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Daily Archives: September 7, 2022
Pac-12 Gambling Guide: There’s money to be made on Wildcats, who are double-digit ‘dogs vs. MSU | Pac-12-hotline | tucson.com – Arizona Daily Star
Posted: September 7, 2022 at 6:03 pm
If the opening weekend of the 2022 season provided the Pac-12 with high-profile opportunities on big stages opportunities since wasted then Week 2 is something entirely different.
Its the nothing-to-lose weekend.
The Pac-12 has six non-conference matchups with Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, including showdowns with the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
The conference is a double-digit underdog in four of the six and a one-point favorite in a fifth a state of play thats remarkable but wholly justified based on the matchups, locations, and recent performance. (The Pac-12 was 0-3 against Power Five opponents last week and 0-3 in bowl games last season.)
Arizona State and Washington State are substantial underdogs on the road against ranked opponents (Oklahoma State and Wisconsin), respectively.
Meanwhile, Arizona is a double-digit dog, at home, against Mississippi State. (The betting public doesnt think much of the Wildcats victorious opener at San Diego State.)
So gloomy is the outlook for the conference that Colorado is a 17.5-point dog against a Mountain West opponent (Air Force).
Given all that, we wouldnt be surprised if the lone conference game of the week, USCs trip to Stanford, somehow ended with two losses for the Pac-12.
With so many big underdogs, theres little to lose.
To the picks:
Last week: 3-5
Season: 3-5
Five-star special: 1-0
Spreads taken from vegasinsider.com using lines listed for BetMGM
Game total in parentheses
Not included (FCS opponents): Oregon, UCLA, Utah and Washington
Kickoff: 12:30 p.m. (Ch. 11)
Line: WSU +17.5 (total: 49.5)
Comment: The Badgers will be content to grind, as always. We expect a close game for three quarters, but will WSUs defensive front hold up in the fourth? Not without more help than we expect from Cam Ward and the offense.
Pick: Wisconsin -17.5
Kickoff: 12:30 p.m. (Ch. 13)
Line: Colorado +17.5 (total: 48.5)
Comment: Which is worse: Losing by 25 points at home to TCU or being a 17.5-point underdog at Air Force? The correct answer, of course, is losing by more than 17.5 at Air Force. But we dont think that will happen. Get ready for the JT Shrout show.
Pick: Colorado +17.5
Kickoff: 1 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)
Line: Cal -13.5 (total: 48.5)
Comment: The last time UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo matched wits against Justin Wilcox, in 2019, the former was calling plays for Oregon and had a quarterback named Justin Herbert. And the Ducks managed all of 17 points.
Pick: Cal -13.5
Kickoff: 4:30 p.m. (Ch. 9)
Line: USC -9.5 (total: 67.5)
Comment: The coaching advantage Stanford enjoyed for so many years in this rivalry no longer exists. Now, its all about the talent. The Cardinal has enough on offense to keep pace but not enough on defense to close the deal. Stanford covers; USC wins.
Pick: Stanford +9.5
Kickoff: 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Line: ASU +11.5 (total: 57.5)
Comment: We expect the Sun Devils to benefit immensely from quarterback Emory Jones experience in SEC road games. However, the Cowboys have too much of everything and should be in control early in the fourth quarter. Future intra-conference matchup?
Pick: Oklahoma State
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)
Line: OSU -1 (total: 61.5)
Comment: The Beavers play USC, Stanford, Utah, Washington and Oregon in coming weeks but will face no better quarterback than FSUs Jake Haener. If they contain the Bulldogs, it bodes well for the rest of the year. Very, very well.
Pick: Oregon State
Kickoff: 8 p.m. (Fox Sports 1)
Line: Arizona +10.5 (total: 59.5)
Comment: Bulldogs coach Mike Leach is no stranger to night games in Tucson and will have a smart plan of attack for the improved Wildcats defense. Should be one of the best games of the day and worthy of the #Pac12AfterDark attention.
