Category Archives: Evolution

Flanked by pallets, kegs and towering, shiny stainless steel tanks, Jim Sharp walked me through the Evolution Craft Brewing Co. brewhouse located in Salisbury on the road to Ocean City.

Sharp is one of three head brewers.

Mike, hes an analytical guy, he said as we make our way through the equipment. His brain is just, all the time, firing on everything. Then youve got Tim, who is more laid back. If something goes terribly wrong, hes the one saying, Hey, take it easy. Everythings going to be fine. I think Im a little bit of an in between of both of them.

When he tells me that, and the fact that he doesnt stress out easily, Im not surprised. Within minutes of meeting the affable engineer-turned-brewer, it became clear Sharp is a relaxed guy.

Hes a seasoned pro, thanks to years in the industry including a stint as the brewer for Tall Tales in Parsonsburg but isnt phased by much.

Once, my pump went up in the middle of night, he continues. It was midnight, and it started spraying beer. I just shut everything down and spent another three hours on my hands and knees in three-inch-deep hot water, trying to fix it without tools. But during moments like that, I always tell myself, I have my dream job, and I dont have to sit behind a desk for nine hours a day.

Even though Sharps comfort in his own skin is emblematic of Evolutions welcoming, community-focused culture as a whole, the company whose owners are the first to admit they hasnt always done a good job of telling their own story.

Its a challenge that only amplifies itself the farther you travel from their brewery and cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into Annapolis, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and beyond.

John and Tom Knorr are brothers, as well as the founders of Evolution. The former brought with him a love of food, and the latter came to the proverbial table with a love of beer. It was the marriage of those two elements that would later serve as the foundation for the brewery but before that, their story began with restaurants.

It started with The Red Roost Crabhouse and Restaurant in Whitehaven. They needed the best pale ale they could possibly get their hands on. Why? Well, its what pairs well with crabs.

But instead of seeking one out, they brewed their own the Primal pale ale, the first-ever Evolution beer.

Now, in addition to The Red Roost, their family of restaurants includes Boonies Burgers, Beer and Bait; SoBos Wine Beerstro; Specific Gravity Pizzeria and Beer Joint; Birroteca; The Nickel Taphouse; and Encantada.

Evolutions restaurant-forward approach is why youll find food pairing recommendations on virtually all of their beers sold including their newest seasonal IPA, Hops Limn.

Built on the success of their Pine-hop-le pineapple IPA (first released in 2016), this complement to fish tacos, hot summer days and sunshine has already sadly come and almost gone. But, if you see Hops Limn out in the wild on draft or in six packs, its worth the pickup.

There are beer drinkers who side-eye fruit-infused IPAs with the same angst they reserve for pumpkin beers. While I try to see the good in all of Beer Gods children, Ill admit I was also apprehensive, given my dislike of shandies, a blend of beer and some sort of carbonated drink, like fizzy lemonade.

Ick. Shandies are liquid, tart-fueled nightmares.

Lucky for my taste buds, Hops Limn hits the spot with a subtle kiss of citrus against the backdrop of a more traditional IPA recipe. (In fact, Id wager this beer may even prove inviting to those who have been skeptical of IPAs in the past.)

Additionally, as much as I love my tall boys of limited hazy hop bombs, Evolution demonstrates with this new release that you dont need to produce a beer that should be poured through a strainer before you drink it, for it to be considered delightfully juicy and crushable.

But the fact that Evolution has chalked up another win in their beer column should come as no surprise.

Evolutions Lot No. 6 double IPA is a classic, beloved by many a beer nerd far and wide. Nouveau Rouge is a phenomenal Flanders-style sour ale project found on our table every Thanksgiving. Though less popular, their Exile red ale also has a special place in my heart and it holds its own when placed alongside a generously-seasoned lamb shank.

And dont even get me started on their Rise Up imperial stout, made with local Rise Up brand coffee.

But at a time when the industry is changing rapidly, whats next for Evolution?

Even though their beach-side accounts are clamoring to have their product available in cans, and they recently started distributing to Tokyo (really!), their next investment will be in their own backyard.

Where some might look outward after years of success and forward momentum, the Evolution team announced in July theyre getting back to their roots through an expansion. They realized when people visit, many only remember the experience of their Public House, a restaurant attached to the brewing facility.

The renovations will include a family-friendly gathering area the kind has become synonymous with the modern brewery with plenty of green space, a fire pit and a little cornhole for good measure. Inside, they will be putting in a smaller brew house and pilot system that visitors will be able to see as theyre sipping from pints in the taproom.

Though these plans are made possible by the growth theyve seen since opening their doors in 2009, their choice to pivot backward is by design. Because, no matter what lays along the road ahead for Evolution, they want to ensure their connection to their community and their roots the foundation of who they are never gets left behind.

Liz Murphy lives in Annapolis with her husband, Patrick, and their two lazy dogs, Horatio and Nugget. She runs her own Annapolis-based beer blog, Naptown Pint. You can reach her at liz@naptownpint.com.

Visit link:

Naptown Pint: Evolution Craft Brewing's road ahead starts at home - CapitalGazette.com

Almost one out of two meeting planners today says that event technology is a primary pain point, according to a new study published by etouches.

Another new report from Cvent revealed similar sentiments among planners relating to cloud-based event management platforms, stating, Planners cite poor transparency and accuracy over pricing, along with lack of clarity and poor response rates, as their main pain point with venue selection.

In the etouches report, the top concerns among planners pre-event are: selecting the right content (56 percent) and managing attendee registration (51 percent). During the event, the biggest pain points are: communication with attendees (44 percent) and registration/check-in (42 percent).

