SWNS

Shocking footage shows how residents are being terrorised in their homes by a 21-strong gang of teenage yobs who have descended on a picturesque spa town. The large group of "feral" youths have been causing havoc across the sleepy Worcestershire town of Malvern Link for the past several months. Locals say they are being tormented by the group, estimated to be aged between 12-16, who are threatening people with knives and throwing stones at houses. Others say they have caught them urinating in neighbouring gardens, stealing and setting fires through people's letterboxes. Parents have said they are too scared to let their kids play out after one boy was beaten up while elderly residents have been left "prisoners in their own homes". One couple living on Cedar Avenue, where house prices average around 320,000, caught the hooded youths on their Ring doorbell camera last week. Footage shows the intimidating gang swarming their driveway before they went into the garden and stole their son's 1,000 bag and 300 bike from their cabin. Clia McCullough, 47, who lives with partner Neil Topping, 49, said they rushed home after watching the theft unfold last Saturday (29/4). Mum-of-two Celia later uploaded the footage to social media in a bid to raise awareness and catch those responsible - but was told by police to take it down. She said: "We saw the group on the footage and we were able to count 21 people that were involved looking at my camera and my neighbours. "It was scary seeing them all at the end of our driveway. "They rushed into our garden and stole my son's bag from our cabin. They also stole an expensive bike as well. "We were driving back home after we found out but we were told by a neighbour that they had already left and had made their way to Malvern Link station. "We heard that they were also throwing stones at homes and urinating on properties as well. "Since uploading it to social media I have been told countless other stories from people who have been terrorised by these same kids. "One said they were too scared to let their children play out after a boy was beaten up by them. They have threatened another with a knife. "I've been told they put things on fire through someone's postbox. It's just awful. This is a nice quiet area with a lot of elderly residents. "This isn't a big city where you might sort of expect this thing, although it's unacceptable anywhere, we moved here because it was beautiful and quiet. "They need to be stopped but when I uploaded the footage I was told by police to take it down because an investigation was ongoing. "But we haven't seen them do anything to stop them. We understand they come from Worcester by train to purposely target our little town. "Surely something could be done at either train station to stop them coming here. They have been causing havoc for months and nobody seems to want to act. "I want to make the people of Malvern Link aware of this because things are getting worse here. "We live on such a quiet road and things like this do not normally happen. "We have had so many people on social media telling us of similar incidents involving this group. "They are terrorising people and people are scared. It needs to stop." Miss McCullough, who did not wish to give her occupation, said that the attitudes of the youths towards the police were "awful". She said: "We were on the phone with the police the whole time on the way to the station and they were fantastic when they arrived. "The attitudes of these youths were awful, even when the police were dealing with them. They don't seem to care." Another elderly resident, who did not wish to be named, added: "We've been too scared to go out because these feral thugs have been running riot. "They just don't seem to care about anything other than being hellbent on causing trouble. We've become prisoners in our own homes." Residents say the group was the same that had previously been banned from Malvern Link Station by police at the weekend. Eight officers issued five dispersal notices to some of the teenagers, meaning they could not visit the train station for up to 48 hours. A spokesperson for West Mercia Police said: "Officers in Malvern have issued five dispersal notices for this weekend following reports of youths in the area of Malvern Link on the evening of Saturday, April 29 engaging in Anti-Social Behaviour. "The dispersal order has been imposed under Section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. "Dispersal orders make it an offence for anyone to return to a specific area for up to 48 hours."

Excerpt from:

Davis stabbings: Insight into the mind of a suspected serial killer - Yahoo News UK

Fear Factory returns with mystery singer: Guitarist Dino Cazares is the sole remaining member of the classic Fear Factory, but still, its great to have them back. Hes been keeping the identity of the new singer close to his chest, and as far as were aware the guy isnt a name theyre going in fresh. Should be fun. Lions at the Gate, Infinite Sleep, Against the Grave, Plagues Ov Khaos, Sleeping Faceless, and Slanderus also perform.

We spoke to Cazares in the summer of 2021, just as the band was releasing the Aggression Continuumalbum featuring the vocals of former singer Burton C. Bell.

Theres a big organization lets call it Skynet that is capturing humans and extracting their memories and their mind, their consciousness, and basically uploading them into an automaton so it can think its human, Cazares said. So its a relationship between humans and AI. This AI thinks its human but its not. Through the whole process of Fear Factory, its always been a relationship between man and machine. In this one, theyre not getting along at all. Theres a war between them going back and forth.

People ask me if I thought about replacing Burts vocals and the answer is yes. But the record company wanted Burts vocals to remain on the record, and I was a little hesitant at first. This is a unique situation. But at the same time, maybe his vocals should stay there because this is his last album and people should hear it. I agreed with the record company, so we kept his vocals intact and worked around them. It worked out great in the end.

Fear Factory returns with mystery singer: The event takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 5 at the Whisky A Go Go.

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Fear Factory Returns With Mystery Singer - LA Weekly

By Krishna P S and Shainu Mohan| Express News Service |Published: 05th May 2023 11:34 AM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two cyber crimes rocked Kerala in the past few days. In one case, 26-year-old V M Athira of Kaduthuruthy in Kottayam ended her life on Monday allegedly due to cyber harassment by her ex-boyfriend Arun Vidhyadharan, 34. He was found dead in a lodge in Kasaragod on Thursday.

Athiras relaive said, the two broke up a year ago as the relationship had turned toxic. However, when she registered herself on a matrimony site, Arun allegedly got infuriated and started stalking her. When she got a proposal, he started uploading her photos on his Facebook page, along with offensive remarks.

The relative said, she had filed a complaint with the local police station on Sunday. Arun, meanwhile, continued uploading nasty posts on Facebook. However, on Monday, she was found hanging in her room, the relative said.

In another incident, a minor student reportedly approached a hacker on Instagram to retrieve nude images she had sent to her ex-lover. Subsequently, the hacker started blackmailing her for money. When she filed a complaint, the police arrested and charged the hacker under POCSO Act.

These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg, says forensic specialist and author Dr Veena J S. We are all part of the cyber world. And as we become more evolved technologically, such crimes are bound to see a rise.Veena adds she has come across three women who were victims of online bullying and harassment. None of them, however, filed complaints, she notes.

Though there is personal trauma, shame and self-blame prevent many survivors from approaching the police and seek action, but one should take charge and find a solution. That means reporting the crime. But in these three cases, the women did not feel comfortable approaching the police.

Pics on adult website

It was a nightmare, says poet and activist Chithira Kusum, who faced cyber harassment last November. Someone downloaded the photos that I had posted on Facebook and uploaded them on an adult website with obscene captions. After one of my friends alerted me, I immediately approached the police cyber cell to file a complaint. But their response was insensitive and lackadaisical. The first officer I spoke to responded with laughter. Why didnt you lock your profile? he asked.

When Chithira insisted that she wanted to file a complaint, another officer tried to discourage her. They said if the profile was not locked, such things would keep happening, she recalls.They grumbled that they were not even able to nab frauds who had stolen money via Facebook. They found my case trivial. When I insisted, they asked me to file a complaint via email.

Chithira provided the URL of the site and informed them that photos of about 420 women were uploaded on it. But the officers said each of the women should file individual cases, she adds. Its been six months, there is no update and the photos are still there on that site.

Inaction, lack of awareness

According to cybercrime investigator Dhanya Menon, most cyber harassment cases are not reported. Even if a person wants to file a complaint, the police dissuade them. They act only when a suicide or suicide attempt or murder happens due to cyber harrassment, she says.

High Court lawyer Sandhya Raju George echoes similar views, adding that the police remain cold to such complaints unless there is pressure. If a lawyer or senior official goes with the survivor, the polices response will be positive, she says.It will be great if at least two officers in a station are trained on how to sensitively deal with victims of online harassment, revenge porn and cyberbullying.

Men, too

Lawyer founder of the NGO Cyber Suraksha Foundation Jiyas Jamal highlights that men, too, face cyberbullying. Nowadays, people get messages from mystery women, asking whether they want to chat. If you respond, the chat begins, and then come explicit videos, he says. Next, they will ask for a video in return. Some gullible people send their videos and, with that, starts the blackmail.

Jiyas says most incidents happen on social media and unregistered dating sites. Often, the victims feel ashamed to speak out about such cases, even with close friends, he adds. Our society considers watching porn shameful; so one can imagine the case of sharing nude photos or videos.

Another issue is the lengthy legal process, he notes. In most cases where a perpetrator is a known person, victims tend to compromise, says Jiyas. Most people, especially women, feel reluctant to appear in court in such cases. Unless the conviction rate rises, there wont be fear among people about committing such crimes.

Jiyas, however, believes the police have become proactive in curbing cyber cases, though the focus is more on financial fraud. Lack of quick response from social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram is another hindrance in cyberbullying cases, he notes.Even if problematic content is reported, or the police ask for details of the accused, the response from these sites is lethargic.

Government should act

Activist and lawyer J Sandhya highlights that there are legal loopholes and a lack of proper mechanisms to address cyber issues. The Supreme Court has scrapped Section 66 A of the IT Act, which gave the police the power to arrest a person for posting offensive content online, she explains.We cannot blame the police for not acting on complaints they are powerless in some cases. Its an unfortunate situation, where the system is unable to help the victims of online harassment.

Sandhya says the state government had initiated a discussion and even came up with a draft law to regulate the online space. But nothing materialised. The draft was poorly written and needed revision. Its high time the government took necessary action and prevented such crimes, she adds.

Major offence

The police department has a 24/7 helpline (1930) for registering cybercrime. On average, we get 70 to 80 complaints daily, says ADGP (Cyber Operations) T Vikram. The majority of them are cyber frauds. The number of complaints relating to cyberbullying is negligible.

Vikram adds that people are hesitant to come forward and complain about cyberbullying and harassment. We have a very efficient system and cyberbullying is a major offence. Every police station is supposed to promptly act on complaints of crimes, he says.When TNIE contacted the helpline, an official guided us to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) to report cases related to cyber harassment.

Senior CPO at the Kochi cyber cell Ineesh P S, meanwhile, says the conviction rate is low in cyber-harassment cases. Many cases get compromised after filing the FIR or as soon as the case reaches court, especially if the accused is known to the complainant, he adds.

Cyber security expert Manu Zacharia says that there are three key points to keep in mind. Whenever an issue crops up, immediately speak to a trusted person; do not yield to demands of preparators; and report the crime, he explains.Manu adds the police should be alert to new methods of crimes, as cyberspace is constantly evolving. They should also make the public aware of new traps, he says.

Three Cs for children

Consultant psychologist and co-founder of Swaraksha Charitable Trust Anu Suraj stresses on the three Cs children should be taughtContact: Children should be aware of who is contacting them, and avoid engaging with unknown entitiesContent: They should be equipped to identify the kind of content they are seeing and sent to them, and judge whether it is safeConduct: How to respond safely, whom to trust, etc.Anu says if a student feels unsafe or falls prey to a trap, they should open up to a trusted adult. That is why awareness should reach not only children but parents, police, teachers, councillors and NGOs as well, she says.

Helpline numbers

National Police Helpline number: 112National Women Helpline number: 181Cyber Crime Helpline number: 1930Or visit, https://cybercrime.gov.in/ to file complaint

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Net traps - The New Indian Express

On Tuesday, a tweet from a writer named Jacqui Deevoy, a woman bravely making an observation, went viral: To her, the sun has lost some of its shine, is less yellow and more white, less round and more ovular, than when she was a child.

She wrote:

Im just telling a person in their 20s that the sun used to be yellow when I was a child and hes laughing. The last time he saw a yellow sun was on Teletubbies. Heres the sun right now. White and a weird shape. Hows it looking where you are? She attached a photo of a glaring midday sun, white and misshapen as a huge gnocchi.

That statement alone is enough to make you stop scrolling and consider going outside to look directly at the sun, which seems to be what shed recommend. Down the thread, she reveals that shes into sun-gazing, a practice that is exactly how it sounds and that shes been practicing for at least two years, and might be a contributing factor to why one might see things a little differently as an adult as compared to when they were young and spent less time frying their corneas.

The question of whether the suns changed is a conspiracy theory thats been bandied about for yearsas Rolling Stone notes, even before social media as we know it todaywith people declaring not my sun and claiming to witness weird phenomena ever since 9/11. Sun truthers have spent years uploading videos and photos of the sun online with a fervor usually reserved for UFO hunters.

A quick search of r/retconned, a subreddit for theories related to the Mandela Effect, shows the yellow sun has been a topic of interest for years. I miss it so much! a Redditor replied to someone asking what the yellow sun was like. The Sun was friendly. It warmed you up in a nice way. We used to use a metallic tray under our chins to tan our necks and faces and you could do that without being blinded. (Theres also been an almost 53 percent increase in skin cancer diagnoses in the US since 1999, as people who once sunbathed with cooking oil and reflective trays under the friendly sun age.)

