Category Archives: Mind Uploading

Video game adaptations of movies and TV shows are always a hit and miss. Sometimes you get great titles like Spider-Man 2 and Mad Max which live up to the source material. While in other instances the result is average games, like Blair Witch and John Wick Hex.

One game that is legendary in this niche of the industry is The Simpsons: Hit & Run. It came out way back in 2003 and was a huge success for Universal Games and the franchise. The game has sold almost 5 million copies worldwide since its launch and became a huge hit among players.

Since its release, The Simpsons: Hit & Run has gained a cult following and won several awards. Content about the game is still made and gets really viral as fans just cant get enough of this game. Recently, someone crafted an entirely new version of the fan-favorite game as an open-world one.

reubs, a content creator on YouTube, has remade the action-adventure game, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, as an open-world game in the Unreal Engine 5. Not only is the game an open-world title now but it also looks much better than the original version.

While working on this remake, the content creator had a few goals in mind other than just making it open-world. Better vehicles, remastered graphics, dialogues, and online multiplayer were all a part of the plan from the start. Making The Simpsons: Hit & Runs map an open-world one wasnt hard as there was already a mod for this.

After putting the map in Unreal Engine 5 and adding a tree pack, the game already looked pretty great. reubs also made a lot of progress on the vehicular front and made the collision work instantly. However, this was all a start as the content creator needed to do much more work on the map to add detail.

By uploading a texture pack with 1400 textures, he made the details on the map much better. You can see in the video how good The Simpsons: Hit & Run looks after the upscaling in detail he made himself. The content creator also deleted some things off the map as they interfered with the open-world factor.

So, reubs put in a lot of effort in this open-world reimagination and the results speak for themselves. A huge difference is present in the quality of graphics in this remake and the original game. He also said that this was the first part of a series, so we have to wait to see The Simpsons: Hit & Run remake finished.

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Someone Remade The Simpsons: Hit And Run As An Open World Game - eXputer

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On the southern tip of Galiano Island, a diagonal, 28-kilometer-long strip of land suspended off the coast of southern British Columbia, a thicket of Douglas fir thins to a small clearing overlooking Active Pass. A layered vista of darkly green Gulf Islandsthe archipelago of which Galiano is a partextends in every direction. Directly below the viewpoint, the blare of a ferrys horn alerts us to a boatload of passengers headed for the nearby city of Vancouver.

This is the spot, says Andrew Simon, a naturalist. Ill let you find it.

A mosaic of ground-cover plants makes a living carpet. I recognize only one of them: tiny spears of common pincushion moss spring from their leafy bedding, patched together against the dirt and bedrock. Then I spot a yellowy moss turned crisp from a dry summer and ask Simon if thats the one were looking for.

He furrows his brow. No, thats Niphotrichum elongatum, he says. Its another of the more ordinary rock mosses of the Pacific Northwest coast. Simon has brought me here in search of Triquetrella californica, a far rarer moss. Its a small, inconspicuous thing, he says. But it is beautiful.

Among the discoveries on Galiano Island, British Columbia, is Triquetrella californica, one of the rarest mosses in Canada. Photo by Shanna Baker

I look around for a few moments longer before declaring that I give up. Simon crouches on his hands and knees, the tip of his nose inches from the soil as he holds back walnut-colored tresses. Look at how abundant it is around here! he says. Were seeing it everywhere.

On this sunny July day, Triquetrella californica looks like little more than a sprinkling of dried ramen noodle crumbs. But, like ramen, the moss is made to be hydrated. At Simons suggestion, I pour a sip of water over the desiccated sprigs, and they instantly animate into a miniaturized copse of limey-green spires with leaves growing out in ranks of threehence the tri in Triquetrella. The nondescript plant has not only come back to life, it has also, with Simons help, erupted into my consciousness.

The author, right, and slime mold expert Pam Janszen add water to Triquetrella californica, to watch the desiccated moss rehydrate and unfurl. Photo by Shanna Baker

Youve found the rarest moss in Canada, says Simon. Theres your sensationalist headline. Simon is being facetiousan exacting scientist, he would hate to read an overblown valuation of the modest moss. Yet his superlative was true. At the time, this rocky outcrop was the only place the plant was found north of the Canada-US border. Since then, a friend of Simons has found a patch near Comox on Vancouver Island.

As we step back into the forest, I test Simons knowledge further, pointing to plants along the hiking path. He rapturously rattles off the Latin names of each species. When I naively point to a spindly bush with what looks like black beans dangling from its otherwise bare branches, Simon informs me it is Scotch broom, Cytisus scoparius, a widespread invasive species. I feel a flush of embarrassment for not knowing even the most commonplace of plants. Though life teems all around us, most of us can scarcely put a name to the nearest animal, vegetable, or mineral. When Simon walks in the woods, hes among old friends.

For the past six years, the thin 36-year-old with a macro-lens Olympus point-and-shoot forever around his wrist has been on a quixotic mission to document every last species on Galiano Island, from the lone pair of elk that swam ashore one day from another of the Gulf Islands, to the orb spiders guarding glistening webs, to the oysters clustered beneath the tides. His project spans animal, plant, fungal, and protozoan life forms, and includes marine life up to a kilometer offshore and down to a reef 120 meters below the surface, as well as every bird that flies overhead. Biodiversity Galiano (better known as BioGaliano) is among the more ambitious, comprehensive, and grassroots biological inventories being carried out anywhere on Earth.

Andrew Simon, the naturalist spearheading the Biodiversity Galiano project, uses the macro lens on his camera to inspect the minute details on a sample of lichen. Photo by Shanna Baker

Scientifically, BioGaliano is a formidable ledger of scientific knowledge and a baseline against which to measure ecological change in the future. In its first few years, the project has already documented a host of species never before recorded on the island, and in some cases, like Triquetrella californica, entirely new to Canada.

At least as importantly, Simon has given the likes of sideband snails, snowberries, and fairy slippers a space in the conscious minds of Galiano Islands human residents. Putting a name to something is fundamentally an act of acknowledgmentthe starting point for the kind of intimate relationship that can inspire us to protect the natural world. Judith Winston, a former commissioner with the Singapore-based International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the body that oversees the scientific naming of animals, puts it bluntly: If a species doesnt have a name, it doesnt exist. If it doesnt have a name, its never going to be conserved.

Simon may know about an impressive number of things living beneath the forest canopy now, but his dedication to understanding nature didnt really kick in until his early 20s. Growing up by the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, he always held an interest in the wild world, but as a young man he became what he describes as a disillusioned political activist type. He spent his latter teens and early 20s as a volunteer with Canada World Youth and on organic farms, bouncing around such destinations as Brazil, Hawaii, and Mexico. Finally, in 2007, he landed on the property of Trevor Goward in British Columbias dry interior near Kamloops.

Goward is a passionate gardener, a self-taught lichenologist, and a researcher with the University of British Columbia (UBC). He calls himself a bit of a hermit, but Goward is kind and affable, the sort of big-picture thinker that can tie every modern-day crisis back to the avarice of a capitalistic worldview.

One of the tasks Goward assigned to Simon was transcribing voice recordings that Goward took while in the field. Parmeliopsis ambigua, Candelaria concolor, Agonimia tristicula. As the euphony of Latin names rolled over him, Simon found that the role of scribe offered an unexpected doorway into Gowards worldview. I met Trevor and I realized that theres a lot more stories out there than just the human story, Simon says. Learning the names of mosses and lichens allowed him to focus his attention outward to the exuberant richness of the planets diverse living things rather than dwell on his inner discontent.

A piqued passion for biodiversity eventually led Simon to focus on environmental studies and cognitive science at Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia, and his experience with Goward helped him land an internship on Galiano Island in 2010. After a summer spent pulling weeds, propagating native plants, and teaching environmental education classes for the Galiano Conservancy Association, a local nonprofit dedicated to ecological stewardship, Simon set to work conducting biodiversity surveys on the island.

