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PayComplete research shows cash remains a widely used payment method

PayComplete has unveiled a report that...




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Fintech for Marketplaces and Platforms Report 2024

The 1st edition of the Fintech for Marketplaces and Platforms Report covers essential ecommerce trends and future perspectives.







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FilmWeek: ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,’ ‘Spirit Untamed,’ ‘Edge Of The World’ And More

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson in "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It"; Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

FilmWeek Marquee

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson, Wade Major and Charles Solomon review this weekend’s new movie releases on streaming and on demand platforms.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Mastercard launches a new solution for commercial cross-border payments

Mastercard has launched the Mastercard Move Commercial...




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Mastercard joins Buna to boost MENA payments

Mastercard has joined



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FOMO Pay partners with Mastercard to launch a new payment solution

FOMO Pay, a payment institution based in Singapore, has...




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New 'Justice League' webseries for Machinima brings back iconic producer Bruce Timm

The lineup from the "Justice League" animated series.; Credit: Warner Bros.

Bruce Timm's DC Comics animated universe, beginning with "Batman: The Animated Series" and continuing with "Superman," "Batman Beyond," "Justice League," "Justice League Unlimited" and more, remains one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed animated runs in existence. The run was so idenified with the producer that it was sometimes called the Timmverse, but the last show in that continuity ended in 2006 and Timm officially stepped down from working with DC animation in 2013.

Now Timm is back. He's providing a darker take than the optimistic world he became known for in "Justice League: Gods and Monsters," a three-part digital series launching spring 2015 that will be tied in with a full-length animated film that comes out later that year, according to a press release.

Timm's also re-teaming with Alan Burnett, who worked with Timm on "Batman: The Animated Series." It's part of DC Comics' efforts to set up their new film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which hits in 2016, with the full Justice League film set for 2018.

DC Comics as a whole has been moving in a darker direction with Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, the "Man of Steel" reboot of Superman and a more serious direction in many of its comic books. The company has followed in its tradition of epic storytelling, passing on the quips Marvel has popularized in films from "Iron Man" to "Guardians of the Galaxy."

It's yet to be seen if Timm can recapture any of the magic from his classic cartoons, but there's reason to be optimistic for the creator of the series that introduced fan favorite Joker sidekick Harley Quinn, created a new origin for Mr. Freeze that cemented the character in the Batman mythos and led the team reimagining numerous characters in an iconic, broadly appealing way.

If you want to catch up on Timm's legacy, his previous two Justice League series are available on Netflix and Amazon Prime, along with "Batman Beyond," while the Batman and Superman animated series are available on Amazon Prime.

Timm also recently produced a short for the 75th anniversary of Batman called "Strange Days," setting the character in the retro world of the serialized pulp storytelling from the time Batman was originally created. You can watch that below:

Batman anniversary short

Watch the classic opening to "Batman: The Animated Series":

Batman: The Animated Series opening

And, a personal favorite joke from when Lex Luthor and the Flash trade bodies on "Justice League Unlimited":

Flash/Luthor body swap




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Free weekend? Try the Feline Festival, Oktoberfest and Monterey Park Night Market

MPK Night Market. ; Credit: MPK Night Market (via YouTube)

Ahhhhh. Can you feel that breeze? Cool temps are here to stay through Sunday and we're going ham (in a totally respectable, public radio kind of way). Because frankly, we all deserve a break after sweating ourselves through this near-awful workweek. 

Here's everything you need to know: 


1. Pro volleyball at Hermosa Beach

Video: NVL highlights

These people are serious about volleyball — and they look damn good doing it. Take a trip to Hermosa Beach this weekend, where the National Volleyball League will be hosting its fifth tour stop of the season. The championship will feature 32 elite men’s and women’s teams, all competing for a prize of $50,000. Come by at noon Saturday for a free juniors’ clinic (all ages welcome). Sign up here

When: Friday through Sunday | Schedule here

Where: Hermosa Beach Pier | MAP

Price: Free


2. #DTLA salsa dancing

Video: Music Center's Dance Downtown

We know you're dying to show off your salsa skills. Join dancers of all levels at the Music Center's last Dance Downtown of the summer on Friday night. Temps are dropping (hallelujah!) so pack a picnic and get movin'.

When: 6:30 to 10 p.m. Friday 

Where: The Music Center Plaza | MAP 

Price: Free


3. Shades and Shadows 

Looking for something a little different and a bit creepy? The reading series Shades and Shadows focuses solely on horror, sci-fi, fantasy and any other form of dark literature that you’re afraid to put down. To honor its one-year anniversary, the group will be haunting the California Institute of Abnormalarts. (Yes, this exists. It's in North Hollywood). Stop by for an all-female lineup, including Nancy Holder of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the Internet's most famous morticianCaitlin Doughty.  

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: California Institute of Abnormalarts | MAP

Price: $10


4. Oktoberfest at Angel City

It doesn't feel like fall. The sun is blazing and the thought of drinking a pumpkin-spice latte is just gross. That's why we're sipping on cold beer instead. Savor seasonal craft brews with sausage, sauerkraut and soft pretzels at Angel City Brewery's Oktoberfest on Sunday. Festivities will include keg races, live polka music, ping pong and brewery tours. The best part? You're drinking for a good cause — a portion of the event’s beer and retail store sales will go to the Downtown Women’s Center.

When: Noon to 8 p.m. Sunday

Where: Angel City Brewery | MAP

Price: Free admission


5. Monterey Park Night Market 

Video: Every food you ever wanted

Have your pick of tacos, sliders, pressed juice or even a sushi burrito at Monterey Park's Night Market on Friday. That's not all — other highlights include food and dessert from Sticky Rice and Ice Cream Lab. After indulging, walk it off while viewing funky art prints, interesting hand-painted rocks and L.A.-inspired oil pantings

When: 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Barnes Park | MAP

Price: Free admission; eat at your own will 


6. Friday Night Flicks 

Watch: The best of Johnny Depp

Take a break from Netflix and catch classic Johnny Depp in "Benny and Joon" at Pershing Square on Friday. Pack a picnic, bring a blanket or lawn chair and watch the '90s flick on a 20-foot inflatable screen. Pro tip: Dogs are welcome (if on a leash). For quick easy access to Pershing Square take the Metro (Pershing Square 5th street stop) or park in the Pershing Square Garage.

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Pershing Square | MAP

Price: Free 


7. Kayaking in Malibu

(Photo: Benjamin Brayfield/KPCC)

Spend a leisurely day kayaking the waves of the Pacific. Head to Malibu Surf Shack and grab a one- or two-seater before staking your spot on Malibu Lagoon State Beach. The state park has shallow tide pools and a lagoon with pelicans — plus, it's home to the Malibu Pier. Pro tip: Wear sunscreen and don't drop your phone in the ocean while taking selfies, people.

When: The Surf Shack is open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Where: Malibu Lagoon State Beach | MAP

Price: $35 per day for single kayak; $50 per day for double kayak


8. Feline Film Festival 

Video: We are gonna have a cat party

Imagine watching "America's Funniest Home Videos," but every entry includes a cat. That's what's happening Sunday at the L.A. Feline Film Festival. Sit back and enjoy over an hour of the most popular feline flicks from the Internet. Special guests include Lil BubTara the Hero and Dusty Klepto Kitty. There will also be music, cat adoptions, a cat costume contest, food and drink. Pro tip: Cat flair is obviously encouraged.

When: 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday

Where: Exposition Park | MAP

Price: $15 admission; $15 parking | Purchase tix here


What'd we miss? Let me know on Twitter @KristenLepore.





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Lois Smith has a memorable role in 'Marjorie Prime' at the Mark Taper Forum

Lisa Emery, left, and Lois Smith are in the world premiere of Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime” at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. ; Credit: Craig Schwartz

Lois Smith has had a long and varied acting career. She made her Broadway debut in 1952 and three years later was cast opposite James Dean in “East of Eden.” She was in “Five Easy Pieces” with Jack Nicholson and — more recently — she had a role on HBO’s “True Blood.”

Now, the 83-year-old Smith is starring at the Mark Taper Forum in the world premiere of “Marjorie Prime” — a play by Jordan Harrison about aging, memory and artificial intelligence.

