The World Health Organisation last week recommended playing video games as a healthy way of physical distancing while maintaining social connection in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, there are many people who are not gamers or do not want to spend money on games.

So here are five free-to-play games - some with the option of in-app purchases - to consider as we stay home and wait out this wretched pandemic.

Available on PC

If you are a Star Wars fan, playing Star Wars: The Old Republic is a great way to kill time with some familiar galactic action.

This game is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, so it is best to get some friends on board. However, it is possible to play alone without teaming up with anyone to complete quests and level up.

You can choose between the path of a Jedi or a Sith. And, of course, expect to wield a lightsaber or two.

Available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One

PHOTO:ACTIVISION

Fancy a last-man-standing battle? Warzone offers that with its Battle Royale mode, in which each match can have up to 150 players - trumping the 100-player limit in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, one of the most popular games of this genre.

Warzone comes with the rich heritage of the Call Of Duty game franchise, and has both solo and team play options in its Battle Royale mode.

Its other main mode is the Blood Money mode, in which teams have to search for cash around a game map to accumulate as much money as possible. The team with the most money wins the game.

Available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

PHOTO:VALVE

Sometimes old is gold. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive might be nearly eight years old, but there are still a lot of people playing the game. According to statistics from online video game retailer Steam, more than one million gamers played it concurrently on March 14.

Its longevity lies in its simplicity. This first-person shooter game pits two teams of five against each other.

One team, the Terrorists, needs to plant a bomb or defend hostages, while the other team, the Counter-Terrorists, needs to defuse the bomb or rescue hostages. Your team wins when the objectives are met or when you kill everyone in the opposing team.

Available on PC, Mac and Linux

PHOTO:UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

A game with a premise apt for these times, Foldit is a free puzzle game, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, about killing the coronavirus.

The game was first released in 2008. In 2011, Foldit players helped scientists solve a problem about decoding the Aids virus.

In this update of the game, you will be tasked with creating or modifying protein chains so they can bind to the coronavirus' distinct spike protein, thus preventing the latter from infecting human cells.

While it might sound like rocket science, the puzzle is simple. You just need to fold an existing protein into a new shape that potentially blocks the spike protein.

You earn points based on your protein's efficiency in blocking the spike protein. Download Foldit here.

Available on Android and iOS

PHOTO:ZYNGA

In this Scrabble-like multiplayer word game, players take turns to build words on a crossword puzzle-style board.

Each player has seven randomly generated letter tiles. These tiles will be replenished until all 104 tiles have been used. Players take turns to form words on the board and can choose to swop tiles with the pool of currently unused tiles, or skip a turn if they cannot form a word.

Read the rest here:
5 free games to cure cabin fever as you wait out the Covid-19 pandemic - The Straits Times

I'VE been thinking lately how much we take our senses for granted, those windows to the world, and how the treadmill of living dulls our appreciation of experiences they give us.

Most days I walk familiar routes, passing similar landmarks; a bend in the river, a particular tree, banks or hedgerows. Such repetition brings complacency when looking at certain things along well-trodden paths.

A fern whose lineage, according to fossil records, stretches back to around 360 million years ago is a plant I've given a frequent glance, but have neglected to properly acknowledge.

It took the presence of a grey wagtail, dancing and bobbing nearby recently, to prompt my first serious consideration of the native Hart's-tongue, as it hung in clusters from the damp rocky crevices of the riverbank, its undivided fronds, glossy green and shiny.

The tongue-shaped pointed leaves along with hart', the name for an older male red deer, give rise to its name, resembling a deer's tongue' or teanga fia' in Irish.

Some other names have been noted for the fern such as cow tongue' (Hart, 1898) and fox's tongue' (Colgan 1904).

The sporangia which produce and contain the spores are arranged in lines along the underside of the leaves resembling a centipede's legs, hence the species name 'scolopendrium', Latin for centipede. Ferns reproduce by releasing these spores and have neither seeds nor flowers.

Though battered by recent storms and fluctuating water levels, the arching leaves of these ferns will soon be replaced by new luxuriant blades unfurling in late spring.

Hart's-tongue, which prefers woodlands, hedgerows and damp shady places, is just one of the many fern varieties found in Ireland. Their graceful feathery fronds have fascinated poets and writers for centuries. In his poem The Stolen Child (1886) WB Yeats, reaching for the innocence of childhood again, writes of the lure by the fairies:

"Leaning softly out?From ferns that drop their tears?Over the young streams" to

"Come away, O human child!?To the waters and the wild'".

Another giant of the Romantic poets, Coleridge in an early version of the poem This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison (1797), writes of "the ferny rock/Whose plumy ferns forever nod and drip". He later wrote in one of his notebooks, "An eminently beautiful object is Fern".

In the Irish legend of Mad Sweeney, the outcast King castigates fern, saying "There is no bed for an outlaw/In the branches of thy crests".

Like many plants with such longevity, hart's tongue has been used for medicinal purposes by past communities to treat coughs, digestive problems and open wounds.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653), still in print today, said of the plant, "Hart's Tongue is much commended against the hardness and stoppings of the spleen and liver, and against the heat of the liver and stomach, and against the bloody-flux. Dioscorides [a Greek physician] saith, it is good against stinging or biting of serpents."

A record from Co Limerick in a manuscript of the Irish Folklore Commission tells how hart's-tongue leaf was burned and applied to cure burns. It is also thought that fern was used to brew ale in early Ireland. In the Lebor Gabla, or Book of Invasions, Malaliach is said to have been the first brewer in Ireland making lind ratha or fern ale'.

The male grey wagtail showed off its black throat and bright yellow underside as it moved along the river bank in search of food, before flying off downstream, in undulating pattern low above the water and out of sight, its job of drawing me towards the fern, now done. Keep well.

Read more:
Stephen Colton's Take on Nature: Ancient harts-tongue fern catches the eye - The Irish News

Researchers are working frantically on a shot that would immunize people against Covid-19. Why does it take so long? Here's everything you need to know:

Is a vaccine close?Despite the global competition to develop a coronavirus vaccine, experts agree one won't be available for at least 12 to 18 months. The race kicked off Jan. 10, when Chinese scientists published the complete 30,000-letter genetic code of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That allowed scientists to make synthetic versions of the virus rather than waiting for sample shipments, and roughly 80 pharma giants, small labs, and government entities began chasing a cure. Moderna, a biotech startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts, produced a vaccine candidate that was injected into the arm of a 43-year-old Seattle mother in mid-March, smashing the world record for fastest human testing. Several other labs have since launched clinical trials. President Trump pledged to "slash red tape" slowing development, but scientists say it's not bureaucracy or pointless rules that make his request for a vaccine by summertime impossible.

What's the holdup?Before injecting a vaccine into millions of people, scientists need to conduct tests to prove that it actually protects against a specific pathogen and doesn't have serious side effects. Under normal circumstances, a vaccine can take a decade to get FDA approval. Coronavirus research is racing along, thanks largely to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a Norway-based organization founded in 2017 to help labs like Moderna plan for "prototype" pathogens. Yet although scientists are desperate to save lives, cutting corners could have treacherous consequences. (Extremely ill patients can get unproven treatments under "compassionate use" exceptions, but vaccines are administered to people before they get sick.) A vaccine for swine flu in 1976 gave hundreds of people a rare nerve disorder, and a vaccine for H1N1 bird flu in 2009 caused some Europeans to develop narcolepsy. Some failed vaccines have made recipients more vulnerable to the disease. A candidate vaccine for SARS was abandoned after it made mice more likely to die.

How is a vaccine created?There are no existing vaccines for coronaviruses, but new technology is accelerating the process; three hours after China published the COVID-19 genome, Inovio Pharmaceuticals in San Diego used a computer algorithm to produce a vaccine blueprint. Preventive vaccines use dead or weakened pathogens to prime the immune system to fight diseases in the case of COVID-19, by teaching it to recognize the coronavirus protein's "spikes" that latch onto cells. That recognition cues white blood cells to produce antibodies that can fight a real infection. Moderna is pursuing an original approach: injecting messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that encode instructions for building coronavirus-like proteins, so they can be recognized as foreign threats.

How long will testing take?Clinical trials usually occur in three phases. First, about 50 healthy human volunteers are paid $1,100 each to be injected with a candidate vaccine, and then monitored to see if they produce antibodies without unintended side effects. If that's successful, a few hundred people get the vaccine, and their immune response and side effects are carefully studied. In phase three, several thousand people are tested: Half get the vaccine, half get a placebo; if vaccinated subjects don't get sick or get sick at much lower rates, the vaccine is ready for FDA approval. This all can take eight to 12 months. If and when a coronavirus vaccine is approved, other problems immediately arise: Who gets it first? And who pays for vaccinations if people are uninsured? Manufacturing billions of vaccine doses will take months, and rich nations could hoard limited supplies. Vaccinating every American could cost $165 billion, Time estimates.

What are the top contenders?Some of the most promising vaccines build on proven science. Janssen, the Belgian pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, is developing a vaccine modeled on the successful vaccine for Ebola. Inovio, the San Diegobased company, and Maryland-based Novavax are modeling vaccines on candidates in advanced trials for MERS, a coronavirus disease similar to COVID-19. In China, 1,000 scientists are working on a vaccine and launching more than 200 clinical trials to test everything from anti-flu drugs to ancient Chinese herbal medicine. Moderna's mRNA approach is also being used by the German company CureVac; German government officials accused Trump of trying to poach CureVac scientists and their intellectual property for the exclusive use of the U.S.

What's a realistic timeline?There are dozens of vaccines in the pipeline, but COVID-19 cases are expected to peak in the U.S. months before any of them is approved. Scientists raced to find vaccines for SARS, in the early 2000s, and MERS, in 2012, only to shelve their work when those outbreaks were contained. Experts have grimmer expectations for the longevity of coronavirus, meaning a vaccine ready a year from now could still save many millions of lives. With a large number of people getting sick and dying, the race for a vaccine requires a painful amount of patience. "I'm going to bed thinking we made some progress," Moderna president Stephen Hoge says, "and waking up every morning feeling further and further behind."