They can be dangerous, because other people latch on to these ideas and are like 'Oh yeahI noticed that too', without consulting the science.

Solar scientists are typically busy doing science and dont have time to ponder the habits of people staring at the sun, but they did have some thoughts on the yellow sun theory thats gained new attention this week.

Bottom line up front: One should *never* look directly at the sun without adequate eye protection, Joseph Lazio, Interplanetary Network Directorate Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, said in an email.

Maria Weber, Assistant Professor of Physics and Planetarium Director at Delta State University, told me that she sees claims like this circulating around the internet all the time.

They can be dangerous, because other people latch on to these ideas and are like 'Oh yeah...I noticed that too', without consulting the science. Then we get the trend of people thinking something must be true because the internet said so, she said. In this situation, I think it is just people misremembering events or what they observed, especially when in comparison to our younger selves. The idea of the 'yellow sun' is, in part, definitely an effect of nostalgia and media. When I was a kid, all manners of TV shows or toys or school activities depicted the sun as yellow. (Im no child development expert but I assume we also give children yellow crayons to draw the sun because a white crayon on white paper won't do anything.)

In her introductory astronomy class, Weber said, she refers to the sun as a yellow dwarf, because its a G-type spectral class star, which is often referred to as such. The sun emits many different wavelengths, or colors, across the entire spectrum in colors we can see and more that the naked eye cantin fact, it most strongly emits a greenish colorbut when these colors come together, what we see is white, she said.

Moreover, the human eye, or maybe more properly the optic nerves, detects light in a way that smooths out changes in brightness, Lazio said. That means that humans can find it difficult to detect small changes in brightness, but we also can see even when the brightness changes dramatically, e.g., in broad daylight and at night (after our eyes adjust). The human eye cant detect the relatively small differences in brightness emitted by the sun.

Lazio reiterated that looking directly at the sun to test this for yourself is a terrible idea. One *never* should look directly at the sun, but, if one looks at its reflected light, say from a mirror directing the sunlight to a white wall, the reflected light will appear white.

As anyone whos been outside at different times of day could tell you, the sun does change color from sunrise to sunset. The view of the sun at its rising/setting is probably what a lot of people remember and have imprinted in their mind as the 'yellow sun, Weber said. When its low in the sky, its light travels through more atmosphere, making it appear yellow, orange, or even red. At noon, however, its traveling through a thinner atmosphere, so the many wavelengths are less scattered and appear together as white light. Levels of smog or dust in the air can change the suns perceived color, too.

But what about that pasta shape? Phone cameras can especially do weird things when taking pictures of bright objects like the sun, said Weber. And again, it depends on the time of day. The sun can appear to be more oval-like at sunrise/sunset because of refraction in our Earth's atmosphere. Refraction is the bending of light when it enters different materials. When the sun is low on the horizon, again the light travels through a greater extent of our atmosphere, allowing for a greater effect from refraction.

A lot of people have an odd relationship with the sun, a tradition that dates back to ancient times, before we understood things like physics and atmosphere. Its an obsession that one might argue humans still carry, as many people still spread em and point their buttholes in its direction for unproven health benefits. Thanks to modern astronomy, we know that weird things do happen on the sun from time to time, including unexplained waves and a "coronal hole" that could affect life here on earth. A healthy suspicion of the hostile-seeming star might be good, and definitely warrants more sunscreen. But taking the firm stance that your flawed child-mind memory of something almost everyone on the planet experiences every day is the correct one is almost admirably stubborn. If you were the 20-something that Deevoy questioned about the yellow sun, please get in touch.

Read the original here:

Scientists: No, The Sun Has Not Changed Color (And Stop Staring ... - VICE

Its all fun and games until someone gets hacked heres what to know about, and how to avoid, threats lurking on the social media juggernaut

There are several tools or software applications that enable us to stay connected with our fellow teammates even during gameplay, with the best of them having a low impact on our network connection while allowing important elements like tap-to-talk or messaging capabilities.

Discord is one of the online services that combine a traditional online forum (remember those?) with voice chat and social media-like resources, so even after a heated gaming session, you can stay in contact with the same people.

The difference is that Discord has a server-based core, where you can connect or join servers established for specific topics, rather than having a focus strictly on gaming or movies. This way a person can cover most of their interests and interact with hundreds of people daily.

However, since Discord is also a bit more immediate and interactive than your regular forum or chat service, it comes with its own issues, and scamming is one of them. Since this week is Privacy Awareness Week, well look at what you should know about Discord and how you or your children can steer clear of threats lurking on the platform.

Perhaps the most immediate thought that comes to mind when thinking of free instant messaging combined with forums is the aspect of privacy, and the way your data can be used for the companys purposes. After all, when it comes to free services, you are the product, since you provide data that can be sold to marketers.

We have gotten used to all the tracking that happens to us daily, as your email service might use data within your messages to create personalized ads, or your phone can track your app interaction to do the same. Privacy concerns have become increasingly relevant today, and in a survey conducted in the US in 2019, 79% of the respondents were concerned over the use of their data, with 81% feeling they lack control over their data.

Since Discord is a free service, you might ask how it finances its operations. Servers are not cheap and the company staff does not work for free, and while their Nitro subscription might account for some revenue, there is still a question of how the data on Discords servers is being handled. All your messages are passing their servers, unless you use Discord through a web browser, which can partially block some trackers. Discords Privacy & Safety Policy states that you can agree with the use of your collected data but not whether its being collected.

And therein lies the problem, as Discord collects your data in case you would allow its usage in the future. However, since the data is already in their hands, how can you be sure they are not using it? Whats more, what if a data breach happens? Discord conversations include a lot of useful info about you, so that is another thing to consider.

Doxing is not a new term; it means that a certain person might unwittingly send or reveal some information about themselves that can give away their location, looks, address, or any other sort of personally identifiable information (PII) to an unintended audience, or get exposed because of that information by someone else.

This sort of connects to the privacy aspect, as in a way, through server-side discussions, you slowly reveal more and more about your interests as you get to know the other users. And on public servers this can be dangerous, since they can host malicious lurkers (a user of an internet message board or chat room who does not participate), who could sometimes easily track you. A user of a server they frequent often can dox themselves by revealing their desktop on a gaming stream or by having a file with their name or picture on it. Likewise, when a user regularly posts pictures of their route to and from work, they could theoretically enable a stalker to locate them during specific times of day.

Some users might find face reveals interesting, but uploading pictures of yourself to a public server could mean that a malicious actor might access and use your face image for nefarious purposes, like phishing, or in worst cases even blackmail, depending on the content of the picture. Moreover, a profile picture inexplicably links you to your anonymous account name, and it might not take long for someone to find you online just by using your picture and combing through some of your messages.

Honestly, online gaming, or online communities in general, have never been 100% safe. Apart from data privacy concerns, there is also the shadow of cyberbullying, exemplified by all of the news reports on kids being bullied by their peers online on social media. And again, Discord kind of fits into that box. If a bully knows someones username on Discord, for example, they can make their life miserable on the servers they visit or harass them via direct message.

However, bullying is only one aspect. Just to recall a previous point, Discord can be frequented by malicious actors who, just like bullies, can coerce you into doing something, either through blackmail (using your picture, location, personal data) or by phishing, taking on the appearance of a Discord admin or a user whom they know you frequently message with.

Add to this the fact that Discord allows file sharing, meaning that anyone can easily share a picture, video, link, or anything of that caliber on a server or through a private message. This makes it easy for someone to share an IP Grabber, which can be used to track users IP addresses for a variety of reasons, such as targeted advertising or identifying the location of a user. A malicious actor can, in some cases, also crash a whole router for a period of time. The worst-case scenario is that they send data packets to ones router and if said router lets them through, they could see all devices connected to its Wi-Fi and even install spyware onto them.

All in all, from a cybersecurity perspective, Discord shares many vulnerabilities with email services or social media, with a focus on user (human) error to compromise ones devices. And even though Discords terms of service specify that users below the age of 13 are not allowed to use it, they often do, due to the gaming nature of the service and how it attracts younger crowds in general.

Firstly, the best advice that anyone could get when it comes to Discord is to alter their online behavior. Consider changing how many data points you share about yourself. Do not share your location, hometown, workplace, or travel-related information, as that can be used to track you.

Secondly, consider a more anonymous approach. Do not use your actual face as a profile picture, do not link Discord to other services (like music streaming) established under your own name, and above all, try not to have your actual given name as your username.

Lastly, for a piece of more technical advice, do not click on any suspicious links or files. In addition, use robust security software like ESET Smart Security Premium or ESET Mobile Security to erect a strong firewall against internet-borne threats.

With all of this in mind, Discord is still a very useful tool for connecting with like-minded people and communities. Dont let bad apples like cybercriminals or malicious users sow the seeds of discord, but be ready to harvest the fruits of interesting conversations with your security in mind.

Read the rest here:

Using Discord? Dont play down its privacy and security risks - We Live Security

Queen of Masks Episode 5

Queen of Masks is the latest revenge thriller to grace our screens. The show follows four women who are reunited by fate but one of them, Go Yoo na, has a grudge against the others.

Ten years ago, Yoo-na was turned into a murderer thanks to the lies these so-called friends said against her. This forced her to flee to the United States but her missing daughter brought her back to Korea. As she crosses paths with her old friends, she plans her revenge.

How will she use their ambition, jealousy and dark secrets to tear the women down? You will have to tune in to find out.

If youve been following this one, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is released. Well, wonder no more!

For Koreans, Queen of Masks will be available to watch on Channel A. For those watching internationally, it will be available on Viki+ in select regions.

However, do expect some delay between Viki uploading the episodes after their initial run in Korea, although the subtitles are among some of the best on the net across all the other streaming platforms.

Episode 5 of Queen of Masks will be released on Monday 8th May at approximately 10:30 PM (KST) on Channel A. The episodes should drop at around 7pm ( GMT) but as mentioned above, do expect a delay for those being fully subbed.

Episode 5 is scheduled to be roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes long, which is consistent with the timeframe for the rest of the show.

Queen of Masks season 1 is expected to have 16 episodes, with two episodes releasing a week. With all that in mind, well have 11 more episodes to go after this one. The show will air every Monday and Tuesday.

Yes, there is. It looks like we are in for another revenge drama that will have us on the edge of our seats, get ready for an exciting show. Check out the trailer below:

What do you hope to see as the series progresses? Whats been your favorite moment of Queen of Masks so far? Let us know in the comments below!

Originally posted here:

Queen of Masks Episode 5 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where ... - TheReviewGeek

Actor-comedian Gaurav Gera rose to fame as Nandu in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, back in the 2003. He then moved to do different roles in Bollywood like Dasvidaniya, Woodstock Villa, Kyun Ho Gaya Na, The Shaukeens and more. He was also known in the small screen industry for shows such as Great Indian Comedy Show, Mrs Pammi Pyarelal, and Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma.But what many tend to forget, is that Gera was among the pioneers when it came to creating content online in the form of YouTube videos, shareable short-form content or social media content with his characters like Chutki-Shopkeeper, Chut ki Geetmala, Pammi Aunty and more.During his recent visit to the city to promote his film NRI Wives, Gera recalled the last time he visited Ahmedabad and how it, and content, have changed over time.When was the last visit to Ahmedabad?I was here in 2007 for a reality show. We visited various places in the city. But this time, I can see that the roads are wide, beautiful and clean and I love the houses, which are big and lovely.Has India made it THERE in terms of online content?You know, online content was supposed to come. I used to consume YouTube extensively before the online and OTT boom hit our country. I watched other people from the USA, Australia, and more make videos online. I had seen teenagers doing great work, and I thought, why not try it here? So, I started making videos in 2009, much before time, and at a time when India lacked internet speed. The videos kept buffering. But today, we are ready for shooting, and uploading is much easier.What is the progress of content?I remember saying this to someone - the internet right now is very pro-creators and not pro-creativity. It supports creators to re-create a song that is already doing very well, and there are a thousand copies of it. I follow wonderful people on the internet, but I think more people should come out with their original stuff, things they could call their own brand. But somehow, there is a lot of aping. I feel everybody is blessed with a lot of creativity. And yet, I end up seeing remixes of songs, steps or other dialogues. The reels are heavy on that; it inspires people, but I am not happy as its still not your original content.Your acting career in brief.I think television-wise, I have and continue to explore roles and scripts. But movies-wise, I dont have much to talk about. I do very few projects because I chose to live as well. I want to work but also chill for a longer duration of life.What attracts you to a script?The vibe I get from it. Like in both Criminal Justice Season 3 and NRI Wives, have played serious characters. The feeling of wanting to experiment with something other than comedy made me take up both projects. I have explored a lot of comedy. It is also fun to play a serious character. It was interesting to do such roles. It has always been in my mind that comedy is my forte, but what if I explored other roles? How will the audience react? I guess life is all about experiments! Why not explore something new?Your role in the film NRI Wives.This movie is a compilation of four stories with a common link and talks about relationships, what they think, how they think, whether it is right or wrong, and many other dilemmas. I play the role of a husband living in the USA for a long time. My story has Raima Sen and Sadya Siddiqui as well.Do you think relationships have grey areas?Whenever and where ever there is a relationship, there is a grey area because our human mind thinks a lot, and sometimes it overthinks and creates situations which may or may not be required.What more after the Shopkeeper series and Chutki?Currently, I am in the zone of doing more OTT work. I am not creating videos as of now it has been a few months. I am following a lot of other creators who are creating content on geopolitics, world affairs and more. Then there is a lot to be explored in the world of artificial intelligence. So, I am in the learning mode right now. I might come back with a newer concept that is more mentally challenging for me. I am in the homework phase right now.What is your take on the OTT content we are seeing today?I recently saw Jubilee, and I feel it is beautiful. I would really want more of such stuff on OTT platforms. Initially, I used to watch content from other countries on OTT and wonder why isnt India doing anything like that. But we are getting there for sure!