Pick: Arizona +10.5
Straight-up winners: Wisconsin, Air Force, Cal, USC, Oklahoma State, Oregon State and Mississippi State.
Five-star special: Arizona +10.5. It will take weeks for the point spreads to adjust to Arizonas improvement. During that time, theres money to be made, folks.
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Just how close is the gambling industry to football? – Varsity Online
Posted: at 6:03 pm
Image: Alex Motoc on Unsplash.com
The rise of mobile technology, the widespread use of mobile apps and the endless possibilities offered by the internet are all factors making sports betting and gambling easier than theyve ever been before. The information and communication technological advancements have made possible an entirely new betting experience for people, who now dont need to get out of their comfort zone -both literally and figuratively in order to place a wager on their favorite team or athlete. Punters can find all relevant information on existing online bookmakers at https://allbets.tv/. At the same time, the ease and convenience with which punters get to bet in order to support their favorites or even just in order to win money, makes betting so much linked and attached to the sport itself.
There are many people who now insist that betting and football are in fact really really close so close, that they are interdependent to a great extent and mutually supportive and reinforcing. The world of betting (and the generic world of gambling) funds the world of football and the world of football enables the world of betting. In simple words: the betting industry finances football through club sponsorships, adverts and paid promotions and on its part, football as a sport, makes betting a viable and a feasible, plus a highly profitable industry. Without interest in football per se as a sport, football betting would not be attractive. On the other hand, a football club would continue to compete without the financial influx from betting and gambling companies, but their money, when sponsoring the team or when paying for ads, comes in handy, especially when transfers are taking place!
But it is not only this reciprocal relation that shows just how close the betting industry is to football. It is also a matter of fans and punters experience, being fundamentally mutually grown. An explicit link is being gradually, yet strongly and irreversibly developed between betting on football and watching football. You may have come across several adverts of betting companies that all so profoundly underline just how watching a football game becomes far more interesting and more exciting when it is accompanied by betting! A fan watches a match, yet the action does not only take place on the game it also takes place on the fans mobile device!
Watching a football game is an exciting thing to do. Watching your favorite team playing a game with an all-time rival is more like a ritual especially for die-hard fans! Watching your favorite team in a match and being able to share some of the action by betting on several different outcomes and events of that match at the same time, is an absolute entertainment, excitement and satisfaction -always within the limits of responsible gambling and free from problem gambling.
So, from that perspective, betting and football are really close to each other, as they can offer complementary experiences to fans and punters. Or if we dont want to be so absolute about it, they can reinforce experiences: betting reinforces the excitement of fans when watching a football game and watching the football game reinforces the exciting experience of punters when betting on the game.
The close link between the two can also be seen in the relationships that are underpinned by marketing and financial purposes. For betting companies and online gambling sites, being able to advertise through the football itself is in fact the ultimate expression of the associations between the industry and the sport. No one will argue that a betting company can take the most when it sponsors a football club or when it is able to have its brand shown on the board within the field, or when it is able to place its advert on the media that broadcast a football match. There is nowhere better to reach potential and prospective new customers than right in the center of all the action!
So, the gambling industry -and more precisely the betting industry is in fact very close to the sport of football and as long as there are no negative implications of this kind of association, there is no concern. But we can all agree that there is a thin line that must not be crossed and that there should always be a clear distinction between betting on football and the football itself. They are not the same and they should never be treated as being equal. Watching sports and developing an interest in football matches does not mean that one is also keen on betting.
Please gamble responsibly.
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Gov’t urged to address harm caused by gambling – The Point – The Point
Posted: at 6:03 pm
However, various opinions are of the view that governmentinitiates a controlmechanism in which youths, most specifically the school going children could desist from endangering their lives on daily hopes of making a living through the rampant sports betting in the country.
A key factor to the sports betting situation and which must be a worrying concern is the manner in which sports betting has become very visible and more pronounced in almost every street foundin the Greater Banjul Area and even in other regions.
