Pokmon Go finally has begun to add Pokmon from the Unova region. For some of the evolved forms of this regions Pokmon, players will need Unova Stones, a rare evolution item, similar to the Sinnoh Stone that released before.

Unova Stones work like other evolution items. A handful of evolutions will require them, in addition to candy, to evolve specific mons.

Currently, the only way to get Unova Stones are through completing weekly Field Research Breakthroughs. After turning in seven Field Research Tasks on different days, you can claim the stamps for a Research Breakthrough. In addition to the special Pokmon that will spawn, there is a chance to get an Unova Stone.

Note that its not a high chance to drop, so it might be awhile before you get an Unova Stone.

Currently these are the only Pokmon that uses the Unova Stone:

The three monkeys, Pansear, Pansage, and Panpour, all need 50 candy, in addition to the Unova Stone, to evolve. Lampent needs 100 candy and Sinnoh Stone to evolve.

More Unova Pokmon will likely need this stone to evolve as they get released.

Out of the four options above, Chandelure is the strongest. The fire- and ghost-type Pokmon is quite a good ghost-type attacker, and some analysis noting that its the second best ghost-type attacker in the game, only falling to Origin Forme Giratina.

Go here to read the rest:

Pokmon Go: Where to find Unova Stones and evolve fifth-gen Pokmon - Polygon

GAZETTE:Could you tell us a little bit about the study that was announced recently, and what you hope to achieve with it?

GAy: Well, the departments centennial anniversary is rapidly approaching. This study is our opportunity to set our aspirations for the next century, and do so in a way that builds on the successes we have achieved over the last almost 100 years and that maintains our position as a standard-bearer among our peers in the Ivy League. The question is: How do we continue to do that in a context that has changed dramatically since the departments founding, or even since the establishment of the Ivy League? We were just talking about the change in terms of the professionalization and the specialization of youth sports as one example. But more generally we have a new generation of students on our campus, so how do we reinvigorate our core commitments and principles so that they feel relevant to the students who are here now?

Scalise:Im excited that were doing this study, because it will give us a roadmap in terms of where we want to go moving forward, and also tell us what things we might want to emphasize more in athletics. But I also think we will see that we are doing some really positive things here. And one of the challenges is figuring out how we can create that experience for more of our students. So I think there will be some good that comes from this for others, as well as for our department. Theres a real bond that is created with our students and their coaches. And whenever one of our alumni comes back, one of the first things they do is stop by to see their coach. We would love them to stop to see not only their coach, but also a key adviser or faculty member, or maybe someone they got to know in the administration. That would be ideal. So, we want to better understand what we are doing here at athletics that creates these bonds, and how can we do that all over Harvard?

GAy: I absolutely agree. One of the hopes is to take what we learn from this study and use it for the benefit of all of our students. For example, there is the strong sense of belonging that is so evident in the student-athlete community, the pride in the institution, much of it forged through their involvement in athletics. That feeling of being at home at Harvard, that is something we want for every student. How might we cultivate that for all of our students?

GAZETTE: In the announcement you talked about engaging the Harvard community. Can you tell us more specifically who, and what groups you want to hear from as part of this process?

GAy: Everybody! First and foremost the students. Im eager to hear more about their experience. Also, the coaches, athletics staff, faculty, and other campus partners to the department. We hope to connect with alums whose participation in athletics during their time at the College remains a source of continuing attachment and love for Harvard.

Scalise:One of the things Im hoping to get out of this is to make sure we have the right balance between this strong bond and affiliation with their team, and also taking advantage of the rest of what Harvard has to offer. I really want this study to include people who are not athletes. In a lot of the sports programs around the country, you see all these specialized programs just for student-athletes. And so of course the athletes all hang together.

GAy: Yes, a world apart.

Scalise: Right. Its not the approach we want to take. So how do we make sure that the student-athlete experience is similar to other students experiences, and that they intersect? How do we orchestrate the right balance there so that people can connect with one another?

GAZETTE: So while athletics is obviously the focus of this study, it sounds like the goal is to have it ultimately touch on other facets of the University.

GAy: Exactly. When we think about the student-athlete experience, at its foundation we want it to be integrated, academically and socially, and broadly similar to the experience of non-athletes. We want every student to take full advantage of everything Harvard has to offer.

Scalise:Im also hoping that this will not just be about intercollegiate athletics, but also look at our club offerings and our intramurals. And a big thing on my mind right now is overall health and wellness for our students. Are we doing everything we can do to ensure the health and wellness, both physically and mentally, of these young people we are about to send off into the world? So, there are a lot of different parts to this study.

GAZETTE:What can you tell us about the timing of the study?

GAy:Because we want this effort to benefit from extensive outreach and consultation, the work is going to take a while. We hope by early spring the study will be complete and that we will be able to share a public report with the community.

Scalise: Claudine has been dean for just about a year now, and over that time we have had extensive conversations where weve tried to make her aware of a broad range of athletics issues.

GAy: Yes, and that groundwork was critical because it helped me to frame what the questions are that we want to answer. Being able to approach this with the benefit of some contextual knowledge has been really helpful. Ive spent a lot of time on that in the last year. One thing I also want to emphasize about the study is that we not only want to engage in broad outreach, we want people to participate. And we want them to participate in an open and candid way so that what we learn from the study has real credibility. Good participation is something that will be really critical to the success of the whole effort. Many colleges and universities seem to be undertaking some sort of study or review of athletics, and a lot of it feels very reactive. Thats not what were engaged in here. This is about using this moment to think about what the future could look like for Harvard Athletics, and challenging ourselves to be really intentional about it.

Continued here:

Evolution of the student-athlete experience at Harvard examined - Harvard Gazette

A research team led by Carol Ward, from the University of Missouri, analysed the pelvis of the ape-likeRudapithecus. The team discovered that the pelvis was more similar to that of a human than previous discoveries. Human bipedalism, or the ability to walk on two legs, could be much more deeply ingrained in our ancestors than we once thought.

Discovered by a professor an anthropology at the University of Toronto, David Begun, the ape that was found inRudabnya, Hungary, was surprisingly a relative of the modern African ape.

Rudapithecus was pretty ape-like and probably moved among branches like apes do now holding its body upright and climbing with its arms, said Ward, a Curators Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the MU School of Medicine and lead author on the study. However, it would have differed from modern great apes by having a more flexible lower back, which would mean when Rudapithecus came down to the ground, it might have had the ability to stand upright more like humans do. This evidence supports the idea that rather than asking why human ancestors stood up from all fours, perhaps we should be asking why our ancestors never dropped down on all fours in the first place.

Due the their long pelvises and short lower backs, apes often walk on all fours when they walk on the ground. However, Ward believes that great evolutionary steps would have been taken if we were to have evolved from apes. Ward believes that human evolution from theRudapithecuswould have been far more likely.

We were able to determine that Rudapithecus would have had a more flexible torso than todays African apes because it was much smaller only about the size of a medium dog, Ward said. This is significant because our finding supports the idea suggested by other evidence that human ancestors might not have been built quite like modern African apes.

Link:

10M year old fossilised ape gives new view of evolution - SciTech Europa

The crashing chords of punk echoed through the end of the 70s, heralding the arrival of a diverse bunch of subcultures. In Brisbane, none was more notable than the tribe known as Goth.

Just like the punks before them, they had a deep commitment to visual style black clothes, big hair, whiteface with the streak of red, young eyes peering from lakes of kohl. No visible skin. They were as close to vampiric as we had yet seen - that they might dissolve with a whispered howl in our sub-tropical summer seemed quite likely.

Inspired by the Sex Pistols, British Goth pioneers Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin had started The Banshees in 1976, on the way borrowing from contemporaries like The Slits, and Magazine. By the time the 80s arrived, they had developed a unique musical persona.

The songs were dancy, literate, smart and funny, with psychedelic guitars and skittering tom-toms, influenced by The Velvet Underground and The Doors, Rimbaud and Shelley, Poe and Wilde - mood was everything. After touring with The Banshees in 1979, The Cures Robert Smith changed not only his bands sound but his look. With UK DECAY, Joy Division and Bauhaus, a dark army was rising.

There were Australian bands dropping in to Brisbane in the 80s that can be included under the cowl of Australian Gothic, though they disavow any connection to the scene. The Birthday Partys Nick Cave was inspired by quintessential goth poets like Baudelaire, while gloomy Melbourne also produced Dead Can Dance, whose drum-driven, howling sound and dark album art was described as Goth as it gets.

