Category Archives: New Utopia

The similarities between the art of Grace Jones and David Bowie are apparent for all to see, and the pair are two of the most iconoclastic figures popular culture has ever seen. Without their work, the kaleidoscopic future that we now inhabit would be very different.

Starting with his real breakthrough in the 1970s, David Bowie railed against established social mores by unleashing his artistic vision unto the world.His music was a vivid and atmospheric palette that infused glam rock with an attitude that, until that point, the world had never seen.

He was androgynous, challenging and had an uncompromising self-awareness. He showed everyone that gender, aesthetics, and art, in general, can be whatever you want them to be and that fluidity was the key to reaching the future. Moving forward, the worlds acceptance of the mundane was to be challenged across culture, with imagination coveted as the key to achieving a post-modern utopia.

Whether it beZiggy Stardust, Station to Station,Scary Monstersor later works, Bowie invariably made experimental and progressive music that was so unique that it remains incredibly influential to this day. Duly, for someone so groundbreaking, he carved out an area in music that so many of our other favourite artists would go on to also inhabit.

One of these was Grace Jones. Making her name in the hedonistic Studio 54 scene of disco-era New York, Jones fused experimental music and stark aesthetics in a similar way to Bowie, owing a lot to the haute couture of iconic fashion houses such as Yves St. Laurent and Kenzo who shed modelled for before her time as a musician.

As she moved into the 1980s, Jones started to move away from her outwardly disco sounding work of the 70s, still creating music for clubs, just this time, it was more futuristic, with increasingly complex textures aided by heady electronic sounds. Retrospectively, her music bridges the gap between that of Bowie and the Icelandic queen of pop, Bjrk.

How fitting is it, then, that one of Grace Jones best-loved cuts from the 80s is her cover of the David Bowie and Iggy Pop penned song, Nightclubbing? Released as a part of her 1981 album of the same name, the song was originally written by Bowie and Pop for the latters 1997 debut solo record,The Idiot.

Arguably, Jones version surpasses the original, making it more languid and spacey whilst still managing to honour the industrial sound that made Pops version such a fan favourite. Listen to Grace Jones Nightclubbing below.

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Revisit Grace Jones' cover of David Bowie and Iggy Pop - Far Out Magazine

It was an act of pre-planned sedition, and the continued inability or unwillingness of the Department of Justice to bring the hammer down on those who attempted to overthrow democracy itself may yet be the thing that kills that democracy. Those who organized the "march" had planned it specifically to interfere with the ability of Congress to function. The evidence clearly shows that the organizers and allies used the resulting violence as part of a larger plan in which Trump would then issue a declaration restoring "order" by seizing faux emergency powers. The organizers included Republican lawmakers inside the Capitol, Trump administration officials, Trump himself, Republican strategists, Republican lawyers, and violent militia groups acting in a coordinated fashion with the others.

The Daily Kos Elections Team talks with Joe Sudbay about the big primaries and all of the redistricting nonsense on The Downballot podcast

Everyone who so much as crossed a single toe into the Capitol building itself should be rotting in federal prison for at least the next several years, but only a handful are charged with the sedition that each one of them so clearly intended. Most have been given probation or other light sentences, then left to return to their guns, their fellow extremists, and innumerable Republican campaign trails.

To get a feel for what is most likely to happen next, two stories from the rapidly failing state of Idaho give an unpleasantly detailed look at just how vigorous the American fascist movement has become. The New York Times focuses on the entirely deserved travails of the Idaho Republican Party, which has embraced fascist extremism wholeheartedly only to find that their less extremist officials have little hope of holding out against the venomous terrorist-adjacent batshit extremist white nationalist pro-fascist scum that the party embraced in their long-term efforts to demonize anyone in the state not willing to do the most extremist thing at any given moment.

The party is now a den of militia-premised violent extremism. it has been taken over by white nationalists who identify not just with the state's growing fascist militia groups but with the tattered remnants of the John Birch Societya segregationist, misogynistic conspiracy group that was once akin to the current "QAnon" movement, but one that flourished back in the times when unhinged conspiracy rants had to be mailed out from one person to the next behind actual postage stamps. The poster child for this new pro-fascism Republicanism is the state's own Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, now infamous for staging her own petty coups every time the state's hard-right sitting governor so much as goes out for a cup of coffee.

The story of the Idaho Republican Party is quite simple. The party continues to embrace the state's most dangerous proto-terrorist networks, white supremacist cults that have moved to the state and set up shop there with the specific intent of toppling the American government and founding a white nationalist ethnostate premised on shooting anyone who objects. The party endorses radicals who promote violent solutions. Itis unashamed about putting the endorsers of terrorist rhetoric on school boards or in other local positions because backing anti-American militia crackpots is considered the lesser of two evils when considered against the purely imaginary dangers of supposed "critical race theory" being taught in the public schoolsschools that much of the movement believes shouldn't exist at all.