In 2015, The Gambia banned all forms of gambling such as lotteries, casinos and sports betting.
This was, according to the then government, based on the fact that the Gambian society is built on the foundations of promoting positive social values like thrift and integrity rather than negative ones like gambling and avarice.
It further added that it is the duty of the Gambia Government to safeguard and promote the public welfare of our citizens.
In an interview with this medium, Saihou Jobe, a taxi driver, said in banning the younger population from engaging in such ventures, the government would certainly need to put up appropriate and deterrentmeasures to protect its future leaders fora brighterGambia in years to come.
According to him, failure to put up immediate measures to help solve this cooking problem would obviously cause the future of the country a big price to pay. He added that if the issues is left unaddressed, the countrys future leaders (youths) would be redundant as sports betting and other gambling activities could ruin the foundation of our moral and social developments.
Further emphasising, he said sports betting also causes distress and disaffection against one's self as well as against society, noting that there have been many instances around the world where some young men have become frustrated and violent to the extent of attempting suicide after losing a bet.
He said the challenges associated with being addicted to betting is, it can lead one to engage in illegal activities such as stealing which is unlawful and also forbidden.
Musa Jallow, also revealed to thismedium that sometimes he would invest peoples money with the hope of winning and in the end, the result wont be positive. "The government should really intervene to help establish a thorough mechanism of discouraging the focus and laziness of youths caused by gambling."
He disclosed that he once invested his brothers money that he was assigned to deposit at the bank which caused problems in his life after he was chased out of his brothers house due to the D7000 he used from his brother's money to bet.
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Gov't urged to address harm caused by gambling - The Point - The Point
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TMS Therapy: Benefits, Risks, and more – Healthgrades
Posted: at 6:02 pm
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy uses magnets to stimulate brain cells. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved TMS therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder.Doctors do not fully understand how or why TMS therapy works for some people, but they are researching the therapy more.
TMS therapy is noninvasive, which means it happens on the outside of your body. In TMS specifically, doctors place magnets on your head, and the therapy itself does not hurt.
A doctor may recommend TMS therapy if you have depression that has not responded to other therapies. It is important to remember that TMS is not right for everyone, and your doctor can best advise you.
This article will explain more about TMS therapy, its potential benefits, the side effects it may have, and how much it costs.
TMS therapy is technically a type of neuromodulation, according to 2019 research. This name comes from the fact that it involves modulating, or stimulating, your brain cells through the use of magnetic energy.
Read more about depression and its different types.
TMS is a form of brain stimulation, or neuromodulation, that doctors use as a treatment for depression. It stimulates the brain using electromagnetic fields. It is also called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) because the magnetic stimulation is delivered repeatedly, in pulses.
In TMS, magnetic fields produce electrical currents that currents pass through the brain. They stimulate cells in areas that influence mood and emotion.
As mentioned, TMS therapy is noninvasive, so you may have it in a doctors office while you are awake.Most people will receive TMS therapy for a duration of 46 weeks and a total of 2030 treatments.
During and after the treatment
Most people sit upright in a chair during their treatments. The doctor uses a machine with a moving device that resembles the type of light you might see at a dentists office, and the doctor can move it to different spots on your head.
The device generates magnetic currents around your head. It creates very fast pulses of magnetic power intended to stimulate certain areas of your brain.
Each TMS treatment takes about 45 minutes. You can resume your usual activities immediately after the treatment.
Some people may experience some slight pain in their head near the magnetic currents. You may also have a slight headache after the treatment ends.
TMS therapy has a few different benefits. These include the following:
Alternative treatment option
TMS therapy may benefit people who have major depression and want to try a different treatment.
This might be because other treatments have not helped or the person is experiencing severe side effects from the medications.
TMS therapy is noninvasive, which means it happens in a doctors office in an outpatient setting. The treatment sessions are usually less than 1 hour in length. There is no recovery period, which means you can resume your daily activities right after.