Read more: Australian Gothic: from Hanging Rock to Nick Cave and Kylie, this genre explores our dark side

As the subculture bloomed in Britain in the early 1980s, Brisbane was in sync, thanks to import record stores like Rocking Horse Records, and music/pop culture press like NME, Melody Maker and The Face. Brisbanites Karen Litzow and Stephen Crowther started fashion label Salon Dada to make clothes as darkly original as the music.

The imported vinyl was played on community radio station 4ZZZ by DJs who were also instrumental in the growing the citys club scene, which formed the spine of Goth subculture in the 80s.

DJs Jane Grigg and Peter Mogg both spun 12" tracks on 4ZZZ, treating disparate, desperate suburban youth to new releases from bands like The Fall, Sisters of Mercy and The Cult. They started Club Vortex d'Junk in 1985, screaming that punk was DEAD and BURIED. It was unique and vital, and short-lived.

Around the same time, Ian Whittred and Jonny Griffin were building their own audience. First with the club Hades, and then Morticias in 1987, they created a home for the Goths and swampies - a peculiarly Australian variant who dolled up the black with a touch of paisley and loved The Church, The Scientists, Wall of Voodoo and The Gun Club.

Morticias became the Goth mainstay in the Brisbane club scene, moving from venue to venue through the late 80s and 90s as landlord greed or room size forced their hand. From Warhols to the Canberra Hotel (a teetotalling Country Party throwback) to the Brisbane Music Hall, the crowd danced and smoked and loved one another.

Morticias gave way to new clubs and new venues, like Junkyard, Midian, and Industry, with a lineage that leads to the current day.

Read more: My favourite album: The Cure's Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

On Sunday nights today on 4ZZZ, DJ Doom presents Batcave, where she keeps the songs of Siouxsie and The Cure alive but also plays contemporary Goth bands such as Melbournes No Sister or Brisbanes Pleasure Symbols. Global warming has not deterred these gentle folk; age has not wearied them.

Although the airwaves carry the message, alternative Goth bands in Australia struggle to attract an audience. IKON from Melbourne has built a strong European following with frequent appearances at Wave Gothik Festival, but in Australia they are lucky to fill a room. The story of Vowws a Sydney Band that moved to LA, has played with Gary Numan and is now opening for The Cult shows that Australia might not be big enough for new Goth bands.

Australian born Zoe Zanias is a thriving Electronic Body Music artist but lives in Berlin where she co-founded the Fleisch collective and the record label of the same name.

Electronic Body Music springs from Industrial but it is more dance-oriented. Front 242 and Covenant are good examples of this genre.

The community continues to have a presence due to the passion of people like Rachael Blackemore, who moderates a Goth Facebook group. Originally from Adelaide, she ran the original 1334 Club dedicated to Deathrock and Trad Goth music in Melbourne from 2007.

Now based in Brisbane, the growth of the subculture online has allowed her to collaborate on interstate events like Bat Attack, where DJs from different states play similar genres like Death Rock and Trad Goth on the same night. It is evidence that the Australian Goth subculture has a strong national identity.

Although places to gather are still rare in Brisbane, Faithnightclub run by Richard Warman for nearly 20 years helps to feed the citys Goth subculture. In the early 2000s, Brisbane was the only city in the country with a weekly Goth club, a sanctuary, if you will, still running today.

Heres a glimmer from the past: Brisbane in the 90s. Summer. The Goths drift through the heat haze; insults and disapproval hang in the air. But they only have eyes and ears for one another. The tribe is everything.

On the days when those tight black pants were unbearable, with the sun bleaching the sky and the humidity closing in, the boys would discuss it, and the shorts would make a rare appearance. Still black, of course. A colour you can wear for days without washing. Friendly, familiar, black.

Continued here:

It's hot in here: the evolution of Goth subculture in sub-tropical Brisbane - The Conversation AU

Photo: Courtesy of Stone and Strand

Like many tweens in the '90s and early 2000s, I got my ears pierced at Claire's, with a piercing gun, surrounded by piles of disorganized, cheap jewelry, body glitter and temporary tattoos with signs for various bogo-type promotions. That was when I learned that my ears are highly sensitive to metal, as they immediately got infected. I let the holes close up, never re-piercing them until age 24, at a hole-in-the-wall tattoo and piercing shop with questionable hygiene standards on St. Mark's Place in New York City. (I'm pretty sure my ears got infected then, too, but I stuck it out.)

Strangely, for many people, these are more or less the two best options out there for ear piercing: At the low end, there's the Claire's at your local mall, and at the...well, also low end, but for adults, there are tattoo shops. There are a few, more elevated exceptions, like, say, Maria Tash, an expensive jewelry and piercing shop in New York, or 108 Atelier, an exclusive, appointment-only piercing studio founded by piercer-to-the-stars J. Colby Smith, with locations in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; but those types of experiences are only accessible for a select few in big cities.

And today, as malls struggle with major declines in foot traffic, the Claire's at your local mall is an even less viable option: Last year, it joined fellow suburban mall stores like Payless and Wet Seal by filing for bankruptcy and announcing 92 store closures (after having already closed more than 100 in preceding years). Competitor Piercing Pagoda closed 24 locations last year, but did see a lift in sales at those that remained open.

But interest in piercing has not declined, with young people still looking forward to the milestone of their first piercing and adults increasingly interested in multiple piercings so why do the options for getting them suck? Well, the startup world is starting to notice this too, it seems. And like so many sleepy industries that have lacked innovation and failed to adapt to changing consumer habits, disruption is coming, mainly from female founders.

Related ArticlesHow Maria Tash Went From Piercing Her Friends' Ears at Home to Launching a Global Jewelry LineThinking Like a Tech Company Spurred Fine Jewelry Brand Mejuri's Remarkable GrowthThe Last Line Is Trying to Turn the Traditional Fine Jewelry Model on its Head

Photo: Courtesy of Rowan

The premiere example, perhaps, is Rowan: The tween-focused, at-home piercing startup launched this year with $4 million in venture capital and a flurry of media coverage over the summer with each article declaring it to be "the next Claire's." And yes, the chain's shortcomings did inspire founder Louisa Schneider, alongside a convergence of other events and realizations.

Around five years ago, Schneider worked at a hedge fund where part of her job involved researching retailers that were paying rent at malls that weren't doing well. "One of them, that had virtually 100% overlap with every troubled mall in America, was Claire's," she explains. Around the same time, she took her pre-teen nieces to get their ears pierced at a location in a Cincinnati suburb (it was the only option) and called the experience "depressed."

"The Claire's was really not in good shape," she says. "When I thought about my own daughter, I wanted [a first piercing] experience that would be special for her."A couple of events her husband ordering an on-demand at-home massage, attending a friend's son's bris also got her thinking about intimate, at-home experiences. She also learned, from the many medical professionals in her family, that a lot of pediatric nurses end up performing ear piercings on young children.

With Rowan, trained and licensed local nurses perform every piercing, which are done with fine-quality jewelry (so no infections) made in Brooklyn and followed by thorough after-care instructions; customers can also subscribe to receive fun boxes each month containing new jewelry and other items for tweens like journals and stickers.There's also a newsletter that parents can subscribe to with topics around "how to best communicate and build confidence in your tween."

"We are very much trying to commemorate that first ear piercing for a young girl and her parents and be reachable not just to people living in urban exclusive areas that have piercing salons, but also to provide an experience that's very, very safe," saysSchneider. Currently, Rowan is only available in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and North Carolina, but Schneider says the company has already received inbound interest from about every state in the U.S. and plans to expand "thoughtfully."

"There's certainly a place for us to be what Claire's was from a digital standpoint and from a product standpoint, from an experience standpoint," says Schneider. "We're really trying to hold the hand of the parent and the girl and that's certainly not something that you get from a lot of the mall-based retailers, so that's something that really differentiates us."

The Last Line pop-up at Westfield Century City. Photo: Teddy Sanders

This is all wonderful for 10-year-olds and their families, but what about grown-ups?

For us, a group of direct-to-consumer, digitally native fine jewelry startups are increasingly incorporating piercing into their IRL experiences. (Don't call 'em stores.)

For the past couple of years, L.A.-based cool-girl jewelry brand The Last Line has hosted piercing parties for editors and influencers in L.A. and NYC. As adept at branding and events as they are at designing playful and distinctive fine jewelry, the parties have always been packed and well-documented on Instagram, prompting consumers to beg for an opportunity to partake. This month, they finally got that opportunity as The Last Line opened its first pop-up at Westfield Century City, which is, fittingly, probably the gold standard of what a successful mall looks like in 2019. One might even describe the space as luxurious.

