Category Archives: Deep Mind
Googles Supermodel: DeepMind Perceiver is a step on the road to an AI machine that could process anything… – ZDNet
Arguably one of the premiere events that has brought AI to popular attention in recent years was the invention of the Transformer by Ashish Vaswani and colleagues at Google in 2017. The Transformer led to lots of language programs such as Google's BERT and OpenAI's GPT-3 that have been able to produce surprisingly human-seeming sentences, giving the impression machines can write like a person.
Now, scientists at DeepMind in the U.K., which is owned by Google, want to take the benefits of the Transformer beyond text, to let it revolutionize other material including images, sounds and video, and spatial data of the kind a car records with LiDAR.
The Perceiver, unveiled this week by DeepMind in a paper posted on arXiv, adapts the Transformer with some tweaks to let it consume all those types of input, and to perform on the various tasks, such as image recognition, for which separate kinds of neural networks are usually developed.
The DeepMind work appears to be a waystation on the way to an envisioned super-model of deep learning, a neural network that could perform a plethora of tasks, and would learn faster and with less data, what Google's head of AI, Jeff Dean, has described as a "grand challenge" for the discipline.
One model to rule them all? DeepMind's Perceiver has decent performance on multiple tests of proficiency even though the program is not built for any one kind of input, unlike most neural networks that specialize. Perceiver combines a now-standard Transformer neural network with a trick called "inducing points," as a summary of the data, to reduce how much raw data from pixels or audio or video needs to be computed.
The paper, Perceiver: General Perception with Iterative Attention, by authors Andrew Jaegle, Felix Gimeno, Andrew Brock, Andrew Zisserman, Oriol Vinyals, and Joao Carreira, is to be presented this month at the International Conference on Machine Learning, which kicks of July 18th and which is being held as a virtual event this year.
Perceiver continues the trend to generality that has been underway for several years now, meaning, having less and less built into an AI program that is specific to a task. Before Vaswani et al.'s Transformer, most natural language programs were constructed with a sense of the particular language function, such as question answering or language translation. Transformer erased those distinctions, producing one program that could handle a multitude of tasks by creating a sufficiently adept representation of language.
Also: AI in sixty seconds
Likewise, Perceiver challenges the idea that different kinds of data, such as sound or image, need different neural network architectures.
However, something more profound is indicated by Perceiver. Last year, at the International Solid State Circuits Conference, an annual technical symposium held in San Francisco, Google's Dean described in his keynote address one future direction of deep learning as the "goal of being able to train a model that can perform thousands or millions of tasks in a single model."
"Building a single machine learning system that can handle millions of tasks is a true grand challenge in the field of artificial intelligence and computer systems engineering," said Dean.
In a conversation with ZDNet at the conference, Dean explained how a kind of super-model would build up from work over the years on neural networks that combine "modalities," different sorts of input such as text and image, and combinations of models known as "mixture of experts":
Mixture of experts-style approaches, I think, are going to be important, and multi-task, and multi-modal approaches, where you sort-of learn representations that are useful for many different things, and sort-of jointly learn good representations that help you be able to solve new tasks more quickly, and with less data, fewer examples of your task, because you are already leveraging all the things you already know about the world.
Perceiver is in the spirit of that multi-tasking approach. It takes in three kinds of inputs: images, videos, and what are called point clouds, a collection of dots that describes what a LiDAR sensor on top of a car "sees" of the road.
Once the system is trained, it can perform with some meaningful results on benchmark tests, including the classic ImageNet test of image recognition; Audio Set, a test developed at Google that requires a neural net to pick out kinds of audio clips from a video; and ModelNet, a test developed in 2015 at Princeton whereby a neural net must use 2,000 points in space to correctly identify an object.
Also: Google experiments with AI to design its in-house computer chips
Perceiver manages to achieve the task using two tricks, or, maybe, one trick and one cheat.
The first trick is to reduce the amount of data that the Transformer needs to operate on directly. While large Transformer neural networks have been fed gigabytes and gigabytes of text data, the amount of data in images or video or audio files, or point clouds, is potentially vastly larger. Just think of every pixel in a 244 by 244 pixel image from ImageNet. In the case of a sound file, "1 second of audio at standard sampling rates corresponds to around 50,000 raw audio samples," write Jaegle and team.
So, Jaegle and team went in search of a way to reduce the so-called "dimensionality" of those data types. They borrow from the work of Juho Lee and colleagues at Oxford University, who introduced what they called the Set Transformer. The Set Transformer reduced the computing needed for a Transformer by creating a second version of each data sample, a kind of summary, which they called inducing points. Think of it as data compression.
Jaegle and team adapt this as what they call a "learned latent array," whereby the sample data is boiled down to a summary that is far less data-hungry. The Perceiver acts in an "asymmetric" fashion: Some of its abilities are spent examining the actual data, but some only look at the summary, the compressed version. This reduces the overall time spent.
The second trick, really kind of a cheat, is to give the model some clues about the structure of the data. The problem with a Transformer is that it knows nothing about the spatial elements of an image, or the time value of an audio clip. A Transformer is always what's called permutation invariant, meaning, insensitive to these details of the structure of the particular kind of data.
That is a potential problem baked into the generality of the Perceiver. Neural networks built for images, for example, have some sense of the structure of a 2-D image. A classic convolutional neural network processes pixels as groups in a section of the image, known as locality. Transformers, and derivatives such as Perceiver, aren't built that way.
The authors, surprisingly, cite the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who said that such structural understanding is crucial.
"Spatial relationships are essential for sensory reasoning," Jaegle and team write, citing Kant, "and this limitation is clearly unsatisfying."
So, the authors, in order to give some sense of the structure of images or sound back to the neural network, borrow a technique employed by Google's Matthew Tancik and colleagues last year, what are called Fourier features. Fourier Features explicitly tag each piece of input with some meaningful information about structure.
For example, the coordinates of a pixel in an image can be "mapped" to an array, so that locality of data is preserved. The Perceiver then takes into account that tag, that structural information, during its training phase.
As Jaegle and team describe it,
We can compensate for the lack of explicit structures in our architecture by associating position and modality-specific features with every input element (e.g. every pixel, or each audio sample) these can be learned or constructed using high-fidelity Fourier features. This is a way of tagging input units with a high-fidelity representation of position and modal- ity, similar to the labeled lined strategy used to construct topographic and cross-sensory maps in biological neural networks by associating the activity of a specific unit with a semantic or spatial location.
The results of the benchmark tests are intriguing. Perceiver is better than the industry standard ResNet-50 neural network on ImageNet, in terms of accuracy, and better than a Transformer that has been adapted to images, the Vision Transformer introduced this year by Alexey Dosovitskiy and colleagues at Google.
