The Bermuda International Gymnastics Challenge will be held at the Training Centre in St David’s in March next year. Organised by Bermuda Gymnastics, the competition is from March 16 to 17, with male and female athletes judged under USA Gymnastics rules, all Xcel levels and levels 1 to 10. The entry deadline for gymnasts is […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] When Sydney Mason retired from gymnastics aged 18, she did not expect it to take five years to discover a sport that excited and challenged her as much as her first sporting love. Mason was once the top gymnast on the island, representing Bermuda at the Pan American Games in Toronto […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] The Bermuda Gymnastics Association [BGA] has expanded its operation by opening a second training facility called The Loft on Marsh Lane in Devonshire. Anna Balada, the BGA head coach, believes the more centrally located facility will help attract youngsters to the sport who cannot travel as far as Southside, St David’s, […]

The Bermuda Gymnastics Association [BGA] will hold its February Break Camp at its new Loft facility on Marsh Lane, Devonshire. The camp runs from February 12 to 16 for 4 to 12-year-olds and will include an excursion to the BGA’s main training base in Southside, St David’s. The full camp, costing $320, runs from 9 […]

The Bermuda Gymnastics Association [BGA] will hold its Spring Break Camps at its new Loft facility on Marsh Lane, Devonshire. The first camp runs from March 25 to 28 and the second from April 1 and 5 and will include an excursion to the BGA’s main training base in Southside, St David’s. The full camp […]

[Opinion column written by Joleah Lamb] There are more than 11 billion pieces of plastic debris on coral reefs across the Asia-Pacific, according to our new research, which also found that contact with plastic can make corals more than 20 times more susceptible to disease. In our study, published in Science, we examined more than […]

A car that was wrapped in plastic to help defend against Hurricane Gonzalo — with the photo of it becoming a hit on social media  – has come through the hurricane in picture perfect condition, with no scratches or debris. Bernews posted a photo of the car on social media just prior to Gonzalo’s arrival […]

Cole Durham and Muryah Swan were among the gold medal winners at the Bermuda Open Wushu Championships at Whitney Institute Middle School on Saturday [November 2]. In the wushu Sanda [Chinese kickboxing] advanced men’s division, Durham won gold, Kaelin Cox claimed silver and Che Beane took bronze. Reyel Bowen defeated Durham 2-0 in an advanced […]

Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, will be the honorary guest speaker for the Chubb Bermuda Triangle Challenge on January 17-19, 2025. A spokesperson said, “The Chubb Bermuda Triangle Challenge [CBTC] is pleased to announce that the President of the World Athletics, Lord Sebastian Coe CH, KBE, has agreed to be the honorary guest […]

Priya Parker's book The Art of The Gathering (TAoG) was recommended to me by a friend from church who knows how much I enjoy putting together events for others.
As I began reading TAoF, I was quite inspired by the rich meaning Parker ascribes to gathering, and the significant possibilities of making a concrete difference in the world through our gatherings. Yes, I nodded to myself, the events I put together do matter. Nice ego stroke. But as she laid out a step by step methodology for ensuring those gatherings have purpose and are effective, my kneejerk reaction was that her approach felt overly controlling and I worried my guests would resent the kind of manipulative engineering she describes. What happened to organic gatherings that are completely open and free from any sort of direction? Isn't that where happiness and change can take root? Turns out, not so much. She makes a very good case for why proper planning and execution of gatherings under thoughtful leadership make for the best gatherings. I recalled the best events I've ever been to, and had to admit Parker was right - those that were carefully planned with purpose and direction, where the guests and activities were curated, turned out to be the most impactful.
So I've made it a goal to put the principles she's laid out in TAoG into practice, and it's going well so far. I set an intentional purpose for each gathering. I curate the invite list based on that purpose. I choose a setting that aids the purpose (the right density; the right locale). I actively manage the event - not heavy handed mind you, but not laissez faire - to protect/equalize/connect my guests. I aim to always create a temporary escape from the world during my events. I work hard before each event and prime my guests for the event. During the events, I include activities that encourage people to open up with each other. And I close the events with a recollection of our purpose, summarize the event, and try to leave my guests with something memorable.
If you are responsible (or enjoy and would like to be responsible) for organizing and hosting events (for work, for pleasure, as a volunteer, etc) I highly recommend this book. Life is too short to just go through the motions of meetings and events; they should be infused with purpose and Parker can teach you how to make it so. I especially encourage this as a read for those in the Christian community who have been given the gift of hospitality and want to refine and improve their event hosting, understanding that showing God's love to others through event planning and hosting is important work in the kingdom.

