#Epoch Times Article 12 2021

[kreuzaderny]

Deciphering solar magnetic activity: The (solar) hale cycle terminator of 2021

We previously identified an event in the solar timeline that appeared to play a role in how sunspot Cycle 23 (SC23) transitioned into sunspot Cycle 24 (SC24). The timeframe for this transition was rapid, taking place over a very short time and perhaps in a time as short as a single solar rotation. Further, we inferred that the transition observed was a critical moment for the Sun’s global-scale magnetic field as it was being manifest in the spatially and temporally overlapping magnetic systems belonging to the Sun’s 22-year (Hale) magnetic cycle. These events have been dubbed as Hale Cycle terminations, or ‘terminators’ for short. Subsequent exploration of the sunspot record revealed a relationship between terminator separation (as a measure of overlap in the Hale Cycles) and the upcoming sunspot cycle amplitude using a Hilbert transform. Finally, we extrapolated the contemporary sunspots data’s Hilbert phase function to project the occurrence of the SC24 terminator in Mid-2020 and inferred that this would result in a large sunspot Cycle 25 (SC25) amplitude. This paper presents observational evidence that the end of SC24 and the initial growth of SC25 followed a terminator that occurred in mid-December 2021 (approximately 12/13/2021). Using this December 2021 terminator identification we can finalize our earlier preliminary forecast of SC25 amplitude - anticipating a peak total monthly sunspot number of 184±17 with 68% confidence, and 184±63 with 95% confidence. Finally, we use other terminator-related superposed epoch analyses developed in parallel work we project the timing of SC25 sunspot maximum to occur between late 2023 to mid 2024.

[mediamonarchy]

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240219_MorningMonarchy.mp3Download MP3 Balls to write the truth, President’s Day sneaker pimps and Navalny whacked + this day in history w/John Kerry’s Hollywood ISIS propaganda and our song of the day by SUIT on your #MorningMonarchy for February 19, 2024. Notes/Links: Image: “I want peer-reviewed articles and at least ten sources.”“Why? You got jabbed in a parking lot by a stranger with a drug you knew nothing about just to get a free donut.”https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/597898944584089623/1208906633455861843/peer_reviewed_parking_lot.jpg?ex=65e4fd09&is=65d28809&hm=0002dc6315eb0e195145e8a1f0ddf8c62543c849f0b312975a8f6a97b41c8b11& Image: The Leftist Good Samaritan – “Stay here. I’m going to go write a law that forces you to buy insurance.”https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/597898944584089623/1208906201853599755/leftist_samaritan.jpg?ex=65e4fca2&is=65d287a2&hm=041670b2cef08f9cd722e0f79bcd7a8566f6decf98199a35be4909f1ffe6727a& Meow Wolf Calls Off Matisyahu Concerthttps://www.sfreporter.com/news/2024/02/15/meow-wolf-calls-off-matisyahu-concert/ Travis Kelce’s Debut as a Film Producer Is Also the First Movie Financed Using President Biden’s Green Energy Tax Creditshttps://variety.com/2024/film/news/travis-kelce-my-dead-friend-zoe-financed-energy-tax-credits-1235908057/ Security Cameras Suddenly Pan Away as Bomb Squad Responds to Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb; Video obtained by The Epoch Times sheds new light on key details relating to the DNC pipe bomb on Jan. 6, 2021.https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/security-cameras-suddenly-pan-away-as-bomb-squad-responds-to-jan-6-pipe-bomb-5586718 Houston college student sentenced for Jan. 6 capitol riot, says FBI agent allegedly stole from himhttps://abc13.com/alexander-fan-sentenced-houston-man-to-12-months-probation-for-trespassing-jan-6-2021-capitol-riot/14435276/ Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) trashes reporters for claiming President Trump was part an Insurrection on Jan. 6thhttps://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4216767/posts Video: “You Don’t Have The B—s To Write The Truth”: Eli Crane Straight-Up Insults Reporters In Angry Tear (Audio)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3u13AATHdg Eli Cranehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Crane Video: Joe Biden on Elton John – “It’s his fault we spent so much money fighting HIV” (Audio)https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1757667549729214802 RFK Jr. Scores Big Win In Lawsuit Accusing Biden Admin Of Censoring COVID Vaccine Infohttps://www.zerohedge.com/markets/federal-judge-hands-rfk-jr-win-lawsuit-accusing-biden-admin-censoring-covid-19-vaccine-info San Francisco Appoints First Noncitizen to Election Commissionhttps://www.theepochtimes.com/us/san-francisco-appoints-first-noncitizen-to-election-commission-5589635 Texas To Build Military “Base Camp” On Mexico Border To House 1,800 Soldiershttps://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-build-military-base-camp-near-mexico-border-house-1800-soldiers Hugh Aynesworth: CIA Media Asset, FBI Informer, Friend of Lyndon Johnson White House and Media’s Darling JFK Assassination “Lone Nutter” Journalist Dies at 92https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/02/13/hugh-aynesworth-cia-media-asset-fbi-informer-friend-of-lyndon-johnson-white-house-and-medias-darling-jfk-assassination-lone-nutter-journalist-dies-at-92/ IRS Warns Tax Refunds Will Be Much Lower This Year; Inflation-hit Americans who filed their taxes early have received, on average, smaller tax refunds this year.https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/irs-warns-tax-refunds-will-be-much-lower-this-year-5588942 SiriusXM Cuts 160 Jobs Amid Push to Become More “Efficient, Agile”https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/siriusxm-layoffs-1235822610/ Nike’s stock drops as plan to cut almost 1,700 jobs highlights need for new strategyhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/nike-to-lay-off-more-than-1-600-employees-to-cut-costs-report-8e3bd3cb Trump Launches Line of Sneakers During ‘Sneaker Con’ in Philadelphia; Shoes Sell-Out In One Afternoonhttps://w...

[yhebrew]

This Sign Will Happen Tomorrow

This Sign Will Happen Tomorrow

Exo 8:5  Moshe said to Pharaoh, “Not only that, but you can have the honor of naming the time when I will pray for you, your servants and your people to be rid of the frogs, both yourselves and your homes, and that they stay only in the river.”  Exo 8:6  He answered, “Tomorrow.” Why did Pharaoh wait until tomorrow instead of right then? Adonai honors man in that they are in control of their…

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Folded Forest: Defining the Jurassic Period

by Jane Thaler

What’s in a Name?

Derived from the words for “middle life” in Greek, the Mesozoic Era consisted of three geological periods: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. While many of us might be aware of all three, the term “Jurassic” has seeped into our everyday lives in a way that the Triassic and Cretaceous have not. We can attribute much of this ubiquity to the wildly popular Jurassic Park books by Michael Crichton and their subsequent film adaptations, but have you ever wondered what “Jurassic” actually means and how scientists define the period’s geological boundaries?

Coining “Jurassic”

The “Jura” in Jurassic refers to the Jura Mountains that run along a large portion of the Swiss and French border. Named for the ancient Celtic word for forest, the Jura Mountains are known for their tree-covered peaks and the folded rocks that comprise them (Jones, 2020, p. 94).

Jura Mountains from Wikimedia Commons.

It was here in 1795 that Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian explorer and naturalist, documented a series of carbonate shelf deposits from the period now known as the Jurassic and dubbed them the “Jura Kalstein.” Alexander Brongniart, a French scientist known for arranging and describing the geologic formations of the Tertiary Period (66.0 to 2.6 million years ago), coined the term “Terrains Jurassiques” to refer to all Jurassic strata in 1829. In 1832, German geologist Leopold von Buch established the three-fold subdivision of epochs based on the folds of limestone in the Jura: the Lias (Early Jurassic), the Dogger (Middle Jurassic), and the Malm (Late Jurassic). This arrangement remains the basic framework for our geological understanding of the Jurassic to this day (Ogg et al., 2012b, p. 732; Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021a).

Jura Mountain fold known as the “Chapeau de Gendarme” from Wikimedia Commons.

Beginning of the Jurassic

Nestled between the Triassic and Cretaceous periods, the Jurassic spanned from 201.3 million years ago to 145 million years ago (National Park Service, 2020). The end of the Triassic (so named because it is a group of three strata) and the beginning of the Jurassic is marked by the Triassic–Jurassic (Tr–J) extinction event, sometimes called the end-Triassic extinction. The fourth of five major extinction episodes on Earth (or sixth if you count the current, anthropogenic extinction), the Tr–J extinction wiped out around 75 percent of all marine and terrestrial life (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021b).

Current evidence suggests that the Tr–J extinction was initially set into motion by movements of the Earth’s crust. As the all-encompassing mega-continent Pangea began to break apart, the associated tectonic shifts caused significant volcanic activity that spewed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The resulting global warming disrupted the Earth’s carbon cycle and contributed to ocean acidification (Fuge, 2020).

The ecological niches left open by the Tr–J extinction were quickly filled by remaining species of pterosaurs, crocodilians, turtles, mammals, many species of plants and invertebrates, marine life, and dinosaurs. Though many species died out during the extinction event, the wet and warm climate of the Jurassic in many places encouraged the growth of lush vegetation along with the proliferation and diversification of fauna. Oceans teemed with life, forests flourished, and dinosaurs became the dominant forms of backboned animal life on land during this time (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021b).

Jurassic landscape in the Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

End of the Jurassic

The end of the Jurassic is a bit of a mystery as the geological boundary between it and the Cretaceous Period (the latter name derived from the Latin for “chalk”) remains formally undefined. In fact, the Cretaceous is the only period in the Phanerozoic Eon (541 million years ago to present day) that “does not yet have an accepted global boundary definition” (Ogg et al., 2012a, p. 795). This definitional challenge is due to a number of factors but is mostly attributed to the concept of provincialism or provinciality, which means that plant or animal populations were restricted to a particular area or group of areas (Gale et al., 2020). This resulted in endemic populations, particularly of ammonites, which left uneven or unclear fossil markers in the stratigraphic record (Wimbledon, 2017; see Énay, 2019 for more detail on the J/K boundary debates).

