Category Archives: Mind Uploading

This article was written for our sponsor, Ting Internet.

Having a reliable and secure Internet connection is more critical now than ever. With work-from-home and remote learning, theres never been more demand on your home network. Fiber Internet gives customers speeds and dependability that standard copper connections simply cant match.

Fiber-optic Internet is a relatively new technology, and many people may not know why switching over will save you time and give you more peace of mind. Here are the top five reasons to make the switch to fiber from a traditional network so you can enjoy blazing speeds and unparalleled stability.

Standard copper networks often have massive disparities between upload and download speeds. You might have decent download speeds with brutally slow uploads, making telecommuting or uploading videos a frustrating task.

Todd Rubin, Regional Manager for fiber optic provider Ting Internet, says by bringing fiber directly to the home (FTTH), latency is greatly reduced because of faster communication with the server, also known as ping.

Latency is how fast data is transmitted, says Rubin. Its measured in milliseconds, and the average ISP has latency speeds between 30 and 50 ms. With fiber optics moving at the speed of light, latency can be significantly reduced. So if youre transmitting, uploading, and downloading your files, its going to go a lot quicker.

With Ting Internet, upload and download speeds mirror one another, reducing tasks that would take 10 to 20 minutes on a copper connection down to mere seconds. Additionally, symmetrical speeds help support the growing number of devices attached to home networks, including smart home features, without compromising your connection.

Copper networks can be thrown offline for a variety of reasons. They werent made with a forward-looking approach. In fact, the wires were initially designed for voice calls, so theres a limit to how much they can transmit.

Its not just the devices youre using at the moment, says Rubin. You also have your TV, your different smart home appliances, your security system. All of those things are working simultaneously and all need to run seamlessly without interruption or lag.

Outdated systems are also susceptible to outages from inclement weather or large temperature fluctuations and become bogged down when theres high demand. Fiber networks like Ting Internets wont go down during severe weather and can handle as many users as you can throw at it. While copper wires have limitations, the only things keeping fiber from being faster are the devices that use it.

Coaxial Internet connections can be tampered with relatively easily. With a simple splice, bad actors can gain access to copper Internet connections. A fiber network uses light to transmit data, which makes stealing much more difficult. Splicing into fiber connections is exceptionally complicated, adding an extra level of security to your network.

The true potential of fiber-optic Internet has yet to be reached. As technology evolves with routers and devices getting faster, fiber lines will meet the challenge. Data travels through the glass at lightspeed, and as increased rates become the norm, fiber lines can get even faster.

Currently, Ting Internet offers 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) symmetrical speeds, which is the top speed available to consumers. As technology evolves, this could be on the lower end of the speed spectrum. Fiber Internet will speed up as fast as devices allow, while copper lines will need to be updated or replaced outright to have a chance.

Because fiber Internet will meet future demands, you wont have to worry about future upgrade costs.

Fiber transmits communications with pulses of light through glass strands. Because of this, its basically the speed of light and an extremely efficient process, says Tim Herzog, Ting Internet senior manager of field operations. To this date, nobody has ever put enough through it to max its capacity. So its only limited by the electronics that provide light to the glass.

This article was written for our sponsor, Ting Internet.

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Five reasons to choose fiber Internet over traditional networks - WRAL Tech Wire

Transhumanists have hyped the new religion of high technology for decades now. The basic idea, fairly prevalent in Silicon Valley, is that rapid advances in scientific knowledge and tech innovation will culminate in our de facto omniscience and omnipotence. Even though humanity is lost in a godless cosmos, digital devices will allow us to transcend our ape-like forms.

As Googles Ray Kurzweil famously quipped, Does God exist? I would say, Not yet.

One day soon, they promise, well use artificial intelligence to overcome the limits of our meat-based cognition. According to Yuval Noah Hararis 2015 best-seller Homo Deus, computer programmers will realize the age-old fantasies of shamans and prophets by creating a virtual version of the spiritual realm. These Davos darlings are certain God is dead, but Google still wants to patent His best ideas.

Ultimately, they hope to replicate the fabric of ourselves in cyberspace, where we can all live happily ever after that is, until the electricity goes out. A recent paper by Russian transhumanist Alexey Turchin argues this digital resurrection is not only possible but necessary to reach our full potential. We just need enough power both computational and electric to create a virtual afterlife and then keep it running.

For Turchin, the solution is to construct a Dyson Sphere around the sun a megastructure 186 million miles in diameter thats covered in solar panels to capture the dying stars rays. That way, we can run the gargantuan super-computers required to house our digital selves. Sounds easy enough, I suppose. Maybe we can fill the potholes in the road while were at it.

Joining the race to boost fashionable ideas, the once sober Popular Mechanics covered Turchins work enthusiastically:

Think about the end of your life and what might happen next. If your soul exists, you continue on after death and everything is wonderful. And if it doesnt and your fate is utter demise, well, some part of you could still continue infinitely as a digital copy. Its a win-win situation in both scenarios, Turchin says.

If these lunatics convince enough people their scheme is truly working, theyll expect the rest of us to treat these gibbering clones like real people. Even worse, given the shrill demands for religious tolerance, well have to pretend we enjoy their company.

The concept behind digital resurrection goes back to the Ship of Theseus paradox, articulated by the ancient Greeks. Imagine you have a huge wooden ship. You gradually replace the rotten boards with new wood, plank by plank. Eventually, every old part has been replaced by something new. Is it not the same ship as before, only better?

Transhumanists seek to do the same with the human personality. Every neuron will be replaced by networked processors and then some. For example, to preserve himself for future immortality, Alexey Turchin submits the details of his life to ubiquitous surveillance. In addition to keeping a trivia-packed diary, he records every conversation, videotapes his behaviors, and wears an EEG headset while making art or listening to music. He has faith that one day some godlike AI will use this tedious information to resurrect him.

You could call this self-obsessed behavior a personal quirk, but Turchin is hardly alone in this endeavor. For many, its been part of the new normal since before the New Normal.

The Scan Truck is a good illustration, both literally and allegorically. Based in Los Angeles, the company developed a mobile photogrammetry studio decked out with more than 200 digital cameras to capture the uppermost, photorealistic models. The experience is like stepping into an inside-out insect eye.

Subjects who enter The Scan Trucks portable Panopticon preferably in the buff have a million pics snapped from every possible angle. The resulting composite image is then used to create a digital double. This second self includes every scar, pore, and birthmark. The service has become enormously popular among special effects specialists in the movie industry. Its also used to create hyper-realistic avatars to inhabit a virtual environment.

Clever enough, but what about ones inner self?

In line with Turchins methodology, a digital immortality industry has emerged to monitor every aspect of your life. Their services, as advertised, will create a lasting imprint of your earthly persona for friends and family to enjoy when youre gone.

Start-ups with names like Eterni.me, Replika, DeadSocial, and Deep Nostalgia are working hard to re-create deceased loved ones from photographs, home videos, personal diaries, intimate letters, second-hand anecdotes, and of course, online tracking technology. Replika offers an AI talk therapy app that probes living subjects to get at the core of their personality. The constant refrain is that we need to break down privacy barriers and become vulnerable to digital invasion.

For a modest price, this data is correlated with the subjects physical attributes. The resulting electro-wraith can then speak to the bereaved from beyond the grave. Just open your laptop, and theres your late grandma, insisting you have another plate of chicken casserole.