Simons fascination with nature eventually led him to Galiano Island in 2010 where he delved into the islands biodiversity doing surveys for the Galiano Conservancy Association. Photo by Shanna Baker

It proved to be a fascinating place for a budding naturalist. Hidden in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island and Washington States Olympic Mountains, Galiano is the driest of the Gulf Islands, but it used to be even drier. Nine thousand years ago, the tilt of the Earths axis placed the islands at a more southerly latitude than they are today, giving them a semiarid climate. The planets shifting alignment gradually moved the archipelago northward, and around 5,000 years ago, the BC coast became inundated with rain. Since Galiano Island was still sheltered between mountain ranges, though, it retained some of the species and ecosystems of its warmer past.

Today, the island is a patchwork of rain-loving evergreens like western red cedar and dry-meadow trees like Garry oak. The island is within the unsurrendered territories of the Penelakut and other Coast Salish Nations, but settlers from elsewhere began arriving in the 19th century. Most of the 1,400 current year-round residents have made homes of scattered cabins in the woods, and over the summer months the island is flush with visiting kayakers, campers, and hikers. Come nightfall, eerie darkness envelops land and sea, and the morning is greeted by the scent of evergreens and the chorus of thrush and warbler.

At first, Simon wanted to create a comprehensive field guide to the species found on a large property owned by the Galiano Conservancy. By the time he had written a rambling, 100-page manuscript that hadnt yet moved beyond marine algae, he realized that there were probably better ways to engage the community in learning about the local biodiversity. Having himself been changed by the process of getting to know his nonhuman neighbors, he wanted to help the local community deepen its appreciation for the island that he had grown to love. Around the same time, iNaturalist, a free app that makes it easy for even novice naturalists to identify species, became available. Users can simply upload a photo of drooping purple flowers, for example, and a machine-learning algorithm will spit out a nameDigitalis purpurea, a perennial plant commonly called foxglovewith a high degree of accuracy. The wider iNaturalist community, which includes many experts, confirms the identifications or fills in blanks where the algorithm fails.

BioGaliano participants can use iNaturalist, an online platform and app, to identify species by simply uploading a photo like the one above. The app would identify the plant as Digitalis purpurea, or common foxglove. Photo by Maria Janicki/Alamy Stock Photo

The first main goal was just initially this obsessive goal of documenting all of the living things, says Simon. The second goal was to engage the community in that process and to make biodiversity research more friendly and participatory.

One of the first steps for the BioGaliano project was collecting the names of every species that had previously been documented on the island. Simon gathered records dating back to 1859 from explorers who had visited the island, as well as findings from local naturalists; he scoured natural history museum archives, and drew on the knowledge of Jeannine Georgeson, a Coast Salish and Sahtu Dene friend who had grown up on Galiano and collaborates with Indigenous knowledge keepers. In the end, Simon had a list of nearly 2,800 species of animals, plants, and fungi known from the islandand a launching point for his mission to identify every species yet to be found. Its like a scavenger hunt, he says.

Naming and learning names are among the most central elements of language. They are foundational steps in being able to communicate and speak specifically about the world around us. Toddlers will instinctively repeat the names of the objects that they hear being said around them. In the Old Testament, God parades the animals in front of Adam to be named; in a Mayan creation story, it is the deities who name all life, bringing it out of emptiness and into being.

Our current understanding of the breadth of life forms has roots in the age of exploration that occurred between the 15th and 17th centuries. People started to make voyages around the world and bring back all kinds of stuff, including plants and animals, says Winston of the ICZN. Naming is how we began to make sense of what we now call biodiversity. Inundated with new species in the thousands, from dodos to dugongs, scientists needed a standardized way of referring to species across continents and languages. In the mid-18th century, a Swedish species classification expert, or taxonomist, called Carl Linnaeus developed and popularized binomial nomenclature, which remains the official system of scientific naming. A species is identified by its genus, which is shared with any close relatives, followed by a unique specific epithet; the two combined are its species name. For example, human beings: genus Homo (no close relatives currently exist), specific epithet sapiens, species name Homo sapiens.

Once a new species is confirmed by the scientific community, its presence can be added to the grand encyclopedia of recognized life forms. According to the Catalogue of Life, an international effort to create a universal species compendium, there are 2.3 million known species, from microbes to the worlds largest living animal, the blue whale. While calculations are rough, scientists estimate there are another 8.7 million yet to be identified.

Each year, up to 18,000 species are named or renamed, with 2021 adding the likes of the emperor Dumbo octopus and the nano-chameleon, perhaps the worlds tiniest reptile, which can comfortably perch on the tip of your pinkie finger. Many, such as Eunota mecocheila, an iridescent tiger beetle, and Scolopendra alcyona, a rare amphibious centipede, have only a scientific name. With no known common moniker in any language, awareness of these species is likely limited.

While new names are constantly added to the scientific vernacular, an increasing number of species is also being permanently erased from the catalog. Estimates vary widely, but up to 55,000 species are lost each year from forces such as habitat loss, climate change, and pollutiona rate 1,000 times higher than before humans became the dominant influence on the environment. Most of these vanished species are nameless.

A similar pattern of loss is reflected in day-to-day speech. Subjects that carry heavy cultural significance often have a more diversified lexicon. The Scots have an impressive vocabulary for describing bad weather, such as snell for a biting cold that pierces the skin, or drookit for being soaked to the bone; Hawaiians have around 65 words to describe fishing nets and 180 associated with sweet potatoes. In the 2015 revision of the Oxford Junior Dictionary, around 50 nature words, such as herring, lobster, and otter, were dropped and replaced with words like cut-and-paste and broadbanda microcosmic reflection of what holds relevance, and what no longer does, in the modern world. This is exactly the tide of change that Simon is trying to hold back.

Its October, and a gray sky hints at a future storm as a BioGaliano search party, made up of nine expert and novice species identifiers, myself included, moves into the trees on the southern edge of the island. With retractable magnifying glasses dangling off necks like pendants, our group treads softly over the soggy forest floor, pausing frequently to examine infinitesimal colonies of life. Previous BioGaliano hunts have focused on insects, fungi, and plants, but we are on the lookout for more overlooked branches of the evolutionary tree. Simon has emailed the participants a 21-page document listing every species of lichen (a life form that is a symbiotic fusion of fungi and algae) and bryophyte (mosses and their cousins the liverworts and hornworts) ever recorded on the island (263 lichens, 179 bryophytes). Our mission is to confirm whether the species previously noted in historical records are still out there, as well as to document new discoveries.

But nature is endlessly distracting. Brightly colored jelly fungi spring from dead wood. One species, sometimes referred to as witchs butter, grows in clusters on a fallen log like gelatinous orange brains. A forestry student from UBC pops a piece in her mouth and says it just tastes like water.

Pam Janszen, a naturalist who collected her first slime mold more than 25 years ago, spreads a heavy-duty plastic bag on the ground to protect her legs from the damp earth as she kneels to peel back the bark on a rotting log. Ooh, she says with delight. Holding her breath to keep still, she carefully inspects a slime mold through her cameras macro lens. With the naked eye, I can barely make out minute black baubles standing erect on stems, like alien lollipops. Pulling out a knife, Janszen gently nicks a sample of the mold and stashes it in a metal tin for later identification.

Janszen collects a sample of slime mold for later identification. Photo by Kristina Blanchflower

Simons knowledge isnt limitlessaltogether he credits over 50 taxonomic experts with assisting the project, each committed to discerning the fractal details of their selected branch of the evolutionary tree. People that can identify species are often rarer than the species themselves, says Simon.

Over the years, he has organized various biodiversity missions on Galiano. The specialists convene for a day or a weekend to collectively identify as many species as possible. Theyre often joined by interested enthusiastsBioGalianos Facebook page now has over 800 followers, around half of the local population. On iNaturalist, the project has over 500 unique contributors, some of whom are visitors to the island. Together, these participants have marched up forested mounts, waded through swamps, and dived beneath the ocean surface in search of species to add to the islands biodiversity catalog.

Wins in the quest came early. In 2016, Olivia Lee, a bryophyte specialist and former collections manager at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver, was hiking on Galiano Island and collecting unfamiliar mosses. A soft, green variety caught her attention, and she collected a sample. After flipping through her guidebook of Pacific Northwest mosses, the specimen remained a mystery. She passed along images of it to other specialists until Richard Zander from the Missouri Botanical Garden determined it was Triquetrella californicathe species that is now among the rarest known mosses in Canada.