TMS therapy has minimal side effects, especially for people who find medication side effects intolerable.Doctors can also use it alongside other treatments, such as therapy.
Overall, doctors consider TMS therapy to be a very safe form of depression treatment. Yet it does have some potential side effects and risks.
The most commonly reported side effects of TMS therapy are mild pain in the areas being stimulated on the head and muscle twitching during the treatments, according to Michigan Medicine. Some people may also experience a headache or toothache after the treatment.
In very rare cases, TMS therapy can cause seizures. For that reason, doctors recommend that people with epilepsy do not use TMS therapy.
Additionally, TMS therapy may not be accessible to everyone. Some insurance plans will cover it but without insurance, it may be an expensive treatment.
According to a 2017 study, the average cost of treatment ranges from around $3,000 to over $11,000. Yet when compared to taking long-term medications, TMS therapy may actually cost less and be more effective as a depression treatment.
Typically, doctors will recommend TMS therapy to people who have major depressive disorder and have not found success in trying multiple other forms of treatment.
For instance, you may a candidate for TMS therapy if you have tried different medications for depression, but the medications have not worked.
Additionally, you may be able to get TMS therapy if you cannot tolerate the side effects of depression medications.
TMS therapy might be controversial only because it is somewhat misunderstood. For instance, some people might mistake TMS for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), but the two are very different.
While doctors can use both therapies to treat mental disorders, ECT is more commonly used for severe depression and bipolar disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
ECT is also much more intense than TMS. While TMS therapy involves only magnetic energy and happens as an outpatient procedure, ECT happens only if you are under anesthesia and it induces a mini seizure in the brain.
According to a 2019 research review, TMS therapy is a proven and effective treatment for depression.
Everyone is different, but people who have not been able to tolerate medications for depression and anxiety may have the most success with TMS therapy.
TMS therapy is an FDA-approved treatment for major depression that has not responded to other types of treatments, such as medication and therapy. TMS therapy involves magnetic energy to induce electrical currents that stimulate brain cells. It targets areas of the brain responsible for mood and emotion.
You can get TMS therapy in a doctors office because it does not involve anything invasive. A doctor will put a device near your head that will use magnets to produce the magnetic energy.
Doctors consider TMS therapy very safe but do not recommend it for people who have epilepsy.
Typically, TMS therapy occurs over 46 weeks and can be an effective treatment for major depression, especially if other treatments have not helped.
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Yard Management Systems (YMS): Bridging the gap between warehousing and transportation – Logistics Management
Posted: at 6:02 pm
Activity that takes place within the four walls of the warehouse or DC is usually well orchestrated, documented, and in most cases, supported by technology. Using warehouse management systems (WMS), companies have been increasingly automating this aspect of their supply chains. Transportation management systems (TMS) take over once shipments reach the other side of the gate, so to speak, and make their way to their destinations.
And somewhere between the WMS and TMS lies the yard and dock, both of which have frequently been referred to as the black holes of the supply chain. Thats because at many facilities, these vital areas arent necessarily managed with technology, or the solutions in use dont talk to other platforms.
This leaves gaps in the supply chainsomething that companies have increasingly been trying to avoid in todays fast-paced, resource-constrained fulfillment environment.
By using software that provides trailer and shipment visibility; automates the truck arrival, check-in and departure process; monitors trailer movement out in the yard; and tracks activity taking place on the dock, companies can bridge the gap between their existing solutions. They can also speed up their transportation operations, improve operator safety and reduce demurrage and detention charges.
Yard management systems (YMS) help companies to achieve these goals and more, yet according to Peerless Research Groups 2022 Materials Handling Technology Study, their usage has been waning over the last few years.
While more than half (56%) of companies surveyed are using WMS and inventory management systems and 26% are using TMS, just 7% have deployed YMS in their operations. Looking back a bit further, the percentage of companies using YMS dropped from 17% in 2020 to 8% in 2021.