Promising treatments A treatment that lessens the impact of COVID-19 is expected to come before a vaccine, but doctors on the front lines warn against high hopes. "We have no idea what works or does not at this point," says Andre Kalil, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Kalil is leading U.S. clinical trials for one of the most promising treatments, the antiviral drug remdesivir, which was developed for Ebola. In February, an American passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who contracted coronavirus after the ship docked in Japan became Kalil's first volunteer. Other antivirals being researched are already in use for HIV and malaria. Other tests focus on drugs for lung inflammations, and antibody-based treatments, including using antibody-rich blood serum taken from coronavirus survivors. A survivor can spare enough serum for one to 10 people. A Johns Hopkins University team got FDA approval in mid-March to test this approach. "This is real," team leader Arturo Casadevall says. "In eight weeks, we may have something that's useful."

This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, try the magazine for a month here.

See the article here:
The race for a coronavirus vaccine - The Week

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Major Market Players Covered In This Report: Unity Biotechnology, Siwa Therapeutics, Calico LLC, AgeX TherapeuticsInc, Numeric Biotech, Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), Cleara Biotech, OisinBiotechnologies, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Sierra Sciences, Proteostasis Therapeutics, Senolytic Therapeutics, Allergan

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Request customized copy of Anti-Senescence Therapy reportIf you wish to find more details of the report or want customization, contact us. You can get a detailed of the entire research here. If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will customize the report as you want.

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Incredible Growth of Anti-Senescence Therapy Market 2020 Growing with Major Eminent Key Players Unity Biotechnology, Siwa Therapeutics, Calico LLC,...

FULLERTON, Calif., Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Milton Security Group, Inc., a leading cybersecurity company specializing in 24*7 cyber threat hunting, monitoring, and incident response, announced today a new partnership with SynED to increase professional employment opportunities throughout the cybersecurity industry. This partnership leads the way for this effort in Orange County, CA.

SynED is a non-profit organization working with educational institutions, training partners, placement agencies and service providers to increase a strong and highly skilled workforce throughout California.

"This partnership codifies one of Milton Security's core values, helping others, since our founding 13 years ago. Our goal is to help even more people enter the cybersecurity industry and we have established a successful legacy by hiring individuals who do not fit a traditional mold. We seek out the passionate, the unconventional, the veteran and invest in them through hands-on experiences. The longevity of our team and collective performance has created significant organic growth and advancement opportunities for our team members," said James McMurry, CEO and Founder of Milton Security.

"Through strong partnerships, like we have with Milton Security, we will build the foundation of a new approach for developing a robust cybersecurity talent supply chain and subsequently strengthening the overall security of our nation," said Scott Young, President of synED. "We are thrilled to work with such passionate and visionary partners."

Milton Security and SynED have established a baseline of skills to evaluate and further develop cybersecurity candidates. Milton Security will share this knowledge to assist other organizations in placing their candidates and building a stronger cybersecurity workforce.

Ethan Coulter, President of Milton Security said: "We help passionate people find their path into this industry. This not only benefits professionals seeking to enter our industry, but our customers as well, and yes, even our competitors. We are proud to take part in this program and push our industry forward."

Story continues

About Milton Security Group, Inc.:

Milton Security Group, Inc., is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business started in 2007.

Milton Security operates a 24*7*365 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service that provides Threat Hunting As A Service using customers' existing security infrastructure. Using a combination of AI, ML, and human correlation, Milton Threat Hunters scout for threats and assists with incident response activities in real time 24 hours a day. According to a recent report by Gartner, "Managed detection and response services allow organizations to add 24/7 dedicated threat monitoring, detection and response capabilities via a turnkey approach." Milton Security MDR goes above and beyond this by active threat hunting, not just monitoring.

http://www.miltonsecurity.com| +1.888.714.9001 | 234980@email4pr.com

About SynED

SynED is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting educational excellence by providing higher education professional services to facilitate the development of new models of curriculum, industry alliance, service, and delivery.

SynED has teamed up with the California-based organizations and focused program with the goal of building new and innovative talent and retention programs for companies participating in the defense supply chain. SynED's goal is to help the entire industry leverage their collective skills and resources to increase the number of qualified and career ready professionals.

https://syned.org/| 866.420.4573 xt801 | info@syned.org

Media Contact:

Lydia Coulter

714-515-4011

234980@email4pr.com

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/milton-security-group-partners-with-syned-to-strengthen-the-cyber-workforce-in-california-301012117.html

SOURCE Milton Security

Link:
Milton Security Group Partners with SynED to Strengthen the Cyber Workforce in California - Yahoo Finance

Epic's barrage of freebies continues today with GoNNER and Offworld Trading Company, both scratching very different itches. GoNNER is a procedurally-generated roguelike platformer, while Offworld Trading Company is an economic RTS set on Mars.

Offworld Trading Company is very much my jam, even though it makes me feel dirty. It's an unconventional RTS where battles take place in the marketplace, with corporations trying to muscle each other out of the lucrative planet. Even without armies, it's still a fast-paced, competitive affair, and somehow watching market fluctuations is just as exciting as watching armies colliding. OK, almost as exciting. The AI is fine, but it's made even better by sneaky human opponents.

I try to avoid torturing myself with roguelike platformers, so I'll let Phil Savage's GoNNER review fill you in.

Despite GoNNER's difficulty, aesthetic and mystery, there isn't a whole lot to it. It doesn't take long to work out an enemy's patterns, and there's isn't much variety within the level generation. While loadouts offer some tactical planning, the range of equipment isn't as diverse or significant as, for instance, Nuclear Throne. GoNNER doesn't offer the longevity of the best roguelike shooters, but it's nonetheless a stylish, weird and entertaining action platformer.

They're both free until March 12 at 3 pm GMT/7 am PT, when they'll be replaced by a trio of new games: Anodyne 2, A Short Hike and Mutazione.

Read more:
GoNNER and Offworld Trading Company are free on the Epic Games Store - PC Gamer

Looking back 150 years, the proportion of elderly in Japans population was only a few per cent; now it exceeds 27%, making Japan the worlds top super-aged society.In 2060, it will exceed 38% and remain at this level in the future, retaining its top spot. OECD countries and many emerging economies including China will follow suit at their own respective speeds. The transition is a great outcome of public health and medicine.

A super-aged society is a natural consequence of longevity and we should celebrate it; on the other hand, our new challenge is healthy longevity or how we can be healthy, active and happy until the very end of our lives. Japanese data on the elderly, gathered byDr Hiroko Akiyama of the University of Tokyo, suggests that health status at 65 is a strong indication of quality of life for the rest of life. In the 70-year-lifespan model, where people die in their 60s or 70s, health is not as big an issue for working-age people; in the 100-year lifespan model, one should continuously invest in ones health from as early a point as possible to maintain ones health after retirement. But how?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers good news on this front. Now, it is much easier than ever before to gather indicators of what affects ones health. We can gather genomic data, daily vitality data, health check data and medical treatment data. We can also gather data regarding lifestyle, social connectedness and financial activity all at a lower cost. Then artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data analysis can help us to understand our health more accurately and easily, and maintain it cost-effectively. We have rich new solutions for healthier lives.

The issue is the motivation or incentive for ordinary people to invest in their health before becoming elderly. Health geeks with rich health literacy invest in their health, using new technology but we observe quite a number of ordinary people with less health literacy. How can we inspire such uninterested people toward health investment or prevention before becoming sick?

The traditional approaches are from government, insurers or healthcare providers. National or local governments encourage members of their populations to improve health literacy and to receive health checks. Insurers may change member premiums and conditions, based on the members health status or lifestyle. Hospitals and medical doctors are in a good position to advise locals. However, governments tend to lack resources, insurers cannot reach non-members and hospitals cannot cover people who dont come to hospitals.

Governments can enforce obligations for ordinary individuals or businesses to take care of their health. A typical example of this is regulation for occupational health. While the requirement level and compliance level differs country by country, we observe employers obligations to secure employee safety and health in offices and factories in many countries. However, while a legal obligation is good at securing minimum standards, it is not good at encouraging best practices. An obligation is necessary but insufficient.

We need to use incentives for both individuals and businesses to realize better occupational health. A public-private partnership programme called Health and Productivity Management (H&PM) started in Japan six years ago. It encourages CEOs and company management to invest on a voluntary basis in their employees health for productivity and creativity purposes. The return of that investment is healthier employees with energy and enthusiasm and better evaluations from the labour market, capital markets, customers and society, all of which improves the value of the company. Now, more than 2,300 large companies and 35,000 SMEs in Japan have implemented H&PM.

External evaluation strengthens the return of investment. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange select 35 listed companies from 26 sectors (based on the results of a yearly survey) for the H&PM stock selection competition. in addition, Nippon Kenko Kaigi, a large business and medical federation including the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Japan Medical Association, nominates 3,300 companies as certified H&PM companies.

So far, we have observed positive outcomes from H&PM. In the past five years, certified H&PM companies have outperformed other ordinary companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, according to an analysis by Tokyo Mitsubishi and Morgan Stanley Securities. Some institutional investors such as AXA Insurance have started considering H&PM as one element of environment, social and corporate governance (ESG).

While direct evidence is lacking, logically speaking, H&PM will have positive external effects on the rest of society and the economy, since healthier employees become healthier citizens and active consumers. Considering new business trends such as the SDGs, ESG or stakeholder capitalism, some companies are now more focused on these external effects than on the financial returns derived.

H&PM is not unique to Japan:Johnson & Johnson started H&PM decades ago and say one dollar invested generates 3 dollars in return.The US Chamber of Commerce issued a reportthat poor occupational health reduces GDP by 8.2%, 7%, 5.4% in the US, Japan and China respectively. In 2019, Business 20 (B20) included H&PM into its proposal to the G20. H&PM is a good strategy for improving occupational health in emerging economies with fewer initial resources. Sri Lanka started an H&PM awards programme in 2019.

It is fair to say that the rapid expansion of H&PM in Japan faces a unique challenge owing to the countrys labour shortage. As an ageing society, Japan lacks younger individuals as human resources, which makes recruitment a very important business issue. The same is true for the need to retain trained staff and convincing them not to resign. While H&PM works very well in this regard, such a labour shortage may happen in many countries as they age.