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'I am in the homework phase' - Ahmedabad Mirror

ACID TEST The Acid Test, April 2023 By Miles Bowe May 02, 2023

Bandcamps outer limits continue to be a rewarding place for psychedelia, experimental club music, noise, vaporwave, and the wholly uncategorizable. In each edition of Acid Test, Miles Bowe explores its far reaches to dig up hidden gems and obscure oddities. This April, we look at a pair of albums using mind-bending samples to pay tribute to two very different songs, a digitally prepared piano, a psychedelic album that feels like wandering an arcade, and a musical titan opening a unique new chapter.

Most people know Yoshimi for her kinetic drumming in the legendary band Boredoms or her equally trippy project OOIOOnot to mention her iconic yelling on the Flaming Lips album named in her honor. That legacy only makes the experience of hearing To The Forest To Live A Truer Lifea debut collaboration with Izumi Kiyoshi credited under the mind-melting name YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduOall the more astonishing. Feeding vocals and expressive piano through her collaborators modular synth, Yoshimi creates a sound both laser-focused and overwhelmingly expansive. Some tracks, like opener YofuyO or YoY 7, flood your ears with bright, synth-processed flourishes, while rich piano patterns wind through others as acoustic fragments flicker and bend. Yoshimis piano playing is so entrancing that her vocals almost sneak up on you, appearing gradually on tracks like OmimiO before reaching incredible peaks in the second half on the immense mull and the hyper-processed 1.yoO. Instilled with spontaneity, wonder, and a life-giving fervor, To The Forest To Live A Truer Life crystallizes so many of Yoshimis strengths while also kicking off an incredible new chapter.

Since last summer Hausu Mountain off-shoot Blorpus Editions has pleasantly orbited the Chicago experimental label like a weird little moon, delivering everything from electroacoustic epics to a re-scoring of the 1999 movie Twister. Two recent highlights capture the labels adventurousness while taking differentbut equally extremeapproaches to sampling. I Am Sitting In A Cloud finds Doug Kaplan replicating the words of Alvin Luciers iconic electroacoustic piece I Am Sitting In A Room through deliriously spliced-together pop song samples. Once a funny highlight from the 2018 Pepper Mill Rondo release E.D.M., this now 20-minute piece is the result of Kaplan repeatedly uploading the recording to free audio-hosting sites, gradually reducing it to digital noise.

While that release fuses countless tiny samples to one end, sound artist Mike Sugarmanaka Exestinesuses his album Stang to blast a single songStings Desert Roseinto a whirlwind of electro-acoustic fragments. As tributes to their respective songs, these releases couldnt be more different; yet they end up complimenting each other wonderfully.

A sprawling 17-minute piece for four electric basses, Do Make Say Think is the latest release by Naemi, an alias of the producer Exael. Heady atmospheres, delicately plucked melodies, and sometimes thunderous pulses of feedback move gradually over each other like shifting clouds. It only grows knottier and more abstract as it evolves, and in its darker moments, that soft, plucked bass feels as large and ominous as suspension bridge wires. Both beautiful and unsettling, Do Make Slay Think is a continually absorbing listen.

Composer Marc Junker finds a smart frame for this collection of digitally dismantled piano pieces, presenting them as a computerized take on prepared piano. The skittering melodies of Beyond and ~(crashed)~ capture those percussive touches associated with the instrument, while Winds Theme seems to digitally craft the shuffle of footsteps. While Prepared Piano 1.0 doesnt resemble the prepared piano pieces of innovator John Cage, in both cases the preparation feels like a foundation rather than an end result. The frames are impressive, but what Junker composes within them is what makes Prepare Piano 1.0 stick with you.

The latest zone from NEW MEXICAN STARGAZERS opens with a minute of buzzing arcade machines and echoing crowds, and is appropriately named (enter). This brief blip sets the vibe for a bleary collection of synth jams that feel like wandering from one different game cabinet to the next. The chirpy 5D Entertainment brings to mind the hypnotic world of James Ferraros Marble Surf, while Mirror Maze ripples with synthesized guitar, matching the satisfying grind of an old Sega game. NEW MEXICAN STARGAZERS excel at conjuring vivid and surreal spacesmotels in the rain, highway rest-stops at night, the sound worlds of fantastical albums like Deserts Zenith and Aqua Temple. Return 2 White Sands Arcade feels like another welcome pitstop on the journey.

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The Acid Test, April 2023 - bandcamp.com

Generative AI applications and tools are solutions for generating original content based on training from massive AI models. The largest technology companies in the world and nascent AI startups alike are releasing new generative AI solutions. These new generative AI releases debut on what feels like a minute-by-minute basis, making it difficult to keep up with this emerging technology.

To provide a comprehensive look at the generative AI tooling landscape, weve compiled this product guide of the top generative AI applications and tools.

These generative AI tools were selected based on their current popularity and accessibility, their relevance and/or uniqueness to the market, and their potential for growth and AI innovation in the near future.

Read next: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

Generative AI tools use AI models or the tools that are built upon these foundations to generate unique, original content in various forms, including text, audio, images, videos, and 3D models.

Generative AI tools are trained by natural language processing, neural networks, and/or deep learning AI algorithms to ingest, understand, and generate responses based on input data. Successful generative AI models are only possible with massive amounts of relevant, clean, ethical, and unbiased training data.

Learn more: What is Generative AI?

The best generative AI tools cover a wide range of functions and business use cases, though many of the most prominent tools today are large language models (LLMs) and/or content generation tools.

Take a closer look at the top generative AI tools in this category in our comparison chart below:

GPT-4 is OpenAIs latest iteration of its Large Language Model (LLM), developed following the success and widespread adoption of GPT-3 and GPT-3.5. Compared to previous iterations, GPT-4 is advertised as being more creative and accurate while also being safer and stabler.

Interested users can join the API waitlist for GPT-4, but even before they gain access to the API, they can reap the technologys benefits with public access to ChatGPT Plus. Many of the other top generative AI vendors on this list have built their products on a GPT-3 or GPT-4 foundation.

Also see: ChatGPT: Understanding the ChatGPT ChatBot

ChatGPT is OpenAIs most popular tool to date, giving the everyday user free access to basic AI content generation. For users who require more processing power, early access to new features (including GPT-4), and other benefits, ChatGPT launched its pilot paid plan, ChatGPT Plus, in March 2023.

Most recently, OpenAI has announced experimental support for ChatGPT AI plugins. These plugins are designed to expand the tools computation and coding capabilities while also giving the tool access to post-2021 information.

AlphaCode by DeepMind is one of the foremost problem-solving and coding solutions in the generative AI space. With 41.4 billion parameters, the transformer-based language model is larger than many other language models, including OpenAI Codex. AlphaCode has been trained in various programming languages, including C#, Ruby, Scala, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Go, and Rust, but its strongest capabilities are in Python and C++.

Through pre-training on GitHub code repositories, CodeContests fine-tuning, sample generation, and filtering and clustering, AlphaCode is able to solve complex problems similarly to a human programmer.

GitHub Copilot is the first of the Microsoft Copilot technologies to hit the market and has seen great success. The tool is designed to transform natural language prompts into code recommendations for all languages in public repositories. For languages like JavaScript that are widely used, GitHub Copilot is able to generate a wide range and quantity of coding suggestions.

Copilot can be used on an individual or a team basis and is priced accordingly. The tool is available as an extension for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs.

Bard, considered Googles response to ChatGPT, is a chatbot and content generation tool that runs on LaMDA, a transformer-based model that Google launched a couple of years ago. The tool is currently considered a Google Experiment and is only available to a limited number of users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Though some of its features are relatively limited compared to ChatGPT, the tool is quickly growing its capabilities. For example, in late April 2023, Bard was updated to support programming and development requirements like code debugging, generation, and explanation.

Also see:ChatGPT vs. Google Bard: Generative AI Comparison

Cohere Generate is a text generation solution from Cohere, a fast-growing AI startup with leadership members that previously wrote and worked on Googles now-famous Transformer paper. Many of the use cases advertised on Coheres site focus on product management and sales, digital marketing, and similar goals, but the tool can be used for software development tasks and other business requirements as well.

Though Cohere is perhaps lesser-known than OpenAI and the bigger tech companies on this list, it has grown quickly into a company thats estimated at around $6 billion in enterprise value. Cohere counts Spotify, HyperWrite, BambooHR, and Glean among its customers.

Claude is one of the latest AI chatbot assistants and content generators thats offered by Anthropic, an AI startup now worth approximately $5 billion. The tool is similar to ChatGPT, but it was specifically designed to be more focused on safety and a customizable, conversational tone. Many early users have praised Claudes abilities when it comes to comedy, creative content generation, and generally absorbing feedback about communication style.

Claudes early partners and testers include Quora, DuckDuckGo, Robin AI, and Juni Learning. Claude is also part of the foundation for Notion AI, the generative AI assistant that was recently added to the Notion project management platform.

For moreinformation, also see:Top AI Startups

Synthesia is an AI video creation platform that allows users to create videos based on their own scripted prompts. From there, the tool is able to use its library of AI avatars, voices, and video templates to create a realistic-looking and sounding video. As a bonus, users dont have to have any of their own video equipment or video editing skills in order to use this tool.

Synthesia is most commonly used to create product marketing, training, and how-to videos for both internal and external users. For customers who need additional resources to get started, Synthesia offers a library of example videos, a help center, and Synthesia Academy tutorials.

DALL-E 2 is OpenAIs latest iteration of its image and art generation AI tool. With DALL-E 2, users have the option to put in a prompt to generate a new image or add an existing image and prompt to edit the image in a certain way.

Compared to DALL-E, DALL-E 2 is said to be generating more photorealistic imagery that better matches user requests. An additional plus, DALL-E 2 appears to have received more training than its predecessor on how to decline inappropriate inputs and avoid creating inappropriate outputs.

On a related topic:Top Natural Language Processing Companies

Generative AI is such a new field, generating questions among both tech experts and laymen. These are some of the questions that most commonly get asked about generative AI tools today:

Though generative AI has most commonly been used for text generation and chatbot functionality, it has many other real-world applications and use cases. Other applications of generative AI technology include image generation, music and audio generation, synthetic data creation, code building, career coaching, drug discovery and predictive studies, and customer service. Learn about the top generative AI startups and the different ways theyre using this technology.

Many industries can benefit from generative AI tools. The more generic content generation and chatbot solutions support a wide variety of business use cases, while other, more specific solutions are being developed to serve healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail, sales, and other specific industries and sectors.

Learn more: Generative AI Examples for Key Industries

Whether your company should use generative AI tools is a question only your leadership, your tech team, and the rest of your employees can answer. If theres a specific use case or way in which a generative AI tool can improve your internal processes, its a great idea to invest in one of these tools while theyre still free or relatively low-cost.

However, keep in mind that it is important for your company to establish usage rules ahead of time, especially as it relates to data security and uploading proprietary information into any of these tools.

Generative AI applications and tools can fulfill a variety of project requirements and tasks for both professional and personal use cases. And with so many tools currently available with free trials and limited versions, now is the time to test out these applications and determine if they can optimize your business operations.

Regardless of the generative AI tool(s) you decide to invest in, the most important first step you can take is to communicate with your employees about the investment and what it means to the company. Generative AI currently cant and shouldnt be adopted to take over employee jobs; instead, its a great supplement for research, coaching, and creative content generation.