I never thought I would discover something, Lee tells me in a video call, beaming sheepishly. Ive never won the lottery before. It just felt really, really good.

In 2019, Jessica Kirkwood, a Galiano local, was driving through Bluffs Park on the southern tip of the island when she noticed a heavyset, sienna-colored snake coil and hiss next to her truck. She posted a video of the creature on the Facebook page. At the time, the islands only known snakes were three species of timid garter snakes and the sharp-tailed snake. The aggressive serpent that Kirkwood sawwith the girth of a muscly armstood in stark contrast. Simon sent the video to herpetologists in Canada, who dismissed it as a garter snake. Later, herpetologists in California identified it as a Pacific gopher snake. The last time one had been seen in Canada was in 1957on Galiano Island.

The Pacific gopher snakerecognizable with its chain-like patternwas believed to be extinct in Canada until a member of the BioGaliano Facebook group spotted one on Galiano Island in 2019. The finding could usher in new conservation measures. Photo by John Cancalosi/Minden Pictures

Rediscovery of the Pacific gopher snake could potentially usher in new conservation measures. The snake is listed as extirpatedno longer presentin Canada, and if additional herpetologists confirm a population in Bluffs Park, the area could be granted special federal or provincial protection.

By the end of 2021, BioGaliano had documented over 4,000 species in its six years of operation, including 1,241 arthropods, 931 plants, 482 fungi, 264 lichens, 230 mollusks, 186 birds, 83 fish, and 42 mammals. Theyve documented over 1,200 speciessuch as a rare coralroot orchid and an unusual jumping spidernever before recorded on the island, on top of the approximately 2,800 historically identified species. Theyve also confirmed the continuing presence of half the species from the historical roster. Some of the missing species have probably been extirpated, Simon says, but many are rare or obscure enough that they may still be found. One on Simons to-find list is Ostrea lurida, also known as the Olympia oyster, an endemic species that Jeannine Georgeson says her family often used to eat.

Driving through a patch of old-growth forest mottled with the gargantuan stumps of even more ancient giants felled by loggers decades ago, Simon and a few other bioblitzers pull over to quickly peek at the mosses and lichens. Dan Tucker, an avid, young bryophyte enthusiast from Cortes Island, British Columbia, shows Simon a shard of decaying wood coated in a manicured lawn of green growth. Despite spending hours staring at mosses by this point, the distinguishing characteristics are still lost on me. That looks exactly like every other moss, I remark. Anticipating my question on how the hell he can differentiate this from other mosses, Tucker smiles and says, After a while, these things sort of start to have an essence.

With over 4,000 species on Galiano Island, it is critical that the project has participants with a wide range of expertise and interests. Dan Tucker, a BioGaliano participant, has particular interest in mosses and other nonvascular plants. Photo by Kristina Blanchflower

Documenting bryophytes, Tucker tells me, is just something he feels like he has to doa compulsion. Donna Gibbs, a marine naturalist who has participated in a BioGaliano marine foray, tells me something similar. For three decades, she and her husband made a routine of diving near their home in Port Coquitlam, just east of Vancouver, and recording every species that they saw, from harbor seals to the nudibranchs. Its a complete labor of love, she says.

I was amazed by the things I could find in my backyard and in my neighborhood, says Scott Gilmore, a biologist who is one of Simons go-to insect experts, explaining his own motivations. Whenever I find something and I dont know what it is, I try and go and work it out. Its just been a lifelong passion putting names to things.

Can the rest of us really become more like Simon and his environmental entourage? Goward points to psychologist Howard Gardners theory of multiple intelligences, which posits that people can be intelligent in eight different ways. Mozart, for example, was blessed with musical genius; at the age of 14 he is said to have transcribed every note of a 15-minute-long choral piece after listening to it only once. Einsteins logical-mathematical intelligence revolutionized the way we understand the universe.

In Gardners book, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons, he recalls presenting his theorywhich originally included seven intelligencesto a lecture hall of academics. The renowned ecologist Ernst Mayr was in the audience and reportedly commented, But youll never explain Charles Darwin with your taxonomy of intelligences. Gardners next iteration of the theory included an eighth intelligence: the naturalist.

Its a special way of recognizing patterns and seeing how they fit together, says Goward. There are some people in the world who are simply born naturalists. They see patterns rather than physical things.

Yet all of us may share in that propensity for nature, in the same way that, while very few people are geniuses like Mozart, nearly everyone appreciates music. The eighth intelligence is written into the human experience. Acclaimed philosopher Erich Fromm described the human instinct to connect with nature and other living beings as biophilia, a term later popularized by naturalist E. O. Wilson. Science writer Carol Kaesuk Yoon builds on that idea in her book Naming Nature. She argues that millennia of foraging for food and fending off predators have carved out a universal capacity to perceive the natural ordera hardwired human instinct she calls the Umwelt. The term stems from a German word meaning the environment or the world around, but biologists use it to refer to each species unique perception or experience.

With the help of mycologists like Juliet Pendray, BioGaliano has documented 482 species of fungi so far. Photo by Kristina Blanchflower

Living separate from the wild world has severed us from our intrinsic Umwelts, Yoon writes. To hone our sense of nature and our place in it, we can begin by learning the names of species around usmuch like children do with their first words, or like the taxonomists distinguishing between different species. As BioGaliano has shown, biodiversity thrives in the most unexpected of places: on an escarpment overlooking a channel, alongside the road in a community park, inside a rotten log. Naturalists like Simon can serve as guides to reawaken a dormant Umwelt.

Recall that the second goal of BioGaliano is to rekindle the intrinsic joy found in the wild world. People really care about what they seewhat they experience, says Kevin Toomer, a BioGaliano participant. Small things that I wouldnt have placed much importance in before have more importance to me now. Toomer says that since hes known Simon, he has developed an especially heightened awareness of bees and, of course, mosses and lichens.

If you learn the name of a birda robin, a varied thrush, or what have youyouve learned a word and you can begin to talk about that creature, and people that dont know those words cant, says Goward. While the Oxford people are trying to take words out, Simon is trying to put words in. Yet BioGaliano is more than a field-based immersion into natures whos who. Returning wild words to our vocabularies also serves as a gateway to understanding natures complexity.

Evening is falling, and the BioGaliano team conglomerates at the Galiano Community Hall, a small, shake-shingled building where folding tables have been set up near electrical outlets to power the microscopes. Simon has ordered pizzas for everyone, and the naturalists unpack samples stashed in brown paper bags and begin working at identifying the specimens.

Janszen slips the slime mold she collected under a dissecting microscope and brings it into focus, revealing spherical heads atop hair-thin stems. The black bobbleheads are decorated with a corona of light-brown speckles, their netted pattern revealing that the species is Cribraria vulgaris. It has been found around the world, but this is the first record of it on Galiano Island. The BioGaliano list grows longer by one more name.

It will take weeks, perhaps even months, to review and identify the dozens of samples taken in the blitz. Preliminary results indicate that, in a single days effort, the team confirmed the continuing presence of seven species historically found on the island, and added 25 new species to the overall list. Five are new to British Columbia, four of those are also new to Canada, two are new to all of North America, and one is even new to the Americas. This last species, a fungus, had previously only been found in Russia.

Throughout Simons adventures in species seeking, hes been teased by the possibility that BioGaliano will identify a life form entirely new to science. If and when that happens, Simonor whichever of his naturalist friends makes the discoverywill be in the rarefied position of distinguishing the finding with a name.

With such an intense focus on cataloging every living thing on the island, projects such as BioGaliano have the potential to make new discoveries. Simon hands Alejandro Huereca Delgado, left, an expert on fungal parasites of lichen, a specimen that they hope could yield a new discovery. Photo by Kristina Blanchflower

On a philosophical level, naming is imbued with power. Naming is an act of claiming, and more often than not reflects the worldview of the namer rather than the named. In naming an individual animal or a species, we not only choose how we want to represent that animal, but also how others are to represent and perceive it, writes Sune Borkfelt, an animal studies and literature scholar at Aarhus University in Denmark. We lay the foundations of representations and perceptions to come. The roly-poly bug, for instance, brings to mind a more congenial image than the red-eye medusa, though neither animal is necessarily endearing: the former is a type of wood louse and the latter a jellyfish.