Post-event, 65 percent of planners say that theyre using technology to measure the overall return on investment (ROI), but at the same time, how they analyze and use that data to inform future event programming and design remains a challenge.

In the Cvent study, the overwhelming pain point for planners is the length of time it takes to receive responses from hotels for their digital requests for proposals (RFPs), and the often inaccurate and/or omitted costs supplied within those responses.

Speaking at the annual Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) conference in Boston last month, representatives at both etouches and Cvent addressed the ongoing challenges with event technology adoption, and how their services are evolving to make tech more user friendly and effective for the planner community.

In the media and event space, technology was for so long an efficiency play, in terms of its just a better way to do business when you can capture some data automatically, said Mike Mason, VP, sourcing and hospitality solutions with etouches.

I think its now evolved, and what youre seeing is the importance of the onsite experience. During the event, attendees need more than just content. Its really about, how do you engage that attendee at a level with them theyve never had before? Because, you know, everyones fighting for attendees.

Earlier this year, etouches acquired the Loopd platform to deliver new solutions for on-site engagement, using artificial intelligence to provide a more personalized event experience.

Loopd integrates bi-directional wearable smart badges, a mobile event app, and a cloud-based analytics engine. When attendees are using the Loopd badges, which can transmit contact information and any other kind of digital content, event organizers can track how attendees are moving through the event, and which programming is most popular.

Attendees also have a record of every vendor they approached and who they met, and based on commonalities across the spectrum of those event and vendor contacts, Loopds machine learning provides suggestions for similar participants that may be of interest for the individual attendee.

If the device understands that youre talking to me and were sharing information, and it looks at what is important to me and whats important to you, it can begin to build a profile of who you might be interested in talking to, said Mason.

Tie that into the mobile app where event managers can now feed you information that might be important to you based on where you are, said Mason. You might be walking by a session that you didnt think about, and [the app] will say, Hey listen, you mentioned this before. You might want to step inside here. This is what theyre talking about right now. So its real time, and were just on the front end of that.

However, Mason added that its incumbent on event tech firms across the industry to do a better job managing expectations and delivering the support necessary to help planners use technology more effectively.

With technology companies, we need to play a much more concentrative role in the process to help you benefit from it, because unless you benefit from it, and see the ROI, its just gonna be a pain in the butt, he explained. So, we have an ROI tool that we launched at the end of last year, and well sit down and spend time with our customers to establish their baseline key performance indicators, metrics, and goals. So they can see at any point, before, during and after an event, because its all real time, how theyre impacting the trajectory of an event.

With the exponential rise of digital RFPs, hotels are challenged with prioritizing the onslaught of proposals they receive, which is the root cause for the lengthy time it often takes to respond to planners.

Theres no doubt that the increased volume in the RFPs is putting pressure on hotels to respond, saidBrian Ludwig, SVP of sales at Cvent. One of the things that proves to be most effective in getting awarded business is how quick and responsive you are to the planners that are submitting that proposal. So for hotels, its about how do we effectively process all these incoming leads. And then how do we deal with the smaller meetings that might be able to be done in an automated fashion, so that we can focus the manpower on the more complicated pieces of business.

Toward that end, Cvent launched anew Group Business Intelligence tool this summer, designed to provide real-time data and analytics of hotels group business leads, and those of their competitors, in a single platform, helping hotel sales staff prioritize incoming queries and score leads.

The tool is also intended to make it easier for hoteliers to examine leads, dissected by specific time periods, customer segments, competitor rates, response times, and peak night volume, helping calculate the potential value of each piece of group business with more context and business insight than before.

Its really about bubbling up that data in a way that can be used and leveraged by organizations more intelligently, said David Quattrone, chief technology officer at Cvent. Its really taking it up a level where you get some insights into how youre competing and where youre effective versus not, and how you can adjust things.

Ludwig added that the Business Intelligence tool is also designed to help hotels schedule group business more strategically to maximize their open dates, soft weeks, and overall event calendars.

So, for a hotel rep now, youll compare what your turnaround time is versus your competitors, whether youre adding in the right information around alternative dates, whether youre able to shift business, Ludwig said. For example, you could have a piece of business that might from a lead-scoring perspective not look that attractive, but if you expand out to an alternative date, all of a sudden it becomes a very lucrative piece of business.

See full article

Photo Credit: The etouches group at IMEX America 2016. The company recently acquired another company to provide AI-powered, personalized event experiences. etouches

Read more from the original source:

Meeting Planners Are Struggling With the Fast Evolution of Event Technology - Skift

Finland isin the top five of the most digitally advancedcountries in the world, according to the Digital Evolution Index.

The world is rapidly moving towards digitalisation and automation in all areas of society. Yet some of the most digitally advanced economies in the world are struggling to sustain digital growth and innovation Finland being one of them. This years Digital Evolution Indexplaces Finland in the Stall Out Zone; a category for digitally advanced countries that have reached so-called digital plateaus of slowing momentum in terms of digital growth.

Moving past these digital plateaus will require a conscious effort by these countries to reinvent themselves, to bet on a rising digital technology in which it has leadership, and to eliminate impediments to innovation, the researchers behind the Digital Evolution Index suggest. The states in the Stall Out category among them all Nordic nations seem to suffer from issues on both the supply and demand sides of digital growth; past digitalisation is not translating into future innovation because of market saturation and a lacking start-up culture.

Nevertheless, compared to its Nordic neighbours, Finland has fared quite well in adding fresh fuel to its digital innovation engine to keep it running. The past years have been a turbulent time for Finnish business, with a long economic recession following the decline of Nokias mobile phone production, yet Finlands digital sector is now evolving faster than those in any other Nordic countries. In fact, Finland is not far away from being included in the Stand Out zone for digitally advanced countries with a fast-paced digital evolution.