Teach your staff how to use this technology responsibly and effectively, and youll be surprised by how much generative AI is able to improve existing processes and work.

For more information, also see: Top AI Software

Read more here:

Top 9 Generative AI Applications and Tools - eWeek

In evaluating the art of dancing in Africa and the black diaspora, the African-American ethno-musicologist, Esi-Kinni Olusanyin identifies the dancers body as incorporating the sensibilities and direct dynamics of expression, and translating them into movements that correspond to the music.

It goes beyond bending the buttocks to the beat of the bata, in the fashion of Fela Kuti bidding his listeners to bend their yansh like black man on his 1971 record, Open & Close(which was also the name of the dance to the song), or the African woman doing the fire dance in contrast to Felas eponymous Ladys dance.

Dance in Africa is an important element in many of the cultural activities that the body partakes in; from religious ceremonies, masquerade processions, and funeral rites to sporting activities, nuptial rituals, and weddings.

At different times in the history of Nigerian music, dance has been at its centre, across genres, with dancers from Dodo Mayana (Afrobeat) to Tessy Yembra (juju and fuji), Kaffy Shafau, and Soliat Bada (Afrobeats) garnering acclaim and fame with dance moves that have added colour to performances by musicians, from stage to the screen.

Heres a list of the most popular Nigerian dances that have accompanied hit tracks, taken their names from the titles of these songs, and gone on to become waves of their own, even after the songs popularity dwindled, being the dance to all the songs of the period in which they had existed.

The duo of Ice-K and Adex met in 1995 and formed the group Artquake. But the biggest hit of their career didnt come until 13 years later, in 2008, in the form of Alanta, a song over which there are claims it was originally made in the early 2000s by an obscure Ajegunle musician, Peter Alanta, who is also the originator of the titular dance.

Nevertheless, it is the Artquake version that gave the song and its dance the massive popularity it enjoyed between 2008 and 2009. There are also many who believe that the atlanta was the precursor of another popular dance, shaku-shaku, which emerged on the mainstream pop scene about ten years later.

The chorus of the song functions as a dance tutorial, with instructions on how to do the Atlanta: open your arms like say you wan fly away, jupa, juse sibi je ka jo ma sere (throw your legs and arms out, lets play together).

The shoulders are raised, with elbows turned outwards, as if arms are akimbo, and hands with fingers spread out beating a rhythm as if scratching the air in front of the chest, or as if the dancer is trying to put out a fire in front of the body by fanning himself, as part of the chorus says, e be like fire dey burn my body, je kin fera, oru n mu mi (it seems as if my body is on fire; let me blow some air on my body, Im feeling hot). In coordination with these upper-body movements, the legs are raised one after the other (alanta, alanta, alanta, one leg up; alanta, alanta, alanta, two legs up).

This dance evokes the image of a display by a lunatic on the street, as depicted in the music video, where a Pentecostal pastor is in the middle of a deliverance session with a young lady and she breaks into dancing the alanta.

The dance steps, which resemble the body being broken into tiny pieces, because of how involved the entire body is in this energetic kinetic statement, also bring to mind an anecdote about Wole Soyinka during rehearsals for the Chicago production of his play, Death and the Kings Horseman, in 1976; he said he and the choreographer, had had to break the bodies of the African-American actors into little pieces and put them back together before they learned to move like Africans.

Skelewu was a 2013 top song by Davido, an Afrobeats artiste who is no stranger to banging out hits. There was no doubt that this was a dance-centric song; apart from how naturally the shakers-dominated Shizzi-produced beat called the feet to the dance floor, as a promotional gimmick, a few days after the release of the single, Davido uploaded an instructional dance video to YouTube, announcing the Skelewu Dance Competition, which eventually went viral, propelling the song to further heights and making the dance even more popular.

The first music video for the song (directed by Sesan) was leaked almost about the same time the winner of the dance competition was announced, and there was some controversy about that unauthorized release, which precipitated another video being shot and released, by a different director (Moe Musa), about a week later.

All this attention contributed to making Skelewu one of the biggest songs of that year, and the dance one of the most popular, with celebrities such as Emmanuel Adebayor and Samuel Etoo uploading videos of themselves doing the dance, and it went on to bag a nomination for Most Gifted Dance Video at the 2014 Channel O Music Video Awards.

Just like Alanta, there are instructions in the chorus on how to do the dance; wind your hips like a dis, like a dat, to your right, to the front, and your yansh to the back, and skelewu, skelewu.

Most of the work is in the waist, which is being wound makossa-style as one arm is akimbo on the hip and the other hand pushing out in front of the body, with the shoulders doing a forward rolling movement and feet shuffling side to side or back and forth.

As there is in Alanta, there is a reference to one of the most popular dances to emerge from Ajegunle, galala; alluding to how this new dance, skelewu, had come to usurp it: all the girls dem dey dance galala/ but this new dance don cause kasala (all the girls are dancing galala/but this new dance has caused an upset).

More than a crime, yahoo (internet fraud) grew into something of a counterculture among young people in the mid to late noughties, with its own fashion, lifestyle, lingo, and music.

The most popular song in celebration of this counterculture was the anthemic Yahoozee, released in the latter part of 2007 when yahoo was just beginning to entrench its roots within the young demographic of the country and yahoo boys, the mostly elusive cyber criminals, were becoming something resembling street gods in urban neighbourhoods and clubs. Boys and young men, who had changed their economic status by preying on unsuspecting victims mostly from the West, were now being idolized by friends, family, and musicians.

Yahoozee went on to become a monster hit that reigned throughout the year following its release and was the only major commercial success that Olu Maintain recorded after his former group, Maintain (with Tolu and producer Big Bamo), split up in 2004.

Yahoozee gained even more prominence on the global scene when Olu performed it at Londons iconic Royal Albert Hall during the Africa Rising Festival of 2008 and the former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, joined him on stage to do the dance. The yahoozee dance is an imitation of a person flinging money in the air, as spraying cash is a major part of Nigerias party culture.

In an antithetical twist, the dance was also a major feature in most of the alujo gospel music released by celebrated juju musician, Yinka Ayefele. In the middle of singing praises to God, Ayefele would call on listeners to do the yahoozee, a dance with origins in the glorification of criminality.

Zanku, as a dance, had first appeared in the music videos of Zlatans Jogor (featuring Lil Kesh and Naira Marley) and Able God, the Chinko Ekun hit that featured Lil Kesh and Zlatan. These songs, released during the 2018 reign of shaku-shaku, began an entire wave of Zlatan hits and were a fitting predecessor to the Marlian era of 2019. It was obvious that there was some deliberateness to creating a distinct sound for what was to come after shaku-shaku, as they were produced by the Marlian Music in-house producer who was later responsible for the biggest hits of Nairas 2019 Marlian movement, Rexxie.

And when it was time for Zlatan to make a christening track for the dance we had been seeing him do, it was only expected that he would turn to Rexxie. Zanku, the song and the dance, became club and radio favourites, and as Zlatan put it in Ijaya, a freestyle he did in 2019, mo fun shaku ni t-fare, mo ni ko ma lo ile/ Rexxie lo fun mi ni beat, mo gbe zanku wole (I gave shaku transport fare and asked it to go home/ Rexxie gave me the beat, and I brought zanku in) a true representation of Zlatans contribution, with zanku, in bringing about the end of the reign of shaku-shaku.

The dance consists of rhythmic stamping of feet to the heavy percussion, combined with a series of elaborate footwork, punctuated by a jump kick in the air, sometimes as high as head level; some more exuberant dancers throw in a roundhouse kick for effect. These moves are a response to the recurring chant of gbe body e (lift your body) throughout the song. Theres a fitting tribute to a Tunde Kelani classic, the 1999 film, Saworoide, when the name of one of the characters, a dancer called Aresejabata (played by a young Kunle Afolayan), is mentioned repeatedly in the chorus, as a praise name for the dancers of zanku.

Olamide, the YBNL Nation boss, discovered Lil Kesh in 2014 after hearing the single, Lyrically. He signed him and in that same year, the young rapper released the song Shokiwhich took the entire country by storm. Its dance of the same name resembles martial arts moves, where the dancer stretches out their hand with palm facing up, and turns the palm down, while covering one eye with the other palm, with movements from the shoulders and waist.

The song became such a hit that a remix had to be made which featured Davido and Olamide, who were already superstars in the game. As a sign of the dance crossing genres into fuji spaces, Pasuma, a leading fuji artiste, appeared in the music video of this remix, and the dance was done in fuji and juju videos at the time.

Riding on the wave of the widespread popularity of the song and dance, Orezi made his own version, with the same title and dance, and even went further to do Hausa and French remixes of the song. Interestingly, Orezis version enjoyed just as much attention as Lil Keshs original. The people couldnt get enough of this song and dance until the next year when another song and dance, Olamides Bobo, came and took over.

Dance has proven to be a very essential part of our cultural identity as Africans, more than the mere corporeal enjoyment of it; just as the name of a Nigerian dance group popular in the early to mid-noughties says: dance na the main thing.

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Five of Nigerias most popular dance forms and their origins - The Africa Report

Andrew Howarth (27) has struggled with depression and intrusive thoughts on and off for the last 15 years but has found a form of therapy, inspired by the Clarets exploits in winning the Championship this season.

Andrew, from Read, explained: I am a huge Burnley fan, but I also love creating media by doing graphic design and video editing.

I have been spending my spare time recently creating videos of the football club and uploading them to YouTube as well as creating pictures of Burnley players past and present and sharing them on social media.

I have also began expanding my horizons past just Burnley and started making pictures for other football clubs as well.

I struggle with depression and one of the biggest things I use for my therapy is creating these pieces of media as a way of expressing myself. I was advised by my doctor and therapist to reach out to Burnley Football Club and show them some of the work that I have done.

Andrew, who works in customer services, recently had to take time off work due to his illness and found that creating the images has helped him to get back on his feet. And one of his creations, of Clarets forward Jay Rodriguez, met with approval from the Burnley-born player who praised his creation on Instagram.

It meant a great deal to get a response from Jay Rodriguez. I studied media studies at Burnley College and film at Liverpool John Moores University so its nice to use what I learned there as a hobby but also as therapy.

Going on Turf Moor this season to watch Burnley has been magical. I know that Jordan North coined Turf Moor his happy place but thats true for me too. Watching the matches has made me feel like me and kept me grounded.

Im really proud of my creations and I hope other people like them too. Doing something you love is a great way to take your mind off things.

Andrews creations can be viewed on his Twitter page @AlwaysClaret.

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Burnley Football Club fan's graphic designs of his heroes helping ... - Burnley Express

One of my favorite questions for new professional acquaintances is, Whats your favorite innovation from the past six months, and why?

I like this question for a few reasons:

Automation almost always comes up. PPC marketers are spoiled for choice on ways to automate their workflows, such as:

This article will not pass judgment on which automation options you might choose to opt into. Rather, it will outline the mechanics of each, as well as how to make them work.

Bidding arguably is one of the few things that should always be automated.

How advertisers automate is where theres room for different paths to profit:

If you opt for native bidding, its vital that you trust your conversion tracking. Ad networks use conversions as the main guiding light to know whether to invest or pull back.

While its true that Max Clicks and Target Impression Share dont need conversion tracking data to function, its still vital that youre feeding in the right data.

A common mistake people make is including too many conversion actions as primary. This usually results in double counting or including steps on the journey that arent worth feeding into the algorithm.

Another common mistake is setting a target that isnt attainable. If the target cost per acquisition (TCPA) or target return on ad spend (TROAS) dont match the budget and auction prices, youll likely underspend or flood your campaign with bad leads.

Rules and scripts are helpful when you have enough data to know what your bids should be. They typically need larger budgets to help compensate for being on manual bidding (and forfeiting the native bid signals).

The most common signals are:

While these do require healthy data, the biggest pitfall for rules/scripts is the human element.

If the input is incorrect, it might hurt the campaign.

This used to be my favorite way to automate bids: set a conservative manual bid and go aggressive on the bid adjustments.

Bid adjustments could be used to direct budget away from, or towards, desired prospects and give the user the most control.

However, with the improvements to native bid adjustments, its harder to justify using these. If you are planning on running a purely manual campaign, these are a must.

If you trust your conversion tracking, theres no reason not to use native bidding.

Native bidding pulls in signals advertisers arent able to access and usually outperforms human-governed automation.

Max Conversions with a TCPA goal and Max Conversion Value without a goal beat manual biddings 6.8% conversion rate.

However, if you arent able to put in accurate conversion value data or set realistic TCPA goals, going manual with rules, scripts, or bid adjustments will serve better.