So you've got Republican candidates for office showing up at events in which other speakers are leading prayers asking for God's support for their attempts to secede from America to form their own nationalist murderstate, and anyone left in Republican circles who thinks that might be grotesque behavior now labels themselves a "traditional" Republican and struggles to explain to voters that despite their own party's willing embrace of this batshit nuttery, embracing terrorism-premised ethnostate rebellions is Bad, actually, and what the hell are the rest of you people even thinking.

The second look into Idaho's collapse into what seems likely to become a failed state is a much longer and more comprehensive writeup from Huffpost's Christopher Mathias, one that examines what the guts of Idaho's rapidly surging extremism actually looks like on the ground.

The most important takeaway is that the extremists make no effort to hide their eagerness to embrace terrorismnot just to achieve their desired white nationalist utopia, but against any public official, private citizen, or stray school-aged children who offer up objections. Far-right activists brag not just about their intentions of wiping America out and replacing it with a fascist state, but about their access to doting Republican leaders who continue to back them no matter how radical the movement becomes.

So, as one example, a racial justice protest by a group of local high schoolers suddenly finds themselves opposed by "40 men in camo gear carrying AR-15s" telling them they "deserved to be raped" for staging their rally. The militia stains were backed by a Republican county commissioner, who had requested a public counter to the high schoolers, and if you are beginning to believe that there's no evident means of de-radicalizing Idaho's violent underbelly aside from sending in armed federal officials in to clean house the hard way, you're not likely to be alone.

This is what the new anti-democratic, pro-fascist, pro-violence bent of Republicanism looks like. It is not a question of avoiding violence; the people with pictures of guns on their hats and clothing are intent on using violence, real or threatened, against anyone who might oppose them. To be a non-radical government official in Idaho means facing violent threats over anything from textbooks to mask guidance to vaccines to local ordinancesthreats which will be either ignored or endorsed by Republican candidates looking to consolidate power.

Both of these Idaho reports focus, perhaps as necessity, on individual officials who are either promoting the radicalization or attempting to oppose it. Much of the radicalization can be traced to profoundly mean two-bit local Republican powerbrokers like Brent Regan, a valuable ally to anti-semites, white supremacists, and assorted other terrorism-adjacent extremists. Less examined is the plain truth that none of these white nationalist thugs and other human poisons would be getting anywhere if a very broad chunk of the state's Republican voters didn't back those things. They do. McGeachin hangs out with the would-be architects of a terrorism-premised white nationalist state and pays no price because the Republican church-goers of her state want someone at least as extremist is she is to be in a top government position.

For all the talk about fascist outsiders traipsing into Idaho to transform it into White Nationalist Disneyland, you don't hear many accounts of them facing widespread public opposition from the good Christian salt-of-the-earth locals who don't want white nationalist terrorism, just the white nationalism part. Those are the people who may or may not have power to stop domestic terrorism cells from flourishing in their own towns, but they absolutely have the power to prevent such cells from gaining Republican Party-backed representation in their local and state governments.

And yet:

The state of Idaho provides us with what may be a very accurate picture of what the rest of Republicanism will soon look like, as the party refuses to back down from its own attempted coup, as it continues to work feverishly to sabotage investigations into the violence it caused, as it brazenly passes law after law putting new asterisks on presumed civil rights, and smugly brags as a judiciary stacked with movement ideologues nods and claims none of those things are rights to begin with. There's no effortinside Fox Newsto stop hosts from broadcasting false claims used to justify new terrorist movements. The Republican officials who have encouraged militia thugs to turn out to oppose protesting schoolchildren have not been wringing their hands at how far downhill things have gone since then.

Most to the point, however, both the nation's media and the nation's government has signaled that violent insurrection is not, in fact, so antithetical to our nation's democracy that it cannot be tolerated. It is being tolerated. It is being pressed for, still, and none of the people doing the pressing are paying any significant price. The architects walk freeand, through lawyers, simply ignore congressional and law enforcement demands to tell what they know.

That lack of urgency, treating a party-backed descent into fascism as a status quo issue in which congressional panels shuffle along in relative obscurity and individual saboteurs rallying to thwart the transfer of presidential powers get hurried through our courts while largely dodging the question of how it was that each of them got there, is almost certainly working to boost Idaho's own seditionist fervor. If you can intentionally storm the Capitol and successfully, for a time, thwart the outcome of a democratic election, and even that is met with no great resistance from the government you were trying to topple, then as an extremist it would seem quite reasonable to treat the episode as little more than a practice run. The militia groups threatening schoolchildren in Idaho will hardly be quaking in terror if a few of their members are slapped with middling sentences for doing what their entire militias are premised on doing.