We do know that the end of the Jurassic was marked by the Tithonian–early Barremian cool interval, which began 150 million years ago and continued well into the Early Cretaceous (Ogg et al., 2012a). During this time, some groups of animals did go extinct or become less diverse, like the dinosaurian subgroup Stegosauria that included Stegosaurus, while others increased in abundance, like some ammonite subgroups who survived the Tr–J event. Plants were also developing in important ways during this time. Around 130 million years ago, angiosperms (flowering plants) began to diversify, and they became increasingly dominant throughout the Cretaceous (Friis et al., 2010). Taking the unknowns and variables into account, the end of the Jurassic is currently placed at 145 million years ago.

Naming Geological Periods

Many of the names we still use for geological periods went through a similar process to that of the Jurassic: a scientist named a phenomenon based on the strata they were studying and the nomenclature (the system of names) developed from there. Nowadays, defining and naming geological units is left to the International Commission on Stratigraphy of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The process by which this happens feels about as long as the geologic periods themselves, at least to those of us watching from outside the commission. This is, of course, an exaggeration, but it does take years of work and rounds of voting to arrive at an official stratigraphic boundary designation.

Check out https://stratigraphy.org for the latest updates on humanity’s understanding of geologic time.

Jane Thaler is a Gallery Experience Presenter and Floor Captain in CMNH’s LifeLong Learning Department. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

References:

enay, Raymond (2019). The Jurassic/Cretaceous System Boundary is at an impasse: Why not go back to Oppel’s 1865 original and historic definition of the Tithonian? Cretaceous Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104241.

Encyclopedia Britannica (2021a). Alexandre Brongniart. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexandre-Brongniart

Encyclopedia Britannica (2021b). End-Triassic extinction. https://academic-eb-com.pitt.idm.oclc.org/levels/collegiate/article/end-Triassic-extinction/474417

Fuge, L. (2020). Volcano link to end of Triassic extinction. Cosmos. https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/volcano-link-to-end-of-triassic-extinction/

Friis E. M., Pedersen K. R., Crane P. R. (2010). Diversity in obscurity: fossil flowers and the early history of angiosperms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 365. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0227

Gale, A. S., Mutterlose, J., Batenburg, S., Gradstein, F. M., Agterberg, F. P., Ogg, J. G., Petrizzo, M. R. (2020). The Cretaceous Period. In The Geologic Time Scale 2020 (Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., Schmitz, M. D., & Ogg, G. M., Eds.). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-824360-2.00027-9

Gore, R. (n.d.), The rise of mammals. In National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/rise-mammals

Ogg, J. G., Hinnov, L. A., Huang, C. (2012a). Cretaceous. In The Geologic Time Scale 2012 (Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., Schmitz, M. D., & Ogg, G. M., Eds.). Elsevier.

Ogg, J. G., Hinnov, L. A., Huang, C. (2012b). Jurassic. In The Geologic Time Scale 2012 (Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., Schmitz, M. D., & Ogg, G. M., Eds.). Elsevier.

Jones, P. (2020). Jura Mountains, France/Switzerland. In Around the World in 80 Words. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226682822-026

National Park Service (2020). Geologic time scale. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/time-scale.htm

Pfiffner, O. A. (2006). Thick-skinned and thin-skinned styles of continental contraction. Special Paper of the Geological Society of America, 414.

Sauquet, H., von Balthazar, M., Magallón, S. et al. (2017). The ancestral flower of angiosperms and its early diversification. Nature Communications, 8. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16047

Scotese, C. R., Song, H., Mills, B. J. W., van der Meer, D. G. (2021). Phanerozoic paleotemperatures: the Earth’s changing climate during the last 540 million years. Earth-Science Reviews, 215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103503

Wimbledon, W. A. P. (2017). Developments with fixing a Tithonian/Berriasian (J/K) boundary. Volumina Jurassica, XV. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0010.7467

[tinyshe]

Viewpoints

Opinion: A Mom’s Research (Part 1): Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist Paradises

Jean Chen

February 12, 2021 Updated: February 14, 2021

As the mother of a 17-year-old in a deep blue state, I am often asked questions about socialism and communism. Not always being able to answer them, I have to do extensive research. I guess this is the situation many Epoch Times readers encounter: having to discuss these topics with family and friends.

One comment I received: “Yeah, I know communism is bad. But I want socialism, like the kind in Sweden or other Nordic countries.”

Indeed, Nordic countries are often used as models of “good” socialism by leftists, like Bernie Sanders, the Clintons, and Barack Obama. In 2010, National Public Radio praised Denmark as “a country that seems to violate the laws of the economic universe.” Although having high taxes, it had “one of the lowest poverty rates in the world, low unemployment, a steadily growing economy, and almost no corruption.”

In 2003, Sweden’s social democratic former Prime Minister Göran Persson used a bumblebee as an example to illustrate his country’s economy: “With its overly heavy body and little wings, supposedly it should not be able to fly—but it does.”

Dr. Nima Sanandaji, a Swedish researcher and author, wrote the book “Scandinavian Unexceptionalism: Culture, Markets and the Failure of Third-Way Socialism,” which provides a very good explanation of the realities in Nordic countries. Let me summarize the book for you in case you don’t have time to read it.

Culture—Not the Welfare State—Lead to Nordic Countries’ Success

“A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman (American economist, 1976 Nobel Prize laureate in economics): ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty.’ Milton Friedman replied: ‘That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either.’” —Quoted by Joel Kotkin, Chapman University professor

The welfare state is not the reason for the Nordic countries’ success. The Scandinavian societies had achieved low income-inequality, low levels of poverty, and high levels of economic growth before the development of the welfare state.

Before the implementation of welfare state policies, between 1870 and 1936, Sweden’s growth rate was the highest among industrialized nations. However, as the welfare state was gradually adopted between 1936 and 2008, the growth rate of Sweden fell to 13th.

According to Dr. Sanandaji, “High levels of trust, a strong work ethic, civic participation, social cohesion, individual responsibility and family values are long-standing features of Nordic society that predate the welfare state. These deeper social institutions explain why Sweden, Denmark, and Norway could so quickly grow from impoverished nations to wealthy ones as industrialization and the market economy were introduced in the late 19th century. They also played an important role in Finland’s growing prosperity after World War II.” (All quotations in this article are taken from Sanandaji’s book unless otherwise noted.)

The book indicates that religion, climate, and history all seem to have played a role in forming these special cultures. These countries have homogeneous populations with similar religious and cultural backgrounds. Protestants tend to have a very strong work ethic; a very hostile natural environment make Scandinavia a difficult place to survive unless a farmer works exceptionally hard; many farmers own their own land and have complete control over the fruits of their labor, so it has been financially rewarding to work hard.

Culture matters. It is the culture, free-market capitalism, and the rule of law that has made the Nordic countries prosperous, and made it possible to implement welfare policies without serious adverse consequences. It is also the culture that has fostered the success of the descendants of Scandinavian immigrants to America. Most of those migrants came to America in the 19th century before the implementation of welfare state policies. They were not elite groups, but their descendants are more successful than their cousins in Scandinavia, which suggests that the welfare state policies have impeded the growth of economy.

Southern European countries, such as Italy, France, and Greece, have adopted similar welfare state policies as Nordic countries, but have had much less favorable outcomes. Again, this strongly suggests that culture really matters.

Welfare State Policies Weaken the Nordic Cultures and Values

“It took time to build up the exceptionally high levels of social capital in Nordic cultures. And it took time for generous welfare models to begin undermining the countries’ strong work ethic.” —Dr. Nima Sanandaji, Swedish researcher

Policies help to shape the character of a society. As Scandinavians became accustomed to high taxes and generous government benefits, their sense of responsibility and their work ethic gradually deteriorated.

When asked during a 1981–84 survey if “claiming government benefits to which you are not entitled is never justifiable,” 82 percent of Swedes and 80 percent of Norwegians agreed. But in a similar survey in 2005–08, only 56 percent of Norwegians and 61 percent of Swedes agreed with the statement.

Generous welfare benefits reduce the incentives for taking a job or working hard. It also weakens parents’ incentives to teach their children to work hard. More and more people have become dependent on government welfare payments. And the dependency would pass from one generation to the next. This growing population in turn voted to support more welfare and bigger government, and therefore higher taxation, which has pushed the Nordic countries toward more extremes of socialism.

Are Scandinavians More Tolerant of High Taxes? No.

“Fiscal illusion distorts democratic decisions and may result in ‘excessive’ redistribution.” —Jean-Robert Tyran, Swiss economist, and Rupert Sausgruber, Austrian economist

Scandinavians have not been fully aware of the cost for a bigger government. Politicians have created a “fiscal illusion” in which a large portion of taxes is indirect or hidden, like those in effect before wages are paid, in the form of employers’ fees or employers’ social security contributions, and those included in the listed price of goods, like VAT. These taxes eventually fall on all people, but they are not aware of them.

Dr. Sanandaji described a survey conducted in 2003: “The Swedish public was asked to estimate the total amount of taxes they paid. The respondents were reminded to include all forms of direct and indirect taxation. Almost half of the respondents believed that the total taxes amounted to around 30–35% of their income. At the time of the survey, the total tax rate levied on an average income earner, including consumption taxes, was around 60%.”

According to a database of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Dr. Sanandaji’s calculations, from 1965 to 2013, all Nordic nations’ tax burdens have increased significantly, but most of their visible taxes have decreased, except in Denmark.

This has successfully created an illusion that government expansion would not cost much. So why not elect politicians that expand government size and increase welfare?

A Failed Socialist Experiment in Sweden

“Sweden is the world champion in ‘jobless growth’.” —Headline of a 2006 article in the Swedish business daily Dagens Industri

From the beginning of the social democratic era in the 1930s until the 1960s, Nordic countries had remained relatively free-market-oriented, and had similar tax levels as other industrialized nations. It was at the beginning of the 1970s when radical social democratic policies were adopted, and the fiscal burden and government spending reached high levels.

Sweden went the furthest toward socialism among Scandinavian nations since the late 1960s. The basic idea was to replace free markets with a model closer to a socialist planned economy. “Not only did the overall tax burden rise, but the new system also discriminated heavily against individuals who owned businesses. As politics radicalized, the social democratic system began challenging the core of the free-market model: entrepreneurship.”