Smith spoke with The Frame's John Horn about the play and her role.

Interview Highlights

Smith on how "Marjorie Prime" addresses the notion of memory

"One character at some point says, 'I don't know what memory's made of. Is it sedimentary layers?' The play [is] not a meditation, but a riff, perhaps, on that subject. Jordan [Harrison, the playwright] said at some point, 'This play is the intersection of perhaps humanity and technology.' The play takes place a bit in the future. Not a long time — we'll all recognize ourselves very well — but that's one of its surprises."

Smith on the evolution of becoming a character

"It's been extremely interesting. I suppose in every play [the process] deepens and stretches out. This one, no doubt about it...it's elusive in a lot of ways and I think, 'Oh good, I'm getting there, I'm finding out.' And then I think, 'Oh, farther to go.'" 

Smith on how audience members of different ages react to the play's take on aging

"One friend saw it in regards to [her] mother, who's becoming forgetful. [That] mother saw her own very aged father. They laughed about what they each brought up, because they had just been sitting at the same performance of the same play."

Smith on her role, which isn't too physically taxing

"I'm not doing much walking around. I walk on, I walk off, I walk on — and that's about it. I sometimes say, 'It's almost as good as a bed part,' because I spend time in a recliner, which is pretty nice."

 

 

 

 




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Jazz master Clark Terry gets his due from Quincy Jones in 'Keep On Keepin' On'

The relationship between pianist Justin Kauflin and trumpeter Clark Terry is at the heart of the documentary, "Keep On Keepin' On."; Credit: COURTESY OF RADiUS-TWC

Trumpeter Clark Terry played in Count Basie's and Duke Ellington's bands. He was the first African American hired for The Tonight Show band. He mentored the teenage prodigies Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. But Terry isn't as well known as you might think he'd be. 

Thanks to the new documentary, "Keep On Keepin' On," you can see Clark Terry — or C.T., as everyone calls him — in action. The film tells the story of Terry's early love of the trumpet, his quick rise through the jazz ranks, and how he's devoted much of his life to inspiring other musicians — all with a sparkle in his eye.

The movie is directed by first time filmmaker Alan Hicks and made on a shoestring budget. Hicks is himself a drummer and had been one of Terry's students. Originally it was going to be a short film about Terry and Hicks' relationship, funded by the Australian Broadcasting Company. (Hicks is from Australia.) When that financing fell through, Hicks improvised. Determined to tell the world about Terry, he and a childhood buddy, Adam Hart, decided to do it themselves — despite having no filmmaking experience. They bought a camera and plane tickets to the U.S. and began following Terry.

For many years their schedule was to shoot until they ran out of funds, usually about three months, work for a few months to save more money, then go back to shooting. To demonstrate how Terry mentors his students, they followed one young man in particular. Justin Kauflin is a blind jazz pianist with stage fright who would spend days and nights practicing at Terry's bedside. Over the course of the film, as we learn about Terry's past, we see the aging trumpeter in the present (he's now 93) — struggling with advanced diabetes, but always composing riffs from his bed late into the night.  

In one moving scene, Kauflin is riddled with anxiety as he prepares to compete in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition. Terry sends him an audio letter and some lucky socks for inspiration.

Years into the project, when Quincy Jones came to visit Terry, he met Kauflin and the filmmakers. Eventually Jones signed on as an executive producer of "Keep On Keepin' On" — as is only fitting given that, at age 13, he'd been Terry's first student.

Jones, Hicks and Kauflin spoke with The Frame about Terry and his unparalleled talent as a musician and as a mentor.

 




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Kevin Smith says 'Tusk' is the only movie he's ever made while stoned

Kevin Smith with a room full of his own strain of pot, created for his new film, "Tusk." ; Credit: James Kim/KPCC

When Kevin Smith records his podcast, Smodcast, he says, "I'm usually blazed." Which, if you've heard the episode where Smith comes up with the entire story for his new film, "Tusk," it should come as no surprise.

 

The film is about a man who takes another man hostage and turns him into a walrus. While the movie itself doesn't mention or include any weed, Smith thought medical marijuana would be a nice complement to the viewing experience. 

A24, the film distribution company, came to Smith with a marketing idea: create strains of weed for the film. Smith thought it was genius. Buds and Roses — a cannabis dispensary in Studio City — was approached by Smith and his team to make medical marijuana specifically for the film. The dispensary came up with two strains called "Mr. Tusk" and "White Walrus." 

We met up with the director at Buds and Roses to see why the green substance was a perfect pairing for the film: 

Interview Highlights:

Smith knows that some people enjoy going to the movies stoned: 

"This movie, out of all movies, seems like a real head trip of a flick. So if they have their medical marijuana card, by all means, enjoy the movie. Don't feel the need to go back if you don't remember anything. It's not a gimmick to make them go twice or anything. But in a world where people are gonna smoke medicinal marijuana, having a 'Tusk' sticker on there just makes me smile. Kind of makes sense for this movie." 

How Fleetwood Mac and weed helped his writing:

"I put on Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' over and over on repeat and would just sit there and blaze while I wrote. And you know, I blaze in the way that I used to smoke cigarettes. So, I'll light it and put it in an ashtray, let it burn and stuff. So it fills the room like incense if you will. But, yeah, for a movie like 'Tusk,' I guess you gotta be pretty stoned to make the guy-who-makes-a-guy-into-a-walrus movie. And I'm kinda glad I did. It's weird. People are calling it the best movie I've ever made and I was like, 'Well, this is the only one I made stoned.' So I'm like, 'Guess what I'm doing, kids!'"

Smith used to be against drugs: 

"I smoked weed in my life, but I would never consider myself a stoner. In fact, I still had the '80s [attitude] lingering, 'Just say no,' and,  you know, 'Oh my lord! It's a drug!' It wasn't until I became older — age 38 — when I started smoking weed on a regular basis. I was like, 'This is not a drug. This is ridiculous! It grows in the Earth.' So once I got past the bias that was pounded into us in the '80s, suddenly I was like, 'Heavens. I like who I am here.' It doesn't make you a better person, kids. It doesn't make you more creative. What it does is it kind of knocks fear on its ass. You face your fears a little better." 

Disclaimer: Smith wants you to know that he does not endorse marijuana for anyone under 21:

"Kids, teenagers... I'm talking to you. The teenage brain is stunted by marijuana smoking so you guys have to wait 'til you're older. I didn't start smoking 'til I was 38 years old. I'm not saying wait 'til then. That was a stupid mistake on my behalf. But wait until you're legit. Wait until you're 21 before you start smoking." 

 




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The general equation of δ direct methods and the novel SMAR algorithm residuals using the absolute value of ρ and the zero conversion of negative ripples

The general equation of the δ direct methods is established and applied in its difference form to the definition of one of the two residuals that constitute the SMAR phasing algorithm. These two residuals use the absolute value of ρ and/or the zero conversion of negative Fourier ripples (≥50% of the unit-cell volume). Alternatively, when solved for ρ, the general equation provides a simple derivation of the already known δM tangent formula.




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Complete classification of six-dimensional iso-edge domains

We enumerate the 55083357 iso-edge subdivisions of six-dimensional translational lattices. We report on the use of the method of canonical forms that allows us to apply hashing techniques used in modern databases.




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Roth MKM Maintains Buy Rating on Energy Co. Following Insider Purchase

Source: Leo Mariani 11/01/2024

"We rate Matador Resources Co. (MTDR:NYSE) a Buy based on the company's best-in-class production growth, strong inventory of wells, growing base dividend, and reasonable balance sheet," wrote Roth MKM analyst Leo Mariani.

Roth MKM analyst Leo Mariani, in a research report published on November 1, 2024, maintained a Buy rating on Matador Resources Co. (MTDR:NYSE) with a price target of US$68.00. The report follows the announcement that MTDR's EVP of Production Glenn Stetson purchased company shares in the open market.

Mariani highlighted the insider purchase, stating, "MTDR reported that EVP of Production Glenn Stetson bought 1,000 MTDR shares in the open market on October 30 for total proceeds of US$51,330 at an average price of US$51.33, which was 1.5% below yesterday's closing price of US$52.11."