And the Republican Party officials who continue to back the notion of erasing elections when the votes coming in from non-Republican American cities go to candidates who are not their own have no reason whatsoever to balk now. There is no national shunning. Chuck Todd and Meet the Press will banter with the advocates for sedition on what new tax policies might look like. Local far-right gadflies who have screamed for scrubbing out votes are elected to new positions; those unwilling to back such crimes continue to be tossed out.

The press has acted with cowardice from beginning to end, treating democracy and overthrow as competing theories of government that must each be balanced against the other.

The Republican Party has acted as fervent backer of fascist insurrection, and continues to, and pays no price.

The Democratic Party pretends at normalcy even after coup, still waiting for "decent" Republicans to find their soul rather than acknowledging that anti-election extremism coupled with faux-populist hoax is the soul of Republicanism as currently practiced.

We are told that the Department of Justice, the independent portion of government tasked with responding to criminal acts by American citizens against each other, is on the case. And the clock ticks ontoward a November election that may render their careful deliberations moot as pro-insurrection candidates vow to immunize the top criminals from whatever charges prosecutors might yet announce.

There is literally no reason for the Idaho Republican Party to disengage from the state's pro-sedition, pro-terrorism wingat least until acts of terrorism start popping up in the state with enough regularity or impact to cause the federal government to step in and erase whichever militias crossed those lines. Republican lawmakers will continue to carry guns to protect themselves from their own far-right. School board members will continue to face personal threats of violence after Republican-backed smear campaigns, and local officials will continue to face Republican-backed opponents who appear at white nationalist conventions and bow their heads with everyone else as the crowd prays for the violent erasure of all those who oppose them, or might oppose them, or who they simply do not like.

The real question is not how this ends, because it will absolutely end with violence. The Republican Party in Idaho is absolutely assuring that. The only question is how the violence will unfold, how many victims there will be, how many of the victims will be Republicans that the party pretends to give a damn about versus other Idaho residents that they don't, and which of the names currently appearing in these two news stories will end up dead at the end of it, elevated to martyr status by Tucker Carlson and/or whatever collection of dimwitted fascists remain.

This will end with the feds having to take action, because the Idaho Republican Party is rapidly becoming a front for the state's far-right militia groups and the whole premise of those militia groups is to push against the boundaries of what's considered terrorism and what's not until there's no choice left but to get into a shooting war. Even the state's Republicans can see things bending that way, but so long as it provides a momentary election advantage, they're still content to ride that extremist wave.

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The Idaho Republican Party is merging with domestic terrorist groups, and it's not going to end well - Daily Kos

Historia Inc. has announced The Caligula Effect 2 PC Steam version and its release date.

The juvenile school RPG The Caligula Effect 2 PC version will be coming to the Steam Store on June 23, 2022 10 AM JST/ June 22, 2022 6PM PDT. This will be released as well on the Epic Games Store at a later time. Aside from the release date, a new costume, Retro Tatefushi Uniform, will be included for free when the game launches to commemorate the 6-year anniversary of The Caligula Effect series.

The Caligula Effect is a juvenile school RPG series titled after the sense of guilt and exhilaration that one feels from doing something they shouldnt. It explores two core themes, characters who are afflicted with the suffering of the current era known as Modern Pathology, and a thrilling scenario centered around the phrase Killing your idols. The Caligula Effect series has received a lot of attention from its initial release in June of 2016 on the PlayStation Vita, its subsequent anime adaptation, and a follow-up game that featured additional elements, The Caligula Effect: Overdose.

The Caligula Effect 2 carries over two core themes from the original, its unique battle system, and songs by Vocaloid-P musicians, and adds an all new story and cast for a completely new experience. The Caligula Effect 2 has been available from publisher FURYU on the PlayStation4 and Nintendo Switch since June 24th, 2021, and now historia Inc. is handling sales on the Steam and Epic Games storefronts.

No RegretsThe mysterious virtual doll, Regret.The virtual world, Redo, that she created, in which the regrets of the past are erased. Its a world where the thoughts of if only it went differently or if I had done that instead that plague us all, become a reality.

In an ideal world separated from past regrets, the main characters who noticed the deception of this world gain the help of another virtual doll and form the Go-Home Club with the intent to return to reality. Taking on the creator of this virtual world, they embark on the most difficult walk home from school imaginable.

The real-world lives of your friends in the Go-Home Club are full of pain and trauma that are difficult to face. Why are you trying to return to your harsh reality despite that? is something only you can begin to explore. There may even be some among the group whose true self you as a player just cant accept. Youll need to take personal responsibility and a no regrets attitude if you want to move forward

A turn-based combat system where you can assure the success of each move you select. Used right, it allows you to build teamwork and get out of jams.

Standing in the way of the Go-Home Club are The Obbligato Musicians who want to protect their utopia. Awaiting in dungeons where brain-washing songs play on a loop, they are joined by people who have been enchanted by the music and regard the Go-Home Club as traitors to be defeated. Meanwhile, the Go-Home Club, along with Kis singing, fights back. The in-game music is provided by popular composers who are active on video sharing platforms.

