Category Archives: Human Longevity

Canada's finance minister says there was a point early in the progress of theCOVID-19 pandemic when he realizedthis crisis was going to be different and far more trying thanmost people were expecting.

At that point, saidBill Morneau,Italy had just imposed a national quarantine. The stock market had tumbled. It was clear Canada wouldn't be immune.

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House airing today,Morneau recalled the famous metaphor of the frog placed in a pot of water heat the water slowly enough and the frog staysput until it boilsto death.

"This is one of those moments when you're like the proverbial frog in the pot and it's getting hotter and hotter and hotter, Luckily, I think we jumped out before it got to boiling," he said. "But there were a few days when I wasn't so sure."

In the past month,Morneau's department has rolled out emergency benefits for people who have lost their jobs due to the continuing economic shutdown, interest-free loans for small businesses and a 75 per cent wage subsidy program meant to encourage employers to keep people on the payroll.

The program design and delivery hasn't been perfect. Those wage subsidies have yet to be delivered, and the government's been forced to adjust eligibility for the other measures to ensure people who need help can get it.

"We tried to be aggressive in getting measures out to support people and recognize that perfect was going to be the enemy of the good. We're actually ahead of most people in the implementation of those measures ... in terms of getting money into people's pockets," Morneau said in an interview airing today.

"Now we're trying to make sure for those peoplewho not by design but because we moved fast aren't properly supported,that we're coming out to support them, too."

It's been an intense challenge, he said but that's not the point.

"We needto remember there are a whole host of families out there who are dealing with someone in the family who's died. There are people in [their]80s who you and I know who are terrified," he said.

"So intense as it is for me, it's worse for a lot of people."

The numbers are staggering, especially when they offer only the most rudimentary snapshot of what Canadians are really going through.

A million jobs lost in March alone. More than 31,400 confirmed and presumptive cases as of Friday and 1,250 deaths.

Worse still, manyof those dying are older Canadians who were living in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Those deaths could have been prevented, said Margaret Gillis, president of the International Longevity Centre Canada, which advocates for the human rights of older people.

"It wasn't like we were without warning," she said in a separate interview on The House. "There have been issues with long-term care in our country for many years."

The good news is that the rate of infection appears to be slowing, at least in some parts of the country. That's ledto calls forgovernments to begin easing some of the restrictions now in place that have slowed the economy to a standstill.

Morneau said heisn't even considering that yet.

The finance minister used the word "crisis" six times in the interview underscoring his pre-occupation with the short-term challenges of assisting people who are struggling financially because of the pandemic.

Which explains why Morneau is reluctant to say how long he thinks these programs will need to continue, and why he's unwilling to join the governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, in predictingwhen the economy will rebound.

Poloz told the Commons finance committee on Thursday that in a best-case scenario, it would take the economy roughlya year to regain what it lost. Even then, the recovery is expected to be uneven as resource-intensive sectors await a rebound in other parts of the world.

"We are obviously hopeful that the impacts of the crisis are temporary," Morneau said. "What I don't know, what no one can know, is exactly how long that will be."

Caution. Prudence. These are things every finance minister wants to be known for.Morneau's not disagreeing with Poloz. He's not agreeing with him either.

"Right now, what I'm doing is making sure we don't tell people things we can't know well enough to be sure," he said. "So I don't have enough information at this stage to inform people what exactly the economy will look like in six months or in 12 months."

For now, Morneausaid, he'll continue to look at ways to support jobs and carry on refiningthose income support programs for those who can't work. He'll continue as he did Friday for the energy and cultural industries to offer assistance to sectors of the economy that have been disproportionately harmed by the downturn.

And Morneau and the government are giving every impressionthey're going to maintainthat focus for many weeks if not months into the future.

Also on this week's show:

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Chris Hall: Bill Morneau's keeping his pandemic focus firmly on the near-term - CBC.ca

Todd Woodcroft instructs during a Winnipeg Jets practice.(Photo: Jonathan Kozub/Winnipeg Jets)

Soon after Kevin Sneddon announced his intentions to retire at the end of his 17th season in charge of the University of Vermont men's hockey team, athletic director Jeff Schulman heard from Noah Segall, theprogram's former director of operations.

As Schulman prepared to begin a national search to replace Sneddon, Segall tossed a name in the mix for consideration: Todd Woodcroft, a longtime NHL coach who has spent the last four seasonswith the Winnipeg Jets.

"He said you may want to take a look at this guy," Schulman said, "and it evolved from there."

More than two months later, and smack in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that prolonged the process for the school and itsmost sought-aftercandidates, Schulman and UVM selected Woodcroft, 47, as the fifth Catamount coach in program history.

"I talked to several head coaches in college hockey including in our league who know Todd and feel like hes a really exceptional person and his background and international reputation for player and skill development indicated he was somebody we should really consider," Schulman said.

"We really felt like he was a great fit for UVM and where we want to move our program," said the fourth-year AD and 1989 alum of the hockey program.

More: Why NHL assistant coach Todd Woodcroft wanted the UVM men's hockey job

Todd Woodcroft instructs players during a Winnipeg Jets practice.(Photo: Jonathan Kozub/Winnipeg Jets)

Woodcroft was UVM's guy, its top choice, according to Adam Wodonof College Hockey News.And Woodcroft yearned for a situation that had presented itself in Burlington. The marriage seems like an ideal match for both parties: A coach on an upward trajectory to take the reins ofa programand a school hoping the right personcould spark a return to prominence after seven losing seasons this decade.