According to Swedish economist Magnus Henrekson, in 1980, “the effective marginal tax rate (marginal tax plus the effect of inflation) that was levied on Swedish businesses reached more than 100 percent of their profits.” This means that a private entrepreneur would actually lose money if he or she made a profit. Henrekson draws the conclusion that the tax policies were “developed according to the vision of a market economy without individual capitalists and entrepreneurs.”

The result of the policy is obvious: the establishment of new businesses dropped significantly after 1970. In 2004, “38 of the 100 businesses with the highest revenues in Sweden had started as privately owned businesses within the country. Of these firms, just two had been formed after 1970. None of the 100 largest firms ranked by employment were founded within Sweden after 1970. Furthermore, between 1950 and 2000, although the Swedish population grew from 7 million to almost 9 million, net job creation in the private sector was close to zero.”

As for the jobs in the public sector, they increased significantly until the end of the 1970s. At that point, the public sector could not grow larger because taxes had already reached the highest possible level. “When the welfare state could grow no larger, overall job creation came to a halt—neither the private sector nor the public sector expanded.”

At the beginning of the 1980s, “employee funds” were introduced in Sweden. It was to take away a portion of companies’ profits and transfer them to funds controlled by labor unions. The purpose was to achieve socialism moderately by gradually transferring the ownership of private companies to the unions. “Although the system was abolished before it could turn Sweden into a socialist economy, it did manage to drive the founders of IKEA, Tetra Pak, H&M, and other highly successful firms away from the country.”

The dreadful policy of “employee funds” was finally abolished in 1991, which is around the time that Sweden faced its most severe economic crisis since WWII. It took almost two decades for the employment to reach its pre-1990 level. As a comparison, it took only seven years for Sweden to recover, in terms of employment, from the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Finally, Welfare Reform

“Sweden was the more socialist of the Scandinavian countries a few decades ago. It is also the country that has reformed the most.” —Dr. Nima Sanandaji, Swedish researcher

Beginning in the 1990s, almost all Nordic nations realized that welfare reform is inevitable, except Norway. In 1969, one of the largest offshore oil fields in the world was found in Norwegian waters. The oil wealth makes it possible to sustain its generous welfare systems. Since Sweden and Norway are quite comparable in many ways except for welfare reform, it is a great experiment to see the impact of the reform.

The reform in Sweden includes reducing welfare benefits, lowering taxes, liberalizing the labor market, and implementing gate-keeping mechanisms for receiving sickness and disability benefits. After the reform, from 2006 to 2012, the population supported by government benefits decreased from 20 percent to 14 percent in Sweden. In comparison, the population supported by government benefits in Norway decreased by only less than 1 percent in the same period of time.

For young Norwegians, there is very little incentive to work hard. Employers are therefore turning to foreign labor, including from Sweden. Between 1990 and 2010 the number of young Swedes employed in Norway increased by more than 20 times because of higher wages in Norway brought by oil revenues. According to a survey of Norwegian employers, three out of four answered that Swedish youth work harder than Norwegian youth.

After the reform, during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, Sweden showed impressive economic performance. The reforms lead to greater economic freedom, stronger incentives for work, and less reliance on government welfare.

Denmark and Finland also reformed their welfare systems. Even in Norway, some market reforms have been made. More are likely to come.

A Caution to Americans

The Nordic nations are returning to their free market roots. They have learned their lessons through their forays into welfare states or even tentative socialism, and have turned around from a dead end. We Americans should not fall for leftist propaganda and rush into a future that is doomed to failure.

Jean Chen is originally from China, and writes under a pen name in order to protect her family in China.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

[behind-the-screen-of-bangtan]

Brands x BTS (2015-2020)

BTS has promoted several brands since their debut which resulted in a lot of content, be it commercial films (CFs), photoshoots, or mini-shows.

PUMA (2015)

Youtube playlist

Twitter: PUMA Korea, PUMA

For more information about this collaboration, refer to these two posts please: part 1, part 2.

BBQ Chicken (2016)

Youtube playlist

Website/Blog

Thanks to the making-of, we know that the ad for the Jamaican roasted leg was filmed in two locations that were also used for BTS content. The first one is a field in Seobbingo-dong that also appeared in “RUN” MV and the second was close to Dongjak bridge, on which were filmed the comeback trailer for 화양연화 pt.1 and V’s Love Yourself posters.

SK Telecom (February 2016)

Youtube playlist

Website/Blog

Smart (may 2016)

Youtube playlist

Website/Blog

VisitSeoul (September 2017)

Youtube playlist

Twitter: seoulmania account, Visit Seoul account

Instagram

Website

VT Cosmetics (October 2017)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

VT also collaborated with BT21.

Lotte Duty Free (November 2017)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

Instagram

Run BTS! episode 79 and 80 were filmed in the Lotte Duty Free World Tower.

Mediheal  (December 2017)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

KB Kookmin Bank (January 2018)

Youtube playlist

Instagram

LG (May 2018)

All the official content for the LGxBTS collaboration has been deleted. The boys were hired to promote the LG G7 ThinkQ phone.

There still is a tweet about the Boombox Speaker feature and luckily for us, Lumpens (the studio who filmed most of BTS MV and also this campaign) still has a video on Vimeo.

Here is an article from Yonhap News: “BTS becomes new models for LG Electronics' smartphones”.

BTS Diary has some pictures archived:

180503

180510

180521

180724

190302

Coca Cola Korea (May 2018)

Twitter: Coca-Cola Korea, 폴라

The campaign also featured Park Bogum, who’s friend with V. Jin also posted a selfie with him on Weverse.

Another collaboration, this time with the global Coca Cola brand happened in early 2021.

Korea Yakult (August 2018)

Twitter

Article

The collaboration with BTS was special packages for the “cold and hot brews by Babinski”.

Hyundai (November 2018)

Youtube playlist

Twitter: Hyundai Worldwide, Hyundai Motor Group, 현대자동차그룹, 현대자동차, Hyundai Japan

Instagram

TikTok

Between the Scenes: Hyundai X BTS and you

Run BTS! episode 110 and 111 were filmed at Hyundai Motor Studio (Instagram post).

PLAY / UP (December 2018)

Youtube playlist

Instagram

Twitter

PLAY / UP is a brand of color contact lenses manufactured by Fauvisme.

Mattel (January 2019)

Twitter: MATTEL, UNO, UNO Mobile

Tmoney (February 2019)

Instagram: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17

Facebook: #1, #2

MTPR Lens (June 2019)

Twitter

Instagram

Tokopedia (October 2019)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

Lemona (November 2019)

Youtube playlist

Instagram

Formula E (December 2019)

Twitter: Formula E world, Formula E Seoul

Youtube playlist

Instagram: #1, #2, #3

FILA (December 2019)

Youtube playlist

Twitter: FILA Korea, FILA USA, FILA Philippines, FILA Indonesia

Weibo post

The clocks that can be seen in the background of the “Since 1911 FILA HERITAGE” video show the boys’ birth date: 09:12, 12:04, 03:09, 02:18, 10:13, 12:30, and 09:01 for September 12 (RM), December 4 (Jin), March 9 (SUGA), February 18 (j-hope), October 13 (Jimin), December 30 (V), and September 1 (Jung Kook).

The music played during the CFs for the Back to nature campaign is “Oceanside” by Kicktracks.

EPOCH (january 2020)

Twitter

Starbucks (January 2020)

Twitter

Samsung (March 2020)

Youtube playlist (archive of S20 clips from 2020)

Twitter (SamsungCanada)

Instagram: #1

Website/Blog

Samsung Mobile Press pictures

How BTS enjoyed their rest on the set (archive)

A video of the boys unboxing the phone was posted on Samsung Korea’s channel. Haru Haru posted the English translation: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

They quickly appeared in a video at the Galaxy Unpacked August 2020 to unbox the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2. A picture of RM could also be seen earlier in the show. A longer video was posted on Samsung’s channel the next day.

SUGA reimagined Samsung’s famous music “Over the horizon” (longer version on BANGTANTV) in 2021 and made a new version in 2022. Weverse magazine took the occasion to write an article about SUGA as a producer.

Bodyfriend (April 2020)

Youtube playlist

Instagram: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16

Outfits

Chilsung cider (May 2020)

Youtube playlist

Instagram: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14

Korean article showing the special packages

CU convenience store Instagram post

V posted a video of Jimin on the set, on Weverse.

In April 2021, the boys advertised Kloud beer, another beverage belonging to the Lotte Chilsung group.

System (May 2020)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

The collection is inspired by “피땀눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears)” MV.

STONEHENgE (May 2020)

Youtube playlist

Twitter

Website/Blog

The collaboration between BTS and STONHEHENgE is called Moment of Light and includes three types of pendants named Birth, Destiny, and Coexist.

New Era (June 2020)

Instagram: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Twitter

Website/Blog

Peach Valley (July 2020)

Twitter

Baskin Robbins Korea (August 2020)

Article of the announcement

Youtube playlist

Twitter

Instagram: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35, #36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #41, #42, #43, #44, #45

Blog posts

Cake flavors: Mom is alien (milk, dark, white chocolate), Mint chocolate chip, Blueberry cheesecake, Shooting star, Almond bonbon, Cookie&Cream, Very berry strawberry (src)

Baskin Robbins also released special icecream called “Bora bora”, in reference to “borahae” (I purple you). The flavor is blueberry, yogurt, and blueberry sherbet flavor (src)

OHSCENT (November 2020)

Twitter

MapleStory (November 2020)

Youtube playlist

Twitter (tweets showing the boys’ creations)

BTS designed special items for the game. The processus was recorded and posted on Youtube in a series of 3 episodes.

Part 2 (2021-...)

[aralioideae]

{ID: A series of images formed of screenshots of segments of text from Wikipedia that are arranged into a poem. The text segments are grouped together with spaces between the groups to define stanzas. The stanzas are informally grouped into sections denoted by conceptual "levels", with the initial stanza and the last two lines appearing to fall outside of these groups.