When asked, many will say they prefer human creative over automatically created text, display, and video ads.

The human mind is supposed to be better at coming up with the right content for the right audience.

However, what may go unnoticed is that the lions share of auto-generated ads come from human creative. i.e., the text, tone, and images will be borrowed from the advertisers site, existing ads, or social channels.

Creative falls into these categories:

Responsive ads and PMax ads all fundamentally follow the same objective: Take the content the advertiser provides and find the best combination for those assets.

Marketers can choose whether to allow full learning or to help it along by pinning creative to desired locations.

It can be tempting to pin all assets to recreate Expanded Text Ads. However, as this Optmyzr study shows, youll get a higher conversion rate by allowing for some freedom in the learning.

Visual creative (static display images and videos) are a bit tougher.

Brand style guidelines can make auto-generated ads a no-go. Be sure all creatives work with the templates, and if they dont, consider uploading a fully contained ad.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are powerful; however, much of their utility has been absorbed into PMax. Part of their power is leveraging the well-SEOed nature of a site to help Google know which landing pages relate to a query.

Headlines are derived from the language on the landing page.

Currently, its not a question of when almost all creative has automation baked into it, to a certain extent.

The main choices to make are whether to fully delegate creative control or partner with the machine.

Assets (formerly known as extensions) should almost never be automated. This is because you want to use them to their fullest: highlighting high-value services, and amplifying ad messages.

Audiences are the beating heart of PPC campaigns and the main lever advertisers have at their disposal.

However, the privacy-first web has restricted which audiences we can use, and even saw the depreciation of some of them.

Marketers access audiences through the following:

Choosing to opt into any of the automated audiences (i.e., any that a human doesnt actively choose) depends entirely on how much you trust your conversion tracking.

Its also important that your creative matches the audience youre targeting. As a general rule of thumb, opting into automated audiences means manually excluding audiences you dont want (provided there are no restrictions).

Manually choosing audiences (particularly opting into audience signals for PMax) invites room for human error. This is why its important to use data to inform your choices.

Consider building custom search intent audiences based on your top converting search terms (as opposed to the keywords themselves).

Unless youre in a restricted industry, it almost always makes sense to have some manual influence on the audiences. This influence can be exclusions or outright targets.

However, as broad match, smart bidding, and PMax have evolved, its worth testing the baked-in audiences.

At best, they thrive, and youre able to benefit from leaning into the ad platforms toys.

At worst, you have data to harvest and can be proactive in future exclusions and ad creative choices.

This is one of the biggest areas for contention with marketers. Marketing channels are a strategic choice, and delegating this level of strategy can cause understandable uneasiness.

However, depending on how the human interacts with the automation, it can still be a net positive experience.

Automating ad channels boils down to the following:

Sometimes PMax can outperform campaigns with more controls in place. This is usually due to the following being true:

Many marketers default to search first, and not all prospects want to consume information that way.

Additionally, by the time the person is searching for the thing, they usually have a shortlist of brands theyre interested in.

PMax enables brands to access visual placements and top-of-funnel interactions without carving out a separate budget for it.

It is important to have account-wide negative keywords and placement exclusions for any automated channel campaigns.

Manual campaigns can be effective they just tend to require advertisers to pay a premium for each placement and are limited to the channels the advertiser opts into.

The biggest deciding factors will be budget and conversion data.

If you trust your conversions (and are able to include conversion values), automated marketing makes a ton of sense. The human marketer puts safeguards in place via negative keywords, audiences, and placements.

If you dont trust your conversion tracking and budgets are restricted, youll want to be specific about where marketing dollars are invested.

Its important to note that image extensions (available on both Google and Microsoft) are a valid answer to multi-channel campaigns that need more control.

If you are under strict brand standards and/or have to report on all channel ROI, that might be a more feasible solution for you.

Automation is ultimately a net positive for digital marketers.

How much folks engage with it depends on which tasks are core competencies and which are struggles.

The more a brand trusts its data, the easier it is to lean into automation.

More resources:

Featured Image: /Shutterstock

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PPC Automation: When & How To Use It - Search Engine Journal

A model nearly lost her boyfriend when he found out she is selling saucy content on an adult subscription platform.

But now he supports her career choice and sometimes joins in!

Full-time mum Courtney Greenwood, from Leeds, claims she is now making over 6,000 a month by selling her sexy pics on Social Ikon online.

READ MORE: 'People think being porn star is easy but it's much harder than just having sex'

I've always worked hard but struggled financially, she told Daily Star.

With rising bills this year, I was feeling stressed and had to forget about treating myself to new clothes or having a girly night out with my friends.

On the rare occasions me and my boyfriend went out, he would always pay, and I felt guilty about never being able to contribute.

Posting racy photos of herself for subscribers is never something Courtney had considered before.

That is, until one day she was at work at her local cafe and one of their glamorous regulars came in and told her she posted on sites like Social Ikon.

After days of working up the nerve, Courtney eventually set up an account and got to work.

Initially nervous, she told her best friend, who was supportive and even helped her take some photos.

Unlike posting on social media, Courtney said she found the site to feel a lot more secure and didn't have to worry about trolling, which allowed her to relax and start having fun with it.

I decided not to tell my boyfriend right away because I thought he would disapprove I was waiting for the right time, she explained.

What I didn't know or bank on was that he used subscription sites, and who should he see when scrolling through but me!

One evening I looked at my phone and saw ten missed calls from him. The next thing I knew, he was banging on the door, going bonkers and shouting.

We had a huge row, but when he calmed down, he admitted he was just initially shocked.

Courtneys boyfriend told her that he wished shed felt like she could tell him and that he thought she looked beautiful in the photos.

He said it explained a lot, as he had noticed her becoming a lot more confident and happier in her own skin.

Courtney added: But at one point, he worried I might have been having an affair! I told him there was no way I would ever do that, and I was just glad to be able to pay my bills and was hoping to take us both on a nice holiday too.

The fact that I feel so much happier and body confident is just a bonus. Posting my sexy photos on Social Ikon has made us stronger than ever.

While Courtney was mad at first when she found out he was using subscription sites behind her back, this eventually subsided.

The pair have always had a close relationship and as she was spending time on her phone in the evenings and less time with him, she understands why he was on them.

Now her partner occasionally joins in on her raunchy content.

I dont mind him using the sites as we have watched porn together as a couple in the past, she said.

Videos of me and my partner always go down well. I dont restrict any content and I love the fact that Social Ikon is a platform which does not censor content anything goes.

My fans also really love feet content, this is my biggest seller on Social Ikon. I will think of different things I can do with my feet and toes, like wrapping my toes around a toy they love it.

The mum has a good relationship with her subscribers and said she is regularly online chatting with them.

She added: Some of my subs just want to chat and message about general things whereas others want to sext. I will get them really horny with sexting and then share content in the messages.

When she initially joined Social Ikon the brunette beauty was worried people she knew would stumble across her account.

She was also concerned she would be judged for being a content creator, however, she was put at ease when she saw a variety of creators posting all different types of content.

Courtney told us she felt less worried about being on there than any of the other platforms as they have helped get her content career off the ground.

While she faces judgement from people for uploading raunchy content, she doesnt let it get to her.

Its just our bodies, why not flaunt it, we all have the same bits and bobs. I sometimes get trolled on social media or comments made calling me names for showing my body online, but I put it down to jealousy as I am doing well on the platform.

At first [friends and family] weren't happy but now they can see it is a career I can do whilst also being a full-time mum. They are happy. I am happy.

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'I nearly lost boyfriend when he found my sex work but now we film together' - Daily Star

If you are reading these words, your brain is alive and well, stored within the protective confines of your skull where it will reside for the remainder of your life. I feel the need to point this out because there is a small but vocal population of self-proclaimed transhumanists who believe that within their lifetimes, technological advances will enable them to upload their minds into computer systems, thereby allowing them to escape the limitations of their biology and effectively live forever.

These transhumanists are wrong.

To be fair, not all transhumanists believe in mind uploading as a pathway to immortality, but theres enough chatter about the concept within that community that excitement has spilled out into the general public so much so, that Amazon has a comedic TV series based on the premise called Upload. These may be fun stories, but the notion that a single biological human will ever extend their life by uploading their mind into a computer system is pure fiction.

The concept of mind uploading is rooted in the very reasonable premise that the human brain, like any system that obeys the laws of physics, can be modeled in software if you devote sufficient computing power to the problem. To be clear, were not talking about modeling human brains in the abstract, but modeling very specific brains your brain, my brain, your uncle Herberts brain each one represented in such extreme detail that every single neuron is accurately simulated, including all the complex connections among them.

It is an understatement to say that modeling a unique, individual human brain is a non-trivial task.

There are over 85 billion neurons in your head, each with thousands of links to other neurons. In total, there are about 100 trillion connections, which is unfathomably large a thousand times more than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Its those trillions of connections that make you who you are your personality, your memories, your fears, your skills, your peculiarities. Your mind is encoded in those 100 trillion connections, and so to accurately reproduce your mind in software, a system would need to precisely simulate the vast majority of those connections down to the most subtle interactions.

Obviously, that level of modeling will not be done by hand. People who believe in mind uploading envision an automated scanning process, likely using some kind of supercharged MRI machine, that captures the biology down to resolutions that approach the molecular level. They then envision the use of intelligent software to turn that scan into a simulation of each unique brain cell and its thousands of connections to other cells.

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That is an extremely challenging task, but I cannot deny that it is theoretically feasible. If it ever happens, it is not going to happen in the next 20 years, but much, much further out. And with additional time and resources, it also is not crazy to think that large numbers of simulated minds could co-exist inside of a rich and detailed simulation of physical reality. Still, the notion that this process will offer anyone reading this article a pathway to immortality is utterly absurd.

As I stated above, the idea that a single biological human will ever extend their life by uploading their minds is pure fiction. The two key words in that sentence are their life. While it is theoretically possible with sufficient technological advances to copy and reproduce the precise form and function of a unique human brain within a simulation, the original human would still exist in their biological body, their brain still housed within their skull. What would exist in the computer would be a copy a digital doppelgnger.

In other words, you would not feel like you suddenly transported yourself into a computer. In fact, you would not feel anything at all. The brain copying process could have happened without your knowledge, while you were asleep or sedated, and you would never have the slightest inkling that a reproduction of your mind existed within a simulation. And if you found yourself crossing a busy street with a car racing toward you you would jump out of the way, because you would not be immortal.

But what about that version of you within a simulation?

You could think of it as a digital clone or identical twin, but it would not be you. It would be a copy of you, including all your memories up to the moment your brain was scanned. But from that instant on, it would generate its own memories. It might be interacting with other simulated minds in a simulated world, learning new things and having new experiences. Or maybe it interacts with the physical world through robotic interfaces. At the same time, the biological you would be generating new memories and having new experiences.

In other words, it would only be identical for an instant, and then you and the copy would both diverge in different directions. Your skills would diverge. Your knowledge would diverge. Your personalities would diverge. After a few years, there would be substantial differences. Your copy might become deeply religious while you are agnostic. Your copy might become an environmentalist while you are an oil executive. You and the copy would retain similar personalities, but you would be different people.

Yes, the copy of you would be a person but a different person. Thats a critical point, because that copy of you would need to have its own identity and its own rights that have nothing to do with you. After all, that person would feel just as real inside their digital mind as you feel within your biological mind. Certainly, that person should not be your slave, required to take on tasks that you are too busy to do during your biological life. Such exploitation would be immoral.

After all, the copy would feel just like you feel fully entitled to own its own property and earn its own wages and make its own decisions. In fact, you and the copy would likely have a dispute as to who gets to use your name, as you would both feel like you had used it your entire life. If I made a copy of myself, it would wake up and fully believe it was Louis Barry Rosenberg, a lifelong technologist in the fields of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. If it was able to interact with the real world through digital or robotic means, it would believe it had every right to use the name Louis Barry Rosenberg in the physical world. And it certainly would not feel subservient to the biological version.

In other words, creating a digital copy through mind uploading has nothing to do with allowing you to live forever. Instead, it would just create a competitor who has identical skills and capabilities and memories to the biological version, and who feels equally justified to be the owner of your identity. And yes, the copy would feel equally justified to be married to your spouse and parent to your children.

In other words, mind uploading is not a path to immortality. It is a path for creating another you who immediately will feel like they are equally justified owners of everything you possess and everything you have accomplished. And they would react exactly the way you would react if you woke up one day and were told: Sorry, but all those memories of your life arent really yours but copies, so your spouse is not really your spouse, your kids are not really your kids, and your job is not really your job.

Is this really what anyone would want to subject a copy of yourself to?

