Category Archives: Deep Mind
Do you need to sit still to be mindful? – The Sydney Morning Herald
"Mindfulness is about learning to observe ourselves (e.g. our thoughts and feelings) and the world around us without judging; that is, without labelling as 'good or 'bad'," he explains. "If one accepts this definition then mindfulness can, and possibly should be, practiced anywhere and anytime. This would include whilst running or working out in the gym."
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However, Dr Sharp says there is a specific benefit to quietly sitting and contemplating which cannot be replaced by just having a focused exercise session and that an inability to do so may be indicative of a deeper restlessness or problem with attention.
"I think its important for some people to reflect upon whether they really could gain from being able to sit for longer, in stillness; and if so, whether they just need to practice more and/or adjust their approach somewhat."
The meditation instructor
"Well firstly, having to sit completely still while meditating is a myth," says Luke McLeod, founder of mindfulness community Soul Society and the creator of South Alive, a livestreamed meditation service, who notes this misconception can lead to many people putting sitting mindful activities in the too-hard basket.
"It's just often associated with this as it's a very introspective activity that requires focus and movement can break this concentration."
Having to sit completely still while meditating is a myth.
Instead, McLeod, who has taught meditation for 10 years, says comfort should be the first primary objective: "Particularly when starting out, sitting in a chair that supports your back is recommended and if you experience pain or any discomfort whilst meditating, feel free to adjust your position to a more comfortable one."
While it is possible to experience mindfulness benefits from a run, for McLeod it isn't really a meditation. Personally, he runs or stretches before he meditates as it puts him in a calmer state.
"Running and meditation are both cleansing activities," he says. "They both release endorphins and lower cortisol levels in the body. However, meditation is primarily the process of focusing and observing on one singular sense over and over again whether this be a mantra, a single object (e.g. flame of a candle) or a singular repeated process like breathing. Whereas when you are running have to open yourself up to constant external stimuli happening around you, otherwise you'll run into someone or something."
The wellbeing coach
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Bondi personal trainer, yoga instructor and wellbeing coach Kirsten Scott says this dilemma of whether to prioritise mind or body is one of the most common questions she is asked by new clients. For Scott, there are "absolutely" mindfulness benefits that come from exercise, although she does encourage people to attempt a sitting meditation practice, as she has herself.
"I move a lot and am around many people each day so taking time out to be alone and still benefits me more," she says, noting a regular sitting meditation practice allows for stillness and singular concentration not possible in exercise, and the mind to attain a calmer state closer to sleep.
Rather than trying to force mindfulness into an intensive workout, Scott instead recommends those who struggle with sitting still choose an active meditation, rather than a sitting practice.
"If carving out an hour to sit on a cushion doesnt float your boat, there are many unexpected ways to meditate every day. Get the benefits of meditation by trying out an alternative style like a walking meditation, Tai Chi, Qigong, dancing meditation or breathing meditation."
Mary Ward is Deputy Lifestyle Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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Do you need to sit still to be mindful? - The Sydney Morning Herald
EDITORIAL: West explosion victims out of sight and clearly out of mind – Waco Tribune-Herald
Thursdays announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency was snuffing an Obama era regulation crafted to prevent occurrences such as the deadly 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that blew a quarter of West, Texas, off the map is yet another example of the Trump administration adding insult to injury, cheapening the lives of 12 first responders who perished in the ammonium nitrate blast. In justifying the decision while very obviously bowing to the deep-pocketed chemical industry lobbyists in whose ranks he once toiled, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said the EPA is taking this action partially in deference to first responders.
Talk about fake news. Whether the vocal state fire marshal or the mayor of West (also a volunteer firefighter at the time of the explosion), many rank-and-file first responders have actually pressed for more information and more coordination involving businesses with volatile chemical stockpiles, something the Obama rule sought to address before its initial suspension. No less than Mayor Tommy Muska has stressed how he and fellow firefighters on April 17, 2013, had no idea what they were up against in trying to quell a plant fire that exploded, ripping apart homes and infrastructure as well as cherished friends and neighbors.
The message is abundantly clear: The Trump administration may be pro-life when it comes to unborn children and it may welcome with holy fanfare a Florida televangelist as a White House aide, but otherwise human life is cheap on this watch, whether its Kurdish or Ukrainian allies who fought alongside us in combat in far-off lands or volunteer first responders who come running when a fire breaks out in places such as the conservative Central Texas town of West, population 2,800.
Judging from EPA documents, the Trump administrations reasons for scrapping the Obama rule is based on a couple of things: First, requiring more public access to what chemicals are stored in chemical plants such as the former West Fertilizer Company would theoretically leave them terrorist targets as if well-funded terrorists couldnt learn this through other means. Second, the West explosion has been ruled arson by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a conclusion shared by neither other investigators of the blast nor the West officials and leading citizenry with whom we have spoken.