On the Audio Set test, the Perceiver blows away most but not all state-of-the-art models for accuracy. And on the ModelNet test of point clouds, the Perceiver also gets quite high marks.
Jaegle and team claim for their program a kind of uber-proficiency that wins by being best all around: "When comparing these models across all different modalities and combinations considered in the paper, the Perceiver does best overall."
There are a number of outstanding issues with Perceiver that make it perhaps not actually the ideal million-task super-model that Dean has described. One is that the program doesn't always do as well as programs made for a particular modality. It still fails against some specific models. For example, on Audio Set, the Perceiver fell short of a program introduced last year by Haytham M. Fayek and Anurag Kumar of Facebook that "fuses" information about audio and video.
On the point cloud, it falls far short of a 2017 neural network built just for point clouds, PointNet++, by Charles Qi and colleagues at Stanford.
And on ImageNet, clearly the Perceiver was helped by the cheat of having Fourier features that tag the structure of images. When the authors tried a version of the Perceiver with the Fourier features removed, called "learned position," the Perceiver didn't do nearly as well as ResNet-50 and ViT.
A second issue is that nothing about Perceiver appears to bring the benefits of more-efficient computing and less data that Dean alluded to. In fact, the authors note that the data they use isn't always big enough. They observe that sometimes, the Perceiver may not be successfully generalizing, quipping that "With great flexibility comes great overfitting." Overfitting is when a neural network is so much bigger than its training data set, that it is able to simply memorize the data rather than achieve important representations that generalize the data.
Hence, "In future work, we would like to pre-train our image classification model on very large scale data," they write.
That leads to a larger question about just what is going on in what the Perceiver has "learned." If Google's Jeff Dean is right, then something like Perceiver should be learning representations that are mutually reinforcing. Clearly, the fact of a general model being able to perform well in spite of its generality suggests that something of the kind is going on. But what?
All we know is that Perceiver can learn different kinds of representations. The authors show a number of what are called attention maps, visual studies that purport to represent what the Perceiver is emphasizing in each clump of training data. Those attention maps suggest the Perceiver is adapting where it places the focus of computing.
As Jaegle and team write, "it can adapt its attention to the input content."
An attention map purports to show what the Perceiver is emphasizing in its video inputs, showing it is learning new represenations specific to the "modality" of the data.
A third weakness is specifically highlighted by the authors, and that is the question of the Fourier features, the cheat. The cheat seems to help in some cases, and it's not clear how or even if that crutch can be dispensed with.
As the authors put it, "End-to-end modality-agnostic learning remains an interesting research direction."
On a philosophical note, it's interesting to wonder if Perceiver will lead to new kinds of abilities that are specifically multi-modal. Perceiver doesn't show any apparent synergy between the different modalities, so that image and sound and point clouds still exist apart from one another. That's probably mostly to do with the tasks. All the tasks used in the evaluation have been designed for single neural networks.
Clearly, Google needs a new benchmark to test multi-modality.
For all those limitations, it's important to realize that Perceiver may be merely a stage on the way to what Dean described. As Dean told ZDNet, an eventual super-model is a kind of evolutionary process:
The nice thing about that vision of being able to have a model that does a million tasks is there are good intermediate points along the way. You can say, well, we're not going to bite off multi-modal, instead let's try to just do a hundred vision tasks in the same model first. And then a different instance of it where we try to do a hundred textual tasks, and not try to mix them together. And then say, that seems to be working well, let's try to combine the hundred vision and hundred textual tasks, and, hopefully, get them to improve each other, and start to experiment with the multi-modal aspects.
Also: Ethics of AI: Benefits and risks of artificial intelligence
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Googles Supermodel: DeepMind Perceiver is a step on the road to an AI machine that could process anything... - ZDNet
At the ICA Watershed, artist Firelei Bez draws history from the deep – The Boston Globe
After a yearlong COVID-19 hiatus, the Watershed opened its third season with Firelei Bezs To breathe full and free: a declaration, a re-visioning, a correction (193616.9N 721307.0W, 422148.762N 71159.628W). It would have opened a year ago, all things being equal. As the pandemic has revealed, theyre not equal and never were, and the project has taken on more urgent meaning in these raw and heightened times. Under the flutter of blue, stony archways lurch in a rough act of becoming. Youll take your own meaning, but to me, theyre straining for the surface, determined for new life in the bright light of day.
How it is that theyre submerged is a question to ask yourself. Do you know Haitis Sans-Souci Palace, the regal home built in 1813 for Henri Christophe, who helped lead the nascent Black republic out of bondage and to freedom in a revolution against its faraway French rulers? Or how the palace was damaged beyond repair by an earthquake in 1842 and now stands in heaps, an inadvertent symbol of the beleaguered countrys long history of tumult, the most recent chapter unfolding just this week with the assassination of President Jovenel Mose?
It was all new to me until I met Bez at the Watershed in May, where she had her hands full painting batik-style motifs on the ruins walls, often with her fingertips. Bez, 40, now based in New York, knew the history well, both from growing up in the Dominican Republic and from her Haitian father. The parallel revolutionary histories of Haiti and the United States two rebellions within decades of each other, both over European colonial powers struck her when she arrived here as a student, at least partly for how world histories narrowed to a point in the United States, often to the exclusion of all others.
Take her piece as literally as you can the coordinates of the title push Sans-Souci and Boston Harbor side by side and youll see the intent: Bez is putting forth the simple notion that, in the colonial world, the quest for freedom from faraway oppressors was not unique to the United States.
But the proposition of To breathe full and free is far more expansive. Bez, who works primarily as a painter, has always engaged with narratives of dominance in history how one story thrives, while another withers in the collective mind-set. Her urges are not literal but poetic the indifferent churn of time in high-above ripples of shadow and light, the stony silence of a ruined structure freighted with forgotten significance.
In her paintings, old maps of colonized places often appear as motifs to be gently violated, their matter-of-fact surveys painted over with flora and fauna from a place now claimed by another. Just inside the Watershed, a vast mural greets you: Awash in a violent sea are maps and navigational charts in antique script (The Sea of New England, St. Georges Bank). At one end of the mural, an explosion of color knots tropical motifs palm fronds and tropical flowers, a clutch of feathers into a vibrant bouquet of difference.
Its not hard to see the point. The mural asserts a place for Caribbean history in the violent to-and-fro between Africa and the Americas. It yearns for connection, a memory jog that builds back the presence of those lost in the fairy tale of American Exceptionalism.