Known for incorporating camp and nostalgia into her jewelry and events, Founder Shelley Sanders used the pop-up as an opportunity to play on the traditional mall piercing. "The Last Line rewrote the rules of fine jewelry and are now rewriting the rules of mall piercings," read the invitation for the pop-ups opening. "Customers will not have a dated mall piercing experience, but a luxury one."

"When we do things that are vintage or campy or referential of the '90s or children, we always do them with the idea of: It's a seventh-grade camp friendship bracelet, but make it for the woman who pays her own rent and bills and has her own job and loves luxury, so really elevating it," she explains. "Your options for piercings are a tattoo shop or a low-end experience in a mall. Those two experiences are incredibly different and it's like you have to choose quality over ease.It seems like the next thing we had to do was to really make that experience feel luxurious." The brand hopes to pop up in New York next, over the holidays.

Photo: Courtesy of Stone and Strand

"WAY Better than Claire's," read the subject line of an email blast from Stone and Strand in 2017, announcing its piercing pop-up series, dubbed Piercings Y'all.

"We wanted more piercings but felt like our only options were to go to a place like a traditional mall jeweler like Piercing Pagoda and Claire's where they shoot with a gunversus going to tattoo parlors, so we felt like there was a white space we were seeing and we were in a great position to fill it as a jewelry manufacturer," explains Stone and Strand FounderNadine McCarthy Kahane. "We're the first to combine the more accessible pricing that you can do as a direct-to-consumer business because we own the supply chain, alongside also offering a service at the very highest level possible in terms of piercing standards." This month, Stone and Strand expanded Piercings Y'all to include a line of high-quality threadless flat-back jewelry specifically designed for piercing.

The furthest along of these retailers is probably Mejuri, which has opened three permanent showrooms in Toronto, New York and, opening Sept. 21, L.A. Based on the success of monthly piercing parties in the first two locations, the company will open its first permanent piercing studio in L.A. with appointments available seven days a week.

"Piercing has been incredibly popular from the day we launched it it's a fun experience, serving a market that wasn't previously seen (customers looking for styling, rather than the younger demographic who are getting their first piercing)," explains Founder Noura Sakkijha over email."Over 2,000 people come in during our weekend pop-ups."

Inside Mejuri's New York showroom. Photo: Courtesy of Mejuri

Among the advantages of going to one of these more elevated piercing experiences as opposed to a mall piercer only capable of sticking a gun into your ear lobe is that they take pride in being able to "style" your ear, taking into consideration factors like balance, placement and existing and future piercings, and suggesting the right jewelry, since it all lives in ones space.The above retailers all also emphasized their use of professional piercers who offer a clean, safe experience with sterile, one-time-use needles and their desire to create a luxurious, serene, spa-like vibe. Pricing structures vary: At The Last Line pop-up, the price of the piercing is folded into the cost of the jewelry (studs can range between $150 and $750 depending on materials) along with a fee for converting the jewelry into a piercing piece. At Piercings Y'all, it's $15 for lobe, $25 for cartilage. At Mejuri events, piercings are complimentary, while the permanent L.A. shop will have an yet-to-be-determined nominal fee.

Of course, being online retailers, piercing is also a way for these companies to create meaningful brick-and-mortar experiences that will actually bring people in; if they just wanted to buy jewelry, they could do so online. It's also a clever revenue-driver separate from the piercing itself: The more piercings a customer has, the more jewelry they need. It can also help build brand awareness, especially with an independent brand like The Last Line setting up shop in one of L.A.'s biggest malls.

But each of the founders can attest that there is also just significant demand from consumers children and adults alike who want a fun, easy, special and safe piercing experience; so while each of them are in the early stages of incorporating piercing into their business models, the opportunity to expand in and outside of metropolitan cities is there.This is only the beginning.

Getting pierced as a tween remains a mainstream rite of passage, and for more and more people: "As we grow, we do want to serve everyone who wants our services and there are a lot of boys who do," says Schneider of Rowan. "This age group we're focused on is much less concerned about being perceived as very feminine or very masculine, but really just self expression."

And for adults, having multiple piercings is becoming increasingly accepted. "If you look at the tattoo industry, that reached the mainstream stage a little earlier than piercing did in its life cycle, so for me it's relevant comparison in that people still are super excited to get a tattoo," saysMcCarthy Kahane. "Piercing is set to become part of mainstream culture. It's here to stay."

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Read the original here:

What's Next in the Evolution of the Mall Piercing? - Fashionista

Securitisation market records 50% growth in Q1

Enhanced liquidity and reduced risk in securitisation with intelligent blockchains

RBI has also set-up a committee for the development of housing finance securitisation

In the recent debate on the government draft proposals on blockchain technology, so much that be done with blockchains within current regulations and under the proposed framework has hardly received a mention. One big transformation that we can achieve is in the area of asset securitisation, one of the triggers of the 2008 financial crisis.

In India, a perfect storm of Non Performing Assets (NPAs), Asset Liability Mismatch (ALM) and a related, but compounding, phenomenon of non-deposit taking entities (most NBFCs) getting a larger share of the credit market has resulted in the need for a fresh look at the need for capital of lending institutions. It has been an issue that both, Government and RBI, have been trying to address through various steps. RBI has also set-up a committee for the development of housing finance securitisation.

Securitisation market records 50% growth in Q1 reads an Economic Times headline quoting an ICRA report. What is even more interesting is that the growth in Pass-Through Certificates is 95% (Direct Assignments growing at 32%). This is on the back of a 100% growth in FY 19, making India, arguably, the fastest growing securitisation market in the world.

Still, at a projected INR 200 Lakh Cr ($29 Bn), Indias securitisation market is one-eightieth (1/80) the size of the US market, making India a rather nascent market given that the size of its economy is about one-eight (1/8) that of the US.

If you think of securitisation simply as a risk-mitigated means to funding, say, someones home loan through someone elses pension investments, it makes sense beyond short term triggers like GST rates and holding periods etc. But given all the issues we have faced, just linking the two words loan and pensions sounds scary as well.

Hence, we need to go to first principles and focus on a process that enables lenders objective of availability and cost of capital and investors requirements for the best risk-adjusted return.

With the advent of blockchain technology and the evolution of artificial intelligence technologies, it is now possible to address many of the challenges with securitization through a combination of AI and blockchain. We noted that the first step to implementing blockchain or distributed ledgers technologies (DLT) to benefit the securitization process is to simply show that a transactions data and calculations can be run and automated using DLT.

Blockchains connectivity and consensus mechanisms will provide trust, provide automation and efficiency, immutability, and eliminate or reduce human error. While further benefits can be achieved with the advent of digital title to assets and issuing digital securities, there is a lot that can be achieved without waiting for that future.

S&P Global has talked to market participants and, while listing the benefits of blockchain for securitisation, it has highlighted potential risks. We, in the context of this report, discussed with S&P that some of these risks like Key Technology Partner (KTP) risks can be addressed through appropriate contractual and governance mechanisms.

Interoperability between different platforms and system compatibility remains a challenge that the blockchain industry is addressing in different ways.

While the benefits of securitisation on blockchain are obvious, we see it is an evolution rather than a revolution. This evolution would cover three facets that may characterise phases of this evolution:

The originator, issuer (SPV), investor and potentially, the rating agency, working of the same blockchain with real-time availability of loan-level data is something that the industry can benefit from now. We see a wider adoption in six to twelve months where reconciliation and reporting get automated and all participants and the regulator benefit from auditability of the transactions.

A dematerialised loan contract and digital security based on the units of a securitised tranche almost like a mutual fund unit is already a possibility in terms of technology but needs an enabling legal and regulatory framework. We should also look at the concept of immutable loan records (something akin to an Aadhar of each loan) as built by Global Debt Registry.

One or a few industry platforms where issuers can get a lower cost of capital in return for the additional transparency offered and an efficient price discovery mechanism is what we should aim for. It will also bring in smaller originators to the market facilitating financial inclusion.

For the large originators, it will allow smaller issuances at much shorter time intervals. On the other side, with even boutique, city-based investment advisory firms achieving a few hundred crores in AUMs, a new set of investors could enter the market.

And it is worth repeating that this can be achieved mostly under current regulations and certainly within proposed government policy on blockchain.

[The article has been co-authored by Siddhartha S and Gary Miller.]