Then again, one wonders if this is just another example of a president scuttling anything his predecessor pressed, good or bad. None of which sits well with Muska, judging from comments to a Trib editorial board member Saturday afternoon:
I guess what Im upset about more than anything is that, if like me these people had gone to 12 funerals in eight days, then they might have asked themselves, Did we do enough? Look at that memorial [to the blast victims], look at those names, look at those people who died. If after all that they can say they did enough, well, I want to hear that. If they have a quarter of their town blown up, destroyed, I want to hear them say they did enough. But that happened to me, it didnt happen to them. So its a tough pill to swallow.
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EDITORIAL: West explosion victims out of sight and clearly out of mind - Waco Tribune-Herald
Why tech companies need to hire philosophers – Quartz
I have spent the better half of the last two years trying to convince companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, DeepMind, and OpenAI that they need to hire philosophers.
My colleagues and Ia small collective of academics that make up a program called Transformations of the Human at the Los Angeles-based think tank called the Berggruen Institutethink that the research carried out by these companies has been disrupting the very concept of the human that wein the West particularlyhave taken for granted for almost half a millennium.
Its not only that, though. These companies have helped create realities that we can no longer navigate with the old understanding of what it means to be human.
We need new onesfor ourselves, so that we are able to navigate and regulate the new worlds we live in, but also for the engineers who create tech products, tools, and platforms, so that they can live up to the philosophical stakes of their work.
To make that possible, we need philosophers and artists working alongside computer and software engineers.
Until relatively recently, we in the modern West knew what it means to be human.
We knew that we had what no one and nothing else had: intelligence.
We knew that our potential to think, to wonder, to know, made us exceptional and set us apart from the rest of creation. By this theory, we humans were more than just another animal. And we were much more than just a machine.
While we had intelligence, animals had only instinct, and machines had mere mechanisms.
We also knew that there is an unbridgeable difference between natural and human-made artificial things, and between organisms and machines, as well as between living, sentient things and non-living or non-sentient things. We knew that only natural, living thingsi.e., organismscan sense, perceive, and think
We knew all of this with unwavering certaintyuntil we knew better.
Today none of these distinctionsnor the concept of the human that they helped stabilizeholds as certainly. And this loss of certainty has much to do with the rise of artificial intelligence. (It also has to do with a lot of other things, like microbiome research and climate change, but in this article I am going to focus on AI).
Take, for example, deep learning, in which machines endowed with thousands of layers of neurons are able to learn and remember. This enables the machine to reason and to make decisions.
Given the abilities of these neuronal machines, it does not seem very plausible to assume we humans are intelligent while machines are not. Or that only living things can be sentient and can think, investigate, and understand. Or that there is a categorical distinction between natural things and artificial things.
On the contrary, it appears that there is a continuity between the natural and the artificial, between humans and machines.
As these observations make amply clear, the relatively recent advent of AI is a far-reaching philosophical event. And AI labs and tech companies are our most potent philosophical laboratories. They are powerful experimental spaces within which people create new concepts of the human and the world around us.
In places like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and OpenAI, engineers elaborate radically new notions of what it means to be human, to live a life, and to live together.
The vast majority of cutting-edge AI research is carried out in companies. The problem is that most of the people who lead these companies dont know that they are radically reinventing our definition of what it means to be human. They think of themselves as just people who work at tech companies.
One of the major ambitions of my work is to change this. I want these labs and companies to understand their enormous philosophical responsibility: the self-aware design of new possibilities of being human and of living together.
Which is why my colleagues and I have placed philosophers and artists in places like Google.
Let me underline that while we work with companies, the purpose of our work is not to help big tech to devise some novel marketing strategy: Our goal is not to provide philosophical and artistic means for corporate ends.
Rather, our ambition is to engage the major AI companies in a philosophical and artistic project of massive scope, in the experimental search for and articulation of what it means philosophically to be human in our modern world.
The modern concept of the humanthe concept that we until recently took for grantedfirst surfaced in Europe in the 1630s. This was a time when more and more reports about non-European life forms arrived in Europe, making philosophers wonder what all these people had in common.
The answer they gradually came up with assumed the form of two differentiations:
On the one hand, they argued, humans are more than mere nature (more than animals and plants). And on the other hand, they insisted, humans were said to be other than (or qualitatively different from) mere machines.
The criterion of differentiation was intelligence: Humans have it, or so the story went, and nature and machines dont.
At the time, these two differentiations served two powerful purposes: To argue that all humans are defined by intelligencethe capacity to think, examine, reflect, and knowwas a most powerful tool against the unfounded authority of the clergy.
