Category Archives: Evolution

Crown Holdings, Inc. (CCK) is priced at $55.00 after the most recent trading session. At the very opening of the session, the stock price was $55.06 and reached a high price of $57.5, prior to closing the session it reached the value of $55.10. The stock touched a low price of $53.71.

Crown Holdings, Inc. had a pretty Dodgy run when it comes to the market performance. The 1-year high price for the companys stock is recorded $80.57 on 02/14/20, with the lowest value was $42.97 for the same time period, recorded on 03/23/20.

Price records that include history of low and high prices in the period of 52 weeks can tell a lot about the stocks existing status and the future performance. Presently, Crown Holdings, Inc. shares are logging -31.73% during the 52-week period from high price, and 28.00% higher than the lowest price point for the same timeframe. The stocks price range for the 52-week period managed to maintain the performance between $42.97 and $80.57.

The companys shares, operating in the sector of consumer goods managed to top a trading volume set approximately around 1.52 million for the day, which was evidently higher, when compared to the average daily volumes of the shares.

When it comes to the year-to-date metrics, the Crown Holdings, Inc. (CCK) recorded performance in the market was -24.18%, having the revenues showcasing -23.83% on a quarterly basis in comparison with the same period year before. At the time of this writing, the total market value of the company is set at 7.57B, as it employees total of 33000 workers.

During the last month, 8 analysts gave the Crown Holdings, Inc. a BUY rating, 1 of the polled analysts branded the stock as an OVERWEIGHT, 3 analysts were recommending to HOLD this stock, 1 of them gave the stock UNDERWEIGHT rating, and 0 of the polled analysts provided SELL rating.

According to the data provided on Barchart.com, the moving average of the company in the 100-day period was set at 70.86, with a change in the price was noted -19.30. In a similar fashion, Crown Holdings, Inc. posted a movement of -25.98% for the period of last 100 days, recording 1,300,125 in trading volumes.

Total Debt to Equity Ratio (D/E) can also provide valuable insight into the companys financial health and market status. The debt to equity ratio can be calculated by dividing the present total liabilities of a company by shareholders equity. Debt to Equity thus makes a valuable metrics that describes the debt, company is using in order to support assets, correlating with the value of shareholders equity. The total Debt to Equity ratio for CCK is recording 4.65 at the time of this writing. In addition, long term Debt to Equity ratio is set at 4.57.

Raw Stochastic average of Crown Holdings, Inc. in the period of last 50 days is set at 32.00%. The result represents downgrade in oppose to Raw Stochastic average for the period of the last 20 days, recording 39.79%. In the last 20 days, the companys Stochastic %K was 40.50% and its Stochastic %D was recorded 42.40%.

If we look into the earlier routines of Crown Holdings, Inc., multiple moving trends are noted. Year-to-date Price performance of the companys stock appears to be encouraging, given the fact the metric is recording -24.18%. Additionally, trading for the stock in the period of the last six months notably deteriorated by -11.13%, alongside a downfall of -0.60% for the period of the last 12 months. The shares increased approximately by 2.22% in the 7-day charts and went up by -5.27% in the period of the last 30 days. Common stock shares were lifted by -23.83% during last recorded quarter.

Excerpt from:

Crown Holdings, Inc. (CCK) is primed for evolution with the beta value of 1.36 - The InvestChronicle

Many people have been wondering about the relevance of intelligent design (ID) or evolution to the new coronavirus reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. What follows is my view as a molecular biologist.

The new virus goes by several names. It was initially called 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (with n standing for new). Since its DNA sequence is similar to that of the coronavirus that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses renamed it SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020. The disease caused by the virus has been called COVID-19 (with d standing for disease).

There are other coronaviruses (including MERS-CoV, the virus that caused the 2012 epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). To avoid confusion, I will refer to the latest coronavirus by its technical name, SARS-CoV-2.

Some people have maintained that SARS-CoV-2 is a product of human design. According to a February New York Post article, it may have escaped from a microbiology laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But I have seen no scientific evidence to support this claim.

On March 17, 2020, an analysis of DNA from several different coronaviruses was published in Nature Medicine. The authors concluded, Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.

Jonathan Bartlett, who has studied the logic of design inferences in depth, subsequently argued that the scientists had ruled out only one design hypothesis, so design was still theoretically possible. But Bartlett did not maintain that SARS-CoV-2 is a product of human design.

Could SARS-CoV-2 have evolved from another coronavirus by mutation and natural selection? I dont see why not, though there is only indirect evidence (from DNA sequences) to support the idea. If it had happened, however, it would not provide support for Darwinian evolution.

First, viruses are not living organisms: They are just pieces of DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein coat. They do not carry out metabolism (the chemical processes that are essential for life), and they do not reproduce themselves (only living cells or skilled genetic engineers can make copies of them). Second, even if viruses were considered living things, the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 from another coronavirus would be akin to microevolution minor changes within existing biological species. (Species are not even defined the same way in viruses as they are in living organisms.)

But Darwin did not write a book titled How Existing Species Change Over Time. He wrote a book titled The Origin of Species. In other words, Darwin attempted to explain macroevolution the origin of new species, organs, and body plans.

What, then, is the relevance of ID or evolution to SARS-CoV-2? As we have seen, their relevance to the origin of the coronavirus is unclear. But what about their relevance to combating the disease, COVID-19? According to Darwinist Theodosius Dobzhansky (who distinguished between microevolution and macroevolution in the 1930s), nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. In 2003, Texas Tech University professor Michael Dini wrote:

The central, unifying principle of biology is the theory of evolution. How can someone who does not accept the most important theory in biology expect to properly practice in a field [medicine] that is so heavily based on biology?

Yet the measures being taken against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic owe nothing to evolutionary theory. The use of quarantine to block the spread of disease began in the fourteenth century. In the 1790s, Edward Jenner vaccinated people to protect them from smallpox. In 1847, Hungarian obstetrician Ignc Semmelweis demonstrated that proper hand washing lowers mortality from infectious disease. The administration of oxygen to patients with labored breathing was first reported in the years just following the publication of The Origin of Species, but the practice was based on physiological and clinical considerations, not evolution. And if any treatments are found to cure COVID-19 or lessen its effects, they will come from the intelligently designed efforts of virologists, biochemists, and clinicians not evolutionary biologists.