New York Magazine published an excerpt from Ivana Trump's memoir Raising Trump - and it has since become a wildly entertaining meme. Thhe excerpt is actually a quote from Ivanka, reminiscing about her "punk" days. 

"During my punk phase in the nineties, I was really into Nirvana. My wardrobe consisted of ripped corduroy jeans and flannel shirts. One day after school, I dyed my hair blue. Mom wasn't a fan of this decision. She took one look at me and immediately went out to the nearest drugstore to buy a $10 box of Nice'n Easy. That night, she forced me to dye my hair back to blond. The color she picked out was actually three shades lighter than my natural color… and I have never looked back!"

The quote has left Twitter users in stitches, making Photoshop memes and mocking the wealthy businesswoman's statement. The results have been delightful. 

We haven't seen it yet, but we've seen all the trailers and we have THOUGHTS. John, Frak, and Melissa discuss the "Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore" revelations — like the fact that it's almost certainly the last one.

~*~

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This episode was produced by Melissa Anelli. Hosts Melissa Anelli, Frank Franco, and John Noe. PotterCast is (c) PotterCast 2005-2022.

Words have the power to lift us up or tear us down, and nowhere is this more true than in our closest relationships. Understanding how language shapes our emotional connections can make all the difference between feeling deeply loved or feeling disconnected. One of the most potent tools for enhancing intimacy and trust in a ... Read more

The post Building Lasting Relationships Through Words of Affirmation appeared first on LifeHack.

Plastic and floating debris are part of a problem that is rapidly growing. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is just one example of how water pollution and trash dumping are spiraling out of our control. Big, floating heaps of debris like the GPGP require interventions that are on a larger scale. This includes those carried out by The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization that removes floating ocean debris. However, what about smaller-scale solutions? Coastlines and local waterways also suffer from water pollution as a result of littering. This threatens biodiversity by causing illness and reproductive issues, particularly when aquatic[...]

Join the Program in Judaic Studies and the Department of Religion on Tuesday, November 19, for this talk delivered by Ilana Pardes. Lunch will be available before the event's start, between 11:30am–12:00pm only. The account of the rise of Israelite kingship in the Book of Samuel is one of the greatest narratives of antiquity that has been passed down to us. Far from being a dry chronicle, it offers both an unblinking perspective on political realities and a daring representation of the humanness, the nakedness, of royal figures. The talk will revolve around the encounter of King David and the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Samuel 14). Special attention will be given to the dramas behind the scenes, to the hidden links between the parabolic tale of the wise woman and the story of the House of David. All are welcome to attend, but space is limited – please RSVP to judaic@princeton.edu and note any dietary needs. More about Ilana Pardes Ilana Pardes is the Katharine Cornell Professor of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Program in Judaic Studies Program at Princeton University. Her work has focused on the nexus of Bible, literature, and culture as well as on questions of gender, aesthetics, and hermeneutics. She is the author of Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach (Harvard University Press, 1992), The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible (University of California Press, 2000), Melville's Bibles (University of California, 2008), Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture (The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies, University of Washington Press, 2013), The Song of Songs: A Biography (Princeton University Press, Lives of Great Religious Books, 2019), and Ruth: A Migrant’s Tale (Yale University Press, Jewish Lives, 2022).

President Obama's recent press conference on March 26 was available for online viewing.

According to an article written by Chris Lefkow on Yahoo, 67,000 watched the webcast live. Of course, millions if not tens of millions watched the press conference live on broadcast television so what is the big deal about another 60,000 or so watching on the web?

I wrote about the democratizing effect of using the internet to bypass the Washington press corps and taking questions from the people in my last post.

But there is at least one more point of interest. The Obama press conference exemplifies how video can be used to great effect in the enterprise.

The internet will never supplant television's ability to broadcast to tens of millions of people. Why pay for the bandwidth to replicate the scale and quality of a broadcast platform that already works very well?

But the internet does scale rather well to the needs of the enterprise: an audience of tens of thousands. And there are several "internet television" services that are emerging to deliver video across the corporate network to the employees.