And to argue that nature, as opposed to humans, is devoid of intelligence allowed the early modern philosophers to exempt humans from the cosmos (of which they had been a part up until then) and to reduce nature from a metaphysical surrounding organized by divine laws to physical matter organized in terms of mechanisms.
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance these two differentiations (more than nature/other than machines) have had for our modern experience of self and of the world that surrounds us.
Almost all of the vocabulary we have assigned to be distinctively humanart, culture, society, history, politicssilently suggests the more/other:
Art and culture are the opposite of nature. Society and politics are a space of action and organization that opens up when humans leave the status naturalis, or animal state.
History is an exclusively human realm, made up of successive layers of human action.
It was sometime around 2013 when I first recognized that the modern concept of the humanagain, the very concept that has organized our sense of self and our experience of realityfails us.
Take the microbiome, which has been becoming increasingly popular in science, health and wellness circles in the past few years. There is no single organ system that is not contingent on microbial metabolites. Most of the neurotransmitters in our brain are made by bacteria living in our guts. No one can tell where a human ends and their microbiome begins.
Or, take AI. Once AI researchers succeeded in building machines endowed with neural nets that learn, that experience, that remember, that think and reason, the assumption of an unbridgeable difference between humans and machinesbetween intelligence and mechanism, between the animate and the inanimatebecame untenable.
It seemed clear that we cannot continue to live by concepts we know are both untenable and destructive to the planet. But the question that concerned me most was what to do with it all.
This question troubled me for a long time, until I realized that fields like AI and microbiome research or synthetic biology not only undermine the historic way we think of the humanthey also allow for new possibilities for understanding the world.
It suddenly dawned on me that I could look at each one of these fields, not just AI and the microbiome, but also synthetic biology, biogeochemistry, and others, as if they were a kind of philosophical laboratory for re-articulating our reality.
Isnt AI, by undoing the formerly exclusive link between humans and intelligence, opening up whole new possibilities of understanding how the world is organized and how humans fit into this world?
Intelligence is now no longer an exclusively-human property, but something animals and machines have as well.
By establishing a continuum between the natural and the artificial, AI research invites us to think of machines as natural, and of engineering as a kind of natural (meaning biological) practice.
We are living in an era of a major, most far-reaching philosophical event: A radical re-articulation of what it is to be human and of the relation between humans, nature, and technology.
Yet at present, no one really formally talks about this philosophical quality of tech. Hence, no one attends to it, with the inevitable consequence that the sweeping re-articulation of the human unfolds around us in a haphazard, entirely unconscientious way.
Shouldnt we try to change this?
When I shared my enthusiasm with my colleagues in academia, I found that what was exciting to me was an unbearable provocation for many others.
My suggestion that the question concerning the human has migrated into the fields of the natural sciences and engineeringthat is, into fields not concerned with the traditional study of the human and humanity at allwere received as threat to academics in the arts. If humans are no longer more than nature or machines, then what are the arts even good for?
My insistence that the best way to defend the human was to re-invent it was dismissed.
But my suggestion has hardly been to abandon philosophy or the arts. Rather, I want to bring into focus how fields like AI (or microbiome research or synthetic biology) are actually philosophical fields.
But the problem was not just in the arts: Most engineers I talked to were too busy being engineers. They were fully absorbed by their research questions and displayed little interest in what I desperately, and clumsily, called the philosophical stakes of their work.
I entered one of the biggest crises of my adult life: I had to accept that the universitythe place I cherished, loved, called homewas part of the problem rather than the solution.
The re-invention of the human in terms of philosophy, art, and engineering could not occur, at least for now within the academy as we know it. In 2016, I decided to give up my endowed chair and to leave the university. A little more than a year later, as luck would have it, investor and Berggruen Institute founder Nicolas Berggruen offered me the opportunity to build a small, experimental program on the contemporary transformations of the human that would allow me to test my ideas.
In spring 2018, I began to call researchers in AI and biotech sites and suggested that they hire philosophers and artists to work alongside their engineers.
I explained, with all my enthusiasm, that AI labs and companies are the unrecognized but most powerful and cataclysmic philosophical laboratories in which new concepts of being human, of politics, of understanding nature, of understanding and practicing technology, are thought up.
I told my interlocutors that their work is at the very center of a vast philosophical event, of similar historical proportions to the Renaissance or the Scientific Revolution.
I called, followed up, visitedand hoped my enthusiasm would be infectious and help open the door.
Today, we have philosophy and art teams at Element AI, Facebook, and Google, and also at AI labs at MIT, Berkeley, and Stanford. Our researchers are in regular conversation with DeepMind, OpenAI, and Microsoft.
This is just the beginning.
My work over the last two years has led me to conclude that these research and collaboration platforms Ive had the fortune to build at the Berggruen Institute can only be a first step in a much larger process.