"This isnt just a good place," Woodcroft said Thursday during a phone interview, "this is a destination where you want to be."

Schulman: "When I really evaluated what I think our program needs and to take the next step and compete at a championship level, which is what our goal is, Todd is the best person to help make that happen."

On the surface, there are questions. UVM'sopening, the final vacancy out of the 60 Division I teams, went to a coach who has noNCAA background either as a player or as a member of a college staff. And despite a stacked resume, the UVM gig is also Woodcroft's first head-coaching assignment.

"I dont know if I consider myself a maverick in any way, but I also dont mind pushing up against the status quo," Schulman said. "Most of our candidates came from deep inside the college hockey world and Todd represented a pretty stark contrastin that regard.

"Ive never been a believer that there is one career path for a successful coach. For me, its more about the person and their core values and what they bring to the job."

More: UVM tabs Todd Woodcroft to lead men's hockey program

Jerry Tarrant, part of an alumni group that played a small rolein theinterview process, praised the decision.

"This is a bold move and I really respect it. There were a couple choices that were safe choices and nobody would havechallenged Jeff on it," said Tarrant, who played hockey with Schulman at UVM. "Having talked with this guy, I can see the allure of (Woodcroft). This one is so far out of the mainstream of what people thought was going to happen that it creates an even higher level of excitement."

Associate athletic director Joe Gervais, another UVM hockey alum, called it a "non-traditional hire." But the overwhelming reaction has been positive, and could be viewed as a sneaky-good hire when the time comes for judgement.

"Ive been part of a lot of searches over the years and theres never one candidate who has absolutely everything," Gervais said."Time will tell how good a hire it was, but we feel like he's a great person for the job right now."

Todd Woodcroft has been picked as UVM's next men's hockey coach.(Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan Kozub/Winnipeg Jets)

Woodcroft hasn't stepped foot into Gutterson Fieldhouse in about five years. And the COVID-19 crisis turned all formal interviews from in-person to video or phone conversations.

But that was only a minor setback thanks to modern technology.

Resuming after the pandemic delayed proceedings for a couple weeks, Woodcroft was impressed by UVM's pursuit and dogged preparedness.

"They were meticulous in their research about me. They did a marvelous job vetting me,"Woodcroft said. "It was an intense process,I felt like the character of Red in 'TheShawshank Redemption' at the parole hearings."

Woodcroft also noticed the longevity of the administrators and coaches he spoke with. Schulman and Gervais are each closing in on 30 years at their alma mater. Men's head basketball coach John Becker just wrapped his 14th season with the program.

"Thats the greatest testament to a school," Woodcroft said.

Schulman said they had to win over Woodcroft, too.

"A big part of this process was us selling Vermont to Todd," Schulman said."I think it became pretty clear as the process went along that this was a good fit on both sides."

And, of course, Woodcroft had to beat out a strong candidate field. Six others were formally interviewed; associate head coaches Ben Barr of Massachusetts and Jerry Keefe of Northeastern were the other two finalists, according to several media reports.

"There seems to be a real synergy between (Schulman) and Todd, two people who share a common vision of trying to bring the program back to prominence," said Jay Woodcroft, Todd's younger brother. "I think the way that he prepared and delivered in theprocess, he showed them how serious he was about theresponsibility."

Woodcroft was also sold on the team's potential. Sure, the Catamounts won just two games in Hockey East this winter, part of a66-136-37 record in conference play over the last decade. But the Toronto native and 1995 McGill graduate saw a group who played and skated hard.

"I watched some games (on film) and this was a team that never quit, they blockedshots for each other," Woodcroft said. "They were inso many one-goal games."

Todd Woodcroft instructs players during a Winnipeg Jets practice.(Photo: Jonathan Kozub/Winnipeg Jets)

Woodcroft has spent the last two decades with five NHL teams in various roles, most notably as a scout. He won a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 as the team's primary European scout. He alsowas an assistant coach on gold-medal winning teams forCanada and Sweden at the 2004 and 2017 IIHF World championships, respectively.

Given his NHL experience, his teaching knowledge of the game "a cutting edge technician," his brother saidand the contacts he has amassed in North America and Europe, it was only a matter of time before a professional team or school offered Todd Woodcroft a head gig.

"Theres a reason the best players in the world gravitate toward him. Yes, hes dynamic and he has a magnetic personality but, most importantly, hes got the coaching chops," said Jay Woodcroft, a former NHL assistant coach who now leads the AHL's Bakersfield Condors. "Hes earned every opportunity, hes earned the right to work with the best people in the sport.

"Hes spent the last 20 years of his life preparing for this moment."

The key to unlocking the Catamounts' success is through recruiting, finding elite players, and Tarrant said Woodcroft appears to havethat ability.

"For me, I feel like recruiting is a very important part of the job, maybe the most important. I felt like he spoke to that," Tarrant said. "These kids will say, This is a guy who can get me ready to achieve my goal of playing in the National Hockey League. Thats a good reason to go to Vermont."

Naturally, Woodcroft's younger brother believes in him.

"He has an unmatched work ethic. When he sets his mind to something, hes a very driven person," Jay Woodcroft said."Thats why I think the University of Vermont not only got a great human being, but a very motivated and a very prepared hockey coach.