Photo credit: Airman 1st Class Alexis Christian, via Peterson Air Force Base.

Read more:

Coronavirus, Intelligent Design, and Evolution - Discovery Institute

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NEW YORK 7-Eleven Inc. openedits latest Evolution Store in a city known for its fast-paced lifestyles and ever-evolving landscape of innovation: the Big Apple.

Evolution Storesare real-time, real-life, experiential testing grounds where customers can try and buy the retailer's latest innovations in revolutionary new store formats. They are alsothe first 7-Eleven stores to integrate restaurant concepts into the store design.

TheNew York City 7-Eleven Evolution Store, located at 88 Greenwich St. in Manhattan, features Raise the Roost Chicken & Biscuits, a new Southern-inspired quick-serve concept that serves up made-from-scratch, hand-breaded fried chicken tenders.

Billed as "Chicken Worth Crossing the Road For," Raise the Roost offers a simple menu:made-from-scratch, hand-breaded fried chicken tenders with signature sauces; bone-in and boneless wings;signature chicken sandwiches;and breakfast sandwiches. The in-store proprietary restaurant offers both made-to-order and grab-and-go options.

"On-the-go customers are looking for high-quality, differentiated food options and 7-Eleven continues to explore new concepts that meet that demand," said 7-Eleven President and CEOJoseph DePinto. "Raise the Roost offers craveable food and generous portions at prices below what you'll find at most fried chicken establishments."

In addition to the Southern-inspired cuisine, this Evolution Store also offers:

7-Eleven held a grand opening forits NYC Evolution Store from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 12. As part of the celebration, the retailer featured:

7-Eleven's NYC Evolution Store is the third of its kind. The retailer opened its first Evolution Store inDallas last year, followed by the second in Washington D.C., at 504 KSt. A San Diegostore at 3504 El Cajon Blvd. will open in the coming weeks.

"Today's customers expect even more than they did just a year ago when 7-Eleven opened its first Evolution Store inDallas," saidChris Tanco, 7-Eleven's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Consumer feedback from that original store and the neighborhoods these new stores will serve helped our store development team refine and design this next generation of the 7-Eleven shopping experience. We have raised the bar for convenience and invite everyone to come experience it for themselves."

Based in Irving, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 70,000 stores in 17 countries, including 11,800 inNorth America.

See more here:

PHOTO GALLERY: 7-Eleven Brings Evolution Store to the Big Apple - CSNews Online

Janet BurnsMarch 30, 2020

Cannabis and humans co-evolved over thousands of years, each helping the other thrive and expand across the planet. (Jesse Milns/Leafly)

For humans,like most species, surviving life on Earth isnt exactly easy. But thankfully were not in it alone.

For tens of thousands of years, Homo sapiens has been developing mutually beneficial relationships with other species, from dogs and cats to bacteria and breadfruit. These interactions have allowed our different life forms to evolve and flourish together. These relationships are examples ofmutualistic coevolution, which happens when multiple species beneficially affect each others progress over time.

Theyre also a key part of what Dr. Sunil K. Aggarwal calls humankinds evolutionary garden. Aggarwal is a physician, medical geographer, and co-founder of the Advanced Integrative Medical Science (AIMS) Institute in Seattle. In 2013, he published one of the foundational articles on the subject, Tis in our nature: taking the human-cannabis relationship seriously in health science and public policy, in the medical journalFrontiers in Psychiatry.

The garden he describes is acollection of plants, fungi, and animal secretions that people have cultivated since prehistory, and carried around the world, because of their usefulness for human health and survival, whether as food, medicine, clothing, or other vital supplies.

Most are still embraced today, from honey and grains to caffeine and aspirin. In the past century, however, some cultures have decided its a good idea to cordon off certain areas of that garden, despite a long evolutionary historyand current scientific datasuggesting otherwise.

These blacklisted species include plants and fungi that humans have carefully administered for millennia to treat some of our worst sicknesses and pain, of both body and mind: distilled opium plants for physical agony, for example, or psilocybin tea for processing some of lifes most difficult moments.

Many are powerful, and can even be dangerous (in classic or modern forms) without supervision and guidance. Some have multiple uses, but never caught on in certain cultures.

According to Aggarwal, however, and to a growing number of experts on history and biology, one forbidden species stands out as our biggest loss, and for likely being the single most useful plant that humans have ever gotten to knowand which may even have helped us become more human.

That plant, of course, is cannabis.

Current research indicates that humans have been cultivating cannabis for tens of thousands of years, but aspects of our biology suggest that the relationship reaches back much further.

As a medical geographer, Aggarwal has studied the path of numerous natural medicines in different cultures and around the globe, based on anthropological and archaeological evidence.

Cannabis is one of the oldest medicines on record, he says. Its been evolving across the planet for tens of millions of years, stemming from its sturdy ancestors in Central Asia. In fact, early cannabis seems to trace back to when the worlds tallest mountain range, the Himalayas, were forming.

Sixty million years ago, those mountains were formed by the Indian subcontinent hitting the Asian plate, Aggarwal explained in a phone interview. All life there had to adapt or die.

It created a unique opportunity for this ancestral plant, which appeared 40 to 50 million years ago, to become very active in production, he said. There was less oxygen, and increased UV radiation, so the plant had to develop quite a bit of hardiness.

In the millions of years since, cannabis has shown a remarkable ability to survive in a wide variety of climates, from scrub-like Cannabis ruderalis to bush-like Cannabis indica and tall-growing Cannabis sativa and their hybrids, which produce most of our cannabis flower and low-THC hemp today.

Cannabis also appears to have been chemically compatible with the brains of animals, including humans, for much of that time.

In response to its new, harsher environs near the Himalayas, Aggarwal said, the plant seemingly began to produce a wide range of terpenes and cannabinoid chemicals, which the human bodywith its balance-keeping endocannabinoid system, which relies on cannabinoid neuroreceptors throughout the body, and can be found in all vertebrate speciesis especially suited to process.

