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A great site with amazing vocabulary about travel and pleasures.

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Need vacation ideas for 2019? The 50 vacation destinations Travel + Leisure has ranked as the best include new capitals of culture, idyllic remote islands, tourism destinations that are back in fighting form after natural disasters or human conflict - and much, much more.

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Racism and discrimination aren't always easy to spot.

Sometimes it's the small, subtle actions and assumptions that betray people's racial biases - whether they're at school, in the street or in the workplace.

An innovative VR project is trying to shed light on these lesser-known displays by letting viewers experience what it's like to be turned down for a job - even through you're the most qualified candidate.

The project's creators hope that by slipping on a headset and into someone else's shoes, those watching the video might be more aware of their own preconceptions in future situations.

To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our page or message us on .
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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This film lets you experience racism first-hand

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Racism and discrimination aren't always easy to spot. Sometimes it's the small, subtle actions and assumptions that betray people's racial biases - whether they're at school, in the street or in the workplace.

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How playing an instrument benefits your brain

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How playing an instrument benefits your brain

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Anita Collins: How playing an instrument benefits your brain

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When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

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The best performances of the decade according to actors

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The best performances of the decade according to actors

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Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore, George Clooney and other actors discuss their selections.

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules 

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules 

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Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

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Differences between steal, rob and burgle

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Differences between steal, rob and burgle

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Explanation + quiz.

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Do you know the difference between s teal, rob and burgle? How do we use these three verbs?

You steal when you take (unlawfully) what belongs to someone else. The object of this verb is generally what you have stolen.Generally, you steal things. The person who steals is a thief.

You can also steal something from someon e

You rob when you unlawfully take something from its owner.You (bank, shop, house...etc. The person who robs is a rob someone or you rob a place robber.

It means to steal from a building, a home...etc. The person who breaks into houses, shops ... etc to steal things is a burglar.

Test your knowledge with this exercise.

Click at the top right-hand corner to enlarge the window (red arrows)

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Let's Talk about Crime: is it Rob, Steal or Burgle?

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Do you know the difference between steal, rob and burgle? How do we use these three verbs? TO STEAL You steal when you take (unlawfully) what belongs to someone else. The object of this verb is generally what you have stolen.Generally, you steal things. The person who steals is a thief.

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Stress and anxiety in the digital age: The dark side of technology 

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Stress and anxiety in the digital age: The dark side of technology 

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Stress and anxiety in the digital age: the dark side of technology

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stress and anxiety in the digital age: the dark side of technology

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Stress and anxiety in the digital age: the dark side of technology

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What is it about new technology that is making many of us anxious and stressed? Dr Gini Harrison and Dr Mathijs Lucassen explore the top five stressors:

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Wood burners and open fires face restrictions in new clean air plan

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Wood burners and open fires face restrictions in new clean air plan

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Wood burning stoves, open fires and farms all face new restrictions as the government sets out what it calls a "world leading" plan to tackle air pollution.

In their Clean Air Strategy, published today, the government promises to set a "bold new goal" to reduce particulates across much of the country by 2030.

But green groups say the scheme is vague and severely lacking in detail.

They believe the plan proposes nothing new to tackle roadside dirty air.

The new strategy, which is focused on tackling air pollution in England, has been launched just days after the family of a nine-year-old girl who died from asthma were given permission to apply for a fresh inquest into her death.

The government's chief lawyer heard new evidence her death could be linked to unlawful levels of air pollution.

Air pollution early deaths rise in EU

Reality Check: Do clean air zones work?

Even low air pollution may damage heart

The human cost of air pollution

Catherine Bazell is a retired London librarian who suffers from asthma and a condition called bronchiectasis.

It's a long-term illness where the airways of the lungs become abnormally widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection.

"People can't always see dirty air but it's there," she told BBC News.

"I find it really frustrating, it means that I feel really tired, I can get tightness in my chest, I find it hard to breathe, it just stops you from doing all things you'd like to do.

"You see the alerts, that say it's a very polluted day today and you are obliged to stay in to keep away from the pollution, and that makes me quite angry because why should we have to stay in?

"We need to do something about the air pollution so that people can live normal lives."

What's the key aim of this new clean air strategy?

While overall levels of air pollution have been declining in recent decades, there has also been a growing scientific awareness of the scale of problems that it causes.

NHS England says that almost 30% of preventable deaths in England are due to non-communicable diseases specifically attributed to air pollution.

A pollutant called Particulate Matter (PM) is a particular concern with the World Health Organization (WHO) identifying it as the most damaging for people.

Fine particulates, known as PM2.5, are around 200 times smaller than a grain of sand. They are a major health worry as they can penetrate deep into your lungs, pass into your bloodstream and get embedded in your bodily organs and your brain.

The WHO's models indicate that around 92% of the world's population live in places where air quality levels exceed their guidelines.

In the UK, more than 40 cities and towns were at, or have exceeded, the WHO limit.

The government has previously said it will reduce by half the number of people living in areas breaching the WHO limits by 2025.

But they now say they will go beyond this and set a "world leading" goal on exposure to PM2.5.

Without giving many details, or a timeline, the government says that by 2030, fine particulate concentrations will be reduced below the WHO safe level "across much of the country".

The government says it will publish evidence early in 2019 on what actions will be needed to meet this new target.

Ministers argue that Brexit will allow the UK to go much further on this issue than the EU and become the first major economy to adopt air quality goals based on WHO recommendations.

How will the UK reach this 'bold new goal'?

The most important activity that contributes to particulate pollution is the burning of fuels such as wood and coal in open fires and domestic stoves.

Farming is also a major problem, as emissions of ammonia have increased in recent years. This gas reacts in the atmosphere with other chemicals to produce particulate matter that can be carried on the wind to major population centres.

To deal with domestic burning, the government will ban the sale of the most polluting fuels and ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022.

They are also consulting on phasing out the sale of traditional house coal and on limiting the sale of wet wood, the type found on garage forecourts. The government's plan for these fuels is expected within months.

For farmers, the government says it will introduce regulations to require them to use low emission farming techniques. There will be advice, training and support to help them invest in the technology to limit ammonia.

What has been the reaction to this part of the strategy?

The move on particulate matter has been welcomed by the WHO as an "example for the rest of the world to follow".

Green campaigners also recognise the value of adopting the WHO guidelines but are worried about the lack of legally binding limits.

"The government has made a welcome commitment to set an ambitious new target for cleaning up the most dangerous fine particle air pollution, based on WHO standards," said Jenny Bates from Friends of the Earth.

"But while the WHO says standards should be reached by 2030, there is no date set in the government's strategy and the plan is severely lacking in detail on how such a target could be met."

Scientists also say the government initiative is laudable but may not work for everyone across the UK.

"The full evidence on reductions needed to attain the tougher WHO guidelines for PM2.5 is to be published later," said Prof Alastair Lewis from them National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of York.

"One would anticipate that there are likely to be some urban areas of the UK where this could be close to impossible to achieve."

How will this new strategy impact me?

Just a few years ago, garages across the UK reeked of oil and petrol. The smells usually came from the evaporation of fuel vapour, which released volatile organic compounds into the air.

However, regulations to limit the emissions of these powerful air pollutants changed the odour of the UK's forecourts.

These new government plans may have a similar impact on some current air pollution smells.

If the proposed restrictions on solid fuels go ahead, the smoky whiff of winter over many cities and towns might also disappear.

The government says it will also provide a "personal air quality messaging system" to inform vulnerable members of the public with clear information about the forecast and accessible health advice.

As well as new information, the new plan envisages that everyone will be financially better off if the plan succeeds.

Air pollution is now the fourth biggest public health threat behind cancer, obesity and heart disease.

According to the government, the steps outlined in this plan will cut the costs of dirty air to the UK by £1.7bn every year from 2020, rising to £5.3bn every year from 2030.

What will it mean for wood burners and open fires?

Across the UK, about 1.5 million households use wood for fuel but these fires and stoves will now face restrictions because of their leading role in the production of particulate matter.

Most people don't realise that a wood burning stove emits more particles per hour than a diesel truck. That's because a freshly cut log of wood contains about a pint of water, and much of the heat energy is used to dry the water out, which causes the wood to smoke and smoulder, releasing air pollutants.

The key impact of the new strategy on existing stove owners will be on fuels like wet wood, and traditional house coal, which will likely be phased out.

The government also plans to give local authorities more powers over existing smoke control areas, where you can only burn smokeless fuel - if you want to burn wood it must be in an approved device. The new strategy doesn't spell out what these extra powers will be, but the idea is to make regulations easier to enforce.

The document also suggests that the government is looking to help local authorities "to increase the rate of upgrades for inefficient and polluting heating devices".

The government will also ensure that all new stoves sold from 2022 comply with EU eco-design regulations.

In fact, stoves branded eco-design compliant are already on the market.

"They won't look any different," said Dennis Milligan from the UK's Stove Industry Alliance.

"But the technology will allow combustion higher up in the fire chamber so that re-ignites any particles of wood that are in the smoke so the emissions that come out the chimney are reduced by 80% compared to a stove manufactured ten years ago."

It's not clear what difference these new regulations will make to sales of wood burning stoves - Recent data indicate that the market has boomed, largely driven by people looking to burn wood for its aesthetic appeal.

What about air pollution near roads?

UK levels of pollution from nitrogen oxides, produced in the main by diesel cars, have regularly exceeded European targets. So much so that the government has been successfully sued in the courts by campaign group Client Earth, to force them to come up with a plan.

In July 2017, the government introduced their detailed scheme for roads, which essentially puts the responsibility in the hands of local authorities. The cities with the worst pollution are supposed to develop plans for clean air zones that will charge drivers to enter.

However, campaigners believe the government has its head in the sand on pollution from transport. As well as clean air zones, they should be taking steps to cut the number of vehicles on the roads.

"They are hoping it will all go away but the reality is an awful lot more needs to be done," Jenny Bates from Friends of the Earth told BBC News.

"I think they are afraid of the motoring lobby and they shouldn't be."

Other forms of transport are dealt with in the new plan including rail and shipping. The government says it wants to see the removal of all diesel-only trains by 2040.

Analysis - Roger Harrabin, BBC Environment Analyst

There are many ways to help.

Swapping your car for walking, cycling or taking public transport is a major plus. For most of us, the health benefits far outweigh the risks of roadside pollution.

You can also turn off your engine when you're stuck in a jam, or buy electric when you replace your vehicle.

At home, you can burn less in your fireplace or your garden; service your gas boiler; and turn down your thermostat. Insulating your house means you'll burn less fuel.

You can group on-line purchases to reduce the number of deliveries.

And you can buy non-toxic cleaning fluids and sprays, because ordinary products cause emissions in the home. "Air fresheners" actually pollute the air.

But one irony: much of the UK's pollution originates in mainland Europe, so we really need neighbouring countries to join the effort.

What other air pollution issues will the new strategy deal with?

As well as trying to deal with the major sources of particulate matter, the government's plan also deals with pollution that arises from ammonia, sulphur dioxide and non-methane volatile organic compounds.

Ammonia from farms is a major focus as outlined above, for the role it plays in the development of PM. However, it also poses major threats to sensitive natural habitats.

"Ammonia in the air over our farmlands dissolves into our wetlands and waterways and wreaks havoc on delicate aquatic ecosystems," said Hannah Freeman from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

"The proposed measures are a step forward, but what we really want is government policy that supports farmers to be true stewards, holistically managing our air, soil and water together."

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Wood burners under fire in clean air plan

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Wood burning stoves, open fires and farms all face new restrictions as the government sets out what it calls a "world leading" plan to tackle air pollution. In their Clean Air Strategy, published today, the government promises to set a "bold new goal" to reduce particulates across much of the country by 2030.

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A Paparazzo's Memoir: Life On the Other Side Of The Lens

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A Paparazzo's Memoir: Life On the Other Side Of The Lens

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Interview

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A Paparazzo's Memoir: Life On the Other Side Of The Lens

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NPR Podcast

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subscribe to Fresh Air podcast

subscribe to Fresh Air podcast

In 'Breaking News,' former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger reflects on the blockbuster stories he helped publish over the course of his 20-year tenure running the British newspaper (including the Snowden and Assange leaks). "Journalism has to remake itself if it is to be the answer to the world of information chaos that we're in danger of living in," he says.

Also, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the album 'The Space' by pianist Kenny Werner.

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'Remaking Journalism' In An Age Of Information Chaos

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In 'Breaking News,' former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger reflects on the blockbuster stories he helped publish over the course of his 20-year tenure running the British newspaper (including the Snowden and Assange leaks). "Journalism has to remake itself if it is to be the answer to the world of information chaos that we're in danger of living in," he says.

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And interesting article about breaking Palm Oil, with gorgeous pics and scheme.

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This story appears in the December 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.

In southwestern Gabon, the old-growth forest stretches hundreds of miles. One January morning I disembark from a narrow boat on the shore of the Ngounié River with a few employees of Olam, a Singapore-based agribusiness company. Following elephant tracks, we plunge into the forest. We pass towering, ancient trees, chimpanzee nests, piles of day-old gorilla dung. Monkeys scamper overhead. A young Olam ranger yanks off his boots and climbs barefoot up a trunk, returning with handfuls of pink, plumlike fruits.

Wandering farther we find wild mangoes, kola nuts, bark that smells of garlic. At a sun-dappled clearing, fish splash in a watering hole. The trees around it have been scratched by elephant tusks.

To stand here in the slanting sunlight and imagine all this being razed is heart-stopping.

The place is not a park or a preserve but part of the Mouila oil palm plantation, operated by Olam. If it were in Indonesia or Malaysia-the world's two largest suppliers of palm oil-loggers and bulldozers might be closing in to clear the jungle for uniform rows of oil palm trees.

Oil palms, with giant bunches of red fruit growing beneath unruly fronds, are an ancient staple crop. For millennia humans have boiled and pounded their fruit to extract cooking oil, burned their seed-kernel shells for heat, and woven their leaves into everything from roofs to baskets. Over the past few decades, however, palm oil use has exploded-in part because of the versatility and creamy texture of the oil (think Oreo filling) and in part because of the productivity of the trees. They require only half as much land as other crops, such as soybeans, to generate a given amount of oil.

Palm oil is now the world's most popular vegetable oil, accounting for one-third of global consumption. It's a common cooking oil in India and some other countries. As an ingredient, it has become difficult to avoid almost everywhere. It's in all manner of supermarket items: cookies, pizza dough, bread, lipstick, lotion, soap. It's even in supposedly eco-friendly biodiesel: In 2017, 51 percent of the European Union's palm oil consumption was to power cars and trucks.

Quiz: How much do you depend on palm oil?

Worldwide, demand for palm oil continues to rise. India uses the most, 17 percent of the global total, followed by Indonesia, the EU, and China. The United States currently ranks eighth. In 2018 global consumption is expected to reach 72 million tons, or roughly 20 pounds of palm oil per person.

Supplying that demand has taken a huge toll. Since 1973, nearly 16,000 square miles of rain forest on Borneo, the island shared by Malaysia and Indonesia, have been logged, burned, and bulldozed to make way for oil palm. It accounts for a fifth of the total deforestation on Borneo since 1973-and for 47 percent since 2000.

All that deforestation has been devastating for wildlife. Nearly 150,000 critically endangered Bornean orangutans perished from 1999 to 2015, and although the main culprits were logging and hunting, palm oil was a major factor. It also exacerbates climate change -nearly half of Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and other land-use changes-as well as acute air pollution. The haze from Indonesian forest fires, many deliberately set to clear land for oil palms, caused at least 12,000 premature deaths in 2015 alone.

People in the path of plantations have suffered in other ways. Human rights abuses such as child labor and forced evictions have been well documented. On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, palm oil companies have sometimes bulldozed entire indigenous villages, leaving their residents homeless and reliant on government handouts.

That kind of shortsighted ecological rampaging is precisely what Gabon is trying to avoid. The Eden I visited will not be razed: Olam has protected it as part of an agreement with the government that allows the company to grow oil palms elsewhere on its concession.

"What we're trying to do in Gabon is find a new development path where we don't cut all our forest down but keep a balance between oil palm, agriculture, and forest preservation," says Lee White, the conservation biologist who runs Gabon's parks agency. As the nation of fewer than two million people embarks on industrial-scale agriculture, the government is using scientific assessments to decide which parts of its expansive forests have high conservation value and which can be opened to oil palms.

In Africa as in Southeast Asia, the crop is here to stay. Producing countries depend on the income. Boycotting palm oil is unwise: Alternative oil crops would swallow even more land. It's also futile, because palm oil is so pervasive and so often processed into ingredients, such as sodium lauryl sulfate and stearic acid, whose origins are opaque to consumers. We're not likely to cut palm oil consumption radically. The only way forward is to make its production less bad.

Indonesia and Malaysia are now the epicenter of palm oil, but the oil palm tree, Elaeis guineensis, is not native to Asia. It comes from West and central Africa, where archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old palm nuts buried in streambeds deep in the forest. Throughout the 1800s, British traders imported African palm oil, using it for a growing number of products, from soap to margarine to candles. Once scientists discovered how to isolate glycerin from the oil, its applications multiplied: pharmaceuticals, photographic film, perfume, even dynamite.

By the turn of the 20th century, oil palms had been shipped to Indonesia, and commercial plantations had taken hold. In the late 1930s they covered just 250,000 acres. Over the next half century or so, agricultural breakthroughs-breeding trees resistant to a common pathogen, introducing an African weevil for pollination-led to greater yields and a flourishing investment in oil palms.

Still, as recently as the 1970s, three-quarters of Borneo was covered in lush rain forests. But as global demand for palm oil grew, companies racing to supply it burned and bulldozed some of those forests. Health concerns over trans fats fueled the boom-palm oil replaced trans fats in many products-as did rising demand for biodiesel. By the early 2000s, the boom was in full swing, and thousands of square miles of lowland forests and peatlands across Borneo were planted with oil palms.

By then, pressure from international conservation groups over deforestation was growing, and WWF teamed with some of the biggest palm oil producers and buyers to begin creating standards for producing palm oil more responsibly. Plantations certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) can't clear "primary forests or areas which contain significant concentrations of biodiversity (e.g. endangered species) or fragile ecosystems." They must minimize erosion and protect water sources. They must pay a minimum wage and get "free, prior, and informed consent" from local communities.

Today the RSPO certifies roughly one-fifth of the global supply. Many consumer goods manufacturers that rely on palm oil-Unilever, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble-have pledged to switch their supply chains exclusively to certified palm oil over the next few years. That's a big step forward. But it's not enough.

What's essential and still mostly lacking is government intervention in producing countries. "We in the conservation community were vastly overoptimistic in thinking that market-based solutions alone could solve this," says John Buchanan, who runs the sustainable food and agriculture markets program at Conservation International. "If the government isn't on board or doesn't have the capacity or doesn't know what it's doing," he says, the rain forest still takes a hit.

On a sticky afternoon near the northeastern tip of Borneo, small groups of elephants graze by a murky river. As the sun drops toward the treetops, the groups converge at a muddy riverbank. Soon more than 50 elephants are swimming in an orderly line across the wide, fast-moving Kinabatangan River, bobbing their giant heads and spraying water out their trunks.

The Kinabatangan is among the easiest places to see wildlife in Sabah, the Malaysian state that occupies northern Borneo. From boats on the river, tourists can view rare and iconic species- Borneo pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, rhinoceros hornbills, even orangutans -without getting their boots dirty.

It's a thrill to watch these animals in the open. But the reason they're so visible is that they have nowhere else to go. For endless, sprawling miles around the river, the forest has been obliterated and replaced by oil palms. You can drive for hours, passing a parade of tanker trucks carrying palm oil, and barely see another species of tree.

In Sabah in the 1970s, the government turned to agriculture to address its decades-long overdependence on timber. It earmarked large swaths of fertile flatland in lowland forests, including the Kinabatangan region, for growing crops. "The assumption was that all the best soil should be allocated for agriculture," says John Payne, a conservation biologist who has lived in Sabah since 1979.

Through the 1980s, Sabah's agricultural land was largely devoted to cocoa. But when falling world prices and a pest called the cocoa-pod borer made the crop less profitable, most plantations switched to oil palms. Land was cheap, so companies from the Malaysian mainland began snapping it up, building mills and other infrastructure. That made it easier for growers to get their fruit to market-and large-scale forest clearing began in earnest. Today one-fifth of the state is covered in oil palms. Sabah produces more than 7 percent of the world's palm oil.

The ecological cost has been astonishing. Many remaining forest fragments are disconnected from one another-islands of jungle that look intact but are largely empty of animal life. "What used to house the highest density of orangutans is now oil palm," Payne says.

Amid all the loss, it can be hard to find hope. But in Sabah, a group of scientists, activists, RSPO members, and government officials is trying to right past wrongs. Payne now runs the Palm Oil & NGO (PONGO) Alliance, an industry-NGO coalition that aims to convert 5 percent of the biggest plantations on Borneo back to forest for orangutans. ( Pongo is the ape's genus name.) Hutan, the conservation organization that took me up the Kinabatangan, has over the past decade planted more than 100,000 trees of 38 species, trying to preserve a corridor for wildlife along the river.

And at the helm of the state's forestry department until recently was Sam Mannan, the chief conservator of forests. Under his leadership Sabah expanded its protected lands over the past decade from 12 to 26 percent of the state-more than 7,000 square miles. Mannan's goal was to increase that to 30 percent by 2025, linking up parks, wildlife reserves, and other blocks of state-owned forest with replanted corridors for animals to move through.

A gregarious man with a devilish streak-he once joked at a press conference that rhinos were going extinct because "they're stupid"-Mannan believed in collaborating with palm oil producers. "Without oil palm, conservation in Sabah would be in trouble," Mannan told me in his office in the seaside city of Sandakan, once the island's timber capital. Only petroleum contributes more revenue to Sabah's government than the oil palm industry. "The money is going back to conservation," Mannan said.