To breathe full and free intertwines forces seen largely as good freedom and independence tainted by prejudice and not worthy of unexamined reverence. Boston Harbor is a resonant place, alive with revolutionary history. The Boston Tea Party of 1773, which took place within easy eyeshot of the Watershed itself, was a key moment leading to the American Revolution.
But the harbor was also the site of a brisk 18th-century slave trade, and later a key entry point for immigration (as well as home to an immigrant detention center). Hidden in the weathered arches of Bezs listing Sans-Souci are speakers that softly emanate first-person stories of immigrants arriving in Boston to new lives.
The piece asks a simple question to which theres no adequate justification: Why do some stories rise while others sink to the bottom? A generational allergy to complexity is part of the reason. Boston, a liberal bastion loathe to see itself included in the uglier parts of the countrys history, is another. Bez, for her part, offers a gentle, fantastic reconsideration with fresh learning ripe for the taking.
In Haiti, Sans-Souci is undecorated, a pile of pale stone. In the Watershed, the blue walls of Bezs version are festooned with patterns and images that evoke West African indigo dye, a popular early-American trade good produced by enslaved people in the South. (Bez imbues hers with revolutionary sentiment: A raised fist that evokes the Black Power movement, a pouncing feline that calls to mind the Black Panthers.) It shouldnt surprise that Boston Harbor was one of the primary export points for indigo. Profit from slave labor was in the very blood of this city, a wealthy port connected to European markets.
Imperfect freedom has always been the American way. Haiti, in its own struggle for independence, offers some lessons. In a recent interview with NPR, Marlene Daut, a historian at the University of Virginia and the author of several books on the Haitian Revolution, explained how Haitis long-ago vision of a free republic might offer some improvements on the US version. The Haitian Revolution had become an all-out anti-slavery war by 1802, driving the countrys constitution to radical egalitarianism: It banned conquest as a national pursuit, explicitly rejecting colonialism. It outlawed slavery, which later inspired abolition movements here in the states. And it demanded a society where merit was the only differentiating factor between individuals, never skin color.
The Declaration of Independence, as were now frequently reminded, evaded every one of those points. (T)he story of the Haitian Revolution and Haitian independence teach us what exactly was missing from the US Declaration of Independence, Daut told NPR, explaining that the Haitian constitution was more closely a template for the Black Lives Matter movement, which, at its heart, demands the completion of unfulfilled American promise.
All this in mind, To breathe full and free is less a title than an aspiration: Of best intentions not met, and the hard learning yet to come.
FIRELEI BEZ: TO BREATHE FULL AND FREE: A DECLARATION, A RE-VISIONING, A CORRECTION (193616.9N 721307.0W, 422148.762N 71159.628W)
At the ICA Watershed, 256 Marginal St., Boston, through Sept. 6. 617-478-3100, http://www.icaboston.org
Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheMurrayWhyte.
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At the ICA Watershed, artist Firelei Bez draws history from the deep - The Boston Globe
The Streaming Age Has Turned Poland Into a Deep-Pocketed Production Paradise – Hollywood Reporter
365 Days probably wasnt the film Poland was hoping would be its global calling card. After decades of art house acclaim from the likes of Andrzej Wajda (Man of Iron), Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness), Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War), Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi) and Malgorzata Szumowska (Never Gonna Snow Again), the first Polish film that truly broke though to become a worldwide, mainstream success was a soft-core erotic thriller.
Blame the pandemic. Blame Netflix. Directed by Barbara Bialowas and Tomasz Mandes, and based on the Fifty Shades of Grey-style trilogy by Polish writer Blanka Lipinska, 365 Days was produced primarily for the local market. It delivered. Released in early 2020, before the COVID pandemic hit most of Europe, the film, starring Michele Morrone and Anna-Maria Sieklucka, grossed $9 million at the Polish box office. It pulled in a further $500,000 in the U.K., playing mainly to ethnic Polish audiences. Then came COVID-19.
Netflix, which had picked up global rights to 365 Days, dropped the film on its service in June 2020. Overnight, it became the worlds guilty pleasure. The film was one of Netflixs top three most viewed releases in the U.S., U.K. and across most of Europe, as well as in India, Canada and New Zealand. By some measures, it was the most-watched non-English-language film of 2020 (sorry, Parasite!).
Whatever the reason some think the lockdowns just made the world incredibly horny 365 Days became the poster child for Polish cinema. The world hasnt seen the end of 365 Days. Netflix has commissioned two back-to-back sequels, which it is producing with Polands Ekipa and Open Mind One. But when it comes to Polish content, Netflix isnt just betting on bad sex.
The streamers first Polish original was the acclaimed alternative history drama 1983, created by Holland (Charlatan, Mr. Jones). The Woods, first of two Polish-language adaptations of crime novels by American best-selling author Harlan Coben, hit Netflix last year. The second, Hold Tight, which just cast local stars Magdalena Boczarska and Leszek Lichota in the lead, is set to begin production this year for a 2022 delivery.
Polish production heavyweight ATM Group the creative force behind HBO Europes Polish original The Pack is the producer on both Coben series. The booming online market in the region analysts Digital TV Research forecast 8.7 million paying SVOD subscribers in Poland by 2025 is driving global platforms to invest in home-grown content.
Joanna Szymanska, a producer at Warsaw-based ShipsBoy, which produces Netflixs Polish crime series Hiacynt, says the impact of the streamers is already being seen in the market. It is already very difficult to secure key talents and crew, as the volume of Netflix-financed productions increases. So the budgets will probably go up, too, and the competition between producers will be even tougher, Szymanska says. But I believe it is for the better. [One] positive side of the platforms is that they are enforcing change in quality of work: intimacy coordinators, code of ethics etc. That is still a novelty on Polish sets.
Alicja Grawon-Jaksik, president of the board of the Polish Producers Alliance notes that the investment from streamers helped Polish producers stay afloat during the pandemic year by filling the funding gaps and making it much easier for production companies and distributors to plan their activities for 2020/2021. But she worries local producers will become too dependent on streaming cash and says Poland needs to keep, and strengthen, its public funding system to create a sustainable business model whereby independent producers can retain some rights to their work and be in a position to make good deals with the streamers.
Radoslaw Smigelski, general director of the Polish Film Institute (PFI), notes with some pride that the PFI remains the main funding body of local industry, pointing to a new tax on SVOD services introduced July 1, 2020 that requires on-demand platforms to pay 1.5 percent of their local revenue to a fund that will support home-grown productions. This is something that the industry representatives were waiting for a long time, he says.