The analyst explained his positive view on the company, noting, "We rate Matador Resources Co. (MTDR) a Buy based on the company's best-in-class production growth, strong inventory of wells, growing base dividend, and reasonable balance sheet."

Regarding Matador's operations, Mariani noted that the company has "192,000 net Permian acres, and most of its position is in the heart of the Delaware Basin. Its production mix is roughly 59% oil and 41% natural gas/NGLs." He also highlighted the company's midstream presence through its "51% ownership in San Mateo Midstream, which owns oil, gas, and water-gathering assets that are tied into MTDR's producing assets."

Roth MKM's valuation methodology is based on a multiple of Debt-Adjusted Cash Flow (DACF). Mariani explained, "Our US$68 price target for MTDR is based on a 4.2x multiple of our 2025 DACF estimate, which is based on US$70 WTI oil and US$3.10 HH gas."

The analyst also outlined several risk factors, including "slightly higher leverage than peers, completely unhedged in 2024; and acquisition risk given the company's propensity to do bolt-on M&A."

In conclusion, Roth MKM's maintenance of a Buy rating and US$68 price target reflects confidence in Matador Resources' operational excellence and growth potential in the Permian Basin. The share price at the time of the report of US$52.11 represents a potential return of approximately 30.5% to the analyst's target price, suggesting significant upside potential as the company continues to execute its development strategy.

Sign up for our FREE newsletter at: www.streetwisereports.com/get-news

Important Disclosures:

  1. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.

For additional disclosures, please click here.

Disclosures for Roth MKM, Matador Resources Co., November 1, 2024

Regulation Analyst Certification ("Reg AC"): The research analyst primarily responsible for the content of this report certifies the following under Reg AC: I hereby certify that all views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject company or companies and its or their securities. I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.

Disclosures: The price target and rating history for Matador Resources Co. prior to February 1, 2023 reflect MKM’s published opinion prior to the acquisition of MKM Partners, LLC by Roth Capital Partners, LLC. Within the last twelve months, ROTH Capital Partners, or an affiliate to ROTH Capital Partners, has received compensation for investment banking services from Matador Resources Co.. Within the last twelve months, ROTH Capital Partners, or an affiliate to ROTH Capital Partners, has managed or co-managed a public offering for Matador Resources Co.

Not Covered [NC]: ROTH Capital does not publish research or have an opinion about this security. ROTH Capital Partners, LLC expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking or other business relationships with the covered companies mentioned in this report in the next three months. The material, information and facts discussed in this report other than the information regarding ROTH Capital Partners, LLC and its affiliates, are from sources believed to be reliable, but are in no way guaranteed to be complete or accurate. This report should not be used as a complete analysis of the company, industry or security discussed in the report. Additional information is available upon request. This is not, however, an offer or solicitation of the securities discussed. Any opinions or estimates in this report are subject to change without notice. An investment in the stock may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Additionally, an investment in the stock may involve a high degree of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. No part of this report may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of ROTH. Copyright 2024. Member: FINRA/SIPC.

( Companies Mentioned: MTDR:NYSE, )




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New Hydrogen Entity Emerges from Major Energy Spin-Off

Source: Streetwise Reports 11/07/2024

Jericho Energy Ventures Inc. (JEV:TSX.V; JROOF:OTC; JLM:FRA) has announced a strategic move to spin off its hydrogen solutions platform into a separate entity. Read more on how this transition aims to unlock growth in both hydrogen and traditional energy sectors.

Jericho Energy Ventures Inc. (JEV:TSX.V; JROOF:OTC; JLM:FRA) has announced a strategic move to spin off its hydrogen solutions platform into a separate entity. The new entity, to be named Hydrogen Technologies Corp. (HTC), was approved by the company's board of directors. The intention is to create two specialized companies focusing on hydrogen technology and traditional energy assets, respectively. Each Jericho Energy shareholder will retain their Jericho shares while receiving shares of the new HTC entity on a pro-rata basis in consideration of the transfer of Jericho's hydrogen assets.

The planned transaction, still subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, aims to allow both companies to focus on their distinct markets and strategies. Jericho Energy expects this restructuring to enable each company to operate with tailored capital structures and investment plans, positioning them for growth within their specific sectors. The final terms of the spinout will be detailed in a management information circular to be shared with shareholders before they vote on the proposal.

Approval processes for the spinout include a review by the TSX Venture Exchange, shareholder consent, and possibly court approval in British Columbia if the plan proceeds via a formal arrangement. Jericho's CEO, Brian Williamson, noted in the news release, "By separating our hydrogen platform, we can create two agile, focused companies . . . positioning them for long-term growth and success."

Jericho Energy, which will continue trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol JEV, will retain its traditional oil and gas assets following the separation. The company's annual general meeting on January 15, 2025, may serve as a venue for shareholder approval, or a separate meeting may be scheduled.

Hydrogen Energy and Clean Tech

Energy Storage, in its November 5 report, underscored the growth potential for green hydrogen in the U.S. Supported by the government's US$7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, this program aimed to boost clean hydrogen production and reduce costs. The report noted that the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) anticipated large-scale green hydrogen projects, generating over 20,000 jobs and incorporating hydrogen applications across sectors like steel, aviation, and maritime.

On November 6, Reuters reported that despite political shifts, U.S. clean energy momentum continues to be driven by federal tax credits and technology advancements. Renewable energy sources, including hydrogen, were identified as the fastest-growing segments on the power grid, benefiting from initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and state mandates. Carl Fleming, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, highlighted that "the jobs and the economic benefits have been so heavy in red states, it's hard to see an administration come in that says we don't like this." Although political challenges might impact renewable sectors like offshore wind, the trajectory of clean energy, including hydrogen, remained strong due to market demand and state-level support.

The International Energy Agency's (IEA) 2024 Global Hydrogen Review reported that global hydrogen demand reached 97 Mt (metric tons) in 2023. This demand was projected to approach 100 Mt in 2024. The IEA highlighted a rising focus on low-emissions hydrogen, particularly for refining and heavy industries. Although new applications in transport and energy storage accounted for less than 1% of global demand, industry interest grew, with chemical, refining, and shipping sectors making strides in contracting low-emissions hydrogen. The IEA also noted substantial investments in electrolyzer projects worldwide, with installed capacity expected to grow significantly.

Jericho's Catalysts

According to Jericho Energy's April 2024 investor presentation, the spinout of Hydrogen Technologies Corp. aligns with a broader strategy to drive advancements in hydrogen technology. Currently, an area experiencing significant momentum due to global energy transition efforts, the investor presentation highlights key growth drivers, including Jericho’s patented hydrogen-based boiler technology and emerging partnerships with institutions and companies across the hydrogen sector. [OWNERSHIP_CHART-7025]

The decision to separate hydrogen assets positions HTC to capture opportunities within the rapidly expanding hydrogen ecosystem, benefiting from policy support and rising market demand for green energy solutions. As part of its strategy, Jericho intends to leverage its expertise in traditional energy systems while directing resources to support innovation in hydrogen applications.

Ownership and Share Structure

Around 35% of Jericho's shares are held by management, insiders, and insider institutional investors, the company said. They include CEO Brian Williamson, who owns 1.19% or about 3.1 million shares; founder Allen Wilson, who owns 0.76% or about 1.97 million shares; and board member Nicholas Baxter, who owns 0.44%, or about 1.14 million shares, according to Refinitiv' latest research.

Around 10% of shares are held by non-insider institutions, and approximately 55% are in retail, the company said.

On March 6, 2023, JEV completed an insider-led private placement financing, above the current share price, for gross proceeds of CA$2.23 million.

JEV's market cap is CA$25.19 million, and it trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.07 and CA$0.18. It has 259.75 million shares outstanding, approx.. 189.99 million floating.

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Important Disclosures:

  1. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Jericho Energy Ventures Inc.
  2. James Guttman wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee.
  3. This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.

For additional disclosures, please click here.