You could argue, I pointed out, that without oil palms you wouldn't need as much money for conservation.

"You could argue that way," Mannan said, "but you would be poor."

The palm oil boom has helped bring clear economic benefits to Sabah: paved roads, better schools, satellite television. In Kota Kinabalu, the state's capital, gleaming new shopping malls feature Western and Asian luxury brands.

This past August, Mannan was terminated by Sabah's new government, which had launched an investigation into possibly illegal logging deals made by the previous administration. Mannan had managed to annoy those on both sides of the palm oil debate in Malaysia during his nearly two-decade tenure. But many environmentalists had considered him a restraint on the industry-a "visionary, bold, and effective" government leader, Payne says.

Ultimately, says RSPO CEO Darrel Webber, a Sabah native, the culture of the palm oil industry must change. With Mannan's backing, Webber and a Malaysian activist, Cynthia Ong, launched an ambitious effort to do that in Sabah. Their goal is to teach everyone from smallholders with just a few acres to high-flying CEOs how and why to do palm oil better-and then to certify the state's entire supply as sustainable.

"As demand increases and Sabah wants to supply that, we have to put some lines in the sand," Ong says.

The state hopes to be certified as a whole by 2025, though exactly how is still a question. "We're building the plane while flying it," Ong says. Wild Asia, a Malaysian nonprofit, is organizing hundreds of smallholders in the Kinabatangan and other regions into groups that can be certified together and sell palm fruit to a certified mill. Nestlé, a large palm oil consumer that doesn't own plantations itself, is helping to fund the project. Farmers get a better price; RSPO members such as Nestlé get a way to trace their oil. "We want to link this to the supply chain," says Kertijah Abdul Kadir of Nestlé.

Since 2011 she also has overseen the planting of some 700,000 trees along the Kinabatangan River, covering more than 6,000 acres. Elsewhere in Sabah, Wilmar, the world's largest palm oil supplier and another RSPO member, is replanting forests to protect watersheds and create wildlife corridors. Reforestation is labor-intensive, expensive, and slow-several lifetimes of waiting won't produce anything resembling an old-growth rain forest. But it's a start.

Critics of the RSPO complain that working with companies that caused the loss of forests renders the effort suspect. They say one of the main requirements for certification-no new deforestation-sets the bar far too low.

The RSPO's Webber, who once worked for WWF, responds by comparing the palm oil industry to St. Paul on the road to Damascus. "Do you forgive a huge sinner because that person could be your greatest missionary?" Webber asks. "Or do we keep all the sinners out, and then what change would we have? We have to find a way to bring on board the whole group."

During the past decade, Webber says, a growing number of palm oil companies have accepted the need for change. "We've got quite a few in acceptance but also quite a few in denial. Our job is to push this long tail of producers into acceptance. It will take a while."

In Gabon, one of Africa's most forested countries, palm oil is coming home, and a boom may be on the horizon. Situated on the Equator and on the continent's west coast, Gabon is roughly the size of Colorado with a third of the people. More than 76 percent of the country is covered in forest, with 11 percent of its land area protected in national parks. It's a wildlife wonderland.

"It's exactly the kind of large, intact forest you want to protect from any kind of development," says Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth, a Washington D.C.-based environmental organization that has criticized Olam's palm oil operations in Gabon. "There's so much degraded land [across the tropics]. Why would you send your palm oil plantations to countries that have so much existing forest?"

One answer is that Gabon wants them. The former French colony has the fourth highest GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa, but much of the revenue comes from petroleum. It needs to diversify. Hurowitz argues that Gabon should be developing ecotourism instead. A relatively safe country with spectacular parks and wildlife, it has few airstrips, barely passable roads, and scant lodging. There's a huge opportunity for more tourism-one that Gabon's parks agency, the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN), is pursuing.

Tourism is only part of what the country needs. Gabon imports much of its food: Wheat and milk come from France; beef is flown in from India and Brazil. The government of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who won a controversial election in 2016 to a second seven-year term, wants to add commercial agriculture-including palm oil-to Gabon's economy. That requires cutting down trees.

Recognizing the conflicting demands on its land, the government has embarked on a project few other nations have tried: a national land-use plan.

Lee White, ANPN director and one of the president's closest advisers-British born, he has lived in Gabon since 1989 and has dual citizenship-oversaw the process of mapping the country's land and wildlife and determining which areas should be developed for agriculture. The government granted two new oil palm concessions to Olam and later sold the company an existing plantation. Olam now operates on 500 square miles, or 0.5 percent of Gabon's land area. Some 215 square miles are planted in oil palms.

On a bright January morning, Christopher Stewart, Olam's chief sustainability manager, maneuvers a Mitsubishi SUV along the potholed highway southeast from Libreville, the capital. Trucks whiz past carrying giant okoume logs-Gabon's chief timber export, bound in large part for China and Europe. Beyond Libreville's sprawl, tiny villages dot the countryside. Nearly every cluster of houses has a roadside stand, consisting typically of an overturned rusty metal drum and a wooden rack. The drums are covered with bananas or plantains, bowls of brightly colored jungle fruits, plastic water bottles filled with bathtub palm wine. Hanging from the racks, all along the highway, are furry and spiny carcasses: porcupines, blue duikers, the occasional monkey, a civet, a crocodile, the haunches of a gazelle.

Much of that bush meat is illegal-and also perhaps understandable, in a country without much domestic meat production. Illegal bush meat is offered at many restaurants in Libreville. Poaching is a big issue for Olam; locals and workers use the plantations as access points to the forest, where they have been known to hunt at-risk species. So Olam rangers patrol the protected forests. At the plantation gates, guards search exiting cars.

Two and a half hours from Libreville, we pull onto a red dirt road toward the Awala plantation. This area is secondary forest, one of the places where logging first began in Gabon. The government gave Olam roughly 50,000 acres here-of which the company has planted oil palms on about a third. Another third is conserved as one block of forest, and the rest remains standing in smaller parcels, some of it on steep hillsides.

Inside the plantation, it's easy to lose your sense of direction amid row upon row of palm trees, punctuated by indistinguishable dirt roads. At the end of each row, workers have piled fresh palm-fruit bunches and loose fruit. In the afternoon other workers will toss the fruit into dump trucks, which will deliver it to an on-site mill that processes 50 tons of oil an hour.

At Olam's Mouila plantation, farther south, an even bigger mill is producing twice as much oil. More than half the planted area at Mouila was open savanna. Research here has revealed the presence of a rare antelope, the southern reedbuck. Photographed by a camera trap in 2017, the animal is helping White justify a new national park in the savanna.

Stewart, who has a Ph.D. in ecology, helped set up the RSPO program in Southeast Asia before joining Olam. On our boat trip back from the old-growth forest at Mouila, we talk about the devastation in Indonesia. He visited areas with biologists who had worked only a few years earlier in intact rain forest-and were returning to find it all destroyed. Stewart chokes up as he recalls this. He's immensely proud of Olam's conservation efforts in Gabon.

Atop a small hill within the plantation, we climb to the roof of Stewart's truck. For 180 degrees, the rows of oil palms stretch nearly to the horizon. In the scorching sun, the monochrome view is dizzying. The map Stewart holds is even more sobering. This section of plantation covers nearly 40,000 acres; what we're seeing is less than 7 percent of that.

As an ecologist, Stewart hates the idea of trees being cut. But, he says, "I know that this is actually in Gabon's long-term interest for these projects to be in the right place and managed well and to show what well-planned, well-managed agriculture can do." White agrees. Olam isn't undermining protected areas, he says: "Olam is helping me create more national parks."

Seven hours from Libreville, at the end of three hours of bone-jarring dirt roads, lies Lopé National Park-one of 13 national parks White helped create. He lived here for 15 years and still visits often to do wildlife research. One evening, sitting in the open-air living room of the research station, White sips whiskey as lightning makes purple streaks across the starry sky. In the forest around us, families of gorillas and mandrills are bedding down for the night. Leopards and caracals are waking up to hunt.

Once you start clearing forests for agriculture, it becomes easier to clear ever more. Does White worry about that? He smiles. "I'm not really a worrier," he says, before reframing the risk: "If in 50 years' time we can't feed the number of human beings we have on the planet, then highly productive, humid, tropical places where you can grow vast amounts of food are going to come under threat."

On hilltops near Lopé's western boundary, French archaeologist Richard Oslisly has uncovered evidence of Stone Age and Iron Age communities-chips from the making of quartz arrowheads, iron tools and furnaces. Three thousand years ago, Bantu peoples began to migrate along the Atlantic coast to Gabon from Cameroon. They brought oil palms with them. Wading in a stream in Lopé's forest, Oslisly scratches at the bank and pulls out domesticated palm nuts dating back two millennia.

By around 1,500 years ago, those early farmers had covered large parts of Gabon and northern Congo in palm groves. "Central Africa," White says, "probably looked like Indonesia does today." A drastic population crash-perhaps caused by an epidemic-wiped out those Iron Age people. The rain forest came roaring back.

"Now we are starting the cycle again," White says. "Our management actions will tell whether once again we destroy the forests or if we can maintain an equilibrium." For humans, balance is often an elusive goal.

Hillary Rosner's last article for the magazine was about the pine beetle epidemic in western U.S. forests. David Guttenfelder and Pascal Maitre have both worked extensively in Asia and Africa.

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Palm oil is unavoidable. Can it be sustainable?

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Our appetite for the oil hurts the environment and wildlife. But Gabon hopes to show how to build an industry while protecting its forests.

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An interesting psychological article about relationships, diversity, idealization, ... with amazing new vocabulary.

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In this post, we will talk about the first two phases of a relationship. Phase one, which is all about unity, similarity, and harmony; and phase two, which is all about fostering and embracing diversity. We'll do this by commenting on some song lyrics, a poem, and a parable. Each speaks to some aspect of either the first phase, the end of the first phase, or the entrance into the second phase of a relationship. Even though the examples come from traditional love stories of romantic partnerships, the experiences they describe refer to all kinds of relationships: friendships, child and parent relationships, student and teacher relationships, business partnership, marriage, and so forth. What most relationships have in common (especially when they occur over longer periods of time), is that in the beginning there is a more idealized view of the other person that mesmerizes us (and often blinds us), and later a more realistic and authentic view of the other person that sobers us and wakes us up from a slumber. Let's begin with a quintessential phase-one story from the famous Broadway musical West Side Story.

The Innocence and Perfection of Phase One
MARIA
Only you, you're the only thing I'll see forever
In my eyes, in my words and in everything I do
Nothing else but you
Ever TONY
And there's nothing for me but Maria
Every sight that I see is Maria ...
TONY & MARIA
All the world is only you and me
-Excerpt from the song "Tonight" from West Side Story

Ah, the beauty, passion, and infatuation we experience at the birth of relationships-there's nothing like it! These song lyrics are the perfect example of what it feels like to be in the first phase of a relationship. These two people, Maria and Tony, see only each other. They are absolutely spellbound and mesmerized. The rest of the world goes away. It is Eden before Eve takes a bite of the apple.

There's naïveté in this phase, but there's a beauty in it, too. When we're in this phase of a relationship, we're blind to each other's shadow because neither of us presents it consciously; or, perhaps we specifically hold it back from view. Or we don't see it in each other, partly because we don't want to see it. The shadow is the unconscious material, the parts of ourselves that are marginalized from our main identity -who we believe we are. The shadow contains aspects of our personalities that we feel are unacceptable, some of our individual or cultural style, many of our deepest needs and desires-anything that could threaten the harmony of relationship, cause discomfort, conflict, or hurt.

What's beautiful about this is that this blindness is exactly what helps form the relationship. We do this unconsciously; however, by being blind to the other person's shadow, we allow the relationship to form. This blindness provides a safe haven for the relationship. We feel protected enough to open up to the other person, and there's a chance for our heart to jump in and bond with them. We feel that the person is not like our mother or father, or someone who once hurt us, and we certainly feel like they are not like other people we've met-they are one of the good ones.

This is the typical Romeo and Juliet story, where the relationship is based on seeking out unity over diversity. This first phase of all relationships is about getting along. It's about how we are the same, how we are on similar paths, how we support each other, how we complement each other or supplement each other, and how we agree. Everything seems perfect...if only it were sustainable.

When Eden Ends: The Collapse of Phase One

In his poem "What Is Truth?" Charles Baudelaire begins:
I once knew a certain Benedicta whose presence filled the air with the ideal and whose eyes spread abroad the desire of grandeur, of beauty, of glory, and of all that makes man believe in immortality.
He tells us, however, "this miraculous maiden was too beautiful for long life." Like all idealizations, she died.

Then, an amazing thing happens. The man, the idolizer, sees the true woman in her wholeness, "And, as my eyes rested upon the spot where my treasure lay hidden, I became suddenly aware of a little being who singularly resembled the dead.... 'It is I, the true Benedicta! It is I, the notorious drab! As the punishment of your folly and blindness you shall love me as I truly am.'"

But like many of us, the idolizer refuses, he says, "No!" and asserts his "No" by stamping his foot so powerfully on the loosened earth around the grave, that, "like a wolf in a trap, was caught perhaps forever in the Grave of the Ideal."

In this poem, the relationship between these lovers takes a hard fall from grace. Eden is now poisoned and the idealized lens with which the man viewed his perfect lover is no more. Benedicta insists that the man sees her for her real self, in all her faults, but he refuses. What was once all "grandeur, beauty, and glory" has now entrapped the man forever, tormented by his own unwillingness to accept the real woman she is, not the idealized version of his fantasy.

This poem perfectly portrays the seeming perfection of phase one in a relationship, followed by the rising up of the shadow side of the other person, threatening the harmony in the relationship, and causing what once was held dear and true to collapse. This epitomizes our insistence on seeing the other person in perfection versus who they really are.

Diversity and Conflict in Phase Two
When the lights go out and it's just the three of us, yeah
You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
-Excerpt from the song "Tunnel of Love" by Bruce Springsteen

The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, playfully and creatively introduces us to the second phase of relationship in his song "Tunnel of Love." He employs the metaphor of a couple on a wild amusement park ride in a dark tunnel, faced with the fear of all the shadow aspects of the two people coming forward. Phase two in a relationship no longer focuses on harmony and unity, but rather on how we're different, how we don't fit, how we don't get along, and ways in which we are not inherently supportive of each other because of our deeper nature. Welcome to the land of diversity.

Diversity reveals our differences, and that means conflict. We can't get to the second phase of a relationship without conflict. It's impossible. We can't simply appreciate the parts of the other person's shadow, or our own, without having conflict. If we're trying to get around conflict, we're bypassing the diversity that is real in our relationships.

Conflict is natural. It pulls us further apart. While the harmony and unity in phase one makes us feel like we're the same, the diversity arising out of the shadow in phase two highlights our differences and forces us to take notice. In order to survive phase two, we have to be honest about who we are and be open to living that more. We have to be more authentically ourselves.

In the second phase of a relationship, the goal is not to compromise or find the common ground, but rather to be two different people. Questions arise such as: What happens when we are two different people who like different foods, different vacations, go to bed at different times, have different styles of interacting, listening, and talking, and have different needs?
If a man is crossing a river
And an empty boat collides with his own skiff,
Even though he be a bad-tempered man
He will not become very angry.
But if he sees a man in the boat,
He will shout at him to steer clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again,
And yet again, and begin cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet if the boat were empty.
He would not be shouting, and not angry.
The creativity of relationship happens in the dance between two different people who know more about who they genuinely are, and are willing and courageous enough to live that together. The question then becomes: How do we each be ourselves and yet do this dance together?

Blame and Hurt in Phase Two

-Excerpt from the parable The Empty Boat by Chinese mystic Chuang Tzu

There are several interpretations on the famous Zen parable, but for this post, we're going to interpret it through the lens of diversity and conflict in a relationship. The parable is saying that if there are two boats on a river and I'm in one and you're in the other, and my boat bumps into yours, you're likely to say, "Watch where you're going!" You think it's my fault that I bumped into your boat. I might then say to you, "Well, you were going too slow!" In this scenario, there is a cause and effect, there is blame, there is a perpetrator and a victim. This is how conflict often feels in a relationship. We think: You caused me harm; You hurt me. It's your fault, and I'm the victim.

Now let's say there are two empty boats on that river and they happen to bump into each other. In this scenario, there is no clear cause and effect, there is no blame, there is no perpetrator and victim. That's like saying there is one person with their personality, needs, vulnerabilities, and gifts, and there's another person with their own personality, needs, vulnerabilities, and gifts, and the river is taking them and they happen to bump into each other sometimes. No blame.

So, why is it that we typically insist on blaming the other person when conflict occurs in a relationship? The simple answer is: because we get hurt. One of the reasons people don't act in certain ways in a relationship is they fear that they will hurt the other person. The trouble is that whenever diversity enters a relationship, conflict arises, and that means that one or both people will likely get hurt.

You may be asking now, "Why on earth would I want to have conflict in a relationship when I could get hurt? What's good about that?" Two things. First, it creates more intimacy. Going through conflict together in the second phase is not about trying to reach an outer resolution, necessarily. It's not about deciding we'll be this way or that way or promising that we won't do such-and-such again. Getting to know ourselves and the other person more authentically creates a feeling of intimacy, and that's a new kind of bond that isn't about "making nice." This bond is made from a different kind of glue, a glue that is much more sustainable.

Second, going through conflict allows us to get to know ourselves more. It's an awareness and individuation path. If you're not interested in becoming who you really are, if that's not important to you, then you might not be interested in this path. However, if you are interested in getting to know another person who's not like you, a person who is not part of your projections and systems of coping, then this may very well be the right road to take. As individuals in this kind of relationship, we get to practice being our own self and not being accommodating. We get to speak our own mind, and we get to forge our own path. In order to survive this journey, however, we will need the wisdom that comes from the parable: no blame. We need a part of ourselves (or an outside facilitator) with enough spiritual, psychological, and emotional maturity to appreciate and respect to individuals who are different from each other and who are learning to love each other in a brand-new way.

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In this post, we will talk about the first two phases of a relationship. Phase one, which is all about unity, similarity, and harmony; and phase two, which is all about fostering and embracing diversity. We'll do this by commenting on some song lyrics, a poem, and a parable.

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Parents' vaccine side effects fear 'fuelled by social media'

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Parents' vaccine side effects fear 'fuelled by social media'

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Article, also related to health

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Fear of a vaccine's side effects is the top reason for people refusing them, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) suggests.

Among parents, this was fuelled by social media, with up to half exposed to negative messages about vaccines.

The Society's report called for social media platforms and the press to do more to combat "fake news".

Millions of lives have been saved through vaccination, and side effects are rare, it said.

"The spread of misinformation - if it impacts uptake of vaccines - could severely damage the public's health," said Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the RSPH.

England's chief medical officer Prof Dame Sally Davies recently said parents should ignore myths spread by anti-vaccine campaigners and get their children vaccinated.

Anti-vaccine views wrong - chief doctor

Child vaccination numbers fall in England

Measles cases hit record high in Europe

Global measles resurging, WHO warns

What's in the report?

It contains the findings of surveys of nearly 5,000 people across the UK on their awareness and attitudes towards vaccines, such as MMR, the flu jab and HPV.

They include 2,600 parents, 2,000 other adults and more than 200 healthcare professionals, such as nurses, pharmacists and GPs.

What do parents say?

On the whole, the report found parents' attitudes to vaccines were largely positive, with 90% getting their children vaccinated routinely.

In the UK this amounts to 10 or 11 different vaccinations, some with a number of doses.

But roughly one in 10 parents surveyed said they had chosen not to give their child the MMR jab, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

The main reasons given were concerns over side effects, followed by doubts over whether the vaccine worked.

For the flu jab, one in five parents chose not to give it to their child while one in 14 refused an HPV jab for their teenage daughter.

Again, those parents expressed worries over unwanted side effects.

Have they got a point?

All vaccines have potential side effects, but they are usually mild such as a headache or tiredness, and affect a tiny number of people.

More serious side effects are extremely rare, equivalent to fewer than one in a million cases, according to the report.

Vaccines have dramatically reduced the number of people suffering with infectious diseases around the world.

They are important right throughout life - from childhood into adulthood and beyond.

What part does social media play?

It can spread misinformation or "fake news" about vaccine safety, despite very good evidence to the contrary, the report says.

People in all age groups said they were more likely to see negative messages about vaccines on social media than positive ones.

Parents can also be heavily influenced by negative headlines in newspapers and online, and it can take a long time to change people's perceptions.

Even 20 years after Andrew Wakefield published his now discredited paper on an alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism, "Europe is still living with the consequences", the report said.

Anti-vaccine campaigners do not help either. Their messages can lead to misleading discussions around possible side effects and undermine the public's confidence, according to the report.

What does the RSPH recommend?

It wants more education in schools around the value and importance of vaccination, to help bust the myths surrounding vaccines.

It also wants to see vaccinations being offered in different locations, such as high-street pop-ups, gyms and community centres, to encourage uptake.

And it wants the press and social media platforms to clamp down on "fake news".

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Social media 'fuels parents' vaccine fears'

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Fear of a vaccine's side effects is the top reason for people refusing them, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) suggests. Among parents, this was fuelled by social media, with up to half exposed to negative messages about vaccines.

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You have the research, the paper at the first paragraph, a video and interesting things about the cancer study by  James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo

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The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.

Both worked in parallel to unleash the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumour cells and established an entirely new therapeutic principle in the fight against cancer. In both cases mice were the primary animal model that showed the potential for people.

What are 'checkpoint' immunotherapy drugs? Cancer Research UK

Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity's greatest health challenges. It represents a major challenge on the global perspective. Before the ground breaking work of both Allison and Honju, there were three major pillars in the treatment of cancer: removing the tumour by surgery, eliminating it by radiation or attacking it with drugs that harmed the cancer cells.