Some words and phrases are coloured blue to indicate hyperlinks and there are numbered citation links in square brackets originating from the typical format and style of Wikipedia articles. There is an extra large space before the last line of the poem.}

Transcription under the break.

{Transcription:

A dragon is a reptile-like legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. The meaning can be intentional such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition.

Level I: Rudimentary Information: "Something is here"

The story of a hero slaying a giant serpent occurs in nearly every Indo-European mythology.[90][91] Draconic creatures appear in virtually all cultures around the globe.[12] ... pay attention

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century, and later spread to continental Europe, North America, and Japan, was based on the availability of coal to power steam engines.

Coal-mining region

Environmental impact of the coal industry

Environmental justice and coal mining in Appalachia

The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it.

Eventually, the dragon ate all of the sheep[154] and the people were forced to start offering it their own children.[154]

Black lung disease

George Bretz (photographer)

Child labour

After the Black Saturday bushfires, the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index was revised. The category "Catastrophic" was added to help identify those situations where the people offer the dragon a human sacrifice to appease its hunger.[161]

Level II: Cautionary Information: "Something man-made is here and it is dangerous"

The Guide explains that dragons always live alone because they have become dragons by eating their own kind. they ruled as king and queen, before eventually being transformed into dragons themselves.[118]

... pay attention A dragon is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it, any power structure relies upon the subjects' obedience to the orders of ruler(s). If subjects do not obey, leaders have no power.[15]

Dragons are generally depicted as living in rivers or having an underground lair or cave.[150] They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites.[146] They are largely explicable as products of a convergence of rational pre-scientific speculation about the world of real events. In this case What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

Level III:

The Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction,[3][4] is an ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch (with the more recent times sometimes called the Anthropocene) as a result of human activity.[5][6][7]

The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally to an empire. For instance, for a mother to say to her child "I'll tell you a story" she would through fairy tales and myths. Those fairy tales and myths in turn could be transmitted through poetry, music and painting. "Don't you realize that..." I Watch You from Afar[10] aboard Titanic, traveling (with those who perished

but Sigurd replied that all the men must one day die anyway, and it is the dream of many men to be wealthy until that dying day, so he would take the gold without fear.[7]

Revenue US$469.882 billion (2021)[1][2] Operating income US$24.879 billion (2021)[1] Net income US$33.364 billion (2021)[1] Total assets US$420.549 billion (2021)[1] Total equity US$138.245 billion (2021)[1] Owner Jeff Bezos (14.0% voting power, 10.6% economic interest)[3]

Level IV:

A dragon is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. Gold is further associated with the wisdom of aging and fruition. The fiftieth wedding anniversary is golden. A person's most valued or most successful latter years are sometimes considered "golden years". The height of a civilization is referred to as a golden age.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. guarding a vast hoard of treasure.

A dragon is a reptile-like legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide.

This article is about mass extinction.}

...

Please let me know if there are any mistakes or of the formatting is weird! I’ve tried my best but I’m not experienced at this sort of thing and tumblr hates the way I tried to do it.

Also I hope I read the structure/formatting of the poem right because I don't know anything about poetry really.

"Dragon," poem assembled using quotations from Wikipedia articles

[anth3045]

References

Arim, R., Findlay, L., & Kohen, D. (2020, August 27). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Canadian families of children with disabilities. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00066-eng.htm

Bellemare, A. (2020, May 1). Canadians who received copy of Epoch Times upset by claim that China was behind virus | CBC news. CBCnews. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/epoch-times-coronavirus-bioweapon-1.5548217 

Chen, X. (2017). “Racism, Culture and Power in Children’s Literature” in The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press. 

Chen, X., Rebecca, R., Patrizia, A. 2017.“Introduction: Taking Stock and Claiming Space for the Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada” in The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press. 

Fallows, J. (2020, March 22). Trump and the 'Chinese Virus'. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/2020-time-capsule-5-the-chinese-virus/622116/ 

Fleming, L. (2021, June 15). The difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic for children with disabilities. Verywell Family. https://www.verywellfamily.com/pandemics-impact-on-children-with-disabilities-5185783

Humera, I. (2016, March 18). “Children’s friendships in super-diverse localities: Encounters with social and ethnic difference”. Sage Journals. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1177/0907568216633741

Jiang, W. (2020, March 17). Trump knows better; it's an American virus that's killing Americans. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Retrieved from https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-trump-should-know-better-it-s-an-american-virus-that-s-killing-americans-an-american-virus/

Korbin, J. (2007, June). “Challenges and Opportunities in the Anthropology of Childhoods: An Introduction to “Children, Childhoods, and Childhood Studies””. Anthrosource Online Library. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1525/aa.2007.109.2.241 

Lach, L., & Thomson, D. (2020, October 22). Children with disabilities disproportionately affected during Covid-19. Quoi. https://quoimedia.com/children-with-disabilities-disproportionately-affected-during-covid-19/

Reny, T. (2020, May 12). Xenophobia in the time of pandemic: Othering, anti-Asian attitudes, and covid-19. Taylor & Francis Online. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21565503.2020.1769693 

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. Routledge & Kagan Paul. Retrieved from https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2014/12/Said_full.pdf 

Salvini, M., Tondo, L. (2020, February 24). Salvini attacks Italy PM over coronavirus and links to rescue ship The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/24/salvini-attacks-italy-pm-over-coronavirus-and-links-to-rescue-ship

Sebring, Ellen. (2015). Civilization & Barbarism: Cartoon Commentary & ‘the White Man's Burden’ (1898–1902). The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved from https://apjjf.org/2015/13/27/Ellen-Sebring/4339.html 

Fallows, J. (2020, March 22). Trump and the 'Chinese Virus'. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/2020-time-capsule-5-the-chinese-virus/622116/ 

Jiang, W. (2020, March 17). Trump knows better; it's an American virus that's killing Americans. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Retrieved from https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-trump-should-know-better-it-s-an-american-virus-that-s-killing-americans-an-american-virus/

Shang, Z. (2022, July). Where is the meaningful response to anti-Asian hate? The Province . Retrieved from https://theprovince.com/opinion/zhida-shang-where-is-the-meaningful-response-to-anti-asian-hate

Whitley, J., Beauchamp, M., & Brown, C. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the learning and achievement of vulnerable Canadian children and youth. Facets.

Yesil, A., Sencan, B., Omercioglu, E., & Ozmert, E. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with special needs: A descriptive study. Sage Journals. https://doi.org/10.1177/00099228211050223

[rkwmdksblog]

Therapy for

Massage Therapy for EDS Mary Chapman avatar by Mary Chapman | February 24, 2021

SHARE THIS ARTICLE: SHARE ARTICLE VIA EMAIL COPY ARTICLE LINK daub therapy Massage therapy may bolster ease symptoms, such as tight muscles and aching, often experienced by patients along between than Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Here is some reference more or less the option treatment that may be helpful to you if you have EDS.

What is EDS? EDS refers to a intervention of genetic disorders affecting the connective tissues that manage to pay for structure to the joints, skin, blood vessels, and count tissues and organs.

Symptoms put in going on hypermobile joints, fatigue, inoffensive sensitive, elastic skin, increased risk of insult, dislocations, flat feet, needy posture and measure, and spinal deformities.

What is daub therapy? Massage therapy can include wellness or sustain to control a condition. Generally considered share of other and integrative medicine in the U.S., its increasingly offered along gone stated treatment for a wide range of medical conditions.

According to the American Massage Therapy Association, 75% of respondents to a consumer survey reported that the main gloss they got a smooth in the last 12 months was medical or emphasis-united.

Massage therapy generally involves pressing, rubbing, and manipulating the skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and may range from roomy stroking to deep pressure.

There are many exchange daub techniques and styles, including those that are for comfort and those for specific conditions or diseases. The types appendix connective tissue rub, deep tissue smooth, geriatric smooth, massotherapy, medical daub, reflexology, neuromuscular therapy, Swedish rub, and sports smooth.

How can rub therapy in the back taking place me? EDS patients often experience chronic wronged caused by frequent joint dislocations or adding happening complications. While more research is necessary, studies have shown that augmentation and stability exercises augmented joint stability and decreased tormented sensation in some patients, including children.

According to Ehlers-Danlos Support U.K., core EDS dispensation techniques should add together soft tissue rub. However, an individual admittance to care is vital because each patient experiences the disease differently.

Any smear therapy in EDS should be share of physiotherapy, which is intensely recommended to go into detail muscles, come occurring after that the maintenance for joint stability, and generally lead in hours of hours of day-to-hours of day behavior.

Who administers smooth therapy? Caregivers may administer smear therapy, but a trained therapist can be more vibrant in pinpointing the proper areas and using the right amounts of pressure. Whats key is understanding the obligings individual needs.

How ham it taking place I locate a rub therapist? Ask your doctor for a information.

Most states adjust daub therapists through licensing, registration, or endorsed recognition requirements.

Dont be terrified to with calledpotential therapist very very more or less their qualifications and experience, and how often you would see them.

What can I expect during a session? A smooth therapy session can last anywhere together in the midst of 10 and 90 minutes, depending vis--vis your needs.

You will typically be vis--vis a table and covered taking into account a sheet. Its with attainable to make a gain of daub therapy even if sitting in a seat.

The smooth therapist will likely action an evaluation through colleague happening to be of the same mind tormented feeling or frantic areas and determine how much pressure to apply. They will along with likely ask about your symptoms and consent to know what available of daub technique they will use.

What are the risks? Massage therapy gone a properly trained therapist appears to have few great risks. There have, however, been rare reports of earsplitting side effects, such as a blood clot, nerve insulted, or bone crack. Elderly people may be at greater risk of offend.

Special care is valuable for massage therapy for EDS. For example, stretching and joint hobby techniques should be avoided past joints already generally surpass the okay range of squabble. Some therapists set sights on using a targeted entre in massage therapy to avoid immediate maneuvers.

In general, you may setting a bit boil the day after a session, but massages shouldnt sore or uncomfortable. If any part of your massage doesnt atmosphere right or is longing, comply your therapist know right away.