What we need now is a completely new model for an educational institution, one that can produce a new kind of practitioner.
We need a workforce that thinks differently, and that can understand engineering, from AI to microbiome research to synthetic biology to geoengineering and many other fieldsas philosophical and artistic practices that ceaselessly re-invent the human.
Almost every month, youll likely read about another billion-dollar endowment for a new tech school. On the one hand, theres nothing wrong with thisI agree we always need better, smarter, tech.
On the other hand, these tech schools tend to reproduce the old division of labor between the faculty of arts and the faculties of science and engineering. That is, they tend to understand tech as just tech and not as the philosophical and artistic field that it is.
What we need are not so much tech schools, as institutions that combine philosophy, art, and technology into one integrated curriculum.
We need a school that combines philosophy, art, and engineering, one that can produce the workforce of the futurelike a contemporary Bauhaus movement, focused not on exclusively on architecture, but on technology as well.
If we fail to embrace these differences today, and if we fail to recognize that radically new things are occurring, and fail to recognize the radically new as opportunities and responsibilities, we run the risk of leaving the definition of the world we live in to the conservative forces that stubbornly continue to try to frame our changing world in the terms of the old one.
And that is a certain recipe for disaster.
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Living on Purpose: Being thankful is a state of mind – Chattanooga Times Free Press
I was thinking this week, while in the midst of complaining about the frustrations of life, that being thankful is more of a state of mind than a celebration.
I'm sure you will agree it's truly a blessing to wake up each morning and not be in agony. When we swing our bodies over onto the side of the bed and stand on our feet, this is nothing less than a miracle!
So often, we become so busy thinking about what we are going to do that we forget how God is providing our good health, which enables us to enjoy our life. I realize it's easy to take our blessings for granted, and since being grateful is an attitude of appreciation, let us remember to tell Jesus how much we love him for paying the ransom for our soul.
What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Someone might reply, "It means a delicious feast" and we can relate, as who does not enjoy a great meal? Others may say, "Thanksgiving means a day off from work or school," and this is always something to look forward to.
Nonetheless, holidays are not only to be a celebration of indulgence but a spiritual sensitivity that recognizes all that we have and who gave it to us. As the word Thanksgiving suggests, we talk about thanks but rarely hear about the giving.
Giving thanks is also more than an expression of gratitude because we can say "thank you" to someone and not really mean it. Genuine appreciation is not just words, but more of a sincere awareness of a particular thing or person, then demonstrating that gratitude with honesty and sincerity.
This year between the turkey, dressing and the pumpkin pie, may we give praise to the one who made it all possible. It's more than just saying a prayer at the table; it's living a life that is pleasing unto the Lord.
One of our good friends is battling a serious health issue and, trust me, she is seeing life through a different perspective this Thanksgiving. She's been taking morning walks lately and has shared with me about how quiet and peaceful the world is right before the sun rises. In these times, it's the little things like hearing the birds sing and the colors of the leaves that are majestic and awe-inspiring.
Have you considered lately how glorious it is to be able to take a deep breath? Breathing seems so natural, but to many, it is a constant battle. The feeling of being underwater is not pleasant, and yet many live in this situation every day.
The heart is another involuntary function that God has designed to keep a constant rhythm without us having to think about it, but many people are not so fortunate. How often do we thank God for all of the medications and treatments he provides to maintain our health?
Franklin Roosevelt is quoted as saying, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Across the uncertain ways of space and time, our hearts echo those words, for the days are with us again when, at the gathering of the harvest, we solemnly express our dependence upon Almighty God."
Occasionally I will take a short nap on my cozy leather sofa while our English bulldog wedges his way in between me and the back of the couch and lets out a sigh of enjoyment that sounds more like the grunt of a hog. What a blessing it is to have a place called home. I'm sure most of you feel the same way about your sanctuary of peace and security.
I thank God that I can go to the refrigerator and find something to eat, then go out into the garage and get into a nice vehicle and travel wherever I need to go. We usually do not pay any attention to these "luxuries" but they are amazing blessings.
May we remember there are many people that do not have a home, a vehicle, a couch or any food at all. First Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to be "Thankful in everything, and in all circumstances." Whether in lack or abundance we will look to God and thank him for all he has given and, more importantly, we will worship and love him just for who he is.
Check out Billy Holland's new book, "Convictions and Considerations," at billy hollandministries.com.
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Living on Purpose: Being thankful is a state of mind - Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Most Iconic Tech Innovations of the 2010s – PCMag
As the decade comes to an end, we rounded up the most important and innovative tech products, trends, and breakthroughs that have shaped how we use technology.