But not all cancers could be cured and the urgent need for novel therapies fuelled basic research to better understand how to defeat cancers. One area was of particular interest: could immunity be harnessed to attack cancer cells?

The immune system unleashed against cancer cells

The fundamental property of our immune system is the ability to discriminate "self" from "non-self" to attacked and eliminate invaders, be they virus or cancerous cells. Thus, for tumours to grow, they need to avoid detection. One way tumours do this is to produce molecules that can trick the immune system. Research in immunology, over the last 50 years, have revealed a number of ways whereby cancer cells can be forced to be recognized as non-self. This led to the cure of some cancers in mice and also the successful treatment of some patients. However, it was impossible to deliver an efficient, generalized therapy for clinical practice.

One reason for this was the ability of many tumours to 'turn-down', or 'switch off' the immune system. The mechanism for this brake on the immune response to cancer was unknown, an important part of the puzzle was missing. Allison and Honjo showed how the brakes on the immune system could be lifted in two different but comparable ways.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said, "by stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells this year's Nobel Laureates have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy."

T cells, a type of white blood cell, are key players in our body's defence. In the 80s, researchers discovered T cell receptors that bind to structures recognized as non-self and such interactions trigger the immune system to engage in defence. However, additional proteins on the surface of the T cells, acting as accelerators, must also be engaged to trigger a full-blown immune response.

Researchers equally observed molecules with the opposite function, they instead worked like brakes on the T cells, inhibiting immune activation. This intricate balance between accelerators and brakes is essential for tight control of the immune response. It ensures that the immune system is sufficiently engaged in attacks against foreign microorganisms while avoiding the excessive activation that can lead to autoimmune destruction of healthy cells and tissues.

A novel principle for immune therapy

James P. Allison studied a known protein that functions as a brake on the immune system, CTLA-4. He developed an antibody to CTLA-4 to block the immune system brake. He reasoned that the T cells would be unleashed and become more active and hopefully attack the cancer cells. The key experiment was performed in 1994. The results were spectacular. The mice treated with the anti-CTLA-4 antibody were cured from cancer, while the control mice developed large tumours.

This seminal study represents the birth of a new concept for immunotherapy. Today often referred to as immune checkpoint inhibition. Allison was eager to apply it for the benefit of patients. A small biotech company took on the challenge to produce the human antibody and a few years later the first clinical trial started with 40 patients suffering from metastatic melanoma, the pigmented cancer of the skin. Some of the patients showed striking responses - the tumours shrank, and could even disappear. Such results had never been seen before in this patient group. Despite side effects, the results were positive enough to start a long series of larger trials conducted by clinical colleagues.

Finally, in 2011, the first checkpoint antibody treatment, ipilimumab, was approved by the FDA for inoperable metastatic melanoma. Clinical trials have also shown some benefits of anti-CTLA-4 therapy on lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, specifically in combination with other drugs. In 1992, a few years before Allison's discovery, Tasuku Honjo discovered PD-1, another protein expressed on the surface of T-cells. Determined to unravel its role, he meticulously explored its function in a series of elegant experiments performed over many years in his laboratory at Kyoto University. The results showed that PD-1, similar to CTLA-4, functions as a T-cell brake, but operates by a different mechanism. In addition, he identified the ligand, the molecular partner of PD1, present on antigen presenting cells and cancer cells. It became immediately evident to test whether blockade of PD1 could also be used to unleash T cell responses against cancer cells.

Honju and other groups immediately started to gather evidence. One of the studies on melanoma spreading to the liver in mice showed that control mice developed multiple metastasis in the livers while several of the mice treated with the anti-PD-1 antibody had almost no metastasis. In this study, Honju correctly predicted that the anti-PD1 treatment might complement the anti-CTLA4 treatment since the two work by a different mechanism. He also predicted that PD1 might give less side effects. This paved the way for utilizing PD-1 as a target in the treatment of patients.

Clinical development ensued, and again, similar and even more dramatic responses were noted, not only in melanoma patients. In 2012 a key study demonstrated clear efficacy in the treatment of patients with different types of cancer. Results were dramatic, leading to long-term remission and possible cure in several patients with metastatic cancer, a condition that had previously been considered essentially untreatable. The FDA approved the anti-PD1 treatment for melanoma in 2014 and for lung cancer as well as kidney cancer in 2015.

The fourth pillar to fight cancer

Allisson's and Honju's discoveries have added a new pillar in cancer therapy that doesn't target the cancer cells but rather the brakes, the checkpoints, of the host's immune system. Their work in mice has been pivotal for the ground-breaking treatments in humans. Of the two treatment strategies, checkpoint therapy against PD-1 has proven more effective and positive results are being observed in several types of cancer, including lung cancer, renal cancer, lymphoma and melanoma.

Allison and Honjo inspired efforts to combine different strategies to release the brakes on the immune system with the aim of eliminating tumour cells even more efficiently and new clinical studies, targeting both CTLA-4 and PD-1, have proved them right. After the initial studies showing the effects of CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade, the clinical development has been dramatic.

Immune checkpoint therapy has fundamentally changed the outcome for certain groups of patients with advanced cancer, despite some usually manageable side effects caused by an overactive immune response.

Research now focusses on improving therapies and reducing side effects. For more than 100 years scientists had attempted to engage the immune system in the fight against cancer. Dr. Allison has received continuous funding from NIH since 1979, receiving more than $13.7 million primarily from NIH's National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), demonstrating the crucial role funding for fundamental research has on medical progress.

Until the seminal discoveries by these two laureates, progress into clinical development was modest. But now checkpoint therapy has revolutionized cancer treatment and has fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed. The seminal discoveries made by the two laureates constitutes a shift in the landscape in the fight against cancer.

Last edited: 5 October 2018 10:50

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Cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation | ari.info | ari.info

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The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation. Both worked in parallel to unleash the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumour cells and established an entirely new therapeutic principle in the fight against cancer.

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An article at The Guardian, don't throw away your pee!

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Drinking your own urine? There's a Facebook group for that. Two, even

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Urine therapy enthusiasts claim that drinking your own pee is a panacea - not an inexcusably filthy way to start the day, as everyone else thinks

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Avoid negative emotions about your food.

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Avoid negative emotions about your food.

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At this article you could discover how enjoy your meal

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Eating foods you enjoy can aid digestion and improve nutrient absorption.

Eat more more fruits and vegetables; eat less sodium, sugar and saturated fat. Americans are used to hearing advice like this - it's even included in our government's recommendations. So what if I told you health advice in some other countries is a little more, well, fun?

In Japan, for instance, one of the dietary directives is "enjoy your meals." I propose Americans follow suit. You see, while we tend to believe that you have to choose between enjoyment and health when it comes to eating, there is a slew of evidence that eating-related pleasure, satisfaction and enjoyment are important components of a healthy diet. At the same time, negative emotions related to eating like guilt, fear, shame and judgment have real consequences for our health and well-being - and not just for social reasons. Here's what happens when you enjoy the food you eat:
1. You'll digest your food better.
Enjoyment tells the parasympathetic nervous system to trigger its relaxation response. This is the same system that gets your digestion going by relaxing the muscles in your gastrointestinal tract and increasing digestive juices. So when you are eating food that tastes good and brings you pleasure, you're also triggering digestion. The opposite can happen as well: If you eat something that you don't really want or like, or you feel guilty or ashamed while eating it, you trigger the body's stress response. This partially shuts down digestion and can lead to insulin spikes, fat storage and gut issues like bloating, constipation or diarrhea.
2. You'll absorb more nutrients.
When it comes to nutrient absorption, taste matters. A study looked at iron absorption when people from Sweden were given Thai food and people from Thailand were given Swedish food. In both cases, people absorbed less iron than when they ate the food from their native country, which they presumably enjoyed more. The study also looked at nutrient absorption when both groups were given the same meal, but blended into an ugly brown goo. In this instance, neither group absorbed much iron, likely because it was no fun to eat.
3. You'll be satisfied with less.
There is a difference between feeling physically full and feeling satisfied. If you aren't completely satisfied with the food you are eating, it becomes much easier to overeat. That's because when you don't get the pleasure you are seeking, your brain interprets that missed experience as hunger, so you continue to eat more and more in an attempt to feel satisfied. Satisfaction, however, is what really turns off the drive to eat. When you enjoy the food that you are eating, it is much easier to stop eating when you are full.

So how can you learn to enjoy your food in the name of - not in opposition to - health? Take a note from the Japanese and follow these tips. With some practice, you can figure out what foods give you the most pleasure and enjoyment - and your overall health will likely benefit as a result.

Slow down and be mindful. When you eat quickly, you don't give yourself a chance to really taste and enjoy the food. By slowing down and savoring your meal or snack, you will get more pleasure from it. Slowing down also helps you to better feel when you start to get full because your stomach has more time to signal to your brain that it's had enough. This can make it easier to stop eating when you are comfortably full.

Make a list of all the foods you enjoy eating. Taste is one factor of enjoyment, but it's also about texture, temperature, smell or happy memories. Chips and salsa won't be that enjoyable if you're really in the mood for a warm, filling meal. A few foods on my list: fresh pasta in Little Italy, the texture of creamy gelato, the smell (and taste) of a just-baked New York City bagel and breakfast crepes that my family and I grew up making.

Ask yourself, "What do I really want to eat right now?" This may be a hard question to ask, especially if you're used to dieting, following food rules or eating the same things every day because you think you "should." It will take some trial and error, so experiment with food choices and take note of how satisfied (or unsatisfied) you feel after eating each.

Stop labeling foods as bad, indulgent or forbidden. When you think of foods as "bad," eating them comes with a side helping of guilt and judgment. This guilt counteracts any pleasure you would otherwise feel, and makes it tough to enjoy the food. Plus, eating foods you enjoy but have labeled as off-limits often leads to overeating or bingeing because who knows when you'll let yourself have those foods again (and what the heck, the day is already shot, right?). Changing your mindset and viewing foods as neutral allows you to make choices based on health, satisfaction and self-care, which increases the pleasure you feel.

Some people worry that if they eat all foods they enjoy, they won't ever make healthy food choices. But in reality, true pleasure and enjoyment lead to a healthy balance of nutritious foods and fun foods because ultimately, pleasure and enjoyment come from eating foods that both taste good and make our bodies feel good.

Alissa Rumsey, Contributor

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS, is a nationally recognized, award-winning registered dietitia... Read more Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS, is a nationally recognized, award-winning registered dietitian nutritionist who has been contributing to U.S. News since 2017. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, where she specializes in intuitive eating, helping people ditch diets and cultivate healthy relationships with food and their bodies. Her philosophy is rooted in the anti-diet and Health at Every Size (HAES) movement, as she believes true health comes from nurturing behaviors to enhance physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

As a writer, speaker and spokesperson, she frequently appears in national media including NBC Nightly News, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Food Network, SELF and Women's Health. She is a past-spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and in 2017 she was awarded the Media Excellence Award from the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Alissa holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in dietetics and exercise science and a Master's of Science degree in health communications from Boston University. In her spare time, she can be found traveling to far-off countries and, as a self-proclaimed "foodie," exploring the expansive New York City food and restaurant scene. You can follow her on Instagram and visit her website and blog.

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Enjoy Your Food: It's Good for Your Health

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Eating foods you enjoy can aid digestion and improve nutrient absorption. Eat more more fruits and vegetables; eat less sodium, sugar and saturated fat. Americans are used to hearing advice like this - it's even included in our government's recommendations. So what if I told you health advice in some other countries is a little more, well, fun?

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Use of technology for better Decision Making in Oil and Gas Exploration

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Use of technology for better Decision Making in Oil and Gas Exploration

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Technical Publication on Decision Analysis

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Technical Publication on Decision Analysis

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A video that includes 10 reasons of what do japanese people for being thin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxsnYsA549Y

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An article with super useful vocabulary

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Yuya Shino/Reuters

The nation's famed mastery of rail travel has been aided by some subtle behavioral tricks.

It is a scene that plays out each weekday morning across Tokyo. Suit-clad office workers, gaggles of schoolchildren, and other travelers gamely wend their way through the city's sprawling rail stations.

To the casual observer, it is chaos; commuters packed shoulder-to-shoulder amid the constant clatter of arriving and departing trains. But a closer look reveals something more beneath the surface: A station may be packed, yet commuters move smoothly along concourses and platforms. Platforms are a whirl of noisy activity, yet trains maintain remarkable on-time performance. Indeed, the staggering punctuality of the Japanese rail system occasionally becomes the focus of international headlines-as on May 11, when West Japan Railways issued a florid apology after one of its commuter trains left the station 25 seconds early.
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Tokyo is home to the world's busiest train stations, with the capital's rail operators handling a combined 13 billion passenger trips annually. Ridership of that volume requires a deft blend of engineering, planning, and psychology. Beneath the bustle, unobtrusive features are designed to unconsciously manipulate passenger behavior, via light, sound, and other means. Japan's boundless creativity in this realm reflects the deep consideration given to public transportation in the country.

Rail stations, whether in Japan or elsewhere, are also great places to see "nudge theory" at work. Pioneered by behavioral economist Richard Thaler, who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize for his work, and Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein, the theory posits that gentle nudges can subtly influence people towards decisions in their own (or society's) best interests, such as signing up for private pension schemes or organ donation. In the U.K., there's a government office devoted to the idea, the Behavioural Insights Team (or " nudge unit "), and their work often shows up in the transit realm.

In 2016, for instance, London Underground operator Transport for London partnered with the behavioral science department at the London School of Economics to develop ways of encouraging riders to queue on both sides of station escalators as a means of increasing their capacity in the capital's Holborn Station. Among other measures, simple hand and footprints were also painted on each side of the "up" escalators. In Australia, researchers conducted an experiment with lighted directional arrows on signposts to improve flows of departing passengers. Using a camera system designed to recognize and distinguish brisk-walking businesspeople from dawdling tourists, for example-green arrows would flash to direct commuters in an efficient route towards the exit.

When it come to passenger manipulation, what sets the stations of Japan apart from their counterparts is both the ingenuity behind their nudges and the imperceptible manner in which they are implemented. Japan's nudges reflect a higher order of thinking. The orderliness of society is taken as a given-Japanese commuters know how to queue on an escalator and can easily navigate the confusing, but wide-open, spaces of Tokyo's rail stations without assistance. This allows rail operators to instead focus on deeper psychological manipulation.

The ultimate in mood lighting

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates among OECD nations, and often, those taking their own lives do so by leaping from station platforms into the path of oncoming trains, with Japan averaging one such instance each day. It is a brutal, disruptive end that can also wreak havoc across the transit system.

To address the issue, stations across Tokyo and the rest of Japan installed chest-high barriers as a means of preventing suicide attempts. But platform barriers are expensive, and about 70 percent of Japan's largest and most-travelled stations do not have the platform space or structural strength to accommodate them. While there are hopes to have platform barriers installed in all 243 of Tokyo's train stations by 2032 (at a cost of $4.7 billion), rail operators in the interim have come up alternative approaches.

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Standing at either end of a platform in Tokyo's labyrinthine Shinjuku Station, one might detect a small square LED panel emitting a pleasant, deep-blue glow. Nestled among vending machines and safety posters, the panel might be dismissed as a bug zapper. But these simple blue panels are designed to save lives.

Operating on the theory that exposure to blue light has a calming effect on one's mood, rail stations in Japan began installing these LED panels as a suicide-prevention measure in 2009. They are strategically located at the ends of each platform-typically the most-isolated and least-trafficked area, and accordingly, the point from which most platform jumps occur. Some stations, such as Shin-Koiwa Station in Tokyo, bolster their LED regime with colored roof panels, allowing blue-tinted sunlight to filter down on to platforms.

It is an approach that has proven to be surprisingly effective. According to a study by researchers at the University of Tokyo published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2013, data analyzed over a 10-year period shows an 84 percent decline in the number of suicide attempts at stations where blue lights are installed. A subsequent study revealed no corresponding increase in suicide attempts at neighboring stations lacking such lights.

The idea has been picked up in the U.K.: Several stations in England now emulate the Japanese approach, with blue LED light panels on station platforms.

A song for a more peaceful departure

Commuting during rush hour in Japan is not for the faint of heart. The trains are jam-packed at as much as 200 percent capacity during the height of rush hour, and razor-thin connection times to transfer from one train to another leave little margin for error. Compounding the stressful nature of the commute in years past was the nerve-grating tone-a harsh buzzer used to signal a train's imminent departure. The departing train buzzer was punctuated by sharp blasts of station attendants' whistles, as harried salarymen raced down stairs and across platforms to beat the train's closing doors.

To calm this stressful audio environment, in 1989 the major rail operator JR East commissioned Yamaha and composer Hiroaki Ide to -short, ear-pleasing jingles to replace the traditional departure buzzer.

Also known as departure or train melodies, hassha tunes are brief, calming and distinct; their aim is to notify commuters of a train's imminent departure without inducing anxiety. To that end, most melodies are composed to an optimal length of 7 seconds, owing to research showing that shorter-duration melodies work best at reducing passenger stress and rushing incidents, as well as taking into account the time needed for a train to arrive and depart.

The tunes feature whimsical titles like "Seaside Boulevard" and range from the wistful to the jaunty. Most stations have their own melodies, forming de facto theme songs that become part of a station's identity. Tokyo's Ebisu Station, for example, is known for its departure melody-a short, stylized version of the theme from The Third Man.

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As more stations have added melodies over the years, the original thesis has proven correct. A study conducted in October 2008 at Tokyo Station, for instance, found a 25 percent reduction in the number of passenger injuries attributable to rushing after the introduction of hassha melodies on certain platforms.

The use of these jingles is not without controversy, however. Shortly after their introduction, residents living near open-air rail stations, weary of hearing endless repetitions of the same jingles all day, complained of noise pollution.

Teenager-be-gone

Despite, or perhaps because of, its reputation as a remarkably safe country, Japan is nonetheless vigilant in combatting youth delinquency. Train stations are particularly sensitive in that regard, since large congregations of young people pass through stations at all hours of the day.

To address the Japanese fear of loitering and vandalism by young riders, some train stations deploy ultrasonic deterrents-small, unobtrusive devices that emit a high-frequency tone. The particular frequency used-17 kilohertz*-can generally only be heard by those under the age of 25. (Older people can't detect such frequencies, thanks to the age-related hearing loss known as presbycusis.) These devices-the brainchild of a Welsh inventor and also used to fend off loitering teens in the U.S. and Europe-have been enthusiastically adopted in Japan.
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Standing outside one of Tokyo Station's numerous exits on a recent summer day, it was easy to see the effectiveness of this deterrent in action. Weary salarymen and aged obaachan passed under the sonic deterrent without changing pace. Among uniform-clad students, however, the reactions were evident-a suddenly quickened pace, a look of confusion or discomfort, and often a cry of urusai! (Loud!) None appeared to connect the noise to the deterrents placed almost flush in the ceiling panels above.

Pointing the best way forward

Rail employees are not exempt from the behavioral hacks of their employers. Perhaps most famously, Japanese train conductors, drivers, and platform attendants are mandated to use the " point and call" method-called shisa kanko- in executing tasks. By physically pointing at an object, and then verbalizing one's intended action, a greater portion of the brain is engaged, providing improved situational awareness and accuracy. Studies have repeatedly shown that this technique reduces human error by as much as 85 percent. Pointing-and-calling is now a major workplace safety feature in industries throughout Japan.

So, why don't train workers everywhere do this? Like so many aspects of Japanese transit culture, shisa kanko has proved resistant to export (though pointing-and-calling has been adopted in modified form by New York City's transit authority). In this, as in so many things, Japan's rail system stands largely alone.
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified this frequency in hertz, not kilohertz.

About the Author

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The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations

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It is a scene that plays out each weekday morning across Tokyo. Suit-clad office workers, gaggles of schoolchildren, and other travelers gamely wend their way through the city's sprawling rail stations. To the casual observer, it is chaos; commuters packed shoulder-to-shoulder amid the constant clatter of arriving and departing trains.

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An interesting article.

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Lucas Jackson/Reuters

We are cleaving into two nations-one where daily life revolves around the car, and the other where the car is receding in favor of walking, biking, and transit.

In a previous post, I pointed to the car as a key feature in the nation's deepening economic and political fissures. It's becoming clearer that how we get around our cities and towns is a significant aspect of these divides. That's the big takeaway from my analysis, with my colleague Karen King at the University of Toronto School of Cities, of recently released 2017 commuting data from the American Community Survey. The dataset covers 270-plus metropolitan areas.

Drive alone to work: More than three-quarters (76.4 percent) of commuters drive to work alone. But in the New York metro area, the share is just about half. It's 57 percent in San Francisco; about two-thirds in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Seattle; and about 70 percent in Chicago and Portland. And, as might be expected, a smaller-than-averageshare of workers drives to work alone in more compact college towns such as Boulder, Colorado; Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Ames and Iowa City, Iowa.

Transit: Five percent of U.S. commuters use transit to get to work. New York City, with its extensive subway and rail system, is the big outlier here-more than 30 percent of workers get to their jobs by transit in greater New York City. The only other metros where 10 percent or more of workers commute via transit are San Francisco (17.4 percent); Boston (13.4 percent); D.C. (12.8 percent); Chicago (12.3 percent); Seattle (10.1 percent); and Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut (10 percent).

Walk to work: Less than 3 percent (2.7 percent) of Americans walk to work. But more than 5 percent of workers do in New York City (5.9 percent), Honolulu (6.5 percent), and Boston (5.2 percent). An even larger share walks in smaller metros and college towns including Flagstaff, Arizona (9.7 percent); Iowa City, Iowa (8.7 percent); Jacksonville, North Carolina (8.6 percent); State College, Pennsylvania (8.5 percent); Corvallis, Oregon (7.6 percent); Ann Arbor, Michigan (7.5 percent); Ames, Iowa (7.1 percent); Lafayette, Indiana(6.4 percent); Burlington, Vermont (6.3 percent); and Bloomington, Indiana (6.1 percent).

