Category Archives: Evolution

For decades, transatlantic flying had been dominated by wide-body jets designed for high capacity long-haul travel. Historically, these twin-aisle planes were efficient because they could carry more passengers and cargo at lower operating costs, effectively pushing down ticket prices.

Source: Interesting Engineering

However, since the rise of enhanced single-aisle jets with long-range capabilities, the industry is shifting and airlines are starting to put narrowbody aircraft on flights across the Atlantic.

Source: Interesting Engineering

Jet-powered transatlantic flying, however, did not start with widebody aircraft, but rather with the de Havilland DH.106 Comet 4 operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation. The single-aisle plane flew the first regularly scheduled commercial flight across the Atlantic in 1958.

Source: International Civil Aviation Organization

The plane, which was the world's first commercial jet airliner, had one aisle and an 81 passenger capacity.

Source: Duxford Aviation Society

Soon after, Boeing launched its first long-haul narrowbody jet, the four-engine Boeing 707, using the lessons learned from the Comet 4. The aircraft's first transatlantic journey was operated by Pan Am from New York to Paris.

Source: Duxford Aviation Society, Britannica

After the start of the jet age, there was a surge in demand for air travel in the 1950s and early 1960s. To handle the increase, manufacturers realized they needed to design bigger aircraft, thus beginning the era of widebody jets.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The first widebody jet was the famous Boeing 747, which revolutionized long-haul air travel. The jumbo-jet doubled the capacity of the 707 and solved the problem of congested airports packed with travelers.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Boeing

Pan Am was the first operator of the 747, which was configured with a 347-passenger capacity. The airline launched the aircraft on a route from New York to London's Heathrow Airport.

Source: Boeing

The 747 ignited the widebody market, which focused on engineering wider aircraft that could accommodate more passengers while also lowering fares. The airliner had four engines, a second level above the nose, and the lowest seat-mile cost in the industry at the time.

Source: Deutsche Welle, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The 747 was operated by dozens of airlines, like British Overseas Airways Corporation...

Source: Boeing

Delta Air Lines...

Source: Delta Flight Museum

After the 747 came the wide-body trijet McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in 1971, which was engineered after airlines like American and TWA asked manufacturers to come up with a smaller, yet still high-density, long-range aircraft to meet demand.

Source: Aerotime, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The aircraft was smaller than the mammoth 747 but could still carry 250-360 passengers. American was its launch customer.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

While the original DC-10 was designed mostly for domestic flying, later variants, including the DC-10-30 and DC-10-40, were intended for long-haul routes.

The DC-10's competitor was the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, which was the third widebody to enter commercial operations in 1972 with a capacity of up to 400 passengers and a range of over 4,000 nautical miles (4,603 miles).

Source: Aero Corner

Commercial aircraft with three engines became standard in the industry after the FAA implemented the 60-minute rule, which restricted twin-engine jets from flying further than 60 minutes from the closest suitable diversion airport.

However, the rule was waived for trijets, opening the door for carriers, like Delta Air Lines, to operate routes that twin jets could not legally serve. Delta used the L-1011 on its first transatlantic flight from Atlanta to London Gatwick Airport in 1978.

Source: Delta Flight Museum

After the success of the trijet, engineers wanted to take transatlantic flying to the next level and began engineering the famous supersonic Concorde jet. The aircraft had four engines that could propel 100 passengers across the ocean in less than four hours.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

While the idea of riding on the Concorde was thrilling, its high operating costs, extremely high fares, and environmental and safety concerns forced the plane to stop flying in 2003.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

After years of flying trijets across the Atlantic, manufacturers and airlines realized the need for more efficient twin-engine jets. The trijet's design proved to be too complex and maintenance issues arose frequently due to the middle engine being mounted on the stabilizer.

Source: AvGeekery

In 1972, Airbus revolutionized air travel with the world's first twin-engine widebody aircraft, the A300B. However, twin jets were still unable to fly over oceans due to the FAA's strict 60-minute rule, but that changed with the introduction of the Boeing 767.

Source:Airbus

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, widebody twin jets reigned supreme for transatlantic travel, though there were a few exceptions.

Source: Simple Flying

And TAP Air Portugal's A321LR from Lisbon to Montreal, Canada. TAP said the aircraft's low fuel consumption allows it to "operate profitability in smaller markets that cannot be regularly served by larger widebody aircraft."

Source: Business Traveler

See the rest here:

The evolution of transatlantic flying in photos - Business Insider

February 1969

From Man, Machine, and Information Flight Systems: The flight of Apollo 8 to the moon involved obtaining and processing more bits of data than were used by all fighting forces in World War II. The technological achievement in developing advanced rockets for flying to the moon is reasonably well known. Much less understood, but perhaps of even greater significance, is the information management system. The work of thousands of people in real time, and the data processed by many powerful computers, is organized, processed, filtered, and channeled through one to three people in the cockpit in understandable and digestible form. With this information the pilots can take action with confidence knowing that they are in league with powerful logic systems and an overwhelmingly large number of cells of memory storage.

From The Multiprocessor Revolution: Harnessing Computers Together: By harnessing many relatively inexpensive VLSI processors together into a multiprocessor system we may significantly reduce the cost of achieving todays fastest computing speeds. Many of us harbor expectations that this new breed of machines will make possible some of our most romantic and ambitious aspirations: these new machines may recognize images, understand speech, and behave more intelligently. Even anthropomorphic evidence suggests that if computers are to perform intelligently, many processors must work together. Consider the human eye, where millions of neurons cooperate to help us see. What arrogant reasoning led us to believe that a single processor capable of only a few million instructions per second could ever exhibit intelligence?

Continued here:

How we covered the evolution of computing - MIT Technology Review

Horror is one of the most popular gaming genres out there today. Scary games are an especially big hit with the streaming generation, who love to watch their favorite content creators freak out. However, we wouldnt have those countless jump scare reaction videos featuring the Resident Evil 2 remakes Mr. X without years of fear-filled trial and error. Throughout the past few decades, there have been many trendsetters that built upon innovators of the past. That trend continues even now with games like Resident Evil 7, with its clear P.T. inspiration.