We're staring down the barrel of 2020, and an entirely new decade of technological progress. It's impossible to predict what tech will look like 10 years from now. But as the 2010s come to an end, it's a good time to reflect on a decade of new apps, devices, innovations, and tech-driven societal shifts that have radically changed the way we live our day-to-day lives, for better or worse.
The 2010s have ushered in an unparalleled era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, a bevy of new devices and hardware innovations, 4G networks powering a new generation of connected apps and services, and a lot more. Take a trip back through 10 years of technology, much of which it's now hard to imagine living without.
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MINI John Cooper Works GP is a two-seater hot hatch that shouts its 306 HP – SlashGear
Small, but perfectly formed. MINI isnt short on punchy versions in its history books, but even then the new 2020 MINI John Cooper Works GP stands out of the crowd. Offering the most powerful engine in a MINI to-date, the 306 horsepower two-door doesnt hide its unique nature.
In fact it positively shouts its, thanks to a distinctive body kid. MINI starts with the 3-door hatchback, and then adds a number of functional aero details. Theres a big roof spoiler, for example, with double wing contour, plus a new front apron surround and front spoiler lip. They help cut down on lift.
Larger air intakes are on the front, and there are carbon fiber-reinforced plastic arch trim flares. They mean MINI could use larger wheels 18-inches shod in 225/35 R 18 tires as well as optimize the air ducting on the sides. Its actually a first for BMW Group, which takes recycled CFRP fleece material from the production of the BMW i3 and i8, and then reworks it into body parts for the John Cooper Works GP. They get a matte CFRP coating, too, and are individually numbered.
Racing Grey Metallic paint sits alongside Melting Silver for the roof and side mirror caps. Theres high-gloss Chili Red highlighting on the grille, the lower air intakes, and inside the roof spoiler, while the badging is in metallic matte Rosso Red. The headlamps and Union Jack taillamp clusters are dark-tinted.
The changes arent just skin-deep, mind. Compared to the regular car, MINI has added a new engine mount, a solid support for the changed rear axle member, and a strut brace for the front suspension, all to improve stiffness. Theres a mechanical differential lock in the 8-speed Steptronic transmission, which can be locked by up to 31-percent and improve traction in cornering.
As for the engine, thats something special too. The 4-cylinder 2.0-liter twin-turbo engine delivers 306 horsepower 75 hp more than in the MINI John Cooper Works and 332 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 mph arrives in 5.2 seconds, and the top speed is an unrestricted 165 mph.
MINI throws in a model-specific engine oil sump, capable of holding up in even more aggressive cornering. The sports brake system has 4-piston fixed-caliper ventilated-disc brakes on the front wheels and single-piston floating-caliper brakes on the rear. The car is lowered by 10mm versus the standard John Cooper Works model.
Inside, there are two seats with Dinamica/leather trim and red belts. A special John Cooper Works steering wheel has 3D printed detailing and is leather-wrapped, and there are 3D printed metal shift paddles. Automatic climate control is optional, as is an infotainment system with navigation; the Connected Media system with a 6.5-inch screen is standard, and theres a digital instrument cluster on the steering column. That 5-inch color LCD shows things like speed and other metrics.
Now for the sad news. MINI will only be making 3,000 of the John Cooper Works GP model when production kicks off in March 2020, and that number will have to be shared with would-be drivers around the world. Pricing will be confirmed closer to release, but its fair to say that this stands a good chance of becoming a modern MINI classic.
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MINI John Cooper Works GP is a two-seater hot hatch that shouts its 306 HP - SlashGear
How To Face An Anxiety Provoking Situation Like A Champion – Forbes
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Whether you signed up to take the bar exam or you are about to deliver a do-or-die presentation, your mindset determines whether you rise to the occasion or crumble under the pressure in an anxiety provoking situation.
Anxiety feels uncomfortable. So your natural defense might be to avoid these types of situations altogether.
Your mind and your body might try to convince you that you cant handle the stress. But giving into that fear is the only way youre certain to fail.
Champions know how to rise to the occasion during an anxiety provoking situation. They perform their best when their is much at stake.
Heres how to stay mentally strong when youre faced with an anxiety provoking situation:
Contrary to what you might think, anxiety is not all in your mind. It is also waging a war with your body.
Anxiety produces a variety of physical symptoms too, like sweaty palms and a rapid heartbeat. These physiological signs of anxiety will likely fuel your anxious thoughts and feelings. When your body acts like its in a state of panic, your mind will probably begin to freak out.
Fortunately, you can calm your body when you begin to experience this fight-or-flight response.
A couple of slow, deep breaths might go a long way to calming your mind and your body. Heres how to practice:
Slow, deep breaths can reduce your physical symptoms, help you become more present in the moment, and prevent you from developing a doom-and-gloom mindset.