Bike to work: Just half of a percent of Americans nationwide bike to work. But nearly 7 percent do in Corvallis, Oregon, and more than 4 percent in Boulder; Ames; and Santa Cruz, California. Two or three percent of commuters get to work by bike in other college towns: Gainesville, Florida; State College; Ann Arbor; and Madison, Wisconsin. Among large metros (with more than 1 million people), almost 2 percent of commuters get to work by bike in San Jose and San Francisco.

Carpool: Roughly 9 percent of workers carpool to work. Around 10 or 11 percent carpool in the tech hubs of San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as in San Antonio, Houston, and Phoenix.

Work from home: Just over 5 percent of Americans work from home, which is a much larger share than those who walk or bike to work. Nearly 14 percent of workers in Boulder work from home, followed by 11 percent in Lawton, Oklahoma, and 10 percent in Asheville, North Carolina. Among large metros, roughly 7 or 8 percent of workers work from home in Austin, Denver, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Phoenix.

To get at the specific factors associated with America's geography of commuting, my colleague Charlotta Mellander ran a basic correlation analysis and a cluster analysis. As usual, I will point out that correlation does not in any way infer causation, but simply points to associations between variables. Still, some clear patterns stand out that are worth highlighting.

Size and density are positively and significantly associated with using transit (0.64), biking (0.36), walking (0.43), carpooling (0.68), and working from home (0.66). While density is negatively and significantly associated with driving to work alone (-0.36), population size is not significantly associated with it.

Education is another piece in the picture of how Americans get to work. People are less likely to drive to work alone and to use alternate modes in metros where more adults are college graduates. The share of adults with college degrees is negatively and significantly (-0.41) associated with driving to work alone, and positively and significantly associated with using transit (0.56), biking (0.62), walking (0.56), and working from home (0.50), although it is not statistically associated with carpooling.

The same basic pattern holds for class. Across metros, the share of workers who are members of the knowledge-based creative class is positively associated with using transit (0.56), biking (0.62), or walking (0.56) to get to work, as well as working from home (0.50), and it is negatively associated with driving alone to work (-0.44), and the same holds for the local concentrationof high-tech industry jobs. But the reverse is true for the working class. Across metros, a higher concentration of working-class jobs is positively associated with driving alone to work (0.36) and negatively associated with using transit (-0.48), biking (-0.39), and walking to work (0.32).

Money matters, too. In metros with higher wages, a larger share of workers walks (0.43), bikes (0.50), or uses transit (0.66) to get to work, and a smaller share drives to work alone (-0.34).

Weather plays a role, but not necessarily in the way you'd think. People are more likely to drive to work where the weather is warm (0.32) and less likely to use transit (-0.19), bike (-0.23), and walk (-.34) to work. So the way we commute is more closely related to demographic and economic characteristics of metros than to their climate and weather.

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The way we get to work is also related to our political cleavages. On the one hand, commuters in more progressive metros-those where Hillary Clinton got a bigger share of votes in the 2016 election-are more likely to walk (0.44), bike (0.44), or use transit (0.59), and less likely to drive to work alone (-0.36). Commuters in more conservative metros, where a larger share voted for Trump, are more likely to drive to work alone (0.44). This reflects the fact, though, that more liberal metros tend also to be denser, more affluent, and more educated.

Our commuting patterns are associated with key dimensions of what I dub the new urban crisis. Housing is less affordable, inequality greater, and economic segregation higher in places where commuters are less dependent on the car. Median housing costs are positively and significantly associated with transit (0.59), biking (0.48), carpooling (0.49), and walking (0.38) to work, and so are income inequality and economic segregation. These associations again reflect the fact that denser, more affluent, educated metros are more expensive, more unequal, and more segregated.

Our analysis shows a country and a people divided in how they get to work. Americans cleave into two distinct nations based on commuting: One, based in smaller, less advantaged, and more sprawling metros, depends on the car, while the other, based in large, denser, more advantaged, and more educated metros, uses a variety of alternative modes. Driving to work alone in a car is negatively and significantly associated with each and every alternative mode, especially so with biking (-0.47) or walking to work (-0.53).

This pattern also comes through in a statistical cluster analysis that Mellander did, which looks at how different types of commuting styles cluster together. One distinct cluster reflects metros where a larger share of commuters drive to work alone; a second reflects metros where larger shares of commuters walk and bike to work; and a third reflects metros where a larger share of commuters carpool and work from home.

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Differences in how we commute are baked deeply into our economic geography. Larger, denser metros tend to have the most extensive transit networks, and tend to be where more affluent and educated people have opted to locate close to work in the city center or along transit lines. Smaller, more sprawling metros tend to be less educated and less affluent; they also often have less congested roads and are easier to navigate in a car.

We are cleaving into two nations-one where people's daily lives revolve around the car, and the other where the car is receding in favor of alternative modes like walking, biking, and transit. Little wonder that bike lanes have emerged as a symbol of gentrification and "the war on cars" has become a way to call out the so-called urban elite.
CityLab editorial fellow Nicole Javorsky contributed research and editorial assistance to this article.

About the Author

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The New American Divide: Driving to Work Alone vs. Anything Else

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In a previous post, I pointed to the car as a key feature in the nation's deepening economic and political fissures. It's becoming clearer that how we get around our cities and towns is a significant aspect of these divides.

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Business news

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Executive Summary

Three leading researchers-a marketing professor, a philosopher, and a neuroscientist-talk with HBR about the ethical implications of neuromarketing. Although consumers typically accept that their purchase behavior is public, these experts say, they think of their brains and thoughts as private, which can lead to backlash against organizations that use neuromarketing tools. And while informed consent is standard in the academic world, it's not always strictly adhered to on the industry side.

Another big concern, particularly among consumer advocacy groups, is subconscious influence. But, says one of these researchers, "nothing neuroscience could ever measure could definitively drive a particular purchase," because so many other factors have input: mood, hunger, the presence of friends, how a product is displayed.

Nevertheless, neurotesting could be used to target vulnerable populations-say, by trying to create ads that will induce more teenagers to vape. Conversely, it has been shown to increase the effectiveness of public service announcements.

"One way to think about all these issues," says another of these experts, "is that neuroscience incrementally improves our ability to generate effective marketing messages in many areas-it's like turning up the dial a bit on the effectiveness of marketing. That dial turns up the ethical implications, too."

Neuromarketing can be a powerful tool for learning about and captivating customers, but there have long been questions and consumer backlash about its ethical implications. HBR executive editor Ania Wieckowski talked with Steven Stanton, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Scott Huettel-a marketing professor, a philosopher, and a neuroscientist, coauthors of a paper on the topic in the Journal of Business Ethics-to learn which concerns are valid and how marketers can address them.

HBR: What is neuromarketing?

Steven Stanton: It's the use of neuroscience methods-such as brain imaging, or measuring physiology such as hormones or genes-to complement the very effective suite of classic marketing methods, such as surveys, interviews, and ethnography.

Scott Huettel: A classic example is Campbell Soup's redesign of its packaging a few years ago. The company studied changes in neurological markers, such as heart rate and skin moisture, as consumers reacted to logo designs, ads, and the product itself. In 2015 [the Temple University business professors] Vinod Venkatraman and Angelika Dimoka and colleagues led research with the U.S. Postal Service to determine the difference between consumer responses to print ads and to digital advertising. They used biometric techniques and fMRI, and they've produced a detailed public report on their research and findings.

Privacy Problems

What are the most prominent concerns you hear about the ethics of these techniques?

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong: Consumers tend to be most concerned about their privacy. As customers, we typically accept that our purchase behavior is public-at least in the sense that it's known to the company we're buying from-but we think of our brains and our thoughts as private. Consumers sometimes see companies that use these methods as breaking an implicit promise not to invade their private thoughts and feelings.

Huettel: That can lead to consumer backlash against organizations that use these tools. Take an example from the world of politics: In 2015 one of the main political parties in Mexico used neuromarketing to learn more about voters' interests, which was seen by the Mexican citizenry as a government agency trying to read their minds. The leader eventually had to promise that his party would revert to more "old-fashioned" methods.

Why aren't these privacy concerns a problem?

Stanton: First, most consumers don't have their brains scanned or give hormone samples to researchers. What neuromarketers know about the thoughts of consumers is based on what we can extrapolate from the small number of people we do test in a research setting. A prediction about what all the other consumers are thinking in a given situation is just an educated guess-we don't have access to their hormone levels, brain activation patterns, and so on. Thus there is no potential for a direct privacy violation for the average consumer: Your thoughts are your own.

Furthermore, in well-directed studies, the few people who are subjects give their overt, informed consent and agree that the data gathered in the study can be used in specific ways. With such protection in place, this kind of data gathering is really no different ethically from participating in a focus group, because the participants are choosing to participate and are informed about any potential risks and about how their data may be used.

But those protections are something companies in particular need to keep an eye on. Although informed consent is standard in the academic world, it's not always strictly adhered to on the industry side. And as neurotesting techniques advance and become less invasive, this kind of data could be collected in the field without any awareness by consumers-as was the case in the Mexican incident, in which citizens' responses to the party's ads were often recorded without their knowledge. Companies need to know that collecting information about consumers without their knowledge and consent could very well be perceived as an ethical violation.

What about situations in which marketers want to integrate some neuroscience research results with their own customer data to improve targeting?

Stanton: Here's an example: Neuroresearch has shown that women are more drawn to purchasing "sexy" clothing and status symbols such as cars and diamonds at specific points in their menstrual cycles. A company could apply this finding to target women with ads when they are most susceptible to temptation to buy the advertised product.

Huettel: In this case the neuroscience is just another form of marketing research. Behavioral studies could reveal similar patterns. The ethical issues arise when companies start taking data they have about specific individuals and using it in combination with this kind of research to mark a particular customer-as potentially pregnant, for example, or as experiencing a health problem. In 2012 Target came under scrutiny for sending ads for pregnancy and baby items to a woman who hadn't told anyone she was pregnant (though it's worth noting that the algorithms that directed those advertisements were based not on neuroscience but on more-traditional marketing data).

Stanton: The neuroscience research on its own isn't the problem here, but companies do need to consider the particular context whenever they start making inferences about their customers. Because regardless of the research method used (neuroscience, data mining based on purchase history, surveys), consumers may perceive a violation of their right to privacy-particularly when it seems that a company somehow knows more about them and what they want to buy than they know themselves.

The Specter of Manipulation

There's knowing what's in my brain, and then there's using that knowledge to make me act differently-to buy more stuff.

Stanton: Subconscious influence is another big concern we hear about, particularly from consumer advocacy groups. They worry that products or ads built with the benefit of neuromarketing research could render consumers unable to control themselves or their choices by triggering a kind of "buy button" in the brain. It's like the stories you heard long ago about subliminal advertising: You'll be watching a movie, and an image will flash on the screen; you won't even be aware of it, but at the intermission you can't stop yourself from buying a Coke and popcorn.

Huettel: That popcorn story does sound pretty scary, but it's just not real-the much-hyped story of that research was actually debunked years later. There is no buy button.

Sinnott-Armstrong: That's in part because no single factor determines how you're going to act when given the opportunity to buy something. Neuroscience research can uncover one factor-for example, how tired you are-that affects the probability that you'll act a certain way. But lots of other factors are at play: What kind of mood are you in? When did you last have a meal? Are your friends with you? How is the light pointed at the product? Nothing neuroscience could ever measure could definitively drive a particular purchase, because all those other factors also have input. We're never going to be able to say, "If we measure this blood flow in your brain using fMRI, then we know you will definitely buy this car." Neuroscience will never be a threat to our free will.

A lot of the concern about neuromarketing is based on a perceived exaggeration of its power versus that of other kinds of marketing. All marketing is about influencing people-of course you want to induce them to buy your product instead of another product. But when neuroscience enters the picture, people worry that they're not just influenced, they're forced to do certain things. And though the influence of these techniques will grow as they improve, forcing people to do things is just not on the horizon.

Avoiding the Snake Oil

You say that in some ways consumers and marketers should be more concerned about neuromarketing practices.

Stanton: One big area is the way that some neuromarketing research firms promote and sell their services to companies. We hear reports of services being oversold. The very idea that there is something like a buy button in the brain comes from overstatements about what these firms can do.

Understanding neuromarketing techniques requires years of advanced education. Often companies have to depend on the firm that's selling these services to explain how they work and what the company needs. If a firm tells you it's going to do a survey or an interview, you can understand those methods relatively easily. But if it suggests doing an fMRI, an EEG, and pulse testing, you may not know what those techniques are or how they work. That sets the stage for the firm to sell you more services than you need.

Sinnott-Armstrong: Companies face two main risks here-being defrauded (wasting money on something that isn't going to give them the benefit they thought they were paying for) and damaging their image. If they engage in activities that end up being exposed as fraudulent, they may pay a price in reputation if the activities become public-especially if they've been passing on the high cost of these techniques to their customers through price hikes.

Stanton: As with any new technology, it's tempting to make neuromarketing sound like a panacea, and some firms do just that. But they're not all overselling what they can provide; the key challenge for any company looking to add neuromarketing to its marketing research is finding a competent firm to address its needs.

What should companies and marketers do to ensure that they're not being oversold?

Huettel: Companies seriously considering this should think about hiring either staffers or consultants with formal natural science training who can help them make these evaluations. It might be a simple and quick onetime engagement: Frequently companies will call in a neuroscientist just to have a conversation with the marketing team-to give it the language and the understanding to evaluate what neuromarketing can (and can't) do. Or they may bring in an outside group-scientists in the field, or another firm-to evaluate a specific vendor's promise. But that's more expensive and less common.

This is actually one of the clearest ways in which academia and industry's interests align. As academics, we want marketing practice to be as rigorous as possible, and we want basic science to find a practical application. And companies need to evaluate the rigor of research for a practical application. Those companies can reach into a very large pool of eager academic scientists, from faculty members down to graduate students, for collaborative help.

Sinnott-Armstrong: If you choose to hire scientists onto your own staff to help make these evaluations, that has ethical implications as well. Consider a marketer who is itching to get into neuromarketing and hires an expert to assess which firm to engage. The expert is going to wonder what will happen to his or her job if the assessment shows that neuromarketing isn't the right way to meet the marketer's needs, or that none of the firms is a good fit. The boss's preferences will be taken into account in what should be an objective evaluation. It's absolutely right to hire outside experts, but you must structure their pay and the stability of their jobs to get at the truth.

What about the actual scientific practices of neuromarketing firms?

Sinnott-Armstrong: The goal of neuromarketing firms is profit, so they're not highly incentivized to focus on transparent methodology, peer review, and other core elements of academic inquiry that lead to rigorous research. That's not to say that their research isn't necessarily rigorous; but as a society we would be better off if neuromarketing were very open. Publicly sharing the methods they use and openly collaborating with academics would improve the rigor of the research being done at these firms. Thus the results would be more likely to be valid, and the marketing approaches a company took on the basis of them would be more likely to be effective. (And other concerns-such as consumer privacy-would be alleviated, because everyone could see that the firm was adhering to informed consent and other best practices.) That's good for marketers and consumers as well as for the scientific field.

But of course almost all neuromarketing firms are protective of their intellectual property. This tension won't be easily resolved unless market forces reward the firms that are most transparent and most willing to be peer reviewed.

Absent those market forces, how might neuromarketing practice become more open?

Stanton: A third-party certification of quality could offer a solution whereby all parties win. This type of certification could assure companies that they're buying a quality neuromarketing research product, assure consumers that their rights are being protected as part of the research, and benefit the certified firms, which would have a stronger reputation than firms that lacked certification. Many third-party certifications have been extremely successful-think of Energy Star appliances and LEED building standards. The Advertising Research Foundation has put forward an early form of something like that for neuromarketing called NeuroStandards 1.0 and 2.0.

Huettel: NeuroStandards 1.0 was basically an academic peer review that evaluated the methods of a number of neuromarketing firms. The key success of NeuroStandards 2.0 was to provide evidence for the value of neuroscience, using methods that both passed the academic threshold for rigor and used markers of effectiveness that industry groups care about. The results provide a clear and public signal that neuroscience-if done well-can contribute to marketing practice. And knowing that neuroscience provides real predictive power may mean that neuromarketing firms will have more incentive to track those markers in a rigorous manner, rather than to make claims about the novelty and uniqueness of their own measures.

Turning Up the Dial

Do traditional marketing and neuromarketing share some ethical red flags?

Stanton: Marketing of any kind can help us create and advertise products that lead to bad outcomes. For example, marketers could survey people about what cigarette brands they're familiar with-or they could do neurotesting to better learn how to get people addicted. Both have negative public health effects.

Huettel: Companies could also target vulnerable populations-by trying to find out which ads will induce more teenagers to vape, for example.

Stanton: Another ethical concern for any kind of marketing is fueling consumerism as consumer debt rises. This is a fundamental problem around the world.

Huettel: One way to think about all these issues is that neuroscience incrementally improves our ability to generate effective marketing messages in many areas-it's like turning up the dial a bit on the effectiveness of marketing. That dial turns up the ethical implications, too.

Sinnott-Armstrong: Marketing can be used for good and it can be used for ill-like any other powerful tool.

How is neuromarketing good for people?

Stanton: Here again, think of it as a tool that can enhance advertising's effectiveness-in some cases, its benefits. Companies get increased sales and profitability. Consumers get better new products and access to more-targeted information about those products.

Sinnott-Armstrong: That's definitely to my benefit as a consumer. For example, I'm very tired of getting ads in the mail or in my e-mail that have nothing to do with me. My kids are off in graduate school, but I'm still getting ads for clothing for young children. Better targeting will mean fewer mistakes like that, which will save the company money, save me time, and make it easier for me to get the products I really do want that really will improve my life.

Huettel: There's also a fair amount of research showing that neuroscience can be helpful in increasing the effectiveness of public service announcements. For example, [the University of Pennsylvania researcher] Emily Falk's study of brain responses to messages about health has led to a better understanding of how to create antismoking ads for adolescents. With neuroscience we see a lot of possibility for encouraging positive behaviors, encouraging charitable contributions, or encouraging citizenship and participation in our democracy-better ads for the greater good.

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Executive Summary Three leading researchers-a marketing professor, a philosopher, and a neuroscientist-talk with HBR about the ethical implications of neuromarketing. Although consumers typically accept that their purchase behavior is public, these experts say, they think of their brains and thoughts as private, which can lead to backlash against organizations that use neuromarketing tools.

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An useful article.

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Learn how to write and send effective print and e-mailed letters to editors of various media types, together with examples, that will gain both editorial and reader support.

What is a letter to the editor?

Why should you write a letter to the editor?

When should you write a letter to the editor?

Should you use e-mail to send your letter?

How do you write a letter to the editor?

How do you get your letter accepted?

What is a letter to the editor?

You feel strongly about an issue, and you want to let people know what you think. You believe you can even influence people to take some action if you speak your mind. But, you want to reach an audience larger than just your friends or your group membership. Letters to the editor can be an effective way to get the word out.

A letter to the editor is a written way of talking to a newspaper, magazine, or other regularly printed publication. Letters to the editor are generally found in the first section of the newspaper, or towards the beginning of a magazine, or in the editorial page. They can take a position for or against an issue, or simply inform, or both. They can convince readers by using emotions, or facts, or emotions and facts combined. Letters to the editor are usually short and tight, rarely longer than 300 words.

Using a few carefully placed letters, you can generate plenty of community discussion. You can also keep an issue going by preventing it from disappearing from the public eye. You can stimulate the interest of the news media and create more coverage for the matters you're working on. You can also send a "good news" letter to bring recognition to people who deserve it or acknowledge the success of an effort.

Why should you write a letter to the editor?

Letters to the editor are among the most widely read features in any newspaper or magazine. They allow you to reach a large audience. You can probably think of many more specific reasons why you might want to write to the editor, but here are a few general ones:

You are angry about something, and want others to know it

You think that an issue is so important that you have to speak out

Part of your group's strategy is to persuade others to take a specific action

Or you want to:

Suggest an idea to others

Influence public opinion

Educate the general public on a specific matter

Influence policy-makers or elected officials directly or indirectly

Publicize the work of your group and attract volunteers or program participants

When should you write a letter to the editor?

Letters to the editor can be written any time you want to shape public opinion, tell others how you feel about people, programs, or ideas, or just inform the public on a certain issue. They are a great way to increase awareness of the issues that you or your organization are working for, as well as to advocate for your cause.

Letters to the editor can also be used to start a community conversation about an issue important to you. A planned series of letters to the editor can stimulate public interest and media coverage. It's up to you to determine when is the best time to start writing the letters, allowing time for them to be published.

The larger the newspaper or magazine, the more competition there is for letters-to-the-editor space. This means your letter will need to stand out in order to get printed. The tips in this section will help you write a letter that will be effective and stand out on the editor's desk.

Keep in mind that if you want to inform the public of a certain action your organization is about to take, you may want to think of issuing a press release instead. If newspapers consistently ignore your news releases, your best choice may be a letter to the editor.

How should you send your letter?

The reality for virtually every print publication is that they'd prefer to get letters and other material by e-mail, since everything they publish is set up on a computer and printed straight from software. If you send your letter electronically, all they have to do is transfer it directly to the "letters" page in the software in order to print it.

You can still send a postal letter, of course, but someone has to type it into the computer before it can be printed, and so it may not only arrive later than an e-mail, but may wait longer after it's received to be printed.

How do you write a letter to the editor?

Open the letter with a simple salutation.

Don't worry if you don't know the editor's name. A simple "To the Editor of the Daily Sun," or just "To the Editor:" is sufficient. If you have the editor's name, however, you should use it to increase the possibilities of your letter being read.

Grab the reader's attention.

Your opening sentence is very important. It should tell readers what you're writing about, and make them want to read more.

Explain what the letter is about at the start.
Throughout your letter, remember the rule:
Don't make the editor or the general public wait to find out what you want to say. Tell them your key point at the beginning.