What about grandmas subjective soul, though that mysterious entity who watched you grow up from behind her smiling eyes?

When transhumanists tackle this issue which is less often than youd think they typically deny the existence of a stable, spiritual self thats distinct from brain activity. When the body dies, that soul will disappear. Thats why creating an electronic backup is so important.

For one thing, AI augmentation will make Grandma 2.0 smarter and less whimsical. For another, some rude guest is bound to sit in her empty chair if you dont replace her with a digital super-being.

Throughout that process, the still-embodied subject is scanned, probed, and reconstructed as a digital double. Making multiple copies is even better, but anything beats total oblivion. As years pass, the biological version will wither like a butterfly cocoon. The digital double will soar into the future on a cloud of 1s and 0s.

For those guided by materialist philosophies where transcendence is only available via physical means theres no better way to overcome the finality of death. Naturally, transhumanists tend to see people who believe in a spiritual existence beyond this mortal coil as quaint at best. As a quaint heathen myself, I suspect their well-heeled megalomania is far more irrational than any traditional religion.

These technocratic delusions are only a problem to the extent were forced to participate. Im content to live my life as a caveman and let others become cyborgs, so long as they keep their crossed wires to themselves. Thats not the world theyre creating, though. The insidious elements of their techno-cult from materialist self-obsession to ubiquitous surveillance have crept into our daily lives for decades now.

Consider the widespread adoption of monitored electronic communication. In olden times, the idea that our most intimate letters could be intercepted, analyzed, and added to detailed personal dossiers kept by tech executives and government agents to be used at their pleasure would be laughable. Today, its as routine as driving a few blocks to the grocery store.

In the blink of an eye, we saw the rapid migration of personal interaction to social media. Its now normal to document a childs life for public consumption by total strangers. For many, the privacy barriers have already been broken down. Weve made ourselves vulnerable. The craziest part is that most have enjoyed it.

The next steps in this supposedly inevitable process are just over the horizon. After years of stops and starts, virtual reality will soon be as commonplace as a television set. Many youngsters already idolize virtual influencers who dance across their touchscreens. These bubblegum apparitions are elaborate, entirely fictitious pop stars made from scratch by devious programmers. Some kids have no clue theyre not real people.

For years now, men of fighting age have retreated into video games. Would-be mothers are using dating apps to run out the biological clock. Having been conditioned by porn for generations, wealthy incels are sleeping with eerily convincing silicone dolls. Super-real sexbots are just around the corner.When the snozzberries taste like snozzberries, youll know the end is nigh.

In all of this, we see an increasing detachment from the real world of visceral struggle, heartbreak, and redemption. Without these challenges, people dont develop character or deep social bonds. Anime-obsessed man-babies are a symptom of this tendency. The insane desire for digital immortality is another.

Technocracy is being normalized at an alarming pace. If a population can be convinced that kids need state-supplied hormone blockers to become self-realized, its only a matter of time before theyre ready to upload their souls to corporate data banks. In fact, just hack into their smartphone and youll see theyre already doing it.

One of the darker tenets of the techno-cult is that their innovations are necessary for survival. Anyone who chooses to reject body modification, cognitive enhancement, or mind-uploading will be like job applicants who come to an interview with no smartphone or social media account. Theyll get left in the dust.

In a competitive technocracy, organic humans are doomed to extinction. Trendy cyborgs will transition to digital immortality, while the rest of us become fossils. To the extent that Big Tech holds sway over our lives, its a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yet the transhumanists have it backward at least in the long run. The Egyptians were convinced they would reign forever, as were the Romans. Ultimately, however, their arrogance proved futile. The same will be said of Silicon Valley oligarchs and their consumerist disciples. One day, immortal digital souls will be displayed in museums like crumbling marble statues.

Until then, wed be wise to build high fences as nature takes its course. Were still free to choose our own paths. This is a spiritual conflict on their terms, but Im keeping faith that anything is possible.

Originally posted here:

Transhumanists Aim To Replace God With Machines In Digital Immortality - The Federalist

The stark lines between higher education and corporate training in the e-learning space are starting to blur. The philosophies, methodologies and objectives for teaching and training are vastly different, and, as a result, the technologies that support each have also diverged with very little cross over. Now, corporate training and higher education are discovering there are benefits for both sides when they partner to offer cross-training solutions and share content.

The increased presence of digital learning that has risen during the past year, combined with the need to develop (and redevelop) a skilled workforce, presents opportunities for higher education and corporate training to work together. The challenge is bridging the technology gap, as the systems that support these distinct learners have never had to work and play nicely together.

Distinct approaches

Higher education focuses on teaching foundational concepts and tends to be more abstract, whereas employee training provides hands-on, practical experiences that go beyond having knowledge of a subject. While the two are quite often complementary, learning is more theoretical while training is about practical application and skills development.

In order to understand the technological variances between higher education and corporate learning management systems, its helpful to review some of the primary differences that have contributed to the dramatically disparate digital platform designs that underpin each.

Learner intent

For higher education, content and technologies are developed with the requirements of the student learner in mind. Traditionally, it was assumed that learning and education were a students top priority, with longer periods of time spent learning and focusing on developing the foundation of knowledge. Learning occurs primarily in a classroom setting with textbooks, assignments, papers, assessments and exams. LMSs that target higher education were specifically designed to supplement in-class lectures or to resemble the in-person classroom model in course duration and learning style.

Corporate learning needs are typically more immediate and must fit into an employees existing work schedule. In most cases, training is more specific in nature and is centered on a particular skill set. Corporate learners often require just-in-time training to perform their jobs and to answer questions as they arise. Learners dont have time to acquire critical skills over the course of months or even hours, and corporate LMSs were designed specifically with these limitations in mind. Microlearning is a great example of just-in-time, on-the-job training that doesnt translate well in the academic world.

The definition of a course across the higher education and corporate audiences illustrates this distinction well. College courses span multiple weeks and consist of a variety of modalities and assignments while courses in the corporate world are discrete activities assigned to employees with the expectation that completion will take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

Measuring success

Another clear difference between the two is that corporate training doesnt usually evaluate employees course completion in the same way that universities grade students. Going back to the objectives of both, we can understand how the metrics of each will differ.

Success for a student learner would mean passing the semester-long course, which consists of multiple activities within it that roll together to determine a final grade. Activities might be scored individually (think assessments), but the collective participation is what ultimately determines a final grade or completion.

On the corporate side, metrics are captured at the specific activity level with the goal of reporting on who has taken what courses, whether they passed a course and even how much time was spent on the activity. These metrics facilitate reporting and measuring the impact training has on employee performance and the overall business. This can also take the form of audits for compliance training or skills-based training for better job performance.

As a result of these unique needs, the majority of available LMSs cater to one audience only. In many cases, the LMS that a university uses to educate its students is not the same system used to train its employees and staff.

The technology divide

Its not an accident that the LMSs and platforms that support higher education and corporate training are designed so differently. There are distinct goals that drive the architecture of each type of system.

Lets return to the course example. A professor builds a course in the higher ed LMS that includes multiple components and activities, many of which might be elective or supplementary to the overall course subject. Some components of the course might be assignments or assessments that are graded, but the course within the academic LMS is designed to act as a container, housing multiple types of activities that students access over the course of several weeks. Higher ed LMSs are intentionally designed to support the idea of a long-running, instructor-led curriculum, with a final total grade as the measurement.