So whenever you feel yourself panicwhether youre presented with a life-changing opportunity or youre doing simple that evokes a lot of fearuse this deep breathing exercise to calm yourself.
Anxious feelings lead to anxious thoughts. So when you feel afraid, you might convince yourself youre going to fail. Or you might tell yourself you should give up.
Those anxious thoughts will increase your feelings of anxiety. That leads to a vicious downward spiral thats hard to break.
Fortunately, you can break this cycle by giving yourself a quick pep talk. Ask yourself, What would I say to a trusted friend who was in this situation? Then, give yourself that same advice.
Whether you think, "All you can do is your best" or "Go knock 'em dead!" those words of encouragement can give you a quick boost in mental strength and help you enter the situation with a champion-like mindset.
Dont waste your valuable energy on things you cant control. Stay focused on yourself.
You can control how many people you introduce yourself to at a networking event, but you cant control whether people follow up with you. You can control the delivery of your speech but you cant control how receptive the audience is.
When you catch yourself thinking about things you cant control, refocus your energy. Remind yourself that you are only responsible for what you do and you cant control how other people think, feel, or behave.
It can even help to have your own mantra that you repeat beforehand as many times as you need to. Say to yourself out loud something like "Do your best" each time you catch yourself thinking about things outside your control.
Imagination fuels anxiety. All too often we imagine the worst-case scenario. What if no one likes me at the party? What if I stumble over words? What if I cant think of anything interesting to say?
Those catastrophic thoughts can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. As you worry about stumbling on your words, you might grow distracted and forget what you were saying. Or, as you focus too much on whether people like you, you might not engage in authentic, meaningful conversations.
To keep your anxiety at bay about all those what ifs, create an if...then plan.
Establish how youll respond if the problem youre worrying about actually happens.
If I get nervous during my speech, then Ill take a few deep breaths and look at my notes. If I cant think of anything interesting to say, then Ill ask about where they grew up.
Developing a plan for the worst case scenario will eliminate your need to keep worrying about disastrous outcomes. And itll free up your mind to focus on more important things.
Trying too hard to fight anxiety can be a waste of energy. Its not productive to tell yourself things like My anxiety must mean Im not good enough for this or I cant handle feeling anxious. Youll just drain yourself of the mental strength you need to perform at your peak.
Concentrate your efforts on building courage rather than trying to reduce your anxiety.
Embrace a little anxiety, rather than fight it. Remind yourself that anxious feelings are proof that you are doing something challenging and important.
Regardless of whether you delivered your speech perfectly or you nailed every nerve-racking interview question perfectly, congratulate yourself for facing your fears.
Tackling anxiety provoking situations head-on gets easier with practice. But it also helps sharpen your skills.
Every tough challenge gives you an opportunity to build more mental muscle. And each step you take toward becoming mentally stronger is one step toward reaching your greatest potential.
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How To Face An Anxiety Provoking Situation Like A Champion - Forbes
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: The deep relationship between math and physics – The Huntington News
From the breakthroughs of Einstein and Dirac to contemporary physicists and mathematicians who are shedding light on the blossoming and revolutionary interaction between mathematics and physics, Graham Farmelos new book takes readers on an adventure through the two fields relationship.
Farmelo, a renowned physicist and writer, led a discussion surrounding topics covered in his book, The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Maths Reveals Natures Deepest Secrets, Nov. 14 at Snell Engineering Center. Farmelo is a fellow at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge as well as an affiliated professor at Northeastern.
Nima Arkani-Hamed, one of the nations leading theoretical physicists and a professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, was Farmelos guest speaker for the event. He arrived a couple of minutes late to the event and still received a round of applause from the audience as he walked through the door.
The talk began with Farmelo introducing Arkani-Hamed as the best theoretical physicist ever produced by McDonalds, referencing the fact that Arkani-Hamed had worked two summers in the fast-food chain in his youth.
Arkani-Hamed explained that within the independent development in physics and mathematics, theres more and more understanding of the deep and mysterious relationship between them. He said order can be made of our seemingly chaotic world and could be captured in succinct mathematical language.
Farmelo shared some of the foundational history of the field, beginning with Sir Isaac Newton, most well-known for his development of the three laws of motion. Farmelo explained that Newton wouldve never described himself as a theoretical physicist. Newton became one of the first to think that physicists should aim to make predictions about the world and that they could do so using defined mathematical calculations.
This proposal was a radical agenda for the scientific community at the time, though it has since laid the foundation for the impetus of physics that was to follow, Farmelo said.
Arkani-Hamed then interjected, saying one of his pet peeves is when people talk about theorists who are proven to be wrong about a certain theory, as if they are completely dumb, irrational or illogical for thinking that way.