With its well-funded and generous support system which includes a 30 percent cash rebate program for local shoots the Polish industry has retained its independence, as evidenced by the variety of productions on offer in Cannes this year. Productions like Silent Twins, the English-language debut of The Lure director Agnieszka Smoczynska, which features Small Axe stars Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance in an adaptation of Marjorie Wallaces novel about twin sisters in Wales who are mute to everyone but themselves. Focus Features in April picked up worldwide rights to Silent Twins from Protagonist Pictures, with Focus set to release it in the U.S. and Universal Pictures International rolling it out in the rest of the world.
Then theres Kill It and Leave This Town, the feature debut of Polish animator Mariusz Wilczynski, which won a special jury award at the 2020 Annecy Animation Festival. Elsewhere, the five features picked for New Horizons Polish Days Goes to Cannes showcase July 9 includes Olga Chajdas politics-themed drama Imago, the Anna Kazejak comedy Fucking Bornholm and Kuba Czekajs Lipstick on the Glass, which follows a woman who is enticed to leave her gangster husband and join a female sect.
PFI funding and the Polish tax rebate have also encouraged international co-productions, with recent successes including Apples, the acclaimed debut feature of Greek director Christos Nikou, which was co-produced by Polands Lava Films with financing from the PFI, and Jasmila Zbanics Oscar-nominated war drama Quo Vadis, Aida?, which tells the true story of the Srebrenica massacre, and which was co-produced by Polands Extreme Emotions. Premiering in Cannes Un Certain Regard lineup is Lamb, an Icelandic horror film from first-time director ValdimarJhannsson, starring Noomi Rapace and Bjrn Hlynur Haraldsson, which, like Silent Twins, was co-produced with Warsaw-based Mandats.
Another upcoming Mandats co-production is Brady Corbets immigrant drama The Brutalist, starring Joel Edgerton, Marion Cotillard, Mark Rylance, Sebastian Stan and Vanessa Kirby, which Protagonist and CAA Media Finance first introduced to buyers in Toronto last year.
After pointing to the creative, enthusiastic, hard working crews talented pool of actors, directors, VFX creators, animators and cinematographers and stunning natural locations massive lakes, densely wooded areas, various architectural styles that Poland has to offer international producers, Smigulski adds that visiting productions can always count on the support of the PFI. Our main focus now is to attract producers willing to cooperate with Polish partners.
365 Days might not be the film Poland wanted as its calling card. But if it gets international filmmakers interested in working in Poland, maybe all that bad sex was worth it.
Pole Position: Three Upcoming Productions
Recent Polish productions show the diversity and breadth of ambition of the countrys filmmakers.
KILL IT AND LEAVE THIS TOWNA disturbing trip into the twisted, dystopian psyche of Polish animator Mariusz Wilczynski, this mainly black-and-white debut feature has been 11 years in the making and wowed the critics at the 2020 Annecy Animation Festival, where it won a special jury prize.
LIPSTICK ON THE GLASSAn LGBTQ crime drama from Polish up-and-comer Kuba Czekaj (The Erlprince), Lipstick on the Glass follows a woman who is enticed to leave her violent gangster husband and join an all-female cult. Polish actress Agnieszka Podsiadlik (Mug) stars alongside Germanys Lena Lauzemis. The film will be part of the Poland Days showcase at the Cannes Film Market on Friday, July 9.
SILENT TWINSPolish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska, whose Fuga was in Cannes Critics Week in 2018, makes her English-language debut with this adaptation of Marjorie Wallaces novel about twin sisters in Wales who speak only to one another. Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance star in the feature, which Protagonist Pictures has sold just ahead of Cannes to Focus Features.
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The Streaming Age Has Turned Poland Into a Deep-Pocketed Production Paradise - Hollywood Reporter
What Toxic Positivity Actually Is (& Why You Should Avoid It) – mindbodygreen.com
If you're finding yourself exhibiting toxic positivity, Spinelli says the best thing you can do for yourself is to simply accept your feelings without judging them. "You have a right to your emotions," she emphasizes. And on top of that, she adds, "Be mindful of social media messages that may elicit comparisons and create a version of how you are 'supposed' to feel."
Noticing when toxic positivity is creeping in can also require some mindfulness on your part, whether you're being that way toward yourself or others. When you find yourself avoiding or deflecting tough emotions, as Spinelli says, try to be present for them.
And if you're dealing with a friend or family member pushing toxic positivity when you're feeling down, it's the same ideaand it's important to stand firm in your truth. Only you know exactly how you're feeling, and someone telling you to "just keep your chin up" isn't always productive or helpful. Explaining that you want to feel the tough emotions before looking on the bright side, or want to be more OK with processing and feeling them, should get the message across.
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What Toxic Positivity Actually Is (& Why You Should Avoid It) - mindbodygreen.com
UCF Lake Nona Scientific Heart Is The First Sanatorium In Central Florida To Be offering Incisionless Mind Surgical treatment As An Complex Remedy For…
UCF Lake Nona Scientific Heart gives incisionless remedy the use of targeted ultrasound for sufferers with very important tremor.
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For eligible sufferers, MRI-guided targeted ultrasound gives an incisionless remedy possibility, carried out on an outpatient foundation with a brief restoration time and steadily instant effects, says Dr. Nizam Razack, MD, JD, FAANS, FACS, neurosurgeon at UCF Lake Scientific Heart Nona. We dont seem to be most effective the primary sanatorium in Central Florida to supply targeted ultrasound for very important tremor, we also are some of the few facilities nationally in a position to give you the process. By way of increasing get entry to to this remedy, we will be able to lend a hand repair independence and supply aid to folks affected by debilitating tremors.
The USA Meals and Drug Management (FDA) licensed this process in 2016 as a substitute for deep mind stimulation. Benefits of MRI-guided targeted ultrasound come with:
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SOURCE UCF Lake Nona Scientific Heart
Two books to make you think differently about the ocean and the beach – Christian Science Monitor
The Oscar-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher chronicles the unlikely friendship between a South African naturalist and an octopus. The film is a touching meditation on man and mollusk. Its also a celebration of the oceans strange beauty. So too is Helen Scales The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean and the Looming Threat That Imperils It, an exploration of the deep seas biodiversity and the threats it faces.
Scales, a British marine biologist, begins by outlining the gargantuan scope: On average, she writes, the oceans are around 12,500 feet deep, or close to two and a half miles. The ridges of the deep seabed form a mountain range running 34,000 miles. At the deepest parts of the ocean, tectonic plates collide at subduction zones, where old seafloor is dragged down into the earths molten interior, to be melted and recycled.