Increasing human productivity is one of the hot topics among global businesses amid rapid industrial structural change. I believe, H&PM is a new, positive strategy for realizing healthy longevity which will prove effective in many companies and economies.

Kazumi Nishikawa,Director, Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan

This article was originally published in World Economic Forum

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Continued here:

As the World Lives Longer, Investment in Early Healthcare is Paramount - Qrius

CultureBooksThe 64-year-old's latest novel returns much loved characters, in a career that is remarkable for its longevity and consistency

Friday, 7th February 2020, 7:00 am

One of the most difficult things about writing a long-standing crime series is knowing when to stop. Val McDermid, the author of the best-selling Tony Hill and Carol Jordan books, admits there have been times when she has come close to pulling the plug.

I did wonder whether the last Tony and Carol book [2017s] Insidious Intent might be the final one, because where do you go after that? she says, referring to the shocking ending, which left Tony in prison and Carol out of the police force. But I was also sure that I didnt want to leave them on that note. I wanted a sense of hope.

That said, Im always very conscious that the series does have a shelf life. So far Ive never been bored with Tony and Carol but Im aware that if I have to be ruthless, I will be. I would never want readers to be picking them up in the hope that this one is the return to form.

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This seems highly unlikely. McDermids career is remarkable for its longevity and its consistency. Her debut novel, Report for Murder, was published in 1987. She has since written 38 more books in a career that has also included short stories, non-fiction and an award-winning childrens book.

However it is crime, and particularly procedural crime, which remains her bread and butter. Her new novel, How the Dead Speak, is the 11th to feature Hill and Jordan. But McDermid also writes another crime series set in her home county of Fife, centring on cold-case detective Karen Pirie.

I enjoy those because cold cases allow for a very different tone, angle and direction, she says. All the blood happened a long time ago and the violence is off stage.

A confident voice

The mystery that launches How the Dead Speak happened off-stage, too: it begins with the discovery of human remains in an old convent and quickly builds into a dark, multi-stranded story, concluding in an expertly unfurled denouement.

Not that the 64-year-old is satisfied. What keeps me going with each book is the hope that I do better than the one before, she says, adding that shes her own harshest critic. Ive never written a book I was happy with.

She does, however, retain a soft spot for the first Hill and Jordan book, The Mermaids Singing, because it was so different to what I had done before. Finding the voices to tell that story gave me a bedrock of confidence.

For all those doubts, it is clear that McDermid, who has been married to academic Joanne Sharp since 2016, is at a great stage in her life. Apologising for the cold she is trying to shake off, she goes on to laugh about the fact I last interviewed her almost 20 years ago, soon after the birth of her son Cameron.

That baby is now about to go to university, she says. I know, its hard to believe.

Despite a busy workload, McDermid also finds time to relax, notably as the lead vocalist in a band, the Fun Lovin Crime Writers, alongside fellow authors Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre, Stuart Neville, Luca Veste and Doug Johnstone. The rock and blues group has played everywhere from local book festivals to Glastonbury and will perform at the Shepherds Bush Empire in March.

I really enjoy it because writers spend most of their time stuck in a cupboard looking at screens, so its nice to do something collaborative that gets us out of that cupboard and meeting people, she says.

Harsher industry

McDermid is conscious that publishing is a harsher industry than it was when she started in the late 80s. I took 10 years to be an overnight sensation, she says. These days, if you havent broken out by your third book, youre not going to have much of a career.

The industry fetishises novelty, but writers need time to develop. Giving a seven-figure advance to a debut is a terrible thing to do to a writer.

A great promoter of others work she curates the New Blood panel at Harrogates Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival and recently announced the forthcoming publication of an anthology of Scottish writing she has little time for tropes and admits that she is always looking for something that suggests that the genre is changing.

I get very bored of reading books where the detective is a loner with no friends, she says. It just doesnt ring true. None of us fit that easily into a box; we all have jagged edges.

What Im reading now

Motherwell, By Deborah Orr. Its a remarkable memoir, the candour of it Having grown up working-class in Scotland, there are a lot of resonances.

What Im reading next

One of the 43 submissions I have for the New Blood panel at Harrogate. Between 50 and 70 debut crime novels will pass across my desk.

Continue reading here:
Val McDermid: 'Giving a seven-figure advance to a debut is a terrible thing to do to a writer' - inews

Artistic expression aims to do one of three things: normalize, distract or inform.Landscape with the Fall of Icaruspreaches the ubiquity of failure,The Persistence Of Memory arrests its audience with color and distortion, and The Wounded Deer explores the pleasure and poison of theology withpedagogicalstrangeness.

The value of pretty things goes beyond ontology, however. According to new research published Wednesday in the BMJ journal,those who frequent galleries, museums, and operas a few times a month or more decrease their risk of dying early by 31%, compared to those that do not.

While other health behaviors like smoking, alcohol, and exercise are undoubtedly bigger predictors of mortality, these leisure and pleasure activities that people dont think as a health-related activity do support good health and longevity,said Daisy Fancourt, an associate professor at UCLs Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health, and an author of the new study.If this (study) is added to the larger body of evidence, we are getting an increasingly rich picture on how arts can benefit health and its not about one single outcome. It can have wide-ranging benefits and support healthier lives lived longer.

The researchers began stitching their thesis together after reviewing a previously published study on aging comprised of over 6,000 English adults, 50 years of age or older.

Over the course of the first leg of the study, participants were polled on how often they attended artistic institutions. After all of the responses were submitted,the researchers from University College London conducted a follow-up study 14 years later, using The National Health Service of the United Kingdom in order to determine how many participants had died since the completion of the first analysis.Not only did engaging in artistic activities every few months or more yield a 31% risk decrease for early mortality, those that visited a gallery, museum or theater once or twice a year were additionally 14% less likely to die at an early age. From the report:

Part of the association is attributable to differences in socioeconomic status among those who do and do not engage in the arts, which aligns with research that suggests engagement in cultural activities is socially patterned.Receptive arts engagement could have a protective association with longevity in older adults. This association might be partly explained by differences in cognition, mental health, and physical activity among those who do and do not engage in the arts, but remains even when the model is adjusted for these factors.

Ultimately, socioeconomic factors accounted for 9% of the mortality correlation. Although mental health, mobility, and civic engagement had small roles to play in surging statistics, no independent component proved to be quite as material as the culture correlate that inspired the paper.

Art seemed to set off a therapeutic chain reaction. Those that reveled in it with any sort of regularity evidenced lower levels of stress, higher levels of ingenuity, adaptability and tended to report enjoying a robust social life. The authors also observed a greater sense of purpose within this demographic:He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.

Which brings us back to the trinity of expression established in the introduction. I for one am exceedingly grateful for those who bore the minds to preserve bones and antiquities, but I wont try to articulate my gratitude more eloquently than the art historian, Georges Didi-Huberman. He wrote, In each historical object all times encounter one another, bifurcate, or even become entangled with one another.

Whatever the form, things made by human hands cant help but project values and solace. We can all relate to the agony of being, and we can all benefit when its finely expressed.

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Going to museums regularly can have this surprising life benefit - Ladders

It's a role that longevity and spending life in place has bequeathed him though don't be fooled. He's not very old. He still hikes into the mountains with his grandson on autumn hunts.

When McMillion says that Livingston is my kind of town the statement is more than a declaration of nostalgia for small-town America where heart-felt empathy for the past doesnt hold as much currency as it used to. Livingston has a reputation for defiance. It welcomes newcomers with open armsespecially those willing to buy the first round of drinks at the bar and yet it collectively sneers at anyone who dares move there, asserting a boastful intent to change the local culture.

Livingstoneans do not believe their little burg needs much improvement and the attitude serves as a sharp contrast to whats playing out today in the large booming neighbor on the side side of a mountain pass crossed by Interstate 90: Bozeman. Livingstoneans know they don't need unscrupulous developers to teach them what it means to live in a place that's "arrived" as a worthy destination.

McMillion, being a sound example of a local kid done good by his town in adulthood, is perhaps a model for the maxim that in order to fully appreciate the place that brung you along you need to leave it for a while to get ones head straightened out. After graduating from Park High School, he did two things. He got a degree in English from the University of Montana and traveled around the world.

But home kept calling him home and once he returned to Livingston, a railroad town and gateway to Yellowstone Park located along the Yellowstone River, he served as a longtime reporter for The Bozeman Daily Chronicle. It was out on thetrail of covering environmental stories, including crossing paths during the 1988 Yellowstone fires, that we became friends, setting aside the hard-wired drive to out-scoop one another.

Important to point out about Livingston is that its authentic character speaks to authentic people who go by the beat of their own drummers. The local yokels, unimpressed with anyone who projects airs, do not need outsiders validating what they do or don't do. Over the last half century, along the prospect of being able to be treated as just another person free of stalking sycophants, has attracted people of enormous talent who come to Paradise Valley and Livingston and want to be left alone. If the names McGuane, Brokaw, Bridges, Fonda, Harrison, Chatham, Hjortsberg, Kidder, Brautigan, Keaton, Peckinpah, Cahill, Peacock, Quaid and Ryan, among others, ring bellsand you appreciate their artthen you comprehend the reference and, if you dont, dont worry because you probably never will.

Following in their wakes have come new generations of world-class writers, photographers, flat artists, sculptors, playwrights and filmmakers. To have such a constellation descend upon your town could be paralyzing for a local writer yet McMillion has proved himself worthy to be counted in their company.

Montana Quarterly and non-profit Mountain Journal share these values. In this age in which America is being dumbed down by shameless purveyors of alternative facts, whose false assertions are going unchallenged, and as newspapers struggle for survival and perish, honest storytelling rooted in truth matters more than ever.

When we make a strong recommendation like this, that you supportMontana Quarterly by purchasing an eminently affordable subscriptionand maybe a second one for your kids or grandkids so that they will know the delights of tactile media arriving in real tactile mailit isnt out of some misguided sense of nostalgia. We also suggest you buy a subscription for any newcomer to the state whom you suspect might not quite understand that we do not want to become "the next" Portland, Denver, Bend, Oregon or Vail.