He gave the example of the theory of luminiferous ether, a hypothetical medium for transmitting light and radiation, filling all unoccupied space. Ultimately, Einsteins theory of relativity eliminated the need for a light-transmitting medium, disproving the existence of the ether.
The luminiferous ether was a concept proposed by Newton who is, as aforementioned, a world-renowned physicist. Though Newton build the wrong scaffolding, it still lent way to the correct equations eventually, Arkani-Hamed said.
According to Arkani-Hamed, quantum mechanics is the most revolutionary theory of the 20th century. Put simply, quantum mechanics is the application of quantum theory: the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level.
To give an example of how mathematics and physics are intrinsically intertwined, Farmelo and Arkani-Hamed talked about how British physicist Paul Diracs work gave way to something once thought unfeasible.
In 1928, Dirac wrote an equation that combined quantum theory and special relativity to describe the behavior of an electron moving at a relativistic speed. This equation posed a problem in the classical physics practice. Even Einstein is known to have said he couldnt imagine any points of intersection between these two fundamental theories.
Dirac proposed the concept of antiparticles, which are particles that have all the same qualities as another particle but have an opposite electrical charge. This is the only way known to current physicists on how to successfully marry the theories of quantum mechanics and special relativity.
This intersection between two outrageously different theories is a relatively new revelation in the field of physics, and speaks to the deep, intricate and seemingly ever-growing connection between the worlds of mathematics and physics.
There is a giant Truth with a capital T of the world out there that physics is constantly working towards, that is also somehow enlaced with a giant Truth with a capital T of the mathematical world, Arkani-Hamed said.
Both Farmelo and Arkani-Hamed said they are excited by the impact of these two fields work in collaboration and believe there is much more to discover from their combination.
We dont actually know what reality is about. We are still learning, and we have to go into it with an open mind. Often, what we predict or assume something to be, can more easily be proven wrong than proven right, Arkani-Hamed said.
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The Universe Speaks in Numbers: The deep relationship between math and physics - The Huntington News
The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus Toured the Deep South – SF Weekly
About 15 minutes into Gay Chorus Deep South, members of the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus are gathered around an office phone. The phone emits a brief screech before a voicemail marred with static plays: So, youre going to bring a fight to the South?
What follows next is a slurry of homophobia from the voicemail leaver. Chris Verdugo, the executive director of the chorus, just shakes his head.
Theres no amount of singing thats going to fix that, Verdugo says.
This fight was actually the 2017 fall Lavender Pen Tour of the American South, when 300 members of the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus and guests from the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir drove through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina to sing. They made about two dozen appearances, spoke on a conservative radio show, and found other members of the LGBTQ+ community, hoping to find unity in some places with the worst anti-LGBTQ laws in the country.
Its all captured in an upcoming documentary directed by David Charles Rodrigues, Gay Chorus Deep South, which won the Documentary Audience Award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.
The documentary isnt a simple story of spreading joy and peace through the power of music. For one, the documentary challenges conceptions we have about the South. Queer South historian Josh Burford calls the south a myth a distancing technique.
There are many people who want this tour to happen, Burford says in the film. Lets bring attention to the needs of the local communities. Thats a great idea, he tells SF Weekly. But then the other side of it is after being ignored for long, the idea of a prominent, national organization doing a goodwill tour in the South feels very paternalistic and condescending.
The situation is a lot more complex than anticipated. Moreover, Gay Chorus Deep South unfolds the limitations and strengths of what art can do. Tim Seelig, the artistic director of the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus, knew that there was no chance in changing the voicemail senders mind. (That person would actually go on to leave several more hate-filled messages, not seen on screen.)
But Seelig isnt trying to reach people like that.
The chorus in general, not just on this tour have people on one side of the spectrum who are totally supportive, accepting allies. On the other side there are people who are never going to listen to what were going to say, Seelig says. But theres a huge pool of people in the middle.
Singer Jimmy Whites father fell into that pool. White, who carries an ongoing battle with cancer during the tour, hasnt talked to his homophobic father in half a dozen years. But when the tour visits Mississippi, where White is from, Whites father is in the audience. Its unclear if they ever fully repair their relationship, but for a single concert, Whites father listens to his son sing in a gay mens chorus.
Changing hearts was one goal of the tour. Another was to support other LGBTQ people in the South. We created a safe space in those places that are not always safe to be out, Seelig says.
Its not always easy to do. That visibility in itself is activism, according to producer Bud Johnston. Its something that the makers of Gay Chorus Deep South are trying to amplify through documentation by shining a light on organizations like the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus.
I think every one of the chorus members has trauma and has stories that are hard, whether it be their coming out stories, or how they were raised, Johnson says. But theyre the ones who are going out on a stage under a spotlight and singing their hearts out putting themselves in front of audiences that can be discriminatory. Thats courage.