The author lucidly explains not only the geological contours of the deep but also the animals that inhabit it. Sperm whales, we learn, can slow their heart rate to five beats a minute during dives, allowing them to slow the depletion of oxygen reserves. Scales introduces us to the pigs rump worm, which, when gently prodded, glows bright blue and squirts a shower of green glowing particles.
Global warming seems to be disrupting the oceans circulation system, in which dense, cold seawater sinks to the oceans deepest reaches before warming and rising near the equator. Scales writes that one-third of humanitys carbon emissions end up in the ocean, saving the earth from an unthinkably swift and catastrophic version of the climate crisis.
Scales catalogs a number of threats that menace oceans. She raises the alarm over the practice of deep-sea trawling, paying particular attention to the fate of the orange roughy, a fish that trawlers have coveted in substantial numbers. From 1945 to 2009, Scales writes, the amount of plastic falling to the seabed doubled every 15 years. Munitions and nerve agents from World War II are scattered throughout the ocean; Scales notes that blackbelly rosefish and European conger eel off the Italian coast have been found to contain high levels of arsenic, a residue of the chemical agent lewisite.
As soon as you stop thinking about it, Scales writes, the deep can so easily vanish out of mind. And yet, she continues, this hidden place reaches into our daily lives and makes vital things happen without our knowing.
Scales bids us to think of the deep not merely as a place to exploit for resources, but as a wondrous abode that we are compelled to protect a precious realm that we should all care about.
In The Lure of the Beach: A Global History, scholar Robert C. Ritchie takes us from abyss to sandy shores. His book is more a cultural history of beachgoing than a scientific survey, but like Scales, his subtext is looming ecological disaster.
Ritchie observes that from antiquity through the Victorian age, the beach held a strong association with vice. The Stoic philosopher Seneca was appalled by the Roman resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples: I left it the day after I reached it. ... Persons wandering drunk upon the beach, the riotous revelling of sailing parties, I need not witness it. During the 19th century, British moralists lashed out at nude and mixed-gender bathing.
In his discussion of Britains early resorts, Ritchie unearths the old relic of the bathing machine. A woman was expected to wear a bathing costume that covered her entire body, and it was considered inappropriate for her to walk on the beach in a wet outfit that would cling to her figure. The bathing machine, which Ritchie describes as a structure made of wood or canvas mounted on cart wheels, was designed to keep womens bodies out of sight. The device, in which the occupant could change in privacy into her bathing costume, would be wheeled into the water, after which she could swim and then change into dry clothes again before returning to land.
The railroad brought increasing numbers of visitors to the beach. New Jersey was among the first American states to consider tracks directly to the shore, and in 1863, a line was completed that could get Philadelphians to Cape May, New Jersey, in three hours. Frances Train Bleu began service in 1886, shuttling travelers from Calais and Paris to the Riviera.
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The Lure of the Beach examines the pressures exerted on beaches by the mass tourism of the 20th century. In its latter stages, the book delves into issues of privatization and equitable beach access, as well as the threat posed by climate change.
Ritchies concluding section is packed with sobering statistics. The author cites one estimate that a warming atmosphere could lead to a 3-foot rise in ocean levels by 2100. Beach lovers should take note: Unless current trends are fought back, sea rise will imperil the beaches, and the nearly three-hundred-years-long history of beach resorts will be transformed in dramatic fashion.
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Two books to make you think differently about the ocean and the beach - Christian Science Monitor
Young Cho’s goals are even bigger than deep space; His team is working on astronaut nutrition that translates to earth – Westside Seattle
Have you ever wondered what astronauts eat while in space? That question and others have been on the mind of local restaurateur and entrepreneur Young Cho since he was a boy. While he's taken some detours along the way his dream of being involved in the space program is actually taking shape. But his vision goes all the way out to deep space and back to earth in ways you might not expect.
Cho, along with a hand picked assortment of team members, is taking part in something called the Deep Space Food Challenge. The program sanctioned by NASA, "seeks ideas for novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste, while providing safe, nutritious, and tasty food for long-duration human exploration missions. Solutions from this challenge could enable new avenues for food production around the world, especially in extreme environments, resource-scarce regions, and in new places like urban areas and in locations where disasters disrupt critical infrastructure."
It's got multiple phases and the first one closes July 30. There's a $500,000 prize for the winning team.
Cho, 31, worked in conventional business for a few years until one night he had an epiphany. HIs whole family knew how to cook. His Korean heritage had been steeped in the fusion of many different flavors. He saw a new path. Shortly after that realization he happened to be in a market in South Park when the owner pointed out that he had a grill in the back and wanted to sell it to someone to operate. Cho jumped at the chance. He called it Phoraleand offered East Asianwith a Tex Mex fusion.
Business was slow at first, but that proved to be an advantage since it gave him time to refine his recipes. Then one rainy night a guy with a skateboard comes in and orders a number of items. Cho thought nothing of it. But a few days later, suddenly he was inundated with business. The line extended through the store and out the door. The Stranger had given him a hugely positive review. That led to more coverage from magazines, and food centric websites. Steady business meant he was making money so at one point he had the opportunity to buy a food truck and business really took off. Cho however is a restless and ambitious man. When the lease came due at the grill, and he was confronted with large bill to help pay for a clogged drain, he chose to close instead.
He chose to spend four months making food for the South Park Senior Center as he weighed his options.
A friend of his offered to sell him a food truck and that felt right.
He set up a prep operation ina commissary kitchen to supply the truck and thattook off too. Fueled by his success, he found a new physical location on Delridge Way near White Center and bought out the former Vietnamese restaurant.
Then the pandemic hit.
Taking the money from the food truck, he got the build out completed and Phorale Way was gearing up to open. At that point he was very close, then yet another opportunity appeared that would take some time. His girlfriend Sharon (with his help)wanted to open a Boba Tea shop in White Center. They got the space, right in the middle of the block on 16th SW and put over $15,000 into getting it ready. They were set to open in late July.
Then a huge fire swept through the businesses in that building. Those dreams are now on hold.
But what does all this have to do with the Deep Space Food Challenge?
NASA's website says, "Astronauts eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nutritionists ensure the food astronauts eat provides them with a balanced supply of vitamins and minerals. Calorie requirements differ for astronauts. For instance, a small woman would require only about 1,900 calories a day, while a large man would require about 3,200 calories. An astronaut can choose from many types of foods such as fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef, seafood, candy, brownies, etc. Available drinks include coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit punches and lemonade."
