. Chance isnt His effect because it is the un-designed conjunction of designed effects, and evil isnt His effect because its the privation of His good, not a thing in itself. Even our free will is His effect, because He wills it to be free. This is all classical theology, to which Coynes newly discovered reason-organ is unaccustomed.

We can infer Gods existence by his effects in nature just as we infer number in groups of things or primordial singularity by cosmic background radiation or evolution by the fossil record. Science infers immaterial things it cant see by inferring them from material things it can see. Abstract reasoning is the cornerstone of science, just as abstract reasoning is the cornerstone of theology and philosophy. All abstract knowledge, observed Aristotle, originates in the senses, but it is the unique hallmark of the human mind that we can abstract concepts from concrete perceptions. Our capacity for reason our intellect is the mark of our humanity, and the organ by which we know God.

Coyne continues:

In other words, ID itself refutes Egnors claim thatGodThe Intelligent Designer cannot be sensed via an organ. The stupidity here (and Im not pulling punches given that Egnor engages in name-calling) is to assume that a deity who is nonphysical cannot be apprehended through sense organs. If youre a theist, thats palpably ridiculous.

The design we infer in nature is an insight we abstract from our senses, but the inference itself is acquired by our reason. We infer design in nature by abstraction, not immediately by sense image. We see biological structures that have purpose and specified complexity, and using our capacity for abstract thought we reason that such structures imply a designer. Coyne does the same process, except he reasons that purpose and specified complexity imply the absence of a designer. Go figure.

Coyne meanders to the diversity of religious belief, and he muses:

And why, over time, has reason turned more and more of the West into atheists? After all, God gave this reason to each of us, and gave it to us specifically so wed know Him (or Her or Whatever). Are some people lacking in this reason? And that includes people who seem to have plenty of reason on other fronts: atheist intellectuals like Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking, Dan Dennett, Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, and so on. AndDavid Attenboroughlacks it, too? Why did God give these people lots of ability to reason, but prevented that reason from apprehending His existence? Why are more and more people not using their organs of reason properly as time progresses?

Reason can wax and wane, and I think were in a period of wane. If you doubt this, ask Coyne a 21st-century atheist intellectual to discuss Platos Timaeus or Aristotles Metaphysics texts well-known to teenagers in Athens in the 4th century B.C. or Augustines City of God or Aquinas Summa Theologica read by parish priests in 15th century Siberia. Evolved or not, contemporary reason-organs of late are missing the bus.

Anyway, few people reason themselves out of, or into, belief in God. Reason provides a platform on which we stand, and reason may hinder us, or help us to see. The heart has reasons, for atheists and theists, and it is in the heart in the will that God is cherished or scorned.

As for atheism seeping into modernity, Coyne speaks only of the capitalist West. Most of humanity in Asia and Africa is in the midst of an explosion of theism, mostly Christianity and Islam. The eclipse of totalitarianism deprived atheism of its natural form of government, and it scurries to attach itself to any new body that will have it. The reasons for the atheist infestation (insect analogy again) in the West are debated. My hunch is that it is due to material and technological narcosis. In our opulence and our electronic cocoon we live as atheists. A culture blind to God is like a drunk, dangerously oblivious to a cold night.

Photo: Jerry Coyne on The Dave Rubin Show, via YouTube (screen shot).

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Evolution Has Not Been Kind to Jerry Coyne - Discovery Institute

As part of Carleton UniversitysScience Cafseries, Hillary Maddin, professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, will presentPaleontology of Nova Scotia: The Evolution of Early Land Animals.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019, at 6:30 p.m.Where: Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, 1049 Bank Street, OttawaInfo: This event is free and open to the public.

Media are invited to attend the event.

The invasion of land by vertebrate animals creatures with backbones was a turning point in the evolutionary history of life on Earth.

Unfortunately, the fossil record of this great event is patchy at best. However, Nova Scotia is one of the only places on the globe to shed light on this pivotal time. There, the worlds first reptiles and ancestors of our own lineage evolved and established the current patterns of animal diversity we see today.

In this presentation, Maddin will discuss historical fossils and the many new discoveries made by her team over the past five years of field expeditions exploring the record of the Carboniferous period of Nova Scotia.

The Science Caf series is organized by theFaculty of Scienceat Carleton University to discuss relevant issues facing our society and how science can help solve real-world problems. Meet some of Carletons award-winning faculty members and graduate students as they share their excitement about science with the community.

Media Contact

Steven ReidMedia Relations OfficerCarleton University613-520-2600, ext. 8718613-265-6613Steven_Reid3@Carleton.ca

Carleton Newsroom:https://newsroom.carleton.ca/Follow us on Twitter:www.twitter.com/CunewsroomNeed an expert?Go to:www.carleton.ca/newsroom/experts

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Carleton to Host Science Caf on the Evolution of Land Animals and the Paleontology of Nova Scotia - Carleton Newsroom