( Companies Mentioned: JEV:TSX.V; JROOF:OTC; JLM:FRA, )




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CAAM exhibits the diversity of the disappearing black woman

"Dispersion" (detail). Acrylic ink and paint on canvas. (Courtesy of Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle); Credit:

Rosalie Atkinson | Off-Ramp®

Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle's "The Evanesced" was inspired by the #SayHerName movement against police violence, as well as Los Angeles's Grim Sleeper serial killer. Hinkle depicts black women in the nude, twisting and writhing, as though they're sinking back into the canvas. Or are they reemerging from it?

Deputy Director of the California African American Museum Naima Keith says Hinkle's exhibit looks at the "historical present," the way in which history still affects us today, harkening back to slavery and Jim Crow. Keith says the main issue Hinkle is addressing is the invisibility of black women, especially those who are abused or in danger. 

Hinkle was particularly inspired by the South LA serial killer "The Grim Sleeper." He is accused of murdering over one hundred women from the 1980's onward, until being captured in 2007. Many of his victims were women of color according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

"He had been killing prostitutes and runaways and drug addicted women," says Keith, noting that some saw these deaths as occupational hazards.

Most of Hinkle's subjects in the paintings and sketches in "The Evanesced" are clearly nude. This was a deliberate choice to showcase femininity, according to Keith. She says:

She’s talking about being women... There’s love, there’s joy, there’s pain. All things we experience as all women... But [nudity], I think, allows us to focus on the female form, not necessarily get caught up on what they are wearing or what they’re doing.

In the artwork, viewers can see that every face, body, and hair style is completely unique to each sketch or painting. Keith says this helps the viewer appreciate the diversity amongst women of color. She says:

You have women that are smiling. You have women that are looking at you- you know- lovingly, shyly. Not every one, not every image in the show is about negativity, disappearance, or sadness. There is a bit of celebration. There’s interaction between multiple women. That’s what makes the body of work so interesting: it’s not just seeing women of color through one lens. There’s the possibility of seeing them through, like I said, disappearance, and also the freedom to have a wide range of emotions.

There is one painting that continues to draw Naima Keith back to it. It is called "Uproot 2017" and it features a feminine figure with three exposed breasts. She says this painting speaks to her about motherhood and the connection women have with their changing bodies. Keith says:

I asked Kenyatta why she depicts women with multiple [extra] breasts and we had a conversation about being moms. Kenyatta and I are both mothers of young children... As moms, we just kinda talked about how things aren't what they used to be, in terms of where they used to be. Like I said, becoming mothers, you have this different relationship with your body in relation to someone else.

Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle's "The Evanesced" runs at the California African American Museum through June 25, 2017.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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The Cinderella story of Trap Girl's trans front woman

Drew Arriola Sands, left, sings in the South Gate band Trap Girl at La Conxa, 2017.; Credit: Amina Cruz

Chris Greenspon | Off-Ramp®

Growing up, Drew Arriola-Sands' music was "too weird for the weird kids." Her first band couldn't even get a backyard gig, but since Sands transitioned in 2013, her current band, Trap Girl, have been at the center of an exploding queer hardcore scene in Los Angeles. 

NOTE: Trans Pride L.A. is taking place this weekend, Saturday June 17, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. To hear a preview of the event with organizer Gina Bigham, listen to the extra audio on this post.

Sands is 28 now, but she's always been drawn to glamorous women with big hair. Her mirror is adorned with pictures of Ronnie Spector, Dolly Parton, and Jayne Mansfield. Wig idols, she calls them. Sands has a large collection of wigs, and even makes her own, but it all started 20 years ago.

"When I was a little kid, my mom always had short black hair," Sands remembers. "And then one day, getting ready for school, she walked out of the bathroom with a long, thick, black braid with a ribbon on it, and it freaked me out, because I never saw her with long hair. So I was like, 'That’s weird! What is it?'" She was eight years old. For weeks to come, Sands would lock herself in the bathroom and stare at the extension braid in it's clear, Avon box until her mother threw it away without warning. The seed had been planted, though.

Her love of singing came at an early age too. As a child, Sands would stand up on a chair while watching baseball with her father to sing the national anthem. Her mother would scold her for being loud and tell her that she could sing at a baseball game when she was older. At 11, her father put her in little league.

We look at a picture of young Drew in a baseball jersey. Sands was a chubby little kid, biting down a smile, and burying her hand in her mitt. "I was a 'catcher' even then," laughs Sands.

"I was told I was gay before I even knew I was gay, because people saw I was feminine, did things a little different, spoke a little different, a little more sensitive," says Sands. Bullying was a consistent part of her childhood, with no one incident standing out because there was always "80 more horrible ones," she says. But she found ways to cope through her hobbies.

Her father said if she wasn't going to play a sport, she had to play an instrument. The first instrument she started with in earnest was the guitar, before picking up bass and more. "Nirvana was still the biggest band in the world. Everyone at my junior high who played guitar learned how to play 'Rape Me' or 'Smells like Teen Spirit' as their first song" says Sands. The first song sands learned on guitar was Nirvana's "About a Girl," and the first album she bought was Hole's "Live Through This."

"One of my first jobs, actually, was making burnt cd’s for a guy who sold them at the alley, and he made me copy Trina cd’s, ten at a time. She had songs on there like 'Nasty Bitch,' things like that, and I just loved it! But it was like a guilty pleasure, 'cause I was still a rock kid."  - Drew Arriola-Sands

By her early twenties, she started her first real band, The Glitter Path; Sands describes it as something like Daniel Johnston, the schizophrenic outsider musician, mixed with Patsy Cline - extremely emotional, "lying across the road, ready to die type of music." It didn't fit in in the "very straight, very cis, surf rock-indie" backyard scene, says Sands. She can't remember the band playing more than two or three shows, anywhere, but she says she doesn't hold any grudges.

The Glitter Path's "Wear a Wig"

We look at another photo of Sands from her Glitter Path days. She points out the increasing number of women’s accessories she was wearing at the time. She was starting to feel a change coming.

"I was in a relationship in 2013 with an artist, but I was male presenting, and I had these feelings of identity and gender, and I expressed them to him, and he accepted them," Sands says,  "but didn’t know how to deal with me and I didn’t know how to deal with myself." Sands boyfriend broke up with her, and she reevaluated her emotional state. "My mental health was not going to get better if I did not come out [as a trans person]," she decided.

She had a much easier time dating after transitioning, and one chance hook-up set Sands down a new musical road.

"So this guy I was hooking up with at the time would play the Damned in the room while we were hooking up. I had a guitar in the room, and he didn’t know I played music and said, 'Do you play guitar?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, you should start a band, like the Damned, and play guitar. It’d be good, looking the way you do, and wear ball gowns.'” - Drew Arriola-Sands

Sands started Trap Girl, not as guitarist, but as lead singer, in 2014.

The early shows were backyard gigs in South Central. Songs like “Dead Men Don’t Rape” went over well, but Sands wasn’t out as a trans performer yet. Maybe people could read between the lines though, with a name like Trap Girl. Sands offers a few definitions for Trap Girls/Trap Queens (though she has never settled on just one).

  • A woman who helps out a "trap lord," or drug dealer
  • A very convincing transvestite
  • A girl trapped in a man's body

Throughout 2015, Trap Girl built their following Downtown and on the Eastside, with Sands finally out as a trans artist.

Trap Girl live at Xicana PUNK Night

"I started this band alone," explains Sands. "I didn’t know any queer people, I didn’t know any trans people, I didn’t know who was gonna help this band. Who was gonna give us a shot? So, I was ready to defend this band, even though there was no one defend it from."

Rather, Trap Girl were embraced and found sisterhood in bands like Sister Mantos and Yaawn. In 2016, Sands took it a step further and organized the first annual Transgress Fest (at the Santa Ana LGBT Center), for trans performers. "We had people as young as twelve to people as old as sixty in the audience," she says. "We had a huge turnout. I never expected that."

Transgress Fest is coming back in November. In the meantime, Trap Girl are getting ready to release their second EP, "The Black Market." The title track grapples with the question of whether or not a trans person needs surgery.

