With ongoing workforce shortages in the technology sector, much has been said about the need for government to get more creative in its IT recruiting efforts. But theres a second half of the equation that often gets overlooked. As recruiting gets ever more competitive, theres a growing need for enhanced IT resiliency.

CIOs need to look at workforce planning for the long term. Its no longer enough for IT to just keep the lights on, maintaining a functional and secure infrastructure. In a successful IT team, skilled professionals need defined pathways, continuous training opportunities and a sense that government offers them a place to build a career within a positive work culture.

In a sense, demographic changes work in favor of state and local efforts to promote IT longevity. For a generation of workers who saw their parents work lives disrupted by the recession, a long-term career in government may look tempting. In government agencies, you dont get fired easily. They also have defined benefits: You have a timeline to retirement, you have safety over time, said David K. Johnson, a Forrester principal analyst serving chief information officers. Two big sources of uncertainty are wiped off the table.

In order to leverage that advantage, government CIOs need to work hand-in-glove with human resource professionals. They must emphasize ongoing training and build a strong workplace culture. They also need to meet emerging demands for a flexible workplace. And then theres the money: When corporate dollars lure top talent away, government has to raise the stakes, without busting the budget.

All this may sound like a tall order, but workforce resiliency is an IT imperative. With state and local government spending more than $107 billion a year on technology according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a stable workforce is a must-have, and it starts with a solid relationship between IT and HR.

In Fulton County, Ga., the top HR executive considers himself a lead partner in promoting IT resilience.

We try to have conversations on a monthly basis to figure out what their needs are, said Kenneth L. Hermon Jr., chief human resources officer. When we hear that they are losing a database administrator to Dekalb County for $2,000, HR can scour all our counterparts and develop a retention policy. Then if we hear an employee is leaving for another entity, IT has the ability to counter that offer.

When such relationships dont emerge organically, experts say the burden falls to IT leadership to initiate stronger ties. Its the role of the CIO to build a more proactive and consistent relationship with HR, so that they fully understand the challenges that IT is facing, said Gartner analyst Alia Mendonsa. When the two are working in sync, a powerful synergy can occur. IT can provide HR with modernized management tools, and HR in turn can provide key market information to help make compensation packages more competitive.

When IT and HR are teaming effectively, one of the first areas they will likely address is training a key component in the overall formula for IT resilience.

Because IT is a moving target, most technology professionals rank ongoing training among their top professional concerns. Some 63 percent of government entities devote funds to employee development, according to the Center for State and Local Government Excellence (SLGE) 2019 workforce survey.

On the flip side, a lack of skills enhancement will undermine team longevity. When government employees are frustrated, its because they dont have the basic tools they need to do their job, Johnson said.

In Cabarrus County, N.C., CIO Todd Shanley offers a range of online training opportunities, and he backs up those classes with a comprehensive training plan developed in collaboration with supervisors and staff members. What does the county need, what are you interested in? Then we build the plan around the places where those come together, he said.

Hermon said that Fulton County has been focused more acutely on employee development lately, specifically as a part of its IT employee retention efforts. You might have been here for five or 10 years, and weve never sent you to a formal certification program or a training program, he said. It was obvious to us that employees were clamoring for those kinds of things. They wanted us to show that we believe in them and that we would invest in them.

In Tennessee, Chief Learning Officer Antonio Meeks oversees a four-tier certificate program, a pyramid of learning that includes both nontechnical and technical skills. For IT professionals, it is a strategic methodology for developing employees and ensuring they can be successful in their roles, he said.

People arent required to follow the path, but for those seeking advancement within the department, it helps to have a well-defined avenue for training opportunities. Its a way of letting employees know that you are invested in them, you are invested in their growth and invested in their development, Meeks said. We know that 90 percent of millennials think learning and development opportunities are a reason to stick with an organization, so this is a driver for retention.

He noted that while practical skills factor high on the states training regimen, IT leaders also need to put a heavy emphasis on the soft side. We are shoring up their people skills: working with others, team building, he said. Theres nothing worse than having to go to the mean IT person in order to get things done, or the IT person who makes you feel like you are dumb for asking the question.

In addition to training and certification, HR and IT have another area of common interest: They can work collaboratively on job classifications in order to ensure the right people are in the right places, and are receiving appropriate compensation.

The duties for a person in technology can change pretty frequently, and we need to refresh those duties so that when we look at the market, the job description truly aligns with the work that person is performing, Shanley said.

In addition to ensuring accurate salaries, job reclassification can be used as a means to hang on to rising talent. We grew someone off our help desk to support our physical security systems, Shanley said. We saw what he was interested in, and were able to pull him in that direction. To retain that individual long term, we reclassified a position in order to give him those additional responsibilities.

This kind of strategic use around job classification can be a boon to long-term personnel management.

When people have a sense that they are working outside their classification, they can get frustrated if they feel like they are being asked to do things that were never part of the job description, said Gerald Young, senior research associate at the Center for State and Local Government Excellence. If you can reclassify a position and bring it up to date, there can be recognition and perhaps even compensation for those additional tasks.

These specific areas of overlap between HR and IT, areas such as training and job classification, can also be seen in a broader context. They are part of the cultural fabric of the institution. That fabric not just what we do, but who we are and how we work forms the backbone of any IT resiliency effort. In order for people to stay around long term, they need to feel personally invested in the enterprise.

To that end, its worth taking a deeper look at the ways in which that culture gets communicated. The ins and outs of employee engagement are another key element in the overall retention effort.

For Joe Cudby, engagement begins with the work itself.

The language I use with my team is play, said Cudby, Indianas chief technology officer. When you can find something that is really interesting and engaging, then you can deal with the other things a challenging culture or lower compensation. If the work is engaging and you can see the impact of what you do, that can compensate for a lot.

He says the best way to foster that sense of engagement is to give people choices in their work. Hell define the big job, the major task at hand, and then invite his team members to carve out for themselves the bits that seem most interesting. When I give people the opportunity to have some selection in what they would do, they tend to be more engaged in it, he said.

Across state and local government, the most successful employee engagement efforts are those that start with the employees themselves. Rather than pushing information from the top down, successful agencies invite workers to take the lead.

This is a participatory model, one that listens and encourages ideas to be explored and implemented, Young said. Those employees are more likely to feel valued within the organization.

This approach goes beyond empowering employees to try out new approaches or take on new tasks. Its about letting them voice their ideas and concerns, their satisfactions and dissatisfactions along the way, Young said. You need an organizational culture that can hear from them and grow as a result.

In Fulton County, Ga., Hermon makes that tangible with an employee engagement survey, conducted annually for each of the past four years. Hes not alone: 29 percent of respondents in the SLGE report said they use such tools.

Hermon said the key to success is not just listening, but also acting on what he hears. We try to fix the things that can be fixed quickly and we put plans in place to tackle the others, he said. Responsiveness in turn drives engagement: People feel empowered when those above respond to their concerns.

Its about developing trust between myself and the IT people, Hermon said. We also have chat sessions where we invite employees from the IT department, with no managers in the room, so that they can speak freely and can tell us what is on their minds.

Others look to drive engagement through transparency. When people have a solid understanding of whats going on across the IT shop, the theory goes, they are more likely to be personally invested in the outcomes.

In Cabarrus County, for example, Shanley uses wellness dashboards to track the progress of a wide range of projects. When people have a better understanding of what is going on in the entire environment, it improves the mood across the entire department, he said.

State and local IT leaders can listen thoughtfully and create a supportive culture. They can offer training and partner with HR to shape career paths. But lets get down to brass tacks: Can they let you work from home, or pay you more? These are arguably harder questions, but some are finding practical answers.

We have a good cross-section of IT people who telecommute, Hermon said. But weve learned from the mistakes of industry. We set a maximum of three straight days of telecommuting, so you still get that level of accountability and those interactions with colleagues.

Cudby has been working from home for years and he encourages his staff to do the same. But he admits it is a balancing act. When its all in the cloud and nothings on prem, I dont need you to be physically here to do your work, he said. But we need to teach managers new ideas about accountability how to work in that kind of environment and how to manage in that kind of environment.

Striking that balance is critical to long-term success. While just 56 percent of government workers say their pay is competitive, 88 percent say their benefits are on par with industry, Young said. Flexible work, including work-from-home and flexible scheduling, helps to drive that stat.

Money can be trickier theres only so much but some have found creative ways to close the gap. For example, some 40 percent of state and local entities encourage retention with merit-based salary increases, according to the SLGE survey.

Fulton County has implemented raises of up to 3 percent every three years based on departmental performance. We wanted to incentivize the entire workforce to work as a team, so every department had to tie their specific goals to the countys broader goals, Hermon said. The compensation piece is important. Our salaries will never be private-sector levels, but we need them to be competitive.

In Cabarrus County, HR conducts a salary survey every two years and adjusts pay rates accordingly. In Tennessee, the average employee salary has gone up $5,000 over the past five years. We are really working on that, including looking at IT and reclassifying positions, which has led to salary increases, Meeks said.

Money fixes a lot of things, but its not the only factor on the table. Even when salaries are stuck, there is much that IT leaders can do to position state and local government as an employer of choice.

Government is constrained financially, but pay is only one dimension of satisfaction, Johnson said. You can provide training and growth opportunities that people couldnt get in the private sector. You can give them the chance to build their skills and to find something meaningful in their work.

All that together can add up to an IT team that is resilient over the long haul.

Originally posted here:
Government Finds New Ways to Develop and Retain Talent - Government Technology

Free-to-play has existed for two decades now, so why do questions persist over its sustainability? Sam Forrest argues that the model can be profitable, provided that operators focus on engaging players for the long term and treat payers and non-payers fairly

Two decades ago, the South Korea-based company, Nexon, pioneered a new model known as free to play (FTP). It was widely believed to be the answer to combating piracy, one of the most prevalent issues in the industry at the time.

The logic tracked well why would you steal what you can get for free? No one could have predicted the widespread and enduring success of the model, which has since been regularly modified and improved to suit the changing needs of the industry.

FTP titles drove the bulk of spending last year, accounting for 80% of total digital game spending in 2019 according to Nielsens SuperData Research Group.

While once solely associated with casual mobile and PC games, FTP has since made its mark on the console market, attracting global attention for premium titles including Fortnite: Battle Royale, Dota 2 and League of Legends.

The core methodology behind the FTP model is that players can access most of the content within a gaming title without incurring any costs, while those players who want to progress through the game more quickly or access additional content can pay for the pleasure.

Despite a large portion of their content being free to users, developers still make a profit as, in the vast majority of FTP games, the paying players subsidise the FTP players. The truth in this claim is apparent in a recent 2019 monetisation report from Swrve, which states that 64.5% of total revenue comes from the top 10% of paying users.

Prioritising fair playPaying users can purchase perks that they would not have access to as a free player, resulting in access to hidden features or obtaining superficial cosmetic items such as new skins or gadgets.

So, how do developers ensure equality among payers and players? Guaranteeing that FTP and paying players are treated equally within the game, beyond what they pay for, is a tricky task. While paying players are an integral revenue stream for developers, the active player base that comes from FTP has immense value within the game.

If the two distinct player bases are treated fairly, it creates longevity in the game, allowing it to grow in terms of liquidity and revenue.

Evidence of this strategy being successful can be seen in a number of online games. In the social casino genre, KamaGames Pokerist allows paying players to buy virtual chips that permit them to play for longer or to access pro tables where chip requirements are high.

In terms of equality for all players, however, the companys random number generator guarantees that, regardless of how many chips are purchased, the odds of winning remain the same for all players. While the purchased chips facilitate continued access to the game, the act of buying chips in no way enhances a players chances of winning, nor skews the odds of winning in their favour.

There is a brief and recent history of games developers unfairly prioritising paying users, providing them with significant in-game advantages not available to others.

When this occurs beyond allowing paying players to access diverting content such as a mini game or more creative skins, the gaming world is quick to accuse developers of diverging from FTP to a pay-to-win model.

For true gaming enthusiasts, this anger stems from the knowledge that, no matter how many hours they spend toiling away in their chosen game, they are incapable of reaching the same level of success as that of a paying user. In effect, the free experience is cheapened to such an extent that the prospect of winning is rendered impossible.

Anyone even remotely within the sphere of gaming is aware of how global organisations have inspired a widespread backlash following the over-milking of in-game microtransactions. For EA, Star Wars Battlefront II should have been one of the biggest gaming success stories of 2017.

Yet, its onerous and expensive microtransactions, on top of an initial cover charge, instigated an animosity in gamers that spread industry-wide like wildfire. First-week sales were 60% down on Battlefront I, hitting the companys share price and leading it to overhaul its approach to microtransactions.

Talk of loot boxes and microtransactions have the industry buzzing, with many now regularly targeting operators who prioritise microtransactions over gameplay, or worse, those who may encourage a gambling mentality among impressionable players. This global criticism has resulted in several countries banning games that host loot boxes.

This confluence of events, along with the appearance of EA and Epic Games at the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, serves as a warning of what can happen when titles quietly attempt to transform from an FTP or pay-to-play game to a pay-to-win scenario.

Why bankroll free players?Some question how the FTP model can be profitable for developers, even when executed perfectly, as the majority of users wont ever part with a single cent. While its clear that FTP is not foolproof, empires have been built by those who can crack the formula.

Companies such as KamaGames, Supercell, Tencent and Niantic can boast annual revenues in the millions (and, for some, billions). In many cases, it has been done without the impressive budget of AAA titles.

The fact is, despite 72% of players only ever making one purchase and 47.7% of purchases being made on the first day of installation, according to Swrve, the sheer number of players that these titles attract ensures profit.