Character Composers (listed in no particular order):kemuShota HorieAyasePolice PiccadillyKairiki bearnulutNeruTSUMIKIcosMo@BousouPsasakure.UK

An old style Tatefushi Academy(the school attended by the Go-Home Club) uniform that no longer exists, will be added as a new costume. You can change costumes via the newly added costume field in the equipment screen. Youll be able to change outfits right from the start of the game, so its a feature that can be enjoyed by new and old players alike.

*The Retro Tatefushi Uniform is also planned to be added to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch/Lite versions in future updates.

The Caligula Effect 2 PC Steam version launches on June 22, 2022. Epic Games Store version coming soon.

Source: Press Release

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The Caligula Effect 2 PC Steam Version Announced with Free Costume - Sirus Gaming

Article by: LINDSAY KOHLER, LEAD BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST - SCARLETTABBOTT | Published: 18 May 2022

LINDSAY KOHLER, LEAD BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST - SCARLETTABBOTT28 April 2022

We all reflect upon the future of work, but focus on where and when we work, not how we work and what new leadership looks like. Whether in the office five days a week or zero days a week no longer matters, what does matter is that systemic and deep-rooted processes and structures at work, are much simpler to change than previously thought. However, approaches to succession planning too will have to adapt to altered frameworks and flattened hierarchical structures.

During lockdown and the rush to remote working, collaboration between different parts of the business became more difficult and created communication barriers and unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, which reinforced silos within the business. Reflecting on all that we have experienced, those businesses that insist on returning to the old working hierarchy model risk losing talent, as well as access to the innovation and creativity that alternative working models unlock. A more fluid work structure allows teams to change tactics more quickly and adapt more easily to shifting demands. It also allows more room for experts from other departments to move around teams as needed. That said, leaders must go in with eyes wide open, a distributed workforce and the hierarchy that emerges to best support it needs clear accountability. Ambiguity in job duties and ownership arises more easily in a distributed workforce, so constant communication on expectations is key. So, what alternative hierarchical models will emerge and how might this impact succession planning?

Different businesses and industries will, of course, have different models that emerge as predominant, but many will discover that traditional hierarchies are an inappropriate framework to base a distributed workforces leadership structure on. One key reason for this is that it better lends itself to distributed networks of power. Networks are decentralised and often lack visible leadership or figureheads, which comes with many benefits. However, a cautionary note on going too far in the other direction is that the opposite of a traditional hierarchy is one that is completely decentralised and solely reliant on self-organisation and self-management to work. The most famous example of this so-called Holarctic style is the shoe retailer Zappos, which rolled out a no job titles and no managers organisational style, only to find out quickly that wasnt the workers Utopia it had envisaged. One downside to having no formal power structures is that informal power structures emerge, often with no accountability, creating an environment, where bullying and harassment can thrive. So, the winner is likely to be a blend of the two styles, one that favours skills and competency.

Importantly, succession planning in the future has to be about skills, not favourites, as seen in the traditional succession planning culture, which was based on direct lines of reporting and grooming someone for a particular role. Indeed, Harvard Business School research shows that the concept of an old boys club at work is real and found that men managed by men are promoted faster than any other group. One caveat is that this research was conducted when physical presence in the office was still the norm and it is too early to tell if a shift to hybrid working will reduce the promotional effects of proximity bias. But the point is, promotions of the past were largely based on factors that, in many cases, had little to do with competency and efficiency.

So, what measures will we use to identify potential successors and base promotions on going forward, if not the markers of high visibility to peers or best friendship with the boss? Skills and impact, of course, because the prominent skills needed to propel a business forward become more obvious when everyone is less physically visible. Those with business-critical skills versus those in close proximity to the powers that be will rise into positions of power, based on the respect they gain as subject matter experts. But this rise wont follow traditional hierarchical structures. Rather, more heavily matrixed organisations will emerge because of this shift in what traits a business values in a leader and how it chooses who leads. A matrixed structure helps to embrace leaning on the most qualified person to make a decision, rather than x the most senior person.

Matrixed organisations arent necessarily new, go back to 2016 and a Gallup poll reported that 84 percent of employees had experienced matrix working at some point, to differing extents. But matrix organisations will become more common in a distributed workforce and one driving reason for this is that a key area that matrixed organisations thrive in is collaboration. Embracing new ways of collaboration and collaborating with more people across the organisation was one of the pandemics key wins. This is because a distributed workforce evens the playing field between remote-only and onsite workers and simply functions more cohesively, if the organisation structure is matrixed. So, the burning question is, do we still need bosses in a distributed workforce? The answer is yes and likely more than one because in matrixed organisations, employees have more than one direct reporting line. But this manager will not look like the bosses of yesteryear because, while teams that self[1]organise dont require a manager to assign work, they still need someone to encourage, mentor and help develop their skills. So, an increase in leadership coaching among people at all levels of a business not just the C-suite will become more common. Above all else, adaptation, flexibility and resilience will be the keys to making a matrixed hierarchical model thrive and distributed working encourages all three. As we adjust to the changes required in succession planning, leaders must take a moment for self-reflection and focus on being a force of support for their people, enable them to do their best work and move out of the way, rather than being a hindrance. We need to go the extra mile to clarify roles within the new structure that emerge in the business. The alternative is to double-down on control, cling to outdated management models and risk losing talented people.