"Hes going to make it his mission for that program to succeed."

Contact Alex Abrami at 660-1848 oraabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter:@aabrami5.

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How UVM landed NHL assistant coach Todd Woodcroft for the men's hockey gig - Burlington Free Press

Its been 10 years since flames engulfed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest accidental oil spill in U.S. history. The resulting 168 million gallons of oil that spewed into the water for 87 days killed thousands of birds, turtles, dolphins, fish and other animals.

The messy slick washed up on 1,300 miles of beaches, coated wetlands with toxic chemicals, imperiled human health, crippled the regions tourism sector and shut down fisheries costing nearly $1 billion in losses to the seafood industry.

In the years since, scientists have studied the far-reaching and longstanding ecological damages. And its clear that problems persist.

A decade later, what have we learned? Are we any closer to preventing a similar or worse catastrophe? Here are some of the takeaways.

Right from the start, industry downplayed the size and scope of the spill. The Unified Command formed to deal with the disaster consisted of officials from federal agencies, as well as representatives of BP the oil company responsible for the mess.

Independent analysis using daily satellite images from NASA done by the conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, along with Ian R. MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University, found that the amount of oil gushing from the failed Macondo well was likely 20 times greater than what officials were claiming at the time. Scientists hoping to measure the flow directly at the seafloor were blocked.

The obfuscation came with a big cost. What followed was a series of under-engineered attempts to stop the flow of oil, wasting weeks of precious time as millions of gallons gushed into the Gulf, recalls John Amos, president of SkyTruth.

Research in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster also led to other findings about drilling in the region. Not surprisingly, the size of most spills is underreported.

This culture of misinformation doesnt emerge just during catastrophes, says Amos.

It turns out that slicks reported to the National Response Center were 13 times larger than provided estimates, according to research conducted by Florida State University and SkyTruth. And while companies can get in trouble for not reporting a spill, they dont get penalized if they incorrectly estimate the size of a spill, the analysis found.

And these spills are ongoing, with more than 18,000 reported in the Gulf since the mammoth 2010 disaster. While many of them are small, their cumulative impact is not.

A massive spill from a well that cant be plugged for months is truly troubling, but theres a worse scenario: a spill that cant be stopped at all. And that slowly unfurling disaster has already been underway it just wasnt widely known until researchers began investigating the Deepwater Horizon spill.

A hurricane in 2004 triggered an underwater mudslide in Gulf waters that sank an oil-drilling platform owned by Taylor Energy. The mess of pipes, still connected to wells but covered by a heap of sediment, resulted in a leak that continues to this day.

A study by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Florida State University in 2019 determined that the wells may be spewing 380 to 4,500 gallons of oil a day about 100 to 1,000 times more than the company has claimed.

After several attempts by Taylor Energy to cap the wells and contain the plumes didnt do the trick, in 2019 the U.S. Coast Guard stepped in to have a containment system installed to catch the oil before it disperses into the waters.

A deep-sea mudslide like the one that damaged the Taylor Energy platform could pose a threat to dozens of production platforms in the Gulf. Florida States MacDonald, who has been studying the leaking Taylor Energy site, believes such an event could happen again.

Triggered by earthquakes or hurricanes, underwater avalanches of sediment slip down the continental shelf moved by turbidity currents. And were not well prepared for understanding how and when it could reoccur.

Conducting studies to identify unstable slopes will improve our understanding of the seabed, he wrote in an op-ed for The Conversation. Better technology can make offshore infrastructure more durable, and informed regulation can make the offshore industry more vigilant.

Efforts that began in the aftermath of disaster should be termed spill response, and not cleanup, says Lois Epstein, an engineer and Arctic program director for The Wilderness Society.

Studies of previous spills have shown that oiled birds cleaned after spills usually fail to mate and suffer high mortality rates.

The use of booms, skimming, burning and the dumping of dispersants hasnt proven effective in containing large spills and seems to happen more to give the illusion that somethings being done, explains an article in Hakai Magazine.

During the Deepwater Horizon spill, only around 3% of the oil spilled was recovered from skimming, says Epstein. About 5% was burned off. And while dispersants decreased the volume of surface oil by about 20%, they increased the area over which the oil spread by nearly 50%.

Some advances have actually been made in improving the technology, but theres little incentive and no legal requirement for companies to upgrade their existing spill response equipment, says Epstein.

Some of the most concerning findings from post-spill research came from the depths of the sea.

Research in 2017 found that, the seafloor was unrecognizable from the healthy habitats in the deep Gulf of Mexico, marred by wreckage, physical upheaval and sediments covered in black, oily marine snow, wrote Craig McClain, the executive director for the LouisianaUniversities Marine Consortium, one of the scientists involved.

Its likely that millions of gallons of oil ended up on the seafloor because of a process known as marine oil snow where chemicals from burning oil, along with dispersants and other sediment in the water, adhere and sink.

For life at the bottom, that dirty blizzard was incredibly harmful.

The researchers noted that animals normally found in that deep-sea environment, such as sea cucumbers, giant isopods, glass sponges and whip corals, werent there. And many colonies of deep-sea corals hadnt recovered.

What we observed was a homogenous wasteland, in great contrast to the rich heterogeneity of life seen in a healthy deep sea, McClain explained. In an ecosystem that measures longevity in centuries and millennia, the impact of 4 million barrels of oil continues to constitute a crisis of epic proportions.