The endocannabinoid system is key to our overall health and wellness because it has a crucial role in homeostasis, the regulation of our major biological functions. Our bodies are constantly working to maintain a narrow operative balance, and cannabinoid compounds can trigger the endocannabinoid system to regain this important equilibrium throughout the body as needed.

Despite their name, cannabinoid chemicals arent unique to cannabis. The compound type CBG, from which all phytocannabinoid compounds are derived, is found in many other plants, like echinacea, turmeric, and kava, to name a few.

But cannabis robustly produces tons of them, Aggarwal said. As a result, people living near the Tibetan Plateau domesticated the plant early on and found a great number of uses. That includes the neurological side, which is very interesting, as well as good old nutrition, and fibers for cordage.

It affects our neurological circuits and has a very important role in protecting the brain from injury, and promoting feelings of relaxation, Aggarwal added. Physical and psychological trauma can disturb the brain, and sub-optimize it. The endocannabinoid system, and phytocannabinoids if need be, can set the brain on the path toward regeneration.

In short, Aggarwal said, this cannabis ancestor happened to make these compounds that bind to receptors in the human system which tap into an even older evolutionarily evolved biological system, which goes back 600 million years: a magnitude older in terms of stages of the formation of life.

Specifically, those receptor typesknown as CB1 and CB2 todaytrace back to when multicellular organisms were becoming multicellular and were trying to figure out how to send communication and modulate action.

In biogenetic mapping, when you look at different species and map how old they are, you find cannabinoid receptors going back, and through today. In Homo sapiens, its a really integrated system for cell communication.

On the cellular level, cannabinoids are also particularly useful for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, throughout the body as well as the brain. These aspects help the body to maintain optimal performance across its systems from the intercellular level on up, like other natural supplements that ease the way for the body to do its job.

In terms of their antioxidant properties and neuroprotective properties, cannabinoids are certainly not the only game in town, Aggarwal said. But theyre pretty high up there.

Aside from archaeological and biological evidence, humankinds relationship with cannabis has been documented for thousands of years in printed language, and in oral histories that reach back even further.

As Aggarwal wrote in 2013, Cannabiss very name belies its longstanding relationship with humanity, as it was pragmatically given the species name Sativa in 1542 by German physician-botanist Leonhart Fuchs, meaning cultivated or useful in Latin.

Researcher Rob Clarke, whos written or co-authored numerous texts on cannabis history and biology, told Leafly that, simply put, cannabis seems to be one of the most useful plant that humans have ever come across. Plenty of plants are used for one purpose, and I can name a number of plants that are used for two purposes, he said. But I cant think of another one thats used for three.

For example, Palms provide us with food, and with fibers for clothing or shelter; bamboo is the same, he said. Other members of the garden provide us with both food and drugs, such as numerous fruits, roots, and grains that people have long eaten but also fermented into alcohol,like cannabis evolutionary cousin hops.

But cannabis has all three, Clarke said: Food, fiber, and drugs. Meaning that, from just one kind of crop, humans can get an important source of protein, fiber for building and crafting, and medical or cultural tools for our minds and bodies.

Martin Lee, co-founder and director of Project CBD and the author of several books on cannabis, explained in an interview with Leafly that plants, like humans, have ways of dealing with stressors, and expressing that stress physically. Cannabis plants do it through chemical signals, odors, things like that, said Lee. Plants under stressif theyre being eaten by insects or whateverhave evolved to communicate with their environment to deal with those stressors.

They might have a smell that attracts a predator of the thing attacking the plant, or that will keep potential predators away. And it so happens that these same smells, the same molecules that [cannabis] uses to deal with stress, are very helpful to the human brain in dealing with stress.

Cannabis goes back a long way as a plant ally to humankind, he added.

In fact, it even seems possible that cannabis particularly helped kickstart our evolution toward being the big-brained, culture-prone critical thinkers we are today. This could have occurred for practical, nutritional, or psychoactive reasons, or (like the plant itself) as a mixture.

In terms of humans neurological development and nutrition, Lee explained, Agriculture is really a turning point as the beginning of hoarding and carbohydrate farming, which was different from earlier diets. He continued, Its possible that cannabis is the first agricultural plant, and its certainly one of the very, very early ones. And cannabis is unique because its so versatile.

Today, Lee noted, humans are finding all kinds of new ways to use it (whether in food, medicine, industrial or artisanal fabrics, hempcrete, fuel, or many other forms), as well as better ways to appreciate its psychoactive effects. But as obvious as its usefulness in human lives and history may be, theres one thing we may never know about cannabis: how the first humans got high.

We can only speculate how people first discovered cannabis psychoactive aspects, Lee reflected. Its hard to imagine it would have come through eating it but, for various reasons, you can imagine they inhaled smoke accidentally.

Janet Burns is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn who finds drugs, tech, labor, and culture extremely interesting, among other things. She also hosts the cannabis news and conversation podcast The Toke.

Read more here:

How cannabis and humans evolved together - Leafly

However, the overall impact of this transient biological form goes well beyond that of the obvious danger to public health and has, sadly, also manifested in related digital exposures born out of, but not limited to:

a) Bad Practicesb) Unpreparednessc) Exposures created by the imposed new ways of workingd) Crime.

The first element to consider is that of the imposed way of working for business users, which may also touch on state of unpreparedness. Granted, there will be those organisations who have planned for, or practice security for out of office operations, but there are also many more who may fall into the category of unpreparedness. For example, when an operative is situated within the business premises, they are (hopefully) working under robust operational policies, are accommodated with secure communications and digital defence facilities, and are supported by those everyday, taken-for-granted invisible elements which provision physical security. However, once we step outside the box of the ring-fenced operational environment, we are, as they say, on our own!

It is in such circumstances as these, when we may see the creep of insecurity enter the unanticipated, extended perimeter of commercial operations impacting the absence of the overarching working security framework of robust policies and the accommodation of real-time pragmatic defences. For example, data which has been quickly migrated onto some spare USB device, or which has been sent by insecure communications lines. And just think about the home-based multi-family computer, upon which such data may be stored and processed; or, maybe it is the generated hard copy waste that finds its way into the household waste. All these, and more add to the increased levels of digital exposure - and this default presence of potential imposed insecurity, can also impact those who have prepared for such extended perimeter of operation conditions. After all, people are only human after all!