According to Borkfelt, the names we bestow can also bring us closer to or distance us from species. Perhaps the most anthropocentric are names taken from influential Europeans in the pastAnnas hummingbird, Stellers jay, Scoulers willow. A more ecological worldview is reflected in names that describe the species itself. In Hulquminum, the language historically spoken by the Indigenous people of Galiano Island, alder is kwulalaulhp, roughly meaning orange plant for the trees tangerine inner bark. Oregon grape is lulutsulhp, meaning yellow plant for the bushs bunches of sunny blossoms. Many scientific names are descriptive as well. For the Pacific gopher snake, Pituophis catenifer, its epithet refers to the chain-like pattern that adorns the serpents back.

Simon is formalizing BioGalianos findings in the scientific literature by publishing a series of papers, and later this year he will start a PhD program with UBC researching biodiversity data science. He recognizes, though, that he still has heaps left to find on Galiano Island and that his growing list of identified species is only a starting point.

These names are all just like the words in a sentence, Simon tells me. To really appreciate a place and its ecology, its about learning how those words fit together.

His words remind me of another discovery that came out of the October foray. Simon and Alejandro Huereca Delgado, a specialist in fungal parasites of lichens, had collected a speckle that looked like a coarse-ground pepper flake entangled in a tuft of mint-green fibers. Under closer inspection, it proved to be much morea composite of at least four different species: an alga and a fungus hosting a fungus hosting yet another fungus. Ecology can live within language as much as landscape.

Read more:

A Community's Quest to Document Every Species on Their Island Home - Hakai Magazine

There are human characteristics that cannot be duplicated by AI. Emotions such as love, compassion, empathy, sadness, and happiness cannot be duplicated. Nor can traits such as understanding, creativity, sentience, qualia, and consciousness.

Or can they?

Extreme AI champions argue that qualia and, indeed, all human traits will someday be duplicated by AI. They insist that while were not there yet, the current development of AI indicates we will be there soon. These proponents are appealing to the Software of the Gaps, a secular cousin of the God of the Gaps. Machine intelligence, they claim, will someday have the proper code to duplicate all human attributes.Impersonate, perhaps. But experience, no.

AI will never be creative or have understanding. Machines may mimic certain other human traits but will never duplicate them. AI can be programmed only to simulate love, compassion, and understanding.

The simulation of AI love is wonderfully depicted by a human-appearing robot boy brilliantly acted by a young Haley Joel Osment in Steven Spielbergs 2001 movie A. I. Artificial Intelligence. Before activation, the robot boy played by Osment is emotionless. But when his love simulation software is turned on, the boys immediate attraction to his adoptive mother is convincing, thanks to Osments marvelous acting skill. The robot boy is attentive, submissive, and full of snuggle-love.

But mimicking love is not love. Computers do not experience emotion. I can write a simple program to have a computer enthusiastically say I love you! and draw a smiley face. But the computer feels nothing. AI that mimics should not be confused with the real thing.

Moreover, tomorrows AI, no matter what is achieved, will be from computer code written by human programmers. Programmers tap into their creativity when writing code. All computer code is the result of human creativity the written code itself can never be a source of creativity itself. The computer will perform as it is instructed by the programmer.

But some hold that as code becomes more and more complex, human-like emergent attributes such as consciousness will appear. (Emergent means that an entity develops properties its parts do not have on their own a sum greater than the parts can account for.) This is sometimes called Strong AI.

Those who believe in the coming of Strong AI argue that non-algorithmic consciousness will be an emergent property as AI complexity ever increases. In other words, consciousness will just happen, as a sort of natural outgrowth of the codes increasing complexity.

Such unfounded optimism is akin to that of a naive young boy standing in front of a large pile of horse manure. He becomes excited and begins digging into the pile, flinging handfuls of manure over his shoulders. With all this horse poop, he says, there must be a pony in here somewhere!

Strong AI proponents similarly claim, in essence, With all this computational complexity, there must be some consciousness here somewhere! There is the consciousness residing in the mind of the human programmer. But consciousness does not reside in the code itself, and it doesnt emerge from the code, any more than a pony will emerge from a pile of manure.Like the boy flinging horse poop over his shoulder, strong AI proponents no matter how insistently optimisticwill be disappointed. There is no pony in the manure; there is no consciousness in the code.

Are there any similarities between human brains and computers? Sure. Humans can perform algorithmic operations. We can add a column of numbers like a computer, though not as fast. We learn, recognize, and remember faces, and so can AI. AI, unlike me, never forgets a face.

Because of these types of similarities, some believe that once technology has further advanced, and once enough memory storage is available, uploading the brain should work. Whole Brain Emulation (also called mind upload or brain upload) is the idea that at some point we should be able to scan a human brain and copy it to a computer.1

The deal breaker for Whole Brain Emulation is that much of you is non-computable. This fact nixes any ability to upload your mind into a computer. For the same reason that a computer cannot be programmed to experience qualia, our ability to experience qualia cannot be uploaded to a computer. Only our algorithmic part can be uploaded. And an uploaded entity that is totally algorithmic, lacking the non-computable, would not be a person.

So dont count on digital immortality. There are other more credible roads to eternal life.

1 Becca Caddy, Will You Ever Be Able to Upload Your Entire Brain to a Computer? Metro, June 5, 2019. Also see Selmer Bringsjord, Can We Upload Ourselves to a Computer and Live Forever?, April 9, 2020, interview by Robert J. Marks, Mind Matters News, podcast, 22:14.

You may also wish to read the earlier excerpt published here: Why you are not and cannot be computable. A computer science prof explains in a new book that computer intelligence does not hold a candle to human intelligence. In this excerpt from his forthcoming book, Non-Computable You, Robert J. Marks shows why most human experience is not even computable.

Read the original here:

The Software of the Gaps: An Excerpt from Non-Computable You - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

We often imagine that human consciousness is as simple as the input and output of electrical signals within a network of processing units therefore comparable to a computer. The reality, however, is much more complicated. For starters, we dont actually know how much information the human brain can hold.

Two years ago, a team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, US, mapped the 3D structure of all the neurons (brain cells) comprised in one cubic millimeter of the brain of a mouse a milestone considered extraordinary.

Within this minuscule cube of brain tissue, the size of a grain of sand, the researchers counted more than 100,000 neurons and more than a billion connections between them. They managed to record the corresponding information on computers, including the shape and configuration of each neuron and connection, which required two petabytes, or two million gigabytes of storage. And to do this, their automated microscopes had to collect 100 million images of 25,000 slices of the minuscule sample continuously over several months.

Now if this is what it takes to store the full physical information of neurons and their connections in one cubic millimeter of the mouse brain, you can perhaps imagine that the collection of this information from the human brain is not going to be a walk in the park.

Data extraction and storage, however, is not the only challenge. For a computer to resemble the brains mode of operation, it would need to access any and all the stored information in a very short amount of time: the information would need to be stored in its random access memory (RAM), rather than on traditional hard disks. But if we tried to store the amount of data the researchers gathered in a computers RAM, it would occupy 12.5 times the capacity of the largest single-memory computer (a computer that is built around memory, rather than processing) ever built.

The human brain contains about 100 billion neurons (as many stars as could be counted in the Milky way) one million times those contained in our cubic millimeter of the mouse brain. And the estimated number of connections is a staggering ten to the power of 15. That is ten followed by 15 zeroes a number comparable to the individual grains contained in a two-meter thick layer of sand on a 1km-long beach.

If we dont even know how much information storage a human brain can hold, you can imagine how hard it would be to transfer it into a computer. Youd have to first translate the information into a code that the computer can read and use once it is stored. Any error in doing so would probably prove fatal.

A simple rule of information storage is that you need to make sure you have enough space to store all the information you need to transfer before you start. If not, you would have to know exactly the order of importance of the information you are storing and how it is organized, which is far from being the case for brain data.

If you dont know how much information you need to store when you start, you may run out of space before the transfer is complete, which could mean that the information string may be corrupt or impossible for a computer to use. Also, all data would have to be stored in at least two (if not three) copies, to prevent the disastrous consequences of potential data loss.