The spill caused problems at the surface too, including the longest known marine mammal die-off in the Gulf of Mexico, and experts say it could take many species decades to recover.

For example, a report from Oceana found that in the five years following the spill, 75% of bottle-nosed dolphin pregnancies failed. Endangered Brydes whales lost 22% of their already small population; 32% of laughing gulls in the Gulf died, and as many as 20% of adult female Kemps ridley sea turtles, already critically endangered, were killed in the spill.

Threatened populations of gulf sturgeon exposed to the oil experienced immune system problems and damaged DNA.Scientists found skin lesions on tilefish, Southern Hake, red snapper and other fish in the area near the blowout for two years after the spill.

Coastal wetlands, critical habitat for numerous species as well as an important buffer against storms, were also damaged.

Its believed that chemicals from the spill and dispersants have made their way from plankton up through the entire marine food chain.

There was nothing that happened with Deepwater Horizon that couldnt have been foreseen, says Mark Davis, a senior research fellow at Tulane University Law School and director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

And that makes the policy and regulatory failures that enabled the disaster that much more painful.

In a 2012 study on the lessons learned from the disaster, Davis pointed to a long history in the Gulf of oil and gas development superseding risk assessment and planning. That was compounded by a cozy relationship between industry and its regulators in the Minerals Management Service.

The federal government has a stake in the financial success of oil and gas development, says Davis, and that doesnt provide much incentive for strict regulation.

In the fallout from the disaster, the Minerals Management Service was disbanded and was replaced with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. But how much has really changed?

A story in E&E News found that problems still abound in the new agency and its fractious, demoralized and riddled with staff distrust toward its leadership.

Davis said dissolving the Minerals Management Service was needed, but hes not sure its achieved the needed improvements to regain public truth. The new agency is still too focused on not being a burden to exploration and production to really be a guardian of public/worker safety and environmental health, he says. And until we get our policies and legal architecture in line with the risks were running, were going to be very vulnerable.

Given the track record of the Trump administration on environmental policy, it should come as no surprise that the limited provisions made to improve safety and environmental health after the spill are being undone.

Last year the Interior Department changed its well-control rules to appease requests from industry. The rule change reduces the frequency of tests to key equipment such as blowout preventers, which sit at the wellhead at the ocean floor and are the last-ditch defense against massive gushers, explained Politico. It also allows drillers to use third-party companies instead of government inspectors to check equipment and gives them more time between inspections, among other things.

The ecological and human health imperatives for preventing another Deepwater Horizon or worse are important for Gulf communities and beyond.

In the past few years, the Trump administration has signaled that it wants to vastly expand offshore drilling, including lifting drilling bans in parts of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Itsa proposition that would lead to more spills and more greenhouse gas emissions at a time when its critical we reduce both.

His plan has been met with stiff opposition so far. But as the 10th anniversary of the Gulf disaster reminds us, were still on course to repeat one of our worst mistakes.

The takeaway here is that people learn, but institutions react, wrote Tulanes Davis. The Deepwater Horizon blowout may have taught many important lessons, but as yet, most of them are still unlearned by those most responsible.

FALL FUNDRAISER

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10 things we've learned a decade after the Deepwater Horizon disaster - NationofChange

Hong-Kong-based consortium Deep Knowledge Group has created a new COVID-19 related list, ranking various countries in terms of their safety and risk. According to the analysis, Hungary is among the countries handling the novel coronavirus epidemic the most effectively in Europe, with only Germany, Austria and Switzerland ahead on the continent.

The list ranks countries according to general safety and long term stability, and gives an idea of which countries citizens have the lowest likelihood of being infected, along with the lowest chance of COVID-19 mortality, and the highest likelihoods of recovery and positive health outcomes.

The countries were evaluated by taking into account numerous specific parameters, such as the timeline of restrictive measures that were introduced in the examined countries, how strict these are, travel restrictions, the scope of diagnostics, testing efficiency, and how well the hospitals are equipped.

Coronavirus: Where is Hungary in European Comparison?

Based on these factors, the analysis finds Israel to be the most effective country managing the COVID-19 crisis, with Germany second, and South Korea third. In addition to Germany, mostly Asian countries finished in the top ten, with the exception of Australia (4th) and New Zealand (6th).

Deep Knowledge Group is a Hong-Kong investment capital firm owned by a Moscow-based businessman named Dmitry Kaminsky, with business interests in the fintech, blockchain, and longevity industries. Kaminsky is a major investor, alongside the Russian government, in Russias flourishing longevity industry, which seeks to postpone the effects of human aging.

In the Top-40 Covid-19 safety list, Hungary was ranked 14th, right after Canada. In the European assessment, Hungary ranked fourth. The analysis found that only Germany, Switzerland (11th), and Austria (12th) managed to get ahead of us on the continent.

Unfortunately, some of the riskiest countries are also from Europe. In the COVID-19 Risk Ranking Framework Italy ranked first, the US second, while the UK was ranked third.

Featured photo by Zsolt Czegldi/MTI

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Deep Knowledge Group: Hungary Ranks as One of the Safest Countries Regarding Covid-19 Epidemic - Hungary Today

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Before Weird Al Yankovic parodies a song, he asks the artist for permission. He wants the subjects to be in on the joke, not exploited by it Michael Jackson loved the takeoff Eat It. So when the staff of The Times Magazine envisioned a photograph full of Weird Al fans dressed like the singer, it likewise sought approval from Mr. Yankovic.

