Karl Towns didn't possess the background that suggested he would help drive basketball toward a new era. An undersized 6'6" forward, he had been a clear-the-lane-by-the elbows brute who patrolled the paint at Monmouth University in the 1980s to become the school's leading rebounder.

When he became coach at Piscataway Vo-Tech High School, his son, Karl-Anthony, often tagged along and performed drills with the junior varsity team while his wife, Jacqueline Cruz, worked as a nurse. By the time Karl-Anthony Towns neared high school age, he stretched to nearly 6'10". In another time and another era, that would have made him a natural successor to his father's game, putting his sizable frame in the paint for unbothered rebounds and putbacks.

But Karl and his son had other plans. They involved academics more than athletics. "Being a parent who came from the inner city, we had other kids, we just wanted to give him the opportunity to showcase more of a game and get more interest from colleges, so he could get a free education," Karl said. "The dream was never to go to the NBA, but the dream was to make sure that he got a chance at a great education, become the kinesiologist he always dreamed of."

A routine developed. Karl-Anthony would shoot until he made a thousand jumpers every day but Sunday, stretching farther and farther from the rim until his jumper flicked off his hand like the ease of a layup for others. Mom and Dad would station themselves at both free-throw lines while Karl-Anthony ran and weaved through cones in agility drills. "It's amazing to say that everything I taught him is now the way the game is played today, and I think that's helped him in his evolution to become such a complete player," Karl said.

It took a while for the game to catch up. Parents at the courts where the Towns played in Piscataway, New Jersey, would gawk at the pair, wondering why Karl-Anthony wasn't practicing his post moves and thinking all that size would be underdeveloped. And when Karl-Anthony went on to Kentucky, John Calipari essentially banned him from taking threes during his lone season there. Now, those parents who ridiculed the pair occasionally approach Karl and apologize. "Now the game evolved around being able to shoot the three, handle the ball," Karl said. "Size doesn't matter, because at 7-feet, he's playing up there like a guard."

In an era dominated by the search for basketball unicorns, Karl-Anthony Towns may be the NBA's preeminent example of the form. He leads all centers this season in scoring and three-point shooting while ranking among the top five in assists and steals, the top 10 in rebounds and the top 15 in blocks.

"In my mind, he's the big of this generation," said Gersson Rosas, Minnesota's president of basketball operations. "What he does offensively is he allows us to play a modern NBA game, but with a twist that other teams can't replicate, which is we can play him on the inside on the post, where he's dominant, or we can lift him and put him on the perimeter, where he impacts the defense on a very high level. So, if you're going to guard him with a big, he has the ability to shoot over you or drive by you. If you put a small or a guard on him, then we can put him in the post and he can be very dominant and score.

"There's really nothing he can't do. He can shoot from three, can shoot from inside. He can attack the basket. He can draw fouls. He can pass. When you have a player like that in your system, it changes the way you are. That's why I think he's the prototypical big for the NBA."

For all Towns can do, his ability to stretch the floor like a guard has made him all but indefensible. Among the nearly 40 7-footers who have attempted at least100 threes in their career, no one has shot them at a more prolific rate than Towns. This season, he has nearly doubled his three-point attempts (8.5 per game) from last year (4.6 per game) while sinking them at a 41.8 percent clip.

With a slight uptick in his numbers, he could join Steph Curry as the only players to make at least 3.5 three-pointers while shooting at least 43 percent over a full season.

"Everything just feels like if I flick it, it's in," Towns said of getting into a shooting rhythm. "When I'm in that zone, especially shooting wise, I feel like any time I touch the ball, it's like I'm a painter and I'm just waiting to make some great art. I just feel like Picasso up there, when I'm feeling that zone, and if I'm in that zone, ain't nothing going to stop me from putting the ball in the bucket."

It's a Friday afternoon, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are practicing the day before they host the Phoenix Suns. Towns steals the ball during a defensive drill and dribbles toward the opposite rim. Coach Ryan Saunders races to get in his path, feinting like he's a defender, before smiling and quickly sidestepping Towns.

The team advances onto offensive sets. "If you come off, you have a jump shot, great," Saunders instructs Towns at one point. "You come off, you have a drive to the basket, great."