Explain why the issue is important.

If you are motivated enough to write a letter to a newspaper or magazine, the importance of your topic may seem clear to you. Remember, though, that the general public probably doesn't share your background or the interest. Explain the issue and its importance simply. Use plain language that most people will understand

Give evidence for any praise or criticism.

If you are writing a letter discussing a past or pending action, be clear in showing why this will have good or bad results.

State your opinion about what should be done.

You can write a letter just to ''vent," or to support or criticize a certain action or policy, but you may also have suggestions about what could be done to improve the situation. If so, be sure to add these as well. Be specific. And the more good reasons you can give to back up your suggestions, the better.

Keep it brief.

Generally, shorter letters have a better chance of being published. So go back over your letter and see if anything can be cut or condensed. If you have a lot to say and it can't be easily made short, you may want to check with the editor to see if you could write a longer opinion feature or guest column.

Sign the letter.

Be sure to write your full name (and title, if relevant) and to include your address, phone number, and e-mail address. Newspapers won't print anonymous letters, though in some cases they may withhold your name on request. They may also call you to confirm that you wrote the letter before they publish it.

Check your letter to make sure it's clear and to the point.

A newspaper may not print every letter it receives, but clear, well-written letters are likely to be given more serious consideration.

How do you get your letters accepted?

How likely your letter is to be published depends to a certain extent on the publication you're sending it to. The New York Times probably receives hundreds, if not thousands of letters a day, only ten or so of which make it into print. A small-town newspaper, on the other hand, may print every letter it gets, since it may get only two or three a day.

In general, newspapers and magazines will publish letters that are well-written and articulate, and that either represent specific points of view on an issue, or that thoughtfully analyze complex issues and events. Most publications stay away from publishing rants, although they may publish short-and-to-the-point letters that make the same points as a rant might, but in a much calmer and more rational way. Publications also tend to stay away from attacks on particular people (although not from criticism of the actions of politicians and other public figures), and anything that might possibly be seen as libel.

Legally, libel is the publication of a false statement about someone that damages that person's reputation. Thus to falsely accuse someone of a crime would be libel; to inaccurately print that someone had won an award for citizenship would not be.

Here are a few helpful tips for getting your letters accepted by the editor:

Keep your letter under 300 words. Editors have limited space for printing letters, and some papers have stated policies regarding length (check the editorial page for this).

Make sure your most important points are stated in the first paragraph. Editors may need to cut parts of your letter and they usually do so from the bottom up.

Refer to a recent event in your community or to a recent article - make a connection and make it relevant.

Use local statistics and personal stories to better illustrate your point.

Make sure you include your title as well as your name - it adds credibility, especially if it's relevant to the topic being discussed. If you are a program director, your title may lend credibility to the letter.

Including your title is also important to showing that you're not trying to hide your interest in the topic. If you're a program director and you don't mention that in your letter, there may be a letter the next day accusing you of dishonesty for not revealing it.

Editors may want to contact you, so include your phone number and e-mail address.

If your letter is not accepted the first time around, try again. You might submit a revised version with a different angle on the issue at a later date.

You do not have to be the only one to write the letter: letters are often published with multiple signers. You also don't have to be the only one to write a letter. Several people may write letters on the same topic with the same or slightly different points, and submit them a few days apart, so that the issue stays on the Letters page for a period of time. If you have talented writers in your group, you might encourage one of them to write an editorial article or an "Op-Ed" - that is, an opinion editorial that is usually printed on the citizen opinion page. Most of all, don't limit your communications. Brainstorm for ideas in your group - how can you further your goals by speaking to the readers of your community paper?

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Section 2. Writing Letters to the Editor

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Learn how to write and send effective print and e-mailed letters to editors of various media types, together with examples, that will gain both editorial and reader support. What is a letter to the editor? Why should you write a letter to the editor? When should you write a letter to the editor?

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A newspaper article

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Jessica Huie has every reason to be happy with her lot. She has made an extraordinary success of her life against all odds. Expelled from school at 15 and a single mother by the time she was 17, Huie turned away from her path, threw herself back into her studies and climbed the ladder in PR, ending up with at Max Clifford Associates. She would go on to represent high profile clients such as Samuel L Jackson.

In 2006, she went one step further and started her own business. She was looking for a card for her daughter one day and discovered a gap in the market for cards featuring people of colour.

Color Blind Cards propelled Huie to new levels of notoriety. She scooped up entrepreneurship awards including being named as a "35 under 35" in 2010 by Red magazine and awarded an MBE in the 2014 Birthday Honours list for services to entrepreneurship.

But by 2016, Huie felt something was missing. By then she had left Max Clifford Associates to start her own PR business focussed more on social and charity work, working harder than ever to build up a roster of clients including Hilary Devey from Dragons' Den and Kelly Rowland, for her charitable work.

"I'd always been very ambitious and driven," Huie tells The Independent, in what might be the understatement of the year. "I was always a bit addicted to work." That year, her father fell ill and Huie decided to take time off work to care for him. She was, in her own words, "ejected from my norm".

While she was caring for her father, she started writing what she thought would be a book about building a personal brand but ended up becoming Purpose, published by Hay House in April, a book about listening to the inner voices telling you what you're truly meant to be doing in life.

"It's about why we should be doing what we love," Huie says. "So many of us end up in roles or relationships that we don't belong in. There's that thing we'd love to do that feels out of our reach, it feels unattainable because it's such a leap, but when we connect with what is important to us and we're living truthfully, that's where we make a difference."

A whole industry has sprung up around helping people who feel unfulfilled at work. Last month, organisational psychologist Daniel Cable published Alive at Work, advocating for managers to take the lead in making their employees feel "zestful about work and about change". Those beyond the pale with the nine-to-five might prefer When to Jump, published in January and written by Mike Lewis, who has developed four steps for people to follow to pursue the career of their dreams.

"I've been leaping forever in different ways," Huie says. "I've been in many situations where I've felt out of my comfort zone and had massive imposter syndrome. When I see that in women particularly, I can connect with it."

The desire to help other women fulfil their potential and start businesses of their own is part of Huie's decision to step away from her PR business and focus more on consulting and coaching. She already runs monthly workshops at the British Library to help small businesses raise their profile, but now the focus will shift to purpose-driven businesses.

"When I started Color Blind Cards, I discovered when you have an enterprise powered by meaning, there's a momentum you have around your business that isn't there otherwise," Huie says. "People connect with that, it has a power to it, and it's also fulfilling. It's a very different experience running purpose-driven business to one that's just about money."

Huie also wants to do more writing. Putting everything down on the page was cathartic when she was grieving for her father, a remarkable man who moved to the UK from Jamaica in the fifties and was the first non-white bus driver in Nottingham.

But it also reminded her that she had always loved writing. Her first job after having her daughter, Monet, was at Pride magazine, where she eventually became a staff writer after completing a degree in journalism from Middlesex University.

Huie says it can get harder to follow your dreams as you get older. "It's scary because it's that old cliché of the comfort zone," she says. "The older we get, we have responsibilities, even if we know what that passion is."

Getting out of the rut can require a change in perspective for people who feel their identity is wrapped up in their job. "That's only a construct," Huie says. "Our true value is in what we can contribute to the world and our ability to make our professional lives match with who we are."

The key, she says, it to face up to your situation: "Be really honest with the fact that you're not fulfilled and recognise that it's not impossible to do something about it."

Then: be brave. When Huie started Color Blind Cards, many people told her they had had a similar idea but never got around to doing anything about it. "I couldn't leave my day job either - I had ballet lessons to pay for! But I decided to do it alongside my job, staying up late, taking calls in my lunch break. You start to edge out of your professional life and into your purpose."

Huie recently had a taste of her own medicine. Her daughter Monet, now 19, had signed to Models One and was sent on a working trip to Dubai. When Monet came back, she said that rather than study law, she wanted to leave college and pursue modelling full time. "I had to take some deep breaths because that wasn't my plan for her!" Huie says. "But she's happy. She was with me for lots of my adventures, which was great, because she was able to see that you can have an idea and make a success of it. It's given her a sense of limitlessness."
"Purpose - Find Your Truth and Embrace Your Calling" by Jessica Huie is published on 24 April 2018, by Hay House

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How to find a job that gives you a sense of purpose

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Jessica Huie has every reason to be happy with her lot. She has made an extraordinary success of her life against all odds. Expelled from school at 15 and a single mother by the time she was 17, Huie turned away from her path, threw herself back into her studies and climbed the ladder in PR, ending up with at Max Clifford Associates.

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A specialised web site about commercials and the whole ads business. You only could read one paragraph because you must pay but I think is very in

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Many brands are already showing off their Super Bowl LIII commercials, so we decided to take a look back at some of the biggest ads from the most recent Super Bowls. With help from TV ad measurement service iSpot.tv, Adweek editorial director James Cooper and brand marketing reporter Katie Richards give us the rundown on the Big Game's big spenders.

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The Most Popular Super Bowl Ads of the Past 5 Years

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Many brands are already showing off their Super Bowl LIII commercials, so we decided to take a look back at some of the biggest ads from the most recent Super Bowls. With help from TV ad measurement service iSpot.tv, Adweek editorial director James Cooper and brand marketing reporter Katie Richards give us the rundown on the Big Game's big spenders.

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An useful article for us

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But shrinking can only go so far. In the second quarter of 2018, McClatchy's print advertising revenue dropped 26.4 percent year over year; Gannett was down 19.1 percent, Tronc 18 percent. They're not making new daily print newspaper subscribers anymore, and existing ones either move to digital or shuffle off this mortal coil daily. There's no Zeno's Paradox to prevent newspapers from eventually deciding one one of two courses of action: going online-only or shutting down entirely. Even the most pro-print publishers will tell you that, someday, the "cost of print" and "revenue from print" lines will intersect on an accountant's projection and it'll be time to stop the presses for good. The only question is when: Two years? Five? Ten? Thirty?

So one of the questions I'm most interested in for the near- to medium-term future is what will actually happen when print newspapers start to disappear in large numbers, whenever that may be. Will those print readers just become digital readers? Will they spend as much time consuming local journalism on their phones as they do at their breakfast tables? Or will their attention wander as readers' competitive set widens to, well, everything else the Internet can offer?

So I was happy to see some new research by Neil Thurman and Richard Fletcher that offers some insight into those questions. And - while there are a few key caveats I'll mention - the news is generally not that great. Shutting down print doesn't drive those readers to print-like consumption habits on digital devices. Instead, they become a lot like other digital readers - easily distracted, flitting from link to link, and a little allergic to depth.

Thurman and Fletcher examine the case of The Independent, the national British daily that, after 30 years in print, went online-only in 2016. What happened to its reach and influence?

There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, but these are the two key charts, I think. First:

This compares the number of Britons in the total audience of each national newspaper, in the periods before and a year after the Indy's end of print. If you're a half-glass-full type, the good news is that The Independent's total audience was basically flat despite killing off print. The number of print readers it lost and the number of digital readers it gained basically cancel one another out.

If you're a half-glass-empty type, of course, you'd note that "basically flat" was also the worst performance of any British national daily. (The Sun got rid of its paywall during this period, so it's a weird outlier. But the average paper's audience went up about 25 percent.) And you'd note that the "after" period in question includes the aftermath of both Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, each of which fueled a huge increased interest in news.

But here's the really important one:

That first chart was looking at total audience: How many people are consuming Independent content at all, in whatever medium? This second one is looking at total attention: How much total time are Britons spending consuming Independent content, in whatever medium? And this one's something of a disaster.

When it shut off the presses, The Independent only had about a paid print circulation of about 40,000 - versus 58 million monthly uniques in digital.

58 million sure seems a lot bigger than 40,000! But Thurman and Fletcher found that those few print readers were responsible for about 81 percent of all time spent consuming Independent content. All its digital platforms made up only 19 percent.

Or to put it another way: In an average month, a single print subscription to The Independent generated on average, about 6,100 times the actual content consumption as one monthly unique on its website or app. It's not a perfect comparison - monthly uniques aim to measure people while circulation measures copies. But the point is crystal clear: Print readers are just far, far, far, far better news consumers than digital ones.

<aside>This is something I find journalists often have a hard time understanding - mainly because they consume a ton of digital news all day and night. In the print days, a reporter's news consumption and an average citizen's weren't all that far apart - mainly because there just wasn't that much news available to consume. Today, a reporter getting a dozen morning newsletters, listening to a news podcast on the morning commute, getting news alerts on their phone and monitoring Twitter for the latest all day are engaging in very extreme behavior. We're the outliers. We should be better at remembering that.</aside>

That chart shows that all the time Independent print readers spent just...disappeared when the paper did. It didn't transition to independent.co.uk. The demand went elsewhere - whether to another news site, a few minutes of Facebook scrolling, Netflix, Fortnite, an afternoon nap, or whatever else caught someone's attention.

Thurman and Fletcher calculate that, in the 12 months before and after stopping print, the total time spent consuming The Independent dropped from 5.548 billion minutes to 1.056 billion minutes. Of its print readers, half read the newspaper "almost everyday." Its online visitors read a story, on average, a little over twice a month. Print readers spent, on average, 37 to 50 minutes with each daily edition they read. Online Independent readers spend, on average, 6 minutes a month.

We've been hitting on this issue here for many years. Back in 2009, Martin Langeveld did his own back-of-the-envelope calculations and found that only about 3 percent of all consumption of newspaper content was happening online. Most of the same industry trends happening now were already visible then, but those big digital numbers from comScore or Omniture or Google Analytics were already hiding the underlying shift.

In the near-decade since Martin's piece, I guess that 3 percent has moved to 19 percent, at least for The Independent. Yay? But the dynamic remains unchanged: In print, newspapers had few if any competitors. Online, they have infinite competitors.

As Thurman puts it: "By going online-only, The Independent has decimated the attention it receives. The paper is now a thing more glanced at, it seems, than gorged on. It has sustainability but less centrality."

Now, there are some good reasons why an American daily going online-only might not exactly match The Independent's experience. The Independent was one of 13 national print newspapers in the U.K.; while British readers are often quite attached to their particular paper, it wouldn't be too much of a reach for Indy print readers to become Guardian or Times or Telegraph print readers. If a newspaper in Atlanta or Denver or Houston or Seattle goes out business, there won't be an easy print alternative to turn to. Also, you can quibble ( I have before) with the reliability of survey data estimating print consumption, which can be subject to exaggeration. (People like to say they consume lots of news, just like they like to say they eat lots of vegetables and go to the gym all the time.)

On the other hand, one of the bright spots for The Independent in this study is that it increased its international reach by shifting its focus online. Which makes sense - there's a giant English-language audience in the United States that is unreachable by a British paper in print but is happy to tap a link now and then. But that increased out-of-market reach is unlikely to come to a typical American metro daily that goes online-only, without a radical abandonment of its local mission. There are only so many people interested in what's going on in Albuquerque or Fresno or Cincinnati.

Even with those points of difference, though, the overarching lesson holds, I think. Leaving print is the ultimate cost-cutting; a huge share of a newspaper's cost structure is tied up in building-sized printing presses and Canadian forests and ink by the barrel. But when that day comes - even if it helps a newspaper's bottom line - its audience isn't likely to follow along. And that means accepting a dramatic decline in reach, influence, and impact.

Photo of a cute puppy engrossed by The Independent in print by Gareth Williams used under a Creative Commons license.

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What will happen when newspapers kill print and go online-only? Most of that print audience will just...disappear

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But shrinking can only go so far. In the second quarter of 2018, McClatchy's print advertising revenue dropped 26.4 percent year over year; Gannett was down 19.1 percent, Tronc 18 percent. They're not making new daily print newspaper subscribers anymore, and existing ones either move to digital or shuffle off this mortal coil daily.

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An interview, only two days ago, with the marvelous David Attenborough
https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/233750874194979/

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An article by World Economic Forum

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A new working paper shows that among men and women working in the US, women face more severe punishment for similar issues.

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Violence continues to rise (19% in a year)

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Violence continues to rise (19% in a year)

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A news, in UK and Wales (15 days ago)

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Violent crime recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 19% in a year, latest Home Office figures show.

The number of homicides - including murder and manslaughter - rose from 649 to 739, an increase of 14%, in the 12 months to the end of September 2018.

It is the the highest total for such crimes since 2007.

Robbery went up by 17%, as did recorded sexual offences, according to the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Overall crimes recorded by police went up by 7% with a total of 5,723,182 offences recorded.

Is another year of rising knife crime ahead?

A week in the life of a murder detective

London's 2018 homicide victims

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents thousands of lower rank officers across England and Wales, said: "Society just isn't as safe as it once was, and although the police service is doing everything within its power, we are swimming against the tide and it is the public who are being let down."

'Devastating human cost'

There has also been an increase in stalking and harassment offences recorded by police, which have risen by 41%. The ONS said it was likely that improvements in the way such crimes are recorded were likely to be behind the rise.

Public order offences went up by 24% to 427,134. In this case, while the ONS said changes in recording practices might have had an impact, there could also be a "genuine" increase.

Alex Mayes, policy and public affairs adviser at charity Victim Support, said of the violent crime statistics: "These figures starkly highlight the devastating human cost of the recent rises in serious violence that we've seen across the country.

"Working with bereaved families through our national homicide service we know just how destructive these shocking crimes are."

Policing Minister Nick Hurd said overall the chance of being a victim of crime remains low, but added: "We accept certain crimes, particularly violent crime, have increased and we are doing everything possible to reverse the trend."

He said those moves included a proposed increase in police funding, and a strategy to prevent young people turning to crime.

'Government in denial'

Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said: "These statistics show that your chance of being a victim of crime remains low, but we recognise that certain crimes - particularly violent crime - have increased, and we are taking action to address this."

Labour shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the data "underlines the failures of government policy".

She said: "Serious violent crime continues to rise yet the government remains in denial about the effects of its own policies. The Tories have cut police officer numbers.

"They have also exacerbated all the causes of crime, including inequality, poverty, poor mental health care as well the crisis in our schools, especially school exclusions.

"Labour is committed to increasing police numbers and to reversing the austerity policies which are contributing to crime."

On homicide, statisticians said the increase continues an upward trend that has been seen since March 2014, indicating a change to the long-term decrease over the previous decade.

The homicide figures exclude victims of terrorism attacks in England and Wales.

The police-recorded figures on violent crime were looked at alongside information from the NHS, which showed there had been:

An 8% increase in the number of offences involving knives or sharp instruments

A 15% rise in the number of admissions to hospital in England for assaults involving a sharp instrument

A 4% decrease in the number of police-recorded incidents involving firearms

A lot of these crimes, which the ONS describes as "lower-volume, higher-harm types of violence", happened in London and other major cities.

Chief Constable Bill Skelly, of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said some increases could be due to changes in how police record crime, and increasing reporting of incidents, there are "real rises in serious crimes like robbery and violence with weapons, with a devastating impact on victims and families".

Police forces are committed to tackling violent crime and those having offensive weapons, but need to work alongside other organisations like the Home Office "because this is not something that can be solved by policing alone," he said.

"Rising crime, increased terrorist activity and fewer police officers have put serious strain on the policing we offer to the public," he added.

"We are determining the additional capabilities and investment we need to drive down violence and catch more criminals - and we will make the case at the next government spending review."

The Home Office statistics are published at the same time as the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on people's experiences of crime. The survey includes crimes that people do not report to police.

Longer-term trends, measured by the survey, suggest crime overall is stable.

The only main crime type that showed a change in the 12-month period, according to the survey, was computer misuse - including crimes involving scams and computer viruses - which went down by 33%.

'Pretty bleak picture'

Helen Ross, from the ONS centre for crime and justice, said: "In recent decades we've seen the overall level of crime falling, but in the last year, it remained level.

"There are variations within this overall figure, depending on the type of crime. Burglary, shoplifting and computer misuse are decreasing but others, such as vehicle offences and robbery, are rising.

"We have also seen increases in some types of 'lower-volume, high-harm' violence including offences involving knives or sharp instruments."

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the figures painted a "pretty bleak picture" and there were a number of possible reasons for the increase in violent crime.

"The Home Office has said that it's linked to the drugs market and the fact that cocaine, in particular, is now more readily available in this country," he said.

"The price of it has come down, the purity has gone up, and that is increasing the tension between drug gangs, which spills across to the streets.

"We're also seeing in these homicide statistics that there have been more domestic killings.

"That obviously isn't explained by the drugs market but there could be other factors - social factors, could it be to do with the fact there's been a decrease in the number of police officers in the past seven or eight years?

"These are some of the theories being put out there, but there's no simple explanation."

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Violent crime in England and Wales up 19%

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Violent crime recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 19% in a year, latest Home Office figures show. The number of homicides - including murder and manslaughter - rose from 649 to 739, an increase of 14%, in the 12 months to the end of September 2018.

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A Bob Dylan's song which talk about crime and racism.

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Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men

Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white"

Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure"
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doin' society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram's Horn Music

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Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall She sees the bartender in a pool of blood Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"

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The beginning of computers, apple logo and so many things in our worl

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Advanced English Reading - Alan Turing and The Enigma Machine

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A challenging graded reader about Alan Turing and his intelligence work during World War II, for English language students. Part of a free online collection of advanced level graded reading texts and stories for adult English learners and older teens.

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A piece of news

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Easter Island is to demand the UK return one of the remote Polynesian territory's famous giant head statues taken 150 years ago, which is currently held by the British Museum.

A delegation from the volcanic island will arrive in London next week to petition the museum to give back a seven-foot basalt " moai " figure removed in 1868.

The statue, known as "Hoa Hakananai'a", meaning "lost or stolen friend", is believed to date from around 1200 AD. It was among 900 carved by islanders between 1100 and 1600 AD.

The delegation will offer to swap the Hoa Hakananai'a for another moai carved from stone by the contemporary local sculptor Bene Tuki.

A spokesman for the British Museum said it was always willing to consider loaning out objects from its collection "subject to the usual conditions".