He agreed, and the result was a group shot that was just as much of a sendup as any Weird Al song: the singer and 232 of his biggest fans (and one dog) in Los Angeles in January, well before the world got a whole lot weirder.

The idea emerged months earlier while the writer Sam Anderson was working on his profile, which examined the unexpected longevity of Mr. Yankovics career and its impact on fans. Through various genres of music, the artists changed, but Weird Al stayed the same. He has parodied artists including Madonna and Iggy Azalea. He never went away, Mr. Anderson said of the singers body of work.

On Halloween, Mr. Yankovic posted an Instagram slide show of people dressed like classic 80s Weird Al curly hair, mustache, Hawaiian shirt, oversize aviator glasses. When Amy Kellner, a senior photo editor for the magazine, saw the slide show, she knew immediately what she wanted to try. I thought, Oh my God, what if we got a giant group of people, all dressed like Weird Al, and then we could do the Wide World of Weird Al?

When Ms. Kellner brought the idea to Kathy Ryan, the magazines director of photography, and Gail Bichler, the magazines design director, the response was positive. I loved the idea, but the reality of it was daunting, Ms. Bichler said.

In early January, the magazine issued a call for participants through Mr. Yankovics Twitter, Facebook and newsletter. The photo staff didnt reach out until two weeks before the shoot because editors wanted to avoid being overwhelmed with interested fans looking to come from all over the world. Given enough time, they surely would have, Ms. Kellner said. In 2018, when Mr. Yankovic received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1,500 people showed up.

The short notice did not prevent Weird Als from Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas and even Canada from flying to Los Angeles.

The staff held extensive discussions about how many should be in the photo, and who should be included. We wanted to make sure we got a diverse group of people, and I needed to have a dog dressed up as Al for my own personal satisfaction, Ms. Kellner said. The staff also realized it couldnt afford to buy costumes for everyone, so fans would have to provide them, narrowing the pool.

As the magazine sifted through responses to the callout, the photographer Art Streiber, who is based in Los Angeles, researched photos of large groups of people and sent Ms. Kellner and Ms. Ryan examples of what 100 people looked like, then 200, then 250, 350, etc.

We made a cover mock-up, and it seemed like 250 was about the right number, Ms. Kellner said. In the end we got 232 human Als, and one dog Al.

The photo staff instructed the participants who were selected to bring four items: a curly wig, aviator glasses, a mustache and a Hawaiian shirt. If you can put on four things and people know who you are, thats an icon, Ms. Kellner said. Weird Al himself went clean shaven a few years ago.

On Jan. 18, the Weird Als, ranging from 6 months to 70 years old, gathered for the shoot though the baby Al had to wear a pacifier in addition to the costume, since the accordion music playing in the background was upsetting her. (The form that fans had completed beforehand playfully requested that they check a box if they were going to bring a real accordion, a toy accordion or no accordion.)

While everyone was waiting for the shoot to begin, there were singalongs to Weird Al songs, and of course everyone knew all the words. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the vibe was happy and fun, Ms. Kellner said. I think everyone had a great time. Al came out to say hi to everyone and got a super enthusiastic standing ovation. I brought my own cassette of Weird Al in 3-D that Ive kept since 1984, and he so kindly signed it for me. I was beaming.

During the shoot, individual portraits of Weird Als were taken along with the group shot. After everything was completed by late afternoon, Mr. Yankovic, true to form, stayed to sign autographs.

The photograph was planned as a cover. But as the coronavirus outbreak intensified, the editors changed course. That didnt seem right anymore the crowds of people during social distancing, Ms. Bichler said.

The final cover of Sundays magazine features a story on emergency medical workers fighting the coronavirus in Italy. But the group shot from January is now part of the opening spread of the article on Mr. Yankovic.

Im disappointed that its not the cover, but Im hopeful that it will bring joy to the nerds of the world, Ms. Kellner said.

Its what Weird Al would want.

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A Group Picture That Just Had to Be Weird - The New York Times

Publish dateApril 09, 2020

Actor Stacy Keach has been entertaining us for more than five decades, and for the last four of those, hes been a fixture on Matt LeBlancs CBS comedy Man with a Plan, playing Joe Burns, father of the characters played by LeBlanc and co-star Kevin Nealon. The series, which returned for a fourth season last Thursday, is providing some much-needed levity during our extended Coronavirus staycations, and Keach is thrilled to oblige. We were lucky that we wrapped [this] season before Christmas, he told MediaVillage during an exclusive chat. We were originally disappointed to learn wed be airing much later in the season, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Its great to be able to provide a little bit of a distraction for people, and right now we all need some laughs as a lot of people are having hard times. We all need to come together and share a few laughs.

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Man with a Plan Dad Stacy Keach on Matt LeBlanc, Career Longevity and The Exorcist - MediaVillage

Does anyone else feel like they are watching a science fiction movie? The streets show few signs of life, school buses are parked, and empty commercial aircrafts sit idle on runways. Rush hour traffic does not exist in most places while shopping malls, fitness centers, schools, colleges, and most businesses are closed until further notice. It is surreal, isnt it?

And, as if that was not epic enough, we have been told to shelter-in-place and isolate ourselves in our homes with no outside human to human contact. The result of all of this is an emotional toll like nothing we have experienced in our lifetimes! We are left with a roller coaster of emotions to deal with, from super ramped up anxiety to a connection-void the size of a lunar crater.