Saunders, who took over the team in the wake of Tom Thibodeau's firing in the middle of last season, overhauled and modernized Minnesota's priorities. Stickers showcasing expectant point valuesthe difference between a good shot like a corner three and an unfavorable one like a long twodot the court as visual aids. Everything, Saunders said, is in a "youthful phase." That includes the roster. Minnesota entered this season with the league's fourth youngest roster with an average age of 24.91.

Practice concludes. The team celebrates at midcourt.

"We're not asking them to have fun here, but we're demanding that they have fun here," Towns said.

The statement seems to stem from a conscious effort to let past seasons stay in the past and empower Towns as the team's leader.

Before the 2016-17 NBA season,48.3 percent of the league's general managers selected Towns as the first player they would want to build a franchise around. Kevin Durant landed second at 20.7 percent. Towns topped the list again the following season, when GMs picked him with29 percent of the vote over Giannis Antetokounmpo (21 percent), LeBron James (18 percent) and Kawhi Leonard (14 percent).

But Towns did not appear among the six players named for the survey before the start of the 2018-19 season. The arrival of Jimmy Butler in a draft day trade in June 2017 had helped the Wolves reach the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade, but it had also brought turmoil. A Chicago Sun-Times report in the summer of 2018 noted Butler was "all but fed up with the nonchalant attitude" of some of his teammates. The air became even more polluted in training camp when Butler asked for a trade and refused to report.

With Butler alongside him, Towns became increasingly relegated to the fringes of the offensethe team's best three-point shooter often situated in the post with defenses collapsing on him.

The Wolves began last season 4-9 before trading Butler to Philadelphia for Robert Covington and Dario Saric. Thibodeau, whose relationship with Towns was also reported to be strained, couldn't turn the team around and was fired while it limped to a 36-46 season. With Saunders, however, Towns appeared to rediscover his game, averaging 28.1 points and 13.4 rebounds following the 2019 All-Star break.

"This organization has gone through a lot," Rosas said. "We've turned that page and it's been a clean start for everybody that we're building off of. The reality of who we are and what we're about is something that guys really embrace."

Rosas, hired over the summer from Houston, opted to retain Saunders, a decision that clearly pleased Towns. "I've known Ryan for so long, so it was kind of different," Towns said. "It was more not even a coach, it was just like one of your good friends got a dope job. ... It's just like when you were in class, and you were with your boys, and you were like, 'Yo, what class you got in your schedule?' And you both were in the same class at the same time. You both were hella excited. That's how I was, and he was as well."

At 33, Saunders is the NBA's youngest coach, but he's no novice. The son of the late Flip Saunders, he assumed the job on an interim basis almost a year ago. Saunders had joined Minnesota's staff in 2014 after spending five seasons in Washington with the Wizards. Towns arrived the following summer when he was drafted first overall. A big shouldn't be able to move like that, Saunders thought when watching Towns play. Occasionally, Towns broke out a step-back three in practice, a move that is fast becoming a staple today.

"For a big to be able to do that, at first as a coach, you kind of cringe because you haven't seen a big do that," Saunders said. "So you might think it's just an off-balance shot, but the fact that he works on it and then it's something that he's been able to do in games, as a coach, you love it."

Where once trade rumors floated around Towns, Rosas is clear that the opportunity to build around the 24-year-old is a large reason he chose Minnesota. "I've never had it, until this year, where you have an organization that's really behind you and has confidence in you," Towns said.

On offense, Towns is at the fulcrum of everything. "A lot of our offense initiates through him at the top of the key," Saunders said. "It depends on where he takes the ball, whether it is a dribble handoff, whether it's on the swing with a pass, and then where he ends up going. Does he pan away? Does he go into a pick-and-roll? He's a 40 percent three-point shooter at 7-feet, so if you can force some switches, too, having him shoot over a guy who's smaller, or having the option to roll down in the post is a big deal."

"I'm analyzing and dissecting a lot of things in real quick time, and the way the game goes, the flow of the game, the personnel out there, whatever the case may be, foul situations that's going to judge more if I'm going to try to mix it up more inside than outside," Towns said. "Outside, is obviously always an option, but there's great times when someone's in foul trouble, or personnel is shorter, and they're playing a shorter line-up, I could go inside and really punish them. Or at least open the game up for my teammates at the three-point line as well."