"We believe that there is great value in presenting objects from across the world, alongside the stories of other cultures at the British Museum," the spokesman said.

"Hoa Hakananai'a is free to view and is among the most popular and most photographed exhibits with our six million visitors each year."

Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888 and became a special territory in 2007.

The country's heritage minister, Felipe Ward, who will attend the meeting on Tuesday said he had a "glimmer of hope" the statue could be returned as the museum had signalled it was willing to discuss the case.

The Hoa Hakananai'a was taken from the island, located 2,480 miles west of the Chilean capital Santiago, by Richard Powell, the captain of HMS Topaze, and presented to Queen Victoria, who passed it on to the British Museum in 1869.

Birds and stylised human figures are among the carvings on the back of the figure's head and body.

The statue is one of many artefacts British explorers and dignitaries acquired from around the globe that are displayed in the British Museum.

But a number of these treasures have become the subject of intense debate and requests for their return by their countries of origin.

Among these are the Grecian antique sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes from modern-day Nigeria.

Moai are in danger of being destroyed by years of tropical rains and wind as well as islanders, visitors and farm animals.

Experts have called on the international community to commit funds to preserve the monoliths, which are a major draw tourists to the world's most remote inhabited island.
Additional reporting by Reuters

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Easter Island demands British Museum return 'moai' statue

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Easter Island is to demand the UK return one of the remote Polynesian territory's famous giant head statues taken 150 years ago, which is currently held by the British Museum. A delegation from the volcanic island will arrive in London next week to petition the museum to give back a seven-foot basalt "moai" figure removed in 1868.

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A company manages to print intelligent objects in 3D with 'built-in logic'

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A company manages to print intelligent objects in 3D with 'built-in logic'

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This would allow the design of an environmental contamination control device that would take data before a certain physical or chemical stimulus.

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Even without a brain or a nervous system, the Venus flytrap appears to make sophisticated decisions about when to snap shut on potential prey, as well as to open when it has accidentally caught something it can't eat.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science have taken inspiration from these sorts of systems. Using stimuli-responsive materials and geometric principles, they have designed structures that have "embodied logic."

Using multi-material 3D printers, the researchers can make these active structures with nested if/then logic gates, and can control the timing of each gate, allowing for complicated mechanical behaviors in response to simple changes in the environment. For example, by utilizing these principles an aquatic pollution-monitoring device could be designed to open and collect a sample only in the presence of an oil-based chemical and when the temperature is over a certain threshold.

The Penn Engineers published an open access study outlining their approach in the journal Nature Communications.

The study was led by Jordan Raney, assistant professor in Penn Engineering's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and Yijie Jiang, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab. Lucia Korpas, a graduate student in Raney's lab, also contributed to the study.

Raney's lab is interested in structures that are bistable, meaning they can hold one of two configurations indefinitely. It is also interested in responsive materials, which can change their shape under the correct circumstances.

These abilities aren't intrinsically related to one another, but "embodied logic" draws on both.

"Bistability is determined by geometry, whereas responsiveness comes out of the material's chemical properties," Raney says. "Our approach uses multi-material 3D printing to bridge across these separate fields so that we can harness material responsiveness to change our structures' geometric parameters in just the right ways."

In previous work, Raney and colleagues had demonstrated how to 3D print bistable lattices of angled silicone beams. When pressed together, the beams stay locked in a buckled configuration, but can be easily pulled back into their expanded form.

"This bistable behavior depends almost entirely on the angle of the beams and the ratio between their width and length," Raney says. "Compressing the lattice stores elastic energy in the material. If we could controllably use the environment to alter the geometry of the beams, the structure would stop being bistable and would necessarily release its stored strain energy. You'd have an actuator that doesn't need electronics to determine if and when actuation should occur."

Shape-changing materials are common, but fine-grained control over their transformation is harder to achieve.

"Lots of materials absorb water and expand, for example, but they expand in all directions. That doesn't help us, because it means the ratio between the beams' width and length stays the same," Raney says. "We needed a way to restrict expansion to one direction only."

The researchers' solution was to infuse their 3D-printed structures with glass or cellulose fibers, running in parallel to the length of the beams. Like carbon fiber, this inelastic skeleton prevents the beams from elongating, but allows the space between the fibers to expand, increasing the beams' width.

With this geometric control in place, more sophisticated shape-changing responses can be achieved by altering the material the beams are made of. The researchers made active structures using silicone, which absorbs oil, and hydrogels, which absorb water. Heat- and light-sensitive materials could also be incorporated, and materials responsive to even more specific stimuli could be designed.

Changing the beams' starting length/width ratio, as well as the concentration of the stiff internal fibers, allows the researchers to produce actuators with different levels of sensitivity. And because the researchers' 3D-printing technique allows for the use of different materials in the same print, a structure can have multiple shape-changing responses in different areas, or even arranged in a sequence.

"For example," Jiang says, "we demonstrated sequential logic by designing a box that, after exposure to a suitable solvent, can autonomously open and then close after a predefined time. We also designed an artificial Venus flytrap that can close only if a mechanical load is applied within a designated time interval, and a box that only opens if both oil and water are present."

Both the chemical and geometric elements of this embodied logic approach are scale-independent, meaning these principles could also be harnessed by structures at microscopic sizes.

"That could be useful for applications in microfluidics," Raney says. "Rather than using a solid-state sensor and microprocessor that are constantly reading what's flowing into a microfluidic chip, we could, for example, design a gate that shuts automatically if it detects a certain contaminant."

Other potential applications could include sensors in remote, harsh environments, such as deserts, mountains, or even other planets. Without a need for batteries or computers, these embodied logic sensors could remain dormant for years without human interaction, only springing into action when presented with the right environmental cue.

The research was supported by the Army Research Office, through grant number W911NF-17-1-0147.

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Penn Engineers 3D Print Smart Objects with 'Embodied Logic'

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Even without a brain or a nervous system, the Venus flytrap appears to make sophisticated decisions about when to snap shut on potential prey, as well as to open when it has accidentally caught something it can't eat.

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You could watch this video and all related with INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO interviews, they are really interesting.

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inside the actors studio - dustin hoffman

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Inside The Actors Studio - Dustin Hoffman_腾讯视频

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Inside The Actors Studio - Dustin Hoffman

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An article

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Mona Foma review - heady mix of nudity, art and music lands in Launceston

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In its first year out of Hobart, Mona's summer festival brings glitter and colour - and a gooseflesh-raising set from Courtney Barnett

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Interesting story

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When you love your daughter but you can't live with her

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One mother's unlikely path to repairing her relationship with her daughter.

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https://genius.com/Queen-bohemian-rhapsody-lyrics

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Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics

[Intro]
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me
[Verse 1]
[Guitar Solo] Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

[Verse 2]
Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh (Any way the wind blows)
I don't wanna die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

[Verse 3]
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro magnifico
But I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Never, never, never, never let me go) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia) Mamma mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

Widely considered to be one of the greatest songs of all time, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first single released from Queen's fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera. It became an international success, reaching #1 in seven countries and peaking at #9 in the United States. Seventeen years after its initial release, "Bohemian Rhapsody" re-entered the pop charts in the US, peaking at #2 after being featured in the 1992 hit movie Wayne's World. In 2002, the song was listed at #1 in a Guinness World Records poll as Britain's favourite single of all time-ranking higher than four Beatles tracks and "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Complex and operatic both musically and lyrically, "Bohemian Rhapsody" (like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and The Eagles' "Hotel California") has attracted endless fan theories and commentary. The surviving band members have claimed that the narrative is based on the Faust legend; critics have found possible sources in opera and Freddie Mercury's personal biography; but like any good piece of art, it's open to interpretation.

The word "Bohemian" seems to refer to a group of artists and musicians from the 19th century, known for defying convention and living with disregard for standards; as opposed to the region of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Meanwhile the term "rhapsody" (derived from the Greek: ῥαψῳδός or rhapsōidos for a reciter of epic poetry, or a rhapsodist) is a piece of classical music with distinct sections that are played as one movement. Rhapsodies often feature dense themes or narratives.

As of December 2018, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the most streamed song of the 20th century.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" has got a very diverse song structure. It includes:
* Intro (0:00-0:49)
* Ballad section (0:49-2:37)
* Brian May's' guitar solo (2:37-3:05)
* Operatic verse (3:05-4:07)
* Hard-rock verse (4:07-4:54)
* Coda (4:54-5:55)

Ask us a question about this song

"Objection, your Honor: context!" Re-phrase:

In late 1975, when Bo Rap's thunderbolts and lightning cast Queen as rock-gods, was Mercury struck as very, very openly gay?

To "be gay", or "not to be gay", in mid-1970's England, was that a question of psychiatric, legal, and/or religious ramifications? Mamma mia; "Spare him his life from" such monstrosities", right?

Bo-Rap is a thrill ride shape-shifter, from tragic tear-jerk-trigger-pulling proportions to the comedically scary mock-opera trial parts. It took "Wayne's World" to push on the gas of the thrill ride back up the U.S. charts to not-quite-#1. Before the snooty over-analysis to follow, let's get one thing straight: this song has plenty of Bohemian comedy, so line up your opera spectacles (is "opera" gay?). And let's not forget the B-side: Roger's " I'm in Love With My Car". Was he, then, motorosexual? Metrosexual? It's all dripping in the metaphorical. Words, words, words, must be carefully chosen: ask Oscar Wilde or anyone accused of being heretical by the Papacy (scarier than reigning Queens, like certain ... nevermind).

Was Galileo imprisoned for his heliocentrism? Galileo Galilei was a Sheer Heretic, no? And if Dr. Brian May played the role of the 17th Century Astronomer, then who is Figaro, and were THEY straight? Was the earth flat? "Objection, your Honor!"

Sustained; irreverent. Scaramouche, re-direct the "gay connotations" rotation annotation to the 20th to 21st century. Proceed:

Many folks interpret Bo Rap's lyrics as Mercury's metaphoric struggle with his sexuality; Brian May and Roger Taylor have hinted at the viability of this "rap" regarding Freddie's Bohemia.

Mercury let these lyrics "be" open to interpretation. The song was a seedling as "The Cowboy Song". That theme bit the dust ahead of time, but apparently left a smoking gun, anyway the wind blew pipes into Queen's three singing members in mock-opera splendor, the antithesis of a "mute" court. Or was it an operatic jury from Hell passing judgment on the "love" that dare not speak its name?

Freddie did say the song was about "relationships"; everyone can relate to that, regardless of "sexual preferences".

Sheila Whiteley co-authored a 2006 "book" of 19 essays about sexuality in popular music, "Queering the Popular Pitch" (Eds. Sheila Whiteley and Jennifer Rycenga, published by Routledge). Whiteley's essay "Popular Music and the Dynamics of Desire" on page 252 provides an informative summary, albeit with a lyrical stretch,

The heightened sense of urgency seems to resonate with Mercury's inner turmoil, leaving the security of Mary Austin (who ...remained
a close friend throughout his life) coming to terms with gay life ("Easy come, easy go"), and living with a man ("So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye"). Mary was, however, more perceptive than the song implies. At the time, Freddie had asked her if she thought he was bisexual. Her reply-"I don't think you're bisexual. I think you're gay" provides an insight into their relationship and her continuing support.

When Queen's gravitational pull grounded their megastardom around the globe, Freddie was not openly gay, i.e., he was not "out-of-the-closet" in a public way. An openly gay rock star, especially in the United States, would have been the kiss-of-death if the fate of New York City's glam-rock overtly gay artist Jobriath gives any clue.

Mary Austin was Freddie's dearest friend and family-member, by default and design. His death is literally a testament to this. The Vintage News notes:

Freddie Mercury's will dictated that Mary was left with the better part of his wealth, more than $10 million, as well as his large mansion. His mother reportedly approved his decision, stating that Mary was like a family to her.

Queen's monetary health (especially Freddie's) began with the success of Bo-Rap and their fourth album, "A Night at the Opera". Such artistic and commercial acclaim made all of Queen's men quite merry and GAY, and not merely because of the ensuing fame and pay, nor from relief at having severed the strings from their prior managers' greed, who allegedly swindled the band, so badly it spawned Mercury's wrath on "A Night at the Opera"'s opening track, " Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...) ".

So was Freddie Mercury "gay"? Or was he "bi-sexual"? Is "Bohemian Rhapsody" his obvious "coming out" song? Did his "personal inclinations" have a creative impact on Queen's music and performances for better or for worse? "Objection your honor!" Sustained. Queen still rules; Freddie sang his heart out for his fans, as much as he physically could, until the day he died. In the age of Freddie A.D., the records have been set straight: Queen's crown as the people's band is legendary, transcending race, creed, identity, and the crazy little thing dubbed as a "rhapsody"? Labels. EMI (and Elektra?) didn't approve of its release. But that's a different story, and Freddie's sexual "label" was a private, family matter to him, released or hidden in a metaphorical artistic sense?

August-September 1975 Various studios

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Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? / Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality / Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see / I'm just a poor boy, I need no

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E93gYPKfC8U&t=297s

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I wanted to share with you something a little bit more personal. So here you have an interesting article about an specific type of depresssion. I hope it will give you a deeper understanding about this illness.

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What is smiling depression?

Usually, depression is associated with sadness, lethargy, and despair - someone who can't make it out of bed. Though someone experiencing depression can undoubtedly feel these things, how depression presents itself can vary from person to person.

"Smiling depression" is a term for someone living with depression on the inside while appearing perfectly happy or content on the outside. Their public life is usually one that's "put together," maybe even what some would call normal or perfect.

Smiling depression isn't recognized as a condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) but would likely be diagnosed as major depressive disorder with atypical features.

Keep reading to learn more about the features of smiling depression and how you can learn to recognize it in someone else.

Someone experiencing smiling depression would - from the outside -appear happy or content to others. On the inside however, they would be experiencing the distressful symptoms of depression.

Depression affects everyone differently and has a variety of symptoms, the most distinguished being deep, prolonged sadness. Other classic symptoms include:

changes in appetite, weight, and sleeping

fatigue or lethargy

feelings of hopelessness, lack of self-esteem, and low self-worth

loss of interest or pleasure in doing things that were once enjoyed

Someone with smiling depression may experience some or all of the above, but in public, these symptoms would be mostly - if not completely - absent. To someone looking from the outside, a person with smiling depression might look like:

an active, high-functioning individual

someone holding down a steady job, with a healthy family and social life

a person appearing to be cheerful, optimistic, and generally happy

If you're experiencing depression yet continue to smile and put on a façade, you may feel:

like showing signs of depression would be a sign of weakness

like you would burden anyone by expressing your true feelings

that you don't have depression at all, because you're "fine"

that others have it worse, so what do you have to complain about?

that the world would be better off without you

A typical depressive symptom is having incredibly low energy and finding it hard to even make it out of bed in the morning. In smiling depression, energy levels may not be affected (except when a person is alone).

Because of this, the risk of suicide may be higher. People with major depression sometimes feel suicidal but many don't have the energy to act on these thoughts. But someone with smiling depression might have the energy and motivation to follow through.

Some risk factors may include:

Big life changes

As with other types of depression, smiling depression can be triggered by a situation - like a failing relationship or loss of a job. It can also be experienced as a constant state.

Judgment

Culturally, people may deal with and experience depression differently, including feeling more somatic (physical) symptoms than emotional ones. Researchers believe these differences may have to do with internally versus externally oriented thinking: if your thinking is externally oriented, you may not focus on your inner emotional state but instead may experience more physical symptoms.

In some cultures or families, higher levels of stigma may also have an impact. For example, expressing emotions may be seen as "asking for attention" or as showing weakness or laziness.

If someone tells you to "Just get over it"or that "You're not trying hard enough" to feel better, you're less likely in the future to express these emotions.

This can be especially true for men under scrutiny for their masculinity - who may have been subjected to old thinking like, "real men" don't cry. Men are far less likely than women to seek help for mental health problems.

Someone who feels they would be judged for their depressive symptoms would be more likely to put on a façade and keep it to themselves.

Social media

In an age where as many as 69 percent of the U.S. population is using social media, we can be sucked into an alternate reality where everyone's lives are going so well. But are they really going that well?

Many people may not be willing or able to post pictures when they're at their worst, instead opting to share only their good moments with the world. This can create a void of realness that gives smiling depression more room to grow.

Expectations

We all sometimes have unrealistic expectations of ourselves to be better or stronger. We're also affected by outside expectations - from coworkers, parents, siblings, children, or friends.

Whether you have unrealistic expectations for yourself or the expectations are from others, you may be more likely to want to hide your feelings if they don't seem to serve those expectations. Someone with perfectionism might be even more at risk, due to the impossibly high standards they hold themselves to.

According to a paper from the World Health Organization (WHO), smiling depression presents with antithetical (conflicting) symptoms to those of classic depression. This may complicate the process of diagnosis.

Other difficulties with diagnosing smiling depression is that many people may not even know they're depressed or they don't seek help.

If you think you have depression, it's important to seek treatment as soon as possible.

To be diagnosed, you'll have to visit a medical professional. Your doctor will ask you some questions about your symptoms and any big life changes that have occurred.

They may also refer you to a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist, if you would benefit from medications, or a psychologist or other mental health professional who performs psychotherapy (talk therapy).

To be diagnosed with major depressive disorder, you must have experienced a depressive episode lasting longer than two weeks, most of the day, nearly every day. These symptoms affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, and working. Here's what else the diagnosis entails.

Treating this type of depression is similar to other traditional treatments for major depressive disorder, which include medications, psychotherapy, and lifestyle changes.

The most important step in finding treatment for smiling depression is to open up to someone around you. This can be a professional, a friend, or a family member.

Speaking with a professional can be incredibly helpful for depression symptoms, as a professional can help you come up with personalized strategies for coping and tactics for negative thought processes. If they believe you might benefit from medications or group therapy, they can refer you.

There are also a number of online resources and support options that may help you get started.

Lifeline chat

Lifeline chat, brought to you by the same people who run the suicide prevention lifeline, provides emotional support and services via web chat. This is particularly useful if speaking on the phone causes anxiety.

Healthline's mental health community

Our Facebook community connects people experiencing mental health conditions, giving you a chance to find support as well as tips on condition management.

NAMI resources

The National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) has a vast list of 25 resources that may help you with several things, including finding treatment, staying informed on specific conditions and research, and getting financial assistance.

Depression doesn't have just one face or appearance. When people in the public eye die by suicide, many people are left stunned due to the masks - or smiles - they wore. For example, when actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide, many were shocked.

Depression, no matter how it presents itself, can be a difficult and draining condition. It's important to remember, no matter what: There is hope. You can find help.

If you're experiencing smiling depression, you should start by talking to someone about it. A nonjudgmental safe place to start would be a psychologist's office, but the online resources mentioned above may work better for you as a place to start.

As with any other type of disease or condition, you should seek treatment. Don't discount your feelings.

If you believe someone you know may be quietly experiencing depression, ask them how they're doing. Be ready to listen. If you can't personally help them with their situation, direct them to a resource that can help.

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Smiling Depression: Symptoms, Risk Factors, Test, Treatments, and More

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Smiling depression describes someone living with depression on the inside while appearing happy or content on the outside. Their public life is usually "put together," maybe even what some would call normal or perfect. Learn more about the features of smiling depression and how to recognize it in someone else.

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If you like literature nurtured by deep feelings and life changing experiences -such as heartbreak, depression, loosing loved ones- you will be interested in these books by R. M. Drake. I hope you enjoy reading time

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Robert M. Drake Books | List of books by author Robert M. Drake

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Spaceship: A Collection of Words for the Misunderstood.

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We know that, together, we can end the death penalty everywhere.

Every day, people are executed and sentenced to death by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes - sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries, it can be for drug-related offences, in others it is reserved for terrorism-related acts and murder.

Some countries execute people who were under the age of 18 when the crime for which they have been convicted was committed, others use the death penalty against people with mental and intellectual disabilities and several others apply the death penalty after unfair trials - in clear violation of international law and standards. People can spend years on death row, not knowing when their time is up, or whether they will see their families one last time.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception - regardless of who is accused, the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution.

Previous Next

About the death penalty

Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.

Over time, the international community has adopted several instruments that ban the use of the death penalty, including the following:

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty, and Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Although international law says that the use of the death penalty must be restricted to the most serious crimes, meaning intentional killing, Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is never the answer.

Amnesty International has never felt more hopeful that this abhorrent punishment can and will be relegated to the annals of history
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

Juvenile Executions

The use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18 is prohibited under international human rights law, yet some countries still resort to the death penalty in these situations. Such executions are few compared to the total number of executions recorded by Amnesty International each year.

However, their significance goes beyond their number and calls into question the commitment of the executing states to respect international law.

Since 1990 Amnesty International has documented at least 163 executions of people who were below the age of 18, in 10 countries: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, the USA and Yemen.

Several of these countries have changed their laws to exclude the practice. Iran has executed more than twice as many people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime as the other nine countries combined. At the time of writing Iran has executed at least 113 of them since 1990.

Execution Methods used in 2022

Beheading

Hanging

Lethal injection

Shooting

Where do most executions take place?

In 2022, most known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA - in that order.

China remained the world's leading executioner - but the true extent of its use of the death penalty is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at least 883 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out there.

Excluding China, 90% of all reported executions took place in just three countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The global view: death sentences and executions 2008-2022

*This map indicates the general locations of boundaries and jurisdictions and should not be interpreted as Amnesty International's view on disputed territories.

**Country names listed reflect nomenclature in May 2023

How many death sentences and executions take place each year?

Death sentences

Amnesty International recorded at least 2,016 death sentences in 52 countries in 2022, a slight decrease from the total of 2,052 reported in 2021. At least 28,282 people were known to be under sentence of death globally at the end of 2022.

Executions

Amnesty International recorded at least 883 executions in 20 countries in 2022, up by 53% from 2021 (at least 579 executions).