On the corporate side, an LMS administrator might build a course by uploading a single piece of content, like a file or video asset, and assign it to employees to complete within a very narrowly defined timeframe. The concept of a course is more transactional and discrete in this case. Corporate-centric LMSs are designed to support this model with built-in authoring tools, content library integrations, and reporting and analytics to track and measure the impact of each individual training activity.

Specific standards

Not only are the LMSs for higher education and corporate training architected differently, the standards used for each audience are not the same. E-learning standards are an important detail to consider as they allow software, content and systems from independent vendors to function well together without custom work for each combination of systems. The standards make it easier to know which content and systems will be compatible with one another.

For higher education, Learning Tools Interoperabilityis the most commonly used standard. LTI helps to standardize connections between LMSs (known as Platforms or Tool Consumers in the spec) and learning applications or content libraries (known as Tools or Tool Providers). LMS and learning tool providers use LTI to handle the launch and authentication requirements to securely and seamlessly connect learners from an LMS with external services and content. If you want to provide your content to higher education institutions, its highly recommended that you consider using LTI to integrate or share your courseware.

On the corporate training side, SCORM emerged as the de facto standard, with SCORM 1.2 being the most universal and basic version, but xAPI and cmi5 are gaining traction due to their flexibility and robust reporting capabilities. To provide your curriculum to corporations, you will want to ask what standard their LMS supports and consider ways to make your courseware compatible.

Currently, these silos and artificial distinctions between the various learning applications and the different types of content are beginning to break down. Ideally, every platform would be able to deliver every type of training in every standard, but that isnt currently the case. Corporate LMSs have generally shied away from supporting LTI, but there is evidence that adding this support could go a long way in bringing valuable higher education learning activities into the corporate space. Likewise, corporate training initiatives will have a better chance of success with higher education institutions if they present content as LTI or another supported format.

Working across the divide

Its becoming increasingly critical to have partnerships and resources available on hand to easily provide the skills and training that both corporate and student learners require. No one has time to build out a full-blown curriculum, and why should they if they can leverage one that already exists?

Benefits for corporations

Corporations are starting to see the value in offering product training and technical certification programs to students as a means to train or preskill their future workforce. Additionally, companies are realizing that they can look to higher education institutions to help supplement the ever-growing need to reskill or upskill employees as job roles shift and technologies change over time. In fact, higher education is uniquely suited to offer corporations pieces of their curriculum as short training courses, such as technical competencies, computer program training and other soft skills that are in high demand.

By partnering with higher education institutions to offer certifications and training, organizations will be able to tap into a skilled workforce that is ready to start working more quickly with less on-the-job training, skilled in the roles theyre applying for and equipped with the specific experiences the company is looking for in new hires. Companies will also be able to more easily reskill and upskill their current staff as needed, meaning theyll have the right candidates knocking on the door and the ability to continually train current employees, which is key for retention efforts.

Benefits for higher ed institutions

Universities will also see big benefits in fostering these partnerships. By collaborating with businesses and organizations in their area, they will better understand employer needs and can create and offer courses and programs to meet future workforce goals. Higher education institutions will also know what courses they offer that can be used to reskill or upskill employees who are working for their partners. To do this successfully, universities will want to discuss with their partners what career pathways employees take and how they can provide courseware to meet those needs.

Universities who offer curricula that include relevant job skills and certifications that employers desire in new hires will provide their graduates with a strong foundation for entering the workforce. In many cases, these programs will help recent graduates secure higher starting salaries as they come in with valuable professional certifications and more practical knowledge early on. Ultimately, students choose to pursue higher education as a means to find good jobs that they enjoy and to become gainfully employed shortly after graduation. Students who reach those objectives are more likely to be happier, well compensated and think positively about the university that helped them reach their goals.

Partnerships in action

Several large organizations have already started breaking down the silos and reaping the benefits of partnering with universities. A great example is AWS Academy, which supplies professors at higher education institutions with free cloud computing courseware to assist students in earning certifications and gaining technical skills needed to find in-demand technology jobs. The content is available via LTI to institutions, making it more accessible for instructors and educators to incorporate into their existing curriculum.

Conclusion

With the ongoing pandemic and the way we learn and work changing, there will certainly be new challenges and opportunities for both higher education institutions and corporate training partnerships. These changes have already caused universities to consider virtual learning on a larger scale and shifting to online formats as a longer-term strategy, both of which have future growth potential. Similarly, many organizations had to quickly pivot and adapt to using online technologies at a much higher rate than ever before, including for onboarding, continuing education, reskilling and upskilling due to workplace disruption.

Organizations can use their content to form partnerships with universities, and universities can leverage this content to supply those organizations with future employees who are equipped with the in-demand skills and certifications for which those companies are actively recruiting. The future demands higher education and corporations work together to shape a more skilled workforce. The challenge is breaking down the technology barriers that have developed over time in order for this to become a reality.

Tammy Rutherford is the managing director at Rustici Software, which helps e-learning companies work well together by compliance with specifications such as SCORM, xAPI and cmi5. She has spent more than 13 years in the e-learning space. To comment, email editor@clomedia.com.

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At a crossroads: the intersection of higher education and corporate training - Chief Learning Officer

What is Strava?

Strava is a well-known digital platform for multisport tracking where users can make free accounts and become a part of the Strava community. Once joined, you can record and upload workouts, add friends and like each others activities, known as giving kudos. The platform has a smartphone app that can sync directly with your smart watch or bike computer, you can include photos and comments on uploaded activities and join various challenges, as well as set yourself distance goals each month. Strava is the Swedish word for strive and the company aim to promote an ethos of personal development, acceptance and mutual encouragement across their users.

Many beginners may be enticed by sporty friends to download Strava and keep track of their activities, whilst becoming part of a wider online sporting community. This can be useful to get to grips with different routes in your area, compare your performance over time, and a useful means to start holding yourself accountable for keeping fit. Best of all, all your sporty friends probably already have Strava, and you can link up with them, have a nose into what theyre up to, and impress with your own fitness escapades.

Recently, Strava has introduced a subscription option where only paid members can access tools such as route builder, goal setting, training plans and fitness over time analyses. Arguably most useful, though, is the ability to create routes, which you can then upload to your fitness device and follow on the fly. As for whether you should invest in this, its worth really considering your reasons for using the app and what you find useful. If you are new to an area or often like to explore new places, it may be worth investing in the 47.99/year to get access to this facility. Or if youre really into your metrics and wants all the juicy details on the development of your fitness over time, the insight of your cumulative fitness, fatigue and form can be illuminating, but bear in mind that these stats are only available if you use the app often and train with power meter and heart rate data. Also handy is the ability to take a look at your training log, which can be set to show all types of activities and give totals at the end of each week, a useful way to visualise training bulk and future training planning. Along the same vein, we liked the matched activities information available to subscribers, which allows you to compare your efforts over the the same routes over time. If you are only a casual Strava user, or are not yet Strava-obsessed, then perhaps you wouldnt get the most out of the subscription option since you can still interact with other users and upload workouts on the free version of the app.

Long-time Strava users may remember the fly-by feature where you could see a map of all Strava athletes who were also tracking their ride/runs that you come into contact with when on your own activity. This allowed you to have a nose into other local athletes training and routes and find out more on that speedy guy with the aero wheels you saw 10km into your own ride. However, this feature is now opt-in only due to safety concerns over the potential for athletes to be followed or intercepted on their workouts, especially for athletes who often follow the same route in isolated locations or during antisocial hours.