So, where do we go from here, and how do we survive this new normal that has descended upon our world with little warning to turn our mindset into a war zone mentality? Our biggest defense, plain and simple, is to stay connected to others!

We have been designed and wired as social creatures, and connection to others is key to our survival. Studies continue to show that we need others, it is not optional. It is more important to our state of wellness than being fit, eating healthy, and exercising, according to research on longevity.

Now more than ever as we self-quarantine in our homes, we must make a deliberate effort to connect with our family, friends, and neighbors. We are fortunate to live in an era where this is possible with the gift of modern technology. From Facetime to Skype, and from social media to cell phones, there are many methods available to assist us to see and talk to our loved ones today! My husband and I have instituted a weekly Skype family meeting so we can see our kids and their families, especially our precious grands. It helps so much to fill that deep void that has crept into our daily lives as we hunker down. Last week we also added in my husbands brother and sister to the Skype call. It was fun and festive, as we laughed about some of us showing obvious changes of hair color and length, with the closing of our hair salons. Humor is good for the soul.

We know in lifes darkest moments we benefit the most from leaning on the special connections of our loved ones, those who connect us to joy, peace and most importantly, hope. Reach out today through a text, call, or social media to someone who you have not spoken to recently. We are in very unusual times which calls for very intentional actions. The key to our survival individually and collectively, is connection. Together we will help each other get through this, and together we will rise up stronger, more resilient, and forever changed for the better!

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Connection The Isolation Buster! - Thrive Global

SOLON, Ohio -- Tracy Sullivan has worked 29 years for the city, but she had never been a director -- until now.

On Monday (April 6), City Council confirmed Mayor Ed Kraus appointment of Sullivan to the newly created position of director of community and cultural enrichment.

She also will continue in her role as manager of the Solon Center for the Arts, a position she has held since December 2014.

Sullivans salary is $79,000, plus 5 percent for longevity in service to the city, according to Nancy Stolarsky, the citys director of human resources.

For years, Tracy has managed the Solon Center for the Arts, but under the recreation department, Kraus said. Now this elevates the position to a directors level.

Kraus said the Solon Center for the Arts is returning to a stand-alone entity -- a status it held in the past -- as opposed to being under the umbrella of the recreation department.

The arts center is just bursting at the seams, and Tracy has been instrumental in the growth of the center, Kraus said. Our programming in terms of music, dance and art has been outstanding throughout the years under Tracys leadership.

Arts and culture is such a critical component to a community. This deserves to be a high-level director position.

Sullivan, a 1993 graduate of Solon High School who lives in the city, said shes excited about the promotion.

Its our chance to keep developing the arts center and branching out to some new programming and offerings for the community, she said.

For her entire career -- including 22 years as a full-time employee -- Sullivan has worked under Donald Holub, who retired March 31 after 31 years as the citys director of recreation.

She said in addition to continuing to oversee the arts center, she anticipates shell be working hand in hand with the recreation department, as well.

Sullivan served as a program coordinator at the Solon Community Center from 1997 until she was named manager of the arts center. In that role, she managed the citys summer camp, co-coordinated the Solon Home Days festival and supervised the after-school program, among other duties.

I still help out with programs at the Solon Community Center, even though Im no longer a program coordinator, she said. I still do Home Days and Fall Fest (the citys fall festival) and help with the summer camp.

Sullivan, 44, got her start with the city at age 15, working in concessions at the Solon Community Park and the outdoor swimming pool in 1991. She went on to work at the summer camp as a camp counselor and eventually as camp director.

I fell in love with the job and ended up changing my (college) major to the recreation field, said Sullivan, noting that she earned a bachelors degree in leisure service management from Kent State University in 1997.

It was perfect timing, because a spot opened up as a programmer (at the Solon Community Center), and I was hired as program coordinator for youth programs with the (recreation) department in 1997.

Sullivan said dealing with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for the Solon Center for the Arts. As a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, the arts center has been closed since March 14, along with the Solon Community Center and the Solon Senior Center.

We have gone virtual with a lot of our programming, she said, and we continue to keep adding weekly, turning more programs into virtual offerings for students and families.

Sullivan said the arts center offers a wide range of programs, mostly geared toward youth.

We offer a lot of things that the kids love, like dance and music, she said. But one of our goals is to continue to offer more programs and classes for adults and families and also seniors.

The arts are just a special thing, and its important to offer arts to a community, especially one like ours that is so culturally diverse.

Another goal for Sullivan in her new position is to increase community awareness of the arts center, to let everybody know were here and this is what we offer.

Some people in Solon might not even be aware that we exist, she said. We work side by side with the (recreation) department in a lot of community events, and I would like to continue that.

A Cleveland native, Sullivan grew up in Twinsburg and Solon. She and her husband, Dan, moved to Solon from Lakewood six years ago with their daughter, Mackenzie, 6.

Clearly, the Solon Schools were a big reason why I pushed to move back to Solon, she said. I wanted my daughter to have the same experience I had growing up -- the parks, the offerings of the (recreation) department, the summer camp.

Sullivan noted that her parents, Denise and Ken Hejduk, are both Solon High School graduates and still live in Solon.

My family is here, and Solon is still my hometown, she said. The community, the diversity, the schools -- all of it is important.