"Being a woman doesn’t mean you have to look like a woman. I didn’t know any trans people at all before I transitioned, so automatically, my idea was to think that I needed to present as feminine to be accepted as a trans person, but little did I know, that that’s the last thing you need to be a trans person. Not all people can pass, and that’s ok." - Drew Arriola-Sands

Sands says the takeaway from "The Black Market" is not to risk your life with black market cosmetic procedures. "These girls are killing themselves to achieve their looks," says Sands. "They’re getting it offline [sic], off Craigslist. You know, they go to someone’s basement and get their ass injected with cement, and then they go home and get a blood clot in their lungs, and they die." "The Black Market" EP is due for release this summer.

Trap Girl is singer Drew Arriola-Sands, bassist Ibette Ortiz, drummer Jorge Reveles, and guitarist Estevan Moreno.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Interview in the mausoleum with relics expert Elizabeth Harper

Elizabeth Harper, a relics expert, at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena; Credit: John Rabe

John Rabe | Off-Ramp®

"Reach a certain moment in your life, and you discover that your days are spent as much with the dead as they are with the living." – Paul Auster

This has been one of my favorite quotes for a long time. To me it means that when you get older and your friends, relatives, and heroes start dying, you have a choice. You can either stop thinking about them because they're dead, giving up, as it were, the pleasure of their company; or you can keep them in your life. To me, that's not denial; it's being realistic.

So, it makes sense that I felt a kindred spirit with Elizabeth Harper, who keeps the website All the Saints You Should Know, when we met at a beautiful mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena to talk about the history of cemeteries, relics, castrated Italian avuncular mummies, and the best spots in Los Angeles to commune healthily with death.

Elizabeth will be part of the team when Atlas Obscura leads tours of The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Saturday, July 1. It's billed as "A celebration of life, death, architecture, and the patron saint of Los Angeles."

Here are some highlights of my mausoleum conversation with Elizabeth Harper:

At first glance, she says, all of the tombs are very similar.

And that was one of the things, when we started making modern cemeteries, outside the city lines, they wanted them to be regular and not so expressive and macabre. But people leave little things behind. On a lot of these (crypts), you can see a little emblem of something that was important to them. If they were a Mason or if they served in the Army. I like the (cremains) urns that are shaped like books. I have a friend who is a librarian and she was very taken with the idea of being in a book.

Napoleon instituted the Edict of Saint-Cloud, which mandated that cemeteries must be outside city limits (for health reasons) and must be toned-down (for no good reason).

People did not like the edict. There's a very famous poem called Sepulchers by Ugo Foscolo that was written in protest, that said, essentially, looking upon the graves of strong men strengthens the mind and the spirit.

From Slate: Photographing the Real Bodies of Incorrupt Saints, by Elizabeth Harper

Elizabeth often writes about cemeteries and tombs and sometimes posts photos of bodies, which causes a "certain segment" to assume she has no experience with death, or she wouldn't presume to do such a thing.

What I want to put out there is that we have this pervasive idea that we grieve and move on, and this moving on is very important, and I think there are multiple ways to incorporate the idea of death in your life, to get used to the idea, without forgetting, that's more of a way of memorializing. When I take these pictures, I'm very aware that these are real people, and I think of myself, what I will be one day, and people I love, who are already there.

Make sure to listen to our entire interview in the audio player to hear Elizabeth's 3 top spots in Los Angeles to consider the place of death in our lives, and to hear about poor old Uncle Vincent, a neutered naked mummy in a small town in Italy who has a large fan base.

 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Kings of Kitsch Nichols and Phoenix (mostly) manage not to talk over each other on the last Off-Ramp

L-R: Three Southern California retro fanatics, John Rabe, Chris Nichols, and Charles Phoenix; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC

John Rabe | Off-Ramp®

Is it possible that the two titans of retro Southern California - Charles Phoenix and Charles Nichols - have never been on Off-Ramp at the same time? But maybe that brings up a larger question. Is it even possible for them to exist in the same place, at the same time, or would their meeting cause a cosmic singularity, an undarnable rending of the time-space continuum?

The answers are, stupidly, yes; and thankfully, yes.

Over the 11 years of Off-Ramp, "God Bless Americana" author Charles Phoenix and Los Angeles Magazine's Chris Nichols have played a large part in bringing interesting and endangered places to our listeners. From Pomona to Chatsworth to Bellflower to Anaheim, both men have made careers of highlighting and preserving things that in their day were seen as expendable, flavor-of-the-month, mass marketed creations. Like programmatic architecture (buildings that look like what they're selling or making, i.e. the Donut Hole in La Puente, the Idle Hour - a giant wine cask - in NoHo).

Yet, with hindsight, we've been able to see them as archetypal and important touchstones of our region.

For their final appearances on the show, they got in the Mercedes and shared their love of getting lost in Southern California.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Mayor Garcetti's Q&A in John's car was almost over... until Hizzoner saw the backgammon game

Off-Ramp host John Rabe and Mayor Eric Garcetti playing backgammon in John’s car. Julian “The First Lady of Off-Ramp” Bermudez in the passenger seat with camera. ; Credit: Andrea Garcia

John Rabe | Off-Ramp®

John Rabe’s last show coincides with Eric Garcetti’s inauguration for his second term as Mayor of Los Angeles. In John's car, the two talked about:

  • The joys of exploring Los Angeles
  • The time the future Mayor's mom and dad took his drivers' license away
  • Where Justin Trudeau should visit when he comes to LA
  • And how the drop in crime has led to more people doing the Off-Ramp thing

The Mayor also did some slam poetry, and then played a competitive game of backgammon. Listen with the audio player to see who was brown and who was white. And listen to Off-Ramp on the radio to find out who won the game! (Saturday at noon/Sunday at 6pm)

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Maya more warlike than previously thought

Full Text:

The Maya of Central America are thought to have been a kinder, gentler civilization, especially compared to the Aztecs of Mexico. At the peak of Mayan culture some 1,500 years ago, warfare seemed ritualistic, designed to extort ransom for captive royalty or to subjugate rival dynasties, with limited impact on the surrounding population. Only later, archeologists thought, did increasing drought and climate change lead to total warfare -- cities and dynasties were wiped off the map in so-called termination events -- and the collapse of the lowland Maya civilization around 1,000 A.D. (or C.E., current era). New evidence unearthed by National Science Foundation-funded researchers call all this into question, suggesting that the Maya engaged in scorched-earth military campaigns -- a strategy that aims to destroy anything of use, including cropland -- even at the height of their civilization, a time of prosperity and artistic sophistication. The finding also indicates that this increase in warfare, possibly associated with climate change and resource scarcity, was not the cause of the disintegration of the lowland Maya civilization.

Image credit: Francisco Estrada-Belli/Tulane




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Why animals eat what they eat

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What an animal eats is a fundamental aspect of its biology, but surprisingly, the evolution of diet had not been studied across the animal kingdom until now. Scientists at the University of Arizona report several unexpected findings from taking a deep dive into the evolutionary history of more than one million animal species and going back 800 million years, when the first animals appeared on our planet. The study revealed several surprising key insights: Many species living today that are carnivorous, meaning they eat other animals, can trace this diet back to a common ancestor more than 800 million years ago; A plant-based, or herbivorous, diet is not the evolutionary driver for new species that it was believed to be; Closely related animals tend to share the same dietary category -- plant-eating, meat-eating, or both. This finding implies that switching between dietary lifestyles is not something that happens easily and often over the course of evolution.

Image credit: Daniel Stolte/UANews




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Virtual 'UniverseMachine' sheds light on galaxy evolution

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How do galaxies such as our Milky Way come into existence? How do they grow and change over time? The science behind galaxy formation has long been a puzzle, but a University of Arizona-led team of scientists is one step closer to finding answers, thanks to supercomputer simulations. Observing real galaxies in space can only provide snapshots in time, so researchers who study how galaxies evolve over billions of years need to use computer simulations. Traditionally, astronomers have used simulations to invent theories of galaxy formation and test them, but they have had to proceed one galaxy at a time. Peter Behroozi of the university's Steward Observatory and colleagues overcame this hurdle by generating millions of different universes on a supercomputer, each according to different physical theories for how galaxies form. The findings challenge fundamental ideas about the role dark matter plays in galaxy formation, the evolution of galaxies over time and the birth of stars. The study is the first to create self-consistent universes that are exact replicas of the real ones -- computer simulations that each represent a sizeable chunk of the actual cosmos, containing 12 million galaxies and spanning the time from 400 million years after the Big Bang to the present day. The results from the "UniverseMachine," as the authors call their approach, have helped resolve the long-standing paradox of why galaxies cease to form new stars even when they retain plenty of hydrogen gas, the raw material from which stars are forged. The research is partially funded by NSF's Division of Physics through grants to UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Aspen Center for Physics.