Opens Nov. 22.
Grace Li covers arts and culture for SF Weekly. You can reach her at gli@sfweekly.com.
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The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus Toured the Deep South - SF Weekly
Tremor patients can be relieved of the shakes for THREE YEARS after having ultrasound waves – Herald Publicist
Folks whose lives are blighted by fixed shakes might be spared painful surgical procedure by zapping their brains with ultrasound waves, analysis suggests.
Scientists discovered treating important tremor sufferers with high-frequency sound waves stored their signs at bay for 3 years with none severe negative effects.
1000s of sufferers with extreme tremors at present depend on deep mind stimulation, which includes surgically implanting electrodes into the mind.
Nevertheless, it may well set off a slew of nasty negative effects together with migraines, nausea and hassle concentrating.
Folks whose lives are blighted by fixed shakes might be spared the nasty negative effects of surgical procedure by zapping their brains with ultrasound waves, analysis suggests (file)
The shaking is brought on by defective circuits within the thalamus, a small space on the base of the mind.The ultrasound therapy targets it with high-frequency sound waves.
These ultrasound beams generate warmth that breaks the irregular circuit inflicting the tremor.
The remedy was permitted by the UK watchdog NICE final June and is at present being trialled on the Imperial School Healthcare NHS Belief.
It has additionally been given the inexperienced gentle within the US and goes by means of medical trials to show it may well work.
For his or her newest research, researchers fromStanford College in California checked out76 important tremor sufferers with a mean age of 71.
Some 56 of the sufferers obtained the therapy. The opposite 20 had a placebo. All of them had been then adopted for 3 years.
Hand tremors, degree of incapacity and high quality of life had been measured initially of the research, after six months, one 12 months, two years after which lastly three years.
A nerve dysfunction which sees uncontrollable shaking in several elements of the physique.
Areas affected usually embrace the fingers, arms, head, larynx (voice field), tongue, and chin. The decrease physique isnt affected.
It impacts round 1,000,000 Britons and 7 million folks within the US.
ET is just not a life-threatening dysfunction, except it prevents an individual from caring for him or herself.
Most individuals are in a position to dwell regular lives with this situation though they might discover on a regular basis actions like consuming, dressing, or writing tough.
Its only when the tremors change into extreme that they really trigger incapacity.
What Causes Important Tremor?
The true trigger remains to be not understood, however its thought that the irregular electrical mind exercise that causes tremor is processed by means of the thalamus.
The thalamus is a construction deep within the mind that coordinates and controls muscle exercise.
Genetics is liable for inflicting ET in half of all folks with the situation.
A toddler born to a mum or dad with ET can have as much as a 50 per cent probability of inheriting the accountable gene, however might by no means truly expertise signs.
Though ET is extra frequent within the aged and signs change into extra pronounced with age it isnt part of the pure getting older course of.
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On the finish of the research, the contributors noticed hand tremors improved by 50 per cent, incapacity by 56 per cent, and high quality of life by 42 per cent, within the ultrasound group.
All negative effects within the research had been gentle or average. They included numbness and tingling, imbalance and unsteadiness.
In comparison with the scores six months after therapy, hand tremors and incapacity elevated barely after three years. On a scale of zero to 32, hand tremor scores initially had been a mean of 20.
At six months common scores had been 9 and by three years had been 10. For incapacity, on a scale of zero to 32, scores had been initially a mean of 16.At six months, scores had been a mean of 4 and at three years a mean of six.
Nevertheless, the research didnt evaluate the contributors to a placebo group.
Leadcreator Casey Halpern, assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford, mentioned: For individuals who have disabling important tremor that isnt responding to treatment, this therapy must be thought-about as a protected and efficient choice.
He mentioned that in comparison withdeep mind stimulation, the brand new method was a lot much less invasive.
Professor Halpern added: Its carried out in a single session; there isnt a want for follow-up visits.
He famous that, as a result of the folks within the research and the researchers all knew that everybody was receiving the therapy, extra analysis is required with a placebo group to substantiate the outcomes.
An additional limitation of the research was that 23 folks, or 31 per cent, didnt full the whole three years.
The researchers decided that those that later dropped out of the research werent responding as nicely to the therapy after three months as those that accomplished the research.
The findings had been revealed inthe medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A million Britons and 7 million folks within the US endure from uncontrollable shaking, which might make even easy duties like consuming and utilizing a telephone tough.
Important tremor, because its identified, impacts the fingers, arms, head and voice field. It largely strikes folks in center age.
If signs are gentle, the situation is handled withbeta-blockers, coronary heart slowing drugs which block the manufacturing of adrenaline, or epilepsy medicine.
However these drugs solely scale back signs in round half of sufferers, in keeping with the NHS.
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