This is only one problem. If you were paying attention when I described the extraordinary achievement of researchers who managed to fully store the 3D structure of the network of neurons in a tiny bit of mouse brain, you will know that this was done from 25,000 (extremely thin) slices of tissue.

The same technique would have to be applied to your brain because only very coarse information can be retrieved from brain scans. Information in the brain is stored in every detail of its physical structure of the connections between neurons: their size and shape, as well as the number and location of connections between them. But would you consent to your brain being sliced in that way?

Even if would agree that we slice your brain into extremely thin slices, it is highly unlikely that the full volume of your brain could ever be cut with enough precision and be correctly reassembled. The brain of a man has a volume of about 1.26 million cubic millimeters.

If I havent already dissuaded you from trying the procedure, consider what happens when taking time into account.

After we die, our brains quickly undergo major changes that are both chemical and structural. When neurons die they soon lose their ability to communicate, and their structural and functional properties are quickly modified meaning that they no longer display the properties that they exhibit when we are alive. But even more problematic is the fact that our brain ages.

From the age of 20, we lose 85,000 neurons a day. But dont worry (too much), we mostly lose neurons that have not found their use, they have not been solicited to get involved in any information processing. This triggers a program of self-destruction (called apoptosis). In other words, several tens of thousands of our neurons kill themselves every day. Other neurons die because of exhaustion or infection.

This isnt too much of an issue, though, because we have almost 100 billion neurons at the age of 20, and with such an attrition rate, we have merely lost 2-3% of our neurons by the age of 80. And provided we dont contract a neurodegenerative disease, our brains can still represent our lifelong thinking style at that age. But what would be the right age to stop, scan, and store?

Would you rather store an 80-year-old mind or a 20-year-old one? Attempting the storage of your mind too early would miss a lot of memories and experiences that would have defined you later. But then, attempting the transfer to a computer too late would run the risk of storing a mind with dementia, one that doesnt quite work as well.

So, given that we dont know how much storage is required, that we cannot hope to find enough time and resources to entirely map the 3D structure of a whole human brain, that we would need to cut you into zillions of minuscule cubes and slices, and that it is essentially impossible to decide when to undertake the transfer, I hope that you are now convinced that it is probably not going to be possible for a good while, if ever. And if it were, you probably would not want to venture in that direction. But in case youre still tempted, Ill continue.

Nobody said youd get a body inside the computer.John Lund/Photodisc/Getty Images

Perhaps the biggest problem we have is that even if we could realize the impossible and jump the many hurdles discussed, we still know very little about underlying mechanisms. Imagine that we have managed to reconstruct the complete structure of the hundred billion neurons in Richard Dixons brain along with every one of the connections between them, and have been able to store and transfer this astronomical quantity of data into a computer in three copies. Even if we could access this information on demand and instantaneously, we would still face a great unknown: how does it work?

After the what question (what information is there?), and the when question (when would be the right time to transfer?), the toughest is the how question. Lets not be too radical. We do know some things. We know that neurons communicate with one another based on local electrical changes, which travel down their main extensions (dendrites and axons). These can transfer from one neuron to another directly or via exchange surfaces call synapses.

At the synapse, electrical signals are converted to chemical signals, which can activate or deactivate the next neuron in line, depending on the kind of molecule (called neuromediators) involved. We understand a great deal of the principles governing such transfers of information, but we cant decipher them by looking at the structure of neurons and their connections.

To know which types of connections apply between two neurons, we need to apply molecular techniques and genetic tests. This means again fixating and cutting the tissue into thin slices. It also often involves dying techniques, and the cutting needs to be compatible with those. But this is not necessarily compatible with the cutting needed to reconstruct the 3D structure.

So now you are faced with a choice even more daunting than determining when is the best time in your life to forego existence, you have to choose between structure and function the three-dimensional architecture of your brain versus how it operates at a cellular level. Thats because there is no known method for collecting both types of information at the same time. And by the way, not that I would like to inflate an already serious drama, but how neurons communicate is yet another layer of information, meaning that we need much more memory than the incalculable quantity previously envisaged.

So the possibility of uploading the information contained in brains to computers is utterly remote and might forever be out of reach. Perhaps, I should stop there, but I wont. Because there is more to say. Allow me to ask you a question in return, Richard: why would you want to put your brain into a computer?

I may have a useful, albeit unexpected, answer to give you after all. I shall assume that you would want to transfer your mind to a computer in the hope of existing beyond your lifespan, that youd like to continue existing inside a machine once your body can no longer implement your mind in your living brain.

If this hypothesis is correct, however, I must object. Imagining that all the impossible things listed above were one day resolved and your brain could literally be copied into a computer allowing a complete simulation of the functioning of your brain at the moment you decide to transfer, Richard Dixon would have ceased to exist. The mind image transferred to the computer would therefore not be any more alive than the computer hosting it.

Thats because living things such as humans and animals exist because they are alive. You may think that I just stated something utterly trivial, verging on stupidity, but if you think about it there is more to it than meets the eye. A living mind receives input from the world through the senses. It is attached to a body that feels based on physical sensations. This results in physical manifestations such as changes in heart rate, breathing, and sweating, which in turn can be felt and contribute to the inner experience. How would this work for a computer without a body?

All such input and output arent likely to be easy to model, especially if the copied mind is isolated and there is no system to sense the environment and act in response to input. The brain seamlessly and constantly integrates signals from all the senses to produce internal representations, makes predictions about these representations, and ultimately creates conscious awareness (our feeling of being alive and being ourselves) in a way that is still a total mystery to us.

Without interaction with the world, however subtle and unconscious, how could the mind function even for a minute? And how could it evolve and change? If the mind, artificial or not, has no input or output, then it is devoid of life, just like a dead brain.

In other words, having made all the sacrifices discussed earlier, transferring your brain to a computer would have completely failed to keep your mind alive. You may reply that you would then request an upgrade and ask for your mind to be transferred into a sophisticated robot equipped with an array of sensors capable to seeing, hearing, touching, and even smelling and tasting the world (why not?) and that this robot would be able to act and move, and speak (why not?).

But even then, it is theoretically and practically impossible that the required sensors and motor systems would provide sensations and produce actions that are identical or even comparable to those provided and produced by your current biological body. Eyes are not simple cameras, ears arent just microphones and touch is not only about pressure estimation. For instance, eyes dont only convey light contrasts and colors, the information from them is combined soon after it reaches the brain in order to encode depth (distance between objects) and we dont yet know-how.

And so it follows that your transferred mind would not have the possibility to relate to the world as your current living mind does. And how would we even go about connecting artificial sensors to the digital copy of your (living) mind? What about the danger of hacking? Or hardware failure?

So no, no, and no. I have tried to give you my (scientifically grounded) take on your question and even though it is a definite no from me, I hope to have helped alleviate your desire to ever have your brain put into a computer.

I wish you a long and healthy life, Richard because that definitely is where your mind will exist and thrive for as long as it is implemented by your brain. May it bring you joy and dreams something androids will never have.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Guillaume Thierry at Bangor University. Read the original article here.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY.

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Can you upload your brain to a computer? A neuroscientist explains the crushing reality - Inverse

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Doctor Dressing Guide: Fashion and Work Outfit - Digital Journal

When it comes to unofficial holidays, Amazon Prime Day is perhaps one of the most highly anticipated of the year. In 2022, the massive savings event will take place July 12 and 13, and some of its most coveted deals on home, fashion, beauty, tech and more items have already debuted. In order to get in on the action, though, youll have to sign up to become a Prime memberthat is, if you arent already one. The good news is you have two ways to go about this, depending on your desired level of commitment.

Sign up for a one-year Prime membership here

First, you can sign up for a one-year membership that will cost you $139 up front or $15 a month. This membership not only gives you access to Prime Day, but also offers tons of long-term perks like free two-day shipping and same-day delivery on millions of items, free two-hour delivery on groceries and daily essentials and the ability to stream millions of movies, TV shows and songs through the platformall without ads. Also included in the membership is 30-minute early access to select Lightning Deals on Amazon, so you can take advantage of the best discounts before the general public does.