For developers, one of the greatest advantages of FTP will always be that it creates a recurring revenue stream instead of solitary, one-off payments. Also, in exposing a higher number of players to the game, the likelihood of down the funnel conversions increases as players continue to enjoy the game and become more invested.

This is why operators who adopt this model are becoming increasingly more devoted to introducing mechanics which guarantee continued, long-term engagement. On its most basic level, and as far as it relates to the traditional mobile standard of FTP titles, players can either slowly grind and progress through a games content for free or choose to pay and speed up their progression.

Outside of revenue garnered from direct monetary transactions, for some developers, customer data such as social media and demographic information is of notable value. This data can highlight the type of user, in terms of gender, age or even income, who is most interested in their product, allowing operators to direct future campaigns and promotions at this audience.

Furthermore, when you are looking at a multiplayer game, the most vital contribution non-payers make is simply their engagement with the game. Their presence alone is enough to champion the argument for the FTP model. After all, little can compare to the challenge of going head-to-head against an authentic human rival and emerging the undisputed victor.

Through increasing player liquidity, non-payers enhance the overall quality of experience for the payers and have rightfully earned their place within the game.

The ideal FTP title is fair, enhances gameplay for payers but doesnt create a negative experience for non-paying users. Yet, just like a simple app game, mastering FTP has proven to be harder than it looks.

Sam Forrest, the director of global communications for KamaGames, is a highly proficient PR and communications veteran with over 25 years of experience in the interactive entertainment sector. Throughout his career, he has worked with a wide number of well-known global entertainment brands including Disney/Pixar, WWE, UFC, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Hasbro and Marvel.

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Finding value in F2P - iGaming Business

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women

This quote by Madeliene Albright certainly gets one to sit up and make the intention to help, pull up or support people from their tribe. Be it a women community or a business group that you are a part of, a key element for collective growth for entrepreneurs is Collaboration.

A Stanford University study emphasizes that A defining aspect of human society is that people work together toward common ends. Business collaboration has the potential to fulfill the growth gaps in your venture. Whether it is getting complementary competencies, backward-forward linkages or expanding into new markets; working together is the secret sauce for a successful business.

I am a great advocate of collaborations and strategic partnerships. But we also need to look at how to make them more effective and work for us in a meaningful way. Here are the top 3 ways to do it:

Identifying the right collaborator:

Its very important to make collaboration last. And for that you need to have partners that synergize and complement your business. For this begin with defining who they are, what domain, profile, are they a part of your supply chain or value chain or they are market linkages that help you get to new clients. You are teaming up with them for a specific agenda. So commercial arrangement alone cannot be the deciding factor. Think through and make a list of criteria to select the right partners.

The correct way to approach:

When you meet people at events, digital networks or through referrals, approach with the intention of building relationships rather than transactions. Share your personal stories, walk them through your entrepreneurial journey to find similarities and tie a hook to the common areas. Apart from developing a trusting relationship, you need to clearly define the roles and responsibilities for each kind of the collaborator. Its not only about how they are relevant to you, but also about what they are looking for and how you can add value to them

Making it a win-win:

Clarity is of prime importance in making a business arrangement work. So a well communicated partnership strategy, defined goals and objectives, workable operational plan and systems for monitoring and measurement must be established in initial stages. If there are cultural and geographic differences, make sure you have project management and communication plan in place at the very beginning. It is always a good idea to have things documented as well as get your collaborator agreement contract with the mutually agreed upon clauses. Remember, we are thinking long-term.

Fern Koh, the founder of luxury beauty products Fernberry in Hong Kong says Collaborations are an amazing way to extend your clientele, as well as to tap into new markets that youve never thought of before.

The power of collaboration for any business whether a startup or a small business or multinational mainstay can result in sustainable growth and longevity. We understand the importance of coming together, lets put the focus on making it more effective.

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The power of collaboration in business - Thrive Global

Last week in my Sonic the Hedgehog review, I lamented that the title character was a cleaned-up cartoon rather than the realistic CGI abomination we were promised that would have made the movie a classic of terrible cinema. This week, with The Call of the Wild, we do indeed get a realistic CGI abomination of a main character, but unlike Sonic, the movie surrounding the character is halfway decent. Its no fun having a distracting, unnerving computerized animal in this one.

The film, based on the classic novel by Jack London, follows a dog named Buck from his spoiled life in California to his dognapping and sale into service to his stint as a sled dog under a determined mailman (Omar Sy) to his role as a companion to grizzled loner John Thornton (Harrison Ford). The spoiled portion is full of predictable dog hijinks. Hes told not to eat food off the picnic table, but then he walks up to his owner (Bradley Whitford) with a drumstick in his mouth, and you know hes eaten food off the picnic table. I know this sounds horrible to say, but I was glad when Buck got dognapped so this could no longer be a dog eats food off the picnic table movie.

Buck is shipped to the Arctic, and cruelly taught obedience by a guy with a club that Buck frankly seems perfectly capable of taking. He learns the value of teamwork while helping to pull the mailmans sled, so much so that he eventually replaces the power-hungry lead dog and helps the mailman be on time for the first time ever. Then hes sold to arrogant fortune hunter Hal (Dan Stevens), who wants him for a trek to a legendary river of gold, even though the guy seems incapable of forging even the tamest of streams. Thornton rescues Buck from the villain and the two go off on adventure of their own, here Buck struggles to fight the temptation (call if you will) to run off with a pack of fellow canines. It turns out that the two are camping at the site of the very river Hal wanted to find, and he tracks them down for a confrontation, even though our heroes braved an arduous journey and Hal has been established as terrible traveler in a plot hole Im not willing to overlook.

Whatever problems there may be with the script (and dont blame London, Hal doesnt enjoy such longevity in the book), theyre nothing compared to the problems with the very look of Buck. Its not like hes animated in the traditional sense, hes rendered using motion capture technology. Lets say the movie wants Buck and Harrison Ford in the same scene, one where Ford talks to the animal. Forget having Ford talk to a real dog or even a blank space where a dog will be added later. He has to talk to a guy wearing a highly sophisticated motion capture suit for a movie set in the 19th century. Ford actually pulls it off, its the visual effects that fail. Motion capture is great for fantastical creatures, but the technology hasnt yet reached the point where I can look at a motion capture dog and recognize it as an actual dog.

There are actually a number of positive elements to The Call of the Wild: Bucks journey is compelling, the scenery is beautiful, Sy is affable in his role, and Ford gives a dignified performance. But its all undone by the fundamental truth that the dog looks phony. I suppose it could be worse. Buck could be designed to look like an animal/human actor hybrid, but I dont see any non-musical being dumb enough to do that.

Grade: C

The Call of the Wild is rated PG for some violence, peril, thematic elements and mild language. Itsrunning time is 100 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at [emailprotected]

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Movie Review: 'The Call of the Wild' - Lewiston Sun Journal

If you can't defeat death, what if you could postpone it, or at least postpone the diseases commonly associated with getting old?

Many people, especially the ultra-wealthy in Silicon Valley, are investing money into companies trying to answer exactly those questions.

Amazon CEOJeff Bezos and billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel have both invested in South San Francisco-based Unity Biotechnology, a company whose mission is to "extend human healthspan, the period in one's life unburdened by the disease of aging."

In 2013, Google formed aging research company Calico. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to aging research, The New Yorker reported.

There are a slew of other companies tackling aging, including BioAge, BioViva, The Longevity Fund, AgeX and the Methuselah Foundation.

"Whenever you meet a fundamental human need, there's a market," said Michael West, a gerontologist and CEO of AgeX Therapeutics."And in this case, the market for age-related disease and aging is a trillion dollar market."

But people claiming to know what you ought to do to live longer isn't anything new. Historically, as is still the case today, a lot of it just doesn't work. So what's real? And what's just wishful thinking?

Watch the video to find out more.

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The ultra-rich are investing in companies trying to reverse aging. Is it going to work? - CNBC

Image Credit: yinfui/Shutterstock.com

The general premise of an ecobrick is very simple: gather all of the materials you cannot recycle at home or locally, and pack them as tightly as you can into a plastic bottle. This tight tube of plastic becomes a building block, which can then be used for a range of things from sculptures to construction projects. Could this be the best solution to plastic pollution, or do they pose more problems further down the line?

The ecobrick movement has gathered momentum over the last few years as plastic pollution has made phenomenal global headlines. It has become an increasingly popular material to build with, especially in developing countries, as plastic is exceptionally easy to come across at home or littered in the streets.

Typically mixed with natural building methods such as cob, adobe, or wattle & daub, the ecobricks provide an excellent structure to build with. They also act as a natural insulator due to the tightly-packed insulating plastics.

The Global Ecobrick Alliance has been active since 2015, and have provided extensive guidelines on how to properly make ecobricks. Their principles encompass a circular, cradle-to-cradle design to increase the longevity of the ecobrick and its components. For example, they recommend silicone and not glue to adjoin each brick, so that it can be easily taken apart and re-purposed if needs be.

Using natural building materials as opposed to cement also ensures that the bricks can be extricated undamaged, should the building be taken down. From homes to chairs to sculpted works of art: the whole premise of up-cycling plastic to form useful products is inherently sustainable.

There are many positive aspects of using non-recyclables in this way. The BBC expos War on Plastic reported that over 60% of the plastic that the UK recycles is being sent overseas and dumped in countries in Asia, like Malaysia. Waste is littering the shores, as many countries simply do not have the recycling infrastructure to deal with the number of plastics produced.

Ecobricks are part of a solution that enables people to not only clean up their rivers and coastlines, but these once-wasted materials can be used to build things of direct benefit to local communities. Several NGOs are also offering plastic incentives, whereby individuals are paid to collect waste plastics and make ecobricks for various projects.

Their design also reinforces the need to close many of our industrial loops and start investing in circular economies as opposed to the throwaway culture that is causing harm to the natural world. Plastic has received hugely negative press lately, but it is important to remember that, often, it is a highly useful material.

Creating homes from plastic waste and natural materials is smart: the plastics are sturdy and will stand the test of time, and they can be used over and over again for decades to come.

Despite their obvious benefits, there are concerns that making external structures from plastic may not be beneficial for the planet. These non-recyclable plastics are made from inorganic chemicals, which may leech into the surrounding environment as the ecobricks are exposed to the sun. This could cause immediate harm to the soil and eventually reach the water table where these chemicals threaten aquatic plant and animal life.

The photodegradation also makes the plastic brittle and susceptible to breaking, thereby releasing micro-plastics into the area: proven to be detrimental to animal and human health. There is criticism that ecobricks do not offer a solution to the plastic problem, and instead is simply delaying dealing with these problems for another few hundred years.

Ecobricks certainly offer a ready-made solution to the immediate problems posed by plastic. They are a hugely powerful tool for cleaning up local areas, educating schools and communities, and creating structures that will stand the test of time.

Further thought should certainly be given to the longevity of the plastics and the potential environmental impacts further down the line. However, ecobricks certainly form a potent reminder of humankinds poor management of waste and reinforce the need for radical change across the plastic industry.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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What are Ecobricks and are They a Solution to Plastic Pollution? - AZoCleantech

A new fad diet includes consuming no water or liquids of any kind for many hours or days at a time, which is dangerous. (Dreamstime/TNS)(Photo: Dreamstime / TNS)

A new fad diet making the rounds on wellness influencer Instagram wont actually help you lose weight. And it could cause dehydration, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, organ failure even death.

Its called dry fasting. It goes beyond what most of us would consider fasting abstaining from solid food or liquid calories and requires consuming no water or liquids of any kind for many hours or even days at a time.

Instagram and other social media sites have provided a glossy new platform for extremely dubious health and nutrition claims. Posts about dry fasting often tout the need to heal or rest or reset your kidneys, or boost their filtration. In practice, what dry fasting will do is make you look a bit more toned, because your body is using up the water in your cells for energy.

Even more dubious claims suggest that dry fasting forces your body to burn toxins, or fat, or inflammation, or tumors. It does not. When you stop feeding your body calories, it breaks down muscle and fat. The toxic byproducts of that breakdown process build up in your system, requiring extra hydration to flush them out.

In other words, if youre abstaining from food, your body needs more water, not less.

Experts agree: There is no dietary or nutritional reason to go on a dry fast.

I dont recommend it at all, said Dr. Pauline Yi, a physician at UCLA Health Beverly Hills who regularly treats patients in their late teens and early 20s. She said intermittent fasting and other fasting-type diets are a popular topic with patients, and she has no problem with people trying them out.

But I also tell them when youre fasting you have to drink water, she said. You cannot go without hydration.

The majority of the human body is water. Your individual water consumption needs depend on your height, weight, health and the climate, but generally speaking, Yi said people should be consuming at least 68 ounces almost nine cups of water every day.

Cary Kreutzer, an associate professor at USCs schools of gerontology and medicine whose area of expertise includes nutrition and diet, says digestive systems arent meant to have extended breaks. She likened making your kidneys go without water to letting your cars engine run out of oil. You can basically burn out some parts of the car that youre going to have to get replaced, she said. You dont want those replacement parts to include your vital organs.

Another unintended consequence of dry fasting: It sets your body in water-conservation mode.

Your body likes homeostasis, said Yi, the physician. If youre going to cut back on water, your body will produce hormones and chemicals to hold onto any water.

So while you might gain a very short-term benefit by looking a tiny bit more toned while youre severely dehydrated (body-builders have been known to dry fast before competitions for that reason), once you consume liquid again, your body rebounds and desperately hangs on to even more water than before. Its like yo-yo dieting in fast motion.