Image credit: NASA/ESA/J. Lotz and the HFF Team/STScI




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Premier Bank, Mastercard, Tappy Technologies launch Tap2Pay

Premier Bank, in partnership with



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Mastercard expands installments, unlocking flexible payment options

Mastercard has expanded its US...




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Mambu and Kuady launch digital wallet in Latin America

Cloud banking provider Mambu has partnered with



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Adyen supports Tap-to-Pay on iPhone in more European markets

Global financial platform Adyen has announced that it enabled...




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Network International, Tamara to bring flexible payments to MEA

Full Article



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Emirates NBD and Mastercard launch travel payment solution

Emirates NBD and...




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Félix Pago partners with Mastercard to expand digital remittances

US-based fintech Felix Pago has announced a partnership...




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iDenfy launches new data crossmatch tool to improve KYB compliance

Lithuania-based iDenfy has introduced an AI-powered Data Crossmatch feature aimed at improving the Know Your Business (KYB) compliance process.




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Mastercard teams up with Tap Payments

Mastercard has entered into a partnership with Tap Payments to launch a Click to Pay with Payment Passkey service for optimised ecommerce transactions. 




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SEB Embedded partners with Thought Machine

SEB Embedded has selected Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking system, Vault Core, as the foundation for its latest service offering.




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Cambodia introduces Bakong Tourists App with Mastercard

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced the launch of the Bakong Tourists App with Mastercard, with the institution aiming to optimise digital payments for tourists visiting Cambodia. 




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IBM Hexadecimal Floating Point

Our technical support group recently received a request for a tool that would convert IBM System/360 hexadecimal floating point numbers to the IEEE-754 format. I am probably the only one left at MathWorks that actually used IBM mainframe computers. I thought we had seen the last of hexadecimal arithmetic years ago. But, it turns out that the hexadecimal floating point format is alive and well.... read more >>




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Experience With Chatbots Generating MATLAB

A friend is investigating the use of generative AI in his classes. I asked two different popular chatbots to write MATLAB programs for a mathematically nontrivial problem. Both chatbots understood my query and both wrote plausible MATLAB programs, but one of the programs was not correct. My recommendation for coursework: carefully read and test programs produced by generative AI and repair any incorrect ones.... read more >>




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5 Ways To Stop Summer Colds From Making The Rounds In Your Family

; Credit: /Joy Ho for NPR

Selena Simmons-Duffin | NPR

Perhaps the only respite pandemic closures brought to my family — which includes two kids under age 6 — was freedom from the constant misery of dripping noses, sneezes and coughs. And statistics suggest we weren't the only ones who had fewer colds last year: With daycares and in-person schools closed and widespread use of masks and hand sanitizer in most communities, cases of many seasonal respiratory infections went down, and flu cases dropped off a cliff.

That reprieve might be ending. Social mixing has been starting up again in much of the U.S. and so have cases of garden-variety sniffles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just warned physicians that RSV, a unpleasant respiratory virus, is surging right now in southern states. And it's not just happening in the U.S. — researchers in the U.K. and Hong Kong found that rhinovirus outbreaks spiked there, too, when COVID-19 lockdowns ended.

My family is at the vanguard of this trend. Right after Washington D.C. lifted its mask mandate a few weeks ago, both my kids got runny noses and coughs, and as soon as they tested negative for COVID-19, my pandemic fears were replaced by a familiar dread. I had visions of sleepless, cough-filled nights, dirty tissues everywhere, and — in short order — my own miserable cold.

"If someone in your house is sick, you're not only breathing in their sick air, you're touching those contaminated surfaces. You're having closer contact, you're having longer exposures," says Seema Lakdawala, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who studies how influenza viruses transmit between people. It can start to feel inevitable that the whole family will get sick.

Take heart, my fellow parents-of-adorable-little-germ-machines! Lakdawala says many strategies we all picked up to fight COVID-19 can also stop the spread of many routine respiratory viruses. In fact, they may be even more effective against run-of-the-mill germs, since, unlike the viruses behind most colds, SARS-CoV2 was new to the human immune system.

Those strategies start with everyone keeping their children home from school, camp and playdates when they're sick and keeping up with any and all vaccinations against childhood illnesses. Beyond that, specialists in infectious disease transmission I consulted offer five more tips for keeping my family and yours healthier this summer.

Tip #1: Hang on to those masks

In pre-pandemic times, it might have seemed like a weird move to put on a mask during storytime with your drippy-nosed kid, but Dr. Tina Tan says that's her top tip. She's a professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a pediatric infectious disease physician at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

When it comes to influenza, a rhinovirus, or any of the other respiratory bugs constantly circulating, "once these viruses touch your mucous membranes, whether it's your eyes, your nose or your mouth, you do have a chance of contracting it," says Tan. Masks help stop infectious particles and virus-filled droplets from getting into your body.

"You don't need a N95," Tan says. A light-weight surgical mask or homemade cloth mask can work as long as it has two or more layers. The mask-wearing also doesn't have to be constant. "If you're going to be face to face with them — they're sitting in your lap, you're reading to them, you're feeding them, etc. — then I would say wear a mask," Tan advises.

Even better, if it's not too uncomfortable for your sick child, have them wear a mask, Lakdawala says. "If your kids are old enough to wear a mask, that would probably be the best strategy, because then you're reducing the amount of virus-laden aerosols in the environment."

How long should you stay masked-up?

For most respiratory viruses, "the infectious period is probably similar to that of COVID," says Dr. Jennifer Shu, a pediatrician in Atlanta and medical editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics' site HealthyChildren.org. It might technically start a few days before symptoms begin and last for up to two weeks, but your sniffly kids are likely most contagious during those first runny-nosed days Shu says. "You could have kids over [age] 2 wear a mask for the first three or four days of symptoms," she suggests.

And if you can't bring yourself to wear a mask or put one on your child inside your own home to fight a cold, don't worry. Lakdawala has a few more ideas.

Tip #2: Air it out, space it out

When Lakdawala's 5- and 8-year-old kids get sick, "I open the windows, I turn on the fans, I get a lot more air circulation going on in the house," she says — that is, weather and allergies permitting, of course.

"A lot of these viruses tend to circulate more during the colder weather, so where you live is going to determine how much you can open your windows," Tan points out. But certainly, she says, "the better the ventilation, the less likely the viruses are going to get transmitted from one person to another."

What about buying HEPA filter air purifiers, or changing the filter in your heating and air conditioning system? "I would not suggest going out to purchase extra HEPA filters just for this purpose," says Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Duke University. For hospitals that are treating very contagious and serious pathogens like tuberculosis or SARS-CoV2, those upgrades may be important, she says. "But for all of the other routine viruses, it's routine ventilation."

Kalu says you might also want to think strategically about creating some social distance — when it's possible — like strategically having the parent who tends not to get as sick provide the one-on-one care for the sick kid.

Obviously, you can't isolate a sick child in a room by themselves until they recover, but Lakdawala says not getting too close or for too long can help. When her kids are sick, "I do try to just not snuggle them — keep them a little bit at a distance."

Tip #3: Don't try to be a HAZMAT team

There's good news on the house-cleaning front. "Most of these viruses don't live on surfaces for very long periods of time," says Tan.

The research on exactly how long cold-causing rhinoviruses can survive on surfaces — and how likely they are to remain infectious — isn't definitive. As Dr. Donald Goldmann of Boston Children's Hospital poetically put it in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal a couple decades ago, "Despite many years of study, from the plains of Salisbury, to the hills of Virginia, to the collegiate environment of Madison, WI, the precise routes rhinovirus takes to inflict the misery of the common cold on a susceptible population remain controversial." That's still true today, doctors say.