But this begs the question: why should a corporation or organization invest in a network able to deliver video across its enterprise and then settle for pre-recorded video with no interactivity?

It was not the video feed that made the Obama press conference so noteworthy. It was the 104,129 questions that were submitted by the American people. Enterprise video is much more effective when it is combined with interactive rich media features like live questions and answers, live polling, surveys, testing and certification, synchronized PowerPoint, whiteboarding, registration and reporting, etc. Choosing to merely deliver the video - live or on-demand - is choosing to ignore the strengths of webcasting and get the least bang for your buck.

Why invest in servers and hubs and routers and content engines and then settle for a video platform that does not enable interactivity?

According to research done by Steve Vander Haar that he shared in a recent webcast, 68% of executives polled believe streaming video has measurable value only when it is combined with a registration system that enables reporting about who watched.

Registration and reporting adds accountability to internal communications and adds measurable results and lead generation to external communications. Internet television gives that capability away when it simply loops pre-recorded video in a window on one's website.

President Obama's press conference is a template for the effective use of internet video in the enterprise. Just as the televised Nixon vs. Kennedy debate serves as the defining example for understanding the difference between television and radio in politics, I believe this press conference will be regarded similarly for its effect on politics and on business communications.

There are plenty of corporations out there who are already doing a great job with rich media. Some of them are my clients. But the nature of corporate communications is that much of the content is for an internal audience, so there is not an obvious opportunity for organizations to learn from the successes of others. But the Obama press conference lays the formula bare for all to see.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is hosting a webcast at 1 pm EDT today, Friday August 7.

Use the hashtag #HCRQ to ask a question via Twitter or email hhsstudio@hhs.gov.

As the article appeared in TechCrunch...

IVT, a company that produces enterprise-friendly webcasting software, has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding from Syncom Venture Partners with Barshop Ventures, Monitor Ventures and Tudor Ventures participating in the investment round. IVT raised $3 million in Series A funding in 2006.
IVT’s SaaS offering not only helps power webcasts, but also converts multimedia files, such as slideshows, into viewable videos for the web. IVT also offers a YouTube-like hosting and social media site for companies to disseminate videos and webcasts. And the startup has a number of prominent companies that use its webcasting software including Oracle, Dow Chemical, IBM and NEC.

IVT, Inc. has moved its industry-leading MediaPlatform webcasting software platform to the cloud. With MediaPlatform increasingly being used in large-scale webcasts by media producers, as well as Fortune 500 clients, the company is elevating its delivery capacity through a partnership with a tier-1 cloud infrastructure provider.

“Our mission has always been to deliver the best quality of service and enable our clients to produce webcasts at literally any audience size without concern for infrastructure,” said Jim McGovern, Chief Executive Officer of IVT. “Now that cloud-based platforms are gaining widespread acceptance across the IT world, we can give our clients the benefit of switching capacity on and off when required.”

This is not the first time IVT has been ahead of the technology curve in the webcasting industry. The company pioneered the concept of offering webcasting software on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis with MediaPlatform. With MediaPlatform in the cloud, IVT enables its clients to benefit from what is rapidly emerging as the new paradigm for corporate computing.

In the cloud, MediaPlatform’s web services architecture can more readily serve diverse client needs by integrating with a range of enterprise systems, both cloud-based and on-premises.
The cloud, an approach to computing that places servers and infrastructure in remote, abstracted datacenters, is ideal for webcasting, which is known for unpredictable spikes in system load. By working with a tier-1 cloud infrastructure provider, IVT gains virtually unlimited capacity and world-class security, reliability, redundancy, failover, and load management.

IVT will continue to support the numerous on-premises installations of its software, including major deployments at global enterprises. IVT prides itself on offering its clients the choice between hosted and on-premises options.

You can see the archive of my discussion with the editors of Simply-communicate about the difference between Web Conferencing and Webcasting by going to their site:

http://www.simply-communicate.com/

They also link to the MediaPlatform White Paper that discusses the same topic.

MediaPlatform WebCaster and Adobe's Flash Media Enterprise Server 4 with Hybrid Flash Multicasting bring a game changing solution to the challenge of delivering video to the enterprise without requiring a seven figure hardware investment for multicasting.