Reasons to abolish the death penalty

It is irreversible and mistakes happen

Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. Since 1973, for example, more than 191 prisoners sent to death row in the USA have later been exonerated or released from death row on grounds of innocence. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt.

It does not deter crime

Countries who execute commonly cite the death penalty as a way to deter people from committing crime. This claim has been repeatedly discredited, and there is no evidence that the death penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment.

It is often used within skewed justice systems

In many cases recorded by Amnesty International, people were executed after being convicted in grossly unfair trials, on the basis of torture-tainted evidence and with inadequate legal representation. In some countries death sentences are imposed as the mandatory punishment for certain offences, meaning that judges are not able to consider the circumstances of the crime or of the defendant before sentencing.

It is discriminatory

The weight of the death penalty is disproportionally carried by those with less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds or belonging to a racial, ethnic or religious minority. This includes having limited access to legal representation, for example, or being at greater disadvantage in their experience of the criminal justice system.

It is used as a political tool

The authorities in some countries, for example Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.

What is Amnesty International doing to abolish the death penalty?

For over 45 years, Amnesty International has been campaigning to abolish the death penalty around the world.

Amnesty International monitors its use by all states to expose and hold to account governments that continue to use the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. We publish a report annually, reporting figures and analysing trends for each country. Amnesty International's latest report, Death Sentences and Executions 2022, was released in May 2023.

The organization's work to oppose the death penalty takes many forms, including targeted, advocacy and campaign based projects in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe and Central Asia , and Middle East and North Africa regions; strengthening national and international standards against its use, including by supporting the successful adoption of resolutions by the UN General Assembly on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty; and applying pressure on cases that face imminent execution. We also support actions and work by the abolitionist movement, at national, regional and global level.

When Amnesty International started its work in 1977, only 16 countries had totally abolished the death penalty. Today, that number has risen to 112 - more than half the world's countries. More than two-thirds are abolitionist in law or practice.

Case Studies

Saved from death row: Hafez Ibrahim

Thanks to Amnesty's campaigning efforts, the execution of Hafez Ibrahim, from Yemen, was stopped not once, but twice. Hafez, who was accused of a crime he insists he didn't commit, first faced a firing squad in 2005. He was taken to a small yard in a Yemeni prison and brought before a row of officers with rifles in hand. He thought that moment would be his last.

Just before he was about to be shot, he was taken back to his cell, with no explanation. "I was lost, I did not understand what was happening. I later learned that Amnesty International had called on the Yemeni President to stop my execution and the message was heard," Hafez said.

In 2007, Hafez was about to be executed again when he sent a mobile text message to Amnesty International. "They are about to execute us." Hafez said.

It was a message that saved his life. The message sparked an international campaign, persuading the President to stop the execution for a second time.

Now Hafez is a lawyer helping juveniles who languish on death row corridors across Yemen.

Activists on a mission: Souleymane Sow

Amnesty International's work to abolish the death penalty is also bolstered by its incredible activists, who take it upon themselves to campaign against this abhorrent practice.

Souleymane Sow, has been volunteering with Amnesty International since he was a student in France. Inspired to make a difference, he returned to Guinea, set up a local group of Amnesty International volunteers and got to work. Their aim? To promote the importance of human rights, educate people on these issues and abolish the death penalty in Guinea. Along with 34 NGOs, they finally achieved their goal in 2017.

"My colleagues and I lobbied against the death penalty every day for five months. In 2016, Guinea's National Assembly voted in favour of a new criminal code which removed the death sentence from the list of applicable penalties. Last year [2017], they did the same in the military court, too," said Souleymane.

"It was the first time so many NGOs had come together to campaign on an issue. People said they were happy with our work and they could see that change is possible. Most of all, it inspired us to continue campaigning."

It was such an incredible achievement - and it showed the importance of people power.
Souleymane Sow

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The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

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Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. Here's why.

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Discover the authentic meaning of ART...or not!

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Who decides what art means? - Hayley Levitt

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Overcoming hopelessness | Nick Vujicic | TEDxNoviSad

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Overcoming hopelessness | Nick Vujicic | TEDxNoviSad

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Nick talks about the importance of parenting in early childhood and it's significance in overcoming

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Overcoming hopelessness | Nick Vujicic | TEDxNoviSad

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At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus discovers a man without limbs being exploited at a carnival sideshow, but after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.

Director: Joshua Weigel
Writer: Joshua Weigel & Rebekah Weigel
Producers: Joshua Weigel, Rebekah Weigel, Angie Alvarez
Executive Producers: Jon & Esther Phelps, Jason Atkins, Nathan Christopher Haase, Bob Yerkes, Ed Vizenor & Nathan Elliott
Director of Photography: Brian Baugh
Production Designer: Yeva McCloskey
Editor: Chris Witt
Cast: Eduardo Verastegui, Nick Vujicic, Doug Jones, Matt Allmen, Mark Atteberry, Kirk Bovill, Lexi Pearl, Connor Rosen
Original Score: Timothy Williams (Composer)

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The Crisis in Buenaventura | Disappearances, Dismemberment, and Displacement in Colombia's Main Pacific Port

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This 30-page report documents how many of the city's neighborhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea.

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Something is going wrong in our societies...

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Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness

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Modern life has led to greater isolation, which can fuel an array of disorders. If there are medications for social pains like depression and anxiety, why not loneliness?

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The girl in the picture is Ryleigh, she was diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome. With her Youtube Channel she wants to spread knowlege about Tourettes, have fun and Laught.

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English Vocabulary Exercises - Crime & the Law

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English Vocabulary Exercises - Crime & the Law

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Matching exercise

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Hangman - Crime and Punishment vocabulary

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Hangman - Crime and Punishment vocabulary

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A power point game taken from the site: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/crime-and-punishment-vocabulary-game-6386603

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An English vocabulary lesson on the theme of CRIME and PUNISHMENT. For upper intermediate and advanced learners (easy to understand explanation)

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Vocabulary CRIME and PUNISHMENT (Lesson 18)

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The stories were, in the main, pitched to Donald Trump supporters. They included rumours about Hillary Clinton's health problems and illegal dealings, stories about luminaries like Pope Francis lining up behind the Republican candidate, and other false news sure to either please or rile Trump's supporters.

In December 2016, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she slammed "the epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda" that had flooded social media over the past year.

"It's now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," she said.

It wasn't immediately clear if she was referring to the election. At the time, some journalists interpreted her remarks as a reference to "pizzagate", a conspiracy theory that grew to tremendous proportions online, and which prompted one man to storm into a Washington DC restaurant and fire an assault rifle.

But regardless of Clinton's meaning, the term was taken up by her victorious opponent and used in a completely different way a few weeks later.

At a fractious press conference President-elect Trump refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta.

"I'm not going to give you a question," Trump said. "You are fake news."

Since then, "fake news" has been a topic of mainstream obsession and debate, although what is meant by the term varies hugely.

Some insist on the original definition - fake stories of the type pumped out by those Macedonian teenagers.

Others lump in politically motivated conspiracy theories - perhaps what Hillary Clinton was getting at.

But people have also used "fake news" to describe honest mistakes, opinion, spin, propaganda or - like President Trump - news outlets or reporting that they simply don't like.

Not only that, but often stuck under the banner of "fake news" is satire or parody, which on the surface appears harmless, but could still fool people - with potentially negative consequences.

But once his fake news started to get clicks, he was able to use Google's advertising platform to convert page views into money. In 2014, he quit his day job.

"Once writing became lucrative enough to not destroy my body in construction any more," he says with a laugh, "that's when it became time to stay at home with the kids and do this."

Blair created online identities using pseudonyms and aliases such as Busta Troll and Flagg Eagleton.

He took on the personas of patriotic Americans outraged at President Obama, liberals, feminists, the Black Lives Matter movement and more.

He delighted in people who took the lies for the truth and shared the stories as if they had come from real news websites.

The success of the fakes led Blair to create a Facebook page called America's Last Line of Defense. It was dedicated to fake news stories aimed at staunch Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump.

The headlines were sensational and sometimes even offensive. They had one aim - to provoke an emotional response that would get people to share them.

* BREAKING: Torture Chamber in Bill Clinton' s Basement Described As A ' Kill Room '

* BREAKING: New Orleans Saints Stranded on Runway in London After Pilot Takes A Knee and Walks Off

* BREAKING: Obama, Soros and the Dems Ordered The Shutdown to Stage A Coup

Blair himself describes the headlines he wrote as "racist and bigoted".

But they went viral - and those shares turned into clicks, which turned into cash.

Back in Belgium, computer programmer Maarten Schenk had created software that could detect which stories were trending on Facebook. He called it Trendolizer.

He would then write about them on his blog. But he struggled to find an audience. He was up against some of the world's biggest media organisations. By the time he noticed a post was trending and wrote about it, big news sites had already covered it.

But like Blair, Schenk discovered a niche when it came to fake news. For all of the people who who liked and shared fictional stories believing them to be real, there were others who appreciated someone who could identify those that were fake.

When he discovered false stories and blogged about them, his site traffic went up. Not by an astonishing amount - he wasn't making as much money as Blair - but enough for him to concentrate on debunking fake news.

His blog Lead Stories became focused on the fakes, with the tagline: "Just because it's trending, doesn't mean it's true".

Schenk also noticed patterns and repeated online behaviour. For example, on a weekly basis he saw fake stories about the death of Hillary Clinton.

Every Saturday, he would read that the Democratic nominee had died - in a ballooning accident, boat crash or from a heart attack. Or hit on the head with a monster truck tyre.

Real-world consequences

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey tore through Texas, killing dozens and causing billions of dollars of damage to Houston and the surrounding areas.

Across the country in Maine, Blair sensed an opportunity to use his creative writing skills.

He made up a story about a fictional imam in a fictional mosque in Texas. The imam, he wrote, refused to shelter non-Muslims during the storm.

It would clearly whip up Blair's fan base. And it was all untrue. But there was one problem. The photo that was used to accompany the story was of a real imam, the leader of a mosque in Canada.

Ibrahim Hindy had never even visited Texas, but he was suddenly the target of fake news.

"He found out, he got really upset," says Blair. "He was all over Twitter about how we were racists, xenophobes. The whole nine yards. I immediately removed it and sent him a million apologies."

It wasn't the only time that Blair's falsehoods had snared real people. Another of his websites carried a story about a US soldier who was a deserter. But he used the name and picture of a real person who had nothing to do with the story.

Schenk noticed it going viral. And when he checked it out, he realised that a real person had been unfairly inserted into a fake story.

He messaged Blair and got him to remove the story. But the two men continued messaging online.

And that's where Blair revealed his secret, his real reason for writing fake news.

Will the real Christopher Blair please stand up?

Blair liked it that Schenk had called him out. There was something that made him stand out from other fact checkers, simply by the fact that he had communicated with him. Other fact-checking websites, he says, write debunking blog posts, but never talk to him before they do.

Schenk stood up to Blair, pointed out the mistake and got the fake story removed from the internet. And so Blair invited Schenk into a secret Facebook group with fans of his work.

It was there that Schenk learnt the truth about Blair, and got an insight into what drove one fake news writer.

"He basically explained his whole schtick," says Schenk. "How they [fake news writers] work."

There were heavy hints in the disclaimers that Blair slapped all over his websites and Facebook pages.

The Last Line of Defense has one that reads: "We are here to provide you with information you can use to continue being as informed as a conservative feels comfortable with. Please don't use our page in conjunction with Google or the news, it will only serve to confuse you further."

Satire - not news, not opinion, and not propaganda - is how Blair describes his work.

His aim is to trick conservative Americans into sharing false news, in the hope of showing what he calls their "stupidity".

"We've gone out of our way to market it as satire, to make sure that everybody knows that this isn't real," he says, pointing out that some of his pages have more prominent disclaimers than the world-famous satire site The Onion.

Once his stories go viral, the Facebook comments burst forth. And that's when Christopher Blair the fake news writer becomes Christopher Blair the crusading left-wing troll.

"The mission with the trolling first and foremost is we pull them into the comments [section underneath each fake article]," he says.

It's then that he starts on the offensive. The faker becomes the exposer, weeding out and reporting the most extreme users among his fans.

"I can show you hundreds of profiles we've had taken down," he says. He claims that he's exposed Ku Klux Klan members and hardcore racists.

"We've had people fired from their jobs," he says.

"We've exposed them to their families. Say what you want about me being a monster. I'm pretty proud."

As public awareness about fake viral stories grew, so did pressure on social media companies to do something about it.

Mark Zuckerberg said his personal challenge for 2018 was to "fix" the social site, to combat hate and abuse, but also fake news.

In April, 2018, he was called in front of Congress to answer questions about a host of issues, the fakers on his platform being one of them.

As a result, in July, Facebook announced algorithm changes designed to boost content from "friends, family and groups". The company, realising it had an image problem, launched an ad campaign to reassure users that they would be protected from "spam, clickbait, fake news and data misuse".

Some Facebook pages were deleted, while other publishers found that their posts were not travelling as far or as fast as they once had done.

Blair and Schenk had swapped messages online, but they'd never actually spoken until recently, when I called them both at the same time and recorded the conversation for BBC Trending.

They hadn't needed much convincing, and were keen to talk to each other.

But the conversation started awkwardly. Two men who were usually not short of words were suddenly reticent, unsure of what to say.

Schenk began by saying that on one level, he admired Blair.

"He's very good at what he does," he says.

"His stories have always been quite easy to debunk because they mostly say, right at the end, it's all fake - and also [it says the same] in the header of his sites."

But Schenk will still write about them if they go viral - the fact that something is presented as satire doesn't stop him from debunking it.

"I see my job as a fact checker. My job is not to give an opinion about it," he says.

"Whether you agree with it or not, what I do is an art form," Blair says. "The stuff that I write a lot of the time - I read it and I laugh at myself. It's ridiculous."

Schenk points out that Blair's posts often lead him to other fake news writers, ones who don't use disclaimers and who are much more straightforwardly spreading lies.

The Macedonian teenagers aren't the only ones copying and pasting from Blair - other fake news writers around the world do the same.

Because of this, Schenk says, "he's a great way of finding actual fake news sites."

And so it turns out that a conversation that could have been angry or combative is actually quite friendly. Even when Blair adamantly states he won't stop writing fake stories.

"I don't know that [Maarten] wants to close me down. Maybe he does." Then he speaks directly to his opposite number: "You're welcome to try," he chuckles.

"I can most definitely assure you that I'm not trying to shut you down," Schenk replies.

As the conversation winds down, I ask Blair - this godfather of fake news - and the man who tracked him down, if they have any parting words.

"Don't ever stop doing what you're doing," Blair says.

And, with a hint of respect in his voice, Schenk replies:

"Likewise."

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Meet one of the world's most prolific writers of disinformation

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When Alice scrolls through her social media feed, she's stopped in her tracks by the news that her company is about to be bought out by its biggest rival. She quickly posts a response, shares the story with her contacts, and emails it to her team so that they can discuss it later.

But then Alice has a troubling thought. What if the story wasn't true? What if she just shared a "fake news" story? After all, she didn't check the source.

If she has been a victim of fake news, and then added to the rumor mill herself, how will people ever trust her again?

Fortunately, there's lots you can do to avoid making the same mistake as Alice. In this article and video, we explore how you can separate fake news from the truth.

What Is Fake News?

There are two kinds of fake news:

1. Stories that aren't true. These are entirely invented stories designed to make people believe something false, to buy a certain product, or to visit a certain website.

2. Stories that have some truth, but aren't 100 percent accurate. For example, a journalist quotes only part of what a politician says, giving a false impression of their meaning. Again, this can be deliberate, to convince readers of a certain viewpoint, or it can be the result of an innocent mistake. Either way, it quickly attracts an audience and can become entrenched as an "urban myth."

Where Does Fake News Come From?

Fake news is nothing new. But, what is new is how easy it's become to share information - both true and false - on a massive scale.

Social media platforms allow almost anyone to publish their thoughts or share stories to the world. The trouble is, most people don't check the source of the material that they view online before they share it, which can lead to fake news spreading quickly or even "going viral."

At the same time, it's become harder to identify the original source of news stories, which can make it difficult to assess their accuracy.

But, not all fake news stories are found online. Co-workers who gossip by the water cooler or while browsing print publications that fail to check their facts, for example, are also guilty of spreading misinformation, even if inadvertently.

The Impact of Fake News in the Workplace

For example, some people might start to believe that they no longer need evidence to back up their arguments. Others start to mistrust information all together. They stop listening to industry reports, and disengage from official workplace communication, slowing their professional growth and development. Ultimately, this can damage an organization's learning culture.

Fake news can affect behavior, too. It encourages people to invent excuses, to dismiss others' ideas, to exaggerate the truth, and to spread rumors. This can create divided, anxious workplaces where people are cynical and unsure of who to trust.

They might even begin to mistrust you if they believe that authority figures have lied to them, or that the information that they are working with is suspect. This can sap people of the curiosity, enthusiasm and ambition that they need to collaborate and to be successful.

Six Ways to Spot Fake News

Separating fact from fiction accurately can seem daunting. But getting to the truth is always worth the effort - even if it's not what you want to hear! Use these six steps to weed out the truth from the lies:

1. Develop a Critical Mindset

One of the main reasons fake news is such a big issue is that it is often believable, so it's easy to get caught out. Much fake news is also written to create "shock value," that is, a strong instinctive reaction such as fear or anger.

Ask yourself, "Why has this story been written? Is it to persuade me of a certain viewpoint? Is it selling me a particular product? Or is it trying to get me to click through to another website? Am I being triggered?"

2. Check the Source

If you come across a story from a source that you've never heard of before, do some digging!

Check the web address for the page you're reading. Spelling errors in company names, or strange-sounding extensions like ".infonet" and ".offer," rather than ".com" or ".co.uk," may mean that the source is suspect.

Be aware that people who spread fake news and "alternative facts" sometimes create web pages, newspaper mockups, or "doctored" images that look official, but aren't. So, if you see a suspicious post that looks like it's from the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, check the WHO's own site to verify that it's really there.

Remember, even if you got the story from your best friend, this gives it no extra authority - they likely didn't follow these steps themselves before forwarding!

3. See Who Else Is Reporting the Story

Has anyone else picked up on the story? What do other sources say about it?

Avoid leaping to the conclusion that all main stream media (MSM) output is fake. This can be as unwise as following every rumor or conspiracy theory.

Professional global news agencies such as Reuters, CNN and the BBC have rigorous editorial guidelines and extensive networks of highly trained reporters, so are a good place to start. But no one is unbiased, and anyone can make a mistake, so keep looking.

4. Examine the Evidence

A credible news story will include plenty of facts - quotes from experts, survey data and official statistics, for example. Or detailed, consistent and corroborated eye-witness accounts from people on the scene. If these are missing, question it!

Does the evidence prove that something definitely happened? Or, have the facts been selected or "twisted" to back up a particular viewpoint?

5. Don't Take Images at Face Value

Images can also be 100 percent accurate but used in the wrong context. For example, photos of litter covering a beach could be from a different beach or from 10 years ago, not the recent alleged event.

6. Check That it "Sounds Right"

Finally, use your common sense! Bear in mind that fake news is designed to "feed" your biases, hopes or fears.

For example, it's unlikely that your favorite designer brand is giving away a million free dresses to people who turn up to its stores. Equally, just because your colleague believes that two married co-workers are having an affair, doesn't mean it's true.

Test Your Knowledge

Now it's time to put what you've learned into practice! Below are five recent news stories. But, can you tell which ones are true and which are false? Click on the links next to each to find out.

1. "John McCain Photographed Alongside Osama Bin Laden." Real or Fake?

2. "California Governor to Relocate Veterans Cemetery to Make Way for Affordable Housing." Real or Fake?

3. "New Species of Deadly Spider Kills Five in U.S." Real or Fake?

4. "Firefighters Forced to Buy More Expensive Data Package During Wildfire." Real or Fake?

5. "President Trump's Personal Lawyer Tweets that Hillary Clinton Will Get 'Free Room and Board' in Prison." Real or Fake?

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How to Spot Real and Fake News - Critically Appraising Information

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Fake news can destroy trust, damage learning culture, and sap curiosity. Make sure you know how to tell fact from fiction using these six steps.

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This woman has changed the concept of consumerism

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Anna Bergstrom had a dilemma. She loved the glitzy world of high fashion, but had also come to feel that it was unsustainable and bad for the planet. She's now found peace of mind by running a stylish shopping mall in Sweden, where everything is second-hand.

"Do you notice the smell?" Anna Bergstrom says, as she surveys her mall from the mezzanine level. "It smells nice here, doesn't it?"

It's very important to Anna that this place is enticing, because she feels it is making a statement. Everything for sale here, in 14 specialist shops covering everything from clothes to DIY tools, is recycled.

She is usually turned off by the smell of second-hand stores, she explains, even though she adores vintage fashion.

For most people flea-markets and charity shops carry a stigma, she thinks - a mark left by countless bad experiences. Too often they are worthy but depressing, Anna says. Her mission is to bring second-hand shopping into the mainstream.

The mall itself is spacious and appealing, almost Ikea-like. An art installation - a tree and circular bench all fashioned from recycled materials - greets customers at the entrance.

There is even a coffee shop and gift-wrapping service.

The mall is called ReTuna. "Tuna" because that's the nickname for the city where it is based - Eskilstuna, an hour's train journey west of Stockholm - and "Re" because the goods on sale have been recycled or repurposed.

It was set up by Eskilstuna's local government in 2015, in a warehouse which used to house trucks for a logistics company.

The shops inside it are run as businesses rather than charities, and each pays a combined charge of rent and business rates.

Anna Bergstrom's business mantra which she repeats to each shopkeeper is, "Do it like Hugo Boss." She wants the mall to stand toe-to-toe with a regular, commercial, glitzy mall.