Cho and his team believe that NASA really has no idea what they are doing when it comes to well thought out, smart nutritional choices. "They literally give them peanut candies that have aflatoxins in them," he said, "and we can make it so much better." He notes that bone loss is common among astronauts who spend extended periods in space and this must be addressed. He believes his team of experts can create nutrient dense foods that are tasty and appealing. It's a tall order. So this is for him a 'Passion project" since winning the prize is by no means certain.
He formed "Team Ad Astra" (Latin for 'To the Stars') to participate in the Deep Space Food Challenge which is also sanctioned byCSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and the Methuselah Foundation(an organization focued on longevity).
As Cho explains it, "20 teams in the USA, Canada and Internationally will be chosen based on their conceptual ideas and will be awarded a prize and entry into the second phase. The Ad Astra team was founded through individuals who met on the Food and Beverage Magazines, Clubhouse group and is comprised of Dr. Christopher Daugherty whosefocus ison biodynamic and regenerative superfoods, Chef Ronaldo Linares who is a private chef for top professional athletes in the US and Dr. Stephan Van Vliet who is a metabolomics research scientist at Duke University.Chef Young Chois working to implement food transparency and better options to underserved communities.
The Ad Astra advisory board includes, John Mattison, the former Chief Medical Information Officer of Kaiser Permanente, Jae Lee of Pronuvia who specializes in anti-orbital ionic calcium therapy, and 40 year NASA veteran Herb Baker.
Ad Astras focus will be creating palatable, nutrient dense foods that will be representing a wide array of ethnic cuisines while fulfilling the nutritional parameters needed to upkeep both physiological and neurological health for the astronauts while utilizing precise metabolomics , and human microbiome testing through accredited institutions.(Metabolomicsis the large-scale study of small molecules, commonly known as metabolites, within cells, biofluids, tissues or organisms)
As everyday passes, humanity is one step closer to losing the ability to sustain life due to the diminishing resources. This project will not only assist in future aerospace missions, but ultimately help to implement such processes and technology to preserve life on Earth."
Boiled down Team Ad Astra'sconcepts, which must be presented in a five minute video and an academic paper, have to take into account optimal nutrition, packaging, preserving, and more.
Some of the ideas they are working on are:
Creating a different nut based real chocolate candy, by 'Pearling" a Brazil nut which has more nutrition than a peanut, but is made from better ingredients.
A variation on Korean Bibimap.Bibimbapis served as a bowl of warm white rice topped withsauted and seasoned vegetablesortraditional fermented vegetablesand pepper or soy.
The use of less commonly found seasonings like Burdock Root or Balloon Flower to lend both flavor and nutritional value.
Another aspect the team is working on leverages a common space flight complaint. "Astronauts lose up to 40% of their ability to taste since mucus membranes typically swell up, and you are living for a long time in a pressurized environment," Cho explained, "so the most requested condiment in space is hot sauce. Usually something like Tobasco." He went on to say that salt and pepper can't be used in powder form or sprinkled in a weightless environment, "So we're working less on things you must add, but instead on dishes that are both highly nutritional and already have spice."
As far flung as his ideas might go, Cho's ambitions are actually even more directed at life on earth.
"I believe food equity is important." By that he means that all people have a right to good, and real food. Food that's not only tasty but highly nutritious. "It starts with the accountability from the farmers all the way up to the people who are processing this food. But for example, not all Kale is grown equally. Testing is available but it's not widely done. You have these corporations, mass conglomerates who run these massive farms, and people like you and I are left to assumewe are eating good food. It's like the onion. Most people don't know that the onion they are eating was harvested likely last year." Cho's point is that poorer neighborhoods suffer in ways they don't even understand because the actual nutritional value of the foods sold to them is unknown.
"The answer is a Refractometer," Cho said, (Refractometersare simple optical instruments for measuring the dissolved solids content of fruits, grasses and vegetables during all stages of growth.Refractometerswork on the principle of light bending when it passes from air into water), since it can tell you the amount of sugars and other nutrients in a fruit or vegetable. As produce ages, it loses vital nutrients. "These hand held gizmos could be used to get better foods to more places."
He also champions something even more high tech. Microencapsulation of the nutrients using nano-technology. "This could lead to many other products too," he said, "If you are having bone issues you just rub some anti-orbital Ionic Calcium into your skin, as a calcium supplement."
Also back on earth, and right here in Seattle,Cho said he finally plans to get the long delayed Phorale Way physical location at 9418 Delridge Way SW opened, likely in August and at the latest by September.
If his past success and remarkable ambitions are any guide, it ought to be out of this world.
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Young Cho's goals are even bigger than deep space; His team is working on astronaut nutrition that translates to earth - Westside Seattle
Jimmy McGovern: Even the psychopaths are a deep, horrible part of me – Sydney Morning Herald
Does Graham identify as a black person? I dont know how he identifies, but hes the most relaxed, unburdened man youll ever meet in your life. Hes so cool.
They are my favourite actors: Sean Bean (Mark Cobden) and Stephen Graham (Eric McNally) in Time.
If you tell me Sean Bean is that, I wont believe you! Oh Seans not black, McGovern says, misunderstanding me. Seans a white working-class Yorkshire man. But if youre about to tell me hes completely chilled and relaxed No, hes OK Sean hes a lovely man. I love him to bits, like.
He says that a series he workshopped for nine months in Australia Redfern Now in 2012 was the most rewarding thing Ive ever done in my life. It was just a buzz from start to finish. McGovern was invited over by the Australian writer Mac [Wolf Creek] Gudgeon when they met at a writers guild conference on the West Coast of America. In Australia he met Sally Riley, who went on to become the ABCs Head of Drama, Comedy and Indigenous and was a great fan of McGoverns The Street and hoping to recreate it in Australia. Instead, something original was worked up to become the first series commissioned, written, acted and produced by Indigenous Australians. It won a multitude of awards and was developed into a second series.
McGovern meets with Indigenous writers working on the ABC series Redfern Now in 2010, from back, left to right, Adrian Wills, Steven McGregor, Tamara Whyte; middle row, Dennis Simmons, Danielle MacLean. front row, Jon Bell, Jimmy McGovern and Michelle Blanchard. Credit:James Brickwood
A non-Indigenous Australian, the British writer believes, wouldnt have been able to do and say the things he did and said: I realised I was asked because of what I didnt know about the Aboriginal experience; I was an ignorant bum! He had what he describes as an absolute ball but was less impressed by some aspects of the Australian way of life. He was in Paris doing a screenwriters thing and I remember saying If you think England is a racist country or France is go to Australia! There was an Aussie in the audience who took great exception to what I said but I think its true. I love Australia and I love Australians but I dont think Ive ever been in such a racist society.