Read more here:

Blockchain For Securitisation: Lessons From The Financial Crisis And Benefits Of Evolution - Inc42 Media

Fancy leveraging software to carry out human-like capabilities such as natural language understanding, speech generation and recognition, and vision understanding?

These are the Artificial Intelligence (AI) skill sets you can harness by attending Republic Polytechnic's (RP)transformative Applied Artificial Intelligence programme when it is rolled out in January next year.

It is designed for individual or mid-career professionals with non-ICT background interested in switching to ICT job roles or in building a tech start-up.

One of the programme's lecturers isMr Seow Khee Wei, who says the programmewill take aspiring engineers "from a basic introduction of AI to mastery of the skills needed to build deep learning predictive models for AI solutions that exhibit human-like behaviour and intelligence."

This will be facilitated across 10 modules including Principles of Machine learning, Deep learning Explained, Computer Vision and Image Analysis, Speech Recognition Systems and Natural Language Processing.

Adds Mr Seow, who will teach the Python and Computer Vision modules: "The programme topics selected will ensure the relevancy of our graduates to match the demand from the industry.

"And as more and more industries leverage on the power of AI to increase productivity, the world will need more talents that will be able implement and leverage AI technology to help achieve this."

This new offering from the progressive educational institution is designed to equip participants with the relevant skills and practical knowledge of AI to fulfill the increasing global demand for AI professionals.

Designed in collaboration with AI Singapore and Microsoft Singapore, it is supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority under the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) Tech Immersion and Placement Programme an initiative of SkillsFuture thataims to build and develop a skilledinformation and communications technology (ICT)workforce for Singapores digital economy.

The comprehensive 12-week programme teaches core concepts that not only offer fundamental knowledge of AI, but allow for the implementation ofguidelines, law, statutes, and regulations on the appropriate handling of data at various stages in their life cycle. Compliance with data policies can be monitored, while opportunities for new and emerging technology to support business requirements can be identified.

Classes will conclude with an industry capstone project enabling participants to apply theories to the real world.

The Applied Artificial Intelligence programmewill be held atthe RP Academy for Continuing Education satellite campus at Lifelong Learning Institute, located at 11 Eunos Road 8.

Graduates willbe awarded a Professional Certificate of Completion in Applied Artificial Intelligence from Republic Polytechnic (in collaboration with AI Singapore and Microsoft).

Possible career tracks include AI application developer, AI system integrator and AI or Machine Learning Engineer (entry level). Participants who complete the programme can enjoy career support opportunities for these roles through RP.

SaysMr Seow: "Prospective students should consider this programme because it will quickly jump start their careers in the AI industry. They will have the opportunity to network with professionals and potential hiring partners."

To find out more or register your place, click here.

Link:

The evolution of collaborative intelligence, Education News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

Mystery is still cast over the majority of theGalar Region Pokedex but after seeing that Pokemon Sword is getting its very own exclusive evolution for an original species, what's next for Pokemon Shield?

The nature of these games, being split into two parts, can be confusing at first glance to those who don't really follow the Pokemon video gamefranchise as they always look pretty much the same.

However, those who have played them - whether that be Pokemon Red and Blue,Ruby and Sapphire, or any others - will know that there's often exclusive content in each. Following the reveal of a first-everFarfetch'd evolution coming to just Pokemon Sword, it looks pretty much certain that Pokemon Shield will get one of its own as well.

So, let's take a look at some of the top contenders...

When it comes to transforming and shifting its shape, there's no Pokemon that knows what it's all about more so than Ditto.

Pokemon

We've got an interesting idea for Ditto, actually.

There's probably a huge list of species that people would like to see evolve in the future that have never been given the chance, but the reality is - as it can become any other species so easily - Ditto doesn't necessarily fit in that category for a lot of fans.

However, after spending so much time changing its appearance and move-set, adapting to its opponents, it would be really interesting to see it evolve into another form that has different transformation abilities.

How cool would it be to have an evolved version of Ditto that looks exactly the same, butchanges into a random Pokemon that's super effective against an opponent, and catch other trainerscompletely off guard!

The water-type Pokemon is one of the most popular from the franchise's original 151, but it could change its look in the new games.

Pokemon

Would you like to see Lapras evolve in Pokemon Shield?

There are many Pokemon that change their types when entering a new region, or even after evolving, and the latter could very much be the destiny of Lapras in the future.

In terms of its size and move-set, this is a perfect standalone species. Although, as we've seen with the new Sirfetch'd evolution, evolving in some way or another could open up other options.

With the region very much based on the United Kingdom, Lapras embodies the sort of creature people talk about when they refer to the mythologicalLoch Ness Monster, in Scotland. By extending sections of its body, such as the neck and other limbs, there's no doubt that an evolved form of Lapras - inspired by the mythological beast - could be an interesting way to go in Pokemon Shield.

In fact, at that point it's actuallyteetering on the edge of a new legendary. Why not?

This one has evolved in the past, of course, with Porygon 2 being introduced in the second generation and later Porygon-Z in the fourth gen, but it could happen again.

Pokemon

Porygon would be an interesting first gen Pokemon to see evolve again.

Porygon was one of the more unusual Pokemon to be added to the Pokedex, as it looks nothing like anything else on offer. In appearance it looks somewhere between robotic and alien, compared to other Pokemon from its time.

Yet, one thing that its resulting evolutions have told us is that it can actually go on to learn some really exciting moves, such as Thunderbolt, Hyper Beam, Hidden Power and more.

With the Galar Region already changing the way a few original Pokemon look in the game, we'd like to see Porygon evolve into a secondary form inspired by its surroundings - as an offshoot from its original evolution chain - potentially with a different type.

Last, but not least, is this fighting Pokemon.

Pokemon

Sudowoodo could get another evolution in Pokemon Shield.

If you had never seen Sudowoodo before and approached it in a battle, there's a good chance that you would try out some moves that are super effective against grass-type Pokemon. Yet, despite its log-like look, attacks you would expect to deeply damage it have never been as effective.

It's never actually been able to evolve in Pokemon before, which makes this pick an interesting proposition, and it would be great to see something new from it in Pokemon Shield.

This doesn't necessarily mean a further evolution should be introduced, but maybe a lower evolution between itself and Bonsly (lower form). Think of it like Groot and baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. Smaller, but just as effective.

So, there you have it! That's our list of Pokemon that could actually have an extra evolution waiting for it exclusivelyin Pokemon Shield. If you have any idea of your own, feel free to tweet us your suggestions!

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4 species that could evolve exclusively in Pokemon Shield - Dexerto

Have you watched The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance yet? If not, what are you waiting for!? This is an incredibly well-made series that tells an incredibly epic story. If you cant tell, I loved it.

If you have watched the series and you enjoyed the Muppet puppetry work that was created and performed by the creative team at The Jim Henson Company, I have featurette here from Deep Cuts that youll appreciate as it explores the evolution of the work of The Jim Henson Company and The Dark Crystalas they brought the fantasy world back to life forAge of Resistance. We even get to see some early 2016 CGI animated tests that were done when they were exploring that route. In the end, Im glad they went the way of the Muppets.

The video features Elvis Mitchell taking a deep dive into Muppet history with Lisa Henson, who is head of the Henson Company and daughter of Jim Henson.

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This Video For THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE Explores The Evolution of Muppet Greatness - GeekTyrant

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(Inside Science) Millions of years ago, after the ancestors of humans diverged from the last link they shared with chimpanzees, they began developing the numerous adaptations that made endurance one of the defining traits of our species. By about 2 million years ago, the genusHomohad emerged and the process really took off. Today, humans can run for miles or walk all day thanks to those changes. In new research, scientists have shown just how substantially evolution has changed one crucial organ: the heart.

We now understand the evolutionary trajectory of the heart, said Aaron Baggish, who leads the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And we now understand how that helps us to place common contemporary diseases into perspective.

Baggish, along with a team of co-authors that includes Daniel Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist at Harvard, and Robert Shave, a cardiovascular physiologist at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, compared the shape and activity of the hearts of chimpanzees, gorillas and and four groups of adult humans: endurance athletes, football linemen, subsistence farmers and relatively inactive individuals. Theypublished the resultsthis week in the journalPNAS.

Gorillas and chimpanzees tend to spend a lot of time sleeping or being relatively inactive, but are incredibly strong and powerful, especially in short bursts. With chimpanzees, said Shave, its very quiet and calm, and then you have high bursts of very, very intense physical activity. We think that probably results in spikes in blood pressure.