Another means to safeguard your data is to put your account on private mode and create a privacy zone to hide the exact start and end locations of activities so that your home address is not evident when uploading workouts into the community. For your loved ones peace of mind, you can choose to set up Beacon which will send a text to a designated contact with live tracking details to follow as you complete your activity. In summary, Strava can be dangerous in terms of it being a social media platform, which will always carry certain cyber risks, but the Strava team has put measures in place to protect users against harmful activity and a bit of cyber common sense should keep users safe.

What you really want to know is: what exactly the app can offer you, and is it worth creating yet another social media account? Well, lets get into it

Your profile and personal activity tracking

Like may social media profiles, you have the option to upload a photo of yourself, write a short bio, and your profile will also display your weekly totals of swim/bike/run, or whatever activities you most often do. The bottom of your profile will also show your routes, segments, posts and any gear you have inputted as often in use (this can be useful to know when you pass the 500-mile mark in one pair of trainers and it is time for new ones). Also in view is your trophy case showcasing all the challenges you have successfully completed and what clubs you are a part of. Of course, you have the option to set all of these details as private and only those whom you allow to follow you can see this information.

The Strava Community

Follow friends accounts, exchange comments and kudos on their activities, join clubs, and take a peek at their photos, whilst judging their activity name choice (yes this is a very important part of the posting process) all of this is a big part of being a Strava user and you will learn quickly that Strava scrolling can be pretty addictive. One of the major selling points to Strava is that it is now so widely used amongst the fitness community that youre bound to find people you know already on the app when you sign up, a ready-made support base of fellow sports enthusiasts just waiting for you. There are all sorts of challenges to motivate and keep you on track towards your fitness goals, these include 5k, 10k and half marathon monthly challenges, as well as total distance challenges each month, and even partner challenges like run a total of 50 miles in April to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer.

Special Strava features:

Segments Also motivating is the personal achievement tracking during activities, which lets you know when you have ran your fastest 5k, fastest split, or where you rank in the top ten on a segment (a segment is a section of road/trail and has been mapped and named as its own segment). Athletes can like to challenge themselves by racing the top times along these segments to see if they can rank a high score, we call this segment chasing and many watches and bike computers can even be set to give alters to indicate the start and end of a segment when youre out training.

KOM and QOM The KOM refers to the king of the mountain and is the fastest male athlete on a segment. QOM, you guessed it, means queen of the mountain and refers to the fastest female athlete on any given segment. These revered titles are competitively won, the name originates from gruesome mountain ascents where the fastest riders up really were treated like royalty.

Local Legend Introduced only in the past year, this title is reserved for the athlete who frequents a segment the most often out of all athletes who traverse it. Hence the name, local, this title is generally only won by locals who often ride/run along a certain segment which is likely to be in the area they live. This title is a nod towards inclusivity as it does not take into account an athletes pace or distance, this is merely about frequency, which gives athletes of any pace the chance to proudly grab the title.

Streak challenges This is a relatively new type of challenge where a user can take on a streak goal, an example of which is uploading an activity four times a week for four weeks, with each activity needing to last at least 30mins. You can check your challenge progress under the challenges tab, and you are awarded with a virtual rosette when a challenge is completed. Signing up to (free) initiatives such as this is a great way to hold yourself accountable and to commit to regular weekly exercise.

Likelihood is, if youre asking this question, then you dont have the Strava syndrome. This term is used by the Strava golden oldies, the Strava-obsessed, the avid Strava scrollers, those who spend most of their run contemplating the perfect ironic-sounding title for said run. You know who you are. If theres one drawback of Strava, or similar such sports tracking apps, its that there is a possibility to become too competitive with your peers and negatively compare your performance with theirs. This can happen to anyone. Getting too in your head and self-depreciative about your performance is nothing to be ashamed about, in an era where people now publish their exercise results across social media platforms, are we really surprised that such issues can sometimes arise? When this happens it can be helpful to bring yourself back to your why, your reason for exercising and why you love what you do. If your why has been obscured by a burning desire to create the funniest Strava post that will accrue the most kudos, perhaps it is time to gently re-evaluate your priorities and re-find your love of the sport. Remember, if its not on Strava, it did still happen, no matter what your sports watch tells you to the contrary.

Persuaded to give Strava a try? Download the app here.

Please note that all information and opinion in this article has been independently given and is not affiliated with Strava in any capacity.

Top photo illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

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What is Strava, and how does it work? - 220 Triathlon

DC has published some wild and strange iterations of Batman over the decades, but maybe no single story has ever jam-packed as many into its pages as Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Nights: Death Metal, the first collection of which hit shelves April 6.

From a monster truck, to a whole damn city, to one of the most disturbing alternative takes on a known superhero ever, Death Metal contains some of the strangest versions of the Dark Knight Detective.

After all, Death Metal is an event that takes just about every DC hero (and villain) and turns them into some version of Batman. But the series is also just the tip of the Bat-iceberg.

Here's a look at 10 of DC's kookiest and weirdest Caped Crusaders ever.

What would the Batman of a Mad Max-esque universe look like? Well, maybe something like a Batmobile monster truck.

In this Batman's world, a version of his consciousness has been uploaded into all digital technology, allowing Bruce to keep the entire world in a constant surveillance state. As one can imagine, the people of this world didn't take too kindly to being ruled by a global dictatorship so they destroyed all of the technology that bore Batman's consciousness and killed Bruce Wayne.

Unfortunately, they forgot this one monster truck, so it decided to call itself Batmobeast and team up with the Batman Who Laughs before falling to Swamp Thing. Turns out Bruce Wayne is a little less resourceful when he only has the body of a monster truck to work with.

A frequent theme in Batman comics is that Batman and Gotham City are two entities that are intrinsically tied together by fate or duty, or some combination of the two. The Castle Bat concept takes that a step further.

As Bruce Wayne gets older and watches his peers fall and his son Damian unable to take up the mantle of Batman, he takes drastic action. Sacrificing Damian in an occult ritual, Bruce is able to imbue the entire city with his being - literally becoming Gotham City itself. Castle Bat is the personification of Bruce's fear of failure - that if something were ever to happen to him then there would be no one to protect Gotham the way he has.

But that fear has made him delusional and dangerous. He teams up with the Batman Who Laughs and quickly takes over the Gotham of Earth-0 to allow Laughs and his Dark Knights to enact their reign of terror.

Here's one way to print money: combine Batman with arguably the biggest hero in Marvel's stable in the '90s, Wolverine. Of course, the Amalgam Comics team-up between Marvel and DC would only last 24 issues total, with only two of those starring Dark Claw, but the concept could have had legs.

After his parents are murdered, Logan Wayne is sent to Canada to live with his uncle. Then when his uncle is murdered, the Canadian government sends Logan to live in a foster home run by nuns. Once he's old enough, he joins the Air Force and eventually gets enlisted in the Canadian Super Soldier program, Weapon X.

That program is shut down after Logan and the only other subject are deemed ineffective. Logan is not a killing machine and his counterpart, Creed H. Quinn, has gone mad from the process. But the experiments awaken Logan's latent abilities of super senses and a healing factor. His bones were bonded with adamantium and he travels the world to further train his body and mind. When he returns to New Gotham City, a great threat has emerged, the Hyena (aka Creed Quinn), and Logan must take everything he's learned to take him down.