Jersey boys. That's what crossed Towns' mind when he saw Kyrie Irving and his new team, the Brooklyn Nets, before the Wolves' first game of the season.

"I saw Kyrie and we grew up together, working out with each other and practicing with each other," Towns said of his fellow New Jersey native. "Me and Kyrie just looked at each other, like, the two Jersey boys going up against each other and who is better and we put on a show for our families."

While Irving dropped 50 points, Towns collected 36 points, including seven threes, 14 rebounds and an overtime win. Just as important, Saunders and Rosas believe the game helped Towns set a franchise tone.

He followed that up with 37 points and 15 rebounds against Charlotte before helping nudge Minnesota to a 3-0 start with a win over Miami. A matchup with Philadelphia saw Minnesota lose both its first game and Towns, who was suspended for two games after getting into a scrap with Philadelphia's Joel Embiid.

"Without getting into detail, it was a physical game and he wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to beI don't know if you want to use the word, butpushed around," Saunders said. "He was going to stand his ground. And we support Karl and we want him for every game. We don't want him to sit out games, but he's coming back and he's playing with a little more of an edge, too."

Saunders receives analytical reports every game, including notes that specifically highlight Townswhere his points are coming from, where he is most efficient, where advantages can be most highly utilized.

"When you can try to help a guy like Karl, who you learned can do something new every day, and then you're able to have analytics and statistics back that up and actually challenge him to do other things, like, 'Hey, let's see how you are in a pick-and-roll,'" Saunders said "We ran it once two games ago. Let's try it out and see if the efficiency ... as we get a higher sample size, let's see how that works.

"We've done that some, where ... our point guard sets the ball screen and Karl's the guy handling [the ball]. Bigs love to play like guards, and guards love to play like bigs sometimes."

The result has been an offense that tries to find the efficient play in the inefficiencies of opposing defenses.

"When we're having our greatest offensive games is when we're doing not even the hardest things, but we're doing the most simple things, allowing the defense to make the mistake and then we capitalize off of it," Towns said. "Everyone thinks about the shooter. Shooting comes off a mistake. Obviously sometimes, I'm going to get away with talent shots. The very contested, hard, difficult shots that only certain people could make, but most of the time it's about being patient and accepting whatever the defense gives you, and wherever the hole in their game plan is."

At 10-15, it's clear there are still plenty of issues to sort throughpasses not made, openings not exploited, likethis interaction between Towns and point guard Jeff Teague.

"He's doing a better job," Teague said of Towns. "He's trying to be a leader. He's still the young guy. What is he 23, 24, whatever? He's just really becoming himself, starting to get a little more comfortable with everybody and him playing hard on both ends."

No matter the growing pains, Towns' teammates knows what he's capable of, even if they don't always see it.

Covington remembers the first time he worked out with Towns a couple years ago.

"I've never seen someone go through a full workout that didn't drink an ounce of water," Covington said. "But it just shows that if he wants to push himself to his limit, he wants to be great, and he wants to go the extra edge, he wants that extra give. Before I came to the team, [Karl-Anthony and I] talked about the potential, what if he had a guy like me on his team, what it could do. ... We've been a year together now, and I've seen growth within him, just as far as like how he's carried himself and everything he does on the court, that's what you want your superstar to do."

Covington said he's challenged Towns to be a force on both ends of the court. "Because it's not on one side of the ball and he's accepted that," he added. "So he's become a much better defender. He was already a good defender, but having a guy like me on his side that's going to always stay on his ass about pick-and-rolls, guarding the ball ... I always talk to him about various aspects of the game about certain things just to keep him more mindful and not to get into bad habits. So he's done a lot, he's grown a lot."

Towns insists he has only brushed against his potential.

"There's still so much [Saunders] has left to get out of me, and my talents," Towns said. "And he's everyday learning for ways to utilize me. There's some things that he knows that we could do, and he's just waiting to pull it out. So, we've had great times. In training camp, we've exposed some secrets, and it's worked out tremendously well. So, I guess he's just saving it for the right moment."

Meanwhile, a father who just wanted to position his son for a scholarship to become a kinesiologist looks on, having molded today's ideal big. "After all the years, I finally get a chance to see all the hard work we put in in the gym throughout the years, that I was teaching him," Karl Towns said. "It's good to see that he could finally use other aspects of his game. I'm very proud of him, that he's taking his game to the level that I thought he could."