Ape hearts are well suited to this kind of activity, with thick walls and a rounded shape. They respond well to the kinds of abrupt changes in blood pressure demanded by activities like quickly climbing trees or fighting. The team developed their insights by comparing the structure and function of more than 40 chimpanzees living in sanctuaries.

We had never had good functional data on chimpanzee hearts before, ever, said Lieberman.

Human hearts are significantly different from ape hearts. The left ventricle pumps oxygen-rich blood around the body, and in humans it is more elongated and simply larger than it is in chimpanzees.

The big advance here is the first real rigorous study of heart function in apes and humans in a comparative way, said Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary physiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who did not participate in the research. Beneath the surface, were actually quite different.

The researchers also studied four groups of people with different exercise and activity patterns. One group was composed of 42 people from the Tarahumara, a group of indigenous people from Mexico who are known for their distance running events, although Shave said the vast majority of the time they are not doing high intensity exercise. The ventricles in their hearts did not have as large a volume as the researchers found in the 42 endurance athletes the group studied. The team also studied 40 people who played the position of lineman in American football, and a group of 42 relatively sedentary people.

Theres one additional significant difference between the hearts of humans and apes. When human hearts pump, they also rotate. This twist helps push more blood out each time it beats, and also draw more blood in for the next time it pumps.

Its something new that came in with humans, said Shave. Its not there in the chimps. Its also not there in gorillas.

Those evolutionary changes to the human heart make it possible to send more blood around the body and to maintain that effort until its time to rest. But there was a trade-off. As human hearts adapted to deal with the large volumes of blood required for endurance activity, they became less adept at responding to high pressures required to support strength activities.

Because the human heart also remodels throughout the lifetime in response to a persons activity, the heart can change shape to reflect more of a chimplike structure when people dont do endurance exercise. The researchers found that the hearts of both the football linemen and sedentary individuals experienced remodeling that made their hearts less adapted to responding to endurance challenges and more adapted to responding to pressure. The walls became thicker, and the heart didnt twist as well.

So the common teaching is that your heart is healthy and normal until you develop high blood pressure, and then the heart gets sick because of the high blood pressure, said Baggish. But the hearts of the sedentary study subjects started to look like the hearts of people with high blood pressure, with less flexible and thicker walls, although these people had normal blood pressure.

This insight challenges the established understanding about how high blood pressure begins and how the heart reacts. Ultimately it may help doctors develop a new understanding of how heart disease develops.

I did not expect this as a cardiologist, said Baggish. In relatively young, but sedentary people living in my hometown of Boston, we started to see chimplike features in those hearts, even before high blood pressure set in.

The researchers said that this study emphasizes the importance of regular exercise. A modern diet could complicate the picture, but regular walking could be sufficient previous research showed that hunter-gatherers in tropical areas tend to walk roughly 6-9 miles every day.

Humans have evolved this extraordinary long lifespan in comparison to most other species, said Shave. But to maintain a healthy blood pressure, we need to maintain that moderate intensity physical activity throughout our lives.

[This post originally appeared in Inside Science.]

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Human Hearts Evolved for Endurance and They Need It to Stay Healthy - D-brief - Discover Magazine

Jupiler Pro League Sunday, he began, surprisingly, at the match against Anderlecht, but after an hour, he was sitting by his power. Steven Superior is growing gradually, getting back to his best condition to date. Laszlo Blni is holding it in place.

Last Friday, the coach the last that he its almost impossible to make, thought that a Superior is against Anderlecht though, it would start up. Sunday brought with him, tells me at the kick-off. Blni need to have a good laugh about it. You dont need to all take very seriously what I am saying. As I have often said, only 50 per cent of the truth. We waited until very late to a final decision on the case.

Superior had, however, stated not to be ready. He has performed at 60 minutes. In the meantime, we are a year further on. He has been following a special programme. Before and after the training sessions, he is doing additional things, you are specific to recovery-oriented. As it evolves, he gradually, however, he has yet to have a need to wedstrijdritme. He is on the right track. Whether hes at the Club to re-start it? That shouldnt be an issue.

for how Long, and how much work it is to get the old Superior back in action, and it can and will Blni is not specified. I dont know exactly what it is today is capable of it, but I know what they used to be. We would like to try again, at this level, and he will definitely take that direction. I think hes going Sunday, but with as much as 70 per cent of their capacity was. From 0 to 50 or 60 per cent, which is almost finished, but that procentjes that you will only get more difficult again to get. Hes getting the extra treatments, and will respond, as yet, very good in the training sessions. That is the most important thing.

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Blni is watching over the evolution of the Superior: it is the right way to go - The Global Domains News

The second installment of our memorable moments series features Purdue.

The Boilermakers played two of the best games of last years tournament, and they exemplified just how malleable Matt Painters coaching is, and just how much that matters heading into next season.

This is recency bias at its very finest, I can fully admit that, but I find it very hard to believe that you can find an example of a more heart-wrenching roller coaster ride of emotions than what Purdue fans experienced in Louisville during the second weekend of the NCAA tournament in 2019.

Lets start with that Sweet 16 game against Tennessee. Purdue blew a 17-point second half lead before Ryan Cline made four straight threes in the final six minutes to put the Boilermakers in a position where a controversial foul sent Carsen Edwards to the free throw line. He made two of three to force overtime, where Purdue pulled away. After putting the Volunteers to bed, Matt Painters boys advanced to the Elite Eight to face Virginia, owners of the nations best defense, where Edwards went nuts, scoring 24 of his 42 points and hitting six of his ten threes in the final 13 minutes before a missed box out and this heads up play from Virginias Kihei Clark forced overtime and, eventually, cost the Boilermakers a trip to their first Final Four in 39 years:

My fingernails and voice were gone by the time Tony Bennett and Virginia officially advanced to the Final Four, and all I had on the line was a couple of bets.

(For the record, I took Tennessee in the Sweet 16 and Purdue in the Elite Eight. I lost both bets.)

But beyond my degeneracy, both of these games had something else in common a Purdue player going absolutely bonkers to close out the game.

Against Tennessee, Cline scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half, hitting four straight threes in a five minute stretch to get the game to the extra period. Cline didnt even end up as Purdues leading scorer on that night. Edwards, who had 29 points and fired up 14 threes, was. Those 29 points came in between back-to-back 42 point outbursts by the 33rd pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. In total, Edwards found a way to get up 61 threes in four NCAA tournament games. Cline was able to get off 34 threes in four games, and those two stats serve as a pretty fair summation of what Purdue basketball was during the 2018-19 season.

Purdue attempted 977 threes last year. Since 2010, only four high major teams have shot more threes in a single season than Purdue did last year Villanova in each of the last two seasons, Auburn in 2018-19 and Michigan in 2017-18; the latter played in an NCAA record 41 games that season and averaged 2.5 fewer threes attempted per game than Purdue did this past season. The Boilermakers set a record for the most threes attempted in a Big Ten season with 501.

Edwards and Cline were the two guys that led the way. They took 646 threes combined last year, which is two-thirds of their team total. Edwards led the Big Ten in three-pointers attempted during league play. Cline finished second. Combined, they shot more threes 327 in total than Minnesotas entire team.

And thats fascinating to me.

Because just four years ago, the Boilermakers finished 12th in the Big Ten in three pointers attempted with just 332 as a team. That season, the first in a four-year stretch where Purdue has been arguably the best program in the Big Ten, 24.8 percent of Purdues offense came via post-ups.

For the record, that number is insane.

Oral Roberts finished second nationally in that stat in 2016, finishing with just over 18 percent of their offense coming via post-ups. Since the 2007-08 season which is as far back as Im willing to trust Synergys data only three teams have finished the season running more than 21 percent of their through the post: Purdue in 2015-16, Purdue in 2016-17 and Stanford in 2007-08, the final year that the Lopez twins were in Palo Alto.

But theres more.

This past season, just 7.4 percent of Purdues offense came via post-ups. In 2011-12, Robbie Hummels final season with the program, that number was just 2.9 percent.

In the span of seven years, Matt Painter went from running a program that played Hummel, a 6-foot-8 small forward, at the five to one that paired Caleb Swanigan with Isaac Haas to one that rode Edwards going full YOLO to within a Mamadi Diakite buzzer-beater of the Final Four.

That is not normal.

And it should tell you all you need to know about the man running things in West Lafayette.

Robbie Hummel remembers it like it was yesterday.