In a time of national, or indeed international upheaval, there is an enhanced opportunity for cyber crime with existing vulnerabilities and new opportunities being exploited by hackers and organised crime actors. Such criminal, parasitic activities as these may be born out of extraction of funds through some Covid-19 scam, or unsolicited communication claiming to be from the WHO (World Health Organisation); or maybe, the old game of taking control of the local IT asset with the underlying intention of onward exploitation for whatever purpose - all of which are every day, common-or-garden dangers we face at work - but all of a sudden, by the circumstance of imposition, one could infer such risks have been exacerbated by our new ways of imposed working!

Sadly, we also live in a world which is darkened by some state sponsored actors (SSA) such as North Korea, who have already been caught with their hands in the digital till. It is here where we see the aspect of a biological agent such as Covid-19 imposing disruption and fear to the global population, where such SSAs see this as an opportunity. For example, remember the WannaCry Cyber Attack on the NHS which gave the UK tax-payer 92m bill? The attack resulted in over 19,000 appointments being cancelled - some of which resulted in death! As such, C-19 presents the opportunity which, again, allows some SSAs to target their cyber-armoury against a known vulnerable target.

One noted technology minded member of the House of Lords, with whom I had a remote conversation, this week, raised a very good point insofar as Her Majestys government (HMG) do not have any public text alerting system in place. If there was, it could have been leveraged over the first weekend of stricter isolating measures in March (2020) when the public parks and cities were crowded for recreational purposes, against all government advice! Here, such an alerting system could have been used to publish a go home muppets communication.

With the younger members of our society spending their educational study time at home, this presents yet another knock-on opportunity for those predatory actors within our communities. Such actors as these are of course very much aware that young Johnny or Sally will be most likely spending time on the internet to busy their minds during this period of ultimate boredom - remembering that the youth / children of our age are amongst the most socially-active members of the online world. Here, during the C-19 pandemic there has, sadly, been a noted increase in predatory activities manifesting out of the corrupt minds of online abusers. Parents and Guardians alike must remind those in their care about the dangers of the online world - and where possible put in place not only parental defensive controls, but also active supervision.

We now find ourselves in a new age of business continuity which is teaching us that we need to commercially evolve and accept that remote working will become a necessary part of business as usual. Here, we will see that world of Cloud becoming embraced, with out-of-band services moving towards the centre of the normal graph. Video conferencing tools such as Zoom will replace the need to attend face-to-face meetings. The delivery of training, such as services being now delivered by Dubai based Meirc, will become an everyday occurrence, or a necessary commercial evolution that will work to underpin the continuance of operations.

The time has also arrived to review those business continuity policies and plans, to stress test them for accuracy and to ensure they are both fit for purpose, and pragmatic to serve the circumstance. At the same time, it may be wise to check how data will be made available to those business users who are not able to attend the. It is worth remembering that secure access controls are of paramount importance when dealing with commercially sensitive data assets.

Data privacy regulations are, or should be, at the forefront of the corporate governance mindset, and thus, as we move further away from the over-shadowing hand of internal controls, so the potential of not meeting all compliance expectations increases. Remembering, the mandated expectations of standards such as GDPR travel in tandem with their related data assets, so the need to ensure that all external users, handlers, processors and custodians are fully educated and aware of the mandated safeguards is essential. After all, any adverse occurrence will certainly find the path back to the parenting organisation in the form of reputational damage or a fine.

Last, but not least, as introduced above, we must be aware of the need to protect the information assets we are the custodians of, which is asserted by the said number of standards. Thus we must start to think both of logical and physical security, and the use of storage devices, like the certified istorage mobile and desk based FIPS-140 / 2 diskAshur products. No longer will that USB thumb drive, sitting in the desk drawer be considered the to-hand solution for data migration - or should I say exfiltration!

Mankind can very resilient when it comes down to the wire, and in the face of the C-19 pandemic, time has arrived to don the fighting spirit against this unseen aggressor. From health to security,e time has come to fight the good fight. No longer is it a case of your country needs you, on his war-footing it is more a case of your planet needs you.

Take care, stay safe and keep washing your hands!

See the article here:

Article The evolution of awareness in the pandemic age - BCS

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James wasnt much of a shooter when he first came into the NBA in 2003.

No doubt the 6-foot-8 forward was a freak of nature and possessed all the tools to become a superstar for years to come. As perfect as James game is, theres always been a slight chink in his armor his lack of a reliable jumper.

Throughout the years, defenses have been more than willing to let him fire away from distance rather than give him an open lane to the cup.

Hes not a terrible shooter by any means and will make you pay if you leave him wide open. But shooting hasnt always been James cup of tea.

Entering the 2019-20 campaign, James was a career 34.4 percent shooter from downtown and has a 73.5 percent success rate from the free-throw line.

The King gets to the line frequently due to his strength and leaping ability, but its quite alarming that he has never shot more than 80 percent from the charity stripe in his 17-year career.

James somehow maintains those numbers come playoff time, shooting 49.1 percent from the field, 32.3 percent from three, and 74.3 percent from the free-throw line in 239 career playoff games.

We have seen phenomenal athletes in the NBA become more reliant on shooting jumpers as they aged. For instance, Vince Carters ability to drain the long ball has allowed him to occupy a roster sport at 43 years old.

LeBron, now 35, has indeed made significant strides to become a more efficient shooter over the years.

The four-time league MVP actually tweaked his shooting mechanics back in 2017 due to an elbow injury. At one point, James elbow swelled to the size of a tennis ball, forcing him to adapt with a different shooting motion.

I shoot it higher, James said, per Dave McMenamin. When the swelling went down I just continued to do the same motion, the same motion. My free throws, my 3s, my pullups, all that.

At first glance, his slight tweak is not very noticeable, but it seems that he now shoots from a much higher release point than he used to. Check out this clip for reference.

Even more surprising, James decided to change his shot on his own accord and did it without the aid of a shooting coach.

It was just me, James added. Im at a point now in my career where I know if I need to make an adjustment here or there.