And, students and select government assistance recipients can sign up for Prime at a discounted rate.

sign up for a free Amazon Prime 30-day trial here

If you're not quite ready to invest in a full membership and don't qualify for a discount (more on those below), you can also sign up for a free Amazon Prime 30-day trial in order to participate in Prime Day. Just make sure that your 30-day trial encompasses the Prime Day dates (since the sales event is just a few weeks away, signing up soon is a great idea). And if youre not completely sold, you can cancel your subscription once the event is over or on the last day of your trial period.

In order to qualify, students will need to provide a .edu e-mail address or send one of the following to student-verification@amazon.com: a transcript, class list or tuition bill that shows the students name, name of the educational institution and the current term; or an official acceptance letter that includes the date the student will begin an upcoming term. Once approved, students will enjoy a 60-day free trail to Prime and pay $7.49 a year, or $69 up front (a total of $70 in savings for the year compared to the standard membership). If you sign up for the student deal and have an existing Prime account, you will get a refund on the remaining months of your standard subscription. Students experience all the same Prime benefits as regular members, plus a few customized perks like discounts on textbooks, free food delivery and six months of free access to LinkedIn Premium.

Some things to keep in mind: Students will lose select benefits during the free six-month trial, including 20% off diapers. And, Kindle owners wont be able to access one Kindle ebook per month for free. However, these perks are available at the end of the six-month trial.

Additionally, students will need to verify their current status every time the account is up for renewal (either on a yearly or monthly basis) by uploading the required documentation to their account. Monthly subscribers can do this by going to the Manage Your Prime Membership menu, while yearly subscribers should head to the Manage Your Student Membership menu to upload verification assets. Automatic re-enrollment for the discounted membership will occur from the date you provide proof of documentation. You will be charged the regular price if you do not re-submit, however, you will have 60 days to do so, in which case you will receive a refund of the difference. A student membership will expire at the end of four years, or once you graduate and can no longer verify your student status. If you sign up prior to graduation, you can enjoy the membership until the renewal periodeither through the end of the month or your yearly membership term, depending on how you pay for the subscription.

Shoppers who have an EBT card or other qualifying government assistance documentation will also be able to become a Prime member for less. These members will pay $6.99 a month (although EBT funds can't be used to pay this cost) and enjoy a 30-day free trial. They will continue to be billed on a month-to-month basis once enrolled.

Furthermore, they get all the same benefits as standard members, plus SNAP EBT for eligible groceries with free shipping and exclusive deals on other essentials.

To qualify for the membership discount with government assistance, you will need to upload one of the following:

Your letter must show the date of issue (which will need to be within the past 12 months for acceptance) or date of expiry, as well as the name of the beneficiary.

Every 12 months, you will need to re-verify your government assistance status to continue to enjoy the discounted Prime membership. The deal can be used for up to four years from the date you sign up.

No matter how you sign up, make sure to check out our list of the best Prime Day Apple deals, sneaker deals, swimsuit deals, and more as you prep for the big day.

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How to Sign Up for Amazon Prime's Free Trialand Save Big Ahead of Prime Day in 2022 - Prevention Magazine

FORMER Teen Mom Kayla Jones has announced the arrival of her second baby daughter.

The 23-year-old, who appeared on Young & Pregnant last year, shared the news online.

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In a series of Instagram story posts, Kayla announced the birth. Or rather, her new daughter did.

While sharing a video of the maternity ward wall, a crying newborn could be heard in the background.

Over the video, Kayla simply announced "She's here."

In a follow-up post, the reality star thanked her friends for their support.

"Thank you to everybody that wished me a safe delivery," she shared. "Contributed anything to my babygirl.

"And anyone who just simply checked on me. Thank you.

"I'm exhausted as hell y'all lmao give me a couple of hours."

In February, Kayla announced that she was pregnant with her second child during an Instagram Live, uploading a gender reveal clip as she proudly showed off her growing baby bump.

Sitting on the floor, Kayla beamed as she popped a giant balloon which releasedpink confetti.

The TV star said it is her second chance to enjoy and bask in the experience of pregnancy.

She penned: "The day I waited so incredibly long for..21 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours.

"From the moment I knew you would be arriving I was in complete awe, couldnt believe it and battled within.

"So many thoughts of reactions, opinions, and judgements crossed my mind at the thought of keeping you.

"My first experience was filled with defensiveness and unpleasant emotions up until arrival and I just knew thats not what I wanted to experience AGAIN."

The MTV star explained that she wanted to keep her pregnancy a secret so she could surround herself with "love and peace"

"Then, I realized this would be my second chance to enjoy and bask in the experience once more .. 4 years later of what was supposed to be happiness and joy of a new life being brought into the world," Kayla continued.

"So I kept you quiet.. I knew I wanted you but instead this time I surrounded myself with love and peace as long as I felt comfortable too.

"I already enjoy being a mom no matter how hard it may get and now I have the chance to add another little princess, my second princess into the world with nothing but love.

"Ive known forever I didnt want to leave Mecca alone in this world and I knew my baby would be ecstatic to be a big sister especially since she thinks shes someones mom/boss at the moment but now she gets to be a big sister with her own lifelong best friend!

"It's been peaceful, breathtaking and an incredibly great feeling to enjoy your arrival myself but now, .. my little princess is revealed ."

The MTV star is already mom to 3-year-old daughter Mecca with Makel Kennedy.

It is not known if Makel is the father of her second child.

Kayla and Makel met in high school and dated for five years, during which time Makel came out as transgender and transitioned from female to male.

They got engaged when they both turned 18 and decided to start a family.

Kayla became pregnant using a sperm donor and they welcomed Mecca into the world.

Kayla and Makel have since split and are believed to be co-parenting their little one together, with the TV star describing him as her "best friend".

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Kayla wasaxed from the next seasonof Teen Mom: Young & Pregnant.

A sourcetoldThe Ashley's Reality Roundup:Kayla [Jones] got dropped.

"They did not renew her contract so she wont be in the new 12 episodes.

She was disappointed, especially since she has so much happening in her life right now that would be good to film.

But MTV made their choice so theres really nothing she can do.

Sources claimed to the outlet thatTeen Momproducers planned to keep Kayla on the show and fireMadisen Beith, though viewers seem to identify with Madisens storyline more.

The insider explained: [The producers] feel like, because Kayla is older than Madisen, and because Kaylas pregnancy was intentional, her story didnt really catch on the way [the producers] had hoped.

"The network thought that, because Kaylas story included a transgender partner, it was timely and topical, but it just didnt catch on."

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Teen Mom star welcomes her second child, a baby GIRL, after shes FIRED from show... - The US Sun

History is witness to the fact when the people of a society lack moral values, different social evils start strengthening their roots there which ultimately lead to the downfall of that society