Up to now, solutions for managing streaming video bandwidth issues required networks of expensive hardware, ranging from Enterprise Content Delivery Networks to WAN Acceleration devices. And all of these solutions dictated Windows Media as your video format. Hybrid Flash Multicasting offers a better way; it works seamlessly with traditional IP multicast networks AND it also provides a Peer Assist multicast solution for the parts of your network that are not IP multicast enabled.

Hybrid Flash Multicasting is an outstanding solution because it:

1) allows corporations to continue leveraging the hardware investments they have made and utilize traditional IP Multicasting with Flash instead of Windows Media.

2) allows corporations to reach bandwidth-challenged locations that are not on the multicast WAN or new locations whose networks are not multicast-enabled with a relatively low cost Peer Assist solution (because it does not require new routers and configuration of switches, etc.).

This solution solves the challenge of allowing video to reach 100% of your desktops without requiring a million dollar investment in a new eCDN. And unlike other peering solutions, there is no proprietary agent that has to be propagated to every desktop. All your employees' computers need is the latest Flash player.

Here is how MediaPlatform fits into the equation:

Our WebCaster software is the only streaming video solution that integrates the multicast-enabled Flash player, as well as leveraging Flash's ability to create a cross platform viewing experience, switch between multiple live and pre-recorded video sources, switch bit rates and codecs on the fly, support mobile devices, support H.264 and VP6 to create higher quality video at lower bandwidths, etc. With our software you can take advantage of Flash to upgrade your streaming communications to a more functional format that will work behind the firewall and to the public internet, will work on any browser and operating system, and can deliver content to mobile devices.

An article about Hybrid Flash Multicasting that features MediaPlatform's CTO, Greg Pulier, recently appeared in the Flex Developer's Journal.  Click here to link to the article

Here is the opening paragraph:

Hybrid Flash multicasting is the second and decisive wave of innovation that will enable enterprises to stream video without overtaxing their network infrastructures. It eliminates the usual tradeoffs between video consumption and network investment, regardless of increased video traffic in budget-constrained corporate networks. Hybrid Flash multicasting also solves the cost and complexity challenges of IP multicasting. By combining a new form of multicasting, known as application multicasting, which leverages a peer-assisted model of video sharing with an IP multicast network, a video stream can reach virtually everyone on the network using existing bandwidth and infrastructure. Hybrid multicasting finally unlocks the full potential for video within the enterprise by combining IP and application multicasting to deliver streaming media using the most efficient algorithms within a dynamic self-optimizing topology.

Sir Kenny Dalglish hailed nine-time Major champion Gary Player and expressed his delight at Liverpool's position at the top of the Premier League during his visit to South Africa this weekend.

What are the lasting impacts of the AUKUS agreement? Interview LJefferson 15 August 2022

Drawing on their International Affairs article, Jamal Barnes and Samuel Makinda outline the effect of AUKUS on Australia-France relations and the liberal order.

Almost a year after the surprise announcement of the AUKUS treaty, its full diplomatic implications are still being understood. The security cooperation agreement between Australia, the US and the UK caused outrage in France and was a notable source of discord between states that see themselves as defenders of the liberal international order.

In this interview Jamal Barnes and Samuel Makinda discuss their recent article in International Affairs and assess the effect of the agreement on relationships between its signatories and France and the EU, the potential for reconciliation in the treaty’s aftermath, as well as the implications it has for trust in world politics.  

What was the AUKUS treaty and why did Australia sign it?

The AUKUS treaty is an agreement between Australia, the US and the UK. Signed in 2021, it facilitates cooperation on security issues in the Indo-Pacific between the three countries – specifically, it concerns the sharing of ‘military capabilities and critical technologies, such as cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and undersea domains’.

A key aspect is that Australia will purchase nuclear-fuelled submarines from either the US or UK. Australia decided to purchase nuclear-powered submarines – and reneged on its 2016 agreement to purchase French-built diesel-propelled submarines – because it believed that the French-made submarines were no longer fit for purpose.

However, the agreement is about more than submarines. Although Australia, the UK and US argue that AUKUS is designed to defend the rules-based international order and help ‘preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific’, AUKUS has been largely seen as a response to the rise of China and its military activities in the region. The AUKUS agreement reflects the increased attention that the US, UK and Australia are paying to the Indo-Pacific and their commitment to constraining China’s exercise of power in the region.

What were the effects of the AUKUS treaty on relations between Australia and France?