And it all started back in the 1970s.

The world of video game horror spans many different subgenres birthed throughout the years. Many see the 1972 title Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey as the earliest fear-filled gaming experience if you even consider a screen overlay a horror game. There were other very early attempts at the genre throughout the 70s and early 80s including various text-based games, pixel-filled movie adaptations for the Atari and NES like Friday the 13th and Halloween, and of course, legendary IPs like Castlevania and Ghosts n Goblins. But no game perfectly translated the feeling of a horror movie to the virtual playground until Splatterhouse.

Splatterhouse is a 1988 arcade beat em up that is best described as an 80s B-horror movie made into a video game. You play as Rick Taylor, a man on the brink of death who partners up with a symbiotic demon mask called the Terror Mask. Together, you slice, bash, and brutalize your way across a giant mansion to save your kidnapped girlfriend whos to be sacrificed in some ungodly ritual.

The game was the goriest thing many had ever seen, and that gore was its main selling point. It was unheard of, especially in a time before the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Its TurboGrafx-16 port sported a parental advisory warning and a message on the box reading: The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children and cowards.

Today, Splatterhouse lives on as a cult classic of the past, the beginning of a classic horror series of games, and one of the forefathers of the horror gaming genre.

While Splatterhouse laid the groundwork for gore and monsters in the world of gaming horror, it was mostly an action game, with the only survival element being to not get hit. The origins of the most famous horror genre, survival horror, can be traced back to the early 80s with NECs PC-6001s Nostromo, Ataris Haunted House, and Sinclair Researchs ZX81s 3D Monster Maze. These three titles introduced the world to a new type of game where things couldnt be solved with violence, but through passive progression, with an emphasis on solving puzzles and using stealth to make your way past the assailant.

The elements introduced by these titles finally came together on the Nintendo Entertainment System with Capcoms 1989 game,Sweet Home. This classic JRPG based on a Japanese horror film of the same name presents the player with a party of five filmmakers exploring an old mansion full of ghouls, ghosts, and specters. Theres just one objective: Escape with your life.

To do this, players find items to place in their limited inventory and solve puzzles throughout the mansion while fighting or avoiding creatures of the dark. One wrong play and a party member can permanently bite the dust, leaving one less member to help on the journey out. This game is cited as one of the first to tell a long horror story and does so with diary pages found throughout the game.

If a lot of these details sound familiar, its because many of Sweet Homes features were direct inspiration for what would become the king of horror games, 1996s Resident Evil, which was originally meant to be a Sweet Home remake for a new generation.

All the glory for inspiring the groundbreaking Resident Evil seriescant be credited to Sweet Home however. There are also EAs Project Firestart and Infogrames Alone in the Dark. These games further fleshed out classic survival horror tropes. Features like full-on storytelling, dynamic music, limited ammo that barely fazes hard-to-kill monsters, pre-rendered backgrounds, and a simple human main character are all here. And no one can forget 1995s Clock Tower, which introduced the world to Scissorman, as well as more stealth elements in the genre, and pushed the idea of multiple endings, which was also showcased in Sweet Home and 1993s Splatterhouse 3.

Finally, in 1996 the king took to his throne and Resident Evil hit shelves everywhere, coining the term survival horror. New genre elements were all brought together, with multiple pathways, various endings, a mansion setting, optional character deaths, diary entry-driven stories, puzzles, optional enemy encounters, limited ammo, pre-rendered backgrounds, and so much more being put together into one amazing Jill sandwich.

So with so much taken from other games, what did Resident Evil bring to the genre? The tank control scheme, which has grown to be a horror staple seen in many Resident Evil clones that followed. Those games brought the world into a new age of digital horror an age that birthed many bold titles of the horror genre and rebirthed others into juggernauts as well.

After Resident Evil, there were titles like Square Enixs Parasite Eve and the Dreamcast exclusive beat em up/shooter/horror mash-up Blue Stinger. Notable among the various Resident Evil-inspired titles was 1996s Corpse Party. This indie horror title invited players into the world of psychological fear. The game stepped away from the typical Western B-movie horror that many of these games favored and took an approach more inspired by Japanese film.

This style was taken even further with 1999s Silent Hill, which put atmosphere before everything, with its strongest asset being its screen-obscuring fog and dark narrative. Its Japanese horror influence brought rise to series like Fatal Frame, another unique horror game that involved taking photos of ghosts.

The Western market took a stab at the horror genre as well. Games like The Thing and Doom gave a new take on fear. Once again, the genre returned to what Splatterhouse brought to the table, as the American entries in the survival-horror genre had a heavy emphasis on action and being able to fight opposing forces head-on. This caught on with Japanese markets as well when Resident Evil 4 changed the genre by putting an emphasis on action.

No one could miss Resident Evil 4 and how it was changing the genre when it released. Suddenly, survival horror meant you could gun down creatures as long as your inventory was right. You were no longer helpless. Other titles followed in its bloody footsteps, like 2008s Alone in the Dark. Many saw the genre becoming less horror and more action until F.E.A.R and Dead Space released in 2005 and 2008 respectively, showing that cinematic action and true horror could still play together and deliver a scary product.

The following years saw the genre continuing in that action vein until the indie scene started returning the genre to its roots in the 2010s. True survival-horror games like Amnesia, Slender, and Nightfall threw aside action-packed gore and took the John Carpenter Halloween approach by focusing on atmosphere and fear of the minds eye. This was also seen with 2014s Five Nights at Freddys, the current lord of indie-horror franchises.

That same year would also be when the genre saw another massive innovation with the release of Konamis canceled Silent Hill project, a playable trailer for a future title that fans dubbed P.T. The demo introduced the world to another evolution of the genre, taking elements from classic Japanese horror, mixing them with the first-person nature of games like Slender, and giving them the production value of a AAA Western title with Hollywood star Norman Reedus in the starring role to boot. Even with the title canceled shortly after the demos release, PT was memorable enough to change the horror gaming world immediately. Its formula was even used in Resident Evil 7, a title that brought the series back to its roots and its throne. Even the founding forefathers of video game horror are still influenced by their peers.