Its early December in 2011, just nine games into his senior season, and Purdue is fresh off of blowing a 19-point second half lead in a loss in Cincinnati to No. 11 Xavier. Hes with the rest of his team in the film room, watching as Painter is going over everything that went wrong on that Saturday in the Cintas Center. When you blow a 19-point lead in less than 11 minutes, a lot went wrong.

Hummels not looking forward to it. He scored 17 points, but it took him 21 shots to get there. He didnt play great, but there is one shot in particular that hes dreading. He knows its going to be in the edit that Painter shows. With more than 20 seconds left on the shot clock, he waves off not one but two different Purdue guards. He squares up Xaviers Travis Taylor. He goes between his legs, he crosses over, he puts the ball back between his legs, takes one dribble to get into a rhythm and lets loose with a 24-foot three that hits nothing but air.

Its not even close.

When it shows up on the screen, he knows whats coming.

Robbie, Painter says, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice, thats the worst f***ing shot in the history of basketball.

And Painter is right.

The announcers on the broadcast point out how bad the shot is. His teammates at the time know its an awful shot. Watching the clip now, Hummel says its just a horrific possession and shot, laughing with the benefit of hindsight.

Im telling you that story because its funny. Anyone that knows Painter has a story like that, hes just that kind of a guy. Maybe one day Ill share the one I heard about the time Pat Knight hosted him on a recruiting visit at Indiana, but first Ill need to iron out whats fact, whats legend and what is forever off the record. Again, thats the kind of guy he is.

But it also serves to drive home a point, one that I kept hearing from people is what makes Painter so damn good as a coach: His ability to identify what, specifically, his players can do great, how to put them in a position to take advantage of those skills and this is the important part convincing them that they need to fully understand their own scouting report and play within their own abilities.

Everybody looks at talent,' Painter told me last month, but talent is overrated if someone is not going to play within the limits of what they can and cannot do. The more guys embrace that, the more productive they can be.

And, in turn, the better the team can be.

The story I told you?

Its the perfect example of this.

As a senior, Hummel was an All-American. As a junior, before suffering a pair of torn ACLs within the span of nine months, he averaged 15.7 points for a team that was one of the five best in America. As a senior two years later, he averaged 16.4 points before becoming a second round pick. He was a damn good college player, one of the best to ever set foot in Mackey Arena.

And that shot?

The worst f***ing shot in the history of basketball?

It looks an awful lot like these, doesnt it?

Ask guys that have played for Painter about him, and theyll tell you that he is very much a believer in the idea of confidence. He doesnt want his players to be thinking when they are on the floor. If they have a chance to make a play or take a shot, he wants them to let it fly without being concerned that theyll get yanked if they miss. But that comes with the caveat that his guys understand that what is a good shot for them differs from what is a good shot for him.

Edwards was the best in the country at what he did last season. Hell spend a decade playing in the NBA specifically because of his ability to score, to make tough, deep, contested shots. Hes got the juice, Painter said. Likewise, Cline was one of the Big Tens very best shooters, and when he gets into the kind of rhythm that he was in against Tennessee, Painter is going to let him go. He has the ability to make those shots.

Hummel, as good as he was, is not a guy you want going 1-on-1 35 feet from the rim and settling for a contested, pull-up three. Thats not his game, but it is a good way to blow a 19-point lead on the road.

Which brings me back to the top.

Those post-ups.

In 2015-16, Purdue laid claim to the biggest and strongest frontline youre ever going to see. They started 6-foot-9, 250 pound Caleb Swanigan at the four alongside either A.J. Hammons who stood 7-foot, 250 pounds or Isaac Haas who checked in at 7-foot-2, 282 pounds. The following season, after Hammons graduated, Swanigan and Haas started together.

In 2017-18, Purdue ran out a lineup that looked different but played the same. Instead of using lineups predominantly featuring a pair of posts playing together, the Boilermakers put four perimeter players around Haas. That season, only 16 percent of their offense came via post-ups, which was sixth nationally.

We had some really good big guys, Greg Gary, who ran Purdues offense for the last four seasons, said. That was our advantage. Our guards would get mad because we threw it in so much.

The advantage for the Boilermakers lay in the fact that they forced the defense into making a decision. There were few, if any, players in the college ranks that were capable of slowing down any of those three Purdue bigs 1-on-1 in the post. If they got the ball where they wanted it, they were going to score. They were probably going to draw a foul. They would get your frontline into all kinds of foul trouble. You had to double, but doing so meant leaving someone that was a very good three-point shooter, because every perimeter player on the Purdue roster in recent seasons was a good three-point shooter.

Over the course of the last four seasons, even with a roster that featured the best post-up play in the country in three of those four seasons, Purdue has shot 36.7 percent, 40.2 percent, 42 percent and 37.4 percent from three. At worst, they were in the 80th percentile nationally from beyond the arc.

There is no better example of this than in 2017-18. That was the best offensive team Painter has ever had. They were the second most efficient offense in the country that season, trailing only national champion Villanova, who set a KenPom era record for efficiency that season. Your choice was either allowing Haas who shot 61.7 percent from the floor, drew seven fouls per 40 minutes and made better than 75 percent of his free throws to go 1-on-1, or you double-teamed him by leaving one of Carsen Edwards (40.6% 3PT), Vincent Edwards (39.8% 3PT), Dakota Mathias (46.6% 3PT), Ryan Cline (39.6% 3PT) or P.J. Thompson (44.1% 3PT).

So you tell me.

How do you stop that?

Everything changed this past season.

Matt Haarms took over as the starting center. He may be 7-foot-3, but he is not the post presence of his predecessors. Trevion Williams is going to be good, but he was a 280 pound freshman that just wasnt ready. What that meant was that the Purdue coaching staff had to figure out something different.

Purdue has one of the biggest playbooks in college basketball.

Painter estimates that they have roughly 50 plays, but each one of those plays can be initiated from multiple different looks and they all have counters to the counters that are countering a counter.

We would get a stapled booklet with all the plays every year during preseason, Cline said, adding that often times offseason pick-up games would double as playbook study halls, because if you dont know the plays, you dont play.

Theres so many different play calls, five word sentences where one word changes [the play].

Edwards used to joke with Gary that the play book was my toughest class at Purdue.

As a result, so much of Purdues success on the offensive end of the floor comes down to execution and deception. They dont win off of raw talent. They win because the players excel at doing what the coaching staff asks them to do, and the coaching staff excels at figuring out exactly where they have an edge.

From 2015-2017, the answer was pounding the ball into the paint as much as humanly possible. When every post touch turns into David vs. Goliath, and you have Goliath, you give him the rock.

In 2017-18, it was forcing defenses to choose between guarding Mr. Incredible with one guy or playing 4-on-3 against four of the best shooters youll find in the college ranks.

This past season, the coaching staff figured out that there were three things they could build an offense around:

1. Edwards speed. He is not only one of the fastest players on any basketball court he steps foot on, hes an absolute nightmare to chase around screens because hes small, hes compact, he can maneuver around screens better than anyone chasing him and hes capable of rising up and drilling a catch-and-shoot three at top speed, especially when running to his left.

2. Haarms mobility. He can really move for a man his size. He can also handle the ball, he thrives in dribble-handoff actions and he has an innate understanding of when he can slip a screen and get a free run at the rim.

3. Clines awkward release. He has something of a slingshot motion that he fires from behind his head with a natural fade. That makes it very difficult to contest, especially when he is sprinting around screens to his right. He also proved himself an excellent passer and decision-maker, capable of hitting a big man rolling to the rim.

The result was an offense that, quite literally, turned into Edwards and Cline running circles around the court.

We just had so much more movement because of not having a low post guy down there, Gary said. When you throw it to a guy in the post it gets stagnant. You try to get the big guy as much space as possible. We werent going to overpower anybody, so we had to have movement to occupy both sides of the floor.

Imagine trying to guard this.

Imagine chasing Carsen Edwards off of a triple-screen. Imagine being a center 22 feet from the rim knowing that if you dont help, Ryan Cline might bang a three in your face, but if you do help, Matt Haarms will slip the screen and find himself all alone in the paint without anyone within 10 feet of him.

And now imagine doing all of that knowing that one word is all it takes to change what action Purdue will be looking for, or that they can run the same thing out of three different looks.

Heres the perfect example. Purdue ran the same action a dribble-handoff in the middle of the floor that acts as a double-pindown for a shooter 10 times in the Tennessee game. Look at how many different options they have, and how many ways they can get into it:

Perhaps the most frustrating part, at least if you are a member of that Purdue coaching staff, is that youre going back to the drawing board next year.