Nevertheless, the road from the stall out category to the stand out zone is a slippery one, and as noted in the Harvard Business Review, all countries need to continuously generate new demand to avoid stalling out. Countries in the Break Out zone, with China in the forefront, are evolving rapidly and have the potential to become the leaders of digital business and technology in a matter of years. China has gone from almost no digital innovation at the turn of the century to having a population of 730 million Internet users today. This rapid development has made China the country with the largest number of Internet users in the entire world, and thus a lucrative market for e-commerce.

If Finland wants to remain at the vanguard of digitalisation, it should look to countries with a similar population size but with a faster digital evolution. Examples of such countries are Estonia, Singapore and New Zealand. Estonia is, of course, a particularly interesting example not only because of its geographical proximity to Finland, but also because of its leading position in e-government.

As the data used to measure each countrys pace of digital evolution in this years Digital Evolution Index was gathered between 2008 and 2015, it is worth keeping in mind that Finland only declared its recessionary era to be over as recently as last year. Digital evolution in Finland is thus likely to pick up speed in the coming few years, if it has not already done so. A promising example for Finlands digital future is Slush a phenomenally successful start-up event that brings together the global tech scene in the winter darkness of Helsinki.

Nicole Berglund Helsinki Times

Read more here:

Finland in the Stall Out zone for digital evolution? - Helsinki Times

Christopher Nolan has a thing for widowers.

I like to think there are two main classes of Nolan film: high concept and Dark Knight. (And a smattering of others that now includeDunkirk). The former are the films that play with time and perception, that make you question what youve seen and studied it later. These films areMemento, The Prestige, Inception,andInterstellar.

And they all star widowers.

Each of these films protagonists loses his wife, and his character is shaped by it. How much hes shaped varies, however, because with each successive film you can see a very clear progression. The protagonists grow and evolve, becoming less defined by and obsessed with their wives deaths, more focused forward. They find solace and meaning in the future, in their children. Its as if each is a new moment in the grieving process, working toward acceptance and catharsis over the course of the 14 years in which the films come out.

Does this mean Nolans widowers are all the same person? Maybe. They certainly all share a tragedy, and the ways in which they cope with it follows a clear progression that Ill study below.

But firstthe deaths of these characters wives arent particular spoilers since they come early or even before the start of the film. Im going to talk about their deaths in the context of the rest of the films, however, and that will be spoiler heavy. So tread carefully if you havent seen these films. Or dont tread at all. Its up to you.

If youre still here, lets get started.

Newmarket

Memento(2000) is about Leonard (Guy Pearce), a man obsessed with revenge. Leonards wife was raped and murdered in front of him, and hes devoted his life to tracking down and killing the person who did it. As avengers go, Leonard is more obsessive than mosthe cant form new memories, and the last thing hecan remember is his wifes death. Hes innately defined by his loss.

Of course, the big reveal at the end of the film is that Leonards wife actually survived the night she was raped. And the implication is that he accidentally killed her himself, giving her too much insulin when she tried to call his bluff on his memory problem.

Leonard has conditioned himself to believe his wife was murdered, altering his final memory of her and devoting his life to tracking down the person he thinks killed her. Whats worse is that he does find and kill the man who raped her, but he decides to expunge the evidence of it. This way he can devote the rest of his life to revenge, the only thing that matters.

Leonards existence is informed exclusively by his wifes deathhe literally cant form any new reasons to live. His entire life takes place in his distant past, and his only plan for the future is a vengeance he doesnt know hes already achieved.

Warner Bros.

The Prestige(2006) could be argued to have two (or three) protagonists, but since far fewer of his secrets are kept from the audience, I would argue that the main character is Robert (Hugh Jackman). Early in their careers, Robert and Alfred (Christian Bale) are friends. The friendship ends when Roberts wife drowns during a magic trick because she cant undo the knot Alfred has tied around her hands. This sparks a desperate, lifelong feud.

Just like Leonard inMemento, Robert becomes obsessed with his wifes killer. But unlike Leonard, he knows exactly who his target is. And instead of killing him, he devotes his life to besting him, to being a better magician. Healthy it is not, but this obsession is at least focused more outwardRobert lives his life, and he excels at what he loves. His revenge is productive, rather than destructive.

And most importantly, he has an eye to the future. When Robert sees Alfred with a wife and baby, it kills himhe begrudges Alfred for having everything that hes lost, everything hell never have. Near the end of the film, he actually adopts Alfreds daughter. Its meant to be one more insult for Alfred, of course, but it also gives Robert a portion of the future he lost. Unlike Leonard, he has something new to live for.

Its the first appearance of children in these widowers lives, and its an important introduction that will get more and more prominent.

Warner Bros.

Inception(2010) is a big step forward for our widowers. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has turned his anger inwardhe considers himself wholly responsible for his wifes death, and his grief and guilt make it almost impossible for him to work. Cobb may not be set on revenge, but his subconscious is.

Importantly, though, Cobb has children. Unlike his predecessors, he has the future to look to. He has people to live for.

And he does live for them. The entire plot of the film hinges on Cobbs desperation to see his children again. He exposes himself and his team to all kinds of danger so he can get back to them. And, against all odds, it works. (I wont get into it here, but the prevailing theory of many interpretations is that the final sequence of the film does take place in reality).