Back in 2008, I wrote a graphic novel called Upgrade that explores the absurdity of mind uploading. It takes place in the 2040s in a future world where everyone spends the vast majority of their lives in the Metaverse, logging in the moment they wake up and logging out the moment they go to sleep. (Coincidentally, the fictional reason why society went in this direction was a global pandemic that drove people inside.) What the inhabitants of this future world didnt realize is that as they lived their lives in the Metaverse, they were being characterized by AI systems that observed all of their actions and reactions and interactions, capturing every sentiment and emotional response so it could build a digital model of their mind from a behavioral perspective rather than from molecular scanning.

After 20 years of collecting data in this dystopian metaverse, the fictional AI system had fully modeled every person in this future society with sufficient detail that it didnt need real people anymore. After all, real humans are less efficient, as we need food and housing and healthcare. The digital copies didnt need any of that. And so, guess what the fictional AI system decided to do? It convinced all of us biological people to upgrade ourselves by ending our own lives and allowing the digital copies to replace us. And we were willing to do it under the false notion that we would be immortal.

Thats what mind uploading really means. It means ending humanity and replacing it with a digital representation. I wrote Upgrade 14 years ago because I genuinely believe we humans might be foolish enough to head in that direction, ending our biological existence in favor of a purely digital one.

Why is this bad? If you think Big Tech has too much power now having the ability to track what you do and moderate the information you access imagine what it will be like when human minds are trapped inside the systems they control, unable to exit. That is the future many are pushing for. Its terrifying. Mind uploading is not the path to immortality some believe.

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Transhumanists want to upload minds. They won't like the result - Big Think

As a humanist who writes about the impact of digital technology on our lives, I am often mistaken for a futurist. The people most interested in hiring me for my opinions about technology are usually less concerned with building tools that help people live better lives in the present than they are in identifying the Next Big Thing through which to dominate them in the future. I dont usually respond to their inquiries. Why help these guys ruin whats left of the internet, much less civilisation?

Still, sometimes a combination of morbid curiosity and cold hard cash is enough to get me on a stage in front of the tech elite, where I try to talk some sense into them about how their businesses are affecting our lives out here in the real world. Thats how I found myself accepting an invitation to address a group mysteriously described as ultra-wealthy stakeholders, out in the middle of the desert.

A limo was waiting for me at the airport. As the sun began to dip over the horizon, I realised I had been in the car for three hours. What sort of wealthy hedge-fund types would drive this far from the airport for a conference? Then I saw it. On a parallel path next to the highway, as if racing against us, a small jet was coming in for a landing on a private airfield. Of course.

The next morning, two men in matching Patagonia fleeces came for me in a golf cart and conveyed me through rocks and underbrush to a meeting hall. They left me to drink coffee and prepare in what I figured was serving as my green room. But instead of me being wired with a microphone or taken to a stage, my audience was brought in to me. They sat around the table and introduced themselves: five super-wealthy guys yes, all men from the upper echelon of the tech investing and hedge-fund world. At least two of them were billionaires. After a bit of small talk, I realised they had no interest in the speech I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come to ask questions.

They started out innocuously and predictably enough. Bitcoin or ethereum? Virtual reality or augmented reality? Who will get quantum computing first, China or Google? Eventually, they edged into their real topic of concern: New Zealand or Alaska? Which region would be less affected by the coming climate crisis? It only got worse from there. Which was the greater threat: global warming or biological warfare? How long should one plan to be able to survive with no outside help? Should a shelter have its own air supply? What was the likelihood of groundwater contamination? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event? The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers if that technology could be developed in time.

I tried to reason with them. I made pro-social arguments for partnership and solidarity as the best approaches to our collective, long-term challenges. The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future was to treat them like friends right now, I explained. Dont just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy.

This was probably the wealthiest, most powerful group I had ever encountered. Yet here they were, asking a Marxist media theorist for advice on where and how to configure their doomsday bunkers. Thats when it hit me: at least as far as these gentlemen were concerned, this was a talk about the future of technology.

Taking their cue from Tesla founder Elon Musk colonising Mars, Palantirs Peter Thiel reversing the ageing process, or artificial intelligence developers Sam Altman and Ray Kurzweil uploading their minds into supercomputers, they were preparing for a digital future that had less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether. Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us.

These people once showered the world with madly optimistic business plans for how technology might benefit human society. Now theyve reduced technological progress to a video game that one of them wins by finding the escape hatch. Will it be Jeff Bezos migrating to space, Thiel to his New Zealand compound, or Mark Zuckerberg to his virtual metaverse? And these catastrophising billionaires are the presumptive winners of the digital economy the supposed champions of the survival-of-the-fittest business landscape thats fuelling most of this speculation to begin with.

What I came to realise was that these men are actually the losers. The billionaires who called me out to the desert to evaluate their bunker strategies are not the victors of the economic game so much as the victims of its perversely limited rules. More than anything, they have succumbed to a mindset where winning means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. Its as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.

Yet this Silicon Valley escapism lets call it The Mindset encourages its adherents to believe that the winners can somehow leave the rest of us behind.

Never before have our societys most powerful players assumed that the primary impact of their own conquests would be to render the world itself unliveable for everyone else. Nor have they ever before had the technologies through which to programme their sensibilities into the very fabric of our society. The landscape is alive with algorithms and intelligences actively encouraging these selfish and isolationist outlooks. Those sociopathic enough to embrace them are rewarded with cash and control over the rest of us. Its a self-reinforcing feedback loop. This is new.

Amplified by digital technologies and the unprecedented wealth disparity they afford, The Mindset allows for the easy externalisation of harm to others, and inspires a corresponding longing for transcendence and separation from the people and places that have been abused.

Instead of just lording over us for ever, however, the billionaires at the top of these virtual pyramids actively seek the endgame. In fact, like the plot of a Marvel blockbuster, the very structure of The Mindset requires an endgame. Everything must resolve to a one or a zero, a winner or loser, the saved or the damned. Actual, imminent catastrophes from the climate emergency to mass migrations support the mythology, offering these would-be superheroes the opportunity to play out the finale in their own lifetimes. For The Mindset also includes a faith-based Silicon Valley certainty that they can develop a technology that will somehow break the laws of physics, economics and morality to offer them something even better than a way of saving the world: a means of escape from the apocalypse of their own making.

By the time I boarded my return flight to New York, my mind was reeling with the implications of The Mindset. What were its main tenets? Who were its true believers? What, if anything, could we do to resist it? Before I had even landed, I posted an article about my strange encounter to surprising effect.

Almost immediately, I began receiving inquiries from businesses catering to the billionaire prepper, all hoping I would make some introductions on their behalf to the five men I had written about. I heard from a real estate agent who specialises in disaster-proof listings, a company taking reservations for its third underground dwellings project, and a security firm offering various forms of risk management.

But the message that got my attention came from a former president of the American chamber of commerce in Latvia. JC Cole had witnessed the fall of the Soviet empire, as well as what it took to rebuild a working society almost from scratch. He had also served as landlord for the American and European Union embassies, and learned a whole lot about security systems and evacuation plans. You certainly stirred up a bees nest, he began his first email to me. Its quite accurate the wealthy hiding in their bunkers will have a problem with their security teams I believe you are correct with your advice to treat those people really well, right now, but also the concept may be expanded and I believe there is a better system that would give much better results.

He felt certain that the event a grey swan, or predictable catastrophe triggered by our enemies, Mother Nature, or just by accident was inevitable. He had done a Swot analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and concluded that preparing for calamity required us to take the very same measures as trying to prevent one. By coincidence, he explained, I am setting up a series of safe haven farms in the NYC area. These are designed to best handle an event and also benefit society as semi-organic farms. Both within three hours drive from the city close enough to get there when it happens.

Here was a prepper with security clearance, field experience and food sustainability expertise. He believed the best way to cope with the impending disaster was to change the way we treat one another, the economy, and the planet right now while also developing a network of secret, totally self-sufficient residential farm communities for millionaires, guarded by Navy Seals armed to the teeth.

JC is currently developing two farms as part of his safe haven project. Farm one, outside Princeton, is his show model and works well as long as the thin blue line is working. The second one, somewhere in the Poconos, has to remain a secret. The fewer people who know the locations, the better, he explained, along with a link to the Twilight Zone episode in which panicked neighbours break into a familys bomb shelter during a nuclear scare. The primary value of safe haven is operational security, nicknamed OpSec by the military. If/when the supply chain breaks, the people will have no food delivered. Covid-19 gave us the wake-up call as people started fighting over toilet paper. When it comes to a shortage of food it will be vicious. That is why those intelligent enough to invest have to be stealthy.

JC invited me down to New Jersey to see the real thing. Wear boots, he said. The ground is still wet. Then he asked: Do you shoot?

The farm itself was serving as an equestrian centre and tactical training facility in addition to raising goats and chickens. JC showed me how to hold and shoot a Glock at a series of outdoor targets shaped like bad guys, while he grumbled about the way Senator Dianne Feinstein had limited the number of rounds one could legally fit in a magazine for the handgun. JC knew his stuff. I asked him about various combat scenarios. The only way to protect your family is with a group, he said. That was really the whole point of his project to gather a team capable of sheltering in place for a year or more, while also defending itself from those who hadnt prepared. JC was also hoping to train young farmers in sustainable agriculture, and to secure at least one doctor and dentist for each location.

On the way back to the main building, JC showed me the layered security protocols he had learned designing embassy properties: a fence, no trespassing signs, guard dogs, surveillance cameras all meant to discourage violent confrontation. He paused for a minute as he stared down the drive. Honestly, I am less concerned about gangs with guns than the woman at the end of the driveway holding a baby and asking for food. He paused, and sighed, I dont want to be in that moral dilemma.

Thats why JCs real passion wasnt just to build a few isolated, militarised retreat facilities for millionaires, but to prototype locally owned sustainable farms that can be modelled by others and ultimately help restore regional food security in America. The just-in-time delivery system preferred by agricultural conglomerates renders most of the nation vulnerable to a crisis as minor as a power outage or transportation shutdown. Meanwhile, the centralisation of the agricultural industry has left most farms utterly dependent on the same long supply chains as urban consumers. Most egg farmers cant even raise chickens, JC explained as he showed me his henhouses. They buy chicks. Ive got roosters.

JC is no hippy environmentalist but his business model is based in the same communitarian spirit I tried to convey to the billionaires: the way to keep the hungry hordes from storming the gates is by getting them food security now. So for $3m, investors not only get a maximum security compound in which to ride out the coming plague, solar storm, or electric grid collapse. They also get a stake in a potentially profitable network of local farm franchises that could reduce the probability of a catastrophic event in the first place. His business would do its best to ensure there are as few hungry children at the gate as possible when the time comes to lock down.

So far, JC Cole has been unable to convince anyone to invest in American Heritage Farms. That doesnt mean no one is investing in such schemes. Its just that the ones that attract more attention and cash dont generally have these cooperative components. Theyre more for people who want to go it alone. Most billionaire preppers dont want to have to learn to get along with a community of farmers or, worse, spend their winnings funding a national food resilience programme. The mindset that requires safe havens is less concerned with preventing moral dilemmas than simply keeping them out of sight.

Many of those seriously seeking a safe haven simply hire one of several prepper construction companies to bury a prefab steel-lined bunker somewhere on one of their existing properties. Rising S Company in Texas builds and installs bunkers and tornado shelters for as little as $40,000 for an 8ft by 12ft emergency hideout all the way up to the $8.3m luxury series Aristocrat, complete with pool and bowling lane. The enterprise originally catered to families seeking temporary storm shelters, before it went into the long-term apocalypse business. The company logo, complete with three crucifixes, suggests their services are geared more toward Christian evangelist preppers in red-state America than billionaire tech bros playing out sci-fi scenarios.

Theres something much more whimsical about the facilities in which most of the billionaires or, more accurately, aspiring billionaires actually invest. A company called Vivos is selling luxury underground apartments in converted cold war munitions storage facilities, missile silos, and other fortified locations around the world. Like miniature Club Med resorts, they offer private suites for individuals or families, and larger common areas with pools, games, movies and dining. Ultra-elite shelters such as the Oppidum in the Czech Republic claim to cater to the billionaire class, and pay more attention to the long-term psychological health of residents. They provide imitation of natural light, such as a pool with a simulated sunlit garden area, a wine vault, and other amenities to make the wealthy feel at home.

On closer analysis, however, the probability of a fortified bunker actually protecting its occupants from the reality of, well, reality, is very slim. For one, the closed ecosystems of underground facilities are preposterously brittle. For example, an indoor, sealed hydroponic garden is vulnerable to contamination. Vertical farms with moisture sensors and computer-controlled irrigation systems look great in business plans and on the rooftops of Bay Area startups; when a palette of topsoil or a row of crops goes wrong, it can simply be pulled and replaced. The hermetically sealed apocalypse grow room doesnt allow for such do-overs.