Now were back where we started with the Resident Evil series being the star of horror innovation and others following behind. Other subgenres have taken rise throughout the years, such as the multiplayer horror genre as seen in Nightmare on Elm Street, Left 4 Dead, and Back 4 Blood.

Like any genre, horror is always evolving, and I cant wait to see how developers will find the next way to make us scream.

Read more:

From Splatterhouse to Resident Evil, horror games found the fun in fear - Digital Trends

Ever wonder how and when animals swanned onto the evolutionary stage? When, where, and why did animals first appear? What were they like?

Life has existed for much of Earths 4.5-billion-year history, but for most of that time it consisted exclusively of bacteria.

Although scientists have been investigating the evidence of biological evolution for over a century, some parts of the fossil record remain maddeningly enigmatic, and finding evidence of Earths earliest animals has been particularly challenging.

Information about evolutionary events hundreds of millions of years ago is mainly gleaned from fossils. Familiar fossils are shells, exoskeletons and bones that organisms make while alive. These so-called hard parts first appear in rocks deposited during the Cambrian explosion, slightly less than 540 million years ago.

The seemingly sudden appearance of diverse, complex animals, many with hard parts, implies that there was a preceding interval during which early soft-bodied animals with no hard parts evolved from simpler animals. Unfortunately, until now, possible evidence of fossil animals in the interval of hidden evolution has been very rare and difficult to understand, leaving the timing and nature of evolutionary events unclear.

This conundrum, known as Darwins dilemma, remains tantalizing and unresolved 160 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species.

There is indirect evidence regarding how and when animals may have appeared. Animals by definition ingest pre-existing organic matter, and their metabolisms require a certain level of ambient oxygen. It has been assumed that animals could not appear, or at least not diversify, until after a major oxygen increase in the Neoproterozoic Era, sometime between 815 and 540 million years ago, resulting from accumulation of oxygen produced by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

It is widely accepted that sponges are the most basic animal in the animal evolutionary tree and therefore probably were first to appear. Yes, sponges are animals: they use oxygen and feed by sucking water containing organic matter through their bodies. The earliest animals were probably sponge-related (the sponge-first hypothesis),and may have emerged hundreds of millions of years prior to the Cambrian, as suggested by a genetic method called molecular phylogeny, which analyzes genetic differences.

Based on these reasonable assumptions, sponges may have existed as much as 900 million years ago. So, why have we not found fossil evidence of sponges in rocks from those hundreds of millions of intervening years?

Under the right conditions, soft sponge tissue made from spongin fibres can create a distinctive fossil. Image Credit: Elizabeth C. Turner, author provided

Part of the answer to this question is that sponges do not have standard hard parts (shells, bones). Although some sponges have an internal skeleton made of microscopic mineralized rods called spicules, no convincing spicules have been found in rocks dating from the interval of hidden early animal evolution. However, some sponge typeshave a skeleton made of tough protein fibers called spongin, forming a distinctive, microscopic, three-dimensional meshwork, identical to a bath sponge.

Work on modern and fossil sponges has shown that these sponges can be preserved in the rock record when their soft tissue is calcified during decay. If the calcified mass hardens around spongin fibers before they too decay, a distinctive microscopic meshwork of complexly branching tubes results appears in the rock. The branching configuration is unlike that of algae, bacteria, or fungi, and is well known from limestones younger than 540 million years.

I am a geologist and paleobiologist who works on very old limestone. Recently, I described this exact microstructure in 890-million-year-old rocks from northern Canada, proposing that it could be evidence of sponges that are several hundred million years older than the next-youngest uncontested sponge fossil.

This may be an 890-million-year-old sponge fossil. Image Credit: Elizabeth C. Turner, author provided

Although my proposal may initially seem outrageous, it is consistent with predictions and assumptions that are common in the paleontological community: the new material seems to validate an extrapolated timeline and a predicted identity for early animals that are already widely accepted.

If these are indeed sponge fossils, animal evolution can be pushed back by several hundred million years.

The early possible sponges that I describe lived with localized cyanobacterial communities that produced oxygen oases in an otherwise low-oxygen world, prior to the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event. These early sponges may have continued living in similar environments, possibly unchanged and unchallenged by evolutionary pressure, for up to several hundred million years, before more diverse animals emerged.

The existence of 890-million-year-old animals would also indicate that biological evolution was not substantially affected by the controversial Cryogenian glacial episodesso-called snowball Earththat began around 720 million years ago.

My unusual fossil material may provide a new perspective on Darwins dilemma. However, radical new ideas are generally not fully accepted by the scientific community without vigorous discussion; I expect lively controversy to ensue. At some point, probably years in the future, a consensus may develop based on further work. Until then, enjoy the debate!

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: Elizabeth C. Turner, author provided

See the article here:

Animal Evolution: Fossil Discovery Hints First Animals Lived Nearly 900 Million Years Ago - Singularity Hub

TORONTO, Oct. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OverActive Media (TSXV:OAM) today unveiled the evolution of its plan for its previously announced performance venue, and secured lease terms approval from the Exhibition Place Board of Governors in Toronto, paving the way for a final review and approval by Toronto City Council later this year.

Over the past eight months, we have worked hand in hand with all of our city partners to bring our collective vision for the venue to the next level, and we could not be more excited to finally be able to share our latest plans with our fans in Toronto and the world, said Chris Overholt, President and CEO of OverActive Media. Toronto is one of the best entertainment markets in the world. We have worked closely with our partners to begin to realize the immense potential of this region of the city while furthering Torontos position as a global esports hub. Our vision is to create an unparalleled experience for fans and entertainment artists alike.

Located in the heart of the historic Exhibition Place, the theatre-style entertainment venue and hotel complex is a strategic element of the approved master plan for the region previously established by city officials. Positioned on the north side of Lakeshore Blvd., and across from Ontario Place, the venue is expected to become the epicentre for what is starting to emerge as Torontos future meeting place for sports, media and entertainment.