Retired NBA player turned analyst Tracy McGrady once observed James shooting motion, claiming he shot the ball across his face and his shooting elbow went out too much.

LeBron worked on that and now has a more compact and disciplined form by keeping his elbow straight much like all the great shooters do.

Hes still no Steph Curry or Klay Thompson by any means, but James hard work paid dividends and he became a more consistent shooter over time.

Lets take a look at James evolution as a shooter over the years.

First stint with Cavs (2003-2010)

LeBron James didnt have to shoot many three-pointers during his high school days with St. Vincent-St. Mary, since his phenomenal athleticism and feel for the game was enough to overwhelm his opponents.

He had a terrific rookie year in the NBA, knocking down 42 percent of his field goals, mostly from close-range shots and perimeter jumpers.

At times when the defense zeroed in on him, James struggled from past the arc and only knocked down 29 percent of his shots. He did fair well from the line, making 75 percent in his first year.

James managed to up his 3-point accuracy to around 33 percent in the succeeding years with the Cavs. His free throw marksmanship, however, dipped a bit as his trips to the line grew more frequent. James only shot 69.8 percent from the charity stripe in the 2006-07 season.

His best statistical year from the line came in 2008-09 when he drilled 78 percent of his freebies.

Big 3 era in South Beach (2010-2014)

James wasnt expected to shoot long shots with the Miami Heat, considering his team was filled with elite snipers at the time. However, he did enjoy his best 3-point shooting year in the 2012-13 season when he made 40.6 percent of his attempts.

He also enjoyed his highest field goal percentage the season after in 2013-14, when he tallied a success rate of 56.7 percent from the field.

Its no coincidence that the Heat won back-to-back NBA titles during that stretch.

Return to Cleveland (2015-2018)

James age began to show a little bit in his return to Cleveland as his shooting accuracy from across the board once again took a dive. He made only 30.9 percent of his 3-pointers in the 2015-16 season and completed just 67.4 percent of his free throws in the 2016-17 campaign.

After altering his form in his final year with the Cavs, James enjoyed a shooting resurgence, draining 36.7 percent from downtown and 73.1 percent from the line in 2017-18.

Move to LA (2018-present)

James kept his new and improved shooting form once he moved to Hollywood. However, he was stalled by injuries in his first year with the team and played a career-low 55 regular-season games last year.

Still, he continued to display improved efficiency from distance, knocking 33.9 percent of his threes. But James once again putrid from the line, making only 66.5 percent of his attempts.

LeBron was even better in his second stint with the Purple and Gold, upping his accuracy from downtown (34.9 percent) and the foul line (69.7 percent), before the league-wide suspension due to the coronavirus crisis.

This years MVP frontrunner will never be a catch-and-shoot type of guy and he still prefers to take his attempts while in rhythm. James has proven time and time again that he ages like fine wine and he still learns a new trick or two even as he gets older.

Read the original post:

The evolution of LeBron James shooting over the years - ClutchPoints

Photo by Rutgers.edu | The Daily Targum

Julia Van Etten, a doctoral student in the Graduate Program of Ecology and Evolution, runs a photography account that highlights the art of microorganisms in addition to her studies in red algae.

Julia Van Etten, a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, is currently working with NASA on a research project that investigates how red algae can help explain early life on Earth. Van Etten works closely with her advisor, Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and his team.

In addition to her studies in red algae, Van Etten also runs a popular Instagram account highlighting the art of microorganisms through photography. The account, @Couch_Microscopy, was started in July 2017 and now has more than 25,000 followers. Van Etten said she created the account as a hobby that combined her interests in art and science.

Van Etten began the doctoral program with the Bhattacharya team at Rutgers in 2016. The team is one of the leading research groups who study the origin and evolution of red algae and has worked on this research for more than 20 years, Bhattacharya said.

(Van Etten) has been a very committed and hard-working student, Bhattacharya said. She led the development of a teaching module in the (Department of) Biochemistry and Microbiology that uses her microscopy skills to introduce students to protists and algae. Her love of algae and skills in culturing them helps her maintain the species used for research.

Red algae are so important to study due to their ability to tell scientists about the origins of life on Earth, Van Etten said. Bhattacharya said they are the oldest living photosynthetic eukaryotes, providing insights into how photosynthesis has evolved on Earth.

Not only are they an ancient lineage of organisms, but this particular group of red algae, called the Cyanidiales, (also) lives in extreme environments, Van Etten said, This means that they can thrive under conditions that most organisms cannot, like living in a hot, acidic environment and among toxic heavy metals.

Van Etten said this trait is due to an ability called gene sharing or horizontal gene transfer. The red algae are able to steal genes from other microbes that are around by including the genes into their own genomes. She said gene sharing does not often occur in more complex organisms like algae, so this is another reason scientists are drawn to them.

Studying how they survive and evolve gives us insights into possible processes going on when life first evolved on Earth, and understanding these processes could even help us study life on other planets in the future, Van Etten said.

Specifically, the project provides an in-depth look at what functions red algae steal from other microbes, how these functions are joined into the algaes metabolism, what role they play in the algaes adaptation into harsh environments and how these events could have happened on early Earth, Bhattacharya said.

In 2019, Van Ettens dedication to her studies was recognized by NASA. She said she received a grant from the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology program that will fund her research in red algae for three years.

The funds from the grant are used to pay for her salary, fieldwork and conference travel to present findings, the equipment needed to grow and sustain the algae and for experiments like DNA and RNA sequencing, Van Etten said.

Applying for a grant or fellowship as a (graduate) student is a lot of hard work ... so being selected as a NASA Future Investigator is a really great opportunity, she said. There are many more qualified graduate students out there than external funding opportunities.

Although most of her work is done in the Bhattacharya lab at Rutgers, Van Etten said she does get to work with one of NASAs scientists.

I collaborate with a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and will be doing some fieldwork with her and visiting that NASA facility at some point during the three years of this project, Van Etten said. Im very thankful to be working on a project that I care so much about.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Targum.