Just the known unknowns are enough to dash any reasonable hope of survival. But this doesnt seem to stop wealthy preppers from trying. The New York Times reported that real estate agents specialising in private islands were overwhelmed with inquiries during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prospective clients were even asking about whether there was enough land to do some agriculture in addition to installing a helicopter landing pad. But while a private island may be a good place to wait out a temporary plague, turning it into a self-sufficient, defensible ocean fortress is harder than it sounds. Small islands are utterly dependent on air and sea deliveries for basic staples. Solar panels and water filtration equipment need to be replaced and serviced at regular intervals. The billionaires who reside in such locales are more, not less, dependent on complex supply chains than those of us embedded in industrial civilisation.

Surely the billionaires who brought me out for advice on their exit strategies were aware of these limitations. Could it have all been some sort of game? Five men sitting around a poker table, each wagering his escape plan was best?

But if they were in it just for fun, they wouldnt have called for me. They would have flown out the author of a zombie apocalypse comic book. If they wanted to test their bunker plans, theyd have hired a security expert from Blackwater or the Pentagon. They seemed to want something more. Their language went far beyond questions of disaster preparedness and verged on politics and philosophy: words such as individuality, sovereignty, governance and autonomy.

Thats because it wasnt their actual bunker strategies I had been brought out to evaluate so much as the philosophy and mathematics they were using to justify their commitment to escape. They were working out what Ive come to call the insulation equation: could they earn enough money to insulate themselves from the reality they were creating by earning money in this way? Was there any valid justification for striving to be so successful that they could simply leave the rest of us behind apocalypse or not?

Or was this really their intention all along? Maybe the apocalypse is less something theyre trying to escape than an excuse to realise The Mindsets true goal: to rise above mere mortals and execute the ultimate exit strategy.

This is an edited extract from Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff, published by Scribe (20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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The super-rich preppers planning to save themselves from the apocalypse - The Guardian

Eternal life through technology. That is the promise of uploaded intelligence (UI), also known as mind uploading, a phenomenonone that remains, for now, within the realm of science fictionin which an entire human brain is emulated via computer. The catch: a UI is a disembodied intelligence, without a flesh-and-blood presence in the physical world. Even if it is a real person (and thats a big if) living on as a program, that person cant snuggle in bed with a lover or kiss their children goodnight. So does their existence actually constitute human life?

Of all the many big questions that power Pantheon, a gripping, cerebral, remarkably high-concept animated sci-fi series premiering Sept. 1 on AMC+, this is both the richest and the most difficult to answer. And it arises out of a situation so mundane, it borders on trite. When we meet 14-year-old Maddie Kim (voiced by Katie Chang), shes constantly at odds with her mother, Ellen (Rosemarie DeWitt), and is getting mercilessly cyberbullied by the mean girls at her high school. Most of the girls in my class completely missed the moment when the world began to end, too wrapped up in their own drama, obsessed with their own lives, Maddie recounts in an intriguing voiceover that opens the series. Or trying to ruin mine.

Maddie and David, reunited in an online game, in Pantheon

Titmouse IncAMC

The twist comes when she starts receiving chat messages from a mysterious, seemingly omniscient correspondent who uses her tormentors electronic devices to turn them against each other. All signs point to the stranger being her late father, David (Daniel Dae Kim). But this isnt some My Mother the Car farce. Before dying of cancer, a few years earlier, David had worked for a tech behemoth called Logorhythms that was experimenting with UI. According to the company, a brain scan aimed at preserving Davids consciousness in the final moments of his (embodied) life failed. Now, it seems that Logorhythms wasnt entirely honest with Ellen.

Beyond the Kim household, Pantheon follows two characters with their own relationships to Logorhythms and UI. Another teenage misfit, gothy Caspian (Paul Dano) excels at math and hackingand seems to be living in a small-scale version of The Truman Show, with parents who are, for reasons that take some time to emerge, roleplaying a dysfunctional marriage for his benefit. And Chanda (Raza Jaffrey of Homeland), a computer engineer from Mumbai, takes a meeting with executives at one of his companys American rivals. This breakfast sets the stakes of the show: Singularity is near, Chanda tells the suits. And whoever makes the big bets, and the right bets, will control not just the market, but the future. They pronounce him a prophet.

There is a global conspiracy thriller taking shape amid the human drama, and the showbased on short stories by Hugo-winning author Ken Liu, who also translated into English the Chinese writer Liu Cixins popular and influential The Three-Body Problemnever loses sight of either element. UI introduces profound philosophical and emotional conflicts, and creator Craig Silversteins (Turn: Washingtons Spies) digs deep into both kinds of problem. How can David be both dead and alive? How can a woman, especially one as mistrustful of technology as Ellen is, carry on a marriage with a man she not only cant touch, but also doesnt quite see as real? Is David a human without a body or just an ingenious simulation? And with regard to the UI-driven future Chanda seems so excited about, for its potential to free humans from white-collar drudge work and launch new leisure industries, is it really such a great idea?

Caspian and his love interest, Hannah, in Pantheon

Titmouse Inc.AMC

Every once in a while, in the four episodes provided for review, Silversteins scripts get tangled in their own high-level ideas. But it happens much less often than you might expect from such a heady show. The choice to adapt Lius work using traditional animation also helps to keep the story down-to-earth. While computer animation might have sent it plunging into the uncanny valley and live-action TV would have required expensive CGI effects that mightve looked silly despite their price, theres a warmth to the elegant, anime-style characters and backdrops drawn by Titmouse (the studio behind Big Mouth and the new Beavis and Butt-Head projects on Paramount+). From the stages of elite tech conferences to the digital worlds of MMPORGs to late-night coffee shops, the series gets the look of contemporary, device-mediated life right.

All of thisalong with a stellar voice cast that also includes Taylor Schilling, Aaron Eckhart, Maude Apatow, and the late William Hurthelps Pantheon earn what starts out as an ambitious, potentially goofy premise and escalates into something all-out wild. Its hardly the first show to take up UI. The concept fueled story lines on Star Trek, Stargate, and other sci-fi franchises for decades, before making inroads into the prestige-drama futurism of Westworld and Black Mirror; San Junipero, a feature-length romance between two uploaded intelligences in a VR afterlife, became a breakout episode of the latter anthology series. More recently, Upload, an Amazon sci-fi comedy from The Office creator Greg Daniels, has expanded on the digital-heaven idea with premium upgrades financed by the survivors of the deceased.

As in that show, the techno-pessimism fueling Pantheon foresees a UI future that doesnt benefit regular people so much as it enriches corporations. Like a metaverse Severance, though one with more visible seams, it explores how a dream of liberation from the workplace can turn out to be a prison of ones own making. At the same, it asks how technology that can reunite a troubled teen with her long-lost dad can be all bad. While that tension can never be definitively resolved, it has the potential to fuel many seasons of drama on scales both intimate and grand.

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Pantheon Review: 2022's Wildest Tech Thriller Is a Cartoon | Time - TIME

A Pisces full moon means its time for a little enchantment. Plus here are 7 ways to harness its energy.

Every year, the Pisces full moon holds ceremony in our deepest psyches. These mystical moonbeams are known for causing miracles. How? By opening our channels to spiritual guidance that can appear as signs, serendipities or messages in our dreams.

Flowy, dreamy Pisces softens our resistance to change. Do you need to let go and let it flow? Theres only one thing to do under a Pisces full moon: Surrender to the universes divine wisdom.

These prophecies probably wont make sense on paper, but do they make your soul sing? Tune in. Under these esoteric moonbeams, your intuition is the most potent voice in the chorus.

Seeds you planted near the Pisces new moon are ready to be harvest! Inquiries you made to the universe six months ago are about to burst open. They could illuminate the moody night sky with opalescent light or they could fizzle out altogether.

If something ends, Pisces will provide a soft space to reflect and let any tears and stuck emotions flow. But dont fall prey to escapism: Pisces energy can get murky and delusional, leading you astray from your path. Take a little break from any mood-altering substances if youre feeling ungrounded. This helps temper the lunacy that a full moon (and a full moon in Pisces, no less) churns up. A little emotional perspective WOULD be nice, right?

The Pisces full moon appears during Virgo season

The Pisces full moon is also called a Sturgeon Moon (Aug) or Harvest Moon or Corn Moon (Sep)

Pisces is the 12th and final zodiac sign (Pisces is symbolized by two fishes)

Pisces is a water sign, along with Cancer and Scorpio

This annual full moon is an optimal time for healing rituals. Try ours: Pisces Full Moon Ritual: Deal to Heal

Try also a meditation that draws on the energy of Pisces or one that invokes the water element

During a Pisces full moon, the veil to the spiritual underworld lifts, and boundaries between mystery and mortality blur. Pisces rules sleep and the subconscious, so pay close attention to your dreamswhich Carl Jung called the language of human consciousness. Keep a notebook by your bed so you can record your dreams immediately. Writing them down with a pen or pencil is a different, more meditative process than typing on or speaking into your phone (which you can also do, of course).

Dreams can reveal unfinished business in the psyche, bring visitations from people in our past and they can inspire creativity. Paying attention to them is an exercise in opening yourself up to serendipity. Do you regularly see symbols in your dreams? That bizarre dream about your tooth falling out could be a premonition about money coming your way. Look it up and ponder.

Keep your mind and all your channels clear, even while awake, because the universe is uploading some pretty spectacular information. If you can quiet your mind, you may be hit with a divine solution to a problem thats been plaguing youor all of humanity.

Heads up: As eager as you are to share discoveries with the entire social media universe, keep your ideas close to the vest. The elusive Pisces full moon can bring some shady characters to the surfac. You dont want to hand your million-dollar baby over to a snake in sisters clothing, right? What you do want to do is twirl yourself into a mystic night of delicious Piscean pleasures (think Tantric massage, Kama Sutra, and meditative dancing).

Ruled by ethereal Neptune, god of the seas, Pisces wants water, water everywhere. This would be a great night for a swim in the light of the full moonbut if thats not possible, you can fill up the tub. Or, if youre lucky enough to have access, dive into a private pool.

Swimming is a special kind of exercise because the waters resistance strengthens muscles while its buoyancy keeps pressure off your joints. Waters natural viscosity forces you to move more slowly, giving your brain time to more thoroughly process signals from your muscles and building muscle memory. The best part, though, is that you never feel lighter than you do while in waterand that uplifting energy can offset the heavy, introspective vibes of a Pisces full moon.

This Neptunian-guided full moon calls for compassion and empathyand that starts right where you are. When you stop to think about who you might have been blaming and shaming, dont forget to assess how youve been treating yourself.

Self-deprecation prevents us from reaching our goals by putting us into a perpetual state of inhibition. Self-kindness and self-compassion, on the other hand, lead to greater life satisfaction and deeper connection (research proves it). As Pisces Anais Nin wrote: We dont see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Vow to give yourself a daily shot of kindness, whether its a well-deserved pat on the back for a job well done or permission to curl up in your favorite faux-fur blanket and take a well-deserved nap. Want to really go to work on this? Take a gander at the exercises in The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff, PhD.

Eyes off that screen! These days, its too easy to walk around in a tech trance, more tuned in to a friends vacation photos than the actual landscape surrounding you. And while esoteric Pisces can align with that sort of virtual reality, the Pisces full moon encourages you to slow down and visually observe your surroundings.

Photography (with the exception of selfies) can be a form of meditation, helping you get powerfully connected to the present moment. Look around! Pisces has the power to find beauty in all forms, including destruction and disrepair. You dont need a trip to Tanzania to take yourself on a photo safari. Get fascinated by the peeling paint on an abandoned building, the patina on a rusted tractor, friends with amazing (but not-model-perfect) features.

Pisces photographer Diane Arbus became famous for her arresting black-and-white portraits of both ordinary people and folks on the fringe of society. In her words, A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.

As the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, its no surprise that Pisces rules the feet. Under the stirring Pisces full moon, cue up a playlist and just dance. Moving your body to music feels amazing for many reasons: It influences your heartbeat cadence and your breathing, which affects your brain function. Its a boundless form of self-expression that invites you to shapeshift with the current of every beatwhich is what go-with-the-flow Pisces is all about.

Find a club or live show where you can spin out on the dance floor, or ask Alexa to turn on some Lizzo. What a fun and sacred way to get intimate with your own bodys subtle energies and power.

As the zodiacs twelfth and final sign, Pisces turns the tide toward transitions. Endings can be the hardest necessity to face, but they cant be put off forever. Better to let it go and let it flow, because youll quickly manifest a more rewarding optionor a better way of dealing with your present circumstances.