Despite its foster, massage is not a replacement for regular medical care. Let your doctor know youon the order of frustrating massage therapy and be sure to follow any all right treatment drive youin version to like reference to speaking.

Your symptoms may bend on severity of epoch as a consequences regularly see your physician to ensure you know the extent of your condition.

Last updated: Feb. 24, 2021

***

Ehlers-Danlos News is strictly a news and recommendation website approximately the sickness. It does not present medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a the theater for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always aspire the advice of your physician or added credited health providers gone than any questions you may have happening for 수원건마 a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or suspend in seeking it because of something you have showing off in approaching this website.

Print This Article About the Author Mary Chapman avatar Mary Chapman Mary M. Chapman began her professional career at United Press International, approach both print and push desks. She in addition to became a Michigan correspondent for what is now Bloomberg BNA, where she mainly covered the automotive industry benefit valid, tax and regulatory issues. A fanatic of the Automotive Press Association and one of a relatively little number of women upon the car emphasis, Chapman has discussed the automotive industry union period of National Public Radio, and in 2014 was agreed as an honorary sit in judgment at the prestigious Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance. She has written for numerous national outlets including Time, People, Al-Jazeera America, Fortune, Daily Beast, MSN.com, Newsweek, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. The winner of the Society of Professional Journalists be stranded on for outstanding reporting, Chapman has had dozens of articles in The New York Times, including two upon the coveted stomach page. She has completed a manuscript roughly centenarian car believer Margaret Dunning, titled "Belle of the Concours."

[coincolumnist-dot-com]

Bitcoin Taproot locked in to improve privacy and introduce smart contracts

On June 12, Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool Slush Pool mined block 687,285 with the transaction including a Taproot upgrade activation signal. That particular block was the 1,816th to include a signal for Taproot activation by a BTC miner within the difficulty epoch that lasted from May 30 to June 13.With 2,016 blocks created every difficulty period, crossing 1,816 blocks with a Taproot activation signal satisfied the 90% signaling threshold required to lock in the upgrade. This event meant that Taproot, Bitcoin’s first protocol upgrade in over four years, was set for its activation phase to be expected in mid-November.Apart from bringing an end to the signaling period that lasted about six weeks over three consecutive difficulty epochs, block 687,285 also brought forth a new milestone for the Bitcoin upgrade in development since 2018. BTC proponents say beyond the automatic activation happening near the end of the year, the focus should now shift to building wallets and other ecosystem applications that can leverage the improved scripting capabilities brought on by Taproot.

What is Taproot?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of what Taproot is and how it works, it is perhaps important to present at least a high-level explanation of how Bitcoin transactions work. When sending BTC from one wallet to another, the sender’s public address uses a private key to create a unique cryptographic signature.This cryptographic signature contains the necessary permissions that serve as proof to any nodes validating the transaction that the sender truly owns the funds being sent, thus fulfilling the spending condition. It is possible to create different spending conditions for unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs).When UTXOs are spent, it becomes necessary to reveal all spending condition data — both the ones satisfied and the possible conditions that could have been met — a feature that comes with significant data usage and privacy implications. Taproot is an upgrade designed to solve this issue by masking spending conditions, except those that are in the branch of the script agreed upon by the transacting parties.In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Riccardo Casatta, Bitcoin developer and one-time Square crypto grant recipient, outlined the basic premise behind Taproot, stating, “The taproot upgrade includes a bunch of improvements, the most significant enhances privacy in the long term.” According to Casatta:“A misconception we have today is that Bitcoin usage is mostly private, while in reality, transaction activities leave a lot of traces on the blockchain. For example, Bitcoin is sent to different addresses — e.g., starting with ‘1,’ ‘3’ or ‘bc1,’ according to the version and the smart contract behind them. This is a problem because it reveals information about the user’s spendings.”With Taproot, it becomes possible to combine the public keys of all participating entities in a transaction to create a unique key. By creating a new output called Pay to Taproot (P2TR), it is possible to have output conditions with locked funds to a single public key rather than individual key or script hashes that require a complete accounting of all spending conditions included in a UTXO.This coalescing of multiple signatures into a single aggregate signature is based on Schnorr signatures. Taking advantage of the linear nature of Schnorr signatures, Taproot proponents say it will be possible to make multi-signature (multisig) indistinguishable from their single-signature counterparts, or as Casatta puts it:“With taproot, different spending conditions may look identical in the most common case, and this is great because it reveals less information about users, and it also improves efficiency.”

Near unanimous support among miners

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade achieved the 90% critical consensus among mining nodes on June 12. Indeed, the process received near-universal backing from miners, with all recognized mining pools signaling for Taproot.Slush Pool kicked off the process back in May, mining the first transaction block with a Taproot activation signal. It was, perhaps, fitting that the fifth-largest Bitcoin mining pool by hash rate distribution was also brought forth by the miner responsible for actually locking in the upgrade.Despite the fact that the process for commencing the signaling period slowed down with China’s May Day celebration, the consensus among miners to support the upgrade began to reach significant proportions by the second difficulty epoch. This near-unanimous support cemented the commitment expressed by miners even before the planned upgrade was merged into Bitcoin Core in late 2020.Related: South Koreans flock to crypto amid a heavy-handed regulation approachThe initial delays in attaining the required 90% consensus during the first month of the process were likely due to some miners needing to adjust certain firmware requirements to perform signaling. Thus, even soaring to about 70% within the first three days, the miner signaling percentage fluctuated between 40% and 70% over the first difficulty epoch.AntPool and F2Pool — ranked first and second in terms of hash rate distribution, respectively — were early supporters of the activation, as was Foundry USA. By May 17, every major mining pool was signaling for Taproot, including Binance with its maiden transaction block. BTC.Top was late to the party, as the mining pool reported having to run tests on protocols required to begin signaling for Taproot.

Privacy, scalability and smart contracts

Several Bitcoin developers agree that Taproot will offer a significant improvement in Bitcoin’s privacy. In a conversation with Cointelegraph earlier in June, Pieter Wuille, Bitcoin developer at Chaincode and one of the earliest proponents of the Taproot upgrade, remarked:“It extends Bitcoin’s script capabilities in ways that make certain things cheaper (especially more complex applications like multisig and layer-two things), and somewhat more private by often hiding what the exact spending rules were.”Apart from masking certain spending conditions and making transactions indistinguishable, Taproot also offers a significant reduction in the block space occupied by transaction data. While this feature will reduce transaction throughput by compressing the data size associated with multisig transactions, it is hardly a panacea to Bitcoin’s scalability issues.However, it opens the door for smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain since the upgrade already lessens the amount of space needed for multisig transactions in a block. Smart contract transactions by nature involve interactions among several addresses and users.Related: Altcoins follow Bitcoin price’s lead as uncertainty grips crypto marketWith Taproot, these smart contract operations will not appear to be any different from a simple wallet-to-wallet BTC transfer. Detailing some of the likely smart contract use cases that could emerge once Taproot is activated later in 2021, Casatta told Cointelegraph:“In the middle/long term, I see an increase in Bitcoin smart contract usage, enabling use cases like inheritance and delegation in company spendings. And the best part is that, by looking at the blockchain, we will not know about that.”Many Bitcoin developers agree that beyond the November activation, network participants will need to create useful applications based on the upgrade. The upgrade itself will activate according to the terms in Bitcoin Improvement Protocol 341 (BIP-341) at block height 709,632.Taproot will be a soft-fork upgrade, meaning that network participants are not bound to adopt the change. However, given the likely fee advantages offered by the upgrade, service providers are likely to update their software to implement Taproot.Source Read the full article

[epochxp]

Box Art and Beta Revealed for ‘Chivalry 2′

Torn Banner Studios just revealed the box art for its upcoming title, Chivalry 2: Online Medieval Warfare. The developers revealed the box art for all of the main console versions of the game, including the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox One/Xbox Series X editions. This bit of information was revealed through the Chivalry 2 Twitter account, where the developers have been unveiling new info for the game daily.

The box art for the game is about what you would expect for such a game and is very reminiscent of the original title’s box art. The game’s box art also reveals the fact that the game is, indeed, rated M for Mature, something that we largely had already expected.

Recently, Torn Banner hosted a closed Alpha build for the game, during which thousands of gamers took to the digital battlefield. The Alpha was just closed on April 12. However, it was also recently announced that Chivalry 2 would have a Closed Beta across all platforms from April 23-26. Any players who pre-purchase the title before then will be given access to the Beta. 

About Chivalry

Chivalry 2 

Chivalry 2: Online Medieval Warfare is a sequel to Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, which was originally released way back in 2012 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox One 360 and was then later ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The original game shared a lot with the Half-Life 2 mod, Age of Chivalry, and is rumored to be based on that mod. Chivalry offered first-person online medieval warfare battles that allowed players to face off against others in giant online battles. Released almost an entire decade ago, fans are excited to finally get their hands on this highly anticipated sequel. 

Improvements in Chivalry 2

Game Informer 

The new game is set to release June 8, 2021, for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 with crossplay across all platforms. The game is looking to be a massive upgrade over the original Chivalry, with greatly improved visuals, more complex combat, bigger maps, bigger battles, and other smaller miscellaneous additions -- such as the ability to pick up and throw dismembered body parts like human heads.

All in all, Chivalry 2 is shaping up to be a great title, and fans won’t have long to wait until its release, with the game launching in less than two months. Those who can’t wait that long can pick up the original for less than $25 or pre-order the sequel to gain access to the Closed Beta later this month.

--

At Epoch Xperience, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch Xperience’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Ben Price. For as long as he can remember, Ben has always loved playing, discussing, and writing about video games. Since receiving his B.A. in English, he now writes about them for a living.)

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Olivia Little, posted 26 Mar 2021:

TikTok’s account recommendation algorithm appears to be prompting users to follow far-right extremist movements, with Three Percenter, QAnon, Patriot Party, and Oath Keeper accounts all being pushed by the platform’s algorithm. These include far-right movements that were deeply involved in the planning and execution of the January 6 insurrection, which resulted in five deaths and nearly 140 injuries to police defending the Capitol.