This success of Cobbs plan is important because hes the first of Nolans widowers to get a happy ending. And that happy ending is contingent upon both the past and the futurethe plan can only succeed if Cobb finally lets go of his wife. By accepting Mals death and voicing the guilt he feels, Cobb can rescue Saito and return to reality. By rescuing Saito and returning to reality, he can be reunited with his kids.

Cobb gets past defining himself by his wifes death, and he moves into the future with his children.

Warner Bros.

Interstellar(2014) is the continuation of Cobbs happy family life. Coop (MatthewMcConaughey) has lost his wife to cancer. He resents his post-science world for not having the technology to save her, but thats all it isresentment. Theres no guilt, no thirst for revenge.

In fact, this explanation of Coops wifes absence is one of her only mentions. Another comes when Coop quotes her, trying to convince Murph that he has to leave:

After you kids came along, your mom said something to me I never quite understood. She said, Now were just here to be memories for our kids. And I think now I understand what she meant. Once youre a parent, youre the ghost of you childrens future.

This is some obvious ghost foreshadowing, of course, but its also a strong message about the secondary nature of parents and, by extension, of spouses. The moment his children were born, they became the most important thing in Coops life. His wifes death has been hard on him, of course, but by the start of the film hes already achieved the acceptance it took Cobb almost all ofInception to get. He lives entirely for his children, and for the future.

Because thats what the entire film is for: the future. Coops world is dying, and he devotes himself to finding a better one for his children. In the end, Coop succeeds, getting the human race off of Earth and pointing them toward a new home. Just as importantly, however, he gets to see his own future generations. When he visits Murph on her deathbed, shes surrounded by her children and their children and on and on. Its the ultimate continuation of living for your children.

Coop doesnt just let go of his pasthe sees his future.

Warner Bros.

The widowers of Christopher Nolans concept films follow a clear trajectory toward healing and redemption. Little by little, each lets go more of the past and defines himself less by grief, focusing instead on his children and the future. They go from living completely in the past and bent on revenge, to living for a present revenge with half an eye to the future, to letting go of the past in favor of the future, to abandoning a lifetimes worth of the past and working exclusively for the future.

Is this the mark of a filmmaker whos aging, both refining his craft and shifting his priorities as he has children of his own?

Probably.

But its also possible to think of these widowers as a single character of sorts, gradually dealing with the same tragedy over the years, healing and coping more with each iteration.

Nolans asked us to accept stranger things, after all.

Christopher NolanHugh JackmanLeonardo DiCaprio

Go here to see the original:

The Evolution of Christopher Nolan's Widowers - Film School Rejects

August 14, 2017 Meadow of dancing brittle stars (Teleosaster creasyi) from the late Paleozoic Era. Fossil from the Cundlego Formation in Western Australia. Credit: Kenneth McNamara

Researchers have described a new species of brittle star, which are closely related to starfish, and showed how these sea creatures evolved in response to the rise of shell-crushing predators during the late Palaeozoic Era. The results, reported in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, also suggest that brittle stars evolved new traits before the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history, and not after, as was the case with many other forms of life.

A fossilised 'meadow' of dancing brittle stars - frozen in time in the very spot that they lived - was found in Western Australia and dates from 275 million years ago. It contains several remarkably preserved 'archaic' brittle stars, a newly-described genus and species called Teleosaster creasyi. They are the last known complete brittle stars of their kind, an evolutionary hangover pushed to the margins of the world's oceans by the threat from predators.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, suggest that while other species of brittle stars evolved in response to predators such as early forms of rays and crabs, these archaic forms simply moved to where the predators weren't - namely the seas around Australia, which during the Palaeozoic era was pushed up against Antarctica. In these cold, predator-free waters, the archaic forms were able to grow much larger, and lived at the same time as the modern forms of brittle star, which still exist today.

Brittle stars consist of a central disc and five whip-like appendages, which are used for locomotion. They first appear in the fossil record about 500 million years ago, in the Ordovician Period, and today there are about 2,100 different species, mostly found in the deep ocean.

Early brittle stars were just that: brittle. During the Palaeozoic Era, when early shell-crushing predators first appeared, brittle stars made for easy prey. At this point, a split in the evolutionary tree appears to have occurred: the archaic, clunky brittle stars moved south to polar waters, while the modern form first began to emerge in response to the threat from predators, and was able to continue to live in the warmer waters closer to the equator. Both forms existed at the same time, but in different parts of the ocean.

"The threat from predation is an under-appreciated driver of evolutionary change," said study co-author Dr Kenneth McNamara of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "As more predators began to appear, the brittle stars started to evolve more flexible bodies, which enabled them to either burrow into the sediment, or to move more rapidly to escape."

About 250 million years ago, the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history - the Permian-Triassic extinction event, or the "Great Dying" - occurred. More than 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species went extinct, and as a result, most surviving species underwent major evolutionary changes as a result.

"Brittle stars appear to have bucked this trend, however," said co-author Dr Aaron Hunter, a visiting postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences. "They seem to have evolved before the Great Dying, into a form which we still see today."

Meadows of brittle stars and other invertebrates such as sea urchins and starfish can still be seen today in the seas around Antarctica. As was the case during the Palaeozoic, the threat from predators is fairly low, although the warming of the Antarctic seas due to climate change has been linked to the recent arrival of armies of king crabs, which represent a real threat to these star-filled meadows.

Explore further: Brittle star study reveals richness and diversity of deep-sea life

More information: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2017). DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1353549

(Phys.org)A team of researchers from Canada, the U.K. and Australia has compiled a dataset of brittle stars from across the globe and in so doing have offered a new way for biologist to view the richness of deep-sea life. ...