It led to a serious diplomatic rift. Australian officials, including former Prime Minister Morrison, had visited President Macron in France and told him nothing about AUKUS. Morrison had assured Macron in June 2021 while former Australian foreign and defence ministers had assured their French counterparts that Australia was fully committed to the purchase of French submarines just two weeks before the announcement of AUKUS.

When French officials found out about AUKUS on the day it was announced on 15 September 2021, they declared publicly that they had been betrayed and stabbed in the back. Not only had France built its relationship with Australia on trust, but its relationship was more than just about submarines. It was designed to be central to France’s 50-year engagement strategy in the Indo-Pacific. However, France was not only left out of talks but was also betrayed by a country it considered a close ally.

France responded by temporarily recalling its ambassador and stated that it would ‘redefine’ its relationship with Australia. It did not say that it would not work with Australia, but rather downgraded its relationship to one where it would only do so on a case-by-case basis.

In your article you mention that the AUKUS treaty was seen as a betrayal of trust by France in particular. Why use the word ‘betrayal’?

The word betrayal is accurate because Australia’s actions went beyond simply cancelling a business contract. Australia breached France’s trust. Not all agreements involve trust. Some are driven by self-interest while others are simply legal contracts. When these agreements are broken, the usual response is feelings of disappointment and a belief that one party is unreliable and has not lived up to its end of the agreement.

However, when diplomatic partnerships involve trust, they often contain an emotional element. A key element of trust is that one party makes itself vulnerable to another in the expectation that neither party will take advantage. When that trust is breached, the response is different from a breach of contract.

It involves feelings of betrayal as deeper emotional factors are involved. This could be seen in President Macron’s anger, and his and other French officials’ willingness to publicly call Prime Minister Morrison a liar who had stabbed France in the back. If the previous France-Australia agreement was simply a legal contract, it would have been difficult to explain the emotional element of this diplomatic fallout.

How did the signing of the AUKUS treaty affect wider relations between members of AUKUS and EU member states?

The EU, like France, felt betrayed by the AUKUS announcement. Despite being a key ally of the US, Australia, and the UK, it was left out of AUKUS discussions, and was not aware of the agreement until it was announced in the media.

What made this worse was that the EU was in the process of announcing its Indo-Pacific strategy, which was characterized as ‘maybe one of the [EU’s] most important geopolitical documents’ by High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs, Josep Borrell. For the EU, this was the latest in a long line of recent policy betrayals that had left it uncertain if it could trust key allies on important issues. The result was greater calls from within the EU to more forcefully pursue ‘strategic autonomy’, meaning a more assertive and independent EU foreign policy.

Do betrayals of trust affect the health of the liberal international order?

Yes, they can. While it is common for leaders in liberal democracies to lie to their own people, lying to the leaders of other countries can have serious repercussions for the norms, rules and institutions of international society. A key aspect of international society is the ‘presumption of trust’ that facilitates legal compliance and diplomatic cooperation.

Without this presumption it is difficult for states to engage in long term partnerships or have confidence that diplomatic agreements will be upheld. In our article, we highlight how Australia’s violation of a particular norm, that agreements must be kept, has undermined this presumption of trust. This norm not only helps build trust between states, but also contributes to the maintenance of international order by helping to support the presumption of trust in international society.

Fossil Fuels Expert Roundtable: Forecasting Forum 2018 12 February 2018 — 2:00PM TO 5:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 18 December 2017 Chatham House, London

This forum will present the latest thinking from senior researchers on the dynamics that will affect fossil fuels investment and markets in the year ahead. The first session will assess the various factors keeping oil and gas prices from bouncing back and will consider conditions and political developments that could influence markets in the year ahead. The second session will assess the future of the power sector and what this means for the fossil fuels industry.

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Forecasting Forum 2019 29 January 2019 — 2:00PM TO 5:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 17 December 2018 Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

This annual forum, previously held as part of the Fossil Fuels Expert Roundtable but now re-branded under the Energy Transitions Roundtable, presents the latest thinking from the Energy, Environment and Research Department’s senior research team on the dynamics that will affect fossil fuels investment and markets in the year ahead. This year, the forum will have three sessions:

Session 1 | 14:05 - 15:00 | Climate Trends

In December, a ‘playbook’ to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement was agreed by 196 countries at the UN’s COP24 in Poland. Despite this success, challenges surrounding common reporting requirements, degree-pathways to pursue, increasing ambition and the implementation of NDCs still remain. In this session, Pete Betts, former Head of International Climate and Energy at the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, will reflect on developments in the climate agenda and what action should be taken both in the UK and internationally against the backdrop of Brexit.