There's some evidence that contaminated surfaces are not very important in the spread of colds. In one little study from the 1980s, a dozen healthy men played poker with cards and chips that "were literally gummy" from the secretions of eight other men who had been infected with a rhinovirus as part of the study. Even after 12 hours of poker, none of the healthy volunteers caught colds.

Shu's take home advice? Be methodical in your cleaning of often-touched surfaces (kitchen table, countertops and the like) with soap and water when everybody's healthy, and maybe add bleach wipes or other disinfectant when someone in your household has a cold. But don't panic.

Tan agrees. "Wipe down frequently-touched surfaces multiple times a day," she says. "But you don't have to go crazy and, like, scour everything down with bleach."

You also don't need to do a lot of extra laundry in hopes of eliminating germs on clothes, towels, dishtowels and the like — that can be exhausting and futile. Instead, just try to encourage kids who are sick to use their own towel — and do what you can to give towels a chance to dry out between uses. "Having some common sense and doing laundry every few days — washing your towels every few days and washing your sheets every couple of weeks — is probably good enough," Shu says. "You don't need to go overboard for run-of-the-mill viruses."

Don't fret that there are germs everywhere and you can't touch anything, says Lakdawala. "If I touch something, that -- in itself — is not infecting me," she notes. Instead, it's getting a certain amount of virus on our hands and then touching our own nose, eyes or mouth that can infect us. "If I just go wash my hands, that risk is gone," Lakdawala says.

You can also skip wearing gloves around the house. "People think that they are safe when they're wearing the gloves — and then they touch their face with their gloves [on]" and infect themselves, she says.

Instead, just make it a habit to wash your hands frequently.

Tip #4: Seriously, just wash your hands

"The same handwashing guidelines for COVID also apply for common respiratory illnesses," Shu says. That is: regular soap with warm water, lathered for about 20 seconds.

"The reason why 20 seconds is recommended is because some studies show that washing your hands shorter than that doesn't really get rid of germs." She warns that there hasn't been a whole lot of research on this, and 20 seconds is not a magic number. "But it is thought that anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds is probably good enough to get rid of most of the germs," she says. (Note: No need to drive your family crazy singing the birthday song twice — y'all have options.)

"Wash your hands before you eat, after you eat, after you go to the bathroom ... if you're changing your child's diaper, et cetera.," says Tan. "And if you're going to use hand sanitizer, it has to be at least 60% alcohol."

"Your hands are probably the most important source of transmission outside of someone really coughing or sneezing in your face," Kalu adds.

Tip #5: Don't give up, but do keep perspective

So, what if your beloved child does cough or sneeze in your face? Should you then forget all this stuff and just give in to the inevitable?

Don't give up, says Lakdawala. "Just because you got one large exposure in your mouth and in close range, it doesn't mean that that was sufficient to initiate an infection," she says. Whether you get sick from that germy onslaught is going to depend on a lot of things — the particular virus, whether the sneeze landed in your mouth or nose, whether you've been exposed to some version of that virus before and more.

One tiny positive side effect of the coronavirus pandemic for Lakdawala has been a broader public understanding of "dose-response" in viral transmission. "Just because somebody breathed on you once doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to get you infected," she says.

Consider practicing the swiss cheese model of transmission control, Shu says. "Every layer of protection helps — if you find that wearing a face shield is too much, but you do everything else, you're still going to limit your exposure," she says. Just do what works for you and your family.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Biden's Broader Vision For Medicaid Could Include Inmates, Immigrants, New Mothers

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, leads some of the Biden administration's efforts to expand Medicaid access.; Credit: Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

Noam N. Levey and Phil Galewitz | NPR

The Biden administration is quietly engineering a series of expansions to Medicaid that may bolster protections for millions of low-income Americans and bring more people into the program.

Biden's efforts — which have been largely overshadowed by other economic and health initiatives — represent an abrupt reversal of the Trump administration's moves to scale back the safety-net program.

The changes could further boost Medicaid enrollment — which the pandemic has already pushed to a record 80.5 million. Some of the expansion is funded by the COVID-19 relief bill that passed in March, including coverage for new mothers.

Others who could also gain coverage under Biden are inmates and undocumented immigrants. At the same time, the administration is opening the door to new Medicaid-funded services such as food and housing that the government insurance plan hasn't traditionally offered.

"There is a paradigm change underway," said Jennifer Langer Jacobs, Medicaid director in New Jersey, one of a growing number of states trying to expand home-based Medicaid services to keep enrollees out of nursing homes and other institutions.

"We've had discussions at the federal level in the last 90 days that are completely different from where we've ever been before," Langer Jacobs said.

Taken together, the Medicaid moves represent some of the most substantive shifts in federal health policy undertaken by the new administration.

"They are taking very bold action," said Rutgers University political scientist Frank Thompson, an expert on Medicaid history, noting in particular the administration's swift reversal of Trump policies. "There really isn't a precedent."

The Biden administration seems unlikely to achieve what remains the holy grail for Medicaid advocates: getting 12 holdout states, including Texas and Florida, to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income working-age adults through the Affordable Care Act.

And while some of the recent expansions – including for new mothers -- were funded by close to $20 billion in new Medicaid funding in the COVID relief bill Biden signed in March, much of that new money will stop in a few years unless Congress appropriates additional money.

The White House strategy has risks. Medicaid, which swelled after enactment of the 2010 health law, has expanded further during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, pushing enrollment to a record 80.5 million, including those served by the related Children's Health Insurance Program. That's up from 70 million before the COVID crisis began.

The programs now cost taxpayers more than $600 billion a year. And although the federal government will cover most of the cost of the Biden-backed expansions, surging Medicaid spending is a growing burden on state budgets.

The costs of expansion are a frequent target of conservative critics, including Trump officials like Seema Verma, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who frequently argued for enrollment restrictions and derided Medicaid as low-quality coverage.

But even less partisan experts warn that Medicaid, which was created to provide medical care to low-income Americans, can't make up for all the inadequacies in government housing, food and education programs.

"Focusing on the social drivers of health ... is critically important in improving the health and well-being of Medicaid beneficiaries. But that doesn't mean that Medicaid can or should be responsible for paying for all of those services," said Matt Salo, head of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, noting that the program's financing "is simply not capable of sustaining those investments."

Restoring federal support

However, after four years of Trump administration efforts to scale back coverage, Biden and his appointees appear intent on not only restoring federal support for Medicaid, but also boosting the program's reach.

"I think what we learned during the repeal-and-replace debate is just how much people in this country care about the Medicaid program and how it's a lifeline to millions," Biden's new Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, told KHN, calling the program a "backbone to our country."

The Biden administration has already withdrawn permission the Trump administration had granted Arkansas and New Hampshire to place work requirements on some Medicaid enrollees.

In April, Biden blocked a multibillion-dollar Trump administration initiative to prop up Texas hospitals that care for uninsured patients, a policy that many critics said effectively discouraged Texas from expanding Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation.

The moves have drawn criticism from Republicans, some of whom accuse the new administration of trampling states' rights to run their Medicaid programs as they choose.

"Biden is reasserting a larger federal role and not deferring to states," said Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability.

But Biden's early initiatives have been widely hailed by patient advocates, public health experts and state officials in many blue states.

"It's a breath of fresh air," said Kim Bimestefer, head of Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

Chuck Ingoglia, head of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, said: "To be in an environment where people are talking about expanding health care access has made an enormous difference."

Mounting evidence shows that expanded Medicaid coverage improves enrollees' health, as surveys and mortality data in recent years have identified greater health improvements in states that expanded Medicaid through the 2010 health law versus states that did not.

Broadening eligibility

In addition to removing Medicaid restrictions imposed by Trump administration officials, the Biden administration has backed a series of expansions to broaden eligibility and add services enrollees can receive.

Biden supported a provision in the COVID relief bill that gives states the option to extend Medicaid to new mothers for up to a year after they give birth. Many experts say such coverage could help reduce the U.S. maternal mortality rate, which is far higher than rates in other wealthy nations.

Several states, including Illinois and New Jersey, had sought permission from the Trump administration for such expanded coverage, but their requests languished.

The COVID relief bill — which passed without Republican support — also provides additional Medicaid money to states to set up mobile crisis services for people facing mental health or substance use emergencies, further broadening Medicaid's reach.