The end-Paleozoic witnessed the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history so far, killing the majority of species and profoundly shaping the evolutionary history of the survivors. Echinoderms are among the marine ...

A complete tree of life showing how and when organisms are related to each other has long been desired by biologists, but obscured by the vagaries of the fossil record.

Published today in GigaScience is an article that describes high-resolution 3D images, data, and videos of five individuals from three different species of live-bearing brittle stars [1]. The entire associated 100GB of data ...

(Phys.org) Under the sea ice of Explorers Cove, Antarctica, is a startling array of life. Brittle stars, sea urchins and scallops grow in profusion on the seafloor, a stark contrast to the icy moonscape on the continent's ...

It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us.

Price labels influence our liking of wine: The same wine tastes better to participants when it is labeled with a higher price tag. Scientists from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn have discovered that ...

Researchers have described a new species of brittle star, which are closely related to starfish, and showed how these sea creatures evolved in response to the rise of shell-crushing predators during the late Palaeozoic Era. ...

What does hailing a ride with Uber have to do with 19th-century geometry and Einstein's theory of relativity? Quite a bit, it turns out.

In areas where Uber, Lyft and other on-demand ride services operate, consumers may buy fewer cars and even take fewer trips, according to a new study.

Ancient DNA used to track the mass exodus of Ancestral Pueblo people from Colorado's Mesa Verde region in the late 13th century indicates many wound up in the Northern Rio Grande area north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, inhabited ...

Did you know that in every language, the most frequent word occurs twice as often as the second most frequent word? This phenomenon called 'Zipf's law' is more than one century old, but until now, scientists have not been ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Read more:

Meadow of dancing brittle stars shows evolution at work - Phys.org - Phys.Org

Athletics South Africa has come a long way since the 2008 Beijing Olympics when the country only came back with one medal. Fast-forward to 2017 and the country has transformed itself into one of the finest sporting nations on the continent.

Athletics in the country is alive and that's a fact. With Wayde Van Niekerk and Caster Semenya both grabbing gold at the IAAF championship, ASA has reached a phase where continental domination is on the horizon.

ASA has changed its fortunes with the help of golden stars Semenya, Van Niekerk and swimmer Chad Le Clos. Our athletes have won not only medals but the world's attention.

HuffPost SA takes a look at the nearly decade-long journey of ASA and how the sport has evolved into a potential continental and global powerhouse.

2008 Beijing Olympics Following the success of the 2004 Athens Olympics in Greece, the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China was seen as the dawn of a new era in South African Olympics. Instead, it was the South Africa's worst showing in terms of results and medals. ASA only came back with a dismal solitary medal, courtesy of Khotso Mokoena who claimed silver in long jump.

The disappointing showing at such a prestigious global event was perhaps a blessing in disguise for ASA, as it signaled a turning point and the evolution of ASA.

2011: ASA greed and corruption An unpleasant period reigned between 2010 and 2011 when the organisation's president admitted to corruption and not handling Semenya's gender saga. According to the M&G, Leonard Chuene was found guilty of an unauthorised salary increase of R19,067 to R35,000 a month.

Bare in mind ASA was going through dire financial issues. Chuene was fired, and the corruption and greed were a catalyst for the rebirth of a new look ASA.

2012 London Olympics The 2012 London Olympics will be remembered as the year Le Clos beat great Olympian Michael Phelps. It was the breakthrough year for the 20-year-old at the time as he claimed an unprecedented gold in 200m butterfly, the race everyone presumed Phelps would win. This was a major victory for ASA, as swimming solidified itself as ASA's saving grace in the midst of all of its woes.

2012 Olympics saw South Africa win three gold medals with Le Clos, Cameron Van Der Burgh and the rowing team taking first place. It was also the year Semenya made headlines when she won silver but was overclouded by gender discrimination.

Team SA went home with six medals and Le Clos was the national hero after beating Phelps. It was a beautiful period for ASA, but the best was still to come.

2016 Rio Olympics The year Wayde van Niekerk introduced himself to the world was when he won gold in the 400m at the Rio Olympics. It was also ASA's best Olympics based on results as Team SA came home with 10 medals (two gold, six silver and two bronze). It was also the year Semenya was crowned the world champion of the 800m. This is when the momentum began. ASA was at an all-time high as the country's star athletes defeated renowned champions and were on the verge of world domination.

Van Der Burgh, Luvo Manyonga and the Springbok Sevens side were also among the medalists.

2017 IAAF Youth Championship 2017 was the year all South Africans started to realise that our athletics were alive and running. South Africa's athletics team produced one of its finest ever performances at the World IAAF Championship. Team SA topped the medals chart in the 2017 IAAF U/18 age group. The games were hosted in Nairobi, Kenya.

Team SA stood on a pedestal as it clinched 11 medals and jumped ahead of China. The stellar performance from our track and field athletes caught the eye of the world, more especially gold winner Breyton Poole.

Poole stole the show with his sheer size and determination. The 1.7m tall athlete jumped over 2.24m to claim gold in the high jump. Team SA topped the charts with five Golds, three Silver and three Bronze.

2017 IAAF London Championships

Van Niekerk was at it again. After storming to gold in the 400 metre at the IAAF, he also secured silver in the 200m. He gave an emotional interview on Thursday after winning and broke down in tears, saying he "deserved" what he achieved following criticism by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC has been quite hard on South African athletes and downplayed Van Niekerk's achievements.

More:

Timeline: The Evolution Of Athletics In South Africa Over The Past 10 Years - Huffington Post South Africa (blog)

Randy Roberts, deputy director of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, offers her insight into the essential role of museums as community organizations. For more from Roberts, check out School of Thought in our August issue. Sign up for our newsletter and well email you when its available online.