Did you ghost someone who was actually pretty important to you? Leave business ventures unsettled? We all have those uncomfortable loose ends dangling, and the Pisces full moon is the perfect time to handle them once and for all. With Pisces tender underbelly of compassion and acceptance, youll find it much easier to cut the ties on a partnership or romance that has run its course.

Need some sacred respite? Let the sensual energy of the Pisces full moon inspire you as you create a sanctuary for yourself at home. Spruce up your bedroom or maybe a corner of your living room.

Wherever you can, find a space for a welcoming nest with plenty of soft, furry blankets and pillows, candles or an essential oil diffuser to fill the air with the stress-busting scent of lavender or uplifting jasmine. Spin some Nina Simone (a soulful Pisces if ever there lived) to set the mood. Let it be your place to nap, to dream and to just be.

Find out how the Pisces full moon will affect your sign in our weekly horoscopes: https://www.astrostyle.com/weekly-horoscopes

Photo by Daniel Adams Diversifylens

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Pisces Full Moon Meaning and 7 Ways to Benefit - Free Daily Horoscopes by The AstroTwins | Astrostyle

A psychology student and a talented singer who rose to popularity through Instagram and YouTube, Noor is a newbie in the Punjabi entertainment industry. She has lent her voice to the songs of the recently released film Bajre Da Sitta, where she has also showcased her skills as an actor.

Name

Prabhnoor Chahal, popularly known as Noor Chahal.

Hometown

Born in Chandigarh, Noor was raised in Mohali, where she is currently settled.

Family

Father Harsharanjit Singh Chahal is a chartered accountant while her mother Jasmeet Chahal is a homemaker. Noor has a younger brother Ishaanveer Chahal, who studies in Class 11. Her grandmother lives in their native village in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab.

Education

Noor completed her Class 10 and 12 from Yadvindra Public School (YPS), Mohali. She graduated in psychology honors from Panjab Universitys Institute of Social Science Education and Research (PU-ISSER). Presently, she is studying for her masters in psychology from the same institute at the PU.

When did you discover your singing skills?

When I was in Class 2. I was an active participant in school functions. My teachers used to give me opportunities to perform solo at events. I also took part in choirs and competitions and realised I was blessed with the skill. Later, when I entered Class 8, I opted for professional training in core Hindustani classical music, which continued for the next four years.

Why did you pick psychology, and not music, in college?

We all know that a career in music and films is a little unpredictable, and one must choose a concrete option to fall back on. Having said this, Psychology is not just an option for me, I like studying it and thats why I am pursuing a masters course in it. As far as music is concerned, I have always loved it, and nothing can separate it from me. So, basically, I am doing both!

Favourite song

There is no specific genre that I stick to. As a singer too, I am open to singing anything but for songs that can offend listeners, objectify women, or glorify anything that is considered wrong by our society. Here, I want to mention that my favourite singer is Satinder Sartaaj. He is my inspiration in the Punjabi music industry.

Favourite movie

I prefer watching films that are artistic. My recently released film Bajre Da Sitta is my favourite because of its content.

You acted in Bajre Da Sitta. Did you plan to be an actor?

Not at all. The opportunity just came my way, and I didnt want to miss out on it. Though I have acted in theatre during school days, I was never intentionally inclined towards acting. Moreover, Bajre Da Sitta is a music-based film, which attracted me enough to play a role as well. I am a content-driven person and the concept of the movie motivated me to go for it.

Works till date

Noor is new to the entertainment industry. Her journey started during the lockdown when she began making videos and posted Bollywood and Punjabi song covers on Instagram, and later, on her own YouTube channel, which presently has more than 7 lakh subscribers. Her growing popularity on social media drew the attention of the Punjabi film industry and got her a role in Satinder Sartaajs film Ikko Mikke (2020). Her debut single Jhalleya Dila came out on Burfi Music this year. In addition to this, she sang all the tracks for film Bajre Da Sitta and featured as a parallel lead along with actors Tania and Ammy Virk in the movie that released in July.

Upcoming projects

Recently chosen as a part of YouTubes Foundry class of 2022 among 30 other artists across the world, Noor shares that she will be uploading a song on her channel soon.

Claim to fame

I give the credit of my fame to YouTube as it gave me the opportunity to create my own channel and exhibit my talent independently. Even though I have worked on screen now, I got real recognition from the social media platform.

My secret sauce

Theres no mantra. Be authentic and original in your approach is my secret to success. As a cover artist, I have always tried to add a unique element to the songs, which makes them quite appealing to the listeners. Therefore, I feel that artists should add their own special essence in whatever they do. Besides, one should never take the audience for granted. I always value my listeners and make sure I put my best efforts in my work.

Thoughts about Pollywood

People in the industry are lovely. They are welcoming and wonderful. Though I have just begun my journey here, I never felt like an alien. Rather, I enjoyed working with other artists. I just hope I get more opportunities so I can experience things and talk about it.

Challenges faced

Honestly, I feel lucky as my parents are supportive of my choices and that has made everything easy for me. Undoubtedly, I have worked hard to achieve things but thats just a part of the journey. Sometimes, artists feel chained when they are targeted and called out on social media but thats nothing as compared to the love they receive. So, whenever I get negative comments, I overlook them and focus on the love my fans have for me.

Future plans

I intend to work as a singer more than an actor. Music is my area of interest as of now, but if anything else comes my way, I would not mind exploring it. My future plan is to take content-based decisions that bring out my talent and tap my potential as a singer.

Fitness mantra

(Laughs out) I am not a fitness freak, and I dont like working out. To add to that, I am a big foodie. Therefore, there is no mantra to share. However, I will surely get there. (Reassuring herself)

See original here:

From social media to Pollywood, singer Noor Chahal says originality is her secret to success - The Indian Express

Kildare/Wicklow indie-rock trio Ratios have released their new single, Wait Some Time. We asked them the BIG questions . . .

Ratios are lead singer Dan O'Shaughnessy, Liam Brady and Mike O'Sullivan. They began as a two-piece and released their first single Yellow Ribbon in March 2022.

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Speaking about Wait Some Time, they say, "The main guitar riff was written eight years ago but was never developed until recently. The song quickly came together quickly over two rehearsal sessions when the main riff was played, and ideas began to flourish.

"The song itself portrays a delusional state of mind and the struggle to break through a maze of uncertainty and indecisiveness. Whilst trying to break through barriers, waiting on oneself to do so seems like the only key.

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"The song is energy driven from start to finish. That was our aim from when we began to write it. We wanted to create something different that we feel stands out from others. We blended indie-rock elements and an energy driven punk chorus to portray an eclectic mixture of our creative influences."

Tell us three things about yourself . . .

We are fresh, hip and happening.

How would you describe your music?

Energetic with influences being drawn from punk, alternative rock and indie-rock. We like to play loud and aggressively and thrive during our live shows.

Who are your musical inspirations?

Tonnes. We all seem to come from different musical backgrounds and influences but we also all share a love for grunge, alt-rock, punk etc. Lately we have been listening to a lot of Gilla band, Wolf Alice, Viagra boys, QOTSA, Arctic Monkeys to name a few. Performance wise, we aspire to play loud energetic shows and are inspired by the lives shows from our favourite bands.

What was the first gig you ever went to?

Dan - Nickelback at the RDS Simmonscourt with support from Creed.

Liam - Green Day in 2009.

Mike - Avenged Sevenfold in 2014.

What was the first record you ever bought?

Dan - The Temptations' Greatest Hits.

Mike - Rage against the machines live album.

Liam - Iowa - Slipknot.

Whats your favourite song right now?

Dan - Sports - Viagra Boys.

Liam - At the moment, my favourite song is Tourettes by Nirvana.

Mike - Eight Fivers by Gilla band.

Favourite lyric of all time?

Dan - "Blame, whats to blame? Its an argument no one can win, 'Cause at best, we don't know, And its wearing us thin." Stare at The Sun by Mutemath. Its genius.

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Dan - Sports - Viagra Boys. Its a real heavy hitter.

Liam - Birdie - The Scratch.

Mike - Kashmir - Led Zeppelin.

Where can people find your music/more information?

On Instagram at @ratiosband, on Facebook also. We are also on Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music. We just recently released our newest single, Wait Some Time, which can be streamed on all platforms. We also have an accompanying Music vid coming out on the 8 September. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and within the next few months we will be uploading more content there.

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Behind the music - Ratios - RTE.ie

Grace Chans first novel opens in Melbourne in the late 2080s. The planet is, to not put too fine a point on it, spent. Most people who can afford it spend their mornings climbing into gel-filled pods to log into a fun, more beautiful edition of Earth called Gaia, where advanced coding offers the sensation (or at least, a sensation) of taste, smell and even touch. The books central quartet, Tao-Yi and her boyfriend Navin, and their friends Zach and Evelyn, live so much of their lives there that when the technology arrives to allow full upload, it feels like a foregone conclusion. Except for Tao-Yi, it isnt.

Is her reluctance just nostalgia? What, exactly, is she worried about leaving behind? In digitalising the mind-body problem, Every Version of You transposes it into a literal and very material question: if you could leave your body, would you? In his unsettling 1909 story, The Machine Stops, EM Forster comes at this question from the other side: if you could return to the physical world, would you? In Forsters story, a woman lives contentedly in her small pod below the earth, washed, dried and fed while she swaps elevated ideas with like minds in other pods around the world. All her needs are met by the Machine. Her sons claustrophobia merely annoys her she thinks he is a stubborn and backward heretic. He thinks the Machine has robbed humanity of the sense of space and of the sense of touch. The storys very bleak ending is easily read especially coming from EM only connect Forster as tech-phobic. A century and a bit later, Chans relationship to cyberspace is understandably more ambiguous.

Navin has a debilitating health condition, which both complexifies and simplifies the equation. For him, uploading is a salvation, a no-brainer: only in virtual reality can he be his authentic self, not held back by the painful betrayals of his body. (Chans vision of the future includes a believably infuriating gap between advancements in consumer tech and those in more basic medical or social care.) But Tao-Yi struggles with a nebulous sadness, certain that with the loss of their tactile connection goes something fundamental to their bond. While the novel is told in third person, we inhabit Tao-Yis perspective, and her hunger for the physical sensations Gaia can never quite replicate (the taste of homemade mapo tofu, the smell of Navins neck, even the hot, toxic air of Melbournes increasingly uninhabitable streets). Distance is irrelevant to intimacy, now, she reflects after a reunion at a virtual party yet she, and so we, are unconvinced.

After upload, Navins brain expands and speeds up he becomes a digital sprite chasing interests, passions, languages. Tao-Yi sees this limitless metamorphosing as a dissolving of the self, but Navin begs her to consider the risks of lagging: ageing, decay, the possibility shes inherited her mother and grandmothers depression. Chan, whose day job is in psychiatry, probes the fascinating idea of how well its possible to know our selves at all, and what we value in their formation. Are friction, trauma and discomfort so integral? Why not wipe them out, become new humans, directly powered by solar and electricity?

Tao-Yi, looking back on the 21st century, wonders how much of her mothers illness might have been grief about the world. The elephant in the room, as in so much cli-fi, is capitalism: in Chans future, the tech has improved but the system hasnt. Apple and then Dandelion have been superseded by Neuronetica-Somners, Gaias parent company, which caters to the rich. Many are locked out by cost, stranded on an Earth with no more trees. (Its possible, after reading this book, that you never turn on a tap the same way again.) Those without homes shelter beneath UV-reflective blankets, bodies warped and broken by chronic sunburn and lung disease, ignored by those whove left them behind. (Its hard to think critically about the things that gratify your basest needs.) Even people with access to Gaias addictive consolations seem to frequently be falling apart in ways their commercial system is utterly inadequate and unwilling to address. Like Mark Fisher, Every Version of You argues that capitalism (more than say, the internet) is the cause of all the problems we keep using it to try to solve.

Chans novel is laden with a feeling of precipice and inevitability, a quiet doom. As all her friends upload, Tao-Yi is swamped by the perpetual homesickness shes felt since her teenage move from Malaysia. She cannot see Gaia as a home, and in pulling away from it, she is reaching for something linking her to her roots but they are also broken, or only ever half-built. In a recent essay, critic Cher Tan writes that comparing life on and offline is asking the wrong question and falling into the (false) rut of digital dualism because most of contemporary life is simultaneously woven of both.

Thats not what Tao-Yi or Chan is doing. Confronting what might one day be left on a ruined, offline Earth is a powerful way to refocus the lens on the world we are presently creating, and the politics informing what we build whether its from bricks or code.

Read more:

Every Version of You by Grace Chan review would you want to live in the metaverse? - The Guardian