Dry fasting is not the same thing as intermittent fasting, which has become a popular fad diet in recent years. There are different variations of intermittent fasting, but most people start with 16 hours of fasting followed by eight hours of eating. Martin Berkhan created the LeanGains 16:8 intermittent fasting guide and is widely credited with popularizing the diet. On his website, leangains.com, Berkhan writes that during the 16-hour fasting window, coffee, calorie-free sweeteners, diet soda, sugar-free gum and up to a teaspoon of milk in a cup of coffee wont break the fast.

The subreddit for fasting, r/fasting, has an Introduction to Intermittent Fasting guide that contains the following tips for surviving the fasting portion of your day:

Drink lots of cold water

Always carry water, a canteen, a bottle, or keep a full glass within sight

Water, water, water, water

Valter Longo has studied starvation, fasting and calorie restriction in humans for nearly 30 years. Hes currently the director of the Longevity Institute at USC and a professor of gerontology. He developed the Fasting-Mimicking Diet, or FMD, a fasting-type diet with small prepackaged meals intended to provide the health and longevity benefits of a five-day fast without requiring a doctors supervision. Fasting-type diets have grown in popularity in recent years for a simple reason, he said: Because they work.

But he said hes not aware of any reputable studies about the effects of dry fasting, and said he wouldnt even consider putting one together, also for a simple reason: Its incredibly dangerous.

For sure, the body needs to reset, but there are safe ways of doing that, and dry fasting is not one of them, Longo said. We require water.

His work has also involved looking at how cultures and religions have engaged with starvation and fasting throughout human history, and says he hasnt heard of any that involved extended fasting without water. The closest is Ramadan, during which observers go without food or water during daylight hours but at most, that lasts for 16 hours, and its preceded and followed by extensive hydration.

If someone tries dry fasting for a full day, Longo said, they risk side effects like developing kidney stones. Longer than that, and you start risking your life.

Some proponents of dry fasting eschew water but recommend hydrating with fresh fruits and vegetables. Hydrating with fruit is certainly better than not hydrating at all. An orange has about a half-cup of water in it; to get to the recommended 68 ounces of water a day, youd have to eat around 17 oranges. Thats a lot of peeling.

So, in conclusion: Dry fasting puts you at risk of kidney stones or organ failure. There are no known, proven long-term benefits to doing it. Though different types of fasts and fasting diets can be beneficial, there is no medical evidence to suggest you need to stop consuming water for any period of time, or that water from fruit is better for you than filtered drinking water. Do not take medical advice from a photo of a person in a sarong.

Please drink some water.

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Steer clear of the dry fasting diet trend - York Dispatch

Denver7 has partnered with Dr. James Rouse, a renowned naturopathic doctor, to launch an initiative called The Human gRace Project, which is designed to give you tools to help lessen stress and deal with the chaos of modern life.

This project will utilize science, spirituality and personal development to bring positivity and peace to your week. The Human gRace Project will help bring relief from our stress filled, fast-paced, always-connected world with solutions to help with never-ending worries about bills, traffic, growth and safety of families.

Each topic will be presented Sundays on Denver7 social media accounts. On Mondays on Denver7 news at 6 a.m., Dr. Rouse will share insights to help you start off your work week.

Professionally, Im a big believer in lifestyle medicine. said Dr. Rouse. I love how we cultivate diet, how we cultivate certain rituals in our day, who we spend time with. All of those things have a major impact on our physiology on our neurochemistry and our longevity.

Each week, Dr. Rouse and Denver7 reporter Micah Smith will then go in-depth on each topic. Those segments will be available on the Denver7 streaming app on services like Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.

The goal of The Human gRace Project is to help provide strategies to cut through the negativity on social media and beyond and provide useful information to lessen stress.

Read more:
The Human gRace Project: Start your week with positivity, tools to cut through negativity - The Denver Channel

Market Study Report, LLC, adds a comprehensive research of the ' Cellular Reprogramming Tools market' that mentions valuable insights pertaining to market share, profitability graph, market size, SWOT analysis, and regional proliferation of this industry. This study incorporates a disintegration of key drivers and challenges, industry participants, and application segments, devised by analyzing profuse information about this business space.

The research report on Cellular Reprogramming Tools market provides a granular assessment of this business vertical and includes information concerning the market tendencies such as revenue estimations, current remuneration, market valuation, and market size over the estimated timeframe.

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An overview of the performance assessment of the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market is enlisted. The document also comprises of crucial insights pertaining to the major industry trends and the expected growth rate of the said market. The study encompasses specifics related to the growth avenues as well as the restraining factors for this business space.

Major factors underlined in the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market report:

Considering the geographical landscape of the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market:

Cellular Reprogramming Tools Market Segmentation: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific & Middle East and Africa.

A summary of the details offered in the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market report:

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An overview of the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market in terms of product type and application scope:

Product landscape:

Product types: Adult Stem Cells, Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Other

Key parameters included in the report:

Application Spectrum:

Application segmentation: Drug Development, Regenerative Medicine, Toxicity Test, Academic Research and Other

Specifics offered in report:

Additional information mentioned in the report:

Other insights regarding the competitive scenario of the Cellular Reprogramming Tools market:

Vendor base of Cellular Reprogramming Tools market: Celgene, FUJIFILM Holdings, BIOTIME, Advanced Cell Technology, Mesoblast, Human Longevity, Cynata, STEMCELL Technologies, Astellas Pharma, Osiris Therapeutics, EVOTEC and Japan Tissue Engineering

Key parameters as per the report:

Highlights of the report:

Key questions answered in the report:

For More Details On this Report: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-cellular-reprogramming-tools-market-growth-status-and-outlook-2020-2025

Some of the Major Highlights of TOC covers:

Chapter 1: Methodology & Scope

Definition and forecast parameters

Methodology and forecast parameters

Data Sources

Chapter 2: Executive Summary

Business trends

Regional trends

Product trends

End-use trends

Chapter 3: Cellular Reprogramming Tools Industry Insights

Industry segmentation

Industry landscape

Vendor matrix

Technological and innovation landscape

Chapter 4: Cellular Reprogramming Tools Market, By Region

Chapter 5: Company Profile

Business Overview

Financial Data

Product Landscape

Strategic Outlook

SWOT Analysis

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Cellular Reprogramming Tools Market to Witness Robust Expansion Throughout the F - News.MarketSizeForecasters.com

Film adaptations of video games never arrive quietly. Gaming is a billion-dollar industry; fans are notably, even infamously, hardcore. And when it comes to transitioning particularly cartoonish gaming heroes from their fantastically illogical worlds to a conventional, human-filled, real-life Earth, filmmakers face an even more daunting task of suspending our disbelief.

And for protective fans of classic video gaming mascots like Pikachu, Mario, or Sonic the Hedgehog, it would be especially impossible to forgive any crew who turned a beloved character into an unrecognizable figure. Its hard to trust Hollywood, the land of the Minions, to not reduce beloved, familiar faces into sentient, insufferably quippy Happy Meal toys.

When various studios announced live-action films based on all three of the above characters in the mid-2010s, fans grimaced. Sonic the Hedgehog, Paramount Pictures stab at the electric-blue Sega mainstay, is the second to make it to theaters. But as early marketing efforts were rolled out last year, concerns that Sonic would be manipulated by the Hollywood machine into a catchphrase-spouting terror mounted.

Perhaps fears of Sonics move to live-action feature films were needlessly alarmist, especially following Detective Pikachu. 2019s live-action Pokmon adaptation had its own prerelease concerns, since Pokmon is a multimedia franchise full of hundreds of characters and lore much more beloved and expansive than Sonics. But that movie succeeded in honoring the world upon which it was based, even if the story itself was a little flat and kiddy. Know-nothings might have sometimes struggled to follow along. But for Pokmon lovers, it was a wonderful realization of the games world.

Pikachu is a character without a preexisting personality, however; Pokmons internal logic is what most compels its fans. Sonics video games, conversely, are light on story. Its Sonic himself who has been their main attraction since the 1990s, when he was Segas high-speed challenger to Nintendos slow and stubby Super Mario.

Where Mario was a mustachioed man who could jump and jog and little else, Sonic was the Blue Blur, radiating the rad ethos of the 90s. That sensibility was best typified by a disdain for authority (think Bart Simpson), an obsession with rock stardom, eyerolls, and sarcasm. But theres a lot about the 90s that does not hold up, including Sonics personality.

People who loved Sonic and his games in his heyday continue to defend him, to respect him, to wish the best for him. Its still fun to watch him zip through loop-de-loop levels, dashing into robots and other creatures in his path without taking a breath. The classic games different bits of theme music remain unforgettable; the franchise has spawned years worth of memes and in-jokes, a true testament to longevity. Sonics supporting cast is similarly beloved in its own right, even as it has continued to expand at a sometimes infuriating rate. For a Sonic movie to be successful, it had to acknowledge the truly cool parts of classic Sonic, not just the sick, dude ones.

Pleasing nostalgic video game fans is rarely easy. What provided Sonic the Hedgehog its biggest barrier was a design gaffe appalling to everyone, not just hedge-heads. The movies first marketing materials, released in December 2018 (a poster) and April 2019 (a trailer), revealed an ... interesting ... reimagining of Sonic, with muscley calves and a full set of human-like teeth. He had bare hands instead of his trademark gloves; his eyes were small and wide set, not the shiny, oversized eyes hed always had in games.

The unveiling of the design did not go well, inspiring such vaunted accolades as nightmare, ugly [and] toothy, and frightfully realistic. So hated was Sonics original design that its director apologized and recalled it, announcing that the character would be entirely reworked for the final film. Thats a whole lot of CGI to redo on a main character, so the news elicited concerns about animators working overtime to make the movies fall release date. Sonic the Hedgehog was eventually pushed back three months, from November 2019 to February 2020, to accommodate the redesign work. But the debacle cast a pall over a production whose video game-fan audience was already skeptical.

Id count myself strongly among those initial skeptics, whose affection for Sonic is both defensive and begrudging. Even when Sonic talks too much in his video games, or the games fall apart as in the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog, in which he kisses a human woman on the lips theres a joyous charm to someone still so stuck in the 90s. Hes a nostalgic object wed oft-prefer to leave encased in amber.

In making the character work for a broader audience, the team behind Sonic the Hedgehog didnt sacrifice the at-times embarrassing, at-times lovable parts of Sonic. In fact, its self-aware of how tiresome Sonic can be, while still reminding fans of why we remain attached to him.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Sonic the Hedgehog manages this by telling a unique origin story, reimagining Sonic for an unfamiliar audience while winking heavily to his history. The film paints the character (voiced by the always charming Ben Schwartz) as an excitable teen whose enthusiasm belies his loneliness. Blessed with the hypnotic power of super speed, hes been hiding for most of his life, evading bad actors who would harness his speed to wreak havoc across the universe. He lives in the tiny town of Green Hills, Montana (the name is a reference to the video games), and he passes his time running around the area just quickly enough to go unseen by the folks who would freak out if they found him.

Those include Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), a cop from Green Hills who wants to make a name for himself by joining the San Francisco Police Department. Toms life in Montana is mundane, he says; what is his purpose? Sonic poses that same question to himself, as he struggles to make peace with his solitude. So when Sonic and Tom cross paths, and Sonic reveals that hes been watching Tom and his wife from afar and imagining a life with them, its a little creepy. But mostly its the universe bringing together two guys who want fulfillment, so they can pair up to go out and find it.

Sonic is a buddy comedy in this way, focused heavily on the relationship between a grown man and his teenage, talking-hedgehog pseudo-son. Its funny and sweet, if a little plodding and bogged down by bathroom humor (for the kids!). But delving into a side of the Sonic backstory thats hardly been broached by the video games works well enough, as its hard for fans to get too annoyed with it, and it plops kids right into Sonics world without confusing them too much. Theres no Tom in the video games, but hes a decent straight man to Sonics exuberant big kid, one who can help calm down what could have easily become a hyperactive movie.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a road trip movie and an action-comedy, too. Sonic and Tom end up on the run (heh) from Jim Carrey as the evil genius Dr. Robotnik, whos trying to harness Sonics power for his own use, under the guise of helping the FBI protect the country from an unidentified speeding blue hedgehog. Toms involvement in helping Sonic flee is a contrivance designed to give Jim Carrey another human to play against, which is a little tiresome. But Carreys face is the human embodiment of Play-doh, which helps make an otherwise flat villain from the video games into a more entertaining, cartoon-y one, which feels fitting for this movie.

Sonic is a video game character first and foremost, and the movie never forgets that. Its equivalent of fight scenes, when Sonics speed is really put to the test, are easily its most delightful we watch the world from his hyperdrive perspective, as everything halts around him and he begins to move enemies ever-so-slightly out of position. Sonic was as much a mileage-per-hour as he was a hedgehog, to the point where if anyone dared seem faster than him, it was a major offense. The loyalty to this aspect of the character, even if being fast does become a one-note gimmick after 90 minutes, is welcome.

There are Easter eggs, too, that suggest that this team really does care about Sonic as more than just a marketing tool for a younger generation. If the name Sanic means anything to you, youll be pleased. Familiar sound effects play on occasion. One of the games most famous musical motifs shows up at the end, and it took me by tearful surprise. And the tiny post-credits scene (yep, theres one of those) introduced a friendly face who made me want a sequel, like, yesterday. Most importantly, the movies final rendering of Sonic, although not perfect, is so much more pleasant to look at than its first attempt. This is a Sonic we can learn to love.