Session 2 | 15:15 - 16:15 | An Outlook for Oil in 2019

The future of crude oil prices for 2019 is perhaps more uncertain than it has been for several years. Following a period between 2014-17 when over-supply banished geopolitics from influencing the oil price, the market appears to be struggling to price political risk. Recently the OPEC Plus agreement was renewed in an effort to curtail production and defend prices but its effectiveness is in question as the shale technology revolution in the US continues to add to global supply - but for how long? Meanwhile, US relations with Saudi Arabia remain uncertain in the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi: how might Saudi oil policy unfold? Similarly, how might Iran respond to President Trump’s unilateral abrogation of the JCPOA agreement? In this session, Paul Stevens looks at the geopolitical factors that might influence crude oil prices in 2019.

Session 3 | 16:30 - 17:30 | An Outlook for Coal

The rapid phase-out of coal-fired power stations is crucial to the delivery of the goals of the Paris Agreement and to the safeguarding of clean air and water and public health. Some policy and economic developments show that the coal sector is in structural decline, and there is growing international momentum behind coal phase-out. At the same time, many of the largest coal trading countries and companies continue to argue the short-term profitability of the sector but at what cost? This session will explore the national and international risks that continued investment in coal present and the developments that could change this in the year ahead.

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Forecasting Forum 2020 17 February 2020 — 2:00PM TO 5:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 15 January 2020 Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

The Forecasting Forum 2020 will present the latest thinking from the Chatham House Energy, Environment and Resources Department’s senior research team on the dynamics that will affect fossil fuel and energy investments and markets in the year ahead.

14:00 - 14:30 | Introduction and Climate Risks Outlook

In the last decade, following the financial crisis, the literature on systemic risks has grown. Systemic risks occur when complex, non-linear, interconnected systems fail, often through relatively small perturbations, as their impacts cascade and amplify across the system. Within this context, climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ with the risks increasing in scale, frequency and magnitude. Just as complex systems can pass thresholds and tip from a functional state to a non-functional state, so can societies and people’s attitudes. Together risk cascades or systemic risks and attitudinal tipping points have the potential to rapidly change the way the world works.

Professor Tim Benton will open the Forecasting Forum 2020 with reflections on what this might mean for the pace and linearity of the fossil fuel transition.

14:30 - 15:30 | Session 1: An Outlook on Oil Prices in 2020

In this session, Professor Paul Stevens will argue that the recent events associated with the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani have exacerbated the sensitivity of oil markets to political events and brought ‘geopolitics’ back into global oil prices. Up to 2014, geopolitics played a key role in determining oil prices in the paper markets where perceptions and expectations ruled. By 2014, the world was so oversupplied with real oil barrels that the oil price collapsed and little attention was given to geopolitical events as geopolitics became marginalized in the determination of crude oil prices. However, recent events in the Middle East suggest that prices will become increasingly volatile but, at the same time, benefit from a rising geopolitical premium.

15:45 - 16:45 | Session 2: An Outlook for Energy in 2020

Recent years have brought significant disruption to the European power sector. Not only are many of Europe’s major utilities restructuring their businesses in light of decarbonization and technological developments but Brexit has distracted - and detracted from - efforts to create more systemic energy linkages between the UK and the rest of Europe. During his presentation, Antony Froggatt will draw on his ongoing research to outline what he believes are the prevailing challenges and opportunities for the European power sector over the coming year while highlighting some of the most significant global trends.

Please note, attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Forecasting forum 2021 28 January 2021 — 12:30PM TO 2:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 21 January 2021 Online

Speakers explore the dynamics that will likely affect fossil fuel demand, energy investments and markets in the year ahead.

The Forecasting Forum 2021 presents the latest thinking from the Energy, Environment and Resources Programme’s senior research team and colleagues on the dynamics that will likely affect fossil fuel demand, energy investments and markets in the year ahead.

Focus is given to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first 100 days of the new Biden administration in the US, and the run-up to COP26. The extraordinary developments over the last year have demonstrated the need consider and discuss a wide range of possible futures and the factors that affect them to help improve system resilience and increase stability, whilst achieving sustainability.