"Today, we are embracing an exciting vision of the future by approving OverActive Media's plan and secured lease terms, said Exhibition Place Board Chair and Councillor Mark Grimes. On behalf of Exhibition Place's Board of Governors, we will continue to build on our rich history and showcase innovative spaces in our ongoing evolution. I proudly welcome OverActive Media to create an engaging space to meet the needs of our diverse and dynamic community."

With a projected completion date of 2025, the 7,000-seat venue is designed to be a destination at its core. The facility plans to host more than 200 events a year, driven primarily by premium music and entertainment bookings. It will also serve to attract major city-wide conventions, corporate events and product launches, awards shows and naturally, a full slate of esports events increasing over time. Additionally, it will provide a home for the citys two professional esports teams, Toronto Ultra of the Call of Duty League and Toronto Defiant of the Overwatch League. Prior to the pandemic, OverActive Media had scheduled sold-out live events for its Overwatch League franchise, Toronto Defiant. As live events continue to return, there is a demand amongst premium acts of the world for the size and type of venue it plans to deliver.

We took a bold step forward together today toward realizing our vision to build a preeminent performance venue in the city of Toronto, one that we believe will serve as a new home for the biggest music and entertainment acts of the world and a favourite venue for todays generation of fans, added Overholt.

Developed by global design firm Populous, the designs are purposeful, intended to create an engaging space for all fan activations, events and programming. Key design features and highlights include:

Over the past several months, weve had the opportunity to engage with OverActive Media, the Exhibition Place Board of Governors and the City of Toronto to carefully choreograph the relationship between the venue, the hotel and a new urban room that connects the two, said Jonathan Mallie, Senior Principal and lead designer for Populous. The design has evolved to further integrate a dynamic building program and expression into the fabric of Toronto.

For more information, please contact:

Leah Gaucher, Director, PR & Communications, OverActive Media(647) 924-2614lgaucher@oam.gg

ABOUT OVERACTIVE MEDIA

OverActiveMedia (TSXV:OAM)is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with operations in Madrid, Spain and Berlin, Germany. OverActives mandate is to build an integrated global company delivering sports, media and entertainment products for todays generation of fans with a focus on esports, videogames, content creation and distribution, culture, and live and online events. OverActive owns team franchises in (i) the Overwatch League, operating as the Toronto Defiant, (ii) the Call of Duty League, operating as the Toronto Ultra, (iii) the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), operating as the MAD Lions, (iv) the Superliga, operating as the MAD Lions Madrid, and (v) Flashpoint, operating as MAD Lions Counter Strike:Global Offensive (a franchised league operated by B Site Inc., a company in which OverActive holds a minority interest), as well as other non-affiliated CS:GO tournaments and leagues. OverActive also operates both live and online events, operating as OAM Live and maintains an active social media presence with its fans and community members, operates fan clubs, and other fan-related activities that increase the reach of its brands.

ABOUT POPULOUS

Populous is a global design firm that designs the places where people love to be together, like Yankee Stadium, the London Olympics, and the Super Bowl. Over the last 38 years, the firm has designed more than 3,000 projects worth $40 billion across emerging and established markets. Populous comprehensive services include architecture, interior design, event planning and overlay, branded environments, wayfinding and graphics, planning and urban design, landscape architecture, aviation and transport design, hotels and hospitality, and sustainable design consulting. Populous has 18 offices on four continents and more than 600 employees with regional centers in Kansas City, London and Brisbane.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, forward-looking statements), including statements regarding OverActives proposed development of a venue and its plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations with respect to future business activities and operating performance. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the words may, would, could, should, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect or similar expressions.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but instead OverActive managements expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although OverActive believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed thereon, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the OverActive. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements include the following: the potential impact of OverActives qualifying transaction on relationships, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws and regulations both locally and in foreign jurisdictions; compliance with extensive government regulation; the risks and uncertainties associated with foreign markets; and other risk factors set out in OverActives filing statement dated July 2, 2021, a copy of which may be found under OverActives profile at http://www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of OverActive and general market conditions, including COVID-19.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although OverActive has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and such changes could be material. OverActive does not intend and do not assume any obligation, to update the forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Photos accompanying this announcementare available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5d2a3117-be94-4d50-ba1f-1986eeec9252

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc959f8c-9c52-40df-8956-2665fb587bfd

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fcdfc4f0-6ede-4776-ac89-df6fef814232

Originally posted here:

OverActive Media Reveals Evolution of Its Design for Performance Venue - GlobeNewswire

Most pension plans across the U.S. are still following the same incremental de-risking plan they adopted in the years immediately after the global financial crisis. Specifically, replacing return-seeking assets such as equity with long-duration fixed income that seeks to match the liability. In re-evaluating these glide path strategies in the current environment, it appears that most plans have de-risked far enough to avoid serious risks and to continue would simply increase costs and inefficiency with no discernable benefit, says Jared Gross, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Portfolio Strategy for JP Morgan Asset Management. II recently asked Gross to describe the course correction hes urging pensions to make before they face the consequences of an outdated investment approach.

Jared Gross: Prior to early 2000s, plan sponsors were focused on generating high returns with a traditionally diversified asset allocation mainly stocks and core bonds. In many respects, this approach was appropriate given the rules in place at the time. Accounting and regulatory standards were mild, with only a limited pass-through from funding changes to required contributions or the financial statements. Pension investors generally didnt consider liabilities when allocating assets. After all, a long period of strong returns had left most plans in a surplus position.

This era ended with the tech bust in the early 2000s, and the decline in interest rates that rapidly followed. The fallout led to a massive downturn in the funding of defined benefit plans; most went from being overfunded before 2000 to significantly underfunded just a year or two later. That was the first wake-up call. No one really had to confront the asset-liability mismatch in pensions before. Not too many years later, the global financial crisis delivered another blow, and sponsors began responding by starting to re-risk their asset allocations, closing and freezing defined benefit plans, and moving employees to defined contribution plans that offered the promise of more predictability.