Dark Claw is essentially an action figure come to life, and he utilizes a variety of claw-themed gadgets including the claw-radar, claw-arangs, claw-scanner, and of course, the Claw-Copter.

He's evil. He's Batman. And he's uploaded his consciousness into a giant mechanical T. Rex. 'Nuff said, right?

There's a little bit more to Batmanasaurus Rex than that. Following the destruction of the Batcave, Bruce Wayne wonders if his fight against crime has been as futile as a T.Rex's tiny arms since he keeps allowing supervillains to live. So after his last ditch effort to save himself by uploading himself into a robotic T.Rex body, he does what anyone would do: he goes to Arkham Asylum to kill the staff and inmates. Later, he's recruited by the Batman Who Laughs.

His current whereabouts are unknown but if he hasn't been erased from existence, it seems unlikely that an evil, robot dinosaur will stay hidden for long.

If you've missed the integration of the Watchmen into the DCU over the last few years, then the existence of Batmanhattan is a helluva way to find out about it. (Be warned there are some mild spoilers for Death Metal coming.)

Spinning out of trying to reproduce the energy he notices coming off of the Comedian's Button, Bruce Wayne ends up recreating the intrinsic field generator that would give Jon Osterman his powers in Watchmen. The Batman Who Laughs traps Bruce inside the machine and, just like Osterman, it disintegrates his body until he regenerates it sometime later but is now imbued with god-like powers.

Unfortunately for Batmanhattan, the Batman Who Laughs has more than a few tricks up his sleeve and manages to lobotomize the omniscient avenger during a moment of weakness. But even still, not exactly the direction you'd imagine for the Caped Crusader.

This is another instance of the concept on its face not seeming like anything too strange until you dig into how these creators decided to execute it. The basic premise here is that in a world where an angry and violent Bruce Wayne kills his own parents as a child, he takes inspiration from robins' own invasive tendencies, to overthrow the current establishment of superheroes.

Unfortunately for the heroes of this world, even a young, deranged version of Bruce Wayne is as dangerous and resourceful as his adult counterpart. He modifies the Anti-Life Equation to create the zombie-adjacent, death-spreading Anti-Living. He melts Flash's muscles with an anti-Speed Force poison and stuffs his mom's body into Barry's Flash Ring. He arranges for Ted Kord to be eaten by a giant beetle.

The Robin King is by far one of the more intense, out-there iterations of the Dark Knight.

The Tangent Comics line of the late-90s sought to give readers a universe that was more influenced by the presence of superbeings than the DCU that readers had been used to. Dan Jurgens spearheaded the line with input from creators like Peter David, Karl Kesel, Mark Millar, Kurt Busiek, John Ostrander and more.

But their vision for Batman struck closer to something out of a Marvel UK Captain Britain comic than Bob Kane and Bill Finger's original. Sir William was one of the Knights of the Round Table. After being seduced by Morgana Le Fay and tricked into fighting King Arthur, he was cursed to never leave his castle (the aptly named Castle Bat) until he had atoned for his sins. To add insult to injury, he was also written out of every Arthurian legend.

He spent centuries alone until he realized he would project his spirit into inanimate objects. This led to the creation of his Batman persona, a red-armored hero who protected London. Batman by way of Deadman, sort of? Needless to say, the Tangent Comics line didn't last long but Sir William has popped up as recently as 2015's Convergence.

One of Grant Morrison's goals with his run on Batman was to figure out a way to make everything that had happened in the character's history to that point count in some real way. Considering the character's long history and the generally bonkers nature of the Silver Age, this would seem to be a tall task.

Originally, Zurr-En-Arrh existed as a planet where an alien scientist creates his own red and purple Batman suit as he's inspired by Bruce Wayne's adventures. The two Batmen team up to defeat some robots and Bruce goes on his merry way. But in bringing that concept into post-Crisis continuity, Morrison had his work cut out for him.

During the run, Batman's mind is erased by Simon Hurt and we find out that he has a backup personality stored in his subconscious, presumably exactly for situations like this. Triggered by the phrase "Zurr-En-Arrh," a phrase that is rooted in Bruce misremembering his father saying the words "Zorro in Arkham," Bruce takes on this psychotic personality and the last shreds of his sanity are represented by Bat-Mite, a imp from the Fifth Dimension.

Batman takes on Simon Hurt and the Black Glove. But he is actually defeated by the Joker and buried alive. The Zur-En-Arrh personality goes away over time but this remains a strange but inventive way to make the Silver Age relevant to more recent continuity.

There are two Elseworlds stories that share this name and in this entry we are specifically talking about Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #4 by Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid and Joe Staton. Mashing up Batman with other heroes and villains is one thing and even taking inspiration from famous works of film and literature is a pretty common practice but Augstyn and Waid's execution of this story is what really stands out.

After the death of Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne, a dark-haired man goes around Gotham interviewing those close to them to uncover the truth behind Batman and Bruce Wayne. This story puts Harvey and Bruce's rivalry at its center and changes the path for both characters by sparing Martha Wayne's life in the attack that would take Thomas Wayne's. As a result, Harvey and Bruce see their roles reversed - Harvey becomes a bat-themed vigilante while Bruce becomes a newspaper publisher looking to reform the city. Ultimately, a run-in with some acid leads to Harvey still taking on his scarred appearance beneath his mask and coming more violent. But Bruce still armors up to fight him in the issue's finale but this is a strange one all around.

In 2001, Stan Lee would produce his only work for DC - a short-lived imprint called "Just Imagine..." that would see The Man reinventing classic DC heroes in his trademark style. This meant an alliterative name, some twist on their origin and a new costume.

So Stan's Batman was Wayne Williams, an African-American man with no powers and a great fortune who is framed for the murder of his father. While in prison, he befriends a scientist named Frederick Grant who helps him develop his mind and body. Wayne receives a full pardon when he saves the warden during a prison riot and uses his newfound freedom to become.... a wrestling superstar that goes by the name Batman. Once he gets revenge on the man who framed him, he dedicates his life to fighting crime with Grant as his friend and confidante.

That might seem pretty standard for a Stan Lee story but Stan and artist Joe Kubert's plan for his costume left a bit to be desired. The two creators may have taken "I will become the bat!" a bit too literally and Wayne Williams ends up looking like an unfortunate cross between gargoyle and Robin Williams' character in Ferngully.

Go here to read the rest:

The time Batman turned into a monster truck and 9 of the other strangest Dark Knight incarnations - GamesRadar

Welcome to Creators on the Rise, wherein partnership with global creator company Jellysmackwe find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth.

When COVID lockdowns first kicked in last year, Brian and Marcy Klem found themselves in the same situation as millions of other parents: stuck with a houseful of kids who needed entertaining.

Luckily, they had some ideas. Ethan, 20, Jackson, 18, Lauren, 14, and Taylor, 8, are all dedicated athletes, so the Klems decided to direct that competitive energy into some friendly family challenges. Some sibling-versus-sibling competitions were more casualWho could catch the most M&Ms in their mouth? Who was the superior Starburst basketball player?while others, like the $500 and $1000 moneyball challenges, upped the ante with cash on the line.

The Klems began uploading short recordings of their contests to TikTok in March 2020 because they figured the activities keeping them occupied during quarantine might appeal to other families as well, Brian tells Tubefilter. They were right: dozens of their videos netted hundreds of thousands of views, and somelike this basketball challengecrossed into the millions.