Montana Quarterly has earned your patronage and youll look forward with delight to each new issue. In addition to supporting the Quarterly there are other publications, below, operated by mutual friends of Scott and me. This is in addition to, whenever you have theopportunity, alsothink of local booksellers. Indeed, we vote our values whenever we open our wallets.

McMillion, right, with the late great Livingston-based novelist and non-fiction writer William "Gatz" Hjortsberg. In recent years Livingston has coped with the painful passing of Hjortsberg, Jim Harrison, Margot Kidder, Peter Fonda and Russell Chatham. Photo courtesy John Zumpano

A MoJo Chat With Scott McMIllion of Montana Quarterly

Todd Wilkinson: You are a seasoned journalist and author. Whats the most satisfying thing about publishing your own magazine?

Scott McMillion: Probably working with young writers. Over the past few years, weve lost a lot of virtuoso writers whose work has appeared in the Quarterly. Jim Harrison, Ed Dobbs and Gatz Hjortsberg, most notably.

I miss those guys, but I also cherish working with young writers like Todd Burritt, Sarah Rau Peterson, Alexis Bonogofksy, Adam Boehler and many others. I also work with writers who, like me, arent exactly spring chickens, like Kim Zupan, but Id probably never get to know them if I didnt have the magazine.

I meet a lot of young people through our annual Big Snowy Contests for young writers, which has helped a few of them jumpstart careers. And the number of venues for publishing just keeps shrinking, which adds importance to what we do.

Wilkinson: As national magazines have struggled, Montana Quarterly has maintained its spirited focus, sense for finding good stories and empathetic portrayals of regular people. Where does that instinct come from?

McMillion: The stories are actually fairly easy to find, mostly because Montanans tend to be a pretty chatty bunch. Everybodys got a yarn, and most folks are willing to tell it. Picking the right story, matching it with the right writer and photographer, is the challenging part. Its part instinct, part 30 years of experience, and mostly just a love of the state and its people. Our philosophy is pretty simple: Montana is a cool place that hasnt been screwed up yet. Weve got a community of writers, photographers and readers that want to keep it that way.

Wilkinson: This puts you on the spot but what are a few of your favorite pieces youve written and a few favorites by other writers in the Quarterly stable?

McMillion: Some of the favorites Ive written:A profile of the town of Saint Marie, which is the old Glasgow Air Force Base. Thousands of people lived there in the sixties, but now the place looks like a set from a zombie movie, with hundreds of houses and other buildings that havent seen a new shingle or a coat of paint in decades. A group of Sovereign Citizens the kind of guys who like to make their own license plates bought most of it for back taxes.

Spending a few days inside the mens meth prison in Lewistown. Talk about stories to tell! These are hard cases, but when photographer Thomas Lee and I walked in the gym, 200 cons stood up and sang You are my Sunshine. That stuff just doesnt happen every day.Covering the longstanding, expensive, and, sadly, probably futile effort to restore blackfooted ferrets to Montana. I got to hold one the rarest carnivores in the world in my lap. It was exciting enough that I didnt even mind the fleas crawling all over me.

This photo of a female mountain lion ran in the winter 2019 Montana Quarterly as part of story about new ways to study the elusive big cats. Photo courtesy Ryan Castle

Some of the other highlights:Sarah Rau Petersons hilarious and poignant depictions of ranch life in Eastern Montana. Shes not afraid to talk about ovine dingleberries and Im not afraid to publish what she says.Jeff Welschs story about the Blackfoot Challenge, which shows that ranches and predators can coexist, when smart people decide to make it happen.Pretty much anything Alan Kesselheim writes.And of course Tim Cahills gripping account of his own death in the Grand Canyon. But the big hoss is tough. He whupped death and lived to write about it.

Wilkinson: You wear your pride of Livingston residency on your sleeve. How does having a vantage from Livingston on the rest of Montana differ from, say, if you were based in Bozeman?

"Montana, Warts And All" is a volume featuring some of the magazine's most resonant stories in recent years.

Livingston is a little bit Bohemian and a little bit working class, and sprinkled with millionaires, but most people get along, though we do have a few soreheads. Were close to the mountains, close to the prairies, and the Yellowstone River is always a marvel. The wildlife lives among us, right in our yards. And while they say the wind blows now and then, if you put some rocks in your pockets youll probably stay earthbound.

As for Bozeman, if Id grown up there I dont think Id still be living there. I enjoy what it has to offerthe restaurants and the performancesbut the older I get the slower I move. I think that town has outgrown me. Livingston hasnt.

Wilkinson: In times like these, the late Russell Chatham said, art speaks to drama and anxiety in the air. Why does storytelling matter especially now?

McMillion: Storytelling has always been central to being human. Its how we figure out who we are and what we need to do. Our country is so divided and bitter these days, with half the nation accusing the other half of drinking the Kool-Aid.

At Montana Quarterly, we try to focus on what unites us and excites us instead of what divides us. We find a curiosity, a marvel, a marvelous person. Then we tell that story. I think it matters more than ever.

Remember: Support Your Local Newspaper. It plays a vital role in covering issues that matter to your community. Of course, if you have it in your heart, Mountain Journal is profoundly grateful for your support too. It is the only thing that enables us to exist.

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Great Storytelling: It Pulls At Our Heartstrings And Holds Communities Together - Mountain Journal

Last week, Janet Kalczynski stepped down from her job as a payroll specialist at Dearborn Heights City Hall.

Big deal, you say? It is, when you realize that 6045 Fenton became her work address when Melanies Brand New Key topped the charts at legendary Detroit/Windsor radio powerhouse CKLW, and this newspaper was called the Dearborn Heights Leader.

Kalczynski was all of 20 years of age when her city career began on Dec. 15, 1971. Her first job, a bookkeeper for then-City Treasurer James Greenlaw, came with an annual salary of $7.687. After a few years, she crossed the hall to the Comptrollers Office, where she spent the bulk of her 48 years of employment.

While its on trend to job jump in todays society, Kalczynski who has worked with all eight Dearborn Heights mayors credits her longevity to her true love of her job and the people with whom shes worked.

My bosses were bosses and you have to answer to them, but everyone has always been so nice here and its always been a team effort, she said. Its hard to go away because of the camaraderie.

Kalczynski daughter of the late city councilman Tom Wayne, and wife of retired firefighter Larry Kalczynski attended Schoolcraft College in a short-lived pursuit of a law enforcement degree something unheard of back then. She had been working for Michigan Bell when she became aware of the job opening at City Hall.

My dad knew about the opening and it interested me, she said. Back then, the job requirements werent that stringent. You didnt need to take a testthings have obviously changed since then, but Ive loved every minute Ive been here.

One of her bosses, now-retired Comptroller Don Barrow, said her infectious laugh and work ethic come immediately to mind when he thinks about Kalczynski.

Janet's bubbly personality always made it a pleasure to come to work. She was dedicated to her job as much as she was to her family, Barrow said. The City of Dearborn Heights will surely miss this gem of an employee.

A Divine Child graduate, the former Janet Wayne began her time with the city using pencils, paper, and typewriters, and left immersed in the digital world, using software technology that dramatically cut task completion times.

Janets career is remarkable, said Human Resources Department Director Elisabeth Sobota-Perry. In 1971, women working full-time wasnt as common as it is now. Janet married an eventual firefighter, raised a family, juggled it all, and is able to retire on her own terms.

Kalczynski is always positive, happy, and very generous, Sobota-Perry added, and is a role model for newer, younger employees.

It should be noted that retirement is a foreign concept to the 68-year-old mother of three and grandmother of five. She will remain a part of the city workforce, this time in a part-time capacity, as she transitions to shelving books at Caroline Kennedy Library.

When you go to work, make it a job you dont mind getting up in the morning for. Get up, get in there, and get to work, Kalczynski said when asked her advice for young people entering the workforce. Yes, youre going to have bad days and chaos, but when all is said and done, youll have a great sense of accomplishment that makes you feel good about yourself.

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Dearborn Heights woman who has worked for every city administration retires after 48 years at City Hall - Dearborn Press and Guide

Tonight, President Trump is expected to sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) at Joint Base Andrews, a defense budget bill totaling a stunning $738 billion. Much attention has been given to the many ways that Democrats lost out on progressive priorities in this bill. The nuclear arms control and disarmament community lost hard-fought battles over issues like the low-yield warhead, and overall spending levels on nuclear weapons systems.

UCSs President Ken Kimmel put out an important statement on these issues, urging members of Congress to vote no on this dangerous bill. But many nuclear weapons-related issues have been flying under the radar, especially those relating to the communities directly impacted by nuclear weapons production and testing. Heres a run-down of the issues nuclear policy wonks might have missed in their analysis of the NDAA.

Runit Dome (Source: US DOD)

The House version of the NDAA included a call for the Secretary of Energy to produce a comprehensive report on the health and environmental impacts of Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands: a massive unlined pit on Runit Island that holds waste and debris from 67 US nuclear tests on the islands, covered by a cracking, leaking concrete dome. The LA Times offers an excellent analysis of this issue.

The required elements of the report largely made it through the conference process intact, but the Senate removed some of the more sweeping provisions. These include a study of the physical health impacts on Pacific Islanders resulting from US nuclear testing activities in the Marshall Islands, and a call for a plan to remove the radioactive contaminants from the dome and relocate them to a more stable location.

For the Marshallese, who for decades have been fighting for proper recognition of the harms to their country and population, as well as adequate compensation, clean-up, and health care access, the call for a comprehensive study as outlined in the original House version would have been a step in the right direction. But the Republic of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission stated: given the Senate-amended version of the bill, its difficult to see how the report would produce any new and useful information beyond what has already been done by the DOE, which has fallen short of satisfying Marshallese concerns.

In addition to working to prevent radiation leaks from the dome, the Marshallese are also fighting for, among other things, adequate studies and clean-up of other islands, proper compensation for health and environmental consequences and tests, and improved access to health care. So the dome itself is really just the tip of the radioactive iceberg. Much more work needs to be done by the US government to address their assault on the Marshallese people with these nuclear tests.