For the first time, this annual event was run online and consisted of a panel discussion on what the year ahead might hold.

Forecasting forum 2022 2 February 2022 — 2:00PM TO 3:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 17 January 2022 Online

The Environment and Society Programme’s senior research team will discuss the emerging geopolitical trends that may impact energy markets and investments in 2022.

The Forecasting Forum 2022 presents the latest thinking from the Environment and Society Programme’s senior research team on the dynamics that will likely affect fossil fuel demand, energy investments and markets in the year ahead.

The event will discuss a wide range of emerging geopolitical trends that may impact energy markets and investments in 2022, including continuing uncertainty around COVID-19, fuel price changes, US political direction and progress of President Biden’s climate agenda, and growing shareholder activism within some of the largest energy companies. Moreover, the implications of pledges made at COP26 will start to materialize, ahead of a new climate scenarios report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the COP27 summit in Egypt. In this respect, the panel will assess whether 2022 could prove to be a decisive year for the energy transition. 

Cancer cachexia is characterized by reductions in peripheral lean muscle mass. Prior studies have primarily focused on increased protein breakdown as the driver of cancer-associated muscle wasting. Therapeutic interventions targeting catabolic pathways have, however, largely failed to preserve muscle mass in cachexia, suggesting that other mechanisms might be involved. In pursuit of novel pathways, we used untargeted metabolomics to search for metabolite signatures that may be linked with muscle atrophy. We injected 7-week–old C57/BL6 mice with LLC1 tumor cells or vehicle. After 21 days, tumor-bearing mice exhibited reduced body and muscle mass and impaired grip strength compared with controls, which was accompanied by lower synthesis rates of mixed muscle protein and the myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic muscle fractions. Reductions in protein synthesis were accompanied by mitochondrial enlargement and reduced coupling efficiency in tumor-bearing mice. To generate mechanistic insights into impaired protein synthesis, we performed untargeted metabolomic analyses of plasma and muscle and found increased concentrations of two methylarginines, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and NG-monomethyl-l-arginine, in tumor-bearing mice compared with control mice. Compared with healthy controls, human cancer patients were also found to have higher levels of ADMA in the skeletal muscle. Treatment of C2C12 myotubes with ADMA impaired protein synthesis and reduced mitochondrial protein quality. These results suggest that increased levels of ADMA and mitochondrial changes may contribute to impaired muscle protein synthesis in cancer cachexia and could point to novel therapeutic targets by which to mitigate cancer cachexia.

Elevated levels of fasting insulin release and insufficient glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) are hallmarks of diabetes. Studies have established cross-talk between integrin signaling and insulin activity, but more details of how integrin-dependent signaling impacts the pathophysiology of diabetes are needed. Here, we dissected integrin-dependent signaling pathways involved in the regulation of insulin secretion in β-cells and studied their link to the still debated autocrine regulation of insulin secretion by insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 2–AKT signaling. We observed for the first time a cooperation between different AKT isoforms and focal adhesion kinase (FAK)–dependent adhesion signaling, which either controlled GSIS or prevented insulin secretion under fasting conditions. Indeed, β-cells form integrin-containing adhesions, which provide anchorage to the pancreatic extracellular matrix and are the origin of intracellular signaling via FAK and paxillin. Under low-glucose conditions, β-cells adopt a starved adhesion phenotype consisting of actin stress fibers and large peripheral focal adhesion. In contrast, glucose stimulation induces cell spreading, actin remodeling, and point-like adhesions that contain phospho-FAK and phosphopaxillin, located in small protrusions. Rat primary β-cells and mouse insulinomas showed an adhesion remodeling during GSIS resulting from autocrine insulin/IGF2 and AKT1 signaling. However, under starving conditions, the maintenance of stress fibers and the large adhesion phenotype required autocrine IGF2-IGF1 receptor signaling mediated by AKT2 and elevated FAK-kinase activity and ROCK-RhoA levels but low levels of paxillin phosphorylation. This starved adhesion phenotype prevented excessive insulin granule release to maintain low insulin secretion during fasting. Thus, deregulation of the IGF2 and adhesion-mediated signaling may explain dysfunctions observed in diabetes.