As institutions that reflect society, most often in ways connected to material culture, museums are notoriously slow to change. Trends that are cited as current in the museum field often have been developing for decades. I have been known to lament the evolutionary pace of change in a field that should be primed for revolution. Over the past year, however, that pace in the form of responsiveness to social need has sped up remarkably. Many institutions that have danced around becoming essential community organizations have now refocused their efforts, responding to a critical need for places of dialogue and connection, places that value civil discourse and multiple ways of understanding. There is a shift from museums as places of education to museums as places of inspiration that challenge, provoke, question and engage with the pressing issues of our time. While there is still much work to do to ensure that we amplify the full spectrum of voices that shape our culture and society, over the past year the museum field has embraced a more activist role that expresses itself through radical empathy, compassion and a willingness to challenge, as well as to reflect, the status quo.

Museums will need to be more engaged in political and social discourse, and more proactive in understanding and disseminating their value to be relevant. Surrounded by rapid and dynamic political, economic and environmental change, museums will be called on to develop deeper connections with their communities to better understand how they can build meaningful partnerships. For the Manetti Shrem Museum, this means redoubling our efforts to work proactively with UC Davis faculty, students, staff and our extended family of constituents to contribute to building a more vital and healthy community. At least part of this equation is sharing the joy inherent in being surrounded by art and artists. Visiting a museum can be soothing or invigorating, but whatever the experience, engaging with art is an essential exercise for the mind and soul.

Got something to add? Let us know in the comments, on social media or email us at editorial@comstocksmag.com

Read more here:

Back and Forward: Randy Roberts on the Evolution of Museums - Comstock's Magazine

While much of the Game of Thrones cast has morphed from the innocence of the first season to the militarized cynicism of its seventh, none have undergone as striking a transformation as Isaac Hempstead Wrights Bran Stark. The precocious little spider monkey whose climbing excursions effectively caused the War of the Five Kings has become a stoic, omniscient weirdo after his travels beyond the Wall. Everyone else is enjoying the brief and bittersweet pleasures of reunion; Bran is trying to continue being a human being rather than Westeros first computer filing system. That has meant changes for both Wright and his now one of the most fascinating on the series as we reach the beginning of the end. At a joint AT&T and HBOevent, Paste sat down with Wright to talk Game of Thrones, memes, and what he can see of his future.

Paste: I heard that you were a bit of a meme aficionado. Have you been browsing Twitter after each episode?

Isaac Hempstead Wright: Ive seen a lot of memes. Amongst the abuse I got after episode three [The Queens Justice]so much hate after that. Oh Bran, I hate Bran now. Hes changed so much. Guys, chill the fuck out. Its alright.

Paste: Do you contribute to the discussion secretly?

Wright: I dont, Im purely an observer. But all I do with my girlfriend is send memes to each other. She got so excited when she found one of me. Isaac, youre in a meme! Yeah, Im in a meme. [Bran] has become very meme-able. Ive seen some great ones, like one where Meera goes, My brother died for you, Hodor died for you, and Bran says, New phone who dis?

Paste: Has this character change affected you professionally? A big acting step up?

Wright: It was really interesting to do, because in many ways, for me at least, Bran has been playing either a child or a teenager. Obviously with some unique and weird bits, but as Ive grown up, its basically just been me in a different time period. Theres things you can bring into it, with this and other parts, but now theres nothing you can possiblyIm not arrogant enough to think I know everything. We had a couple meetings with the producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and we modeled it on Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. We called it Dr. Branhattan. This idea of existing at all these different times and tuning into all these moments.

Paste: I know youve also learned from Max von Sydows performance as the previous three-eyed raven. How are you doing it differently?

Wright: I didnt want it to be just like Max von Sydow because that three-eyed raven had been sitting in that tree for a thousand years. Bran hasnt. Hes not that old. Hes just been given all this craziness now. Theres no point in trying to pretend that hes immediately become wise. Hes obviously become wise, but he hasnt had time to sit there and go through all the history. The way it works, this whole vision thing, isnt that he knows everything immediately. He has access to everything. So where that raven has sat there for a million years and has everything at his fingertips, Bran doesnt yet. So we didnt want him to be this, Oh, I know everything and Im all stoic sort of guy. Hes still a kid, just with a unique power.

Paste: He and Samwell Tarly (John Bradley-West) are really the only ones dealing with the world by sitting and learning quietly.

Wright: Yeah, its really nice. Its nice being one of the representatives of the intellectuals of Westeros. People using knowledge as power.

Paste: In the past youve said that you plan on pursuing a PhD in the futureis that still important to you?

Wright: Somebody put this PhD thing on WikipediaIm not doing a PhD. I am going to university for joint honours in music and maths. Music theory mainly. I just did my Grade 8 Music Theory this year.

Paste: Have you gotten to do your composition theory stuff yet?

Wright: Yeah, Ive been composingIm friends with Ramin Djawadi, our composer, and Ive been with them on some of the tours theyve done of all the music. Whenever were at an event, we just sit in a corner and talk music.

Paste: Did you and Kristian Nairn [who played Hodor in the series] bond over music?

Wright: Weve always been music pals. I managed for the first time its taken me agesto go see him DJ. Awesome. Im not really into house music, but it was really good.

Paste: Electronic music can get pretty close to classical though.

Wright: Oh, definitely! Steve Reich! I mean, Aphex Twin, even.

Paste: Going on to university, what lessons do you think youll take from your experience on Game of Thrones?