The rest is here:
Sonic the Hedgehog movie review: a satisfying walkthrough for any fan - Vox.com

Money exists to serve a fundamental purpose as a medium of exchange for goods and services. A central authority designates a certain currency as legal tender and people can proceed to trade with it, trusting in its function as a unit of account and a store of value. Simply put, the traditional system of money thus far has revolved around four main participants: governments, central banks, intermediary banks, and users of money. Its a system that has been built over centuriesone not easily dismantled or replaced, as significant cost and physical infrastructure has been put into supporting its integrity and performance.

Changing the game

Relatively speaking, traditional money and the financial system it runs on have weathered much of the digital revolution unscathed. Rather than changing to fit the times, digital technology has been integrated around the usual way banks and financial institutions function, leaving the underlying fundamentals of the system untouched, along with its inherent inefficiencies and costliness. To say that legacy finance is now under threat, however, might be to jump the gun; nevertheless, we can see some challengers to the status quo emerging, as technology advances and becomes a more pervasive part of human life.

Cryptocurrencies have been lauded as one of the biggest game-changers within the centralized system of banking and finance. With the distributed ledger that underpins cryptocurrency, decentralization and disintermediation is made possible, and instead of a centralized entity validating transactions, the process is distributed across a network of validators. In a truly decentralized financial system, the middlemen and their fees are cut out, while the speed and efficiency of transactions are greatly improved. Clearly, such a system would be able to directly challenge the function and use of the traditional financial order.

Good governance and incentivization

While the technical aspects of cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology have moved beyond theoretical whitepapers and into real-world applications, relatively little attention has been paid to the economic relevance of cryptocurrencies and the forces that govern the price and value of digital assets. Called cryptonomics, tokenomics, or just token economics, this field of study focuses on how incentivization and validation is used to encourage token adoption and subsequent ecosystem building around that token. While the utility of fiat currencies is largely limited to exchange and trade, crypto tokens can be put into service in a myriad of ways, and token economics explores the use cases of digital assets beyond their utility as currency.

There is so much to unpack when trying to understand the forces that govern functioning crypto ecosystems. Crucial issues, such as the incentives for blockchain participants to cheat or the endogenous value of a token in exchange, are still poorly understood and yet are pivotal to understanding the optimal design for a mainstream blockchain-based form of payment. How should a system be built to reinforce desirable behaviors amongst users, while discouraging cheating and market manipulation? Any platform looking for longevity and sustainability in a fast-changing industry must ask this question first and foremost. Currently, most cryptocurrency platforms incentivize users to perform governance decisions by awarding them newly-mined cryptocurrencies. They manage the rate at which new units are created to keep the supply of available tokens in check; therefore, the total amount of currency in the system is limited by the protocols written by the creator of the blockchain. Having these limits in place creates an impression of scarcity amongst users that allows the system to maintain the value of the crypto token.

Breaking the rules

It is this quality of scarcity that breaks the rules of inflation that already govern legacy money standards. Under the forces of inflation, the power of money to buy the same basket of goods is expected to be less in the future compared to today. These same forces do not have to apply to cryptocurrencies; not when they offer an opportunity for monetary experimentation and the potential for new ways of managing monetary supplies. Major platforms like Ethereum place community governance of token supply at a higher priority to maintain the ethics of a decentralized system, while privatized foundations of cryptocurrencies like Binance and VeChain use coin burning techniques to limit supply and temporarily increase the value of tokens. Essentially, the supply and value of a given digital asset is dependent upon the participants of the network and the algorithm it is built on, which places cryptocurrencies largely outside of the influence of geopolitical flux that otherwise affects traditional markets. For this reason, people from Venezuela and Argentinaboth countries experiencing hyperinflationare putting their money into bitcoin and other digital assets to hedge against the risk of inflation in the traditional market.

As the industry moves on from the crypto hype and market correction of the past, it has become clear that decentralized finance holds incredible potential for the global financial and economic system. The technology is constantly evolving, but sound principles of business and a strong token-flow model are more necessary than ever to keep the industry sustainable in the long-run, particularly in the face of tightening global regulations on crypto tokens and exchanges. Governance, incentivization, revenue sharing, and accessibility are all crucial metrics to consider before building an economic model for digital tokens and cryptocurrencies.

In the coming years, we can anticipate a future where both tangible and intangible assets are tokenized and easily used in real-time transactions on decentralized platforms and exchanges. We are on the precipice of a new global economy, one that is undergoing massive transformation. The steady development of decentralized finance, regulatory clarity, crypto-specific taxation policies, and central bank digital currencies are all positive steps towards shaping the new financial ecosystema decentralized token economy characterized by greater accessibility to financial services, safer transactions, and lower transaction costs. With full decentralization on the horizon, its becoming apparent that the face of global finance will never be the same again.

Neeraj Khandelwal is Co-founder of CoinDCX, Indias largest cryptocurrency exchange

See more here:
Token Economics: In The Long Run, Decentralization Will Survive - Traders Magazine

Are you one of those individuals who starts their day off at 5 a.m. with vigorous exercise before heading out to a busy day full of meetings, negotiations and interviews with talents who will make scaling your business possible?

If your answer was yes, you may soon discover the missing piece in your well-built puzzle the missing piece that could not only benefit you but your coworkers, business and family.

Through this article, I will manifest to you how you can use your brainpower to help prevent sickness and anxiety.

Before I begin, I'd like you to ask yourselves these next few questions and answer without giving it too much thought:

Do I have a healthy immune system?

Am I pursuing an active and healthy lifestyle?

How well do I feel about my commitment to my personal wellness?

Our mindset is essential to our health.

A study from Stanford University discovered that when people believe they are less healthy than others, they are more likely to die sooner, even if they are pursuing a more active and healthier lifestyle in comparison to others.

How can that be? If their way of life tends to be healthier than others, why are they dying sooner?

Our mindset is as vital for our health as our actions.

The perception of our health and how good we feel about our immune system can be more important than our actions when it comes to our well-being and longevity.

We all know the saying, "Our thoughts become our reality."

Scientists support this hypothesis by expanding on the impact of our mindset on our health and longevity. It has been proven that longevity is increased by positive self-perceptions of aging.

Today, we also know that chronic stress, negative thoughts and pessimism tend to shorten our lives. They damage our body, hasten our aging and wreck our immune system. Biologist and TED speakerElizabeth Blackburn claims that the scientific explanation lies in the "telomere effect." Telomeres are the chromosomes located inside the cell's nucleus, which contains our genes and genetic information. In her book on the subject, Blackburn claims that negativity, hostility, pessimism and a lack of presence were proven to shorten longevity and lead to accelerated aging.

Biologist Bruce Lipton claims in his book The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles that "our beliefs control our bodies, our minds, and thus our lives."

When my daughters were in kindergarten, they would come home with a new illness every other week. I was at a crucial point in the development of my career at the time I couldn't afford to get sick. So instead, I embraced a mindset that "moms don't catch sickness from their children," and indeed, this became my reality.

Several weeks ago, one of my three daughters, Kim, reminded me of this sentence and asked, "Mom, how come other mothers get sick from their kids when you never have?" All these years, Kim was led to believe that mothers have alleged innate protection against their children's sickness.

Is it a proven fact? Of course not. It's a belief I planted in her mind and mine throughout the years.

Our minds possess incredible power, and you can harness this power and use it to a much greater extent for the benefit of your business, your employees and, most importantly, yourself and your family.

But how does this relate to the recent coronavirus outbreak? Without undermining the importance of conventional medical treatments and tips for protection against sickness, it is crucial to understand that our mindset holds a significant influence, as well.

Choosing a healthy mindset is in our hands.

We can choose a healthy mindset that will positively affect our cells and bolster our immune system to its maximum capability. We can even embrace the mantra that "we have an optimal immune system." This mantra can instill a sense of reassurance and confidence. If necessary, we can follow up with actions that will help us believe it to be the truth (such as exercise, meditation or consuming vitamins). Embracing this mindset can support preventing sickness.

The fear of the coronavirus is yet another threat to consider.

Fear can create chronic stress and damage the functionof our immune systems. The release of stress hormones can shut down our immune system.

When we feel anxious and frightened, we weaken ourselves mentally and physically and become more vulnerable to that which we fear.

The human brain struggles to experience fear and pleasure at the same time.

In his book The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge explains the concept of "globalization," which happens when we are in love with life and enjoy everything around us. These moments when our pleasure centers are active hinder potential simultaneous pain center activity. The emotion of love not only brings us closer to happiness but also distances us from misery and suffering.

So how can we utilize this knowledge to break away from the cycle of fear?

Instead of tuning in to more frightening news and statistics, we can search for new opportunities for creating moments of joy, fun and happiness. Participating in meditation workshops, guided imagination journeys, physical activity, hiking or listening to music can assist us in disengaging the circle of suffering actively.

Happier people are healthier people.

Studies show that people who are happy are less likely to become ill when they are exposed to a cold virus.

When we actively shift our focus from a state of fear to a state of joy and happiness, we not only escape our anxiety but bolster our immune system.

Conclusion

As a leader, one of the most important things you can do in the following months is to aid your employees to embrace the right mindset in the context of their health and immune system. When you do that, you will help guarantee fewer sick-leave requests, lower anxiety levels, motivated employees, loyalty and commitment to the organization and its leader.

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How We Can Use The Power Of Our Brains To Help Us Stay Healthy - Forbes

When Dr. Vivek Murthy served as the U.S. Surgeon General during part of the Obama and Trump administrations, he became increasingly concerned at how many people across the country were experiencing loneliness. Even in the hubbub of populated cities, many didnt have close personal relationships, a supportive group of friends, or a sense of belonging within a community, all of which are central to our well-being.

In his new book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, Murthy synthesizes the research on loneliness, giving us a primer on what it is and how it hurts our physical and mental health and decreases our longevity. He also dispenses advice on how to build better relationships and create a more relationship-centered society.

I spoke to him about his book and its implications, both generally and during this time of sheltering-in-place, where social connection is even harder to come by.

Jill Suttie: Research shows that we tend to underestimate other peoples loneliness compared to our own. Why do you think that is, and how does it affect loneliness?

Vivek Murthy: I think part of the reason we underestimate the loneliness of people is that its often hidden. Loneliness, unfortunately, carries stigma with it. People who feel lonely often are ashamed to admit it. They think its equivalent to admitting that they are not likable or that theyre socially insufficient in some way.

It can be hard to admit loneliness, even to a spouse. We can be at a party, surrounded by people, and still feel lonely. We often look around us and see people who are seemingly leading happy livescertainly on their social media feedsand we assume that were the only ones who are struggling.

Also, loneliness is hard to see because it doesnt always look like the stereotype of a person sitting alone in a corner. Loneliness can actually manifest in different ways with different people. It can look like irritability and anger, fatigue, reclusiveness, depression, or anxiety. We may chalk these up to other conditions or concerns, but many of these states have their roots (at least partially) in loneliness.

JS: You write that a third of Americans over 45 years old consider themselves to be lonely. Is that pattern common around the world or more unique to the U.S.?

VM: Many societies that would consider themselves part of modern-day culture are finding that they have high levels of loneliness among older populations. There are several reasons why thats happening. One is that, as people get older, sometimes they experience greater illness, which can limit their ability to physically go out and see others. Second, as people get older, they often encounter difficulties with hearing and vision, and not being able to hear well, in particular, can be a significant barrier to engaging with others.

Its important to note that in the United States health care system, we tend to focus on physical illness and dont focus enough on mental health or on vision, dental care, or hearingareas where we really need to support people. You see that reflected in reimbursement policies; its still expensive for many older adults to get hearing aids, even if they have coverage from Medicare.

Some of these practical barriers to connecting with others become significant as we get older, but theres also a cultural element here. In the United States and other modern societies, there is extraordinary value thats placed on youth, and as people get older, they often feel less useful to society or less valued simply because theyre not young anymore. If we feel were just a burden on other people, that can impact how we engage with other people and how fulfilling our interactions are.

JS: You write that we need three levels of connectionintimate (partner or spouse), relational (circle of friends), and collective (community)to avoid loneliness. Why is community important?

VM: As human beings, we evolved to need each other and to be part of a community. Theres something deeply ingrained in us about wanting to be a part of a shared identity. So, we find ourselves gravitating toward various affinity groups based on shared religious beliefs or shared race and ethnicity or shared nationality or shared interest, and we derive a lot of meaning and value from a common identity with others.

One thing that COVID-19 is highlighting for so many people experiencing physical distancing is not only how important relationships with family and friends are, but also how meaningful our interactions with neighbors, relatives, and strangers in our communities are. How nice it would be to just sit in a coffee shop and work while being surrounded by strangers or to go and shoot hoops on the basketball court with other people! There is a sense of connection we experience, even with strangers, thats very valuable, that makes you feel like youre part of something bigger.

When you understand that we need intimate connection, good friends, and community, you start to recognize why somebody can be in a deeply fulfilled marriage and still feel lonely. And that doesnt mean that your spouse isnt giving you what you need; it just means that we need different types of connection in our life.

JS: You write that loneliness is bad for you, but solitude can be good. What are the differences between these?

VM: Its important to recognize that loneliness is a subjective state. Its not about how many people you have around you; its about how you feel about the connections that you have in your life. Loneliness results when the connections we need are greater than the connections we have.

Solitude is an experience of being alone, but its pleasant, centering, and grounding, and its actually quite important in maintaining our emotional well-being. If we allow ourselves moments of solitude and let the noise around us settle, we can reflect on whats happening in our life and simply be in a world that is constantly about doing and taking action. When we approach other people from a place of being grounded and centered, we find our interactions are often more positive, because we can show up more authentically as ourselves.