Despite what the numbers may say, Bill Brooks, vice president of Capgeminis North American transportation portfolio, says that hes seeing more interest in YMS on the part of shippers that want to get better visibility into their yard and dock activity.
Whether its due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic or the labor shortage (or both), hes seeing more companies using self-service kiosks for trucks that are checking in and out of the yard. Theyre also hooking their YMS systems into their existing WMS, TMS and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions with the goal of getting unified dashboards that everyone can rely on and work from.
A bigger interest in YMS started about a year or two ago and has yet to wane, says Brooks. Were continuing to see a lot of focus in that space, mainly because of the positive gains that can be captured by reducing inefficiencies and improving out in the yard.
In response to this demand, he says WMS vendors are expanding their scope and adding YMS to their lineups while the best-of-breed yard management providers are adding new functionalities and capabilities.
Software vendors are takinginnovations from other supply chain management areas and applying them in the yard, Brooks explains. These innovations include sensors, tracking mechanisms, data analytics and Edge computing, the latter of which speeds up the process of information retrieval by bringing computation and data storage closer to the data source. Armed with these insights, shippers can adjust on the fly faster, address problems quicker and make better decisions about their yard and dock activity.
The best-of-breed YMS vendors are also using more application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect their specialized yard management applications with the TMS, WMS, ERP and other solutions that the shippers already have in place. The Cloud is also supporting this movement and helping to democratize YMS and make it more available to a wider range of users.
Finally, Brooks says that hes seeing more aerial drones being used in the yard, both for safety and security as well as for better tracking and visibility. I think were going to see more of this, and particularly when it comes to yard monitoring that uses drones and Artificial Intelligence (AI)and that will help to take the human error out of the equation.
Simon Tunstall, research director, warehousing and fulfillment technologies at Gartner, is also seeing more demand for YMS right now. Some of the growth is being driven by rising fuel costs, ongoing labor constraints and the need for faster turnaround of visiting drivers. This is because extended dwell times not only result in higher carrier accessorial fees, but they also affect the drivers hours of service (HOS) compliance.
These and other realities are pushing more companies to explore YMS and all that it has to offer. In fact, Tunstall says he saw a significant surge in YMS-related inquiries during the peak COVID monthsand that interest has yet to drop off. Interest in YMS has continued, although not quite at the same rate that we saw during peak during the middle of the pandemic, says Tunstall. Still, it certainly hasnt dropped off at all.
Of particular interest right now are applications that support visiting drivers and that offer kiosks for them to use as they enter and exit the yard. Tunstall points to consulting firm MacGregor Partners and software provider Vector as two organizations that are focusing more on kiosks right now. By tying the kiosk and gate automation together, and by offering mobile devices that visiting drivers can use, these and other firms are helping companies streamline and automate their yards.
These solutions differ from more traditional YMS applications, which tend to focus on dock scheduling and the movement of containers and trailers out in the yard. Along with supporting visiting drivers, some of the newer solutions digitize paperwork and provide electronic bills of lading (eBLs) that help companies gain yard efficiencies.
Tunstall says that one of biggest selling points to YMS is the good return on investment (ROI) it provides in exchange for a comparatively small time and financial investment. A YMS can provide quite a good ROI for a shipper thats losing trailers, incurring detention costs and that wants to turn around visiting drivers faster, he says. It can also help improve overall product flow both in and out of the warehouse or manufacturing operation, which in turn can even further enhance the softwares value for a specific shipper.
And, many YMS vendors offer fairly quick implementation times compared to other types of supply chain management applications, says Tunstall, and lower overall cost to run the software itself. Combined, these benefits make YMS attractive for many types of shippers, including very large, busy sites that currently rely on manual and disparate solutions to run their yard operations.
In some cases, current YMS users are assessing their existing systems and wondering how they can get even more out of them. This push to optimize existing YMSand assumedly, most other types of SCM software right nowhelps companies do more with what they have and avoids the expense of new software applications.