It is the basic essentiality of a civilized, cultured, peaceful and an educated society that its each and every member should stay away from social evils and contrarily moral values should get the highest priority to flourish within the society. History is witness to the fact when the people of a society lack moral values, different social evils start strengthening their roots there which ultimately lead to the downfall of that society. When a society starts misusing the blessings of nature, its people get indulged in various indecent activities which finally results in the destruction of that society. We are people of the modern era where science and technology has transformed and revolutionized each and every facet of our lives and made our existence comfortable. Nature has bestowed us with countless blessings through science and technology which have eased our adversities and difficulties. There are both positive as well as negative aspects associated with the usage of these scientific blessings. When we use these blessings in a positive way they make our life comfy cozy and open up new vistas of progress and prosperity for us but when the same blessings are utilised wrongly they turn into malediction and foster many social evils in the society. Then these social evils ultimately lead a society towards destruction. The idea of morality and modesty slowly fades away from such societies and its people particularly youngsters get involved in various social evils. Ironically, people of such societies feel proud of their social evils as these evils become customs and rituals of such societies with changed nomenclatures and the people involved in such evil activities are honoured, encouraged and awarded as such people are presumed and envisaged as the role models in the society. Alas ! Such societies remain inebriated with their excessive inclination towards social evils which keeps them nescient and incognizant of their immediate downfall. Famous English historian Arnold J. Toynbee after analysing the rise and fall of human civilizations in his classic 12-volume book 'A Study of History' has rightly concluded that civilizations die from suicide, not by murder. It is pertinent to mention here that progress and prosperity of a society depends on its youth who are the precious assets of a society and can lead it to different heights of development. But when the youth of a society get engulfed in wrong, immoral and immodest activities, then destruction and devastation is the ultimate fate of such societies. Nowadays social media has gained much fame and has become inseparable part of our lives. Almost each and every individual of our society irrespective of his age, sex, gender or profession is involved with social media. When used positively, Social media can be much useful and beneficial as we have seen in last two and half years of covid-19 pandemic. It has been much helpful to students, government institutions and other business entrepreneurs during the times of lockdown. But we shouldn't forget that social media can be much dangerous and it can become the worst tool for spreading immodesty and immorality when used for negative, notorious and disgraceful means. When we have a look at the other parts of globe, we see people getting much benefited by social media. They are using it to disseminate knowledge and useful information. They are using social media especially YouTube as a powerful tool to teach and learn different skills and crafts. People in other parts of the world remain updated about current affairs of the world through social media. But when we look at our valley, we feel ashamed and disappointed. Instead of making social media as a useful tool, our social media influencers are using it to disseminate immorality and immodesty besides making fun of simple, innocent and mentally and physically disabled people. They are highlighting, pinpointing and publicizing the shortcomings, flaws, faults and imperfections of others on social media in the name of roasting, which is morally and religiously prohibited, thereby murdering the moral values and virtues in our society. They are feeding our youngsters with the doses of insanity and absurdity by uploading the insane videos of mentally challenged people on social media. Few social media handlers are wasting the time of our young generation by uploading the futile videos of their daily personal activities (vlogging) thereby publicizing and mocking their own personal family secrets to common masses. One wonders what kind of message they are trying to give the society through their daily vlogs and it is really ironical to notice our youngsters wasting their precious time in watching such useless videos which divert them from their main goals and encouraging such so-called social media influencers.It is the biggest tragedy of our society that we mishandle, misuse and torture mentally unsound people by uploading their videos on social media and make them viral. We use such people as a source of enjoyment and recreation for ourselves and when we irritate and torture such people beyond limits they too cross the limits of madness and blaspheme our religious sentiments or commit some serious and irreparable mistakes. Then we start hating them and speak ill about them. But I believe those supposedly educated and civilised individuals who provoke and aggravate these mentally challenged people to commit such serious mistakes are the real culprits and much more mentally retarded than these mentally challenged people and such people should be strictly punished. These notorious and ignominious people make fun of these simple and innocent people by inviting them as special guests at various functions and take their funny and meaningless interviews which they later upload on social media for their personal interests. They tease and torture them whenever they find a chance by clicking their photos or taking their videos and later on making them viral on social media. These ignorant and uncivilized people are unaware about the fact that people who can't differentiate between good and bad and whose knowledge and intellect doesn't make them capable of distinguishing between right and wrong are not worth to be called as human beings and such people fall below the level of animals.I am of the opinion that people who upload these absonant,insane, indecent and futile videos on social media are not solely responsible for disseminating immorality and immodesty on social media but all those people of our society are equally responsible in this heinous and iniquitous act who watch, like or share such videos or encourage these people in one way or other to upload such videos. People who watch and share these iniquitous videos on social media unknowingly become a media for spreading immodesty and immorality in our society. Let's not forget the fact that if we will stop watching or advertising these videos by sharing them on social media and when we will stop encouraging these people for these heinous crimes, they will automatically stop uploading these insane and iniquitous videos on social media. Every individual in our society should always keep in mind that our every single act on social media is watched and recorded by our Lord. We have to be answerable before our Lord on the day of judgement for what we have uploaded, watched, liked or shared on social media and we will be solely responsible for our deeds.Sowe should always avoid and prohibit from spreading misinformation, immodesty, immortality, iniquity and indecency on social media and it is our moral and religious duty to immediately report all such content on social media which leads to dissemination of immorality and immodesty in our society. Let our deeds shouldn't degrade and humiliate us before our Lord on the day of judgement.

Email:--------------rather1294@gmail.com

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Disseminating Immorality and Immodesty on Social Media - Brighter Kashmir

There's a set of specific core skills that have become pivotal to success in the digital workplace. Here's what they are and how organizations can develop them.

Nearly four employees out of 10 lack essential digital workplace skills, and roughly 11.8 million people do not master even one of Lloyds 17 Essential Digital Skills for Work the UKs benchmark for digital skills created by market research firm Ipsos MORI on behalf of Lloyds Bank.

These are mind-boggling statistics considering how much the digital world has grown since the onset of the pandemic, now more than two years ago. Digital workplace skills such as the use of collaboration tools, the ability to interpret spreadsheet data, accessing digital pay slips or updating software are fundamental today, for both employees and companies alike.

Ensuring that all employees technical and non-technical have these skills can be pivotal to the success of a business.

It is invaluable if an employee can troubleshoot problems themselves up to a certain level," saidTracey Beveridge, head of HR at Blackburn, UK-basedPersonnel Checks, emphasizing the importance of digitally savvy employees. "For an employee to be able to overcome these without distracting team members or calling IT support is a beneficial skill.

According to Lloyd's list, there are 17 skills that are essential for the digital workplace. Here are four important ones:

Basic computer skills are a necessity in todays world. Companies rely on multiple software tools to get the work done and must, therefore, have a computer-literate workforce.

Everyone should have basic computer literacy skills, including the ability to use a mouse, navigate menus and type on a keyboard, saidOmer Usanmaz, CEO and co-founder of Chicago-basedQooper.

Lacking basic computer skills leads to immense productivity losses. For instance, imagine an IT team investing precious time helping employees with basic tasks and troubleshooting every issue. Such a model would be highly inefficient and unsustainable.

In a digital working environment, companies use multiple applications, from Slack, Zoom and Teams, to Notion, Jira, Trello and Discord, to name just a few. Having employees with basic to advanced proficiency in these cloud-based apps supports greater productivity.

Most processes now happen in the cloud. Thus, skills like uploading, downloading and sharing files, creating and editing documents, and using spreadsheets to interpret data have become essential workplace skills, said Linda Shaffer, the chief people and operations officer at San Francisco-basedCheckr.

While most of these collaboration platforms are intuitive and common in the workplace, employers may still want to offer training sessions to help employees improve their skills and perform additional tasks using these apps.

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Google's search engine is now so engrained in every fabric of our lives, it has long become an official verb. According to marketing platformSkai, Google handles 3.8 million searches per minute on average across the globe.

Googling is an essential part of day-to-day work, and employees should be able to sort through massive amounts of information on the internet to find relevant data. This critical skill can be the difference between making poor decisions based on misinformation or accelerating a process by tapping into available data and insights.

It doesn't matter how much data you have if you can't interpret or gain insight from it. The use of spreadsheets is one of those essential skills thats a must-have for every employee.

According to the Essential Digital Skills report, 23% of UK employees have trouble using spreadsheets to interpret data. For businesses to make better-informed decisions that will drive growth or improve revenue, having employees with this skill is vital.

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The best companies have a workforce that is proficient and adept in a range of digital skills. They stay current on new developments, continually seek to improve employees existing skills and acquire new ones. They also conduct assessments to identify skills shortages.

This assessment can help you identify areas where your team needs improvement and identify employees who are digital experts," said Usanmaz.

Companiescan improve their skills arsenal through ongoing training and development. In the digital workplace, there are multiple ways to deploy training to yield results:

Employees can learn faster and complete essential workplace tasks through video guides and demonstrations. Organizations that do not have the resources to invest in video training can create their own videos through pre-recorded sessions with in-house experts.

Watching videos demonstrating how to improve digital skills has been advantageous, and we promote employees spending time watching YouTube to advance their skills, said Beveridge.

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By pairing up members of a team based on complementary skillsets, employees can learn directly from one another. In a digital workplace, this means watching an employee perform a task live and having the ability to ask questions in real time.

Digital workplaces use many different software tools. To ensure staff is proficient in using the tools made available to them, leaders may need to provide tool-specific training tailored to the companys needs.