There is a sports shop stuffed with skis and (slightly scuffed) sledges, a kids' shop bursting with toys (a little faded), a bookshop, a DIY store, a homeware specialist, even a pet accessory shop.

As well as "pre-loved" items for sale, there are also many that have been upcycled. These are unwanted items that have been taken apart and turned into new objects.

In a store that specialises in handmade household ornaments, Bergstrom is keen to show off a nice example of this, from one of her star tenants.

Shopkeeper Maria Larsson proudly shows off her best-selling product - a container that resembles the body of a pine cone. Each segment of its skin has been cut from leather jackets - upcycling in action.

However, Maria confesses to being a little worried. She is struggling to keep up with customer demand for this design because she can't get enough jackets.

This makes more sense once you understand ReTuna's location.

It's right next to Eskilstuna's recycling centre, which is also run by the municipality.

A steady stream of cars passes through it, bringing cardboard, mattresses and other typical unwanted household items.

But many of these cars go past the metal skips and then head down a ramp to a road that runs right next to the mall.

Here locals drop off their unwanted household things if there is a possibility they can be resold or upcycled.

In a vast area beneath the mall, a small army of workers in fluorescent jackets sifts through the donations, carrying them to designated zones.

Every day the shopkeepers can come down and inspect what has arrived: kids' toys, household appliances, gardening equipment... perhaps even a leather jacket. This is what they call their "treasure", says Anna. Their business rent gives them privileged access to it.

Shopkeepers sometimes hang around the basement to look at what is coming in to their zones. Anna calls these people "peekers" and gives them a telling-off, because they are meant to wait for set times to inspect their assigned stock.

Many of the shopkeepers will come to informal arrangements with one another. So if the clothes shop knows that Larsson wants leather jackets for upcycling, they will pass on any that are too damaged to be re-sold.

Any items that are unwanted by all the shopkeepers go to the recycling centre next door.

"You see," says Anna, "this is why I sometimes joke that this is the 'high fashion trash shopping mall'."

She thinks her passion for ethical, sustainable shopping goes back to her upbringing with her hippie parents.

She was born in a commune, though her family moved out to the countryside to pursue a simple life when she was three years old.

Her parents rejected consumerism in all its forms and tried to protect her from it.

She wasn't allowed Barbie dolls or any toys at all at Christmas, she recalls.

But as she grew up she reacted against this.

"Everyone has to be their own punk revolution," she says cryptically.

In fact she ended up forging a career in the temples of modern consumerism: shopping centres. She began by setting up retail shops, then ran two commercial malls in the Stockholm area.

It was only when she had children - four daughters - that she began to have doubts. She took about a year's maternity leave for each child, which gave her time to reflect. Perhaps maternal instinct revived in her some of the values instilled by her parents, she thinks.

As her daughters grew, so too did her doubts about the world she'd brought them into, and its throwaway culture.

She watched them become seduced, as teenagers, by a modern kind of consumerism - their lives became shaped by big brands, promoted by influencers on social media, says Anna. They became governed by whatever the Kardashians were doing on reality TV or Instagram, she says in a tone of dismay - before breaking into a smile.

In desperation she tried cutting her daughters' pocket money so they couldn't buy the latest clothes, but offered to pay for second-hand ones instead - with limited success.

She realised she had to do something more, so the opportunity for a job at the ReTuna mall three years ago, as its first manager, came at the perfect time for her.

Find out more

Learn more about the ReTuna mall in the latest People Fixing the World podcast from the BBC World Service

"I realised that I needed to become a role model for my children, doing something good for the planet," says Anna.

She calls the mall "my baby", and wants it to be a place her teenage children are proud to visit.

And they do visit. Though she hasn't persuaded them to tag it as a location on an Instagram post yet - she's working on that.

Anna's bigger hope is that what works for her family can work for Swedish society as a whole.

Swedes love the concept of living sustainably and doing things for the planet, but there is a "gap" when it comes to action, she says.

Anna thinks her mall can bridge this gap.

And there is evidence this may be happening. Sales are slowly rising year-on-year. Since opening, the mall has sold £2.8m worth of products and last year it attracted 700 visitors per day.

"If you can have a trendy, fashionable way to do sustainable living," says Anna, "I think mainstream customers can follow that - in high heels."
You can follow writer Dougal Shaw on Twitter: @dougalshawbbc
See more:

You can take a look around the mall in this video.

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'Welcome to my high-fashion, trash shopping mall'

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Anna Bergstrom had a dilemma. She loved the glitzy world of high fashion, but had also come to feel that it was unsustainable and bad for the planet. She's now found peace of mind by running a stylish shopping mall in Sweden, where everything is second-hand. "Do you notice the smell?"

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Did you receive this one?

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Multiple social media posts that have been shared hundreds of thousands of times in different languages since November 2018 contain an image they claim was created by a Japanese neurologist to check a person's level of stress. The image is an actually an optical illusion made by a graphic designer from Ukraine that he posted online in 2016.

This version on Facebook was shared about 180,000 times in the first six weeks after being published on November 22, 2018.

Below is a screenshot of the Facebook post:

(Screenshot of Facebook post)

Here is a similar version on Twitter and below is its screenshot.

(Screenshot of tweet)

The posts claim this image was created by a Japanese neurologist to test a person's level of stress: if one is calm, it will not move, if one is stressed, it will move a bit. But if one is very stressed, that person will see it moving like a carousel.

A reverse search traces the image, however, to this photo on Shutterstock, a stock photography company.

The image in the Shutterstock website was posted under the account named "Guten Tag Vector". AFP checked the profile of the account, where Guten Tag Vector's Twitter account and email address were posted.

A search of the Twitter ID he posted, @yurrey_p, revealed his name and background: Yurii Perepadia, a graphic designer from Ukraine.

AFP found him also on Facebook and asked him about the image.

"This image is one of the best selling. Make it was not very hard. At that time I already had experience working with Adobe Illustrator", he told AFP via Facebook messenger on January 10.

Perepadia told AFP he created it in 2016. Several posts confirm the image did go online that year.

Below is a tweet of the image time-stamped September 26, 2016:

https://t.co/w1dBDgyRan #Vector #art #artwork #motion #illusion #abstract #illustration pic.twitter.com/alevuXC6x2
- Yurii Perepadia (@yurrey_p) September 27, 2016

Here is another 2016 post of the image on depositphotos.com,a commercial platform for photographers, illustrators, graphic designers and their clients.

(Screenshot of image)

The posts with the false claim have been shared from November 2018 on different social media platforms by accounts from countries including the United States, the Philippines, Spain and Turkey.

EDIT 14 January 2019 updates Google Claim Review info

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No, this moving image was not created by a Japanese neurologist to check stress levels

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Multiple social media posts that have been shared hundreds of thousands of times in different languages since November 2018 contain an image they claim was created by a Japanese neurologist to check a person's level of stress. The image is an actually an optical illusion made by a graphic designer from Ukraine that he posted online in 2016.

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Artificial Intelligence and fake news. Scary!

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Artificial Intelligence and fake news. Scary!

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It looks as if this is Obama, but...

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Fake Obama created using AI video tool - BBC News

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A teenager TED Talk

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer vitae adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget ut, dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis pretium qui asem. Nulla consequat massa quis.

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Gangsters in Paradise - The Deportees of Tonga

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If you're watching on mobile: Access individual episodes by clicking the playlist icon in the top-right corner of the video player.
If you're watching on a desktop: Access individual episodes by clicking the playlist icon in the top-left corner of the video player.

Depression affects tens of millions of people in the U.S., yet it is tragically misunderstood - even by those who suffer from it. Dr. Sue Varma is a leading psychiatrist who treats the condition. Welcome to the MedCircle original series, "Debunking Depression: Harnessing Your Hardwired Nature to Be Happy."

EPISODE 1: Depression Should Be Considered "the Mental Flu"-This is Why
EPISODE 2: Depression 101 & Why It's So Different From Normal Sadness
EPISODE 3: Is Depression Genetic? The Causes, Who is at Risk, & More
EPISODE 4: Is Someone You Love Depressed? This is How to Find Out
EPISODE 5: How to Get the Right Depression Diagnosis-And Why It Can Be Tricky
EPISODE 6: Depression Treatment Options: What You Need To Know
BONUS EPISODE: 3 Important Tips for Supporting Someone With Depression

You can follow Dr. Varma on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Resources

Mental Health Does Not Come With A Manual, It Comes With Friends & Family Support That Never Gives Up!

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FULL SERIES: Debunking Depression & Harnessing Your Hardwired Nature to Be Happy

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If you're watching on mobile : Access individual episodes by clicking the playlist icon in the top-right corner of the video player. If you're watching on a desktop: Access individual episodes by clicking the playlist icon in the top-left corner of the video player. Depression affects tens of millio

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Future Learning | Mini Documentary | GOOD

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That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E

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A very interesting article at The Guardian

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Don't back down on LGBT guidance, faith leaders urge DfE

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Some faith communities have rejected draft guidance for independent schools

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a TEd Talk by Sir Ken Robinson

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Parody of the well-known tune

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Some Study That I Used to Know (Gotye Parody)

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NEWEST JAKE AND AMIR http://bit.ly/176loO LIKE us on: http://www.facebook.com/collegehumor Gotye sings about losing what's most important to us all: basic math and spelling skills. See more http://www.collegehumor.com FOLLOW us on: http://www.twitter.com/collegehumor FOLLOW us on: http://www.collegehumor.tumblr.com

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Students smarter than teachers

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Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer

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Most 12-year-olds love playing videogames -- but Thomas Suarez taught himself how to create them. After developing iPhone apps like "Bustin Jeiber," a whack-a-mole game, he is now using his skills to help other kids become developers.

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A talk about education by a teenager. Very interesting!

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A talk about education by a teenager. Very interesting!

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Hackschooling makes me happy | Logan LaPlante | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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A report of the teenager who fights climate change

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A report of the teenager who fights climate change

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Heather McGowan has published an intriguing new article examining the need for a focus on learning, rather than knowing, in order to prepare students for the 21st century. A portion of her article is excerpted below:
Students will have to be prepared to adapt and be more adept at critical thinking and problem-solving rather than just knowing information. In fact, that is exactly the point of a book written by Cathy N. Davidson titled Now You See It: How Technology and Brain Science Will Transform Schools and Business for the 21st Century. The main point Ms. Davidson makes is that 65% of the students in K-12 schools today will work in jobs that do not currently exist. A 2013 study by Oxford University predicts that 47% of today's jobs will be automated in the next two decades. The Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which tracks higher education data on retention and degree completion, focuses on the 150%, or 6-year, the marker for undergraduate (4-year) degree graduation rates. Ironically, Deloitte University Press recently projected that by 2020, 50% of the content in an undergraduate degree will be obsolete in 5 years. So, the process of becoming educated is now likely to be longer than the shelf life of the knowledge, training, and degree that's gained. What does this mean? It means that the idea of what constitutes education must change from knowing to learning. There is no longer a path towards a finished state where an individual has become "educated." In a world of accelerated change, with rapid disruption cycles in industry and with rising automation, an individual must have learning agility - the ability to learn, adapt, and apply in quick cycles. It's time to start thinking about the implications of this fact for schools.
How can we truly prepare students for this kind of adaptability and agility?

For more information, see Heather McGowan's full article.

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The Paradox of Education: Learning Over Knowing - Core Education, LLC

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Heather McGowan has published an intriguing new article examining the need for a focus on learning, rather than knowing, in order to prepare students for the 21st century. A portion of her article is excerpted below: Students will have to be prepared to adapt and be more adept at critical thinking and problem-solving rather than Read more about The Paradox of Education: Learning Over Knowing...

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Why Hackschooling? You could hear a teacher there

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Hackschooling Hackschooling is a term coined by the homeschooling family of 13 year old Logan LaPlante and explained in Logan's speech(see video at right) at a TEDx event in February 2013 . The...

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A good source with the glossary of education reform

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The term curriculum refers to the lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program. In dictionaries, curriculum is often defined as the courses offered by a school, but it is rarely used in such a general sense in schools. Depending on how broadly educators define o…

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Documentary from the BBC

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Life in Tokyo

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Life in a Crazy-Small 8m2 Tokyo Apartment

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With diagrams

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10 cities are predicted to gain megacity status by 2030

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The vast majority of the new megacities expected to break the 10 million mark between now and 2030 are located in developing regions. But London is also predicted to join the list.

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A great video

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Data visualisation showing the growth of megacities

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The megacities problems

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Humanity seems to be squeezing itself into ever smaller portions of the planet.

In the past decades, people in both developed and developing countries have increasingly been crowding into cities.

It's hardly a new phenomenon. For centuries, people have moved from the countryside in search of work and education opportunities. Back in 1800, when Beijing became the first city in the modern era to top 1 million inhabitants, only 3 people per 100 of the global population lived in cities.

Cut to 2007: For the first time, more of the human population lived in urban areas than in rural. This is projected to increase to 66 people per 100 by 2050. Yet, nothing has marked the triumph of cities as much as the rise of 'megacities'. New York City was the first to pass the 10 million inhabitants mark in 1950. From then on, the number of megacities has grown rapidly. By 2016, there were 31, most in Asia, including Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai in China and Delhi and Mumbai in India.

Japan has Tokyo, which with 37.8 million people is the world's largest urban agglomeration, and Osaka. There are more people packed into Karachi in Pakistan (27 million) than living in the entire continent of Australia (24 million). China has even begun building infrastructure for Jing-Jin-Ji, a megalopolis envisaged to encompass Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, connect 130 million people and be 137 times the size of London.

Like great metropolises throughout history, megacities offer opportunities for culture, trade, knowledge and industries. Crowds are drawn there by hopes of escaping rural poverty. But there are downsides to jamming so many people into tight spaces.

Other than crime, water scarcity, environmental destruction and waste, services often prove inadequate in meeting growing demand. Many people in places like Manila in the Philippines, Mexico City and Mumbai in India, simply end up swapping the crushing poverty of rural dwelling for urbans slums. In cities, they are exposed to health conditions reminiscent of the degradation of Dickensian London.

In big cities, mobility is an issue whose importance is often underappreciated. The topic was discussed at Urbagora, the first European conference on the future of urban life, hosted this month by the Paris-based Megacities Institute, a not-for-profit organization co-founded by Allianz France. For example, China's breakneck urban growth has helped propel the country's economic rise in the past three decades. Today, China has six super-sized cities and another 100 are home to a million or more people.

More urbanites with more money means more wheels on the roads. The number of cars in China has risen from 59 million in 2007 to a little over 300 million in 2017, according to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

One consequence is that China now has 10 of the 25 most congested cities globally. Average rush hour speeds in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in north eastern China, are as low as 20 kilometer/hour - the slowest in the world. Roads in Beijing and Shanghai are frequently gridlocked. China is far from alone in facing mobility issues. In São Paulo, Brazil, half of all adults spend at least two hours a day traveling, which makes the average one-hour daily commute time of New York seem relaxed in comparison.

A survey by the Megacities Institute of 20 large cities worldwide identified five critical problems relating to urban mobility - parking problems, traffic congestion, limited green spaces, and air and noise pollution.

Air pollution is a major concern for city inhabitants. For example: in 2013, Shanghai experienced 124 days when ultrafine particulate matter 2.5 pollutants exceeded 600 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends no more than 10 micrograms, estimating that outdoor air pollution caused 3 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012.

Traffic emissions remain a significant contributor to the bad air that still plagues Chinese cities. Worldwide in 2014, WHO estimates, 92 percent of the population was living in places where its air quality guideline levels were not met.

Cities cover for about 2 percent of the Earth's surface but consume about 75 of the resources, according to Euramet. Megacities are particularly voracious in their resource consumption. The United Nations projects that the number of megacities will rise to 41 by 2030. By then, megacities will house almost 9 percent of the global population.

So how can the world handle continual rapid urbanization?

Innovations and new technologies can provide the tools required to make cities smarter and reduce the negative impact of lifestyles.

In the coming weeks, we will address some of these solutions. Watch this space.
The Megacities institute is a non-lucrative association founded by Allianz France, Bosch and GIPA, tackling non-competitive topics about technologies changing the landscape of cities today.
As with all content published on this site, these statements are subject to our Forward Looking Statement disclaimer:

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Allianz | Megacities and the Mobility Megachallenge

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Humanity seems to be squeezing itself into ever smaller portions of the planet. In the past decades, people in both developed and developing countries have increasingly been crowding into cities. It's hardly a new phenomenon. For centuries, people have moved from the countryside in search of work and education opportunities.

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environmental problems

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Getty Images

Rapid urbanization will take a heavy toll on public health if city planning and development do not incorporate measures to tackle air pollution, warns a report launched in Beijing last month.

The report, compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) project in Boulder, Colorado, was launched as part of the IGAC Open Science Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in the Anthropocene. A striking point in the report, says Liisa Jalkanen, head of the WMO's Atmospheric Environment Research Division, is how quickly megacities - metropolitan areas with populations of more than 10 million - are rising in developing countries.

There are now 23 megacities in the world, compared with just two 60 years ago. Just over half of the population currently dwells in cities, and with the urban population expected to nearly double by 2050, that proportion is projected to approach 70%. "Almost all this growth will take place in the developing world," says Jalkanen.

Megacities "have better job and education opportunities, and well-planned, densely populated areas can reduce land conversion and use energy more efficiently", says Luisa Molina, president of the Molina Center for Strategic Studies in Energy and Environment in La Jolla, California.

"But many cities in developing countries are expanding rapidly with poor planning and few pollution-reduction measures," says Zhu Tong, an atmospheric scientist at Peking University in Beijing. "This is having serious consequences on the environment and public health."

Asia, for instance, has more than half of the world's most-polluted cities, and air pollution contributes to half a million deaths each year in the region, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank. More than two-thirds of Asian cities - compared with just one-fifth in the rest of the world - fail to meet the European Union's air-quality standard for particulate pollutants.

"Part of the problem is the pace of development," says Zhu. The population of city dwellers in China has risen almost five-fold since 1950, sending energy consumption skyrocketing and putting millions of cars on the roads, contributing to pollution hot-spots such as the notorious 'Beijing smog'.

Levels of the air pollutants responsible for respiratory and heart diseases are high and rising in Beijing. Ground-level ozone concentrations have risen six-fold in the past three decades, with current levels typically twice the standard set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to David Parrish, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado.

The concentrations of PM 2.5 - airborne particles 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter - typically range between 100 and 150 micrograms per cubic metre of Beijing's air, which is six to ten times higher than the EPA standard. "The health impact can be enormous," says Andre Nel, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. By one estimate, mortality increases by 1% for every 10-microgram-per-cubic-metre increase of PM 2.5 in big cities, he says.

In February, China's State Council introduced legislation aimed at curbing ozone and PM 2.5 levels, as well as other emissions. The standards, which must be implemented by 2016, are similar to, or in some cases higher than, their counterparts in the United States and the European Union. The move follows regulations introduced in 1996 that helped to significantly reduce emissions such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide by adopting vehicle-emission standards and promoting the use of natural gas and low-sulphur coal, says Shao Min, an atmospheric scientist at Peking University.

"To meet these new standards, especially for ozone and PM 2.5, a strategic shift in pollution-reduction measures will be required," says Shao. Unlike sulphuric dioxide and carbon monoxide, which are directly emitted by their sources, ozone and PM 2.5 are secondary pollutants that are formed by chemical reactions between a range of different precursors in the atmosphere. "This means we should cast our net much wider rather than focusing on just a few precursors," says Shao.

Beijing has the most stringent emission controls in China, but a significant fraction of its pollutants come from surrounding regions, says Zhu. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, for instance, air masses from the south could contribute to 34-88% of peak ozone concentrations in the city. "Beijing's air quality will not be significantly improved unless the current measures are able to break administrative boundaries," says Zhu.

Beijing's approach should be applied in other large cities in the developing world, researchers said at the conference. Otherwise, "megacities will become a main source of global pollution", says Molina. "How governments meet the challenges of rapid urbanization will determine the quality of life in the future."

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Megacities pose serious health challenge

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Getty Images Rapid urbanization will take a heavy toll on public health if city planning and development do not incorporate measures to tackle air pollution, warns a report launched in Beijing last month.

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Great photos from National Geographic

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This story appears in the March 2017 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.

More people live in cities than ever before. According to the United Nations Population Fund, over half of the world's citizens now live in an urban area-a figure expected to reach nearly 70 percent by 2050. Globally, one in eight of those city dwellers lives in a megacity, defined by the UN as a place with more than 10 million people.

That's why I started this series, which I call "Metropolis." I wanted to focus on the UN statistics-and show what they actually look like. So from 2007 to 2015 I photographed megacities and documented the dynamic process of urbanization.

I asked myself several questions: How can people live in cities that are so crowded, hectic, and chaotic? What are the differences among these megacities? And what do they have in common?

I try to expose the contrasts between wealth and poverty, traditional culture and cutting-edge development. I'm fascinated that so many people can coexist in such crowded places. There's never enough space. But there's also a current of inventiveness, a sense of community.

Whenever I work in a new city, I enlist a local assistant. We discuss which locations we should visit, and if a spot looks good, we find a high vantage point. Then it becomes a waiting game.

To visualize the speed of urban life and capture its energy, I use long exposure times. It's important to know which elements in the frame are moving and which are still. There has to be a balance-a harmony in the chaos.

All my photos are shot on film. My aim is to encapsulate megacity life in a single photograph-one panoramic, kaleidoscopic image. All the photos in this series are multilayered: The longer you look, especially at large prints, the more you see. I've pored over these pictures a thousand times, but I still manage to find new stories and elements each time. I hope you will too.

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In Global Megacities, Life Is a Kaleidoscope of Stories

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This story appears in the March 2017 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.  More people live in cities than ever before. According to the United Nations Population Fund, over half of the world's citizens now live in an urban area-a figure expected to reach nearly 70 percent by 2050.

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Nature Is Speaking – Julia Roberts is Mother Nature | Conservation International (CI)