Ive definitely seen an uptick in interest from companies that already have YMS and are wondering whether theyre optimizing them or if there are opportunities to upgrade, says Howard Turner, director, supply chain systems at St. Onge Company.
Shippers are also connecting existing software applications to gain better visibility, both in the yard and across the entire supply chain. For example, the firm thats using a fleet tracking application to determine where trailers are on the roadand if theyre going to be delayedmay connect that software to a yard management system.
That way, the YMS has the information it needs to be able to track accurate arrival times and make predictions based on delays that are taking place on the road. Once the trailer arrives and gets inside of the gate, the YMS continues to track it and let users know when its time to pull up to the dock, pull away from the dock, and so forth.
Turner sees this digitization of the yard as an important tool that companies can use to offset the labor challenges, supply chain constraints and other issues that affect the delivery times. With a YMS in place, companies can also eliminate issues like a driver waiting too long at the gate to be let in by a security guard or having to drive around and look for a spot in the yard. This, in turn, helps reduce dwell timeand the related carrier feeswhile keeping drivers on the road and moving more efficiently.
A bigger interest in YMS started about a year or two ago andhas yet to waneWere continuing to see a lot of focus in thatspace, mainly because of the positive gains that can be capturedby reducing inefficiencies and improving out in the yard.
Bill Brooks, Capgemini
To companies that want to start leveraging these and other benefits of YMS, Brooks says a good starting point is to know what youre looking for. Identify your core yard- and dock-related challenges, and pinpoint the areas that are ripe for improvement. Look at both standalone and best-of-breed solutions and those being offered up as part of an existing WMS, TMS or ERP, and then decide which is the best fit for your specific needs.
Keep your eyes open because theres a lot of innovation taking place right now in terms of drones, AI, analytics and Edge computingthings that may not even be on your radar yet, says Brooks. In some cases, those innovations may be added with relatively little or no cost, and may give you some unexpected gains in return.
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Fresh off Botching the Gov. Greg Abbott Controversy, NASCAR Faces a New Political Hot Potato at Bristol – Sportscasting
Posted: at 6:02 pm
The screwy ending in which Ryan Blaney essentially won the same race twice on May 22 turned out to be the least of NASCARs problems with its All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway.
A little more than a week later, the organizations social media team posted a vague apology to the LGBTQ+ community for having not aligned with NASCARs mission to be a welcoming sport for all.
NASCAR never said so, but the controversy had to do with a Republican governor playing a minor role in pre-race festivities. Were about to find out how NASCAR handles the sequel.
NASCARs rather clumsy apology on Twitter late this spring stemmed from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waving the ceremonial green flag at Texas Motor Speedway for the annual All-Star Race.
Political figures have been throwing out first pitches at baseball games and doing ceremonial puck drops at hockey games for decades. No one should have thought it odd for Abbott to show interest in a special event being hosted by a track in his state. Though NASCAR also held the previous years race at TMS, it could have located the 2022 event at any of two dozen other tracks around the country.
However, Abbott is a polarizing figure if for no other reason than he governs a battleground state in which Democrats and Republicans have been battling fiercely in statewide and national elections. Additionally, Abbott issued an executive order earlier in the year directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who authorize gender-affirming medical treatment for their transgender children.
NASCAR still hasnt confirmed it, but that apparently was the impetus for LGBTQ+ to protest Abbotts token involvement in the All-Star Race.
The Xfinity Series regular season ends on Sept. 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The winner earns a spot in the playoffs beginning the following week at Texas Motor Speedway. The regular-season title could be up for grabs. There is also the possibility of battles involving defending champ Daniel Hemric, Landon Cassill, Sheldon Creed, and Ryan Sieg all fighting for two playoff berths.
On Monday, track officials announced first-year Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will serve as the grand marshal for the Food City 300, delivering the command for drivers to start their engines.