With the popularity of those videos in mind, the Klems expanded toYouTube in October 2020, just after the platform launched its TikTok competitorShorts. Between then and January 2021, they uploaded nine videos, all under 45 seconds.Their tenth video, uploaded Jan. 22, is the one that turned them into creators on the rise.

The 34-second Bottle Flip Tic Tac Toe clip pits Brian and Marcy against all four kids to see who can successfully flip bottles into a winning tic-tac-toe pattern first. It was their first viral Short, and to date has netted more than 150 million views. It was also the catalyst that pushed their channel from 3,500 views and 6,000 subscribers in January to a staggering 294 million views and 100,000 subscribers in February, to more than 600 million views and one million subscribers in March. Their TikTok presence has grown too: on that account, the Klems are up to 897,000 followers.

You can check out their weekly YouTube channel growthcourtesy of Gospel Statsbelow.

We chatted with the Klems about their unexpected success, how going viral changed their channel and content, and what the future holds for them on TikTok, YouTube, and beyond.

The Klem Family: Our family is from Franklin, Indiana. Outside of YouTube, we run a couple laundromat and dry cleaner businesses. The parents are Brian and Marcy, and the kids are Ethan (20), Jackson (18), Lauren (14), and Taylor (8). All of the kids are currently or have been involved in competitive sports. We have enjoyed watching them play basketball, baseball, tennis, and run track/cross-country for many years.

TKF: Our channel started the big boost when theParents vs. KidsBottle Flip Tic Tac Toe video [embedded above] came out. It is currently up to 152 million views. When it started taking off, the rest of our videos seemed to follow suit.

TKF: Our channel is new overall, and we basically only post family challenge type of videos, so this video wasnt a new type or anything. I think it took of because of the parents versus kids aspect of the competition. I think it is a relatable video to a wide range of people. Some of our videos of this type have done really well on TikTok, so we thought they could translate well to YouTube Shorts as well.

TKF: We started the channel for fun to share some of the challenges we have been doing. We thought the challenges we were doing were a fun way to pass the time during the quarantine days and felt that people may enjoy watching it.

TKF: Our engagement increase has not really changed much for us yet, but has made us think about some plans for the future with the channel. Our milestone goals for the channel would be to get to one million subscribers and one billion views. Other than that, we just want to work on making some longer videos and try to always improve the quality of the videos.

TKF: Our favorite part about making our content on YouTube is spending time with the family. There is no substitute for the time you spend with your kids, so being able to work with them on this channel has been great. We do make content on TikTok. Brian has 845,000 followers, and Ethan has 315,000 followers. We also post on Instagram Reels.

While we do post on these other platforms, our focus going forward will be YouTube.

TKF: We are working on some longer videos in addition to the daily YouTube Shorts that we post. We are also going to upgrade our location and equipment so we can start doing live streaming. Collaborating with other YouTubers is something we plan to do in the near future. We look forward to continuing to grow our channel!

Jellysmack is the global creator company that detects and develops the worlds most talented video creators. The companys proprietary video optimization technology and data drive social audience growth, unlocking new revenue streams and amplifying monetization.

Currently home to over 150 influential Creators including PewDiePie, Brad Mondo, and Bailey Sarian, Jellysmack optimizes, operates, and distributes creator-made video content to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Jellysmack-managed content boasts 10 billion global monthly video views and a cross-platform reach of 125 million unique U.S. users, making it the largest U.S. digital-first company in monthly social media viewers.

Looking to grow your social presence? Lets talk.

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Creators On The Rise: The Klem Family Had 6,000 YouTube Subscribers When They Posted One 30-Second Clip. Now They Have 1.1 Million. - Tubefilter

Title:Special Scientist (Research Assistant)Positions:One (1)Category:Contract for 8 months (part time)Location:University of Cyprus, Nicosia

The Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, accepts applications for the filling of one (1) position (part-time) of Special Scientist (Research Assistant). The selected candidate will work for the needs of the research program "Tackling anti-vaccination: Mapping the social transmission of beliefs and attitudes" of the Associate Professor Maria Karekla and the coordinator Dr. Angelos Kassianos.

It is noted that one (1) full-time month at the University of Cyprus is equal to 140 hours. The position is part-time (105 hours / month).

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Special Scientist will conduct research within the framework of the needs of the research program. The aim of the program is to investigate the social transmission of perceptions of resistance to vaccinations. The research is carried out in collaboration with centers of excellence in Cyprus and abroad such as Cyprus University of Technology, the Cyprus Medical Association, the ETH Zurich and Yale University, and will offer networking opportunities to the successful applicants as well as the opportunity to get acquainted with pioneering research methods like Social Network Analysis.

Specifically, successful candidate is expected to have the following duties and responsibilities:

CORE QUALIFICATIONS:

The candidate's high academic performance and his / her appeal for research are considered as basic qualifications.

Applicants should have strong knowledge of research and analytical methods and excellent organizational skills.

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

The filling of the position (part-time) will have a duration of eight months (8). The successful candidate will be employed from May 2020 to January 2022. Monthly gross salary is set at 1631.85. From this amount employee's contributions to the various governmental funds will be deducted the as well as any Income Tax. The contract does not provide 13th salary.

APPLICATION:

Interested parties are kindly requested to submit the following:

At minimum, the 3 most suitable candidates per position will be invited for an interview. The selected candidates will be invited to submit certified photocopies of diplomas from the Ministry of Education (in the case of diplomas from Private Schools / Universities in Cyprus) or from the Issuing Authority (in the case of Universities Abroad).

Having in mind the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation for EU 2016/679 of the European Parliament, the University of Cyprus collects and processes your personal data in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation.

Interested parties are invited to apply electronically at the link https://applications.ucy.ac.cy/recruitment

by filling in all the corresponding fields and uploading in PDF format all the required documents and certificates no later than April 24, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.

For more information, interested parties can contact Dr. Angelos Kassianos, tel: 00357 22-892025 or email:kassianos.angelos@ucy.ac.cy

Go here to see the original:

Special Scientist Research Assistant in Department of Psychology job with UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS | 250304 - Times Higher Education (THE)

If I know my Christian Brethren well enough, the first thing that would come out of our mouths, after reading the title, is, GOD forbid. That is not my portion!

Yet, that was one of Tai Solarins popular prayers for his students and close acquaintances. He believed wholeheartedly that rough roads lead to smooth, pleasant places. Didnt the Bible say that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of GOD? Acts 14:22

Rough roads toughen us and bring out the best in us if we would allow GOD to have His Way in our lives and situations.In my Year One at the University of Ibadan, I had to contend with a tough course Chemistry 157. Usually, at the end of each class, a couple of us would find our way to Tundes room in Kuti Hall, because he had a firm grasp of the course. Tunde was gentle and kind, but he got irritated with us one day and said something unpleasant. That insulting experience jolted me to life. I made up my mind to work hard and unravel Chemistry 157 without any more insults from anyone.

To GODS Glory, I passed that course, and I said to myself afterwards, If I passed Chemistry 157, I cant possibly fail any other course throughout my stay in this University. To GOD be the Glory, it was much smoother sailing therefrom. Hallelujah.