Edwards is gone. Cline is gone. Gary is gone, too. Thats a huge chunk of their offense, the two guys they built the way they played around, not to mention the guy that was in charge of building it. Whats left is well, its different.

But its also familiar.

Of Purdues five best players next season, theres a reasonable argument to make that four of them will be bigs Haarms, Williams, Aaron Wheeler and Evan Boudreaux and the fifth will be a guard Nojel Eastern that has shot 3-for-13 from three in two years.

Bringing in Jahaad Proctor from High Point, a grad transfer lead guard, will help, and sophomore guards Sasha Stefanovic and Eric Hunter did have their moments last season. Frankly, Painter seems to like what he has in his program, and their new offensive coordinator Micah Shrewsberry has already spent time on Purdues staff, in between spending time with Brad Stevens at Butler and in Boston.

Theyre in good hands.

Theres a really big sophomore jump with talented guys, he said, and we had four freshmen come off the bench that will now be sophomores. I think all four of them will have good years, and Nojel and Matt will be able to expand what theyre doing.

I think the one think we have to make sure is that we dont try to make anyone Carsen or Caleb. Allow guys to be the best version of themselves and play through that.

Its Painters job to figure out what, exactly, the best version of themselves is.

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Evolution of Matt Painter: Most malleable coach in college basketball - Yahoo Sports

Pokmon has come a long way since the original 151-Pokmon line-up. Many of those who started as stand-alone Pokmon acquired evolutions, pre-evolutions, and even mega-evolutions in later generations. However, there are still a few that remain standing alone.

It has been confirmed that Gen One's Farfetch'd is finally receiving an evolutionary form (Sirfetch'd) in Pokmon's upcoming Switch games Sword and Shield. That leaves only three original Pokmon without evolutionary counterparts; Ditto, Tauros, and Lapras.

RELATED: Pokmon Home and Nintendo 3DS Will Allow DUX To Evolve Into Sirfetch'd In Pokmon Sword

Ditto almost received an evolution all the way back in Gen Two'sPokmon Gold.In a demo of the 1997 title that was recently leaked, there is evidence of Ditto evolving by way of an evolutionary item; Metal Coat. The idea of this copy-cat Pokmon evolving may seem like a moot point as it just transforms into whatever Pokmon it's battling. But, an intriguing notion has been brought to light that, possibly, the evolved form would be able to transform into the evolution of its opponent instead. That would certainly shake things up! Unfortunately, the evolution was ultimately scrapped- probably because it wound up resembling a crude form of Domo.

For a while, people also believed that Meltan, first introduced in Pokmon GO, was a Ditto evolution - this turned out to be untrue.

Tauros was also expected to gain an evolution in Pokmon Black and White.That evolution was to be Bouffalant. This makes total sense as both Pokmon embody two almost interchangeable real-life species; a Bison and Buffalo. What doesn't make as much sense, but is widely accepted by the fan base is the correlation between Tauros and Miltank. The Pokdex lumps the two together, merely because they are of the bovine persuasion, both normal-type Pokmon, and share similar biomes. Bouffalant hits all of these checkmarks as well and maintains a closer resemblance to Tauros. Both Tauros and Bouffalant represent untamed species, while Miltank represents a highly domesticated one. The creators may have been going for the chance to create another pre-evolution with the ability to evolve into multiple Pokmon - though we never saw that either - given that Tauros are all males and Miltanks all females. While some will say Miltank is the female counterpart to Tauros - a sort of Nidoking/Nidoqueen relation- Others are still aghast over this missed opportunity to see Tauros have a proper evolution.

Possibly the most anticipated of all to receive a possible evolution would be Lapras; the ever helpful, sea-dwelling Pokmon. Unlike the previous two, no one has heard more than a whisper about a Lapras evolution. That is untilPokmon Swordand Shield. Now, with the games' newest feature leak, Gigantamaxing, it looks like Lapras will - if not a true evolution - at least be obtaining a regional form in the Pokmon world's newest region, 'Galar'; similar to Alolan forms.

Lapras' Gigantamax form is said to not only take on a gigantic size, but also dawn new layers and musical notes on its shell as well. Whether it is only a new Galarian form or a full-fledged evolution, Pokmon fans will surely be excited to see what's in store for this long-time favorite in the upcomingSword andShield.

It is still unclear what the future holds inSwordandShieldfor these three original Pokmon. But, with Farfetch'd's evolution Sirfetch'd finally confirmed asSword's exclusive Pokmon, it's only fitting to speculate which one of these classic Pokmon might earn an exclusive evolution forShield!

NEXT: 10 Bad Gen 6 Designs Pokmon Fans Let Slip By

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The Last Three Original Pokmon That Cannot Evolve, Explained - TheGamer

1a : descent with modification from preexisting species : cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms : the process by which new species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive generations Evolution is a process of continuous branching and diversification from common trunks. This pattern of irreversible separation gives life's history its basic directionality. Stephen Jay Gould also : the scientific theory explaining the appearance of new species and varieties through the action of various biological mechanisms (such as natural selection, genetic mutation or drift, and hybridization) Since 1950, developments in molecular biology have had a growing influence on the theory of evolution. Nature In Darwinian evolution, the basic mechanism is genetic mutation, followed by selection of the organisms most likely to survive. Pamela Weintraub

(2) : a process of gradual and relatively peaceful social, political, and economic advance

3 : the process of working out or developing

4 : the extraction of a mathematical root

5 : a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena

6 : one of a set of prescribed movements

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Evolution | Definition of Evolution by Merriam-Webster

Evolution, theory in biology postulating that the various types of plants, animals, and other living things on Earth have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations. The theory of evolution is one of the fundamental keystones of modern biological theory.

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heredity: Heredity and evolution

centre of the theory of evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace were the concepts of variation and natural selection.

The diversity of the living world is staggering. More than 2 million existing species of organisms have been named and described; many more remain to be discoveredfrom 10 million to 30 million, according to some estimates. What is impressive is not just the numbers but also the incredible heterogeneity in size, shape, and way of lifefrom lowly bacteria, measuring less than a thousandth of a millimetre in diameter, to stately sequoias, rising 100 metres (300 feet) above the ground and weighing several thousand tons; from bacteria living in hot springs at temperatures near the boiling point of water to fungi and algae thriving on the ice masses of Antarctica and in saline pools at 23 C (9 F); and from giant tube worms discovered living near hydrothermal vents on the dark ocean floor to spiders and larkspur plants existing on the slopes of Mount Everest more than 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) above sea level.

The virtually infinite variations on life are the fruit of the evolutionary process. All living creatures are related by descent from common ancestors. Humans and other mammals descend from shrewlike creatures that lived more than 150 million years ago; mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes share as ancestors aquatic worms that lived 600 million years ago; and all plants and animals derive from bacteria-like microorganisms that originated more than 3 billion years ago. Biological evolution is a process of descent with modification. Lineages of organisms change through generations; diversity arises because the lineages that descend from common ancestors diverge through time.

The 19th-century English naturalist Charles Darwin argued that organisms come about by evolution, and he provided a scientific explanation, essentially correct but incomplete, of how evolution occurs and why it is that organisms have featuressuch as wings, eyes, and kidneysclearly structured to serve specific functions. Natural selection was the fundamental concept in his explanation. Natural selection occurs because individuals having more-useful traits, such as more-acute vision or swifter legs, survive better and produce more progeny than individuals with less-favourable traits. Genetics, a science born in the 20th century, reveals in detail how natural selection works and led to the development of the modern theory of evolution. Beginning in the 1960s, a related scientific discipline, molecular biology, enormously advanced knowledge of biological evolution and made it possible to investigate detailed problems that had seemed completely out of reach only a short time previouslyfor example, how similar the genes of humans and chimpanzees might be (they differ in about 12 percent of the units that make up the genes).

This article discusses evolution as it applies generally to living things. For a discussion of human evolution, see the article human evolution. For a more complete treatment of a discipline that has proved essential to the study of evolution, see the articles genetics, human and heredity. Specific aspects of evolution are discussed in the articles coloration and mimicry. Applications of evolutionary theory to plant and animal breeding are discussed in the articles plant breeding and animal breeding. An overview of the evolution of life as a major characteristic of Earths history is given in community ecology: Evolution of the biosphere. A detailed discussion of the life and thought of Charles Darwin is found in the article Darwin, Charles.