Atomic Veterans are the soldiers that were present at the USs nearly 200 atmospheric tests in the Marshall Islands and Nevada, as well as those that had to clean up the waste left behind from tests. The House version of the NDAA included a provision to create a Medal of Recognition to Atomic Veterans. The provision was taken out in conference and did not make it through to the final bill. This is a terrible shame and, in my opinion, a great sign of disrespect to the thousands of surviving atomic veterans.

In response to this decision, Keith Kiefer, National Commander of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, stated:

The National Association of Atomic Veterans has long said The Atomic Veterans seek no special favor, simply justice.

The most current Atomic Veteran count from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) sits at 550,000 individuals. Until 1996 these individuals were under an oath of secrecy, not being able to talk with their doctor or family members without risking imprisonment and/or civil fines. These individuals were left to suffer in silence. The Atomic Veteran was used in various roles of support, study of the physical, psychological and readiness effect(s) when using nuclear weapons. None of these men were given informed consent while participating in these activities.

If nuclear weapons were like conventional weapons, many of these veterans would have had evidence of physical injury and be eligible for a purple heart medal. Moreover, were it not for the oath of secrecy these veterans would have received service medals while still in the service. Most of these veterans longevity and quality of life have been shortened. Creation of and issuing an Atomic Veteran Service Medal would correct the injustice of not recognizing the sacrifice and contributions these veterans have made on behalf of the country. Of equal importance to the families whose veteran is no longer with us, is the recognition that their loved ones sacrifice and contributions were not in vain.

Though Congress created a certificate of recognition for Atomic Veterans, many feel that this simply does not carry the same weight as a medal. In seeking a medal of recognition, Atomic Veterans are asking for parity with other veterans that they may receive equal recognition for their sacrifices to their country.

Congress established the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990 and expanded it in 2000 to provide compensation to people harmed by nuclear atmospheric testing (Downwinders and Atomic Veterans) and uranium workers (miners, millers, core drillers, ore transporters, and remediation workers). Though an important program overall, RECA is severely flawed, largely because many communities directly impacted by testing and uranium mining are left out of the program and therefore ineligible for compensation. These include many regions affected by testing, the veterans who cleaned up atomic waste after tests, and uranium industry employees who worked in facilities after 1971. Legislation has been introduced to address this (H.R. 3783 and S. 947), which many activists in these communities are working hard to support.

The NDAA sought to begin addressing these concerns in two ways:

Currently RECA is set to expire in 2022. H.R. 3783 and S. 947 would extend RECA until 2045; that additional time is sorely needed. Tina Cordova shares: Imagine the Downwinders of New Mexico have been denied access to RECA and the much needed health care coverage for 29 years and now we are facing a sunset provision. Bills have been introduced for 9 years to amend RECA to include the New Mexico Downwinders and yet not a single hearing in the House. Nuclear policy groups should pay attention to this upcoming deadline and support the communities advocating for these bills.

This NDAA authorized roughly $5.5 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup of nuclear weapons waste sites like Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge Reservation. This is a roughly $100 million reduction from FY19 NDAA authorization levels. Clean-up budgets should be increasing, not decreasing, because the longer it takes to clean-up these sites, the longer workers and nearby residents are being exposed to dangerous nuclear and hazardous material. The good news is that the Energy + Water Appropriations bills allocate $6.255 billion for Defense Environmental cleanup, well above FY2019 levels.

Whats also notable here is that the $5.5 billion for clean-up represents nearly a quarter of the NDAAs whole discretionary budget for Atomic Energy Defense Activities, including all of weapons activities and non-proliferation. As the United States continues to increase spending on nuclear weapons, it should not forget that cleaning up the waste from the long history of producing weapons remains an extremely costly problem with no reasonable solution in sight, while communities and the environment continue to be poisoned by radioactive, toxic and hazardous pollutants.

Don Hancock notes that the NDAA does include new Senate language to require submission to Congress with the annual Budget Request a report on the costs of meeting legal agreement milestones at sites. The Request never includes sufficient funding, but activists have long advocated for DOE to have to admit to the significant shortfalls in the request.

Congress established the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in 1988 to provide independent oversight for Department of Energy nuclear facilities to ensure their safety, as well as the safety of the public and workers. Watchdog and grassroots activist groups near nuclear sites have been fighting for over a year to ensure that the DNFSB retains its oversight capabilities. In 2018, the Department of Energy issued Order 140.1, which has the potential to severely constrain the Safety Boards access to information, facilities, documents and personnel.

Activists were glad to see a House provision largely remain in the final bill, which ensures the DNFSB has the full access they need. This is an important win for workers and nearby residents, allowing the Board to carry out its responsibilities to monitor nuclear sites and ensure public safety.

The nuclear policy community is also concerned about the requirement for the NNSA to produce 80 new plutonium pits per year starting in 2030, a significant increase over the current production capacity at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The new production would take place at expanded LANL facilities and at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In addition to posing an arms control problem by supporting the production of new warheads in addition to refurbishing existing ones, these programs pose potential risks to the workers and nearby communities.

LANLs pit production program has been shut down many times, most recently from 2013 to 2016, over chronic safety concerns. Even after re-opening, an April 2019 report from the DOE and a November 2019 letter from the DNFSB highlight continuing major safety concerns.

Savannah River Site poses novel risks, as the site has never before produced pits, and is now being required to do so on a very expedited schedule, requiring the repurposing of the partially constructed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, at which there were many construction problems. The combination of these issues (not even taking into account clean-up currently taking place at SRS) is a recipe for mistakes and accidents that could put people in harms way. A recent Institute for Defense Analyses report states that the current plan to produce 80 pits per year in the given timeline is extremely challenging, if not impossible, and poses many risks. In fact, they state No available option can be expected to provide 80 ppy [pits per year] by 2030. The DOE has not indicated how it will address this.

For more information on Runit Dome, please contact Rhea Moss-Christian, Chair of the Republic of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission (NNC).For more information on the National Association of Atomic Veterans, contactKeith Kiefer, National Commander. For more information on RECA, contact Tina Cordova, Director, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium or Joni Arends, Director, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. For more information on the nuclear waste clean-up budget or the oversight of nuclear facilities, contact Don Hancock at the Southwest Information and Resource Center. For more information on plutonium pit production, contact Jay Coghlan, Executive Director at Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Posted in: Nuclear Weapons Tags: atomic veterans, fissile material, marshall islands, ndaa, nuclear weapons, pit production, plutonium, waste clearnup budget

Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.

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The Human Side of Nuclear Weapons Issues in the FY20 Defense Bill - All Things Nuclear

Of all the national holidays we celebrate, Christmas is the most ancient, pre-dating our American genesis by about 14 centuries as a Christian celebration. Some of the associated lore goes back nearly another millennia as part of the Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia.

Longevity adds a distinct weight to Christmas; it's the singular season during which we sing songs, read verse and prose, and carry on customs from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

The world has changed immensely since America's inception in the 18th century. We can scarcely conceive the true magnitude of its changes delving back five and 10 times further into human history. Life at the time of the Christ-child's birth is essentially beyond our imagination.

Christmas is old and resilient, and also uniquely transcendent in a geopolitical sense. For more than two billion people across 160 countries, it's the signature holiday and/or holy day of the year.

Given the enormity of its proportions, religiously and culturally, it's natural to view Christmas through a grotesquely oversized "big deal" lens. Besides being the consummate event at the core of the world's largest religion, it is master of the annual almanac. No day has more than 24 hours, but December 25 looms largest by every other measure.

With its trappings and gift traditions, it dominates the retail economy; indeed, nearly every shopping and buying experience in the fourth quarter is "Christmatized." It commands even greater regality in Christian denominations, organizations and churches.

Christmas has ubiquitous awareness and near-universal adoption in the U.S.: 90 percent of Americans will celebrate next Wednesday.

Add all the religious pomp and circumstance to the retail circus and chaotic commotion, and there's not a superlative adjective big enough to accurately describe its predominance.

That's our reality today. There is simply so much to do and be done: decorations to be put up, gifts to be bought and wrapped, parties to attend, cards to send, dinners to be made, families to visit. From musical presentations and theatrical productions to parades and lighting displays to work functions and church services, there's hardly a spare moment to give--or think.

But we need a little thought this Christmas, perhaps more this year than in many recently past. We need to remember not only what Christmas was at its start, but how it unfolded.

Whether you believe in the divinity of the Nativity or not doesn't change the details of its story, and the accompanying significance of those particulars.

The notion of God sending a Messiah to Earth via a poor couple in a stable runs counter to every "big deal" instinct of our consumerist consciousness and social hierarchy today. The point that Christmas first came to the "have nots" is a lost fact that desperately needs resurrection.

There were important places and people back at that time. The Jewish temple in Jerusalem was imposing and revered; religious officials were pious and ceremonial and held in high esteem. The Roman Empire erected palaces from whence it ruled and taxed the people, and magistrates and consuls wielded significant power and influence.

Yet it's revelatory and telling that in the story of the first Christmas, the good news of great joy to all wasn't channeled through a high priest or Caesar. On the contrary, it was proclaimed by word of mouth starting with lowly shepherds, who were arguably near the lowest rung of society in those parts.

In the beginning, Christmas circumvented the rich and famous and powerful. It's a story of ordinary people, in less than optimum conditions, dealing with stressful situations but still rising to the occasion. The faithful understand that stripping away of worldly pretense as reflective of our common humanity as creatures of God.

How an event so small and remote and disconnected from the social, religious and political order and structure of the day could wind up eventually eclipsing it does seem, well, miraculous.

There is also an e pluribus unum characteristic of Christmas that endears its spirit to a democratic people. It's one holiday, invitational to all, out of which many can approach, enjoy and share.

Few examples testify to the unifying potential of Christmas more profoundly than the impromptu "truce" among entrenched opposing troops on the western front in the early months of World War I.

Following a Christmas Eve of carol-singing across the lines, some German soldiers rose from their trenches unarmed the next morning, and called out "Merry Christmas" in English. The British, initially wary of trickery, responded in kind and the Great War was put on hold for a few hours while foot-soldiers exchanged gifts and good tidings.