Jonathan Abrams is a senior writer forB/R Mag. A former staff writer at Grantland and sports reporter at theNew York TimesandLos Angeles Times, Abrams is also the best-selling author ofAll the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wireavailableright here, right now. Follow him on Twitter,@jpdabrams.

Originally posted here:
'There's Really Nothing' Karl-Anthony Towns Can't Do - Bleacher Report

(Courtesy of Kill Cliff CBD)

This article is brought to you by Kill Cliff, making all-natural CBD beverages for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

When evolution is the name of the game, brands creating innovative products have to make sure they are jam-packed with differentiators that prompt consumers to select something new.Kill Cliff CBD beveragesare the result of the companys efforts to provide customers with something new, while achieving an effect that feels good to even the cleanest eaters or biggest gym buffs.

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With consumers buying out their products in the southeast US, Kill Cliff wants to spread the word about their commitment to creating quality products for consumers in all 50 states.

The vast majority of the CBD beverages on the market today do nothing more than deliver CBD to consumers in a simple format like water, tea, coffee, and cola. By contrast, weve drawn from a decade of experience to create a product that helps the body perform and recover, says COO and Navy SEAL veteran, John Timar. We were a beverage company first and are now extending our portfolio with drinks that include CBD. Thats the exact opposite of most beverage companies in the CBD industry.

Theres no chicken or the egg dilemma here. These drinks were Kill Cliffs destiny.

To develop a full line of beverages and convince the masses what they could do, Kill Cliff had to identify their must-have ingredients for performance and flavor. First, hemp-derived cannabidiol.

Putting hemp in a product such as ours adds a layer of complexity that we take head-on. Kill Cliff CBD utilizes CO2 extraction, which is widely recognized as a clean and highly effective method for hemp extraction while offering longer-term survivability of the hemp emulsion put into our Kill Cliff CBD product, says VP of Ops & Innovation and former collegiate athlete, Jerry Barker.

Once the CBD is taken care of, they focused on the rest of the drink, which still needs to taste good and appeal to a health-conscious audience.Kill Cliff aspires to create natural drinks that taste as good as popular soft drink flavors, while utilizing all-natural ingredients.

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When we formulate our products, we know that CBD isnt the only important ingredient. We focus on using plant extracts and vitamins that your body needs, and we obtain them from sources that consumers would feel good about in naturally-derived flavors and colors. While it makes it more challenging and limits us in our ability to create flavors, it makes us who we are and solidifies our commitment to giving our consumers natural products, says Barker. Additionally, we do not use sugar in any of our products and focus on utilization of natural sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit.

For an energetic kick, Kill Cliff infuses their broad-spectrum beverages with an impactful dose of B vitamins, providing anyone who uses it with a non-caffeinated boost. The creation of these formulas wasnt for anyone specific, but the company was definitely inspired by their past.

Amidst their efforts to branch out to new audiences, Kill Cliff will never forget their origins. A huge factor of brand validation that Kill Cliff has experienced is the warm reception by a group of Americas most athletic service members, the Navy SEALs. The positive reactions were meaningful to the founders, who are SEALs themselves.

The burdens of combat are huge, and suicides are at a record high among veterans right now, says John. Whether it is through inspirationalcontentor products to help people live healthier, we seek to support those who support us. Weve had an overwhelmingly positive response to our CBD products by both military veterans and police departments across the country.

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Supporting the bodies of those with the worlds most arduous jobs is a task that Kill Cliff takes seriously. Proceeds from every sale go to the Navy SEAL Foundation, totaling nearly one million dollars todate. Once they saw the differences their products made for members of the military, it was a no-brainer that Kill Cliff CBD beverages could cater to all types of athletes if they just got the word out.

CBD has a place now and in the future in optimizing human performance. We are already sending monthly shipments to top-tier pro athletes because our products are in high demand with people that train and workout regularly, he says. Whether youre a football player, professional athlete, in the military, or love to hit the slopes with your family, we endeavor to innovate purposeful products to support health and wellness in different usage occasions throughout the day.

With a community-based foundation and formulas theyre willing to bet on, Kill Cliff is enlisting distributors and rapidly growing in new local and regional markets, proving you dont have to be a SEAL to feel like one.