Three Percenter, QAnon, Patriot Party, and Oath Keeper content is prohibited by TikTok, but the company’s algorithm appears to be both circulating their content and helping them to expand their following.

A TikTok spokesperson told Vox that the platform’s recommendation of accounts to follow is “based on user behavior”; the company’s other explanation of the algorithm (found on the information button next to “suggested accounts”) claims that account recommendations are tailored to the “interests” or “connections” of an individual user.

To analyze how this process appears to operate, Media Matters reviewed and tracked which accounts TikTok recommended under a “suggested accounts” prompt after following a specific account from TikTok’s “For You” page.

Our analysis found that by following TikTok’s suggested follower prompts, users can easily be exposed to and increasingly served far-right extremist accounts and content. This is uniquely harmful because it has the potential to further radicalize people interested in these far-right extremist movements, and it doesn’t even require users to seek them out; TikTok hand-delivers the extremist movements to its users, many of whom are 14 or younger.

Using this process, Media Matters identified six common scenarios demonstrating how following specific accounts from TikTok’s “For You” page shapes the type of extremist content recommended by the platform’s “suggested accounts” algorithm.

For example, after following a QAnon account from the “For You” page, TikTok recommended another QAnon account. After following that second QAnon account, TikTok then recommended a Three Percenter account.

In another example, after following a Three Percenter account from the “For You” page, TikTok suggested following a different Three Percenter account. After following the second account, TikTok recommended yet another Three Percenter account. After following several Three Percenter accounts, the web of radicalization expanded and accounts from Patriot Party, QAnon, and others were all recommended at times.

This accelerated pattern of recommendations is alarming and has the potential to push TikTok users down a far-right rabbit hole, further populating user feeds with the sort of extremist movements behind the Capitol attack.

See also:

Three times Mark Zuckerberg misled Congress about extremism and misinformation on Facebook

From the report, posted 26 Mar 2021:

In Zuckerberg’s opening testimony, he said: “At Facebook, we do a lot to fight misinformation. We remove content that could lead to imminent real-world harm. We’ve built an unprecedented third party fact-checking program. And if something is rated false, then we add warning labels and significantly reduce its distribution.”

While this is something Facebook has claimed to be true for some time, its enforcement has left a lot to be desired -- leaving the platform a veritable hotbed of often dangerous misinformation.

During a November 17 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Zuckerberg testified that Facebook “performed well” during the 2020 election. But Media Matters research has shown that Facebook allowed the Trump campaign and right-wing media to spread viral misinformation and even profited off of it. [Media Matters, 11/20/20]

As votes were being counted in the days following the 2020 election, Facebook became a hub for misinformation and a staging ground for protests calling for ballot counting to stop. [Media Matters, 11/5/20]

Anti-mask Facebook groups rife with dangerous misinformation about the spread and prevention of COVID-19 flourished in 2020. Media Matters was able to identify at least 55 groups on the platform dedicated to anti-mask protests. [Media Matters, 7/9/20]

Though it claimed to be “searching for and removing” misinformation and content praising the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Facebook nonetheless served as a haven for lies that “antifa” were behind the assault. [Media Matters, 1/11/21]

Roughly a quarter of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 Facebook posts contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about his critics. [Media Matters, 2/18/21]

Ahead of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Facebook enabled right-wing media outlet The Epoch Times to spread misinformation about the election results. This lie formed the basis for the deadly “Stop the Steal” movement, but Facebook did almost nothing about it. [Media Matters, 3/1/21]

Asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) about whether he believes that Facebook is exempt from liability for ads containing false information, Zuckerberg claimed that “any ad that has been fact-checked as false, we don’t allow to run as an ad.”

Zuckerberg’s response omits important context clarifying that political ads are exempt from fact checks. Even on ads that are fact-checked, Facebook has a spotty record when it comes to enforcing its policy against misinformation.

Facebook ads and Instant Articles monetized a page that pushed plagiarized content and false news, including the Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy theories. [Media Matters, 8/1/18]

Facebook refused to take down a false Trump ad spreading misinformation about Ukraine after a request from Joe Biden's campaign. [Media Matters, 10/9/19]

Facebook let a pro-Trump super PAC lie repeatedly about the Biden family -- even though its own fact-checkers had debunked the claim. [Media Matters, 1/22/20]

Facebook allowed the Trump campaign to publish at least 529 ads with false claims of voter fraud, laying the groundwork to contest the 2020 election results. [Media Matters, 5/19/20]

Facebook profited off of the QAnon conspiracy theory by allowing Q-related ads. [Media Matters, 7/22/20]

Facebook allowed a pro-Trump PAC to run hundreds of ads with false information about Biden, earning over 5.7 million impressions. [Media Matters, 8/4/20]

After Facebook claimed it was removing ads with voting misinformation, Media Matters was able to find at least 80 active ads on the platform that had earned more than 2 million impressions as of October 1 -- despite appearing to violate Facebook’s policy. [Media Matters, 10/1/20]

Facebook allowed the Trump campaign to run ads touting free access to an unproven COVID-19 treatment after the president called it a “cure.” [Media Matters, 10/14/20]

Facebook allowed the Trump campaign to run thousands of ads with manipulated photos of Biden in the months preceding the 2020 election. [Media Matters, 10/15/20]

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) asked Zuckerberg about studies that showed Facebook’s algorithms were actively promoting “divisive, hateful, and conspiratorial content,” to which Zuckerberg responded by explaining that the company had recently stopped recommending civic and political groups to users.

This isn’t necessarily a lie, but Zuckerberg’s response once again leaves out key context that is essential to understanding why these groups posed such a problem in the first place. Facebook groups and pages have served as planning hubs for extremist actions such as the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. While Facebook has tried to curb the platform’s groups from being used that way, its enforcement has lacked teeth.

For instance, as of the company’s March 17 update, Facebook said that it would “start to let people know when they’re about to join a group that has Community Standards violations, so they can make a more informed decision before joining,” when it seems that the wiser thing to do would be to simply not have groups that have Community Standards violations. At another point in the hearing, Zuckerberg acknowledged that not recommending political or civic groups is unlikely to meaningfully decrease engagement, making it an odd point to tout, overall.

Dozens of Republican Party groups used Facebook to help organize bus trips to D.C. for the pro-Trump insurrection. [Media Matters, 1/12/21]

A massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines found a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism and may be causing “substantial” harm. [The Washington Post, 3/14/21]

“A new outside report found that Facebook has allowed groups — many tied to QAnon, boogaloo and militia movements — to glorify violence during the 2020 election and in the weeks leading up to the deadly riots on the U.S. Capitol in January.” [The Associated Press, 3/23/21]

Another report found hundreds of far-right militias are still using Facebook pages and groups to promote violence after the Capitol insurrection. [BuzzFeed News, 3/24/21]

[expatimes]

Maidan Market: Indian sporting goods market fighting for survival

Kolkata, India – A fresh consignment of sports replica jerseys arrives at a stall in Maidan Market, one of the largest sporting goods bazaars in India that is located in the heart of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

Mohammed Nadim, who has been working at the stall for more than 23 years, pulls out a plastic stool from underneath a rack stashed with low-priced football jerseys and begins examining the consignment.

“Uhssee, theek-e ache (80, the count is fine),” he mutters in a mix of Hindi and Bangla before handing the load-bearer the counterpart of a signed receipt.

The shipment consists of 10 replica jerseys of each of the eight teams taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the biggest Twenty20 domestic league in the world.

The 2021 edition of the IPL begins next month and Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is one of the six host cities.

Nadim says the stall would typically order 10 times that number ahead of the tournament every year.

That was in pre-pandemic times. Now, he adds, it is unlikely his store would order a refill in the lead-up to this year’s competition.

“Due to the pandemic, we still have stock left over from last year,” Nadim told Al Jazeera.

“We are replenishing them minimally given there’s been a slight increase in business across the market of late. But stocking up in bulk right now is beyond our means because the virus has brutally slashed our earnings.”

Maidan Market houses 449 stalls – 80 percent of which only sell sports items

Set up in 1954 for cloth merchants and artisans who migrated to the western part of divided Bengal following the partition of India in 1947, the market, officially christened Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy Market, gradually evolved into an arterial sports-merchandise hub in the country.

Housing 449 stalls – 80 percent of which only sell sports items – the bazaar, nestled a stone’s throw away from the iconic Eden Gardens cricket stadium in the vicinity of the Maidan, has been witness to several epochal shifts integral to Kolkata’s identity.

The market ships most of its produce – raw materials and finished products – from northern Indian cities and the months-long suspension of trains hampered supply and demand.

As stall owners remained indoors, a further misfortune struck the market.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic and the exodus of migrant workers the lockdown triggered, Kolkata also bore the brunt of the catastrophic Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on the coastlines of eastern India and Bangladesh last May.

“So bad was the waterlogging in this area after the storm that the local police let us open our shops for a day so we could save our goods,” recounts Sumojit Pradhan, who runs his father’s store.

“Cricket bats and shoes worth over 50,000 rupees ($690) were damaged in our shop alone,” Pradhan told Al Jazeera.

Kolkata’s booming mall culture had slowly been eating into Maidan Market’s business

Last November, Nadim bemoaned how the pandemic had brought the market to its knees.

“So terrible was the nosedive in our sales that I’m drowning in debt,” Nadim said at the time.

“I’ve pulled my kids drop out of school and, if someone in the family falls ill, I don’t have enough money to be able to afford a doctor.”

A year on from the lockdown, more patrons are frequenting the market and it has returned to its usual 9.30am-8.30pm business hours, ditching the six-hour window it stuck to for several months after reopening.

“I’ve been printing around 120 jerseys a day since January,” said Sunny, who runs a vinyl-printing desk at Maidan Market.

“It’s been about 40 per cent of the daily orders I used to get before the pandemic. Things could be better or worse in the coming months. For now, I’m just relieved I’m earning an income again,” Sunny told Al Jazeera.

Kolkata’s booming mall culture had slowly been eating into Maidan Market’s business.

With the pandemic prompting a dip in spending on non-essential products, and an accelerated shift to online shopping, a lack of a digital presence is also hurting the stall owners.