I love Australia and I love Australians but I dont think Ive ever been in such a racist society.
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McGoverns interest in and knowledge about prisons has deepened over the years; early on in his writing career, when he first moved from teaching to scripting, he was invited to conduct workshops in prisons. More recently, he has spent time working with the Sycamore project, under the auspices of the prison chaplaincy, led by volunteers teaching the principles of restorative justice by focusing on victim awareness.
As someone who works in prisons, myself, with Liberty Choir UK, the charity I co-founded with my wife seven years ago , I was struck by how accurately Time captures the inhumanity of life in prison what civilised society would tolerate conditions that you wouldnt accept for animals, where two men in a tiny cell, built in Victorian times for one prisoner, are forced to eat and defecate virtually on top of one another?
Time captures the inhumanity of life in prison. Sean Bean plays a teacher who has killed a man while driving drunk.
But I was also touched by how McGovern caught those rare, surprising moments of grace that can and do offer tiny shafts of light in a very dark place: as when an educated prisoner discreetly teaches an illiterate but proud fellow inmate to read and write, the kindness and concern that can manifest itself, how a caring and imaginative chaplain (such as the one played by Siobhan Finneran; the cast is a roll call of great British television actors) can transform the intolerable into something almost transcendent when she offers a prisoner the chance to experience a virtual funeral after he is denied the right to attend his fathers in person.
Jimmy McGovern has been working as a volunteer on a restorative justice program.Credit:Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty
Im really proud of that scene, he says. Im so glad you picked that out. I loved that sequence. Ive never seen that done before, have you? It came to me and its amazing, isnt it?
I have witnessed similar moments of reprieve in prison: how hard men can show emotion and even weep if they feel safe alongside terrible events, more terrible because of how commonplace they are: suicide and self-harming, which has increased by 24 per cent in female prisons during COVID-19.
Mental health, which has always been a major problem in prisons, has dramatically deteriorated with the further restrictions imposed because of the virus: the deprivation of fresh air, education, work, exercise, visits from family and none of the activities, such as our choirs, that offer relief from despair and can give prisoners the strength to survive another week.
McGovern, of course, sings from the same songbook although not literally; he insists his voice is terrible, so much so that it is hard at times to remember that this is supposed to be an interview, not a meeting between like-minded people who are searching for a solution to an inhumane institution that is no longer fit for purpose.
The main answer to making prisons work better is to empty them, he says: If you decriminalised drugs, you would have empty prisons. And Id do something about the cells; you shouldnt eat and shit in the same room.
If you decriminalised drugs, you would have empty prisons. And do something about the cells; you shouldnt eat and shit in the same room.
There should also be a lot more meaningful activity, education and training. If only there was some way of altering the minds of the British public when it comes to sentencing. Its so easy for any political party to say tough on crime and get elected. Its ridiculous.
The dynamic between Eric, the prison officer, and Mark, the prisoner both trapped in different ways came to McGovern for his script early on. During his research and in his various stints working in prison, he never encountered what he calls a real baddy of a prison officer. I thought they were people doing shitty jobs in shitty circumstances with very little money, and so I can see the temptation is there. But I never came across an out and out bastard thats probably because I wasnt allowed to see the out and out bastards! he grins. I didnt want to write an easy villain. And yet stuff does get into British prisons through staff. That is one way it does get in, and I had that story early on.
And the Sean Bean story is my kind of story a man who needs to atone and cant even begin to atone, paralysed with guilt and grief and suffering. And then of course he gets picked on. And the only thing he does know about prison having seen what happens to the other grass [who gets scalded horribly] is that he knows he cannot grass.
Stephen Graham is prison officer Eric McNally, who is forced into corruption to protect his son.
In one of several hard-to-stomach scenes, one prisoner bites the ear off another inmate: Yes. I always had that in mind the kind of level youve got to sink to in order to protect yourself.
The brutalising nature of being in the belly of the beast, as prison has been called, is conveyed by the deafening cacophony of heavy doors slamming, men shouting at the top of their voices, banging of metal bars and this is given an arresting counterpoint by the gentle, melancholic music of Elgar-like strings, suggesting the sadness, confusion and regret that is nearly always present when the men are alone in their cells, unmasked from the bravado and bluster of their strut in the wings.
McGovern knew what prison drama clichs he was going to avoid, along with creating a multi-layered, subtle portrait of a prison officer who is a man of honour and integrity until he cant be, some of which are not even based on reality. You know how they always show a riot in the prison canteen? I have a very good friend who Ive known for 50 years and only the other day I said to him You do know that prisoners dont eat in canteens. And he was shocked when I told him that they pick up their food and take it back to eat in their cell one person sitting on the lavatory and the other one on the lowest bunk. He was absolutely gobsmacked, you know.
And the other clich I wanted to avoid was scenes of violence or homosexual rape in the showers.
There are some viscerally graphic scenes around self-harm in the first episode; how did he feel when he saw them? Its funny because it always happens to me and maybe to all writers what we see in our minds eye is often less graphic that what appears on the screen. Having said that, I was served by a brilliant director [Lewis (Des; Broadchurch) Arnold] so Im not knocking him on this, but it was maybe a little more graphic than I envisaged it to be, but not that much more.
Liberty Choir holds regular concerts in non-COVID-19 times in prisons (where the prisoners perform with the volunteers who come together for weekly sessions in a mixed choir) in front of an audience of prisoners families and friends. The dynamic in the hall with children running up to hug their fathers and where partners and wives, parents, grandparents or just supportive friends get to see their loved one in a different, joyous light, transforms a harsh environment. Time shows a similarly radiant moment when a child runs across the room at visiting time and everything changes in an instant: Its a beautiful meeting scene that, isnt it? All you see is love.
Or when Marks mother his parents visit him regularly played by Sue Johnston says: Youre here as punishment, not for it. Is that yours? No, its not mine. Ive heard it said before about British prisons and I cant remember where but I clocked it when I heard it.
He is talking on Zoom set up by Eileen they have recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, he tells me in his office across the lawn from their home. Behind him is a blue plaque that he takes down to show me, which says: JIMMY MCGOVERN Grandad since 2002 Health & Safety Expert Lives Here. The McGoverns have three children now in their late forties, Nicky, Joanne and Jimmy, and four teenage grandchildren: Hannah, Nancy, Tom and Jimmy jnr. Im a typical granddad, he says. Every time they come, I worry about their safety, so they call me the Health and Safety Expert.
Despite the serious subjects we tackle, there is often an air of merriment to the proceedings because of McGoverns frequent laughter and the twinkle in his eyes. The short vowels and Scouse thud are still very much intact, as is the occasional ghost of his childhood stutter, when the odd word stubbornly sticks.