Stephanie E. Hood
Dec 1, 2020; 61:1720-1732
Research Articles

Lipins are eukaryotic proteins with functions in lipid synthesis and the homeostatic control of energy balance. They execute these functions by acting as phosphatidate phosphatase enzymes in the cytoplasm and by changing gene expression after translocation into the cell nucleus, in particular under fasting conditions. Here, we asked whether nuclear translocation and the enzymatic activity of Drosophila Lipin serve essential functions and how gene expression changes, under both fed and fasting conditions, when nuclear translocation is impaired. To address these questions, we created a Lipin null mutant, a mutant expressing Lipin lacking a nuclear localization signal (Lipin^NLS), and a mutant expressing enzymatically dead Lipin. Our data support the conclusion that the enzymatic but not nuclear gene regulatory activity of Lipin is essential for survival. Notably, adult Lipin^NLS flies were not only viable but also exhibited improved life expectancy. In contrast, they were highly susceptible to starvation. Both the improved life expectancy in the fed state and the decreased survival in the fasting state correlated with changes in metabolic gene expression. Moreover, increased life expectancy of fed flies was associated with a decreased metabolic rate. Interestingly, in addition to metabolic genes, genes involved in feeding behavior and the immune response were misregulated in Lipin^NLS flies. Altogether, our data suggest that the nuclear activity of Lipin influences the genomic response to nutrient availability with effects on life expectancy and starvation resistance. Thus, nutritional or therapeutic approaches that aim at lowering nuclear translocation of lipins in humans may be worth exploring.

A coyote that had a plastic jug stuck over its head for at least a week was rescued by members of the public in Illinois and is now recovering at a wildlife rescue.

The Indiana state teachers' union is pushing to protect student and staff safety during active-shooter trainings.

Steven F. Grieco
Nov 9, 2022; 42:8439-8449
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Rafael G. Almeida
Oct 18, 2017; 37:10023-10034
Viewpoints

Robbert Havekes
Dec 12, 2012; 32:18137-18149
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Yasmin L. Hurd
Oct 16, 2019; 39:8250-8258
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a novel technique for noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS). TUS delivered in a theta (5 Hz) burst pattern (tbTUS) induces plasticity in the human primary motor cortex (M1) for 30–60 min, showing promise for therapeutic development. Metaplasticity refers to activity-dependent changes in neural functions governing synaptic plasticity; depotentiation is the reversal of long-term potentiation (LTP) by a subsequent protocol with no effect alone. Metaplasticity can enhance plasticity induction and clinical efficacy of NIBS protocols. In our study, we compared four NIBS protocol combinations to investigate metaplasticity on tbTUS in humans of either sex. We delivered four interventions: (1) sham continuous theta burst stimulation with 150 pulses (cTBS150) followed by real tbTUS (tbTUS only), (2) real cTBS150 followed by sham tbTUS (cTBS only), (3) real cTBS150 followed by real tbTUS (metaplasticity), and (4) real tbTUS followed by real cTBS150 (depotentiation). We measured motor-evoked potential amplitude, short-interval intracortical inhibition, long-interval intracortical inhibition, intracortical facilitation (ICF), and short-interval intracortical facilitation before and up to 90 min after plasticity intervention. Plasticity effects lasted at least 60 min longer when tbTUS was primed with cTBS150 compared with tbTUS alone. Plasticity was abolished when cTBS150 was delivered after tbTUS. cTBS150 alone had no significant effect. No changes in M1 intracortical circuits were observed. Plasticity induction by tbTUS can be modified in manners consistent with homeostatic metaplasticity and depotentiation. This substantiates evidence that tbTUS induces LTP-like processes and suggests that metaplasticity can be harnessed in the therapeutic development of TUS.

Why the American Ingenuity Award winner believes higher education should be a basic human right

The Chicago White Sox were heavy favorites going into the 1919 World Series. But they were defeated by the Cincinnati Reds - and it soon became clear that the game was rigged

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Host Craig Norris plays a whole bunch of music in this week's show. Hear tunes from Danny Michel, Chastity, Fred Penner, Tragically Hip, Angela Saini, Laila and a lot more.

Analyzing packing case design with COSMOS and modifying in SOLIDWORKS yields light, strong container that reduces manufacturers' shipping costs

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Extends Traditional SolidWorks Ease-of-Use to Help Designers Optimize Plastics Part and Injection Mold Designs

Logos Hope :: A tribute to Clive Musendami

Pamir Productions, formed in 1991, passionately uses all forms of media to spread the gospel to Afghans worldwide.