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Rutgers student working with NASA on research of red algae, how it explains life on Earth - RU Daily Targum

While it might surprise some to learn that crypto technology has been evolving since the early 90s, what shouldnt come as a shock is just how far the technology has come- and how far it hopes to go.

Few buzzwords are as powerful as blockchain and crypto these days. Each creating a thought association with novel technological practice. Even though these terms arent actually new. Crypto technologies have been available for nearly two decades, but only recently have created adaptable, necessary, and accessible applications for the everyday person.

So much so that trading, purchasing, and using the coin have become commonplace in many peoples lives. Even new users and laypeople can enjoy the thrill of an exchange platform, like for example https://bitvavo.com/en with little to know expert knowledge on the subject. This timeline of the evolution of bitcoin and its associated technologies lets us know just how far weve come, so we can all look forward to just how far we can go.

Blockchain has been evolving since Stuart Hager and Scott Stornetta began work on the first blockchain ever. However, 2013 is a notable moment in the history of blockchain, as this is when alternate cryptocurrencies began to evolve and the world received a new term, hard fork.

A hard fork is a divergence from the original functionality of any given blockchain network or cryptocurrency protocol. This divergence ends one protocol splitting, creating a new coin, token, or network along with it. 2013 marked the first known hard fork when Vitalik Buterin released the Ethereum white paper.

In 2009, the father(s) of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto released a white paper explaining how the blockchain technology that they had developed could provide the structure to create a fully decentralized currency.

Little is known about Nakamoto. Some believe that it is one man or woman, others are sure that it is a group of people. Whoever Nakamoto is, what was conceptualized by them in 2008, was soon to grow into one of the biggest names in tradable assets, digital trust, and decentralized power structures.

This is bitcoin. Bitcoin changed the way we think, not only about currency and assets themselves but about data accumulation and dissemination.

2013 is also an important year for bitcoin, as in February of that year, the main payment processor for bitcoin at the time reported selling $1 million worth of bitcoin in a single month. Through that year, the bitcoin marketplace surpassed $1 billion, showing the marketplaces flair for value volatility and returns.

In the United States, regulating bodies began to sit up and take notice of the technology. Instituting regulations on traders and shutting down the infamous Silk Road empire. Effectively showing the public that bitcoin was here to stay.

When Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin saw the potential of blockchain, he knew he had to take it further. Ethereum became a full-blown, decentralized network. Enabling users to undertake smart contracts and begin the creation of decentralized applications (dApps).

Smart contracts are like any other contract, only using blockchain technologies instead of arbiters and intermediaries. These contracts are capable of adding in something that original blockchain technology couldnt offer- contingencies.

Smart contracts work with if-then protocols, meaning that the next step in the contract cannot begin until the previous request has been met satisfactorily. Normally, we use a person to guarantee that each benchmark is met, which doesnt always work the way it should. With smart contracts, these benchmarks are non-negotiable and if theyre not carried out as planned, the contract will cancel.

2017 saw the development of yet another hard fork that would change the world of crypto. EOS.io is unveiled as a new protocol within the blockchain that would allow for the further deployment of dApps.

This open-source network aims to encourage users to create their own applications and smart contracts sans-centralization. Which was a massive game-changer in 2017. The continued development of dApp friendly platforms meant that more people had improved access to develop the dApps that they needed most- and use dApps that had already been created by others.

Keep in mind that this is a far cry from an exhaustive list of all the bright points that sparkle in blockchain history. There have been a number of innovations, resulting in an exponentially amount of new technology- designed to solve the problems that plague us most.

The key to the underlying usefulness of crypto and blockchain technologies is that these systems boost trust, reliability, security, and self-sufficiency. All by removing the centralization that far too often becomes corrupted in common day society.

So where will crypto go in the future? Well, the possibilities truly are limitless, so that makes it incredibly hard to say. But, surely, it will continue to evolve exactly as we need it to.

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Crypto Timeline: The Evolution of Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency Technologies - BlockPublisher

Over the last decade, the world has experienced many outbreaks, pandemics and epidemics, from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to H1N1 influenza and now COVID-19. Since the symptoms of coronaviruses are similar to that of influenza, it is important to identify outbreaks early, contain them, and prevent person-to-person spread until identification of the cause of the outbreak can be determined.

Coronaviruses can be found in many animal species including snakes, pangolins, camels, cattle, cats, and bats. It is uncommon for an animal coronavirus to infect people and then keep spreading person-to-person. But over the past decade, we have seen just that: 3 coronaviruses infecting humans and causing ongoing person-to-person transmission.

In February 2003, there was an epidemic of SARS first reported in Asia. SARS, or SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), spread to countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before it was contained. An estimated 192 people were infected/ detected with SARS-CoV in the United States. Since 2004, no further episodes of SARS-CoV infection have been reported any place in the world.

Next came the coronavirus called Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). First reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, MERS has spread to several countries, including the United States. The largest MERS outbreak took place in South Korea in 2015.

In May 2014, 2 of 1300 patients tested were diagnosed with MERS-CoV infection in the United States. These 2 people were identified as imported cases from Saudi Arabia. One case was in Indiana and the other was found in Florida. Both infections were thought to have arisen from healthcare workers from Saudi Arabia. Both patients made a full recovery. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) completed an investigation of household members and the healthcare workers who cared for the 2 MERS cases. They all tested negative for the virus.

Common human coronaviruses (types NL63, OC43, and HKU1) usually cause respiratory tract illnesses, such as the common cold. At some point in our lives, most of the population will become infected with a human coronavirus.

Despite advances in medicine, global travel has complicated the ability to control the spread of infectious diseases. Both the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic were spread via air travel. Because of this, all healthcare providers must be aware of and alert to possible emerging diseases and understand how to identify, report, investigate, and contain any outbreak until the cause of the infection can be determined. But what is necessary to control any outbreak situation, whether it is a multidrug-resistant organism, influenza, or a novel virus like COVID-19?

In a recent interview withInfection Control Today, Bill Jarvis, MD, president of the consulting company Jason and Jarvis Associates, shared information about the CDCs role in outbreak investigations. Whether an outbreak is suspected within or outside of the United States, the CDC can provide the following assistance, if invited:

Trained Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers can travel onsite to assist with the investigation (in collaboration with local infection control personnel).