Miracles of the heart can happen anytime, and we never know how far their resulting ripples can reach. Or how deeply they might reverberate across space and time.

Christmas reminds us to pay more attention to them, inspires us to be more open to them. Christmas instructs us to look for them, in keeping with the timeless truth that he who looks will find.

May you seek and find Christmas this year in little places and ways you never expected.

------------v------------

Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.

Editorial on 12/20/2019

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DANA D. KELLEY: In the beginning ... - NWAOnline

The most important book of the year, and actually the most important book of the next eighty-one years, is The Future Is Faster Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Diamandis is the creator of the XPRIZE, the Abundance 360 conference, and the worlds leading authority on where the world is going. Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the worlds leading expert on ultimate human performance.

Thereason these books are so important, Kotler explains, is that were going tosee more technological change in the next eighty-one years than weve seen inthe history of mankind. Were looking at a convergence of technologies, whichis going to transform every aspect of our lives, from flying cars to medicineand longevity, from retail to education.

Its comingso quickly that we thought the world needed a roadmap, because this is not atime to be left behind.

Diamandisand Kotler rocked the world with the publishing of their first book, Abundance,in 2012. The message of Abundance is that people with money,technological skills, and a desire to make the world better are using thosegifts to lift the bottom billion out of povertywhile creating new businessmodels that will build new fortunes.

Theirsecond book, Bold, showed readers how to create disruptive,life-transforming companies of their own.

Theirthird book, just launched, demonstrates how the convergence of various newtechnologies is speeding up the rate of change in ways that might have beenunimaginable just a few short years ago.

Each ofthe books, but especially The Future Is Faster Than You Think, presentsa dizzying array of technologies and new companies bringing those newtechnologies to market. The research load for a book like this isenormous.

Kotler isalso the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, the leadingresearch and training organization decoding the science behind ultimate humanperformance. As a result, he says that he does most of his writing between 4a.m. and 8 a.m. The entire process of writing The Future Is Faster Than YouThink took approximately eighteen months.

One ofthe reasons for the success of the books is the extraordinarily high standardsto which Diamandis and Kotler hold themselves.

I dont consider something a fact, Kotler says, unless I have found three to five independent sources I really trust. Its so easy to go off on tangents or buy into something you see. The bigger challenge is to stick to the facts, which isnt easy when youre writing about things that havent happened yet.

Thebiggest challenge the authors face is the emotional state of the reader.

Peoplefear the future, Kotler says. They are afraid of change. People tend tobelieve that the future is going to be an abundance of bots, and either we get thingsright or human beings will go away.

Writingabout the future in a manner that is both exciting and unthreatening is nosmall undertaking, but the authors pull it off.

One ofthe things people fear most about new technologies is the loss of semi-skilledjobs like long-term truck driving. The authors point out that while these jobswill inevitably go away, it will take more than half a century before all suchpositions are wiped out.

Thefuture they posit isnt just faster than people thinkits also cheaper. Thecost of everything from energy to food to education will drop to near zero,Diamandis and Kotler argue, which means that human beings will be able todevote time and attention to doing things they love instead of simply trying tomeet their daily needs.

Life aswe understand it today, Kotler says, will be all but unrecognizable in a veryshort amount of time. Peter and I wrote The Future Is Faster Than You Think asa manual for understanding the future, diminishing ones fear about it, andhelping people determine how best they want to participate in it.

Werehoping that instead of being afraid of technological change, people willembrace it. A world where you dont have to scrap for a living, withoutdangerous climate change, where the cost of everything important moves towardzerohonestly, whats not to like?

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Steven Kotler: On Writing The Most Important Book Of The Year, And Next Year, And The Year After That - Thrive Global

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J., Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --MYOS RENS Technology, Inc. ("MYOS" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: MYOS), an advanced nutrition company and the owner of Fortetropin, a proprietary bioactive composition made from fertilized egg yolk that helps build lean muscle, announced today that it will launch its longevity business with the introduction of its Physician Muscle Health Formula at the 27thWorld Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (https://www.a4m.com/las-vegas-december-2019.html) in Las Vegas, Nevada from December 13-15, 2019; MYOS will be in Booth #2090. Considered the largest event in anti-aging medicine, the World Congress is expected to draw approximately 4,000 Medical Professionals and 300 Exhibitors from around the world.

Earlier this year, MYOS announced that in a clinical trial involving 60-75-year-old men and women, subjects who consumed Fortetropin on a daily basis experienced an increase of approximately 15% in the rate of muscle protein synthesis when compared with subjects who received a macronutrient-matched placebo. The results from this clinical trial will be presented by its principal investigator, William J. Evans, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley at the International Conference on Frailty & Sarcopenia Research on March 11, 2020 in Toulouse, France.

Encouraged by positive results from this clinical study and previous studies showing that Fortetropin increases muscle mass and strength, MYOS decided to formally launch its longevity business by introducing its branded product, Physician Muscle Health Formula. This product will be distributed through medical practices focused on anti-aging medicine across the United States. In addition, the Company will also debut a private labeling service. This service will enable physicians to develop their own Fortetropin-based nutrition products in consultation with the Company's scientists and engineers, leveraging our portfolio of scientific research and clinical trials. Members of MYOS' scientific and business development staff will be at the Company's booth (#2090) to meet with medical professionals and discuss opportunities for collaboration.

"Fortetropin has remarkable potential to improve human longevity and we are pleased to share our advancements on improving muscle health at the upcoming World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine later this week," commented Joseph Mannello, CEO of MYOS. "Maintaining muscle mass and health plays a vital role in supporting an excellent quality of life as we get older and has been shown in numerous respected publications to be associated with improved longevity. Muscle plays a central role in movement, energy metabolism and bone health. The beauty of MYOS' approach to addressing muscle health is that our products are all-natural nutrition products that capitalize on a patented manufacturing process and are backed by a large body of preclinical and human clinical research," added Mr. Mannello.

About MYOS RENS Technology Inc. MYOS RENS Technology Inc. (MYOS), "The Muscle Company", is a Cedar Knolls, NJ-based advanced nutrition company that develops and markets products that improve muscle health and performance. MYOS is the owner of Fortetropin, a fertilized egg yolk-based product manufactured via a proprietary process to retain and optimize its biological activity. Fortetropin has been clinically shown to increase muscle size, lean body mass and reduce muscle atrophy. MYOS believes Fortetropin has the potential to redefine existing standards of physical health and wellness. For more information, please visit http://www.myosrens.com.

About Fortetropin Fortetropin works in conjunction with your protein of choice to help your body utilize that protein more efficiently. Fortetropin is made through a patented process that maintains the vital nutrients of fertilized egg yolks to help build more lean muscle and decrease muscle loss. For more information, please visit http://www.myosrens.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Any statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied in any forward-looking statements. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those relating to product and customer demand, market acceptance of our products, the ability to create new products through research and development, the successful results of strategic initiatives, the success of our products, includingQurr, Yolked, MYOS Canine Muscle Formula, Physician Muscle Health Formulaand MYOS Enteral NutritionFormula, the success of our research and development, the results of the clinical evaluation ofFortetropinand its effects, the ability to enter into new partnership opportunities and the success of our existing partnerships, the ability to generate revenue and cash flow from sales of our products, the ability to increase our revenue and gross profit margins, the ability to achieve a sustainable, profitable business, the effect of economic conditions, the ability to protect our intellectual property rights, competition from other providers and products, the continued listing of our securities on the Nasdaq Stock Market, risks in product development, our ability to raise capital to fund continuing operations, and other factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement for events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made except as required by law.

Investor Relations: Porter LeVay & RoseMatthew Abenante, IRC, SVPPhone: 212-564-4700Email: MYOS@plrinvest.com

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MYOS to Introduce its Longevity Business with its Physician Muscle Health Formula at the World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine in Las Vegas December...

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As we learn more about the diverse value of AI today, we envision self-driving cars and robots put to use to improve our human lives. Yet animal welfare is another valuable area of application to appreciate. Animal farming is becoming a data-centric business. AI in animal husbandry is used for raising animals for meat, fiber, milk, eggs and other products. With AI, providing day-to-day care and raising livestock has become easier for animal farmers. For example, farmers are making use of wearable AI devices to collect real-time data about them to make necessary decisions. The wearables are helping farmers to get important alerts like when their animals are sick, when they should be vaccinated and when they are ready for insemination. There are numerous ways that AI and machine-learning algorithms are now used to benefit the animal husbandry industry.

How farmers can leverage the use of AI in animal husbandry

The core focus of a farmer in animal husbandry is to improve animal welfare, improve the efficiency of end products and create better production monitoring. Lets explore how AI in animal husbandry helps to achieve these objectives.

Allerin

AI in Dairy Farm Barns

Milk production per cow is a metric that is well tracked in a dairy farm, but there are bigger questions that need to be asked to maintain the production levels. The feed is the most important factor that affects the production level of a cow. AI systems can provide accurate monitoring of the amount of feed that is provided to the cow and help to increase the production level. For example, theres an application that uses a motion-sensing device to transmit the movement of the cow to an AI-driven system. The sensor data, when aligned with real-world behavior, can help the AI system detect when the cow is walking, drinking or eating. Small dairy barns can be easily taken care of, but when it comes to huge barns, it becomes impossible to keep up with every cow on an individual basis. With facial recognition, AI can help identify each cow uniquely. Unique identification of cows helps farmers provide better treatment to the cows.

AI in Meat Farming

Meat is a major source of dietary protein around the world. Cattle, sheep, pigs and goats are the main species involved in consumption as meat. Pigs can produce up to 11 piglets a year. Based on the numbers tattooed on the flanks of the pigs, AI systems can monitor vulnerable piglets for squeals of distress. An AI system is also being used to recognize facial expressions to detect if a sheep is in pain. The seriousness of the pain can also be determined by the system. The AI system detects different parts of a sheeps face and compares them with standardized facial patterns provided by veterinarians to diagnose the pain.

Robots can be used to debone an animal to optimize the amount of meat produced. A robot can analyze the difference between the density of the meat and bone, thereby making the most accurate cut possible.