Their broad-spectrum CBD products may have already spiked in popularity with one group of people, but theyre made to be enjoyed by anyone that wants to experience the impact of CBD on their body including gym members, league athletes, and bodybuilders. With less caffeine than a soda and 25mg of CBD derived from 125mg of broad-spectrum hemp extract, Kill Cliff is letting any newcomers know precisely what they are putting in their bodies.

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As a national brand embracing this ingredient, we seek to validate CBD and its efficacy for the general population, including those who need more than a product for good vibes during social occasions. One of our objectives in entering the CBD industry is to help create legitimacy in the eyes of the skeptic. We pride ourselves in our transparency at every level. From product packaging and labeling to lab tests of our products, all of our information is straightforward and immediately accessible for the consumer, says John.

We are educating our consumers, and we intend to continue to push the envelope in driving general acceptance for CBD in professional sports and the military.CBD is a powerful ingredient, and were committed to making reputable products for the communities we serve.

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By veterans, for veterans: the rise of Kill Cliff CBD beverages - Leafly

Evolving from an experimental theatrical concept developed in an Icelandic lighthouse into an arena conquering audio-visual feast, Bjrks Cornucopia tour continues to test the boundaries of live performance. Daniel Gumble spoke to FOH engineer John Gale, Southby Productions director Chris Jones and d&b audiotechniks Steve Jones about the d&b Soundscape system at the heart of the show and how this project has tested them like no other

As birdsong swoops and flutters around Londons cavernous O2 Arena there is a sense even before the lights go down that tonights show (November 19) is going to provide far from standard arena show fare. The d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system employed by the Icelandic pioneer is already making its presence felt, with many in attendance surveying the scene as if in hope of catching sight of what feels like birds flying overhead and brushing past their ears.

Having been in a state of perpetual evolution for the past 12 months, Bjrks Cornucopia tour has finally arrived in the capital, and by the time she takes to the stage, she has transformed the often grey, characterless hall into a living, breathing space. The stage explodes with vivid splashes of colour, while visual designer Tobias Gremmlers high definition projections evoke images of nature and reproduction, from fibrous fauna to what looks like bacteria and foetuses. A harp is plucked while flautists dance around the stage. At one point, Bjrk enters a reverb chamber for a solo vocal session, while later singing to a drummer thumping away at drums submerged to alternating depths in a water tank. It all makes for a breathtaking spectacle. Complementing the hypnotic visuals and the ever enigmatic nature of Bjrks performance is the Soundscape system that sits at the shows core. In many ways, it is the thread that binds each of the shows components together, creating a truly immersive experience that plays out around, rather than before, its audience.

Unsurprisingly, Cornucopia has been a long time in the making, and continues to evolve to this day, with tweaks being made and notes being left by Bjrk for the production team on a near daily basis. To find out about how it was conceived and its ongoing development, PSNEurope managed to pin down Bjrks FOH engineer John Gale, director and co-owner of production company Southby Productions, Chris Jones, and education and application support team chief for d&b audiotechnik Great Britain, Steve Jones

Origins: From lighthouse to arenaEarlier this year, several months before Cornucopia landed in London, Bjrk and members of the production team found themselves sealed inside a lighthouse off the coast of Iceland, accessible only during low tide. Once inside, there was no escape for several hours, allowing them to experiment with the Soundscape system without distraction. Bjrk likes working with windows so she can see and connect with the world around her, Steve Jones tells us. She doesnt like being in rooms that are closed off, and there are some really big windows in that place with some beautiful views.

The decision to incorporate such an unconventional location as part of the shows evolution came after initial sessions were held in London. Following the release of her 2017 Utopia album, Bjrk embarked on a largely conventional tour at least from an audio standpoint in support of the record. But after attending a production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London, she felt compelled to add greater theatrical elements, shedding the trappings of a standard pop/rock concert. The decision to explore new creative avenues for the tour resulted in a lengthy spell of experimentation via numerous venues and locations across the globe.

When we were touring Utopia she said shed like to do it in surround sound, or at least have some speakers at the back so she could put some effects in, Gale explains. She then saw the Harry Potter show and wanted to reconceive what we were doing as a more theatrical show. So we started talking with the director John Tiffany and some sound designers to discuss different directions, but there was no clear path she wanted to achieve at that point.