Diagnostic specimen or samples of the suspect pathogen can be sent to the CDCs laboratories for identification, serologic, or genetic testing. In the case of COVID-19, samples sent to the CDC would be processed in appropriate containment areas in the Division of Virology or Special Pathogens/Pathology Laboratories. Once new pathogens, such as COVID-19, are identified, gene sequencing and rapid diagnostic testing can be performed and sent to state and local health departments or even to ministries of health throughout the world. Depending upon the pathogen, the specimen/organism would be directed to the appropriate laboratory (ie, bacterial, fun- gal, viral, protozoan, etc.). A wide variety of specialized laboratories are available.

Once the pathogen is identified, the CDC can then develop both rapid diagnostic tests (gene probes, serologic tests, etc.) and can provide such rapid or other diagnostic test kits both nationally and internationally to assist in the diagnosis, prevention, and control of the pathogen/ outbreak.

In addition, either EIS officers or other members of the Division of Quarantine or taskforce personnel can be assigned to critical areas to assist in the control of the outbreak. With COVID-19, this has been seen by assigning CDC and state health department personnel to logistically important airports to assist in screening passengers for COVID-19 and assisting in the isolation of infected or potentially infected people.

It is important to understand that the CDC is a non-regulatory US agency (aside from the National Institute for Occupation Safety and HealthNIOSH). Thus, whether the outbreak is located within or outside the United States, the CDC must be invited to assist by the local/state/national government and/ or healthcare facility. The World Health Organization (WHO) also must be invited.

Possible outbreak situations are usually identified by an astute clinician, infection preventionist, or a clinical laboratory worker. First, a previously unrecognized (COVID-19) or unusual pathogen (MERS), or a pathogen with an unusual antimicrobial susceptibility pattern (vancomycin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus), or an unusual number of cases of a disease (cluster of plague) are noticed. For example, on a Monday morning, it is reported that 4 patients on 1 unit have developed cold symptoms. By Tuesday morning, the number of individuals sick with cold symptoms numbers 6. The continued increase in patients with the same symptoms should be investigated to determine whether there is a respiratory tract infection (RTI) of some type spreading through the facility. Since many coronavirus infections have the same signs and symptoms, it is important to contain the RTIs until the etiology/pathogen identification can be made.

It will have to be determined whether it is the common cold, influenza, or possibly COVID-19. It is the responsibility of every medical professional to remain vigilant for early signs of a cluster or outbreak and to report possible outbreaks caused by new or novel pathogens or unusual multidrug-resistant organisms to the appropriate authorities (in many, if not most, states, legislation requires reporting of outbreaks to county and state health departments). For very unusual or novel outbreaks, both the countries ministries of health and the WHO and CDC should be notified as promptly as possible. Initial prevention and control (containment) can prevent spread within and outside the country of origin and potentially prevent a larger outbreak or pandemic.

It is important to track all information using a tracking sheet. A tracking sheet can be adjusted depending on the symptoms identified in each outbreak situation. A well-developed tracking sheet is necessary to analyze all the data that is collected during an outbreak situation. Depending on the situation, the tracking sheet may be small such as for an influenza outbreak or more extensive to track things such as all the rooms a patient had been transferred to or what roommates they may have had, and possibility of exposure.

Components of a simple tracking sheet include:

1First and last name

2Unit, wing, or floor

3Date of birth4Gender

5Age

6Date of onset of illness

7Date specimen was collected

8Result of specimen tested

9Flu vaccination given y/n (if its flu season)

10Date of vaccination

11Symptoms (ie, cold, sore throat, malaise, chills, muscle aches,

diarrhea, vomiting, headache, pneumonia)

12Date hospitalized (if from a nursing home, etc.)

13Mortality

14Treatment

Developing a tracking sheet makes it easier to systematically collect data, add new data, and analyze the existing data. Data can then be reviewed from any data point.

Components of an Outbreak Investigation

1.Early identification of a suspected outbreak.

2.Start an investigation.

3.Define a case and an outbreak and pre-outbreak period.

4.Communicate to all healthcare professionals that need to know.

5.Identify all individuals who meet the case definition (patients and staff).

6.Determine if the number of cases exceeds the background rate (ie, it is an outbreak).

7.If reportable to local and state agencies, report those concerns. Local and state agencies can aid with case identification, development of investigative approach, prevention and control measures, and assist with specimens.

8.Appropriately isolate all individuals who meet the case definition.

9.Collect appropriate clinical specimens and save all outbreak-specific isolates from potential cases.

10.Confirm a diagnosis (rule out a pseudo-outbreak).

11.Be sure proper precautions are in place to contain the outbreak once a diagnosis is confirmed. You may decide to implement proper precaution prior to the diagnosis depending on the situation.

12.Continue to monitor and control the outbreak in order to prevent future spread.

13.Develop a line listing of cases.

14.Compare exposures of cases to better understand the route of transmission and potential risk factors.

15.Consider conducting additional epidemiologic studies (ie, case-control or cohort studies).

16.Consider performing genetic studies of the pathogen (especially if previously unrecognized or unusual).

17.Institute additional control measures, if needed.

18.Evaluate the efficacy of the control measures.

19.When control measures have terminated transmission, declare the outbreak is over.

20.Communicate to all individuals and agencies involved in the investigation that the outbreak is over.

21.Prepare your final outbreak investigation report.

22.Provide the opportunity for a debrief to identify strengths and weaknesses in the investigation. Information should be obtained from all effected staff.

23.Develop opportunities for improvement and action plans to avoid another outbreak.

Linda Spaulding, RN, CIC, BC, CHEC, CHOP, is an infection prevention consultant and founder of InCo and Associates International, Inc.

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Just How to Investigate an Outbreak: Evolution of the Interrogative Process From SARS to COVID-19 - Infection Control Today

On World Backup Day 2020, Information Age speaks to seven experts about the enterprise data revolution and the new version of backup

What do you need to consider this World BackUp Day, especially given coronavirus backdrop.

Today, Tuesday March 31 2020 is World Backup Day the annual reminder of the importance of backups against data breaches, data loss and cyber threats. And as such risks have changed over the years, so has the approach to backups and how we should design an effective data protection strategy.