AI in Poultry Farming

Like humans, even animals suffer from nutritional deficiencies. AI machines can help identify the decreased growth of a chicken. The machines can be trained to differentiate between healthy and infected chickens. AI-enabled robots can help poultry farmers in many ways. Robots can do repetitive work like feeding birds, collecting eggs and removing manure. Tasks like collecting, counting and packing eggs are becoming completely automated, reducing the need for close supervision by humans. Another task that a robot can perform is shifting a hatched chick from a broiler shed to the layer shed. Robots can also keep the birds moving for an added health benefit. Thus, a robot can perform various duties for poultry farming and prove to be a cost-saving attribute to the farmers. AI systems can monitor the environment of a shed and adjust conditions accordingly. AI systems can determine the accuracy of fertility in the early stage of incubation. AI can first learn which eggs are fertile and which are not by scanning the eggs, and then algorithms can be created that can determine the accuracy of fertility.

AI in Insect Farming

Edible insects are becoming a growing part of food production because insect farming can help to meet future demand for protein consumption. Bees have been kept in hives and humans have been harvesting honey for a long time. Sensors can be incorporated in hives to monitor hive weight, temperature and humidity. AI systems have been developed that can track the sound waves made by a swarm of bees and can anticipate future changes to the swarm. With the help of anticipation, a beekeeper can plan for the swarm changes ahead of time. Insects such ascrickets like it hot (90F) and humid (50-90%) and need different temperatures and humidity over their lifetimes. AI systems that allow artificial environmental changes with voice commands can be useful in growing insects like crickets. The AI system can provide features like analytics on smartphones, and alerts for temperature increases. Detecting the perfect breeding time can be achieved through AI monitoring. Companies in China are breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year with the use of 80 different types of big data being collected by AI systems. The cockroaches are then used as an ingredient for medicine that cures stomachaches and other ailments.

AI in Aquaculture

Fish are being depleted faster than they can be generated. The use of AI in aquaculture provides actionable insights to optimize the expenses on fish farms. Fish farms provide half of all the fish for human consumption. Free-floating aquapods are used for farming fish. The aquapods can accommodate thousands of fish. However, what happens when the aquapods need repair? To repair the aquapod manually is a time-consuming task. However, robots can complete the task of repairing aquapods in a safer and more cost-effective way. Underwater robots can easily examine and repair the nets of aquapods. Drones can provide applications for aquaculture both above and beneath the water. Monitoring offshore fish farms and inspecting underwater nets for damage and holes can be easily done by drones. Drones can also provide fish stock information and track environmental changes.

Sensors can be used in aquaculture to collect data such as oxygen levels, pH, salinity and pollution level of water. Detection of the hunger level of the fish by sensors can help farmers or even robots to feed them accordingly. Automated recirculation systems can circulate the water according to the information collected by sensors.

The consumption of animals and animal goods is increasing. The increased demand can be fulfilled by increasing the productivity and longevity of the animals. Therefore, the animal healthcare market size is demonstrating tremendous growth. The animal healthcare market size is expected to grow up to $69.44 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 5%.

AI in animal husbandry can help detect symptoms of any disease in animals by monitoring the daily behavior of the animal. For example, a drone can be used to collect images of the animal throughout the day. The images can then be fed into the AI machine to determine any behavioral changes. AI can help recognize a disease at an early stage and help provide better treatment to the animal. Thus, AI is not only improving the health of humans, its also helping improve the medication and health services provided to animals.

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Moo-ving The Animal Husbandry Industry Forward With AI - Forbes

ReportsnReports recently added a detailed overview and industry professional survey report on the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market. In this report, titled Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis by Technologies, By Product, By Application, By Distribution Channel, and Regional Forecast 2019-2026.

The scope of the report encompasses the major types of Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market that have been used, as well as the major applications being developed by industry, academic researchers and their commercialization offices, and government agencies. It analyzes current market status, examines future market drivers and presents forecasts of growth over the next five years. Technology developments, including the latest trends, are discussed. Other influential factors such as screening strategies for pharmaceuticals have also been included.

Download a FREE Sample Copy of Report at https://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/requestsample.aspx?name=2255402

The global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market is comprehensively profiled in the report, including a detailed study of the markets key drivers and restraints, major market players, and leading segments.

Report Scope:

The scope of this report is broad and covers various therapies currently under trials in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market. The market estimation has been performed with consideration for revenue generation in the forecast years 2018-2023 after the expected availability of products in the market by 2023. The global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market has been segmented by the following therapies: Senolytic drug therapy, Gene therapy, Immunotherapy and Other therapies which includes stem cell-based therapies, etc.

Revenue forecasts from 2028 to 2023 are given for each therapy and application, with estimated values derived from the expected revenue generation in the first year of launch.

The report also includes a discussion of the major players performing research or the potential players across each regional longevity and anti-senescence therapy market. Further, it explains the major drivers and regional dynamics of the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market and current trends within the industry.

The report concludes with a special focus on the vendor landscape and includes detailed profiles of the major vendors and potential entrants in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market.

Report Includes:

71 data tables and 40 additional tables An overview of the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2017 and 2018, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2023 Country specific data and analysis for the United States, Canada, Japan, China, India, U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Middle East and Africa Detailed description of various anti-senescence therapies, such as senolytic drug therapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy and other stem cell therapies, and their influence in slowing down aging or reverse aging process Coverage of various therapeutic drugs, devices and technologies and information on compounds used for the development of anti-ageing therapeutics A look at the clinical trials and expected launch of anti-senescence products Detailed profiles of the market leading companies and potential entrants in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market, including AgeX Therapeutics, CohBar Inc., PowerVision Inc., T.A. Sciences and Unity BiotechnologySummary:

Global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market deals in the adoption of different therapies and treatment options used to extend human longevity and lifespan. Human longevity is typically used to describe the length of an individuals lifetime and is sometimes used as a synonym for life expectancy in the demography. Anti-senescence is the process by which cells stop dividing irreversibly and enter a stage of permanent growth arrest, eliminating cell death. Anti-senescence therapy is used in the treatment of senescence induced through unrepaired DNA damage or other cellular stresses.

Global longevity and anti-senescence market will witness rapid growth over the forecast period (2018-2023) owing to an increasing emphasis on Stem Cell Research and an increasing demand for cell-based assays in research and development.

An increasing geriatric population across the globe and a rising awareness of antiaging products among generation Y and later generations are the major factors expected to promote the growth of global longevity and anti-senescence market. Factors such as a surging level of disposable income and increasing advancements in anti-senescence technologies are also providing traction to the global longevity and anti-senescence market growth over the forecast period (2018-2023).

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the total geriatric population across the globe in 2016 was over REDACTED. By 2022, the global geriatric population (65 years and above) is anticipated to reach over REDACTED. An increasing geriatric population across the globe will generate huge growth prospectus to the market.

Senolytics, placenta stem cells and blood transfusions are some of the hot technologies picking up pace in the longevity and anti-anti-senescence market. Companies and start-ups across the globe such as Unity Biotechnology, Human Longevity Inc., Calico Life Sciences, Acorda Therapeutics, etc. are working extensively in this field for the extension of human longevity by focusing on study of genomics, microbiome, bioinformatics and stem cell therapies, etc. These factors are poised to drive market growth over the forecast period.

Global longevity and anti-senescence market is projected to rise at a CAGR of REDACTED during the forecast period of 2018 through 2023. In 2023, total revenues are expected to reach REDACTED, registering REDACTED in growth from REDACTED in 2018.

The report provides analysis based on each market segment including therapies and application. The therapies segment is further sub-segmented into Senolytic drug therapy, Gene therapy, Immunotherapy and Others. Senolytic drug therapy held the largest market revenue share of REDACTED in 2017. By 2023, total revenue from senolytic drug therapy is expected to reach REDACTED. Gene therapy segment is estimated to rise at the highest CAGR of REDACTED till 2023. The fastest growth of the gene therapy segment is due to the Large investments in genomics. For Instance; The National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) had a budget grant of REDACTED for REDACTED research projects in 2015, thus increasing funding to REDACTED for approximately REDACTED projects in 2016.

Any Query or Discount? Ask our Expert at https://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/discount.aspx?name=2255402

The latest Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market report provides readers with a deeper understanding of potential target consumers to create a lucrative marketing strategy for the 2019-2026 forecast period. For entrepreneurs seeking information about potential customers, it will be particularly helpful. Selective statements provided by leading vendors would allow entrepreneurs to gain a deeper understanding of the local market and prospective customers.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Study Background

Study Goals and Objectives

Reasons for Doing This Study

Scope of Report

Methodology and Information Sources

Geographic Breakdown

Market Breakdown

Analysts Credentials

.Continued

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Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market Is Projected to Expand at A Steady CAGR Over the Forecast Period 2026 - Montana Ledger

Successful companies know and value their staff. They know that employees are essential factors in any organizations success and, thus, work diligently to provide good pay, satisfying benefits, and positive work environments. I've found that if you value and treat your people well, your company will succeed and reap the benefits.

Happy employees equals greater productivity. Why?

1. Your people are your biggest resource and can affect public perception of your brand. For example, as a frequent traveler, I specifically choose Southwest Airlines because of the happy, engaged and efficient employees. Organizations such as Southwest Airlines and others that perceive value in their employees often function efficiently and are profitable. Great companies should offer financial and health and wellness benefits, as well as community outreach, employee engagement, travel and training and development opportunities. Southwest in particular always seems to be looking for ways to engage, grow and foster employee development. When a company communicates appreciation for its employees, those employees, in turn, are likely to appreciate the company. According to Gallup, they also tend to demonstrate increased productivity and loyalty.

2. Your employees are your brand ambassadors the face of your company. If your employee retention is low and tenure is short, new client acquisition may prove to be more difficult.

3. Retraining, recruiting and rehiring are expensive. It is costly (and not very cost-effective) to continually recruit new employees, spend money on job posting sites or pay head hunters to find staff. According to the Society for Human Resources Management, the average cost per hire in 2016 was $4,129.