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SUCCESSION PLANNING - The Matrix Resurrections - Print Issue 211 May 2022 | Article of the Week | theHRD - The HR Director Magazine

Utopia Deck for Beginners, Ancient Gears with a new toy, and LIGHT Fairy.

Beginner Deck: Utopia Deck

1 ZW Lightning Blade1 ZW Tornado Bringer3 Zubababancho Gagagacoat3 Utopic Onomatopoeia1 Dodododwarf Gogogoglove2 Astraltopia1 Tin Goldfish1 Kagetokage3 Maxx C3 ZS Ascended Sage1 ZS Armed Sage1 ZW Pegasus Twin Saber

3 Onomatopickup3 Onomatopaira1 Hyper Rank-Up-Magic Utopiforce2 Double or Nothing!1 Xyz Change Tactics1 Chain Summon2 Book of Moon1 Monster Reborn1 Reinforcement of the Army1 Zexal Construction

1 Numbers Protection1 Halfway to Forever1 Hi-Five the Sky

1 Number 99: Utopia Dragonar2 Number 39: Utopia2 Number 39: Utopia Double1 ZS Utopic Sage1 Number 39: Utopia Rising1 Number F0: Utopic Draco Future1 Ultimate Leo Utopia Ray1 Number 4: Stealth Kragen1 Number S39: Utopia Prime1 Number F0: Utopic Future1 Number 100: Numeron Dragon1 Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy1 Number S39: Utopia the Lightning

New Product Deck: Ancient Gear Deck Featuring Unlimited Free Radio Jamming

3 Ancient Gear Wyvern3 Ancient Gear Hunting Hound2 Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon2 Ancient Gear Golem2 Ancient Gear Frame2 Ancient Gear Box1 Ancient Gear Golem Ultimate Pound3 Infinitrack Anchor Drill

3 Unlimited Free Radio Jamming3 Geartown3 Ancient Gear Catapult2 Ancient Gear Fusion1 Ancient Gear Fortress2 Heavy Forward2 Chicken Game2 Twin Twisters1 Polymerization1 Overload Fusion1 Terraforming1 Set Rotation

3 Ancient Gear Howitzer1 Ancient Gear Megaton Golem1 Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem2 Chaos Ancient Gear Giant2 Ancient Gear Ballista1 Union Carrier1 Barricadeborg Blocker1 Heavy Armored Train Ironwolf1 Gear Gigant X1 Dingirsu, the Orcust of the Evening Star1 Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS Sky Thunder

My Favorite Deck: LIGHT Fairy Deck

Support battles with Honest!

3 Honest3 Barrier Statue of the Heavens3 Condemned Witch3 Star Seraph Sovereignty3 Star Seraph Scepter3 Star Seraph Scout3 Hecatrice3 Kurikara the Immovable Avatar2 Herald of Orange Light1 Power Angel Valkyria1 Archlord Kristya

3 Ties of the Brethren2 Pot of Prosperity1 Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen1 Forbidden Droplet1 Forbidden Lance1 The Chorus in the Sky1 Double or Nothing!

2 Fallen Sanctuary2 Solemn Judgment

1 Baronne de Fleur1 Celestial Knightlord Parshath1 Hip Hoshiningen1 Accesscode Talker1 Knightmare Unicorn1 Knightmare Phoenix1 Starliege Paladynamo1 Number S39: Utopia the Lightning1 Number 39: Utopia1 Evilswarm Exciton Knight1 Number 39: Utopia Double1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer1 Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir1 Constellar Omega1 Constellar Ptolemy M7

Master Duel (Fusion Festival):

Performapal + Odd-Eyes + Magician Deck

Ritual Beast Deck

Predaplant Deck

Fossil Deck

Red-Eyes Deck

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The Organization | [Deck Recipes] May 15th, 2022 - YGOrganization

What happens when our pursuit of work-life balance becomes so extreme that the two worlds split completely?

If the coronavirus pandemic had sent the office work routine into a tizzy, the Ben Stiller-directed TV series Severance has brought back the focus on the drawbacks of spending too much time at the workplace. While many struggled with getting back to the workplace physically, the new Apple TV+ show offers a fictional alternative and from the looks of it, it makes a rather compelling case.