I believe that in this time of turmoil, when the world seems to be racing faster and faster, the moments of solitude are even more important than they were before. Those few minutes that we take to simply be, to feel the wind against our face, to feel gratitude by remembering three people or three things to be thankful for, can be really grounding and renewing.

JS: The current pandemic is presenting some unique challenges for people in staving off loneliness. What can we do?

VM: Loneliness was a problem long before we had COVID-19. But I worry that the physical separation were being forced to observe, and the fear that many people are experiencing right now (about other people being infected and transmitting infections to them), run the risk of deepening our separation from each other, contributing to a social recession that is just as important as the economic recession we will be facing.

It doesnt have to be that way. We can use this moment to step back and take stock of our relationships and ask ourselves, What role do we want people to play in our lives?

We can use this moment to take simple steps to strengthen our connections now for after the pandemic is over. One is making a commitment to spend at least 15 minutes a day with people we lovewhether on video conference or by phone. That time can be valuable in helping elevate our mood and make others feel better, too.

Second, we can focus on the quality of the time we have with other people, by listening carefully and by sharing more openly when were with others. One of the most tangible ways to do that is eliminating distraction. Like many people, Ive been guilty of catching up with a friend on the phone while also looking at my inbox or jotting down a question that just popped into my mind.

Even if you spend less time with someone, making that time count is really important. Five minutes of conversation where were open, listening deeply, and showing up fully is often more fulfilling than 30 minutes of distracted conversation.

Third, you can look for ways to serve others, recognizing that service is a powerful antidote. When were chronically lonely, our focus shifts inward and our threat level rises. Over time, our sense of ourselves starts to erode as we start to believe that the reason were lonely is that were not likable. But service is powerful, because it breaks those harmful cycles by shifting the focus from ourselves to someone else in the context of a positive interaction.

Serving others also reaffirms to us that we have value to bring to the world. During this time of COVID-19, service can look like checking on a neighbor, calling a friend to see how theyre doing, delivering food to a friend who might be struggling to telework and homeschool their children. Service can be a lifeline in terms of connection.

JS: Do you hold out hope that the mutual concern and cooperation were seeing during the pandemic will last into the future?

VM: We were designed as human beings to be connected with each other and to help and support each other, and we see those instincts arise during times of crisis. When a hurricane or a tornado devastates a community, people rise up and come together to face the adversity. The challenge is that they often retreat back to their ways of life prior to that and the lessons of community often get forgotten.

I think with COVID-19, were seeing a pandemic that well remember for the rest of our lives. The intensity, duration, and challenge of this experience are unlike anything weve seen in our lifetime. I hope that will increase the chance that we can hold on to the lessons that we are learning now about the power of community, the importance of relationships, and the truth of our interdependence.

I think one of the most important challenges of our time is deciding whether to continue down the path of deepening loneliness or use this opportunity to choose a different way forward, to build a people-centered life and society. In a truly people-centered world, we prioritize our relationships and where we put our time, attention, and energy. We also design workplaces to strengthen human connection and design schools and curricula to give children a foundation for healthy relationships from the earliest ages.

And we recognize that relationship is at the heart of healthy dialogue and, without dialogue and community, people cant talk about the big challenges theyre facing and find a way forward. When were faced with big challengeslike climate change, future pandemics, and health care and economic disparitieswe need to be able to work together, which stems from our ability to talk to and truly listen to one another. You dont bring people together in dialogue just by putting them in the same room and hoping something happens; dialogue is built on relationships.

Medicine is intuitively built on an understanding of relationships, but that wasnt a prominent part of my training. Our doctors and nurses need to be able to understand just how important loneliness is for the health outcomes that theyre trying to optimize. They should be able to identify loneliness when it exists and have a conversation with patients about it, without taking on the entire burden of solving loneliness themselves.

We need more partnerships between the health care system and community organizations, which can step in and help support people who need stronger connections. This is whats behind the social prescribing movement in the U.K. and other countries, where health care systems are partnering with community organizations to identify people who are struggling with loneliness and then getting them resources, support, and the community they need.

Once we ask the question, How do we put people first?, we get a different answer than if our primary objective is to maximize revenue or maximize power or another outcome thats not human-centered. If I had a single credo for this book, it would be three simple words: Put people first. Thats the credo we need to guide ourselves in our own lives and as we design our institutions and public policy.

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How Loneliness Hurts Us and What to Do About It - Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

Proceeds will advance first-in-human clinical trial for hemophilia A in 2020 and progression and expansion of Sigilons pipeline

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sigilon, Inc., a biotechnology company developing functional cures for patients with chronic diseases through its Shielded Living Therapeutics platform, today announced that it has completed a $80.3 million Series B financing. The funding will support the first-in-human clinical trial of Sigilons novel encapsulated cell therapy for hemophilia A, expected to begin in the first half of 2020, as well as continued advancement and expansion of Sigilons programs in rare blood disorders, lysosomal diseases and endocrine and immune disorders.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Longevity Vision Fund and funds managed by BlackRock joined founding investor Flagship Pioneering and other existing investors, including Eli Lilly and Company, in the financing round, which brings Sigilons total funding to more than $195 million.

Sigilon is driven to liberate patients from the fear of living with serious chronic diseases, and from alternative therapeutic approaches, said Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D., President and CEO of Sigilon. Our Shielded Living Therapeutics platform is designed to give patients who have chronic diseases a convenient, safe, long-term therapeutic benefit. We believe encapsulating engineered human cells in our proprietary matrix will enable us to deliver controlled doses of therapeutic proteins without the need for immunosuppression and without the risks associated with modifying patients genomes. We are pleased to welcome an exceptional group of investors who share our vision of offering more hope and less fear to patients and their caregivers as we enter the clinic with our lead program and continue to advance our other programs toward the clinic.

Sigilons Shielded Living Therapeutics platform offers patients with chronic disease the prospect of relief without disrupting their lives, said Douglas Cole, M.D., Managing Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Chairman of the Board at Sigilon. The near-term transition to clinical development and the platforms breadth and progress reflect the power and productivity of Sigilons approach. Successful conclusion of this financing puts the company in a strong position to build further value.

Sigilon was founded to develop immune-protected, bio-engineered cells to restore normal physiology in a wide range of diseases without immune rejection, liberating patients from the challenges associated with existing treatments for serious chronic diseases. Treatments based on Sigilons Shielded Living Therapeutics platform combine advanced cell engineering with cutting-edge innovations in biocompatible materials to pioneer a new class of medicines that have been designed to provide durable, redosable, controllable and safe potential treatment for chronic diseases.

Sigilons lead investigational therapy for hemophilia A, SIG-001, has received an Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sigilon expects to initiate a clinical trial of SIG-001 in the first half of 2020.

About Sigilon Therapeutics

Sigilon Therapeutics is developing functional cures for chronic diseases through its Shielded Living Therapeutics platform. Sigilons therapeutics consist of novel human cells engineered to produce the crucial proteins, enzymes or factors needed by patients living with chronic diseases such as hemophilia, diabetes and lysosomal disorders. The engineered cells are protected by Sigilons Afibromer biomaterials matrix, which shields them from immune rejection and fibrosis. Sigilon was founded by Flagship Pioneering in conjunction with Daniel Anderson, Ph.D., and Robert Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200317005080/en/

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Sigilon Therapeutics Announces $80.3 Million Series B Financing to Advance Shielded Living Therapeutics to the Clinic - BioSpace

STARS THE KIND that appear in the cosmos have coordinates, not addresses, and the same is true for certain earthbound luminaries, too. One gloomy November morning, I follow my GPS to an anonymous set of buildings in the Hudson Valley. The rain buckets down forebodingly, but I know Im on the right track when I make out a set of immense cast-aluminum and stainless-steel sculptures by the side of the road, a few of them distinctly stellar in shape. For good measure, the name Stella is spray-painted on a piece of wood indicating the entrance.

This hangar-like structure, about a 90-minute drive north of Manhattan, has been Frank Stellas studio for the past two decades. The vast space, more easily traversed by golf cart than on foot, is divided into rooms for both fabrication and display. Here, I find more star variations: The grandest has 12 points and is made of glossy black carbon fiber. At over 20 by 20 feet, its puffily imposing and gently comic. Its neighbors are a pair of cleverly interlocking wooden stars, one in teak, another in birch, the humble quality of the carpentry a counterpoint to their complexity of form, reminiscent of da Vincis illustrations of the Platonic solids. More futuristic are two slightly smaller ones made from polished stainless steel; theyre what might have resulted if Buckminster Fuller had created cat toys for giants. When I look closer, I notice that some of them have built-in bases on their bottommost points that resemble little shoes: These stars have their feet planted on the ground.

As does the man himself. Stella, dressed in khakis and a blue fleece zip-up that has Team Stella stitched on it in white, is now 83, but hes retained the scrappy, unpretentious persona hes famous for, as well as the curly hair and glasses. This is the man who, nearly six decades ago, gave Minimalism its great tagline by proclaiming: What you see is what you see, his words a rallying cry for what art could be, and, equally, could do without. A fixed light in American arts galaxy since the 1960s, he has arguably influenced visual representation as powerfully as Andy Warhol.

Unlike many mid-20th-century artists who rose fast only to seemingly collapse under the pressure of their own reputations, Stella kept pushing himself by using new forms, materials and technologies. When he felt hed reached the limits of the flat canvas, he built out from it in reliefs inspired by Moby-Dick and Polish villages. In the 1980s and 90s, he made metal sculptures that looked like race cars or jet engines turned inside out, as well as unwieldy canvases covered in Pop-colored riots of form operatic assemblages of cones, pillars and graffiti-like brushwork, like something Charlie Sheens character might have had in his home in the 1987 film Wall Street. That the godfather of Minimalist painting turned into a progenitor of the contemporary baroque has always flummoxed critics.

Perhaps the secret to his longevity, his decade-upon-decade habit of creating, is again a matter of balanced forces, the measures hes taken to temper his bright-burning ambition. When we meet, the artist has just celebrated the arrival of his fifth grandchild, Sophie. (Stella, who has five children, has been married to Harriet McGurk, a pediatrician, since 1978, and they live in the same house in Greenwich Village hes owned since the 1960s; his first wife was the art critic Barbara Rose.) He seems to lack any real self-destructive impulse; he never succumbed to matters of lifestyle. When I ask him if he has any vices, he dodges. You have to ask my wife, he says dryly.

He has (at least) two, it turns out: cigars and fast cars, both of which have informed his work in various ways, from sculptures based on three-dimensional representations of his own smoke rings to his use of technological innovations derived from the auto industry, like carbon-fiber skin over steel or aluminum frames. In 1982, he was caught driving his silver Ferrari 105 miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone on the Taconic State Parkway, and in lieu of jail time, he delivered public lectures on his painting. His racing days are now long over, and he can no longer do much of the physical labor involved in art-making. And so it might seem hes come full circle, returning to the deceptively simple geometries he was making six decades ago, only now expanded into three dimensions.

Tentatively scheduled to open in May, a new show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, in Ridgefield, Conn., Frank Stellas Stars, A Survey, will focus on Stellas use of the form at both ends of his career. Many artists have become fixated on the creation of a particular shape or motif throughout their lives: Jasper Johns and flags; Pablo Picasso and guitars; Louise Bourgeois and spiders. The ceaseless exploration of one form helps create an artists aesthetic universe, and Stella is part of this tradition. Stella means star in Italian, but the artists interest in the shape in geometry, the star polygon is recognized in both two and three dimensions with varying numbers of points is spatial, not narcissistic. He initially made star drawings in the 1960s (a set of lithographs from 1967 titled Star of Persia I; and II, first exhibited at the Aldrich in 1969, will be included in the show), though the majority of the exhibition will showcase the more recent sculptural work I observed in his studio, a study of the potential of the star in different materials, scales and formal variations, never repeated in the same way. Even with something as stable and as knowable as the star, Stella is able to reinvent it every time he approaches it and make you look at it in a different way, says Richard Klein, the Aldrichs director of exhibitions.

Star polygons have long been bound up with all sorts of human metaphysical projection, used as religious symbols and in ranking systems. As motifs associated with honor and glory and jobs well done, they decorate everything from national flags and sheriffs badges to toilet-training charts. But most of all, they symbolize the limits of human understanding, their geometric representation inseparable from their existence as celestial objects, luminous spheres of gas held together by their own gravity. Their lyricism aside, stars are our most archaic form of navigation as well as our best clues to the dimensions of the universe. Because light travels at a finite speed, the glow of a distant star is perceived by our earthbound eyes long after it has ceased to exist. Similarly finite, perhaps, is the rate of human understanding: In art history, were continually revising the past based on our relative position to it; the importance of an artist or an entire movement might become visible only in retrospect. So what, one wonders, is left to say about a man who has been famous now since the 1950s, and all the more so at a time in which figuration and portraiture have made comebacks, and when were all questioning arts relevance in a scary new decade?

STELLA NEVER WENT to art school, but from an early age, he had a no-nonsense relationship with a paintbrush: His father, a gynecologist, paid his way through medical school by painting houses, with Stella as his young assistant. My father would make me sand the floor; we had to do the sanding and scraping before you could hold the brush and then paint on the wall. So it was that kind of apprenticeship and familiarity, he says. While repainting the porch of their fishing cabin in New Hampshire Stella grew up in the Boston suburb of Malden his mother, a fashion illustrator and homemaker, decided to make a Jackson Pollock on the floor, dripping the paint in swirls. And my father had to explain to her that maybe it was good in art, but it wasnt going to work as a floor covering because we didnt have any sealer.