Wright: I think one of the most important things, with Bran anyways, is learning from massive mistakes. Bran basically killed everyone he held dear. But he didnt sit there and wallow and go, Oh, Im useless and cry in despair. He also didnt just brush it off. He took from it that he needed to be wiser and accepted that this was destiny. Theres no point getting upset. Which is a bit of a grandiose way of putting learn from your mistakes.

Jacob Oller is a writer and film critic whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, Playboy, Roger Ebert, Film School Rejects, Chicagoist, Vague Visages, and other publications. He lives in Chicago, plays Dungeons and Dragons, and struggles not to kill his two cats daily. You can follow him on Twitter here: @jacoboller.

See the original post here:

Game of Thrones' Isaac Hempstead Wright on Bran's Evolution, House Music and Becoming a Meme - Paste Magazine

After racking up accumulated losses of Rs 50,000 crore, debt of Rs 55,000 crore, a failed Rs 30,000 crore bailout in 2012 and an aborted disinvestment attempt in 2001, the NDA government bit the bullet: last month, the Cabinet gave its nod to sell its stake in the beleaguered Air India. It isnt the only state-owned behemoth in which the government reckons it doesnt need to be wasting its time.

Half of Indias 235 Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) are under scrutiny for a possible disinvestment. The governments think tank NITI Aayog has recommended a strategic sale in over 40 public sector undertakings (PSUs) and outright closure of 26 sick PSUs.

This time, it may not be all talk and little action. Various governments have toyed with disinvestment since 1991, but with limited success. The biggest sell-off surge happened under the NDA government of 1999-2004, when PSUs like Maruti, VSNL, IPCL and IBP were privatised. It is hard to argue against the economic rationale for privatisation.

While CPSEs contribute over 20% to Indias GDP and employ over 10 lakh people, many have turned into bloated, inefficient behemoths and a drain on the national exchequer. One-third of the CPSEs today are making losses. Even a maharatna like BHEL has slipped. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, a recent CAG report points out, its turnover declined from Rs 49,510 crore to Rs 26,587 crore and profits slipped from Rs 7,400 crore to losses of Rs 913 crore. Between 2007 and 2016, sick CPSEs reportedly logged losses of Rs 19.68 lakh crore. Small wonder, then, that NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant suggested that the government should hand over schools, colleges and prisons to the private sector as the government has no business to be in business.

The reality, globally, is a bit more nuanced. PSUs arent exactly out of fashion and have often been used to stoke nationalistic fervour. The French government has threatened to nationalise the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire instead of selling it to Fincantieri of Italy. Italians are nervous about French colonisation as many cross-border deals (like the 50 billion Essilor-Luxottica merger) have resulted in French firms having the upper hand.

Global Lessons In India, PSUs were created post Independence to build a self-reliant, state-led economy. Through the 1970s, amid a nationalisation drive, PSUs dominated the economic landscape before a bankrupt government was forced to rethink its strategy post liberalisation.

India echoed what was happening globally. Professors Aldo Musacchio and Sergio G Lazzarini talk about evolution of state capitalism in their book Reinventing State Capitalism (2014). Globally, too, state capitalism peaked around the 1970s. As a result, output of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to GDP reached 10% in mixed economies and 16% in developing economies.

Then reality dawned. The oil shock of the 1970s and the liquidity crunch of the 1980s meant SOEs globally ran average losses equivalent of 2% of GDP, according to the World Bank. In developing countries, they stood at 4% of GDP. Between 1980 and the turn of the century, the focus shifted to a wave of PSU reforms that included minority stake sales, listings and overhauls of PSU management.

The year 2008 was an inflection point when state-led bailouts of distressed companies PSUs or even private became the norm. The US government bailed out private firms like GM and AIG. By some calculations, firms under government control today account for a fifth of the worlds total stock market capitalisation.

While state capitalism has been in vogue, governments have been trying to make it efficient. The book refers to two examples. In 2007, Brazilian private firm JBS acquired US-based Swift & Co for $1.4 billion to become the world's largest beef processing company. Then it acquired Pilgrim's Pride for $2.8 billion. JBS, identified as a national champion, was funded by Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), which became the largest minority shareholder in JBS. SOEs in China are coming from the other end. In 2010, Agriculture Bank of China's mega IPO raised $22 billion.

The two examples reflect the new forms of state capitalism taking root. Both are distinct from the traditional (often inefficient) PSU model where government owns and manages the SOE like an extension of public bureaucracy.

PSUs have often helped government deal better with economic cycles. "In China when the economy is in danger of recession, SOEs can quickly deploy government resources and play a counter cyclical role. India is different in that governments, especially Central governments, are relatively much weaker," says Xi Li, professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

After its independence in 1965, Singapore government owned a lot of companies like SingTel and Singapore Airlines. In 1974, it set up Temasek Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund, to hold and manage its assets on a commercial basis and push the nation's growth agenda. Temasek today owns and manages a portfolio of over S$250 billion.

Japan and Korea took a different approach. Chaebols in Korea and Keiretsu in Japan have played a key role in the economic growth of the two countries. And governments in both the countries have nurtured them. This also led to crony capitalism which they are now trying to tackle. For example, Chaebol reforms was a key issue in the 2017 election in Korea. "To avoid the trap of import substitution and make local firms globally competitive, governments gave these companies export targets. When achieved, they were given special credit and land," says Ajay Chhibber, visiting distinguished professor, NIPFP, a research institution.