The theatrical concept started to fall by the wayside, but she still wanted a lot of immersive theatrics in the show. I was aware that I needed a sound system that could do 360o, something that would allow me to move objects around the room that wouldnt just be spot effects, that could actually move from one position to another. I was looking at all the products out there and it just made sense to go with Soundscape because it can deal with time delay properly and could handle everything we wanted to do.

As for how the initial groundwork was laid for what became Cornucopia, Chris Jones picks up the story.

11 months ago (December 2018), John got in touch saying Bjrk was looking at an immersive concept, so hed been tasked with looking at the options for immersive audio. We hired a venue in central London and set up a mini 360o Soundscape system for John to play with for three days. He brought his multi-tracks along and a show profile. In February 2019, we air freighted a 360o system for her to experiment with in the lighthouse, which could only be reached twice a day for an hour. She fell in love with the system, so it then went into rehearsals at a studio in Iceland called Syrland Studios, and it scaled up again from there to the Backstage Centre in Purfleet, where we put in a 360o system and the show went into full technical production rehearsals. From the Backstage Centre it scaled again to The Shed culture centre in New York, and after a residency there for a month went to Mexico for a month-long residency at a larger venue. And from Mexico it went on to arenas like the O2 in London.

Evolution theoryWhile the show may appear to have settled on a final form following its intercontinental development, Gale details that Cornucopia is, and continues to be, subject to change. Its actually still evolving, he states. It always is with Bjrk. She likes to experiment. When she was in the lighthouse thats mainly what she was doing, experimenting with playback tracks to see what could be done. She had a clear idea for some of the tracks, but with these things it can be like a kid in a toy shop at the beginning because you can put everything everywhere. Over the next few months, we refined it and worked out a way we could incorporate all of the live elements of the show.

One of the key changes to the show since its opening night at The Shed in New York is the adaption from 360o audio to 180o, dependent on the venue.

When we did New York and Mexico the whole show was 360o, but when we went to the larger arenas for various reasons we used a 180 system, so I had to adapt the show from 360 to 180 for this particular run, Gale continues. Itll probably go back to 360 for future runs, but that was a surprisingly rewarding process. Its surprising what you can achieve with 180. You can still get a real feeling of depth and sound surrounding you.

The 180 d&b system used at the O2 was comprised of five main hangs of 12 KSL8/12, two extension hangs of 14 V8/12, two outfill hangs of 16 V8/12. One hang of eight SL-Subs was flown, while the ground sub array featured 20 SL-Subs. Frontfills consisted of 12 Y10Ps and four V7Ps, while the delays consisted of four hangs of six V8s. 68 D80/D20 amplifiers were deployed, along with a processing network of two DS100s and seven DS10s.

According to Steve Jones, the shows immersive qualities are just as potent in 180 or 360 configurations. Immersive is a buzz word at the moment across every area of entertainment, he says. Ive been involved in various Soundscape systems in various segments theatre, rock n roll, etc. and I remember going to one of the first 180o theatre shows we did and being absolutely immersed in the show. Immersive doesnt necessarily mean sound coming at you from every angle. I see it more as am I immersed in a show, am I in the midst of it, or am I an external person looking in on someone else performing?

With the Bjrk show, 360 is great because you do have sound coming at you from every angle she pokes and prods you. But with the 180o show, youre still totally immersed. My connection is not to a loudspeaker, my connection is to an audio performance happening in front of me. Im so connected to the performance on every sensory level that Im completely immersed.

Gale adds: She goes into a reverb chamber onstage and closes the door as part of the show. I wanted to take the audience with her, so we have mics in the walls, and with the 180o show Im putting the object on stage where the chamber is, so it sounds like the sound is coming from the chamber. I read a review that said that moment was totally unamplified, which of course isnt the case. But its interesting that the audience member didnt realise it was an amplified moment just because technology allows you to place things specifically in the right zone.

Can you make the subs sound more optimistic?As one would expect from an artist of such creative ambition, Bjrks fingerprints can be found on each and every detail of the show.

Shes very hands-on, says Gale. She spends a lot of time thinking and coming up with ideas. Occasionally, shed leave us alone for a few days and wed make some changes, then shed come and listen and approve them or say she preferred it the way it was. Shes very receptive when we present her with our approach, but shes also very clear about what she wants to do.