A story in one of his mothers Vogue magazines, featuring models posed in front of a painterly Franz Kline-esque Abstract Expressionist backdrop, provided him with an early clue that art wasnt only about figuration. At Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., in the early 50s, when European abstraction was a prevailing force in studio art, Stella was especially influenced by the work of Hans Hofmann, a kind of proto-Abstract Expressionist from the 40s, and the Bauhaus color theorist Josef Albers. I had no mimetic ability, Stella tells me, but I was never interested in finding one, or cultivating one. No, I worked directly with the materials, actually. The big deal in postwar American painting was its materiality, and so that was heaven for me.

He started painting more seriously at Princeton, where he played lacrosse and wrestled, majored in history and studied art with William Seitz, who would become a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and with the painter Stephen Greene. After graduating in 1958, Stella moved to New York. When I left school, he says, I wanted to see what it was like to paint all the time. And at that time, it was between the Korean War and Vietnam, and we still had selective service. My induction exam was in September, so I thought, Ill go to New York [in the meantime], get a place, and Ill just paint and work and do odd jobs, and see what its like to do nothing but paint for three or four months. And then, unfortunately or rather, fortunately I failed my induction exams. And when I called up my father, I said, Im sorry, I have to go back to New York, I failed the exam. He said, Too bad, it would have made a man of you. The most important thing for them was that I shouldnt be a burden on society. He pauses. And we know what they meant by society.

Stella was only 23 when his work was included in a group show, Sixteen Americans, at MoMA in 1959. His Black Paintings bands of matte enamel (he used house painters brushes and house paint) separated by pinstripes of exposed canvas startled critics for their extremity of reduction, their intentionally flat affect, their refusal to appease. Cool, clever, and somehow less angstily reverential in feel than the Abstract Expressionist era that it helped supplant, Stellas work is now widely seen as a crucial evolutionary link in modern art, and a catalyst for the Minimalist movement to come. His emphasis on two-dimensional surfaces was a clear rejection of the idea of painting as a window into a three-dimensional space.

His participation in the MoMA show, alongside Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly and Louise Nevelson, launched his career four of his paintings were included in the exhibition but his first gallery show, with New Yorks Leo Castelli a year later, resulted in few sales. Stella eked out a living painting houses, renting cold-water flats and sharing studio space with Carl Andre and Hollis Frampton, his friends from Phillips Academy, but listening to him, its impossible not to feel nostalgia for a time in which you could arrive in Manhattan, these days largely a gated community for the wealthy, and simply go about making your art.

THERES AN ELEMENT of luck and things like that to it, but the fact of the matter is that the system was pretty supportive, says Stella when I remark on how he seemed to be exactly the right artist at exactly the right time. In New York, he was granted a sense of license to do whatever he wanted with paint, inspired by the artists he revered, among them Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman and Pollock. Stella found his own canvases growing larger large enough to have to be placed on the floor. They were no longer easel paintings, he says. Basically, I was standing up in front of a painting that was a little bit bigger than I was, and that was the working on it, like the way you would paint a wall in a house. And that was the kind of thing that I felt comfortable with. He singles out the abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler, who studied under Hofmann, as the artist he believes was one of the most undervalued in her lifetime. They were always interesting, always good, and very, very difficult paintings she made, and she was lucky if she could sell any of them, he recalls. Early in his career, she proposed a trade with him, but he was too intimidated to take her up on it.

When I ask him if hes in touch with anyone from that time, he shakes his head. No. The problem now is everybodys dead or dying. Im in the category of Is he still alive? artists. Yeah, you laugh, but I can show you a letter a guy was asking if I was still alive because he liked my work so much.

By the end of the 1960s, Stella had lost interest in flat surfaces. He started making constructions of felt, paper and wood that protruded from the surface of a stretched canvas in a relief. He named these works, like 1971s Chodorow II, after synagogues destroyed by the Nazis. In a way, the work could be seen as a kind of inverse of the type of painting that had dominated Western art since the Renaissance, which drew viewers into the canvas. The idea behind it all was to build a painting rather than paint a painting, says Stella. If I built it first, it was all mine, and then I could paint on that and thats all. The simple story would be that the Minimalist turned Maximalist when the former wore out its usefulness.

On many occasions, material experimentation offered a pathway forward: Thats a kind of necessity, because you get bogged down, you get worried. Youre always looking for something, as they say, a way out of the darkness. And its inevitable that you look to things. You look to what other people are doing, and you look to whats available, and you cant help looking for things. Mostly you look within the art world, but that seems like a limited vision, so you have to look outside. You have to get with the real world eventually.

In at least one such moment, Stella found himself compelled to look back in order to move forward. He used his 1982-83 residency at the American Academy in Rome to delve into the legacy of Caravaggio and Rubens. That research led eventually to Working Space, his 1986 book derived from a series of lectures that he delivered at Harvard in the early 80s, in which he framed his new work as an answer to a crisis in abstract painting. Stellas Moby-Dick series, which he began that year and continued until 1997, considered abstractions ability to illustrate narratives, with silhouettes alluding to waves and ships. The 90s and early aughts were critically tough for Stellas hectic forms, and yet many works from this time his mural-size Moby-Dick-inspired 1992 print, The Fountain, for example, or his underrated work in rugged painted metal, especially 2004s Ngebat, a twisted construction of stainless steel and carbon fiber now seem freshly exhilarating. You could argue that every artist working in Europe and America today has, in some fashion, been unconsciously influenced by Stella, and there are those who more explicitly credit him as an influence, such as the assemblage artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins and the abstract painter Sarah Morris.

Before I leave, Stella takes me on a tour of recent work, leading me behind the curtain hanging in the back of the studio. So, now youre going into the space where no women are allowed, he jokes. And lo, there I behold Stellas industrial sander, his spray-painter, as well as a glimpse of new work being fabricated for a private collector.

If entropy is the natural direction of all things the laws of physics, anyway, as well as contemporary art some things in our universe do, in fact, remain constant: Stellas star, at least, built on the principles of space, light, speed and seemingly infinite expansion, is unlikely to dim from art history anytime soon. Basically, everything is about being an artist, he says as we part ways. He pulls out a cigar as I thank him and gather my coat and umbrella. Youre welcome, he smiles. And dont say anything about the smoking.

Its an open question just how well Stellas ethos has fared over time. Once so thrillingly radical, Minimalist painting has inevitably lost some of its charge over the years; at a time in which art is often wrapped up in social and political questions, shunning pictorial representation and symbolic meaning for the essentials of color, shape and composition can feel oddly safe, something everyone can get behind: colorful geometries that could be printed on an Ikea duvet. And yet the sheer scale and panache of Stellas early work are undeniable. At the Art Institute of Chicagos Modern Wing, I often observe tourists stopping dead in their tracks in front of Hatra I, one of the first Protractor paintings Stella made beginning in 1967, which consist of sweeping, intersecting arcs, the shape of the canvas echoing that of the paint. Glowing with bright acrylic and measuring 20 by 10 feet, it still imparts a contact high. Sitting in Stellas presence and revisiting his work with him, I think what a misunderstanding it is to consider Minimalism as soulless or academic, a mere visual palate cleanser. On the contrary, it seeks feelings less easily named, an almost somatic response, a full-body awareness. What you see is what you see, but what you feel has always been important, too.

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The Constellation of Frank Stella - The New York Times

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing shortages of important medical devices, foods and products. You may be hoping to boost your immunity with additional vitamin C. Its important to know that fruits and vegetables are still the best food sources of vitamin C. Buy fresh (or even frozen) foods rich in vitamin C. Heres what you need to look out for.

Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, plays many important roles in the body. This vitamin is key to the immune system, helping prevent infections and fight disease.

It is a water-soluble vitamin thats found in many foods, mostly in fruits and vegetables. Well-known for being a potent antioxidant, it also has positive effects on skin health and immune function. Vital for collagen synthesis, connective tissue, bones, teeth and your small blood vessels.

The human body cannot produce or store it. Therefore, its essential to consume it regularly in sufficient amounts.

The current daily value (DV) for vitamin C is 90 mg.

The list is sourced fromMyFoodData.com who sourced the information from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service Food Data Central.

Other Vitamin C Rich Foods

MyFoodData.com now releases the USDA data in a flat spreadsheet file format for public use. Find out more here.

According to Medical News Today, cooking may reduce the amount of the vitamin in fruits and vegetables. To optimize, the ODS recommends steaming or microwaving these foods.

Vitamin C is vital for your immune system, connective tissue and heart and blood vessel health, among many other important roles.

Not getting enough can have negative effects on your health.

While citrus fruits may be the most famous source of this particular vitamin, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables are rich in this vitamin and may even exceed the amounts found in citrus fruits.

By eating some foods suggested above each day, your immunity should be boosted.

Read this complete guide to boosting your immune system.

What are vitamins and how do they work? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/195878

Vitamin C in Disease Prevention and Cure: An Overview Shailja Chambial,Shailendra Dwivedi,Kamla Kant Shukla,Placheril J. John,andPraveen Sharma

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783921/

Top Vitamin C Foods By Nutrient Density (Vitamin C Per Gram)

MyFoodData.com and U.S. Agricultural Research Service Food Data Central

20 Best foods for vitamin C Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325067#does-cooking-affect-vitamin-c

National Institute of Health: Vitamin C Fact Sheet for Health Professionals https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/

20 Foods That Are High in Vitamin C Healthline: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-c-foods

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Need Vitamin C Supplementation? Eat these Foods - Longevity LIVE

Cancer recently passed cardiovascular disease to become the leading cause of human mortality across much of the industrialised world. Cancer is widely believed to be the leading cause of disease-related mortality in dogs as well. On the surface, it would be easy to assume this shared and tragic cancer epidemic in humans and dogs was a dark side of industrialisation and modernisation. After all, in much of the developed world, dogs have become integral members of human family units, living with humans in a common environment, sharing histories of lifestyle, nutrition, and environmental exposures.

Although the most common cancers in humans and dogs are different, the idea of a common origin is bolstered by the similar physical and microscopic appearance of tumors that form in the same anatomic locations as well as by the comparable clinical course of these diseases in both species. These similarities have positioned spontaneous cancers of dogs as unique models that can be used to better understand the origin and progression of human cancers and to develop safe and effective treatments.

The comparative oncology approach has yielded many interesting findings, including that the shared reality of cancer in humans and dogs is more complicated than exposure risks associated with modernisation. To understand the cancer epidemic, we must travel far back in time to the emergence of multicellularity. The fossil record documents cancer in animals for hundreds of millions of years. For example, a bone tumor recently identified in a 240-million-year-old turtle fossil supports the occurrence of cancer throughout evolution. This finding is by no means unique and it is probably not the oldest.

Today, cancer accounts for about 5% of deaths in almost every animal species. In the context of evolution, species adapt to a balance of resources, consumption, and lifespan over millions of years. Long-lived species such as whales, elephants, Amazon parrots, great white sharks, and naked mole rats, among others, acquired unique cancer-protective mechanisms: molecular safeguards that allow for innumerable cell divisions while reducing the probability of mutations that are necessary to initiate cancer. Over millions of years, these adaptive, cancer-protective solutions became inexorably linked to the expected lifespan of that species, and the adaptations seem to be as varied as there are species.

Dogs and humans were similarly subject to this selection over most of their evolutionary history. The dog family, for example, split from its last common ancestor about 6 million years ago, and our direct human ancestors split from other hominids approximately 2 million years ago. As they adapted to their respective biological niches, dogs developed an expected lifespan of 2 to 4 years and humans developed an expected lifespan of about 30 to 40 years. Infection, injury, and malnutrition were the most common causes of death for dogs, and infections, inter-human aggression, and accidents were the most common causes of death in ancestral humans.

At present, cancer accounts for about 5% of deaths in people up to the age of 35 and in dogs up to the age of 3 to 4 in developed countries, similar to the overall cancer mortality in the majority of other species. Beyond those evolutionarily-determined lifespan thresholds, the cancer risk increases several fold in people and in dogs. Over the past 200 years for humans and the past 50 years for dogs, the availability of health care, nutrition, energy, social protection, and other such modern changes have reduced overall mortality and expanded life expectancies. This has allowed people to live to about 80 years of age (twice our evolutionarily-determined lifespan) and for dogs to live to about 10 to 12 years of age (almost three times their evolutionarily-determined lifespan). Humans and dogs have no mechanisms that can protect their cells from the effects of mutations that occur over these newly expanded lifespans.

To add insult to injury, in both species, but especially in companion dogs, natural selection has been almost completely replaced by artificial selection. There are few natural selective pressures to guide evolution of cancer-protective mechanisms to support our long lifespan. The consequences are obvious. Shattering the evolutionary barriers of longevity without compensatory cancer-protective mechanisms makes dogs and humans increasingly vulnerable.

In all, there are about 700 genes in our genomes where mutations that alter function can promote cancer. We do not fully understand the interactions that occur among the products of these genes, or between these cancer-causing genes and the rest of our genome. But with few exceptions, the catalog of specific mutant genes in tumors arising from the same cell types or tissues in humans and dogs are vastly different. And yet, the molecular programs that characterise these homologous tumors are remarkably similar.

This raises important implications with regards to our efforts to learn from cancers across species. We must account for the glaring differences in causation while continuing our focus on commonalities. Dogs can teach us how expanded longevity overcomes a species cancer-protective mechanisms. Moreover, comparative approaches can help us to understand how constraints on the organisation of tumors into specific structures create vulnerabilities that we can exploit to attack or prevent cancer in both species.