India's Path NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant recently told ET Magazine that "the government should spend money on improving social indicators like health, education, nutrition". Beyond disinvestment and sell-off, some shifts are already visible. PSUs like BHEL are morphing to be relevant. Besides renewable energy, it now wants to make components for metro rail and defence. "To facilitate public spending, new PSUs are sprouting in areas like inland waterways, metro rail and renewable energy," says Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman, Feedback Infra. The government has set up the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation to build highways. New mechanisms are being explored to help PSUs operate efficiently. For example, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) will help fund projects where the government's stake will be capped at 49%.

Former bureaucrat Pradeep Baijal says PSUs are a necessity in areas where government has a natural monopoly; like railways, metro rail, utilities or sensitive areas like satellite or nuclear power. In a rapidly evolving world, there should be a model of constant review of the PSU portfolio - what to retain and what to divest," adds Amit Sinha, partner, Bain & Company.

Gaurav Taneja, partner, EY, says PSUs are necessary in areas where private sector is not keen to invest, like public health in rural areas. "In fact, government should convert many of these operations into public sector outfits and set up a strategic framework to evaluate their performance," he says. Consider the case of not-so-profitable Jan Dhan scheme where public sector banks were asked to roll it out without adequate compensation and yet are expected to compete with the private sector.

"The difficulty with PSU emanates from a misplaced sense of their reason for existence," says Utkarsh Palnitkar, partner, KPMG in India. "Distortions come into play when a PSU is expected to perform on similar lines as private sector units yet is deprived of management autonomy," he adds. Experts recommend that disinvestment proceeds must be parked in a separate fund to be used in infrastructure investment. "We should not be selling the family silver to pay the grocery bills (which is the case now)," says Chhibber.

Ranen Banerjee, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers India, says: "Private and public sector need not be completely divorced. While PSUs can build and own the infrastructure, private sector could do operations and maintenance efficiently." An example: railway tracks could be state-owned, and trains with the private sector. Any takers?

Read the original:

How some of India's PSUs are set for a logical evolution through disinvestment - Economic Times

In movie trailer voiceover voice:

In a world where the third time seldom is the charm, when source material often devolves into convoluted chaos, when the expansion of combinatorial storylines undermine the value of the product, a madman has defied the odds. But not just any madman, a Fantasy Madman.

In the fight to engineer a world-beating system to fantasy football draft strategy, the Madman has ignored complacency while avoiding the pitfalls of overcomplication. He has identified the confusing complexity of his past evaluations and has taken action. The days of sliding scales are over. The era of required cross-referencing player ratings is a thing of the past. This is a new world of player rankings.

This is the DVQ 3.0.

Sometimes, simpler is better.

Weve seen it before: a disappointing third installment of a beloved franchise. The Dark Knight trilogys weakest entry was the third. Spider-man 3 was a disaster, as well as the third X-Men or Matrix movies the list of part-three disappointments is long. Heck, a third presidential term isnt even allowed.

But the Madman, he perseveres. Past incarnations of the draft value equation (DVQ) have been functional but admittedly overly complex. With this, the third edition, we make it easier. This third entry is more Lord of the Rings: Return of the King than Godfather Part 3. It is the pinnacle of the DVQ thus far.

In the past, the DVQ addressed draft value with a sliding scale. Each player was evaluated based on projected results compared with their average draft position. It worked; were proud. But it wasnt as helpful as we wanted. The ratings varied based on where in the draft you were targeting a player, and it admittedly required cross-referencing to understand player-to-player comparisons.

But that was like going to a restaurant that only serves dishes a la carte. Even if the food is great, Give me a No. 8 is easier and quicker than surfing through an entire menu for individual items.

This season, the new DVQ 3.0 lets you simply order a full meal. It gauges each players value independently then assigns a draft position rating. The number reflected in each player rating is the spot in the draft at which the Madman projects the best value. Note: There is a parabolic curve near the top, where there is greater separation in individual projections, thus a greater separation between DVQ ratings.

So when you see 16.9 beside Jimmy Catchgood, that is the spot in the draft at which the Madman believes that players projected-point total agrees with the value of that draft pick. By shifting our evaluation to this paradigm, it accomplishes multiple tasks with one rating.

It shows where you should target a player. It will include clusters of players with similar ratings, which reveal the mash-up of similar values. It also will unveil tier cliffs, where there is a substantial divide in player ratings. And it does all of this with one number. One number that conveys actionable information. One number that simultaneously separates and groups players of varying or similar values. One number to rule them all.

So now that you know this, how do you employ the DVQ 3.0 in your personal draft strategy? First, no plan is foolproof. If there is a player you adamantly want on your roster, and you dont think they will be there when you pick again, take them when you can.

Use the DVQ as a guide. For example: You want Wilhelm Runningwell on your roster, and he has a DVQ of 29.3. Youre picking with the 22nd pick, and you dont think Wilhelm will last that long, then take him. But, say, you really want that player, and his average draft position (ADP) is drastically higher than the DVQ rating, then perhaps you should re-evaluate that choice.

For example: Christian McCaffrey has an ADP of 31.7 in a 12-team PPR (points per reception) redraft league, but a DVQ of 89.9. Chances are, if you really want McCaffrey, you will have to pick him well ahead of where the DVQ recommends. The Madman says wait. The Madman says that player is being overvalued. The Madman says there are more reliable options at the point in the draft when McCaffreys ADP indicates he will go. The Madman says, you must be mad!

The short story is: Play the odds. And the DVQ 3.0 is a method to convey those odds. Weve made it more simple to follow. Weve made it more universally informative. Weve made it easier.

This is the Bourne Ultimatum of third installments. This is a Christmas Vacation of fantasy advice. This is the DVQ 3.0.

Sometimes, simpler is better.

Here is the original post:

DVQ 3.0: The latest evolution in fantasy football draft strategy - New York Post