And the way she hears the show isnt necessarily how I would initially approach it. Sometimes she wants me to bury her lead vocal amongst lots of backing vocals and its hard to know what the lead line is. You sometimes get looks from people thinking maybe she isnt loud enough, but thats the way shes designed it. Im working to a very clear concept from her. Although I helped design the show, its definitely a co- designed thing.

I remember being at FOH when Bjrk was there and its interesting to hear the conversations they would have, Steve Jones elaborates. Youd think the conversation between an artist and a sound engineer might be along the lines of my vocal sounds a bit muddy or the guitar needs more bite, but some of the conversations at FOH were much more creative.

She would say things like, the two flutes are in a battle here, how do we represent that from an audio perspective? Or, I need these seven flutes to sound more like a rave. Its a totally different type of creative story-telling that immersive audio gives, compared to the traditional engineering of a sound system.

My favourite is still can you make the subs sound more optimistic?, Gale smiles.

Equal to the extraordinary artistry on display within Cornucopia are the practicalities and infrastructure that underpin a show of this kind. From load-in times to the relationship between audio and visual, every facet of the tour is distinct.

Weve all worked on arena shows, but purely from a practical point of view, this is quite unique, says Chris Jones.Getting in 10 hangs of PA in one day, theres a lot of unique infrastructure that has to be built. The amount of kit, in terms of speaker cabling, amplifiers, speakers, is about 30 per cent more than a typical show. Ensuring that that is prepped and packaged in a way that can go in very quickly is absolutely essential.

The audio team has been fantastic and there has been a lot of stuff built just for this tour to make sure everything goes in fast. Weve had to invest in a lot of dispersion boxes to look after these immersive shows. And we also have to give John, Bjrk and the creative teams the space to be able to experiment with the system.

Theres a lot of inter-department coordination as well between the video and sound departments, so were sharing cable trusses and things and making sure were on the same page, Gale elaborates. We work really closely together daily. The show isnt entirely Timecode but it relies heavily on it for all departments.

Bjrk came to us very early on and said I want all the visuals and the lighting and the sound to marry together, so if the sound was to come from a rear speaker she wanted to explore ways of potentially being able to have lights come from the same vicinity. We had to come up with a concept where we could share the details of the decisions I had made so that the lighting department could take that OSC data and use it in a meaningful way. Were constantly chatting.

When asked about the challenges the team has faced, there is a collective laugh at the suggestion of just identifying one. Given Bjrks persistent pursuit of ever more experimental avenues, the tasks faced can be vast and varied.

As the show developed, we had to go from the DiGiCo SD7 to the Quantum just because everything was expanding, says Gale. We suddenly went into 56 channels of playback because I needed discreet objects I could move around, and before you know it youve used all the local I/O. So Chris asked me if Id be happy to move up to a Quantum and it was the right move. It gave us so much more capacity.

Were in a world where its not about a single speaker, its about how does an object of sound work through a multitude of speakers and how much headroom do I need, says Steve Jones. And were at the creative mercy of John and Bjrks ideas. Sizing the system and figuring out what size speakers and what dispersion needs to be where, its almost not a system engineering job, its about trying to understand the creative part of the story thats being told. Putting the two together in a multitude of differently sized and shaped spaces is fun and games.

Clearly though, everyone involved relishes the challenge.

You can never sit back and think thats done, Gale adds. Theres always some curveball that keeps us on our toes, which is good. There was one moment when she said I want this song to be one BPM faster. When everything is Timecoded youre not working to bars and beats, youre working to Timecode snapshots, and that can mean every department having to make 1,000 edits. And then shell listen to it and say it was better as it was before. Its one of those things you have to go through, and its a good thing.

From my point of view, looking in from the outside, the thing I dont think the audience recognises is that shes not doing back to back shows, its usually one show every three days, Steve Jones continues. She doesnt hold back from pushing the creative ideas in her head. All of these things come at a major cost, and the interesting bit from our side is trying to keep up with putting the technology in place that allows her ideas to come to the fore.

But its not a high budget show, and I would guess the audience probably thinks it is, because it is amazing what we pull off on a fairly small budget compared to a lot of other shows. Within that you can pull your hair out one minute thinking about how were going to do something she wants to do creatively when there isnt that much money to pull it off. Somehow everybody manages it.