Finally, cancer is not inevitable. Even with the risks of replication-induced mutations and longevity, only about 1/4th to 1/3rd of all humans and dogs are expected to develop cancer in their lifetime. It is a bit of a Russian roulette.

Incredible breakthroughs have been made in treatments for advanced human cancers, which raises hope for future applications in dogs. Still, the pace of research and progress is slow, and with cancer overtaking all other causes of death in both humans and dogs, alternative solutions are necessary. This has guided our recent efforts to develop robust diagnostic tests that identify cancer signatures before tumors form, paired with interventions that eliminate nascent malignancies. The benefits of a comparative, wholistic approach to guide this process are undeniable. We are convinced that these preventative strategies and others like them will be part of the solution to cancer. We are also convinced that comparative oncology approaches are necessary to continue progress for all species.

Acknowledgments: The author gratefully acknowledges Dr. Michelle Ritt and Dr. Michael Henson for their helpful discussions and suggestions.

Please note: This is a commercial profile

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Cancer in Dogs and Humans: How is it alike and how is it different? - Open Access Government

Braun Series 7

If one believes that modified grooming down results in being happier, more productive and more creative, than ones behavior will hear that out. How one is groomed has always been linked to how one behaves, hence the expression looks like a million bucks. The way you look affects the way you think, feel and act. Industry insiders have long observed that renewed attention to appearance is a sign of recovery and strength.

Managers are empowering employees to choose modified grooming methods from a variety of ways. Simply stated; good grooming habits is demonstrating your commitment and concern for your well-being during office hours. In fact, organizations are reporting such positive benefits from employees with clean grooming habits. Good grooming is here to stay and even part of a dress for success policy at many prominent corporations.

I recently had the privilege of speaking with Benjamin Wilson, Industrial Designer, Global Technology & DesignCommunications Lead for Braun & Gillette Venus. Procter & Gamble about the great history of the brand since 1921, why men are looking for tools to make their grooming effortless and that enable the looks they desire and why he believes that technology and needs will change, but Brauns principles will remain relevant!

Benjamin Wilson, Industrial Designer, Global Technology & Design Communications Lead for Braun & ... [+] Gillette Venus. Procter & Gamble

Joseph DeAcetis: Talk to Forbes about the great history, and development of your brand?

Ben Wilson:Since 1921, Braun has been a benchmark for useful, functional design and products of the highest quality - from its founding years as a radio manufacturer, to the debut of the S50 shaver in the '50s, not to mention its current innovations in personal care tools and the recent return to the audio market, Braun is a brand with longevity. The undeniable influence of the era of Fritz Eichler and the Ulm School of Design on the role of design in business includes the thinking that led to the iconic "less, but better" way of creating objects." From personal care to audio, timepieces to kitchen appliances, the Braun brand permeates many personal everyday products. Braun since day one hasbeen about creating better solutions and experiences that improve peoples lives.

My background: At the beginning of 2002, I decided to move to Europe to experience new cultures, learn more about myself and to start my design career. I now have an amazing family of 4 and enjoy being part of the European and P&G design scene. Names like Hans Gugelot, Wilhelm Wagenfeld and naturally Dieter Rams drew me to Germany.

To be able to call myself a Braun Designer and have the privilege to share the knowledge I have gained at Braun, is a great honour. I have made it my mission to share my learnings and play a role in ensuring that the next generation of designers understand that it is not merely an aesthetic, but an approach, a way of thinking and doing things that leads to better products, ones that meet human needs and that are created to stand the test of time -the Germans call this having a Haltung, a wayof doing things.

In addition to my industrial design experience, I have continuously represented Braun as an internal and external brand ambassador and moved from the executional design function to lead Braun Technology and Design Communications since 2016.

Joseph DeAcetis: In your words, what is your competitive advantage in development and specialized product.

Ben Wilson: Braun can be summed up simply, it is, and always has been, about creating objects for use that are based on human needs and that are designed and engineered to the highest quality to stand the test of time. In short, for humans, simplicity of use and built to last. We call this Designed for what matters. The idea of respecting humans is an underlying, recurring theme of our story, fromlooking after the humans that work at Braun through to treating the users with respect by means of considering their needs and helping them have a good experience with Braun products over a long time.

Joseph DeAcetis: How do you intend to market to Millennial's and Gen Z - whom quite often, do not wish to follow the rules?

Ben Wilson: Having stood the test of time for almost 100 years, our Haltung has future. This generation, like various before, are looking for what will be next, what is most important for them and the world? What type of world do they want to live in? This generation, as Gary Vaynerchuk says,have options. Like no generation before, they have the ability to make change happen, to start a company, to go live within days and reach millions of people with their ideas... they dont have to settlefor mediocrity or things they dont agree with anymore. They are looking for things that are authentic, real and that are intrinsically good- our Haltung, way of doing things, has a future. Technology and needs will change, but our principles will remain relevant. Imagine if the generations to come understand what truly good design is? In my opinion, one of the most important Dieter Rams quotes is

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great Design is making something memorable and meaningful.

A thought/quote developed in association with my long-term business partner and friend Dr. PeterKapos: In Brauns current marketing approach to Millennials and Gen Z, the company arereconnecting with their brand tradition, particularly as it was formed in the 1960sand 70s. Itsstandard practice for companies today to study their audiences in order to adapt messaging to fit theirperceived requirements. Braun have realised that theres already a clean dovetailing between its deeplevel ethos, its Haltung, and the concerns of young people. Considerations about better living through a more conscious and deliberate relation to objects, an emphasis on quality and experience, a desire to reduce clutter, noise and chaos, awareness about the direct relation between our individual choices as consumers and the future of a habitable planetall of these thoughts directly informed Braunindustrial design from the early 70s on. They are Braun Design DNA. Of course, these issues are alsoof urgent concern for a younger generation growing up in a precarious and, in many ways, perilous social and physical environment in which futures, both personal and planetary, are uncertain. So, forBraun, all that is required to find the marketers holy grail of relevance is just to be true to itself. That may sound cheesy, but it in practice this has required the company to take a long hard look at itself, and to make some brave decisions. Haltung is, after all, something that must be practiced rather than preached. As a company, Braun is looking forward to earning the regard of its young audiences as thecompanys Haltung is increasingly evident in itsproducts.

Joseph DeAcetis: Talk to us in details about the 3 new shavers?

Ben Wilson: Braun manufactures various shavers and the Braun Series9 is the Worlds most efficientelectric shaver, torture-tested on 3-5-day beards. The five shaving elements capture more hair in one stroke compared to other Braun shavers, for a flawless shave and provides both a close and gentle shave, without compromise.

However, this is not necessarily what all men are looking for when it comes to their grooming needs. Through extensive research we found that it takes a lot of attention and effort not to miss any hairs when shaving. Men generally just accept that there are some hard-to-reach areas whilst shaving, such as the jawline, and adapt their shaving technique to get the smoothest results. Therefore, Braun took on the challenge to address this and to deliver the ultimate shaving experience for men.

After several years of research and with the help of 10 s of thousands of men across the globe, Braun developed the NEW Series 7, Series 6 and Series 5 shavers with an extremely slim and perfectly balanced body. The new innovative slim drive system enabled the all new Series 7 3D flex head to ensure that the shaver head, which adapts to every contour of the face, can detail with ease and enables an easy smooth in-use experience that ensures closeness. This new generation of shavers brings together breakthrough technology, human first design and engineering excellence to provide a shaving experience that is easy, smooth and gentle.

Series 5

SERIES 5, SERIES 6 AND SERIES 7 HERO FEATURES EXPLAINED

A NEW slim and ergonomic design- the handle has been redesigned to deliver better shaving with

less effort:

The angle between the handle and the shaver head is designed to allow the shaver head to stay incontact with the skin.

The handle is slimmer to ensure a better grip and handling during the shave.

The shavers have been perfectly weighted to balance the device requiring less effort while shaving.

All three shavers can be used both wet and dry.

NEW and improved shaving systemfor more power delivered to the blades

Features advanced specialised cutting elements: a middle trimmer to capture longer hairs and twoultra-thin SensoFoils for a close and thorough shave.

For superior shaving performance, the Series 5, 6 and 7 all feature a new and improved direct drive system which enables this new generation of shavers to cut through even very dense facial hair.

NEW EasyClick system to upgrade your shaver with attachments:From the perfect 3-day stubble to perfectly smooth skin, the series 5, 6 and 7 can be upgraded with attachments for ultimate versatility. This is the first of its kind from Braun, all of this in a single tool!

Precision Trimmer: for moustache and sideburns trimming. Beard Trimmer: for beard styles from 0.5mm to 7mm.

Stubble Beard Trimmer: for a perfect and precise 3-day beard look without the effort, this is thanks to the hairs being captured inside the shaver head.

Body Groomer: for a head-to-toe grooming. Cleansing Brush: for deeppore-cleansing.

EasyClick functionality: Every attachment has been designed to be interchangeable with one simpleclick.

Fast charge technology:Powerful Li-Ion batteries provide a full charge in 60 minutes plus a 5-minute quick-charging mode, enough for one shave.

THE BRAUN SERIES 7 360 FLEX - A PERFECT COMBINATION OF REFINED CONTROL AND MOVEMENT

Combining breakthrough technology with intuitive design, the new Series 7 uses flexibility and adaptation to enable seamless close contact.

360 Flex System: The revolutionary Series 7 features a fully flexible head that responds to the contours of your face and neck, reaching every hair for a smoother shave, using less effort.

AutoSensing technology: The Series 7 uses Braun AutoSensing technology which automatically adapts to hair densityhelping to capture event more hairs in each stroke.

Series 6

THE BRAUN SERIES 6 - SENSITIVE TO YOUR SKIN

The Series 6 flexes to your skincare needs, meaning you never have to compromise on performance.

SensoFlex shaving head: Thegentle pivoting head and flexible blades of the Series 6 glide effortlessly over the curves of the face, reducing pressure on the skin and creating a sensitive yet close and comfortable shave.

Skin Heath Alliance: The Series 6 has been given dermatological accreditation from the Skin Heath Alliance, an independent organisation that verifies the safety of products for the skin.

THE BRAUN SERIES 5EASY AND DYNAMIC

The Series 5 offers an easy and efficient shave that simplifies your everyday shaving routine.

EasyClean System: The Series 5 features a built-in rinsing mechanism, allowing water to pass through the rinsing holes in the shaver head, clearing any shaving debris without the need to remove the shaving head.

Joseph DeAcetis: In your words, what are men seeking today in a good shaver and how has Braun developed specialized product to compete with this change?

Ben Wilson: When it comes to their grooming needs, men are looking for tools to make their grooming effortless and that enable the looks they desire. Needs change over time and trends come and go, at Braun we always strive to understand these shifts and ensure that we have the right solutions to offer.

As these needs change, just like the Brothers Braun did in 1955, Braun does research and seeks to understand what is desired and develops products that are designed for what matters. Today, men are grooming in more ways than ever, from a clean-shaven look, to 3-5 day and full beardswith this, the grooming jobs to be done and the challenges for our designers and engineers change. For example, our Series 9 was developed because many men shave during the week but then let their beard grow

from Thursday through Monday morning, where the shaver needs to be able to get through the 3-day weekend growth, lifting and cutting longer hairs. This is an immense challenge that our Series 9 hasachieved and is therefore able to carry the tittle most efficient shaver in the world, torture-tested on 3- 5-day beards. Every year, we welcome over 30,000 men to our European technical centers to test our products. This way we stay very closely connected to trends and predict the unmet needs of our users.

Another example is the introduction of our Autosensing technology into our Series 7 and styling products. This technology ensures that our shavers and stylers achieve constant and optimal speed, regardless of how much hair is being cut at one time. Just like in 1955, if you understand what people desire and develop against those needs and aspirations, and develop products with a defined Haltung, this leads to happy users and strong business results.

Joseph DeAcetis: Talk to Forbes in detail about the current offerings and why it is important for consumers to be aware of this brand

Ben Wilson: To best answer this, I would very much like to welcome you to our Braun Collection in Germany. Here you will be able to experience the true depth of the meaning of the Braun Haltung and why the world needs to know more about it, today more than ever. Let me try to give you a brief snapshot:

We at Braun design for what matters. This is founded on decades of developing products with a very specific Haltung. The brothers Braun, together with Fritz Eichler and Ulm school, did not simply createa vision of a better future; they made a future vision tangible. The vision was design for millions.They believed that everyone deserves products that are designed with humans in mind, easy to use, are reduced to what matters most and that are manufactured to stand the test of time. They wanted to reduce design back to the essentials, leaving out the non-essentials, summarised well by Dieter Ramsin the early 70 s with his idea of Less, but better. This is true sustainability, making things that areuseful and built to last. This leads to a keep culture and is something that the world needs more than ever. The Bauhaus idea of Less is More was given a radical new meaning in the context of the oilcrisis in the 70 sand scarcity of materials. The response to these conditions was that the world and thefuture requires Less, but better things.

Today, all products are developed with human needs in mind, from a tool like our S9 that can shave through 3-5-day beards with ease to those tools that are made to groom body areas... Our intentis to ensure that the needs are not only met, but maybe even create an experience that is surprising from time to time - in just how well they do the job they are intended to do, time and time again. This is Braun.

We aim to keep the promises we make when we enter a market. The return to audio equipment is another great example. The time is right to offer incredible technology, great design and innovative features like the mechanical microphone button. It might sound obviously simple but like most of our innovations it is founded on a deep user insight/need.