“The loss incurred in the past 12 months … we may not be able to recover from it even in five years’ time,” Sheikh Nazimuddin, joint secretary of the stallholders’ association at the market, told Al Jazeera.

“And such is the nature of in-demand items like cricket bats, helmets and guards, customers hardly prefer buying them online. That’s why this market never previously felt the need to have a digital presence.”

For the first two months after the market reopened last June, sellers with stockpiles of fitness equipment made good money while the others struggled to keep their heads above water

Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, Pradhan, 24, has been among a few traders at Maidan Market who have funnelled time and effort into either creating or increasing the online presence of their brick-and-mortar businesses.

From having their stores listed on Google, to displaying select samples of in-store stock on Facebook and Instagram pages and taking orders on WhatsApp, the pandemic, Pradhan admits, has forced a “major rethink” of customer engagement approaches.

The changes in consumer patterns notwithstanding, several long-time loyalists of Maidan Market believe the enduring charms of the bazaar will help the sellers weather the ongoing adversity.

“Maidan Market is a great leveller. Players of every social and financial standing gravitate towards that place,” said Jhulan Goswami, Indian women’s team cricketer who learned her craft at Kolkata’s Vivekananda Park.

“The affordability, variety, and year-round availability of its products are its USPs. E-commerce sites are no match when it comes to these attributes,” Goswami told Al Jazeera.

Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal and Indian men’s cricketer who has also played in the IPL, agrees.

“Ever since I visited the market for the first time as a 15-year-old, I’ve witnessed first-hand the kinship every young athlete who comes here develops with the market, starting with the buying of equipment,” Tiwary, now 35, told Al Jazeera.

“That relationship is then nurtured by the goodwill of the shopkeepers who go to great lengths to help you pick what’s best for you.”

Most stall owners are hoping for a smooth IPL in April and May to lift sales

For the first two months after the market reopened last June, sellers with stockpiles of fitness equipment made good money while the others struggled to keep their heads above water.

“With gyms shut and outdoor activities prohibited, dumbbells, resistance bands and weight plates sold like hot cakes,” Pradhan recalled.

“Flag vendors, printers, jerseys sellers and bat dealers were starved of an income.”

For sellers like the Islam brothers, Rafique and Nurul, who operate the oldest trophy store in the market, hardly any business came by until December.

“Offices, academies and schools were closed. Who would buy trophies or medals if no sports events take place?” said Rafique, 64, who was one among the first stallholders to test positive for COVID-19 after the reopening of the market.

“It was only after a few local clubs began organising small sports and social events, say, to felicitate front-line workers, did we notice a slight uptick in sales in December and January,” he said.

With most sports coaching academies across the city and local tournaments under the Cricket Association of Bengal having resumed by late February, several old-timers and first-time buyers have since been making their way to Maidan Market.

“The ongoing vaccination drive has lifted the common man’s spirits,” said Somenath Das, while helping his 14-year-old daughter try on a new pair of cricket shoes.

“We took whatever safety precautions we could and came to this market. Growing up, I used to buy all my football gear from here. Now, it’s my daughter’s turn.”

Somenath Das visited Maidan Market to buy his daughter’s cricket shoes

But an air of resignation hangs over the market as a new nationwide surge in cases unfolded in recent weeks, reaching record highs.

Many stallholders fear that the gains made by Maidan Market since the start of this year in restoring a semblance of normalcy to the way it conducts business might be ruined by the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

Most admit that apart from relatively better psychological preparedness, they have little to no measures in place to counter the economic costs of a potential resuspension of all business if infections spiral out of control as they did a year ago.

Most stall owners are hoping for a smooth IPL in April and May to lift sales.

“With the IPL moving to the UAE last year because of the COVID crisis in India, the on-ground excitement around it died, meaning practically no business for us,” Nadim said.

“But even if the next tournament is held entirely behind closed doors, the return of top-flight cricket to the Eden Gardens could create enough buzz for fans and owners of malls, restaurants to buy merchandise from us.

“Ummeed par duniya kayam hain (Hope is what keeps people alive),” he added, as an afterthought.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=19526&feed_id=39652

[massielandnetwork]

Important Economic Trends During Anarchy

 2021 – Let the Games Begin 

          7.   A Christian Secession – Whitewashing 

 In the last week I read somewhere that the Demented Marxist (DM) want to ban the Tom Sawyer books because they are not Politically Correct.  It seems to me we could substitute “Democrat” for “Tom Sawyer” and rename the book “How to use Spin and Whitewash to Mislead Voters by Making Manure Look Good Enough to Eat”.  Spin and Whitewash are important traits of the DMs.  Look at the success they claim in electing Biden, the faux president that supposedly set a record for votes by campaigning on raising taxes.  

72 days into the Demented Marxists’ coup, here are some quick observations of events that will impact our economy:

 1.      The 10-year Treasury hit another new high for the last 12 months reaching 1.741% on Thursday this week.  That is an increase of almost 1.1% since October of last year. The Fed seems content with 10-year Treasury interest rates increasing.  The resulting rising mortgage rates will take some potential home buyers out of the market reducing the froth thus removing the major economic engine of the US recovery.  Historically, the pendulum will swing too far which means the residential Bubble will burst.

 2.      Fresh from passing the $1.9 Trillion whitewashed “Virus Relief Bill” a/k/a Democratic State Bailout Bill, the Democrats/DMs are now targeting a $2 to $4 Trillion “infrastructure bill combined with increasing taxes to take effect in 2022.  In other words, this next bill will raise the deficit by an amount equal to the total annual revenue of the Federal government, approximately $4 Trillion.  That increase in debt will propel interest rates further upward taking even more homebuyers out of the market.

 3.      While we have not yet seen the Bill to raise taxes, the negative combination of (i) increased fuel price’s (Bidenharris Executive Orders); (ii) increased interest rates        (Biddenharris and Demented Marxists in control of Congress) , (iii) and increased Taxes (Bidenharris and the Demented Marxists in control of Congress) is a fatal combination for the USA economy.  Caution - Pain Ahead.

 4.      Have you seen synopsis of the House Democrats passed HR-1?  It is obvious why there were no hearings or discussion allowed by the Demented Marxists. This bill legalizes all of the vote fraud “techniques” used by the Demented Marxists (DM) to “win” last November. Epoch News did a great article about it listing 30 ways HR-1 would eliminate fair elections keeping the DMs in office.  Find it. Read it.

 5.      Talking about the fraudulent election last November, please note:

 a.      The Michigan Supreme Court ruled this week that the Michigan Secretary of State exceeded her authority when she approved a variety of changes to the state’s election laws.  Does that mean the “certified” election in Michigan was a fraud?  Actually…YES.  The DMs are laughing at the majority of voters just like a school yard bully taunting his victims. My guess, there is more to come.

 b.      The UAW not only endorsed Biden but was involved in the alleged vote fraud.  Bidenharris repaid the UAW by allowing Ford to relocate a $1 Billion factory from Ohio to Mexico.  This is a huge negative impact on our economy and it continues the hollowing out of our industrial base which Trump had reversed which the DMs are so good at doing, but I laughed.  After all Trump did for the UAW, the UAW repaid him by supporting Bidenharris including allegedly facilitating the fraudulent ballots.  Then Bidenharris screwed the UAW.         Poetic Justice!  So well deserved and served!

 6.      Talk about Whitewashing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raised the bar:

 a.      Last week DHS stated that over 101,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the USA in February, many wearing Biden T-shirts, was not a crisis even though the Texas Governor has activated the National Guard and DHS has asked for staff to “volunteer” to go help the Border Patrol.  I guess they needed help handing out American taxpayer money to the illegals.

 b.      This week the DHS said Russia, China, and Iran all “tried” to interfere with the November election but did not.  

 c.      That reminds me of the Virginia Electoral Board adding up the same numbers and proclaiming, “Accurate election, no fraud here”.

 d.      Anything short of a complete audit by outside, unrelated experts is the equivalent of asking the thief that robbed your home to investigate the theft.  

 e.      Would you buy a used car from the DHS, the Virginia Electoral Board, or for that matter, any Democrat?  How about if Priny throws in some of her designer ice cream?  Nope.

 Keep focused on the 10-year Treasury interest rate and the upcoming “Infrastructure Bill” partnered with the bill to increase taxes.   Increased interest rates will diminish real estate values and sales.  The increased taxes along with the increased “tax” of rising gas prices will take money out of the consumers pocket thus reducing their ability to buy goods and services.  

 Reduced consumer spending is the definition of a recession in the USA.  All the DM “Whitewash” will not alter that result.  Unsustainable things continue until that unpredictable moment when they stop. Make your decisions based upon higher interest rates, higher taxes next year, and a recession is coming.  Remember, in times of financial crisis “Cash is King”.

 Those who perpetrated the fraudulent elections in DC and Richmond are fraudulently in leadership positions.  They and their similarly motivated enablers, the propaganda mills/former news media, are all consumed by their desire for money and power.  Their corruption will lead to a miserable experience and dark days full of fear exist between now and Sunday.  But hang on, today is Friday, but Sunday is coming.  

 “There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.  For God shows no partiality.”

 (Romans 2:9-11) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)

 A great piece of land remains The Best investment long term unless the DMs get us to full-fledged Marxism.  Capitalism builds wealth, Marxism/Socialism consumes it in self destruction.  Pray for a return to honest elections in the USA.  God is in control.  Men make plans, but God ALWAYS wins.  

 Stay healthy,

Ned  

 Copyright Massie Land Network.  All rights Reserved.