And states will get billions more to expand so-called home and community-based services such as help with cooking, bathing and other basic activities that can prevent Medicaid enrollees from having to be admitted to expensive nursing homes or other institutions.

Perhaps the most far-reaching Medicaid expansions being considered by the Biden administration would push the government health plan into covering services not traditionally considered health care, such as housing.

This reflects an emerging consensus among health policy experts that investments in some non-medical services can ultimately save Medicaid money by keeping patients out of the hospital.

In recent years, Medicaid officials in red and blue states — including Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland and Washington — have begun exploring ways to provide rental assistance to select Medicaid enrollees to prevent medical complications linked to homelessness.

The Trump administration took steps to support similar efforts, clearing Medicare Advantage health plans to offer some enrollees non-medical benefits such as food, housing aid and assistance with utilities.

But state officials across the country said the new administration has signaled more support for both expanding current home-based services and adding new ones.

That has made a big difference, said Kate McEvoy, who directs Connecticut's Medicaid program. "There was a lot of discussion in the Trump administration," she said, "but not the capital to do it."

Other states are looking to the new administration to back efforts to expand Medicaid to inmates with mental health conditions and drug addiction so they can connect more easily to treatment once released.

Kentucky health secretary Eric Friedlander said he is hopeful federal officials will sign off on his state's initiative.

Still other states, such as California, say they are getting a more receptive audience in Washington for proposals to expand coverage to immigrants who are in the country without authorization, a step public health experts say can help improve community health and slow the spread of communicable diseases.

"Covering all Californians is critical to our mission," said Jacey Cooper, director of California's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. "We really feel like the new administration is helping us ensure that everyone has access."

The Trump administration moved to restrict even authorized immigrants' access to the health care safety net, including the "public charge" rule that allowed immigration authorities to deny green cards to applicants if they used public programs such as Medicaid. In March, Biden abandoned that rule.

KHN correspondent Julie Rovner contributed to this report.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Copyright 2021 Kaiser Health News. To see more, visit Kaiser Health News.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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New Report Finds Major US Metro Areas, Greater Los Angeles Among Them, Are More Segregated Now Than 30 Years Ago

People rest while riding a Los Angeles Metro Rail train amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.; Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

AirTalk

Despite the racial reckoning going on in America right now, and despite the fact that attitudes towards race, inclusion and representation are different now than they were 30 years ago, new research from UC Berkeley shows that a large majority of American metro areas are more segregated now than they were in 1990. The new report from Berkeley’s Institute covers a number of topic areas, but among the key findings were from the national segregation report component of the project, which found Los Angeles to be the sixth-most segregated metro area with more than 200,000 people.

Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with the lead researcher on the new report and a local historian to talk about how we see the findings of the report play out in Southern California.

Guests:

Stephen Menendian, assistant director and director of research at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, which works to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change; he tweets @SMenendian

Eric Avila, professor of history, urban planning, and Chicano/a studies at UCLA

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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COVID-19 AMA: LA County’s New COVID-19 Cases Have Doubled, Vaccinated People Who Got Infected Carry Less Virus, CDC Researchers Say And More

Facemasks remain worn as firefighter paramedic Jorge Miranda, holding syringe, speaks with Eduardo Vasquez, who has lived homeless on the streets of Los Angeles since 1992, before administering the one-shot Johnson and Johnson' Janssen Covid-19 vaccine as part of outreach to the homeless by members of the Los Angeles Fire Department's Covid Outreach unit on June 14, 2021 in Los Angeles.; Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

James Chow | AirTalk

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with UCSF’s Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. 

Topics today include:

  • Two weeks after reopening, LA County’s new COVID-19 cases have doubled

  • CDC: Infected vaccinated people carry less COVID-19 virus

  • Delta variant is now detected in all 50 states

  • J&J: “At present, there is no evidence to suggest need for a booster dose to be administered”

  • Novavax claims vaccine’s overall efficacy is 89.7%

  • Another respiratory virus is spreading in the U.S.

  • Curevac’s final trial show shot is far less effective than other vaccines

  • Can we now live with the coronavirus?

  • Israel scrambles to curb rising COVID-19 infection rates

  • Is it time to rethink “one-size-fits-all” approach for masking?

Guest:

Peter Chin-Hong, M.D., infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center; he tweets @PCH_SF

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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COVID-19 AMA: J&J Says Its Vaccine Is Effective Against Delta Variant, WHO Says All Authorized Vaccines Should Be Recognized By The West And More

Detail of boxes with the U.S. donated Johnson & Johnson vaccine against Covid-19 at Universidad de Baja California on June 17, 2021 in Tijuana, Baja California. ; Credit: Francisco Vega/Getty Images

James Chow | AirTalk

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Annabelle De St. Maurice from University of California Los Angeles/Mattel Children’s hospital.

Topics today include:

  • J&J says its vaccine is effective against Delta variant

  • WHO says all vaccines it authorized should be recognized by reopening countries

  • White House says it will miss July 4 vaccination goal

  • Postpartum depression on the rise during the pandemic

  • Experts believe Novavax may play a role in combating vaccine hesitancy

  • Delta variant is not driving a surge in hospitalization rates in England

Guest: 

Annabelle De St. Maurice, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases and the co-chief infection prevention officer at University of California Los Angeles/Mattel Children’s hospital; she tweets @destmauricemd

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Marathons, Triathlons And More: What Motivates Us To Undertake Physical Feats?

Athletes compete during the cycling portion of the IRONMAN 70.3 Steelhead on June 27, 2021 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. ; Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for IRONMAN

AirTalk

Whether you’re new to running or you’ve finished your tenth triathlon, we want to hear from you about what motivates you and how that translates into pushing yourself physically. 

Guests: 

Mark Remy, longtime runner and writer in Portland, Oregon; creator of humor website dumbrunner.com; he is the author of many books, including The Runner's Rule Book: Everything a Runner Needs to Know--And Then Some (Runner's World) (Rodale Books, 2009)

Sharon McNary, infrastructure correspondent at KPCC; she finished her 11th Ironman Race last week at Coeur d’Alene; she tweets @KPCCsharon

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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COVID-19 AMA: National Vaccination Campaign, Variants And Vaccinating Animals

A passenger wearing a protective face covering to combat the spread of the coronavirus, checks her phone while travelling on a bus along Oxford Street in central London on July 5, 2021.; Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

AirTalk

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Professor Kristen Choi of UCLA. 

Topics today include:

  • Biden to announce new efforts on vaccination campaign as Delta variant spreads

  • Hospitalization rates getting worse for black residents of L.A. County 

  • Which parts of the U.S. could be breeding grounds for variants?

  • New Israeli data about effectiveness of Pfizer against Delta variant

  • England to lift mask restrictions

  • Cases on rise in immigration detention centers in the U.S. 

  • Bay area zoo is vaccinating big cats and some other animals 

Guest:

Kristen R. Choi, professor of nursing and public health at UCLA; registered nurse practicing at Gateways Hospital, based in Echo Park

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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LANDFIRE Marks 20 Years as One-Stop Data Shop for Fire—and More

For two decades now, and counting, the LANDFIRE program continues to assemble the most easy-to-use, intuitive and complete clearinghouse of remote sensing data products for wildland fire managers. 




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New research estimates the effectiveness of sagebrush restoration treatments across the sagebrush biome

Restoration of the imperiled sagebrush biome will require tools that assist resource managers in determining which restoration practices are most effective, and when and where restoration efforts will lead to the most ecosystem recovery. New research from USGS and Colorado State University provides biome-wide insights and spatially explicit tools that can inform restoration practices. 




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USGS Releases New Topographic Maps for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands - Updated Maps for Essential Needs

The USGS is pleased to announce the release of new US Topo maps for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These updated topographic maps offer valuable, current geographic information for residents, visitors, and professionals, providing essential resources for communities in these areas.




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A new science synthesis for public land management of the effects of noise from oil and gas development on raptors and songbirds

The USGS is working with federal land management agencies to develop a series of structured science syntheses (SSS) to support National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. This new synthesis is the third publication in the SSS series and provides science to support NEPA analyses for agency decisions regarding oil and gas leasing and permitting.