This is where training and onboarding come in," said Shaffer. "Its important that employers provide employees with the resources they need to learn how to use new tools and software. You can also allow them to experiment with these tools under low-risk conditions to assess their progress."

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If there's any lesson taken from the Great Resignation, it's that employees are looking to grow and develop. Companies can boost employee satisfaction by providing online courses that help workers improve their skills in areas of interest to them and are beneficial to the organization's growth.

These courses can be taken at the employee's own pace and on their own time," said Usanmaz. "Employers can encourage employees to take these courses by offering incentives such as paid time off or a bonus.

Originally posted here:

4 Essential Skills for the Digital Workplace and How to Acquire Them - CMSWire

By Jamie Stafford

Marion MinorChief Executive Officer

In 2002, Marion Minor seized the opportunity to take charge of her own company, buying data and content assets to enter an executive sphere where women were the minority. She had always been drawn to areas where she could make an impact, and she embraced the inherent risk. One area was the marine industry, as Boating Industry was acquired by the company that would eventually become EPG Brand Acceleration.

Marion has faced her fair share of challenges. But Marion always forged ahead, saying, you have to have confidence in your decisions, and you cant wait for someone to extend a hand you have to go seek out those opportunities yourself.

Marion recently graduated with her Master of Science and Psychology and continues to pursue her interest in workplace mental health.

Joanne Juda-PrainitoSenior Vice President, Audience Marketing & Engagement Solutions

Joanne has been with Boating Industrys parent company for over 25 years. She is the head of the digital team, which handles all upkeep and maintenance for the website, manages the email newsletters, and develops further digital products.

Her favorite part of the job is wading into the data to discover how all magazines in the EPG family can better engage their audiences and serve both businesses and consumers. Without Joanne, Boating Industry wouldnt have been able to make the leap from print to digital!

Work-life balance is top of mind for many people in the era of Covid-19. For Joanne, this balance comes in the form of relieving stress via 3D cake art. She crafts artwork from cake and frosting, and as a fan of DIY, is always pursuing some new creative project.

Bernadette WohlmanDirector, Operations

Bernadette answered a help-wanted ad in the paper and was promptly contacted for an interview. She began as an administrative assistant for the motorcycle group before expanding her role to all groups across the company. When she started to troubleshoot for the sales side of things, her role began to evolve into more of an operations capacity. These days, she helps with the backend of Boating Industry and makes sure everything runs smoothly for the whole team, coordinating press trips and communicating with other organizations.

Bernadette was also a familiar face at many of Boating Industrys events, as well as other boating events in the Twin Cities, before Covid-19 put a halt to these summits. She loves the marine industry for all of the people shes met and maintained relationships with over the years.

Bernadette truly is the glue that holds much of EPG together, and after her workday, she indulges some much-deserved relaxation with her cat. She also enjoys gardening, reading, and hanging out with her friends.

Mary Jo TomeiDirector, Human Resources

In 2004, Mary Jo answered a newspaper ad for a position as production director for a magazine. Years later, Boating Industrys parent company evolved into what is now EPG Brand Acceleration, and Mary Jos career path took a direction she never expected. She stayed with EPG, and at Marions suggestion, jumped into a new role that would challenge her to evolve with the company.

Mary Jo is crucial facet behind Boating Industry, hiring editors Adam Quandt, and most recently, Jamie Stafford. She has watched editors like Adam grow in their role, saying, seeing peoples passion as they embrace the industry is so rewarding.

Outside of work, Mary Jo keeps up on college basketball and football, experiments with vegan cuisine, and enjoys all manner of water sports, including rowing.

Susan clementVice President, Engagement

Susan began her time at EPG as a contract worker now shes the vice president of engagement for the whole company. Throughout her years working on events, Susan has come to be an invaluable member of the team supporting Boating Industry and its most important summit, ELEVATE.

This summit was started in 2019, so Susan had a very hands-on role in creating the event and guiding it into what it is today. And, she says, it brings the same challenges that any event has: getting attendees and connecting with exhibitors. Her favorite part, though, is rising through these challenges and watching each event thrive.

In her free time, Susan likes to read murder mysteries which perhaps seem like a relaxing past time after a hectic day to day organizing events.

Sara Nath Managing Director

The opportunity to make an impact on a company pulled Sara into EPG. She began to leave her mark immediately, quickly taking charge of the companys marketing efforts. Sara brings a strong vision to everything she does. She is involved in creating and cultivating industry partnerships for Boating Industry, and she participates in the branding efforts of all events such as ELEVATE and IBEX.

I do like the culture that this industry offers, she says. Boating is a tight-knit and family-oriented industry, and it shows. They really care about the future of boating, Sara remarks, many people who have been in the industry, have been in it for a long time. From that aspect, there is a lot of passion.

While Sara admires the passions of those in the boating industry, she pursues her own passions by hanging out with friends, and making time for her family.

Samantha OhEvents and Engagement Associate

Samantha is the newest member of the marketing and events team at EPG Brand Acceleration. She works under Susan Clement, ensuring all the events run smoothly, including ELEVATE Summit.

Sam was drawn to EPG due to flexibility her role demanded, and because she got to connect with and impact many different types of people.

Outside of work, Sam is dedicated to the gym and enjoys skateboarding and snowboarding.

Karen KalinyakManager, Digital Marketing

Karen began as a production manager in 2004, a career shift from her previous job where she worked as a graphic designer for a local newspaper. She wanted a better work-life balance, which she found at EPG.

In 2017, she pivoted again, this time to the digital team, where she handles uploading ads to the website. Karen is also the heart of Boating Industrys enewsletter, ensuring it makes it to your inbox each week so you can stay informed on all the latest happenings in the industry.

Karen has had a long and successful career at EPG Brand Acceleration. Throughout her time here, her favorite part of the job has always been the people she works with. The company has a strong sense of camaraderi and though we all seem to have different personalities, we come together as one team to produce the best possible product, she says.

Karen moonlights as a blackjack ace, enjoying an evening at a casino at the card tables or just chatting with people on the penny slots.

Nici LawsonManager, Digital Solutions

Nici began with what would become EPG Brand Acceleration in 1996 as a temp, creating ads for Snow Goer, a sister magazine to Boating Industry, dedicated to snow mobiles. In 2001, she accepted a full-time position as a production artist and art director. She then took a brief hiatus and returned in 2018, this time as part of the digital team.

Nici handles all the website updates directly, and helps maintain Boating Industry behind the scenes. Whenever she works with the magazine, its all smiles: with boats and boating, its always summertime thoughts, she says.

During summertime, Nici enjoys running with her dog, Kona, and driving around in her Volkswagens: a 62 beetle and a 71 bus. She's also a huge Minnesota Wild fan and during the winter you can find her cheering on the hockey team.

Leslie PalmerNational Sales Director

Without all of our industry partners, Boating Industry would not be able to thrive. Leslie Palmer, our national sales director, makes sure that the magazine is set up for success. She came to EPG 10 years ago from a former partner, initially working with the horticulture group. When the opportunity came to move into a sales director role for the marine industry, Leslie jumped at the chance.

My favorite part of working for EPG and Boating Industry are the relationships I have built over the years., she says. We have a great team and we truly support one another. I have learned a lot from all of the team members. This tight-knit culture is reflective of the industry as a whole many people find themselves welcomed with open arms.

At the end of the day, the marine industry is all about fun Leslie enjoys weekends on the water at Lake Michigan with her family, and weekends off the water in Northern Michigan.

Lindsay ZiganAssociate Art Director

Lindsay is the associate art director, in charge of all visual elements in the magazine, from color to graphics and layout. During the Boating Industry rebrand, Lindsay took inspiration from other successful trade magazines as well as her own experience and eye for design. All the amazing work Lindsay does ensures that Boating Industry always looks its best. She also works on two other titles within EPG Brand Acceleration.

Lindsay came to the magazine with little prior experience within the marine industry; however, she has been impressed by the wide array of people that the industry welcomes, and motivated by seeing its rapid evolution within the past few years.

Like many others within the marine industry, Lindsay is an avid nature lover and gets out with her dogs whenever she can. When she cant be out there in person, she enjoys watching nature documentaries, puzzles, and acrylic painting.

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