[charlieharry1]

The remaining a-z guide to photograph type for professionals

The closing a-z manual to photograph category for professionals and beginners

Did you already know that the  Digital Marketing Agency Glasgow photograph recognition or photograph classification marketplace is predicted to develop to usd 38. Ninety two billion with the aid of the 12 months 2021? We stay in a visually attractive and spell binding global that shows a number of colorings, shapes, paperwork, textures, and motion. Every human can grasp, integrate, and interpret this visual information depicted round us. Presenting these capabilities to a gadget so that it may interpret and procedure visual statistics in portraits, images, and motion pictures much like human beings do, is a project finished thru image category techniques. But, to acquire that, it is important to shop, process, transmit and recognize visual information. In this article, we can speak exactly that via picture classification, its strategies, and techniques. What's picture type? Have a look at the picture given under. Picture type

source – clipart library

 you can at once inform that it's miles an photograph of a tree. If you analyze how and why you have been capable of answer this visual facts almost instantly, then you'll realize that you mentally categorised the photograph and came up with an answer. This is what photograph class is. Simple, right? Now not actually. Of direction, when you have one or maybe ten pictures, you can classify these images. But, if you have tens of lots of photos, what is going to you do? Consider all the time you can should spend in processing and photo type. Even considering it may be a painful experience. Therefore, automation is the answer to analyze and label every picture quick. Download distinctive curriculum and get complimentary get right of entry to to orientation session

date: 30th may, 2020 (saturday)

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i conform to virtual vidya privacy policy & terms of use. How is that this performed? Picture type strategies! One of the only examples of image classification being used in the enterprise proper now is self-riding vehicles. To build a self-riding vehicle, photo type using tensorflow turned into the dominant approach. This is due to the fact by the usage of this machine, the self-using self sustaining device can stumble on objects, humans, and motors in the front of the auto. Allow’s see a number of the important factors worried. 1) statistics gathering

information collecting is the foundation of photograph classification strategies. When you have fine and sufficient records, then you could train your set of rules or gadget nicely. If you don’t have first-class records or enough statistics, you could’t attain photo identification with performance. You may collect records from github, open pics on google, and so on. 2) annotation of statistics

annotation is the following step for photo class the usage of cnn or different strategies. It means labeling your information to get right of entry to it properly. This is carried out with the help of key phrases including image, video, etc. There are various methods of labeling records along with polygon, bounding box, semantic, key factor, and redaction annotation. You can use equipment like through, comma coloring, and so forth. 3) processing of data

records processing is finished at the facts to be had to make it more handy. Pre-processing is vital to make your facts effective for the algorithms. You may use diverse techniques for this step, inclusive of web page segmentation approach, photograph enhancement approach, thresholding technique, individual segmentation, or morphological preprocessing. Technologies used in image type

commonly, technologies combining artificial intelligence and camera are utilized for it. Here are some of the main technology which useful resource picture category techniques:

 1) hog technology

the hog generation or histogram of oriented gradients is a tool utilized to stumble on items which might be discovered in a video or photograph the use of a characteristic descriptor. This tool moves a sliding detection window across the image to manner the photograph. Then, the descriptor is processed via a guide vector device, to be able to then title the object as non-individual or man or woman. 2) haar generation

the haar generation or excessive altitude aerial reconnaissance is a tool utilized to understand gadgets. This device takes the adjacent regions in the detection window in a square form. Then, the tool adds the pixel intensities as calculated of every area and unearths out differences in these sums. Here are a number of the haar tool capabilities related to image category:

 · facet function which is applied to discover edges.

· 4 rectangle function that's applied to discover slanted lines.

· line feature that is applied to discover traces. 3) photo type the use of cnn

photo classification the usage of cnn is a part of neural networks. It's far one of the most extensively utilized methods for photo category, and you may regularly locate cnn being applied for visual imagery in many photograph identity systems. Essentially, photograph class the use of tensorflow incorporates two primary components, extraction, and type. Which means the function is first extracted after which categorised. A way to construct an image classification model? 1) motivation

there’s constantly a motivating aspect in the back of every facts scientist who wants to apprehend photograph category. This motivation can be your using pressure. So, we have utilized this as the first step due to the fact it's far hard to make a model without motivation. 2) dataset

after you are motivated to build an photograph type version the use of cnn, pick out your dataset. Your statistics or images need to be of exceptional, as higher high-quality pictures always assist you maintain accuracy for your model. If you are taking snap shots from the internet, there's a excessive risk that your version will now not carry out as expected. As an instance, it's going to display overfitting. To resolve this difficulty, you may either use the unique source of snap shots or films or fix the overfitting hassle. If you want to restore this trouble, you may decrease the epochs number, song hyperparameters, and so on. It's far essential to note that through these techniques, we're trying to create a education set which is much like our take a look at set. Further, you also need to upsample your set by way of information augmentation when you have greater photographs from the source and less from the net. In many case eventualities, you'll have greater samples from the internet and much less from the source. So, to keep a stability, utilize a facts augmentation tool. Three) validation set

it's miles commonplace to make the validation set with a random sample. The technique is extremely easy however now not efficient. You can produce leaks in your validation set, because of this that your picture classification model will don't forget the historical past information but no longer the feature itself. Some facts scientists reduce the possibilities of a leak with the aid of using one kind of photo for the training set and some other sort of picture for the validation set. However, consider to monitor both schooling and validation units carefully to avoid overfitting and leaks. Four) architecture

as soon as you have determined for your validation set and training set, you need to finalize a computer imaginative and prescient architecture. Luckily, there are more than one options, including squeezenet, resnet, xception, densenet, and so forth. For example, if you pick out resnet, it is a simple architecture this is ideal for amateur photograph class models. This architecture has more than one resnet block in conjunction with identity blocks, which might be organized on pinnacle of one another. In this structure of image class, the final results is joined with the previous convolution outcome. Which means the structure mechanically attempts to parent out the difference within the next and previous layer, which ends up in development in solutions. Five) training model

to installation your training model for picture category, you could make use of the fastai library. You just need to write down 4-five code strains to set up a reliable and strong photo classification model using cnn. Observe those steps for image type education version installation:

 i) set up an photograph transformation mechanism. This can assist your version to save you overfitting problems we were discussing for some time now. However, we've already executed augmentations at some point of upsampling. Subsequently, try to keep away from similar augmentations in this step. Ii) after this, set up your data loader, that allows you to include a schooling set, take a look at facts, and a validation set. This loader may also include facts related to batch size, photograph transformation, and image length. Iii) now, handiest finetune your ultimate layer and don’t contact different layers. This will assist you get affordable outcomes earlier than finetuning all of the layers. You have to preserve high getting to know prices for the last layer of the photo type method. Iv) set up or finetune different layers with a little less learning charge because these layers are already exact enough at detecting a few functions. 6) version interpretation

while you are making an photo class model, you want to analyze the predictions of the version to make sure performance and correctness. You may accomplish this via various methods together with take a look at pinnacle predictions and plot confusion matrix. However, from time to time, those interpretations can go incorrect. Subsequently, to interpret your model with accuracy, you could use the grad-cam method. First of all, make use of the gradients of target layers to focus on massive regions for prediction instructions. Then, use backpropagation to extract superb contributions made to the gradient. 7) improvements

lastly, enhance. There’s usually room for improvement in every model. While you start making your picture type version, you don’t understand what could go wrong till you train it and take a look at it. Once you have ultimately made the version, it's time to enhance this version by making changes. You can trade the architecture to better in shape your version, or you could alter your validation set for better consequences. A majority of these improvements have to be made earlier than finalizing your version. Applications of photograph classification

there are more than one applications of image class models currently placed to apply in actual-global systems. On this component, we will speak some of the programs which use various photo type techniques. 1) visible inspection gadget

an automatic visual inspection model is designed to decorate the exceptional of merchandise inside the production industries. Right here are the numerous applications of photo class automated visible inspection model:

 i) picture category may be utilized in bulb production. It is commonplace for bulb filaments to fuse because of faulty geometry. Guide inspection isn't enough to capture this mistake with accuracy. Ii) an automatic visible inspection version is likewise used in industries to pick out defective additives. Seeing that these faulty components of electronic systems radiate more thermal electricity, industries locate them the use of the infrared pics. Iii) image category techniques also are utilized in detecting mistakes at the surface of rolled metallic. 2) far flung scene interpretation

various photograph type techniques can be applied to experience scenes of herbal sources remotely. For instance, expertise the situation and situations of wooded area, soil, and other geological sources helps in flood control, resource making plans, etc. Down load exact curriculum and get complimentary get right of entry to to orientation session

 date: 30th can also, 2020 (saturday)

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i agree to digital vidya privacy policy & terms of use. 3) biomedical imaging

it's far common for us to get ct scans, ultrasounds, and so forth. A majority of these imaging gadgets are based on photograph category fashions. As an example, whilst we cross for an mri or ct-experiment, the following steps are conducted by the device:

Read Also:-  Some tips to hire the best Content Marketing consultant

 i) localizing the organ of interest

 ii) measuring gadgets together with a tumor

 iii) diagnosing the item for in addition evaluation

 numerous varieties of biomedical imaging can be used in the clinical enterprise, including heart disease identity through radiographic pictures and lung ailment identity through chest x-rays. Photograph class packages

supply – einfochips

 four) defense surveillance

protection surveillance is a big area of picture category. In every united states of america, there's a dire want for tracking the ocean or land region. Manually reaching that is practically impossible. Therefore, image class is applied to reveal the sea and land to a exquisite quantity and accuracy. Any uncommon interest may be immediately detected, monitored, and rectified. Five) monitoring moving gadgets

photograph classification can track moving objects to recognize the parameters of the object. You can reap this through motion-based totally and popularity-based totally monitoring. Whilst we need to music fast-targets along with a missile, then we utilize movement-based totally tracking consisting of prolonged kalman filtering. In recognition-based totally tracking, successive frames are tracked the usage of role facts. 6) video and image compression

photograph and video compression is another enormous advantage. With the growing call for for garage and the benefit of storing visible facts, there is a want for compression technology. Consider it; it'd be quite difficult to transmit uncompressed media over the internet today. Download unique curriculum and get complimentary get entry to to orientation consultation

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image classification is an critical technique that you may make use of in diverse real-international applications. Subsequently, you need to make investments a while and sources in building packages that can deliver cost to users. Read the above statistics to benefit some fundamental understanding of the way you can begin building your very own picture category version. Are you stimulated by way of the possibility of photograph  Digital Marketing Agency Cardiff type and system mastering? If you make a decision to examine gadget learning, you will have ample activity potentialities in severa industries. Enroll in virtual vidya’s device getting to know direction these days!

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