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evolution | Theory, Examples, & Facts | Britannica.com

English[edit]

Wikiversity

Borrowed from Latin volti, voltinis (the act of unrolling, unfolding or opening (of a book)), from voltus, perfect passive participle of volv (unroll, unfold), from ex + volv (roll).

evolution (countable and uncountable, plural evolutions)

Among other forms of change, the evolution of transportation has involved modification, diversification, convergence, divergence, hybridization, differentiation, and naturally, selection.

The ongoing evolution of Lolita subculture fashion includes, among other things, the ballet style.

The evolution of the universe began with a bang.

By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.

general: a gradual process of development

biology: change in the genetic composition of a population over time

military: One of a series of ordered movements

turning movement of the body

Translations to be checked

evolutionc

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evolution - Wiktionary

Pronunciation /ivlu()n//vlu()n/nounmass noun

1The process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

The idea of organic evolution was proposed by some ancient Greek thinkers but was long rejected in Europe as contrary to the literal interpretation of the Bible. Lamarck proposed a theory that organisms became transformed by their efforts to respond to the demands of their environment. Lyell demonstrated that geological deposits were the cumulative product of slow processes over vast ages. This helped Darwin towards a theory of gradual evolution over a long period by the natural selection of those varieties of an organism slightly better adapted to the environment and hence more likely to produce descendants. Combined with the later discoveries of the cellular and molecular basis of genetics, Darwin's theory of evolution has, with some modification, become the dominant unifying concept of modern biology

Example sentences

2The gradual development of something.

the forms of written languages undergo constant evolution

More example sentences

Synonyms

development, advancement, growth, rise, progress, progression, expansion, extension, unfolding

3Chemistry The giving off of a gaseous product, or of heat.

the evolution of oxygen occurs rapidly in this process

More example sentences

4count noun A pattern of movements or manoeuvres.

flocks of waders often perform aerial evolutions

More example sentences

5Mathematics dated The extraction of a root from a given quantity.

Early 17th century: from Latin evolutio(n-) unrolling, from the verb evolvere (see evolve). Early senses related to movement, first recorded in describing a wheeling manoeuvre in the realignment of troops or ships. Current senses stem from a notion of opening out, giving rise to the sense development.

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evolution | Definition of evolution in English by Oxford ...

Evolution is a personal information management application that provides integrated mail, calendaring and address book functionality. Check the Privacy Policy sub-page for a general information about user data usage.

First consult the Evolution Manual.

The evolution-list mailing list is the best place to seek further assistance with using Evolution, for example when you have problems.Subscribe here!

The evolution-hackers mailing list is for discussions among developers. The topics can get pretty technical.Subscribe here!

Many Evolution developers and users can also be found on IRC (irc.gimp.org), channel #evolution.

Users can build and run the latest stable (or development) Evolution in Flatpak, even on older distributions. A detailed guide can be found on the Evolution Flatpak sub-page.

The Evolution project releases its source code as tarball files, from which Free Software distributors can create easily-installable binary packages for users.

Most likely your Free Software distribution (Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, etc.) already provides binary packages for Evolution. The following links are only for the source code.

The latest stable releases are the 3.32 series. Tarballs can be found for these various components (see also the ".news" files accompanying them for a list of changes):

The latest development snapshot tarballs (3.33 series, what will become 3.34) can be found below (after the first 3.33 release):

Or you can clone the source code repositories with git:

gitclonegit://git.gnome.org/evolution-data-server (Browse)

gitclonegit://git.gnome.org/evolution (Browse)

gitclonegit://git.gnome.org/evolution-ews (optional, for Microsoft Exchange servers) (Browse)

gitclonegit://git.gnome.org/evolution-mapi (optional, for old Microsoft Exchange servers) (Browse)

You can also view the schedule of upcoming releases.

The following materials have aged. Some parts are no longer accurate and need a rewrite.

IRC nick names in brackets.

CategoryCalendar

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Apps/Evolution - GNOME Wiki!

Edit Storyline

Nicolas is a boy living on a remote island set in the future, or another planet - or is it a dream? His village consists of white-painted houses located above the sea with a volcanic rock and black sand coastline, populated by young women and boys all of a similar age to Nicolas. Whilst swimming, Nicolas makes a discovery in the ocean, which is shrugged off by his mother, who, like all the women in the town has tied-back hair, is pale and wears a simple thin beige dress. Nicolas is curious, thinks that he is being lied to and starts to explore his environment, witnessing some unsettling scenes. He then finds himself taken to a hospital-like building where he, along with the others, undergoes a series of medical procedures by the women, dressed as nurses. He is befriended by one nurse, who becomes instrumental in the film's denouement. The film is not easy to categorise; it is not only enigmatic but beautifully filmed with deeply poetic imagery. It reflects the fear of the unknown, ...

Taglines:Grow to become something new.

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Evolution (2015) - IMDb

The theory of evolution is a scientific theory that essentially states that species change over time. There are many different ways species change, but most of them can be described by the idea of natural selection. The theory of evolution through natural selection was the first scientific theory that put together evidence of change through time as well as a mechanism for how it happens.

The idea that traits are passed down from parents to offspring has been around since the ancient Greek philosophers' time. In the middle 1700s, Carolus Linnaeus came up with his taxonomic naming system, which grouped like species together and implied there was an evolutionary connection between species within the same group.

The late 1700s saw the first theories that species changed over time. Scientists like the Comte de Buffon and Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, both proposed that species changed over time, but neither man could explain how or why they changed. They also kept their ideas under wraps due to how controversial the thoughts were compared to accepted religious views at the time.

John Baptiste Lamarck, a student of the Comte de Buffon, was the first to publicly state species changed over time. However, part of his theory was incorrect. Lamarck proposed that acquired traits were passed down to offspring. Georges Cuvier was able to prove that part of the theory incorrect, but he also had evidence that there were once living species that had evolved and gone extinct.

Cuvier believed in catastrophism, meaning these changes and extinctions in nature happened suddenly and violently. James Hutton and Charles Lyell countered Cuvier's argument with the idea of uniformitarianism. This theory said changes happen slowly and accumulate over time.

Sometimes called "survival of the fittest," natural selection was most famously explained by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species. In the book, Darwin proposed that individuals with traits most suitable to their environments lived long enough to reproduce and passed down those desirable traits to their offspring. If an individual had less than favorable traits, they would die and not pass on those traits. Over time, only the "fittest" traits of the species survived. Eventually, after enough time passed, these small adaptations would add up to create new species. These changes are precisely what makes us human.

Darwin was not the only person to come up with this idea at that time. Alfred Russel Wallace also had evidence and came to the same conclusions as Darwin around the same time. They collaborated for a short time and jointly presented their findings. Armed with evidence from all over the world due to their various travels, Darwin and Wallace received favorable responses in the scientific community about their ideas. The partnership ended when Darwin published his book.

One very important part of the theory of evolution through natural selection is the understanding that individuals cannot evolve; they can only adapt to their environments. Those adaptations add up over time and, eventually, the entire species has evolved from what it was like earlier. This can lead to new species forming and sometimes extinction of older species.

There are many pieces of evidence that support the theory of evolution. Darwin relied on the similar anatomies of species to link them. He also had some fossil evidence that showed slight changes in the body structure of the species over time, often leading to vestigial structures. Of course, the fossil record is incomplete and has "missing links." With today's technology, there are many other types of evidence for evolution. This includes similarities in the embryos of different species, the same DNA sequences found across all species, and an understanding of how DNA mutationswork in microevolution. More fossil evidence has also been found since Darwin's time, although there are still many gaps in the fossil record.

Today, the theory of evolution is often portrayed in the media as a controversial subject. Primate evolution and the idea that humans evolved from monkeys has been a major point of friction between scientific and religious communities. Politicians and court decisions have debated whether or not schools should teach evolution or if they should also teach alternate points of view like intelligent design or creationism.

The State of Tennessee v. Scopes, or the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, was a famous court battle over teaching evolution in the classroom. In 1925, a substitute teacher named John Scopes was arrested for illegally teaching evolution in a Tennessee science class. This was the first major court battle over evolution, and it brought attention to a formerly taboo subject.

The theory of evolution is often seen as the main overarching theme that ties all topics of biology together. It includes genetics, population biology, anatomy and physiology, and embryology, among others. While the theory has itself evolved and expanded over time, the principles laid out by Darwin in the 1800s still hold true today.

Excerpt from:

A Brief Explanation of Evolution - ThoughtCo