I think we have seen two broad phases of pension de-risking with liability driven investments, and I believe we are about to enter a third.

The first phase, which I refer to as LDI 1.0, involved moving from shorter to longer duration bonds during the period immediately following the global financial crisis. With LDI portfolios offering high levels of yield, this was an unusual opportunity to reduce risk while also increasing return. Within a few years, most plan sponsors had moved their fixed income to a long-duration benchmark, often starting with the Long Government Credit Index.

Since then, we have seen a long process of patient de-risking that I refer to as LDI 2.0 or the Glidepath Era, in which plans have just been waiting for incremental improvements in funding before shifting capital from return-seeking strategies to LDI strategies. Theyve developed increasingly customized hedging strategies, many of which involve custom fixed income benchmarks, derivative overlays, and completion management. While the complexity of these hedging strategies has increased, their diversification has not. Most plans have reached a point where the exposure to investment grade corporate credit is the largest risk in the asset allocation.

Today, however, we need to reconsider the glide path approach for two reasons. First, higher funding levels and lower volatility asset allocations have reduced pension risk to a very low level already. And second, the rules that govern mandatory plan contributions have been dialed back to the point that contribution risk is minimal, if not nonexistent. It is very hard to see the value in further concentration in long-duration bonds.

Given this backdrop, plan sponsors need a course correction. Theyve already done an enormous amount of de-risking consider that volatility is dramatically reduced even in plans that are only 50% hedged. Pushing further down the glide path rapidly becomes inefficient. That last mile is very expensive; giving up significant returns to reduce volatility only slightly makes it an extremely costly form of hedging. If the risk of large mandatory contributions was a serious concern, this behavior might be justified, but it is not.

This brings us to an inflection point in pension strategy. What I think of as LDI 3.0, or as we describe it to our clients, Pension Stabilization, is a more balanced approach than traditional LDI. It aims for a long-term blend of modest excess return and low volatility but not the lowest possible volatility. Its definitely not a journey back to 1999 when plans were seeking high returns and ran 12-15% annualized funding volatility. A stabilization strategy begins when a plan approaches full funding and adopts a sensibly de-risked and diversified asset allocation, allowing for the gradual improvement in funding across time while preserving numerous positive financial benefits for the sponsor. I expect that many sponsors will see the appeal of taking this off-ramp from an outdated glide path.

Simply put, its impossible to perfectly hedge pension liabilities with financial assets. For starters, you cant hedge the actuarial risks around participant behavior and people living longer. The sponsor must bear these costs through increased returns or contributions.

Additionally, the fixed income portfolios that are used to hedge liabilities will experience downgrades and defaults. The liabilities wont change, but there will be performance drag across time. A more diversified stabilization strategy can still out-earn the liabilities over the long run and that drag from credit losses will just be noise. But when assets are concentrated in fixed income, the drag becomes more difficult to outrun. This is the critical flaw in most hibernation strategies. An LDI portfolio comprised of long-duration corporate bonds and Treasuries will slowly burn through its excess capital.

We really need to get away from the notion that, as the hedge portfolio grows in size it should become more and more concentrated in corporate credit. The exact opposite is true. Hedge portfolios need to become more diversified. Treasuries certainly have a role to play, though their lack of yield is a concern. Long-duration, securitized fixed income and high yield bonds are also useful options, but the list doesnt end there. Its instructive to observe the investing behavior of life insurance companies, who are managing the risks of annuity portfolios that are quite similar to pension liabilities; these firms are large holders of securitized assets, crossover portfolios that incorporate high yield bonds, structured credit and mezzanine debt.

The other path to de-risking begins in the return-seeking portfolio. Investors today have access to a far more diverse set of low-to-moderate volatility alternative asset classes that can deliver stable excess performance versus liabilities without the high volatility and low correlation of equities. Many of these asset classes are also capable of delivering a high level of distributable income, which is a valuable resource for a benefit-paying institution.

I hope so. The historical volatility of defined benefit pensions and the uncertainty surrounding contributions convinced many sponsors that they were too risky to maintain. This is simply untrue. A well-funded and prudently managed DB plan has powerful benefits that a DC plan simply cannot replicate. When we consider the recovery in DB plan funding and the evolution of pension asset allocation over the past 20 years, there should be a conversation in corporate America about preserving what remains of the DB system. While I am not convinced we will see closed plans reopen or new plans created, its worth considering. In a period of rising wages and highly competitive labor markets, the original purpose of defined benefit plans comes back into focus: proving a tax-advantaged, investment-driven vehicle for delivering competitive benefits to employees.

I would love to see pension stabilization evolve to become the standard model. Im encouraged because I do see many well-funded plans adopting elements of this approach. Consultants are getting behind this trend as well, although some continue to view the pieces independently rather than as a holistic framework that can challenge the glide path/hibernation/termination model.

I think we may be close to the high-water mark for traditional LDI strategies. With current interest rates and credit spreads, managers know that a dollar put into a traditional LDI strategy today is almost never going to outperform liabilities going forward. Conditions may change, but from where we stand today, its hard to envision those LDI frameworks remaining static. There are just too many better ways develop a risk-efficient pension strategy outside of them.

JP Morgan has a 150-year history of serving as a fiduciary to our clients; I cant overstate the importance of that legacy to the present-day JP Morgan Asset Management. We also have the broadest cross-section of investment strategies of any manager in the business, each of which is built around the premise that highly skilled, independent investment teams can deliver specialized strategies while drawing on the collective resources of the broader organization. Unlike some firms that implictly guide clients to the particular strategy in which they specialize, we want clients to make the best possible strategic decision because we are confident that we will find a way to partner with them in implementing it.

With respect to pension stabilization, the merits of the approach speak for themselves. As clients look to implement this type of program, they will need to reconsider their exposures to traditional hedging and return-generating assets as well as new forms of diversifiers. For hedge portfolios, weve been at the forefront of long-duration securitized investing and have a long history of success in high yield and mezzanine debt. Within the realm of alternative diversifiers, we tend to highlight the powerful income generation and diversification benefits of core real assets with a very strong platform across real estate, infrastructure, and transportation.