McGovern wanted to avoid the cliches of prison-based dramas.
He talks about his memories of the 11 members of his family living in their little house, four boys to a bedroom until he was 10, thinning out as his older siblings married and left home: Me Mam would be singing Nat King Coles When I Fall in Love [he breaks into song, tunefully despite his earlier protestations] as she washed the oilcloth over the table.
Greenside is still there, he says, but now its got these pretty little houses built by the much-maligned Militant Tendency [of the Labour Party] in the 80s.
Hes sensitive to the criticism that has been made of him reinforcing the negative stereotype of the Scouser: You know, What do you call a Scouser in a suit? The Accused. What do you call a Scouser in a big house? A burglar. When a drama works, its because its about flawed characters, and because I shoot in this city, giving jobs to my own people, I get accused of reinforcing that negative stereotype by our paper the Liverpool Echo, who cant even be arsed to print here, which is unfortunate.
I love this city, and the older I get, the more I love it. The architecture is second to none and you walk along the river and you see a proper river. Im sorry, but Manchester hasnt got a river like the Mersey, you know what I mean?
He reads each of his characters lines out so they have a Scouse inflection, and I dont think Ive ever written a character who hasnt been part of me. Even the psychopaths in Cracker would be some deep and horrible part of me. He may have drunk more and smoked more to get into the head of Robbie Coltranes criminal psychologist Fitz, but the gambling addiction wasnt a stretch at all: I was a terrible gambler. I nearly lost everything to gambling.
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McGovern used to pride himself on his discipline for writing, but now he can be distracted by the smallest things, such as fixing his lawn. Is it because, at 71, he gets tired easily? I dont know, he smiles, with a sort of rueful bemusement. I think its a lack of hunger. Im more successful now than I was when youre younger you want success and appreciation.
I dont particularly go after that now. I dont really go for the baubles.
If anything deserves baubles, its Time, I say. Do you think so? a modest laugh. Well, of course, I would love that.
Ginny Dougary is co-founder of the prison charity Liberty Choir UK, libertychoir.org
Time starts this week on BBC First.
THE WATCHLISTFind out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
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Jimmy McGovern: Even the psychopaths are a deep, horrible part of me - Sydney Morning Herald
‘I took a deep breath and got on with it’ – Jorginho on his ice-cold winning penalty and Italy’s belief | Official Site | Chelsea Football Club -…
For a moment, one wondered whether he would just play it safe, pick a corner and go for power, but in reality that thought never crossed the 29-year-olds mind.
He placed the ball on the spot, looked Spains Unai Simon directly the eyes and then dispatched his effort into the bottom right corner once the goalkeeper had started moving in the opposite direction. It was vintage Jorginho, synonymous with the unflappable, classy, enviable Italian style.
When you take the kick, you feel this weight fall off your shoulders, he explained afterwards, once the celebrations had dissipated.
I tried to forget everything around me, focus on what Id trained to do, took a deep breath and got on with it.
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'I took a deep breath and got on with it' - Jorginho on his ice-cold winning penalty and Italy's belief | Official Site | Chelsea Football Club -...
Tour de France: Geraint Thomas to ride on through pain with Olympics in mind – The Guardian
Geraint Thomas plans to continue his racing career until the Paris Olympics in 2024, despite a hugely disappointing performance in this years Tour de France. The 2018 Tour champion, who dislocated his shoulder on stage three of the Tour, admitted that prior to Sunday mornings second Alpine stage to Tignes, he had come close to quitting the French race.
I think if I hadnt bounced back as I did on Sunday, it would be more of a discussion, the leader of the Ineos Grenadiers team said during the Tours first rest day in Tignes. But its the Tour, its the biggest bike race in the world and I didnt want to just leave.
But the 35-year-old Welshman admitted that he had to go deep to survive last weekends pair of Alpine stages, which were dominated by the uncontainable attacks of the current race leader, Tadej Pogacar.
I go deep with everything, whether thats a bike race or going out on the piss, Thomas said. Thats just the way I am. I am not one to give up easily, which is the reason I started the stage on Sunday. To be honest, I thought: This is just going to be the same as Saturday, but you fight and give it everything, and then suddenly you can turn it around and come out better.
The pain from the injury is a lot better now its more just the pain in my legs. Its more that getting through those early days took a lot more out of me than it normally would. It was that cumulative effect of digging in, which wears you out. But the shoulders not really painful now. Its just dealing with the fatigue and racing the Tour.
But as UAE Team Emirates leader Pogacar ran riot, to the point where his Spanish rival, Enric Mas of Movistar, described being overtaken by the 22-year-old as if he didnt exist, Thomas instead spent Saturday and Sunday pondering whether to stay in the Tour or go home.
Its the whole Olympic thing, weighing up whats best, he said referring to the proximity of the Tours finish on 18 July to the Tokyo Olympics a week later. To be honest, I think its six and two threes. Staying here, Ive got massage and physio, a chef and obviously everything is looked after. I can go easy some days, I can go deeper others.
Training-wise, thats ideal. The only thing is the quick turnaround from Paris to travelling out there [to Japan]. But it was good for my head to have a better day on Sunday because during stage eight [to Le Grand-Bornand] my head was in a bucket, to be honest. It was tough to take.
Nonetheless, Thomas has not ruled out leaving the Tour before it reaches Paris with the aim of allowing greater recovery time prior to flying out to Tokyo.
I thought I could go full tilt at both, he said, but obviously the overall, or even the podium, is off the cards. I still think its possible to finish, but Ive just got to take it day by day. There are still some great opportunities for myself and the team. So play it by ear really, but hopefully I will just continue to feel better.
Pogacar, who leads the Tour overall from Sundays stage winner, Ben OConnor, by 2min 1sec, could be heading towards one of the biggest winning margins in recent years, if he continues to ride so voraciously. At the moment, there is little that Tour debutant OConnor of the AG2R Citron team, Ineos Grenadiers or Thomas can do to rein in the defending champion.
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Thomas is now just under 40 minutes behind the race leader, with hopes of even a top-10 finish now long gone. But the Welshman remains bullish.
Hopefully, Ill feel like I can go for a stage and just enjoy the racing because Im not going to have many more Tours in me, he said. This isnt the last Tour, but the contracts up this year and the Paris Olympics would be a nice final goal, so maybe three more years. But theres certainly a couple more Tours in there.
Originally posted here:
Tour de France: Geraint Thomas to ride on through pain with Olympics in mind - The Guardian