Recently, a great opportunity opened for me to have my articles published in a popular online newspaper. The publisher was magnanimous enough to send me the links to each of my stories uploaded. I simply got used to getting the links after each uploading, until the publisher found a good way to tell me he wouldnt be able to send me the links again. I had to find the links myself, and it turned out to be a very simple thing to do something I probably wouldnt have learnt to do if he had not given me the gentle push.

For the open-minded, rough roads lead to great discoveries, marvelous improvements, pleasant surprises, and remarkable recoveries. So, you see the wisdom in that prayer, may your road be rough.

Sugbon, BABA GOD, please, have MERCY on us in Nigeria, this road don rough enough O. May our path, road, and journey be smooth, prosperous and progressive, henceforth, in JESUS Name. Amen.

On a day like this, more than 2,000 years ago, JESUS CHRIST walked down a very rough and tough road to Calvary. He was beaten, spat on, stripped of his clothes, and nailed to the Cross. That rough road led Him to hell, to Victory over satan, sickness and death, and to Resurrection on the third day.

So, be not afraid of rough roads; rather be TRUSTFUL and THANKFUL as you navigate through the roughness and toughness of the present. It shall turn out in PRAISE. Omajasope, loruko JESU.

Remember Psalms 126:6, He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Hallelujah

HAPPY EASTER.

LOVE IS THE REASON

Love is the currency of the kingdom. To be rich in kingdom currency, trade in love. If you trade in love, you gather and accumulate true riches: love, peace, joy, faith, hope, health, sound mind, and other priceless kingdom benefits. Learn to LOVE, even when it hurts. LOVE like youve never been hurt. Love, by itself, is a healer.

It was love that moved GOD to sacrifice His only begotten son, JESUS CHRIST, for you and me. Love moves. Love lifts. Love sacrifices. Love guides. Love compels and constraints a BELIEVER to be godly, to do GOOD works, and to walk HUMBLY with all mankind: high, low, and average.

Easter is the story of LOVE: the love that made a king die for His subjects; the love that led a god-man to a painful and shameful death on calvarys cross; the love that saved you and me and empowers me to do this, daily.

Easter is love, and love is Easter.

To really understand this kind of LOVE, or what TRUE LOVE is, kindly meditate on 1 Corinthians 13. Thats the LOVE Im talking bout.

Beloved, let us LOVE one another, for LOVE is of GOD; and everyone who LOVES is born of GOD and knows GOD. He who does not LOVE does not know GOD, for GOD is LOVE. In this, the LOVE of GOD was manifested toward us, that GOD has sent His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is LOVE, not that we LOVED GOD, but that He LOVED us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if GOD so LOVED us, we also ought to LOVE one another. No one has seen GOD at any time. If we LOVE one another, GOD abides in us, and His LOVE has been perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12.

Thats Easter.Selah.

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT

Just think about it: a man lived for 33 years, and died more than 2,000 years ago, yet, the world continues to celebrate His life, sacrifice, and legacy. The reason is not far-fetched; He lived for someone, and for something (The Word), bigger than Himself; He saw beyond His physical existence and needs. JESUS lived and died, for His FATHERS will. And, what did you say you are living for?

Martin Luther King Jr. has been dead for more than 50 years, yet, his life and work, remain relevant in the United States of America, and the rest of the sensible world.

Nelson Mandela has been dead for some seven years now, yet, all of Africa, and the thinking world, will never forget his unique 27 years of selfless sacrifice in apartheid South African prison. And you, what did you say you are pursuing, again?

Today, I learnt that inheritance is something you leave for people, but LEGACY is something you LEAVE IN people. Are you labouring and scrambling for wealth and inheritance, or for IMPACT and LEGACY?

Didnt JESUS tell us in Luke 12:15, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for ones life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

Im for the IMPACT and LEGACY

Beloved, the unexamined life is not worth living. This Easter, benchmark your life, goals, and pursuits, alongside CHRISTS, and see if your life is a lifter, a floater, or a sinker. Lifters (wise leaders/people) think about the next generation, but sinkers (politicians and wealth grabbers) think of the next election, deal, or meal.

My friend, if you fail to learn from GODS word, from godly sermons, and articles like this, you will learn from life. And, life is a hard teacher.

Theres something out there: in your family, community, church, workplace, etc, that is your ministry, assignment, or calling. Are you sent to the orphans, the prostitutes, the mentally challenged, the hospitalised, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the autistic, the sickle cell anemia patients, etc? Find it. Embrace it. Fulfill it. Make your life count. Just do it.

Theres only one life to live, live it well. Live it purposefully. Live it for GOD. Live it for the good of humanity.

A crown of glory and joy awaits those who faithfully fulfill GODS purpose for their lives. Have you found yours?

Are you living it?

Our lives only count for something when lived in GODS Purpose and Plan.

I leave you with the words in Colossians 4:17. Fulfill it.

NB: Know more about life, read these two books this quarter:

1. The Leader Who Had No Title Robin Sharma2. Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People Therese Marszalek

Remember, he who DOES NOT READ is NOT better than he WHO CANNOT READ.

More here:

May your road be rough! - TheCable

Seven years ago, violinist Endang Hyder practically survived cancer. Today, she has to return to treatment again, but no-one will be around to look after her children and elderly parents while she battles cancer for the second time.

The violinist, whose real name is Ell Zain Hyder, has less than a month to find a caregiver who will look after her family while she focuses on recovery yet again. But she could not afford the steep fees and had in the past month resorted to performing for her thousands of fans online in a bid to raise funds.

I need to be super healthy, strong, and not die before my parents and kids, she told Coconuts in a recent interview. I know this sounds funny but this has been going in my mind all of these years because they just have me and I have to do this.

Nearly every other day, Ell has been performing online covers of pop hits instead of her usual Malay tunes. But she is still far away from reaching her goal of about RM 8,000 (US$2,000). It costs an average of RM20 (US$4.80) per hour to engage a caregiver in Malaysia, and Ell needs someone for two whole months.

If my viewers like my performances, I wish they can tip me, whatever [amount] they want, she said. I prefer that people engage me for future performances or events if they wish to give a big amount.

Thousands have watched Ell on YouTube performing covers of hits like Girls Like You by Maroon 5 and even Gurenge from the anime Demon Slayer. She took three to four days to learn each song before uploading her covers on Youtube impressive considering that her repertoire mostly consisted of Malay classics such as songs by Siti Nurhaliza or the late Sudirman.

Her fans love her as well. In such a short time, Ell made a very meaningful achievement of attaining 100,000 subscribers on her channel something that has never happened since she picked up the violin in her teenage years. But that is still not enough for the single parent to afford a caregiver for her three children, aged 4 to 9, as well as her elderly parents. Her father even had his legs amputated due to diabetes.

Story continues

Since the pandemic began, the Perak-based violin instructor had not been able to perform on a stage like she used to and had been baking at home to supplement her income. Adding on to her woes was the doctor confirming in January that the cancer was active again, and found a tumor in her nose.

Ell was in 2014 diagnosed with early-stage carcinoma that affected her blood vessels. She went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy for months before the doctor declared that the cancer was no longer active, although that did not mean she was completely cancer-free. When Ell goes for treatment at the Hospital Pantai starting April 12, she has to go for surgery and chemotherapy.

This year, the doctor found a tumor at the tip of my nose, Ell said, adding: I would need to undergo surgery to remove the tumor, so I can continue to care for my parents and kids in the future.

Ell plans to cover the TikTok-popular song At My Worst by Pink Sweats and Michael Bubles Sway in the coming weeks.