JP Morgan also has a long history of working with institutional clients in discretionary management and delegated solutions. Pension plans may not have the internal resources and operational flexibility to execute a sophisticated asset allocation that takes advantage of the full investment opportunity set. A number of sponsors are currently using our delegated platform and its full spectrum of assets to outperform liabilities in a risk-aware manner, and we think this business model will continue to grow.

The current path to hibernation and termination is a dead end. Specialized LDI managers arent going to give plan sponsors the unbiased advice that they need. Diverse, forward-thinking managers and consultants can help redirect clients to change course with full-spectrum strategies that maintain positive returns while still managing volatility. We want plans to get fully funded and stay fully funded. Pension stabilization can achieve both and help ensure their pensions are once again able to be a source of value.

Learn more about pension stabilization strategies.

View original post here:

Special Report: Pension Fund Stabilization and the Evolution of LDI - Institutional Investor

The El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) pulled off an incredible two-week programme of film screenings, masterclasses and workshops for their 5th edition. The fortnight of films culminating in a glamourous red-carpet awards ceremony. The annual event is a key platform for Arab Cinema and it also continues to attract submissions from international filmmaking talent.

There were questions as to whether the event would go ahead after a fire broke out just 24 hours before the opening in the Festival Plaza. As the world of Arab Film descended on El Gouna attention was focused on Arab cinema and its evolution.

Mohamed Hefzy is the producer of Feathers, which won the Best Arab Narrative Film at the closing ceremony. He said the Arab Film world is rapidly developing in terms of both features and documentaries.

We're feeling more support for Arab cinema now with new festivals and new funds that are being created. We're also seeing, a new industry coming out in Saudi Arabia, and an audience that is quite huge in terms of not just population, but in terms of passion for cinema and spending power.

He also told Euronews that it opens up the market to a bigger audience.

So, it's an exciting time to be a filmmaker or a content creator from the Middle East, he said.

Egyptian Actress, Sara Abdulrahman, said over the last 10 years, things have really taken off in Arab Cinema.

Now there's a lot of smaller, shorter formats that are being made, and this is great for the industry because that means there are more productions and more stories to be told.

Arab Cinema has a continued reputation for breaking down barriers and stereotypes, and often at times, making a political statement. Many countries also experienced a spike in film production after they gained independence.

Costa Brava, Lebanon, is a family drama set against the backdrop of a climate crisis. It received two awards at the festival.

Lebanese actress Yumna Marwan who plays Alia said making the film was cathartic as she had already left Lebanon due to instability in the country.

I came to do the film and it was literally also me returning to my country and having to face everything the character does, adding,

So just this whole journey, after the blast to come back to Lebanon and be with them. That was the most important thing. I think it sheds light on a lot of things that are happening locally, but it's also very global and what it's trying to say.

'Captains of Zaatari' is a tale of two friends who are Syrian refugees in a camp, with big dreams of becoming footballers. On winning the Best Arab Feature Documentary award, Egyptian director Ali El Arabi said it was emotional for the whole team.

This is not just for me, it's for the many thousands and thousands of refugees around the world. And I'm happy because I'm in my home country and all the people loved and watched the film and gave me amazing feedback.

The consensus of the industry over the festival was that great work was happening in the Arab Film industry but more support was needed at a grassroots level.

British-Egyptian Actor, Amir al-Masri, said he would like to see more platforms that help up and coming directors and writers and nurture new talent.

They are doing that, but I'd like to see more of it, for sure. Across the board, not just here in the Middle East, but everywhere around the world.

Feathers producer, Mohamed Hefzy said going forward he would like to see more support for Arab Cinema and independent filmmakers from their respective governments. He told Euronews that would like to see the films do well outside of the festival circuit.

Commercially speaking, in terms of audiences embracing it, for example, what happened with Parasite, that great film from South Korea, I mean, we would love to have another film that does something like that.

He also said he would like to build on recent success and drive Arab cinema forward.

I think that's the next step. And I'm hoping that with more films being produced and better films being produced that that's going to happen soon.

More here:

The evolution of Arab Cinema - Euronews

As a pitcher, Arkansas baseball legend Kevin Kopps is as precise as they come. For the Razorbacks, he threw for a program-record ERA of .90 in 2021 and struck out 131 batters, the third-most in Hogs history.

Kopps built toward that amazing season with a workout routine and structure that went beyond the scope of what most college athletes are willing to do. Regularity and routine, however, have been far from the norm in this next stage of Kopps life.

In a recent exclusive interview, Kevin Kopps told me about his embrace of chaos in his new life, as well as a host of other topics including his thoughts on whether a statue should be built to him in Fayetteville. We also discussed the relievers time in the minors and what he must do to reach the majors as well as discussing what he misses about playing for the Hogs.

Ive been doing well, Kevin Kopps said. It was an easy adjustment, in my opinion. Arkansas was run similar to the Padres. So, it wasnt too bad.

Kopps is working his way up the ladder in the San Diego Padres system. However, It is a familiar situation for him.

It reminds me when youre in high school you got to work your way back up the totem pole to make the varsity team, Kopps said. And its not really glorious until you make the varsity team.

Kopps is coming off of one of the most historic seasons in collegiate baseball. He boasted a 12-1 record with 11 saves. Kopps had that record-shattering 0.90 ERA and 0.76 WHIP with 131 strikeouts in 89.2 innings.

That amazing season earned Kopps a spot in the third round of the 2021 MLB draft, 99th overall.

Moving from collegiate baseball to the professional ranks has not slowed him down.

Even knowing that its going to be good and knowing that God has a plan for me and trusting in that and still having the year I did, (the Draft is) still really stressful for some reason, Kopps said. And I wasnt even doing anything. My agents were taking care of all of it. But it is still stressful. But once we got that call, we just celebrated. My family and I. My parents teared up and it was a good day after that.

Kopps started out in the Rookie League, allowing one run in 4.2 innings and striking out 10 batters. He moved up to High A in Fort Wayne. He pitched eight shutout innings over eight appearances and struck out another 10 hitters. He pitched two innings in Double A San Antonio before the season ended, not allowing a hit.