In a state that had been leaning Democrat for several years, Youngkin won a hotly contested election for an open seat last November. It was seen as a potential bell weather for the upcoming midterm elections, with education policy being a hot-button topic at the time. His coming 10 miles over the border into Tennessee to appear at a sporting event could conceivably turn into a reason for any of a number of groups to protest another confluence of sports and politics.
Brandon Brown won last seasons Xfinity playoff race at Talladega, and the post-race interview on NBC was the beginning of the Lets Go, Brandon taunts aimed at Joe Biden by detractors of the president.
Brown played absolutely no role in the episode other than winning the race. Had Joe Gibbs grandson been the winner that day, we would probably instead be talking about Lets Go, Ty now.
In the offseason that followed, however, NASCAR refused to approve a large primary sponsorship deal negotiated between Brown and backers of a cryptocurrency looking to capitalize on the continued popularity of Donald Trump. NASCAR made a point of saying it wanted to distance the sport from politics.
That didnt prevent Greg Abbott from appearing at the All-Star Race, and now Glenn Youngkin will be participating in festivities at Bristol. If there are protests over Youngkins appearance, it will be interesting to see whether NASCAR learned anything from how poorly it handled the reaction to Abbotts appearance.
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Pantheon Review: 2022’s Wildest Tech Thriller Is a Cartoon | Time – TIME
Posted: at 6:00 pm
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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Worth Watching: Lord of the Rings Prequel, Uploading Gets Serious in Pantheon, NASCAR Race for the Championship – Channel3000.com – WISC-TV3
Posted: at 6:00 pm
September 1, 2022 6:00 AM
Posted: September 1, 2022 6:00 AM
Updated: September 7, 2022 4:58 PM
Prime Video premieres the much-anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel The Rings of Power. The animated sci-fi drama Pantheon imagines the implications of Uploaded Intelligence (UI) after death. TCM salutes Humphrey Bogart as Star of the Month, with weekly tributes on Thursdays. USA follows the stars of a NASCAR season in the docuseries Race for the Championship. Marvels sorcerer Wong joins the satirical world of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Series Premiere9/8c
The moneys on the screen in Prime Videos big-budget, lavish prequel to the events immortalized in J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Whether scaling terrifying heights in the Northernmost Wastes, weathering a savage storm on the Sundering Seas or gaping at the dwarves mammoth underground kingdom, The Rings of Power is a reminder of what drew many of us to epic fantasy in the first place: wonder. (See the full review.)
Series Premiere
A mind-blowing subject treated whimsically in Prime Videos Upload becomes serious and sinister business in a provocative animated sci-fi drama about UIUploaded Intelligencein which a digital simulation of the human mind can be uploaded to a mysterious cloud. The A-list voice cast is led by Daniel Dae Kim as the late David, whose consciousness has become a ghost in a corporate machine. When he reaches out to his grieving and bullied teenage daughter Maddie (Katie Chang), his widow Ellen (Rosemarie DeWitt) questions its authenticity, and the motivations of the shadowy company developing this tech. Paul Dano co-stars as moody tech-nerd teen Caspian, whose parents (Aaron Eckhart and Taylor Schilling) are engaged in a peculiar subterfuge of their own. Pantheon also features the final performance of William Hurt as a Steve Jobs-like tech legend.
Series Premiere10/9c
Get up close and personal with the contenders in this years NASCAR Cup season and playoffs in a 10-episode docuseries following the racers on and off the track. (By no coincidence, USA airs the kickoff to the playoffs Sunday from Darlington Raceway.) The series opens with the NASCAR seasons first race at the L.A. Coliseum, with 2021 Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson hoping to stay on top, and racer Joey Logano (pictured above) facing a tough decision on race day with a pregnant wife at home.