The web series explores what might happen if you could medically sever your at-work brain from your personal life-brain. In this fictional world, the employees outside selves are called outies and their selves who stay within the office premises are innies. The outie transforms into his/her innie after they step out of the elevator and into their office. So the person at work has no recollection of his/her personal life rather there is no life beyond what exists in the confines of their workplace, Lumon and is devoid of any emotional baggage. Similarly, when the outie leaves for home at the end of the day, he/she doesnt remember what they did in those eight hours of the day. A severed person is deprived of 40 hours per week worth of his/her memories. Isnt that fascinating?

Also read: All workplaces and managers are faced with one problem today what to do with millennials?

The pandemic has laid bare the flaws in the age-old work routine. While it forced employers to exercise remote work culture, it blossomed into a blessing in disguise for many employees. Those nursing their newborn or young children or ailing parents, or the ones tending to their personal struggles work from home helped people to retain their jobs while also taking care of their personal affairs. For others, work from home was a curse, it didnt offer the escape from personal life work usually did and it was harder to stay motivated. As the offices reopened, the commuting among mask-clad travellers has proven to be a harrowing experience for many.

For decades, Nordic countries such as Finland have prioritised and embraced flexible hours and working styles to boost productivity and employee satisfaction. Countries like Japan compensate their employees for commuting to work.

It is safe to say that the concept of workplace has evolved for better or worse and, often, the work environment and accompanied pressure does little to make lives better. Especially for women, who by virtue of living in patriarchal households, end up working beyond their standard working hours. This fact, of course, is not true for all, but we would be fooling ourselves if we think that most women do not endure this on a daily basis.In fact, a LinkedIn study on India showed, 7 in 10 working women in India quit or consider quitting their jobs due to inflexible work environment.

Also read: Work-life balance What really makes us happy might surprise you

So, the idea of severance might seem tempting but the fictional world is not perfect. On the face of it, it has sleek, symmetrical shots making the series aesthetically pleasing. But the unadulterated work timings devoid of any feelings and personality of self can gradually become frustrating.And scary.

These are our lives. No one gets to just turn you off, protagonist Mark Scout (Adam Scott) says in the Apple TV+ series. Although the show depicts that the outies have voluntarily signed up for the severance programme one is driven by the loss of a loved one, another pushed by lonelinesstheir innies still want to break free.

The innies are engaged in meaningless activities to keep them engaged and motivated to achieve their professional goals. The work is mysterious but important, says Mark while inducting a new employee Helly (Britt Lower). There are also seemingly futile (but well thought out) regulations in place such as restricted access to other departments at the workplace. And, to discipline the innies and keep them in check, there are also punishments in form of a dreadful break room. All this to bring to keep the employees focused on the tasks at hand.

Severance may just be an extreme measure to tackle the work pressures and stress of contemporary workplaces, but in no way is it sustainable. The pandemic has given us a taste of hybrid workplaces and reverting to the old ways comes with its own challenges.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, low pay, lack of opportunities, and feeling disrespected at work are the prime reasons behind the Great Resignation of 2021.

And Severence shows how quickly utopia can become dystopia.

Views are personal.

This article is part of a series calledBeyond the Reelon movies and culture.

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Apple TVs Severance takes work-life balance to brain-altering extreme. Its no utopia - ThePrint

A new study published on Wednesday in Science Advances outlines new findings suggesting the presence of water on the surface of Mars in the past.

Data gathered by Chinas Zhurong rover, a part of the Tianwen-1 mission, found evidence of water in the Red Planets Utopia Planitia basin. The findings came after hydrated sulphate and silica materials were identified.

The Zhurong rover has been conducting a mission on the surface of the northern hemisphere of Mars, where NASAs Viking 2 rover landed in 1976. The latest Chinese mission is seeking to find evidence of the existence of life on the planet.

It is thought that Mars was once a warm and wet planet before a significant climatic change transformed the planet into an arid desert. The timeframe of the change is thought to have begun with the Amazonian period, roughly three billion years ago, and continues to this day.

Yang Liu, one of the lead authors of the study, said of the findings: The most significant and novel thing is that we found hydrated minerals at the landing site which stands on the young Amazonian terrain, and these hydrated minerals are (indicators) for the water activities such as (groundwater) activities.

Researchers also found that brightly hued rocks at the surface have developed a layer of hard crust. This layer, according to the study, could form when water leaves damp soil and turns it into a crust after evaporating.

This layer is known as duricrust and could be a key signal of the presence of water on the surface of Mars in the past. The duricrust is particularly pronounced in Utopia Planitia, suggesting that the area of Mars surface had the most active water cycle.

Experts also explained that no river beds or channels of water have been found in the area, suggesting that any water has been gone for long enough to allow the planets surface to be sufficiently weathered for any marks to be removed.

The astonishing findings exceeded researchers expectations of the mission, becoming the first to show the existence of hydrated minerals at the landing site. The use of the rover to explore a far great expanse of Mars surface allowed for the discovery and similar projects on Utopia Planitia will become more common.