Overall, Kopps has pitched 14.2 innings in professional baseball, striking out 22 opponents and allowing one run on five hits and six walks. He has a 0.61 ERA and 0.75 WHIP as a professional pitcher.Kopps was one of only two of the Padres draft picks to make at High Single-A this season.

Combined with what he did with the Razorbacks, Kopps has put some video game numbers:

Kopps managed the transition from SEC baseball to minor league baseball well. He already had an idea about how hard the minor leagues would be.

It was kind of similar to what I was expecting, Kopps said. I had heard that SEC baseball falls somewhere in between High A and AA and thats what I got.

Kopps is still dominating on the mound, despite different circumstances. He does miss some things from his Arkansas baseball days, however.

I miss how passionate all the fans are, Kopps said. I dont think you really get that back until you start making your way to the big leagues. So I would say thats probably what I miss most about it.

Still, Kopps for the most part is enjoying the new scenery as he gets to live in different parts of the nation.

I think what Ive enjoyed the most is just learning more about the game, Kopps said. I think every level I get to, I feel like Ive learned pretty much everything I can learn about the game.

But theres always new things. And it always blows my mind that theres more to learn. Because just being in the game for 20 years, you think you know Like I was just saying, you think you know everything and then theres a bunch of different aspects that are brought in and going to those levels taught me different things.

Changing cities does not seem to phase Kopps. Hes had fun and dominated in every city hes played for.

I think its fun. I think thats why I like the league, Kopps said. The unknown or maybe the chaos or the lack of structure. I just like it. I dont know why. Ive always liked to live like that. And I think it helps. Coming out of the bullpen and in the profession Im in.

Kopps says he likes to live in such a lack of structure and its why he likes coming out of the bullpen. The chaos started the day he was drafted.

The day after (the Draft), or a day or two after (the Draft), I got another call and they were like okay, youre going (here, and) your flights in a day. Youre coming here. And thats all they told me. And I didnt know how much to pack. I didnt know what I needed. I didnt know anything. Just like, all right, youre getting on the flight here. Youre heading up here. And I think that was the most exciting part. Just kick starting the adventure.

Although many things have changed for Kevin Kopps, his mindset has stayed the same.

I didnt really change (my mentality) at all, said the 24-year-old Kopps. I have to focus just on winning the game and just what I need do need to do to win. Thats what I stuck to this year and its worked for me. If I start focusing on other things like, before I go out focusing on hitting, I dont know, I want to go three up three down, then I start to actually lose my focus thinking about that. So I just focus on winning.

Arkansas is a top program, so naturally the system is run similarly to pro farm system. So is the coaching.

Its really not super different, Kopps said. Just at Arkansas, I really only hung out with the pitching coaches and stuff like that. We were more separated and thats how its here. And the coaching style Coach [Matt] Hobbs coaching style is, I would say very similar.

He wants you to learn yourself and ask him questions rather than him always going up to you. And thats what they do with pro ball. Theyll give you help and feedback, but I think they want you to be more interested in yourself, learn yourself. Because I think thats how you get to the big leagues, is not needing someone to hold your hand all the time. But they do. Its more like you go up to them and ask them questions and theyll help you, correct you.

I really think thats the best way to learn in any situation, is figuring out on your own and just having guidance. Because if someones always telling you the answer and you dont really learn it. You just follow instructions.

Despite the success, Kopps is still finding ways to improve. Hes been working on his sinker in order to progress towards the major leagues.

I think I started cutting it a little bit, Kopps said. So Ive been just working on getting on top of it again.

He is aware of where he needs to improve going forward. Thats part of why he was able to improve so much in his college career.

I expect that if I dont get my fastball going itll be much harder for me to keep those guys off of it, Kopps said. Because as hitters The difference between college and these guys, is I think college guys try to adjust to the pitcher. Whereas I dont think the AA hitters do so much adjusting. Because their swings are so good. So, I think it would be hard to just throw a slider all the time. So I think that might be a challenge to learn.

Kevin Kopps is a prime example of why young athletes should never give up. He was not a highly recruited player coming out of high school and he was not a standout pitcher in college for his first few years. Heading into the 2021 season, he even doubted whether the Arkansas baseball coaches wanted him back at all.

He was a high IQ player who worked hard at his craft and now hes rapidly approaching the major leagues. He is an example for young players to follow and his message to the younger generation represents that.

Just that any foundation of everything is built on your relationship with God, Kopps said. So thats the most important and thats what I focused on a lot this year. And just to remember that baseballs a wild card sport. And thats why theres so many rounds in the draft. And it just takes one good year for someone to figure it out.

I think theres multiple stories about guys that one year just clicks for them. And if you decide to give up one year, the next year could have been your year. And I was almost to that point last year. So, just to keep with it.

Kopps has earned numerous awards this year and is going to be a major leaguer sooner than later, but he remains as down to earth as ever. He wants everyone to remember him as Kevin the person, not the baseball player.

I guess I stay humble, because I just feel like Kevin. Ive never really felt any different with whatever I win, Kopps said. And I guess I just want people to like me for being Kevin, not just the Golden Spikes winner. So, I dont know. I think thats why I stay humble. Its really cool to me and its fun. But I just like being Kevin.

Toward the end of last season, the Razorbacks publicity team even pushed for a statue of Kopps in front of Baum-Walker Stadium.

I think its fun and good, Kopps said. I think theres a couple other guys that are deserving of a statue if Im going to get one. But I think its fun. I saw that Van Horn got one and hes well deserving of that. Im really glad that he got memorialized in that way.

Kevin Kopps will soon be a Major League Baseball player and may very well have a statue outside of Baum-Walker stadium, but he remains humble and appreciative. His message to Arkansas baseball fans is one of gratitude.

Just a thank you to all of them for just always being there and always supporting the games. They were fans before I was Kevin Kopps this year. Even when I was bad, they were still Kevin Kopps fans. I have a lot of really good memories of people coming up to me before I was who I was.