8/7c
Humphrey Bogart won his sole Oscar as grizzled skipper Charlie Allnut in John Hustons exhilarating 1951 adventure. The grand Katharine Hepburn co-stars as missionary spinster Rose, who joins him on a perilous journey down an African river to sabotage a German steamer during World War I. What better way to kick off TCMs Star of the Month tribute to Bogie, with movies airing each Thursday in September. Queen is followed at 10/9c by Bogarts iconic interpretation of gumshoe Sam Spade in 1941s The Maltese Falcon. (His take on Raymond Chandlers Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep from 1946 airs early Friday at 8 am/7c.)
If youre amused by out-of-left-field celebrity cameos, this episodes for you. Also joining in the fun of this superhero spoof: Marvels sorcerer supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), whose arrival amid the Abomination chaos prompts Jennifer/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) to address the audience head-on: Just remember whose show this actually is. We also learn that Thors inspirational speeches are not admissible in court. And so the Marvel Cinematic (and TV) Universe rolls.
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The super-rich preppers planning to save themselves from the apocalypse – The Guardian
Posted: at 6:00 pm
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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8 Anime Outros Too Good to Skip – Geek Girl Authority
Posted: at 6:00 pm
Everyone has that banger anime opening that is too good to skip, but what about the outros? The outro songs often have a much different vibe to their openers, with softer visuals and light melodies that cleanse your mind before the next episode starts.
Sometimes, they take a different approach, with intense vocals and fast visuals that continue the hype into the next episode. There is no correct answer as to which style of outro is better. I get just as excited seeing an animes outro for the first time as I do their opener.
That said, this is not a best of list and is organized in no particular order. So, if you didnt see your favorite outro on here this time, comment below so it can make the next list.
Shout out to Crunchyroll for uploading so many of the end credits scenes to YouTube for us to jam out to!
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The first edition outro for Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is the gold standard for anime outros. The art style is simplistic but eye-catching, filled with character details. Most importantly, the song is a bonified bop.
Special thanks to user Nina for uploading this bop to YouTube for everyone to enjoy!
This anime outro is unskippable for a whole different reason. Who else remembers falling asleep on the couch watching Toonami and waking up to this jolting them into a different realm? I swear I could never find the remote fast enough to turn this outro off or down; now, it is ingrained in my childhood forever.
Jujutsu Kaisens outro song is the definition of unskippable. The song is so catchy and upbeat that it plays like an annoyingly likable pop song. It perfectly complements the rotoscope art style and dance sequences in a way that always seems fresh. It is truly the perfect palate cleanser between episodes.
RELATED: Crunchyroll Anime Expo 2022: Everything Shown at the Industry Panel
Youd be hard-pressed to find another outro as beloved as My Hero Academias first. The closing art is poignant and uplifting, almost like it was pulled from a young Dekus playlist. The song is worthy of any playlist; together, they make for an impossible-to-skip sequence.
This was hard to narrow down as HunterxHunter has several amazing outros, but I had to give the spot to the fifth edition. I dont know what they put to the fifth edition outro song for HunterxHunter, but it is addicting. I catch myself humming it sometimes and can never skip it.
The music for Soul Eater has always been a unique experience from your typical anime openers/closers. This perfectly complements the more stylized art style and dark theming. It has always been the third outro that stood out most for me. The bouncing lyrics paired with the freeze-framing of the characters make for an unskippable combination.
RELATED: 8 Anime Opening Songs That Are Total Bops
Fire Force carries over much of the theming and fun from our previous entry, Soul Eater, but its first outro sequence cannot be skipped for an entirely different reason. The melodic tune and ethereal visuals are enchanting, ensnaring viewers into staying for one episode after the next until youve binged an entire season.
We have to finish with this Attack on Titan outro. Exceptionally few shows would ever be so bold as to pack their outro with spoilers for the rest of the series. But is it really a spoiler if the viewers dont understand it?
Did we forget to include your favorite anime outro on this list? Which ending songs do you never skip? Comment below and tell us what we missed!
Anime Roundup: Everything Coming Out in September
Lauren is a kidlit author and certified nerd. When not writing you can often find her reading comics, decorating her Animal Crossing Island, or arguing some nuanced facet of her fandoms.
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