Other stories to check out:

Inspired by rom-com, Malaysian man opens online store selling stuff from peoples exes

This article, Ahead of cancer treatment, violinist raises funds for family care through virtual concerts, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.

Read the original here:

Ahead of cancer treatment, violinist raises funds for family care through virtual concerts - Yahoo Singapore News

Given the size of Billy's family and the Sivana family, there are a lot of characters to introduce in Shazam. Who gets the most and least screentime?

Shazam!was released in 2019 as the seventh film in the DC Extended Universe. It was the live-action film debut of the character Shazam, who had first appeared as Captain Marvel in Fawcett Comics in 1939. DC licensed the character in 1972, making him a part of their universe. Because of the creation of Marvel Comics' own Captain Marvel in 1967, DC renamed the character Shazam.

RELATED: DCEU: 5 Reasons Wonder Woman Is The Best Movie In The Franchise (And 5 Reasons It's Shazam)

David F. Sandberg directed the superhero movie, with Zachary Levi in the title role. The film also stars Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Honsou, Faith Herman, and Mark Strong. Being that the Shazam family is a large one, many characters appear in the story. Some for just a handful of minutes, others for most of the movie. This article doesn't require a character to be on screen for their screentime to count, as long as they're intercut in the scene, and the brief CGI cameo of Black Adam and the faceless cameo of Superman aren't included.

Director David D. Sandberg cameod as the voice of Mister Mind, an alien worm who also happens to be telepathic. Mister Mind first appears at the beginning of the film, seen in a jar at the Rock of Eternity. When the jar is seen later, it is cracked open and empty.

Mister Mind eventually appears in an end-credits sequence, where he visits Dr. Sivana in prison. Their suggested team-up might play out in a sequel, as the worm is one of Shazam's biggest enemies in the comics.

Caroline Palmer plays Marilyn Batson, Billy's real mom. She has two brief appearances in the film. One is near the beginning when Billy remembers the day he got lost at the fair. The other is when Billy finds his mom at last, and she flashes back to what actually happened the day he was "lost."

While the meeting doesn't go the way Billy wants, it isn't the end of his search for family. After losing his family at the fair as a small child, he finds his new one at the fair towards the end when he shares his power with his foster siblings.

Sid Sivana is the mean older brother of Thaddeus Sivana. Landon Doak portrays Sid as a teenager at the beginning of the film, when he picks on Thaddeus and takes his Magic 8 Ball. Immediately after this, Sivana is transported to the Rock of Eternity and meets the Wizard. Wayne Ward portrays the adult Sid, who doesn't spend much time on screen before Dr. Sivana throws him out a window.

The relationship between the brothers clearly didn't change after 45 years, that much is apparent in Sid's less than five minutes of screentime. If anything, the car accident thatinjured their father likely made it worse.

Victor and Rosa Vasquez share an entry here, as most of their screentime happens together. Rosa has two brief scenes without Victor, and Victor has one brief scene without Rosa, resulting in a very small difference in their screentime. The couple is played by Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans.

RELATED: 10 Movie References And Inspirations In Shazam!

At first, the Vasquez family has a hard time with Billy, who just wants to find his real mom. By the end, of course, Billy has accepted the family as much as they accepted him. While Victor and Rosa are on screen for less than ten minutes each, their presence is felt throughout the film because of their care for Billy and his foster siblings.

Mr. Sivana is Thaddeus Sivana's father, and he appears twice in the film. Even when he's a child, it's clear Thaddeus doesn't have a good relationship with his father. His father is also quite a bully to Thaddeus.

Mr. Sivana is played by DC veteran John Glover, who appears in his fourth DC property with this film. Glover first portrayed Edward Nygma / The Riddler inBatman: The Animated Series and other shows in its shared universe. He then played Jason Woodrue, the man responsible for Pamela Isley turning into Poison Ivy in the filmBatman & Robin. Finally, Glover was inSmallville as Lionel Luthor, father of Lex. He had a starring role from season two to seven, along with recurring appearances in season one and a guest role in season ten.

Mary is the oldest foster sibling of Billy's, played by Grace Fulton as a child while Michelle Borth plays Mary as a grown-up superhero. Mary just edges out Eugene and Pedro in screentime, as the siblings mostly appear together at home and in the finale.

Mary was created in 1942. She was originally known as Mary Marvel, but after the change from Captain Marvel to Shazam, she became more commonly known as Lady Shazam. Collectively, the group has become known as "The Shazam Family."

Darla is the most cheerful and caring of the Shazam Family. She accepts Billy as a brother quicker than the rest, even making a sign for him before he gets there. Little moments like these give her more screentime than every other foster sibling except Freddy.

RELATED: Shazam!: 10 Interesting Behind-The-Scenes Details

Faithe Herman portrays Darla as a child, while the superhero version is played by Meagan Good. The character has many memorable moments, such as when she saves Santa at the fair. Even in superhero form, Darla always seems to have fun.

The big bad of the film is Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, played by Mark Strong. Strong previously played Sinestro in 2011'sGreen Lantern, which preceded the DCEU. In a great moment of setup for the villain, the opening scene actually centers on Dr. Sivana as a child, played by Ethan Pugiotto.

With many scenes establishing his motives and plans, Dr. Sivana appears in quite a bit of the film. A lengthy bit of screentime also comes from his two fights with Shazam, andan end-credits scene suggests viewers haven't seen the last of Dr. Sivana.

Jack Dylan Grazer plays Billy's foster brother Freddy. Due to his fandom and knowledge of superheroes, Billy trusts Freddy with his secret after turning into Shazam. Freddy ends up coaching Billy in the use of his powers, as well as documenting Shazam's exploits and uploading them online. This leads to Freddy having the second-most amount of screentime in the film.

Throughout the film, Freddy shows his support for the superheroes that exist in their world in many ways. He's seen wearing shirts for Batman, Superman, and Aquaman. He has a replica Batarang, which comes in handy later in the film. He also has an authenticated bullet that bounced off of Superman, which Billy later drops in a drain. Billy does make it up to Freddy later though, having Superman show up to see Freddy at the school cafeteria.

No surprise here, but Billy Batson and his alter ego Shazam dominate the screentime of the movie. Zachary Levi shines as the superhero Shazam, and Asher Angel is a stand-out star as young Billy Batson. Between the two characters who are really one character, viewers see Billy on screen for three-quarters of the film.

Angel and Levi flawlessly transition their performances back and forth, providing a very believable take on the character. After appearing in twoThorfilms as Fandral, Levi finally got a chance to really play the hero inShazam! He and the rest of the Shazam Family will return in the sequel,Shazam!: Fury of the Gods in 2023.

NEXT: 5 Things We Know AboutShazam!: Fury of the Gods (& 5 Fan Theories)

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Rory Smith is a filmmaker from St. Petersburg, Florida. He has written and directed more than a dozen short films and worked on countless others. His work has been featured at the Sarasota International Film Festival and the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival, being nominated for the award of Best Florida Short Film at the latter in 2019. He currently writes articles for Screen Rant. Rory has a passion for film and has been an avid movie fan since he was a kid. He loves seeing both the big blockbusters and the Oscar-nominated dramas. He is a big fan of Tampa and Pittsburgh sports, and he and his wife consider Disney World to be a second home.

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Shazam! - 5 Characters With The Most (& 5 With The Least) Screentime - Screen Rant