Series 7

Joseph DeAcetis: Talk to Forbes about how computer-aided design helped in the development of your brand: both product make-up and e-commerce? Details please

Ben Wilson: CAD and Digital tools continue to evolve, new AI technologies are already changing the way engineers specify structures and robots are working in factories, buildings, bridges and houses. Product experiences are a combination of hardware and software technology. At Braun, we aim to use technology to enhance the experience in meaningful ways. A good example of this is the IPL device and supporting app, our IPL device is very intelligent, utilizing sensors and computing power, called Senso-Adapt technology, which adapts the light intensity in real time according to the tone of the skin in the area of use, this helps ensure that our users have an effective and safe in-use experience.

Joseph DeAcetis: What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

Ben Wilson: Our Designers at Braun are involved from the first moments of understanding what is needed, all the way through to the manufacturing. This is how it has always been at Braun, a flux between what is needed, design and technology. The day-to-day roles vary from the status of theprojects that we lead... I think it is important to mention that the Braun design team is a mix ofindustrial, graphic and visual identity designers, but they are supported by the multifunctional teams that strive to create the best possible solutions. The team is always focused on keeping their promise, making sure the products are designed, engineered and tested to ensure they stand the test of time.

That being said, the development process can vary depending on whether we are creatinga new-to- the-world idea/technology or are improving on an existing / established technology. This will affecthow long the development process is- it can vary from 12 months to 5 years. Today, personally, much of my time is spent sharing insights like these to help more people around the globe understand why our products are so amazing and should be an essential part of their world.

Joseph DeAcetis: Where is the product made and why?

Ben Wilson: Braun was founded in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1921, and our new Series 5, 6 and 7 shaving technology is designed and engineered in Germany. We have a global supply and manufacturing network with Germany not only being a main manufacturing location but also the place where Braun is rooted and where our global design and engineering teams are located. All the knowledge, expertise and decades of experience in creating high quality electrical shaving and hair removal devices resides here.

Joseph DeAcetis: You have the floor: Talk to my viewers about why they should try this brand now? (details)

Ben Wilson: As mentioned, our products deliver top performance, are designed for what really matters to our users, are easy to use and built to last. This way of doing things helps ensure a positive in-use experience over time. To underline why: On a regular basis, I have the pleasure of guiding people through our 100 years of history and sharing stories that led us up to this moment in time. During these tours, I can pick up a hand-driven/powered torch from 1938 from the exhibition and demonstrate its use. That is Braun. Or that a simple Juicer, designed in 1972, is still in production today. One of my favorite questions I ask during my tours is: When the last time an orange changed? User needs can change or not, but when you keep the idea, design and engineering simple and ensure that they last, this is good for all. Good for the users, the planet and it is also good for the business. Make it once, make it right.

Joseph DeAcetis: How do you intend to keep customer's satisfied

Ben Wilson: Our quality is founded on decades of setting the highest standards. Benjamin Franklinonce said, The Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long After the Sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten. Today, this is something that, thankfully, more and more people are discovering again. Thetime for things of lesser quality and the quick sale are gone. The future generations deserve better,this was the vision that the brothers Braun and the Ulm School had in the 50 s: Make better products that people need and ensure they last. Design for millions.

Joseph DeAcetis: Talk to Forbes how Braun intends to play a positive role in the modern era of men's shaving?

Ben Wilson: By providing tools that do the jobs they are intended to do, keeping our promise of meeting the unmet grooming needs that men have with products that are designed for what matters, simple to use and built to last. It is our commitment to meetmenscurrent needs and strive to interpret the evolution of those needs in the future.

More here:
Find Out Here How To Shave Easily And Efficiently For These Rapidly Moving Modern Times - Forbes

People have been parsing the human lifespan into a taxonomy of ages forever. Aristotle proposed three categories: youthful, prime of life and elderly. Two thousand years later, Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man carved human chronology into seven slices, with the bodys final frailty circling back to the original oblivion of infancy. And in the 1980s, British historian Peter Laslett proposed a revised map of three ages, with a caveat for the third: it could be a time of post-retirement fulfillment and achievement, or it could collapse, a la Shakespeare, into dependence and decrepitude.

The character of any individuals third age hinges on some key factors, including health, wealth, community and the government policies and cultural customs that influence them. Navigating those factors requires independence, assistance, access and education. The latter, especially, is lacking. Missoula Aging Services Executive Director Susan Kohler told a room full of Montana journalists in November that one of the biggest impediments to a fulfilling third age is lack of preparedness.

Already, Montana is the oldest state west of the Mississippi, according to median age statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. With half the states population 40 or older, were the ninth oldest in the nation, out-grayed only by Florida, Maine and a few other eastern states.

Peak age is yet to come, according to demographic projections produced for the state Department of Commerce by consulting firm REMI. As of 2017, the baseline year used by those projections, 18% of Montanans were 65 or older, up from 14% in 2001. The figure is expected to climb to 22% by 2030 then plateau through 2040 as boomers reach the end of their lives.

Different parts of the state, however, are on very different trajectories. Sparsely populated rural counties tend to have higher percentages of seniors and are, in many cases, on track to become even more disproportionately older. Petroleum Countys 520 residents make it the lowest-population county in Montana, and by 2030, 37% of county residents will be past retirement age, up from 23% in 2017. For Teton County, northwest of Great Falls, the 2030 figure is projected to be 27%, up from 22%.

Population centers like the Billings area tend to trend closer to the state as a whole, age-wise, though college towns Missoula and Bozeman are substantially younger than other urban areas, and are expected to stay that way. Seniors 65 and over accounted for 16% of the population of Yellowstone County (including Billings) and 12% of the population of Gallatin County (including Bozeman) in 2017. Those figures are projected to rise to 21% and 15%, respectively, by 2030.

Counties with sizable Native American populations, such as Roosevelt County (including Wolf Point), Big Horn County (including Hardin and Crow Agency), and Glacier County (including Cut Bank and Browning) are also younger than neighboring rural areas. Roosevelt County, with only 11% of its population over 65, is the states youngest by that measure.

Driving those trends are three key demographic forces: birth, death and migration. Higher birth rates pull areas younger while longer lifespans populate communities with more elders. Migration, in turn, tends to siphon young, mobile residents away from some places and toward others.

Montanas population is skewing older, in part, as the oversized generation of baby boomers born in the aftermath of World War II, between 1946 to 1964, reaches retirement age. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, longer life expectancies and declining birth rates are also a factor thats aging American communities across the nation. While average life expectancy in the U.S. was 68.2 in 1950, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, it was a decade longer, 78.6, in 2017.

In Montana, the median age of death is now 75 for men and 82 for women, according to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. Montanas Native communities are younger in part because death typically comes much earlier for American Indian Montanans, with DPHHS reporting a median age of death at 60 for Native men and 63 for Native women.

Counties with larger Native populations also tend to have higher birth rates, which means more young residents. For example, Roosevelt County, which is 57% Native, saw a rate of 22.3 births per 1,000 residents annually between 2010 and 2018, according to a Montana Free Press analysis of census data. The equivalent figure for Yellowstone County, in comparison, was 13.2.

Migration rounds out the picture. While Montana attracts some older migrants looking for a change of scenery in retirement, migration is on the balance a youthening force for destination communities, because young people constitute the lions share of movers. According to census estimates based on surveys conducted between 2014 and 2018, 58% of Montanas new arrivals to Montana are under the age of 30, versus just 11% who are 60 or older.

As such, migration patterns also contribute to the graying of places where there arent enough new arrivals to balance the number of young people moving away for school or work, creating the brain drain dynamic that has posed a challenge for swaths of rural Montana for decades.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR MONTANA

Those trends create challenges.

At a community level, an older population means more demand for healthcare services. A 2012 study by economists at Montana State University, for example, estimated that the states aging demographics would necessitate increased state Medicaid spending. And with large portions of the healthcare system funded by the state-administered Medicaid program, aging creates public policy questions at the state government level as well.

At the same time, an aging population is predicted to diminish the proportion of states residents who are in the workforce and available to staff nursing jobs, not to mention other businesses. Montanas working-age population of residents between the ages of 15 and 64 was 64% of the populace as of 2017. While the total number of working-age Montanans is projected to increase with population growth, the working-age share of the population is expected to decrease slightly, to 60%, by 2030.

That study also concluded that the aging of Montana will produce a modest shift in state revenue sources away from income taxes, which are highest for workers in the peak of their careers, and toward property taxes, which are higher for older adults, including retirees, who tend to live in more valuable homes than younger residents.

An aging population doesnt just influence tax projections and hospital budgets and worker supply.

It affects family farming and Elks Clubs.

It affects churches and nonprofits and all manner of governmental safety nets, whose funding structures are already strained.

It affects the aging and the aged, many of whom face financial insecurity and isolation. And it affects the generations behind them, who are increasingly called on to care for elderly parents, even as many raise their own children, who may one day help care for them.

The average American life expectancy has increased by three decades over the course of the 20th century, contributing to the aging of America and suggesting the need for what a 2018 Stanford Center on Longevity initiative calls a new map of life that reimagines education, work, retirement, intergenerational relationships, financial planning and healthcare to support a society in which more of us than ever are living in Lasletts third age.

Montana is on the forefront of that national trend, giving Montanans an opportunity to, as Center on Longevity Director Laura Carstensen wrote in the Washington Post, redesign how we live.

Excerpt from:
How, where and why Montana became the grayest state in the West - The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

The Covid-19 outbreak marks the end of a golden age. For 75 years, we have been getting richer, freer and more interconnected. The economic liberalisation that followed the Second World War led to an unprecedented increase in human happiness. Wars became rarer. Famines, long considered inescapable, were all but eliminated. Literacy and longevity soared; violence and oppression plummeted. Why? Because countries that had previously had closed or communist economies gradually joined the global market.

The trouble is, we never made the effort to understand what was driving the enrichment. Indeed, we mulishly refused to believe that it was happening at all. Since 1945, the population of the world has roughly tripled, while the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by roughly two thirds. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by around 90 per cent. Yet only 10 per cent of us believe that there has been any decline at all.

We are equally gloomy, and equally mistaken, about life expectancy, global inequality and access to education. The Swedish physician, Hans Rosling, who used to poll people about the state of the world, liked to joke that if the answers were written on bananas and tossed to chimpanzees, the chimps would pick the correct banana far more often than the temperamentally pessimistic humans.

That innate pessimism, so useful to our hunter-gatherer forebears but so misleading today, explains why we are reacting to the coronavirus by hunkering down, banning flights and moaning about global supply chains. We are thinking primevally, not rationally. Our lizard brains respond to an unfamiliar illness by wanting to shut everything out.

There is no scientific case for banning travel especially not from countries with similar rates of infection to your own. But, in times of stress, we fall back on our tribal heuristics, seeing strangers as likelier carriers of pathogens. Our mood will almost certainly harden as fear of infection gives way to actual infection.

Psychologists have long known that people who are suffering from cold or flu-like symptoms become grumpier in their personality and more authoritarian in their politics.

For two weeks now, we have been reading articles about how pandemics are a product of globalisation. We ought, say a hundred armchair experts, to reduce our dependence on places like China. We should grow more of our own food and, come to that, manufacture more of our own vaccines.

Again, these are arguments that address themselves to our inner caveman. They feel intuitive, but they are quite wrong. Pandemics are not a product of globalisation. In 1348, the Bishop of Bath wrote that a catastrophic pestilence from the East has arrived in a neighbouring kingdom and threatened to stretch its poisonous branches into this realm.

He was right. Around 50 per cent of the population perished. The central expectation this time is that the mortality rate will be around half of 1 per cent catastrophic enough by modern standards, but hardly a product of globalisation.

Nor does self-sufficiency offer security. Many countries used to aim to produce most or all of their food, and the consequences were often calamitous. Localised production is vulnerable to localised shocks: bad harvests, natural disasters, vermin.

The true guarantor of food security is the ability to draw on a dispersed web of global supply. The country with the cheapest food in the world is Singapore, which does not produce one edible ounce itself. At the other end of the scale, the only state which still experiences man-made famines is North Korea, where self-sufficiency is the ruling ideology.

The globalisation on which our wealth rests was never the subject of much debate. Few electorates were convinced by it. It simply happened and, because it worked, people went along with it. The trouble is that its foundations were always fragile. Bad is stronger than good, as the pioneering behavioural psychologist Amos Tversky liked to say. People will take for granted the creation of any number of jobs in retail, financial services, biotech, law, programming or the audio-visual sector. But close one shipyard and, supposedly, globalisation has failed.

Even before the epidemic began, a reaction was setting in. Protectionism was on the rise in Washington, Brussels and Beijing. Even in Right of centre circles, people were warning against the dogma of capitalism, and mouthing platitudes about markets serving society rather than the other way around. But there is nothing dogmatic about support for free markets.

It is based on what works empirically, not what feels right. Far from being ideological, it rests on the idea that we shouldnt impose our ideologies on other people. As for the idea of a market serving society, abstract nouns make poor servants. The market is not a living entity that can be put to work. It is better understood as an absence of coercive rules, a readiness to let affairs arrange themselves.

These arguments, hard to win at the best of times, are almost impossible to voice when people are panicking in the face of an impending plague.

We will look back at the period from 1945 to 2020 as the moment when freedom was given its chance and proved its worth, but was abandoned anyway. Open markets lifted billions from poverty, added decades to our lives, gave us powers that previous generations attributed to wizards or gods. And we never noticed.

Read more:
Globalisation brought us unprecedented riches. Now were throwing them away - Telegraph.co.uk