Christophe Bertrand, senior analyst at ESG, sees changes ahead, 2019 was a year of innovation and change for backup and recovery with many new or improved solutions, new companies being launched, and some companies merging or becoming acquired. It was also a year of growth for traditional backup and recovery activity. However, this market is on the cusp of a critical change, one that will see vendors pivot to expanded capabilities and new use cases. The requirement for context and content about data is increasing as new regulations and the need for use of data to support digital transformation are changing the role of data in the enterprise. Data has to be more intelligent. Its really about business outcomes and the notion of data as a true asset that can be leveraged to create a return on investment, or avoid costs and risks.

The widespread adoption of cloud computing has undoubtedly had an impact on the way organisations protect their data. Moreover, todays real-time culture means that in the case of data loss, users expect it to be restored at once. Datriums CTO and co-founder Sazzala Reddy explains, archiving data and shipping it off to a mountain top or basement vault, with the hope that it will never be needed again is a relic of the past. DR and backup have been fundamentally transformed by the public cloud. Organisations can no longer afford to wait weeks, days, or even hours to restore their data. Restoration must happen instantly.

Ahead of the day, leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions Barracuda Networks, has put together some tips on how to avoid a backup blunder. Read here

What is at stake is not just data; it is customers business or your business itself: Data is the lifeblood of todays digital world. It can be deleted, corrupted, lost or ransomed. A natural disaster can wipe out an entire datacentre. If this happens, the organisation must restore its information as quickly as possible or risk losing customers and, often, its very business, Matt Starr, CTO at Spectra Logic, tells Information Age.

This means that we are talking millions, billions of dollars in losses. For some organisations this spells the end. Because the impact of data loss for example is not only measured in downtime or loss of customers. It can involve significant fines which themselves can run into millions of dollars.

Paul Speciale, chief product officer at Scality, says, the cost of data loss, in fact, continues to increase as we find new ways to mine the value of data, IDC* expects that the amount of data created in 2023 will reach over 100ZB and multi-petabyte backups are becoming more commonplace. All of that data, and the 247 nature of business today mean that backup windows have to be shortened, and fast restores are a top priority. Data managers need backup solutions that can scale throughput to support multiple backup and restore streams simultaneously, to ensure the least possible impact.

Therefore, with substantial volumes of critical files at stake, successful data backups are a key aspect of data protection. According to Aron Brand, CTO at CTERA, effective protection must meet two critical requirements: it must retain previous versions of your files for a specific retention period (minimum of 30 days) where those files must be in a read-only repository so they cannot be deleted by a malicious software. And the archived copy must be physically separated from the main copy.

Last Friday, World Back Up day served as a reminder to businesses and individuals of the importance of backing up their data. Read here

Besides keeping important data safe and available, organisations need robust backup strategies for GRC (governance, risk and compliance) reasons. Chris Eastham, director at law firm Fieldfisher, tells us, compliance with data privacy rules is often a high priority for CXOs, and this encompasses backup and archiving. Organisations must be aware of the limitations of systems and how these impact on lawful data processing and retention and the enhanced rights of data subjects. They should also consider what contractual protections they need. For example, is the information easily accessible in a useful format whenever required? And to avoid vendor lock-in, itll be important to ensure that data will be returned in an industry-standard format on expiry of the contract.

Eastham continues, backup and archive systems satisfy different requirements. Deploying both in accordance with a sound information policy will yield benefits from a governance and compliance perspective.

Brand adds, theres no one-size-fits-all for organisations retention policies; some must keep data for years, some for less. Most requirements will exceed 30 days depending on industry compliance/legal, and data type. As retention periods shorten, the risk of not being able to fully recover datasets increases; therefore, it is advisable to have at least 30 days worth of file versions.

Speciale highlights the fact that regulations pertaining to various industries may differ, a solid DR strategy is mandated in the case of regulated industries, as in healthcare and finance. Fines and penalties can result from non-compliance. He adds, But governance and risk management matters in regulated and unregulated industries alike.

In some industries, organisations must supply compliance reports; Reddy advises, CIOs should look for solutions that can deliver compliance reports out of the box.

We are set to see convergence between data backup and blockchain says Veritas, is blockchain finally coming of age? Read here

Enterprises today need to simplify their IT environments to keep pace with data growth and limited budgets.

Molly Presley, global product marketing leader at Qumulo, comments: Organisations can no longer afford the expense of many different applications, processes and storage systems for data backup, or the manpower to oversee that it is properly carried out. Best practices are to invest in data storage solutions that can both store and backup data with a cloud-native option to enable the target to be either in the datacentre or in the cloud without additional applications or processes.

Presley further suggests CIOs give consideration to: the automation of new folders, directories and workloads being included in the backup as they are added; tight integration with primary storage systems so that when backing up unstructured data there are no waits for long-running file system scans and tight integration of the primary storage with the backup software to reduce cost and complexity. Ideally a single solution solves both.

Reddy disagrees with the deployment of a single solution here, anyone that selects a standalone backup solution is going wrong.

Though he supports the importance of backup and DR being tightly integrated to achieve instant recovery time objective (RTO). He adds, sometimes backups go wrong without anyone even knowing. How do you know whether backups are good unless you validate the content every so often?

Starr exposes a flaw in the traditional backup process. A backup consists of creating a copy of all primary active data. But many organisations retain up to 80% of data on the wrong storage tier, meaning that inactive data is being unnecessarily backed up. By offloading this inactive data from the Primary Tier to a secondary or Perpetual Tier utilising storage management software, backup windows and associated costs can be significantly reduced, he says.

Intelligent data management or the intelligent reuse of data will become more pervasive in 2020 and beyond, states Bertrand.

Vendors that successfully include instrumentation and workflows in their platforms to make the sharing of compliant data easy will stand out in the market. CIOs should look for insights features, data classification, compliance modules, data analytics-friendly workflows, and better BC/DR. Our research shows that this is the future of backup and recovery, and we believe 2020 will confirm it despite the current levels of uncertainty.

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World Backup Day: enterprise data evolution and the new backup - Information Age