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Sullivan earns promotion; will continue as manager of Solon Center for the Arts - cleveland.com

Scientists have shown to be true what JRR Tolkien only imagined in the Lord of the Rings: giant, slow-reproducing trees play an outsized role in the growth and health of old forests.

In the 1930s, the writer gave his towering trees the name Ents. Today, a paper in the journal Science says these long-lived pioneers contribute more than previously believed to carbon sequestration and biomass increase.

The authors said their study highlights the importance of forest protection and biodiversity as a strategy to ease global heating. They say it should also encourage global climate modellers to shift away from representing all the trees in a forest as essentially the same.

This analysis shows that that is not good enough for tropical forests and provides a way forward, said Caroline Farrior, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin. We show that the variation in tropical forest species growth, survival and reproduction is important for predicting forest carbon storage.

Long-lived pioneers a term that has been around for decades include species such as mahogany, Brazil nut trees and Ceiba pentandra, which are visible far above the rest of the canopy because they grow fast (at up to twice the speed of plants lower in the canopy) for hundreds of years.

Researchers believe this is the result of a trade-off between stature and reproduction: they are able to put more energy into putting on biomass than into producing offspring.

The study is based on more than 30 years of data collected from old growth and secondary rainforest on Barro Colorado, an island in the middle of the Panama Canal.

The scientists grouped the 282 different species of tree into five categories determined by growth, reproduction and longevity. This showed the relative roles of fast species that grow and die quickly, slow species that grow slowly and reach an old age, infertile giants that live long and reproduce over a long time, and fertile dwarfs and small shrubs and low treelets that grow slowly, die young, but produce a large number of offspring.

By simulating different combinations of these groups, the scientists were able to build a model that reproduced the dynamics of the recovery of nearby young forests.

This knowledge of how quickly trees grow, how long they live and how many offspring they produce could help in the restoration of tropical forests, which are currently being cut down at an alarming rate. It could also dispel a theory that such giant trees disappear once a forest reaches maturity.

Our results show long-lived pioneers are not transient but an important feature in old forests. They represent about 40% of the biomass and there are no signs that this declines over time, said the papers lead author, Nadja Rger of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the University of Leipzig. However, she cautioned that others forest showed different patterns.

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Tolkien was right: giant trees have towering role in protecting forests - The Guardian

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People once yearned for retirement. They would hope to quit at 65, get a gold watcha dubious gift for someone who no longer has a scheduleand move someplace warm to play golf and eat dinner at an increasingly early hour. During the first tech bubble, young entrepreneurs cashed out and retired before 40, drifting off into travel, philanthropy, and the occasional vanity project. Everyone planned to retire. The contest was who could do it earliest.

Today, a tumbling stock market might have upset the plans of the millennials of the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement. But the secret weapon for some of the world's most successful people is that retirement was never an option.

When Jayson Adams retired in 1997 at 29, after selling his company Netcode to Netscape for more money than he would ever need, his plan was to spend the rest of his years surfing and playing guitar. When I ran into him a few months back, it was at the Google offices in Santa Monica. Where he was working.

Gary Hershorn

No one chooses to retire anymore if they can help it. Warren Buffett, whose personal net worth is more than $90 billion, is 89 and still working. Henry Kissinger, 96, runs a consulting firm that advises world leaders by drawing on his extensive knowledge of human history, most of which he has lived through. Elaine May, 87, could rest on her beloved-comic laurels but is instead gearing up to direct her first feature film in 32 years. New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, 89, will surely call her when it comes out. Sheldon Adelson, 86, not only runs the Venetian hotels, he also advises our President Trump, who is 73.

This coming November that president is likely to run against a 77-year-old Joe Biden or a 78-year-old Bernie Sanders. Rupert Murdoch, who packages all of this as blood sport, is 88. Robert Caro, 84, is rushing to finish his Lyndon Johnson biography before his own biographer gets to work, and Netflix recently scooped up the rights to a movie starring 85-year-old Sophia Loren. When I had lunch with Carl Reiner, 98, at his house not long ago, he brought me upstairs to a room where he toiled with two employees on several books he was writing.

Graydon Carter, 70, left Vanity Fair in 2017 and started spending part of the year in Provence, but he didnt take up petanque, he started the new weekly publication Air Mail. His advice? First of all, never, ever, actually retireat least not in the not-working, checkered golf pants, Republican-voting, dinner at 5 p.m. sense of the word. Cut back on your workthats a must. And leave plenty of time for reading and mulling a final chapter. When Miuccia Prada, 70, recently announced that Raf Simons was to be her cocreative director, she was adamant that it wasnt a prelude to retirement. Oh no, she said, to do better, to work harderIm very interested in this.

Never, ever, actually retire. Cut back on your workthats a must. And leave plenty of time for reading and mulling a final chapter. Graydon Carter

All of these people have enough money to retire. Which is, oddly, the norm for people who keep working past 70. While the age at which Americans intend to retire has indeed gone up by six years over the last two and a half decades, to 66, according to Gallup polls, most of that change comes among college graduates. Four decades ago people with a BA retired six months later than people who had only a high school diploma. Now theres a three-year disparity.

Retirement has become so uncool that more than a third of the members of AARP are still working. Which is why the lobbying group officially changed its name in 1999 from the American Association of Retired Persons to an acronym that doesnt stand for anything. In fact, when AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins was asked by the Washington Post for her advice about retirement, she said, My first piece of advice is: Dont retire.