Many scientists have posited that the region may once have been an ocean on the surface of mars, and Yang hopes that the rover could go on to study different layers of a crater to discovery more about the chronology of the Red Planets change.

So the discovery of hydrated minerals (has) significant indications on the geological and water history of the region and the climate evolution of Mars, he said.

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Chinas Zhurong space rover makes surprising discovery on Mars - AS USA

Anticipating the emerging computer age of the 1970s, American futurologist Alvin Tofflers seminal book, Future Shock (1970) predicted the ways in which the pace and scope of technological change could cause shattering stress and disorientation, envisioning the dramatic effect of becoming a super-industrialised society. Since then, the potential of technology has continued to grow exponentially as social media, the metaverse, and VR continues to expand the realms of our experience.

Taking its name from Tofflers prescient text, Future Shock, a new exhibition at 180 Studios, brings together pioneering artists on the radical vanguard of audio-visual technology, renegotiating boundaries between the physical and the virtual, and challenging our perceptions of reality.

The artists in the exhibition are using technology to explore these themes in different ways, explains curator and Vinyl Factory founder Sean Bidder. From the futuristic worlds imagined by Lawrence Lek, Romain Gavras, and Actual Objects to the sensory physicality of UVAs perspective-shifting installations or Weirdcores immersive series of rooms, soundtracked by Aphex Twin, which feels like you are stepping inside a computer.

Creating a liminal space somewhere between dystopia and utopia, Bidder characterises the overarching themes of the different artists on display as generating the collapse of creative silos merging art, music, and technology.

He talks us through the experience of moving through this series of artworks occupying the vast gallery space in the monolithic building: The show is an immersive, sensory overload, designed to reflect the information overload of any given day. Hamill Industries a collective from Barcelona created a light and sound sculpture called Vortex which blows a smoke ring at you, soundtracked by a new score from Floating Points; Nonotaks Daydream v6 reconfigures the space around you with a synapse-splitting light display; Tundras Row repurposes holographic projectors to create a set of symphonic illusions; Caterina Barbieri encourages you to place your hand on her melting ice sculpture; Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawas subassemblies is like stepping inside VR without the headset, with quadraphonic sound and strobing accompanying, the exhilarating dual-screen warping imagery of urban and environmental ruins. But, ultimately, he says, You have to experience it for yourself

Future Shock (presented by Fact and 180 Studios) is at 180 Studios until August 28 2022

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The immersive art show blurring the boundaries of the physical and virtual - Dazed

Its *so* the right time for genius.Image: Paramount

Star Trek, from its very beginning, has been about a lot of things, but one thing above all: beautiful people performing competence porn. The idealized future utopia, the spaceships and costumes, the action and adventure, the sci-fi of it all, that can be brushed aside if Star Trek gives you people who really enjoy being good at their jobs. So what do you do when you take one of its brightest and imagine them in a place where theyre not quite sure theyre that good yet?

Thats what Children of the Comet, the second episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is about at its core. On the surface, of course, its a bit of classic Star Trek storytelling that Strange New Worlds relishes in emulating, even if it doesnt really have more to add to it: the Enterprise has come across a comet in danger of wiping out a pre-warp civilization on the planet Persephone-3, and finds itself having to navigate a rescue mission that puts it at odds with a technologically advanced ship that believes said comet is a life-giving divine entity.

Youve got your space anomaly, youve got tough first contact with an unknown species called the Shepherds, and, dont get too hot under the collar just yet Trek fans, but theres even an away mission gone wrong thrown into the mix as well. When the Enterprise dispatches a teamUhura, Spock, Laan, and newcomer sciences officer Sam Kirk (yes, Kirks brother, no, sadly not played by season twos Paul Wesley with a fake mustache in homage to William Shatner, but by Dan Jeannotte)to the comets surface, they promptly get trapped by a mysterious shield system on the comet, and find themselves trying to solve the mystery of a glowing, egg-like core within its cavernous structures so they can beam out. Things get bad to worse, like all good Star Trek mysteries, when Kirk is injured and the aforementioned aliens begin firing on the Enterprise for trespassing on the comets sacred grounds. But, also like all good Star Trek, our heroes work out a way to resolve everything amicably and the day is saved. The comet is diverted, the away team get, well, away safe, and both the mysterious Shepherds and the aliens on Persephone-3 are all satisfied, the latter mostly because they werent wiped out by a comet, instead having it pass by their planet close enough to bring atmosphere-altering rainfall to the desert world.