So I just appreciate that.

Listen to my entire interview with Kevin Kopps here:

Here is the original post:

Chaos Theory: Kevin Kopps' Unexpected Evolution in the Pros - Best of Arkansas Sports

Getty Images

It's been an incredible week for shiba inu, the meme coin that rallied 150% and overtook dogecoin, another earlier cryptocurrency with a cute puppy mascot as well.

But while both coins started as jokes, they are now among the top 10 largest digital assets by market valuation, according to CoinMarketCap. And that may be a sign of what's to come as cryptocurrencies continue to grow.

"They're part of the evolution of digital finance in their own unique way," Chris Kline, co-founder of Bitcoin IRA, told Insider.

He acknowledged that some coins may not withstand the test of time and wonders how many meme coins the industry can sustain.

But regardless of which specific ones survive, Kline is confident meme tokens, in general, are here to stay.

"That's my big thing is that they obviously are part of the crypto revolution. They're here. They're a piece of this concept," he said.

The examples of shiba inu and dogecoin illustrate key features of meme coins.

Shiba inu was founded in August 2020 with the goal of moving away from "rigid social structures and traditional mindsets." Dogecoin was founded in December 2013 in the hopes of becoming the "fun and friendly internet currency."

What these meme coins have in common, among other things, is the community behind them, Kline said. And many crypto investors can be put into two categories.

First, there are those who want to take down traditional financial establishments. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the widening disparity of the country's rich and poor. A decade earlier, the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged to protest against economic inequality.

Kline draws a throughline between the two events. "Crypto actually came to being right around that," he said, referring to bitcoin's creation in October 2008.

The second crypto-investor category is those who want to see money evolve. These investors bemoan the intricate labyrinth of instructions and restrictions banks put them through in contrast to the quick, anonymous, and cheap transactions available 24/7 that cryptos are known for, Kline said.

He isn't surprised at the resistance from regulators and traditionalists. Every disruption has been met with opposition, but at the end of the day "crypto is consensus-driven," he added.

For now, however, Kline said investors should expect more volatility.

"The market is still in a very speculative stage at this point," he told Insider. "It's going to come down to adoption and utility."

More:

Shiba inu and other meme tokens are part of finance's evolution, expert says - Markets Insider

Its close on 60 years since, as an eager recruit to the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), I joined in a march from Aldermaston to Londons Trafalgar Square.

I found myself in a Scottish contingent and happily borrowed their accent in a swinging protest chorus of Och, och, get oot o Holy Loch, for we dinnae want Polaris! That was the Scottish navy base for British submarines armed with US-built Polaris ballistic nuclear missiles.

Today, Wikipedia tells me, four of the UKs Vanguard submarines, each with up to 16 Trident nuclear ballistic missiles, are stationed in the Clyde, 40km west of Glasgow. So much for all our marching. So much, probably, for all the appeals by protesters this weekend at the strongly defended fringes of Cop26.

What were we in CND afraid of? Just the death of western civilisation, I suppose. But todays protesters hoist placards about a need to save the planet and protect the future of the human race.

As an aged 88-year-old atheist, I have no fancies of an afterlife. And while Im allowed some fellow feeling with the Cop26 protesters, years of acquaintance with evolutionary biology may have shaped a cooler view of humanitys place in the natural world and the planets ability to shrug us off when its done with us.

Stephen Jay Gould had much to do with such engagement. This brilliant American scientist, who died in 2002, once knelt in thick dust on top of glass cabinets in the Natural History Museum to measure the antler span of giant Irish deer. He went on, as Harvards leading palaeontologist and a prolific and popular writer, to radicalise ideas on the origins and influence of human life on Earth.

In Goulds theory of punctuated equilibrium, it was the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs by a meteoric impact that paved the road for evolution of mammals, including humans. Our arrival as an accident of nature is presented in his fascinating book Wonderful Life, downloadable for free online.

That were a remarkably able freak of evolution is greatly due to the size of our brains. In his book Sapiens, a primer on human history, Israels Yuval Noah Harari charts the extraordinary growth in brain size from the several earlier versions of humans to our modern average of 1,200 to 1,400 cubic centimetres.

Why that happened, we dont know. But our leap to the top of Earths food chain as the planets dominant predator seems to have been sudden too sudden, as Harari fears, to have relinquished our fears and anxieties as earlier underdogs of the savannah. This has left us seemingly confident, but, he suggests, doubly cruel and dangerous and perhaps also unable to trust each other in addressing a planetary crisis.

Our giant brains could, on the other hand, fit the final world scenario from Britains James Lovelock, still eagerly attentive at 101.

As originator of Gaia, the revolutionary concept of Earth as a living, self-regulating organism, Lovelock sees humanity as a freakish one-off, alone in the universe. But in his latest book, Novacene, he greeted with a shout of joy the creation of computer-generated artificial intelligence that can think and act 10,000 times faster than mere mammals.

While Lovelock acknowledges our planet as old and frail, its life increasingly threatened by global warming and random asteroids, he thinks that humans will eventually engage with this hyperintelligence, becoming cyborgs in a partnership to defend a living Earth.

As this new life improves and replicates itself, he argues, the natural selection of Darwin will be replaced by much faster, intentional, cyborg-driven selection. We must recognise, he concludes, that the evolution of cyborgs may soon pass from our hands.

This chilling, elitist view of the human future is not one likely to appeal to the young protesters in Glasgow. Nor might the reminder, from Gould and many others, that the planet is well able to survive an ultimate interlude of human desecration. This might leave its biodiversity reduced to bacteria, insects and mites, but on geological scales, our planet will take good care of itself and let time clear the impact of human malfeasance.

The cooler evolutionary view of homo sapiens as a species with big brains and backache does offer some perspective to an aged specimen like me. But such resignation is not the business of the young. With many and urgent meantimes in their future, they will fight against the procrastinating pseudo-cyborgs at Cop26 or the risk of succession by beetles and mites.

See the article here:

Another Life: We're a remarkably able freak of evolution due to the size of our brains - The Irish Times