Rehiring and retraining don't just cost the company in revenue and time; every new employee will also have a lower productivity period until they learn the ropes.

4. Employee turnover is costly in terms of valuable resources, but it can also affect morale in both current employees and clients. Employees may begin to question the quality of the workplace environment, as well as their own prospects for employment longevity. When clients see new faces too often, they may lose that personal connection with your staff and, naturally, may come to wonder why your company cannot seem to retain its employees. All of this can have a remarkably detrimental effect on day-to-day business operations.

5. Value your employees and staff, and you can increase your companys profitability. Companies that provide satisfying pay, benefits, personal time off and perks are on the right track. Take a moment to reference online articles about companies with impressive benefits. These organizations go above and beyond in terms of taking care of their staff.

The bottom line is this: I believe companies that value their No. 1 asset (employees) are more likely to succeed than those that do not. It's not just what the companies offer in terms of pay, benefits, etc.; it is also the underlying emphasis of the value they place on their employees.

Prospective employees, in turn, should research a particular companys retention rate and whether or not that retention rate is related to the ways in which the organization shows it values its employees. Such research can help an employment seeker find a company that knows and truly appreciates the value of its staff. Read Glassdoor reviews, and sort through them to make sure youre getting a good picture of either the company for which you are currently working (or managing) or a company for which you hope to work (or manage). If the company is a revolving door and has poor retention, you may wish to consider other options or changes.

In todays workplace, there are many wonderful, employee-oriented companies and organizations. Find (or create) one that genuinely values its staff and that engenders a positive work environment.

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Five Reasons Employees Are Your Company's No. 1 Asset - Forbes

Healthcare is the biggest business in the world, and it is phenomenally broken, says Peter Diamandis, cofounder of the X-Prize, Singularity University, and Health Longevity Inc. So, do I think Apple and Google and Amazon can do a better job? A thousandfold.

In his upcoming book,The Future Is Faster Than You Think, which will hit bookshelves in late January 2020, Diamandis makes the case for why he believes big tech companies are going to be running healthcare by 2030. In December, he came to Fast Companys offices to make the case for why Big Tech is the doctor of the future.

Were going to see Apple and Amazon and Google and all the data-driven companies that are in our homes right now become our healthcare providers, he says, referring to smart speakers such as Googles Assistant, Amazons Alexa, and Apples HomePod. While many of these home voice assistants started with simple tasks like restocking home pantries and surfacing cooking tutorials, theyre already starting to move into the business of managing family well-being.

Amazon has put significant effort into making Alexa a health resource. In the United Kingdom, it has partnered with the National Health Service to answer basic health questions such as What are the symptoms for shingles? or What do you do if you have a cold? It has also made Alexa compliant with U.S. HIPAA laws and signed partnerships with major healthcare insurers and providers so patients can access or remit health information through the device. To date, there are nearly 2,000 health wellness skills on its platform.

Healthcare is the biggest business in the world, and it is phenomenally broken.

Similarly, the Google Assistant uses search to serve up information about medications, symptoms, and diseases, as well as physicians and medical services. Both the Google Home and the Echo have a Mayo Clinic-developed skill called First Aid that helps people navigate minor injuries. Meanwhile, Apples HealthKit takes a slightly different approach to tackling personal health. The kit connects to Apples own products such as the HomePod, iPhone, and Apple Watch as well as a bevy of devices from other companies, such as scales and blood pressure cuffs. The HealthKit can also tap into electronic medical records and other apps connected to hospitals and doctors. Essentially, it becomes a single repository for all your precious health data.

[Photo: courtesy of Apple]Diamandis believes the involvement of home health devices has the potential to lower costs by shifting care away from hospitals, where expenses can be much higher. This is the general idea behind telemedicine, but Diamandis thinks that big consumer tech companies will play a big role in driving that vision. He also thinks that these companies, which have mastered using personal data to anticipate user behavior, can use personal health data to make predictions about a persons long-term health prospects and advise them accordingly.

Diamandis posits that the more information is available about youyour genetic makeup, your health history, what you ate for breakfast, the bacteria in your bowel movement, how you slept last night, what kind of sound youre exposed to every daythe better artificial intelligence will be at spotting your potential for illness and suggesting care before the problem becomes intractable. This approach might shift the medical establishment from a structure that treats disease once its wreaking havoc in your body to one that prevents the disease from striking in the first place. It is literally hundreds if not thousands of times cheaper to do that, he says.

It is literally hundreds if not thousands of times cheaper to do that.

It is this cost savings that he believes will allow for new models of healthcare. Diamandis predicts Apple and Amazon will come up with a service where a person pays a company to keep them healthy, rather than to cover the cost of illness, based on their health history and daily activities. And big tech could not only influence a person to make healthier decisions, it could force them. Amy Webb, professor of strategic foresight at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, has spoken at length about the possibility that in a futuristic situation when Amazon, Google, and Apple run your entire house as well as your healthcare, smart refrigerators could cut you off from snacking between meals and smart garages could keep you from accessing your car in favor of walking to work.

Diamandis believes that by knowing a persons predisposition for disease, these companies could help them live a healthy lifestyle with their particular abnormalities in mind. Can you prevent those things, so we dont have these extraordinary costs? he asks. It will be these services, he believes, that will lead healthy people to dispense with traditional health insurance, leading to its ultimate demise.

Diamandiss vision of healthcare in 2030 raises a lot of questions. First and foremost, do these big tech companies want to become healthcare providers? So far, the only one that has really signaled its desire to become your doctor is Amazon. In addition to its work with Alexa, the company has launched its own health clinic for employees and is working on a secretive health project with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway called Haven. But Apple and Google, at least so far, seem content to integrate their technology with traditional health providers as a way of advancing their practices. Meanwhile, the insurance industry is more likely to adapt to a preventative health model than it is to collapse completely. A survey from last year shows insurers are increasingly signing contracts with healthcare providers for continuous, value-based careall for a flat raterather than a negotiated fee for a particular service.

But Diamandis is right to bet on artificial intelligence in some regards;it is already predicting the onset of disease with some success. Whats unclear is how far forward these predictions can reach and how meaningful big data is to understanding how our bodies work. For example, while it may seem clever to sequence the genome of every new child born, one of Diamandiss ideas, it actually isnt as effective as a blood test for catching certain disorders, reporting has shown. Furthermore, the promise of predictive medicine may rest on a flawed assumption.

In a recent paper, Henrik Vogt, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oslo Center for Medical Ethics, lays out why big data may not deliver in the way Diamandis suggests. He says that as technology gets better at spotting indications of illness or the prospect of sickness in the body, it will surface more and more signals. But a predisposition for a disease does not equal a diagnosis. The main problem for big data screening is that monitoring many features of the body with highly sensitive technologies is bound to detect many abnormalities but without the ability to tell which, if any, will become clinically manifest. As a result, more people may be labeled with more harmless conditions, he writes.

We have to accept that there will always be some degree of risk, morbidity, and mortality.

Even if a person has a high likelihood for a disease, they may never present symptoms, Vogt notes. As more services and devicessuch as direct-to-consumer gene sequencing and wearables with heart rate variation detectionget more sophisticated, there is more visibility into a persons body. But there is also a lot of noise in this information. Not every little genetic abnormality may be meaningful. Different bodies may have different idiosyncrasies. While there is more room for prevention as we are all more aware of our disease risk, Vogt makes the case that there is also a risk of overtreatment, which could be costly and may also cause patients harm. Vogt also explained via email that there might be issues in investing too much in big data rather than another approach, such as social or institutional change.

That is not to say there isnt a huge opportunity to mitigate disease through data and intelligence, Vogt writes, but doctors need to rethink risk. We have to accept that there will always be some degree of risk, morbidity, and mortality, Vogt writes.

That perspective flies in the face of precision medicine, which tends to assumes the human body is like a machine, Vogt explains over email, something that can be measured, analyzed, and ultimately controlled. The historian Yuval Harari, for example, rather uncritically built his book Homo Deus on this assumption: that organism is algorithm,' he says. But human bodies dont work like that; they are unique in composition and environmental circumstance.Both for biological and statistical reasons, there are limits to how precisely and accurately the trajectory of a human life can be predicted. This obviously limits the promise of predictive medicine.

This point of view is crucial, because it is at the heart of some of the skepticism surrounding a big data-focused approach to medicine. It is the reason thatApple has doctors on staffto advise on the development of its medically minded hardware. For big data to really drive better health outcomes, as Vogt points out, there will have to be standards about what information is actionable and what is not.

Diamandis seems to concede that big data is not everything, Ultimately whats best is human and AI collaboratively, he says. But I thinkfor reading x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, genome data, and so forth, that once we put human ego aside, machine learning is a much better way to do that.

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Amazon and Apple will be our doctors in the future, says tech guru Peter Diamandis - Fast Company

Dive Brief:

While technology may be the most obvious herald of a workplace transformation, culture and upskilling still concern experts and execs in the space. In late 2019, Glassdoor said 2020 would mark the start of a "culture-first decade"in recruiting, particularly regarding diversity and inclusion. However, a study released in early March 2020 by Accenture found that culture is not a top strategic priority for company leaders; instead, financial performance and brand recognition took the top spots.

"Given that this is primarily a people initiative," the Infosys study said, "we hope to see more CHRO involvement in the near future."

The Glassdoor study did say technology particularly the adoption of mobile devices would be a major concern for companies in the new decade. Employee experience with technology may be a pain point; in an index created and released by Nexthink, large companies scored lowest on four of the five categories measured. Categories included collaboration platforms, productivity tools, workplace devices and business services and applications. Employers have good reason to focus on employee experience with tech, according to various studies. Those that focus on the human experience tend to have better employee performance across the board, Deloitte said in a study released in August 2019.

While left behind in the Infosys study, upskilling may be a prime concern for the longevity of a workplace transformation, a January Randstad studynoted, especially because the talent shortage remains a top worry for CEOs. While a majority of HR respondents (91%) said they believe it's their organization's responsibility to reskill workers, only 22% are training or reskilling their workforce to address shortages or digital transformation.

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Are CEOs displacing CHROs in the workplace transformation? - HR Dive