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Its all very simple, and thats what Strange New Worlds is very good at so fara simple, tropey plot that you check in every week to watch get resolved, no matter how briefly tense things get, because you know youre watching a Star Trek show, and above all, youre watching a Star Trek show about the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, so you know everythings going to work out well. What makes Children of the Comet really spark, however, that all that is layered over a really important journey for one of its most potential-laden characters: Celia Rose Goodings young Nyota Uhura. Children of the Comet really is Goodings show to steal, and she does it with aplomb, giving us an incredible performance that navigates a side of Uhura that were very familiar withthe confident xenolinguist who knows she can get her job donewith one that were really not: a young cadet who came to Starfleet more out of curiosity than honor and inspiration, and one who suddenly finds herself surrounded by the best and brightest the organization has to offer, and likewise begins to find herself thinking like shes increasingly out of place.

From an impromptu Captains quarters dinner for the senior staff that opens the episode, to Uhura going on her first official away mission to join the team on the comet, to her eventually being the one that unlocks the mystery of the comet to help save the day, Uhuras arc in Children of the Comet sees her grow from this young cadet unsure shes in the right place for where she wants to be in her life, to something closer to the proud, charismatic young woman we met in the original Star Trek. And sure, we know that things are going to turn out OK for her, even when Uhura repeatedly tells people around her that shes not sure her future is in Starfleet, or is shocked when her fellow officers turn to her for advice and expertise, because, well, shes Nyota Uhura. Her fate, just like Pikes in a way, is a done deal.

But even then, theres something incredibly satisfying to watch the seeds of the character that weve known for over half a century at this point beginning to flourish through Goodings take on the character. Her curiosity, her passion for languageand a cute nod to her passion for song when she realises that the comets core can communicate through harmonics after idly humming a folk songher assuredness in herself after she eventually learns, with a little push from Spockwhen things start getting dicey, to trust in the fact that she wouldnt be where she was if she wasnt good at her job. It all comes together to give Children of the Comet and its otherwise pretty basic Star Trek premise a real sense of heart, in spite of the inevitability of its outcome.

If thats what Star Trek: Strange New Worlds wants to deliver week in, week outwell-executed plots of the week with a heartfelt exploration of one of its key characters, a familiar face or otherwisethen Children of the Comet is already setting a gold standard for the rest of the show to match. And if it does, like its Starfleet heroes, then Strange New Worlds can take a lot of satisfaction from a job well done.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Readies Uhura to Become One of Its Brightest Stars - Gizmodo

Last week, WW scrutinized the unlikely candidacy of Carrick Flynn for Oregons new congressional seat. Flynn, 35, is mostly unknown to residents of his districtbut theyve been blanketed by TV commercials and mailers for Flynn funded by cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. Flynn has introduced himself to few people outside of those ads. WW examined his candidacy, and obtained 25 minutes of his time for an interview. Heres what our readers had to say:

Joe Downs, via Facebook: Yeah, its totally normal for a 30-something who has lived here for months of his adult life to helicopter in with millions of dollars. Definitely dont ask any questions.

Kendall Horn, via wweek.com: Reminds me of Chauncey the Gardener but with less people skills and appeal.

Poppy Alexander, via Twitter: Oregonians are proudly intense about your right to claim Oregon identity (just ask Nick Kristof or read the excellent essay from Leah Sottile on it). This FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried campaign to remotely own a section of the state as a crypto utopia is thus extra, extra weird.

Steverino, via wweek.com: Gee, how terrible hes not on the party list of the government faithful.

Looking at what Ds have done for Oregon, I think thats a positive. WTH is so wrong about getting someone with new ideas since the old ones are not working real great?

Elaine Lindberg, via Twitter: I never got past the report that hes only voted twice in 30 yearsno matter where he lived.

Baba Benji Ji, via Facebook: Flynn does not give straight answers to any of the questions in this interview. Hes the kind of Democrat who will help maintain the balance of power in D.C. by losing the election.

Michael M, via wweek.com: This guy aggressively avoids the media for months, leaving the public with no choice but to make inferences based on the millions hes getting from a few individuals from outside Oregon.

Now he whines about being misunderstood. He has in no way demonstrated he is (1) qualified to serve Oregonians in D.C. or (2) trustworthy. A lack of transparency, for me, clearly makes a candidate unworthy of my voteand my trust. Over and above a complete lack of experience.

Uhoh Hotdog, via wweek.com: WW is just mad the guy wouldnt genuflect to their interview request. Not that WW is even distributed across the district in question. They are saying, without any evidence to back it up, that he will be subservient to his funder. What a wretched excuse for journalism.

EastsideActivities, via wweek.com: Can you imagine using your last question to go on about how self-sacrificial you are instead of how you want to serve the Oregonians of the 6th District? All this money, and he doesnt seem to have had even the most basic messaging training. Which means he just doesnt care as much as he insists. I dont like campaign financethats like saying, I dont like environmental. It just doesnt have even a rhetorical meaning. Taking big money, fine, its a long tradition enjoyed by both sides. But to not even dial in a platform? Its just insulting to his would-be constituents.

LETTERS to the editor must include the authors street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: PO Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com

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Readers Respond to the Cryptocurrency-Funded Congressional Hopes of Carrick Flynn - Willamette Week