Its as if the NRA declared that hunting knives are where its at.

Thats because work isnt merely what successful people do, its who they are. If you ask most people how theyre doing, theyll say fine, but if you ask a member of the cosmopolitan elite, shell say busy. In our brief moments of not working, we are listening to audiobooks while getting our steps in. We dont sit by a pool. We dont play card games. We dont golf. We crush it.

I cannot imagine ever chilling under a mango tree. I get much more joy from my work than from cruising in the South of France, says Arianna Huffington, who is 69 and started a new company, Thrive Global, four years ago. But others may get more fulfillment from cruising or golfing. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Except, of course, that they are losers who are never getting invited to Davos.

Age 89

Warren BuffetOCCUPATION: Omahas oracle is at Berkshire Hathaway dailyand has chicken nuggets for l.

Age 70

Miuccia PradaOCCUPATION: The designer recently took on partner Raf Simons, but not to lighten her workload. Instead, she said, it was to work harder.

Age 98

Carl ReinerOCCUPATION: Comedian, director, and Twitter must-follow Reiner isnt resting on his laurelshes busy writing books.

Age 89

Cindy AdamsOCCUPATION: New Yorks gossip queen not only writes a column four times a week, shes about to be the subject of a Showtime series.

Age 77

Judith SheindlinOCCUPATION: Sheindlin is wrapping up Judge Judy after 25 years, but she isnt ditching her robes. She plans to launch a new series in 2021.

Age 96

Henry KissingerOCCUPATION: The elder statesman of American diplomacy is still active in foreign policy circles and on the New York City society circuit.

Age 85

Sophia LorenOCCUPATION: The 1960 hit Two Women was Lorens breakthrough. This year Netflix will air her latest, The Life Ahead, directed by her son.

Huffington points out that the word retire means to withdraw or retreat. Not only dont the elite retreat, they have nothing to retreat into. Even if theyre wrong, people dont feel as though they have time in life to have avocations, says Laura L. Carstensen, director of Stanford Universitys Center of Longevity. Theres a big drop in how much time we spend with our neighbors. Were less socially engaged in our communities. So people think, What would I do? Because theyve done nothing else for 40 years.

The transition is so tough that the Harvard School of Public Health found that retirees are 40 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke during the first year of retirement than people who keep working.

Cavan Images

When 27-year-old Alfonso Cobo sold Unfold, the social media template tool he co-founded, to Squarespace at the end of last year for enough money to last at least a lifetime, he didnt consider so much as a weekend at the beach. Id honestly do it for fun, Cobo says about his job. He swears hell never retire. Id rather work than go clubbing.

Sterling McDavid, a 31-year-old former Goldman Sachs analyst who co-founded the fashion line Burnett New York, tells her employees that shell never retire. It honestly gives me total anxiety, she says. Sitting on the beach with my pia colada? I can barely do that on vacation. Retiring at 65 and thinking I had to do that for 30 years? I cant imagine.

Her dad, David McDavid, a 78-year-old former co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks, retired young. For a month. Then he started a new business. Sterling says that both she and her dad learned a lesson during that time. You have only one life, she says, and shes going to spend as much of it as she can working.

NBC

The privileged members of society have never embraced being idle; knowledge economy workers disgust at idleness is the same thing that every aristocracy has felt. Landed gentry didnt technically work, because paid work was awful: hoeing, manuring, smithing. But they did spend their time productively, doing things that are jobs today. They were naturalists, geographers, historians, writers, artists, harpsichordists, and, from what I remember from The Cherry Orchard, billiard players. To cease to contribute was to concede that you werent important. It meant you werent busy.

I do have one friend who retired at 40 eight years ago and has kept to it. Ive heard about these people who cant seem to walk away from work, fearing irrelevance and boredom, he says. Fortunately, Im not one of them. I guess my career was just a small facet of my identity.

My friend is a throwback to his parents generation. Carstensen points out that the retirement age dropped unnaturally in the second half of the 20th century, back when Goldman partners famously got out young. People kept retiring earlier and earlier. There was a culture of boasting about retiring early, Carstensen says. That has really changed. Some of it is discovering that you can play only so many rounds of golf in a week for so many years without realizing youre bored.

kafl

The most successful non-retirer of all time may be Norman Lear. Last fall, Lear, 97, reupped his first-look deal at Sony for another three years. Hes got a show on Pop TV (One Day at a Time), he won an Emmy last year for Live in Front of a Studio Audience (which ABC renewed for two more specials), and he has several other projects in development. If retirement were a game, it would be one that Lear was never asked to play.

I cant imagine not having a place like this to come to with people I care about to talk about things that interest me, Lear says from his office on the Sony lot. He thinks so little about retirement that a sitcom pilot he created was called Guess Who Died?.

The fallout from this trend could be a more difficult job market. While the likes of Elon Musk and Andrew Yang worry that robots will take our jobs, they will much more likely be taken by dotards who refuse to retire. To keep the unemployment rate from skyrocketing, Stanfords Carstensen advocates that people of every age work fewer, more flexible hours. I could see us going to 30-hour or even 25-hour workweeks without this idea that were going to retire for 25 years, she says.

Carstensen knows firsthand how tight the job market could be if we dont do this, but shes not going anywhere. Shes 66, and shes tenured.

This story appears in the May 2020 issue of Town & Country.

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No One Retires Anymore - TownandCountrymag.com