With regards to the future of immersive, object-based audio, all three are convinced that technologies such as Soundscape are set to become an increasingly in-demand commodity. Not just in the field of live music and theatre, but also in corporate and domestic applications. As the trio prepare to dash off for a load-in, they share their parting thoughts.

Weve noticed not only some artists putting in quote requests for Soundscape production, but also corporate clients wanting to do something different, says Chris Jones. Also, were doing quite a large d&b install around January where were putting in traditional left right hangs and ground subs, but they are conscious of this object-based mixing thing they are hearing about so they want us to put in the required infrastructure so they can have it as a bolt-on when artists request it. Its gradually getting out there that theres this exciting option for artists and bands to play with.

Artists are constantly looking at how they can get one over on everybody else; how does their show stand out over others, Steve Jones concludes. Weve seen that with the size of video screens, pixel densities, how bright your lights can be and crazy sets.

To a large extent, the way people view sound hasnt changed that much over the last 10-15 years, so the introduction of spatial audio does mark a growing trend. It does fundamentally changes the way you put on a show. Some people may be a little bit scared to make the jump, so well probably see slow growth that will pick up pace as more people run with it.

Artists are starting to realise the sound system can become a canvas on which they can be more creative. Its not just an engineering tool to make things loud, its a fundamental part of the creative process.

For more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all of our market-leading pro sound news, features and analysis, sign up to our newsletter here.

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Bjrk's Cornucopia: From a lighthouse in Iceland to the O2 Arena - PSNEurope

YOU may think that the switch from work as an emergency room surgeon to a perch at the helm of fund giant BlackRock's Asia Pacific operations is a dramatic one. Geraldine Buckingham, the firm's senior managing director and chair of Asia Pacific, says it was the culmination of "a series of small decisions''.

Ms Buckingham obtained her medical degrees - Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery - from Monash University in Australia. The fork in the road came when shortly after qualifying as a doctor, she completed a Master of Philosophy degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. She gave herself two years to explore areas other than medicine.

"It wasn't that one day I woke up and said I wanted to be in asset management. I'm quite intellectually curious The deal I struck with myself is that I would do something else for two years. It was long enough for me to try something, but short enough to be able to go back to medicine.

"What do you qualify for if you have a medical degree but don't want to be a doctor? I was fortunate that consulting firms were open-minded in terms of background.''

A stint at McKinsey in New Yaork was an opportunity to get her feet wet in asset management. She rose to become a partner at the firm's financial services practice, helping institutions navigate the post-crisis world. The transition from doctor to financial services consultant was challenging, she recalls. "I remember sitting with one of the senior persons I worked with on my first asset management assignment at McKinsey. I asked what a mutual fund was. I really didn't know anything. It was a learning curve.

"But I was keen to learn. I found it interesting and wanted to do more. Ultimately I enjoyed the transition and felt it gave me a broader set of options and possibilities for the future.''

She found she enjoyed asset management work. "I liked the clients, the content. I found that the core of asset management is helping people prepare for retirement which is very motivating, very much aligned with my interests and public policy. BlackRock was a client so it was the classic consultant-to-client move.''

Ms Buckingham joined BlackRock in 2014 as head of Americas, and in just about a year became global head of strategy before taking on the Asia Pacific role earlier this year. In 2017, she was named among Fortune's "40 under 40'' as a rising star at BlackRock.

She sees parallels between her former medical career and asset management, and credits her medical experience with her ability to stay calm under pressure. "I jokingly say nobody's dying Our clients have challenges; patients have illnesses. As a doctor we think about differential diagnoses. For clients, it's solutions. Ultimately (asset management) is a deeply people-engaged business, trying to help institutions or individuals with critical issues for the future. We talk about the value of diversity in teams. For an individual to have a broad range of experience in different organisations, different parts of the world, there is value in that. I feel very grateful for the opportunity.''

Expanding presence in Asia

On Ms Buckingham's shoulders today sits the challenge of expanding BlackRock's Asia Pacific business, with China as a major linchpin. The nearly-US$7 trillion group manages some US$487.2 billion in assets in the Asia Pacific, accounting for 7 per cent of total assets under management at end-September 2019. Her task, as chairman Larry Fink has said, is to build a "truly local'' presence in Asia. Thanks to liberalisation moves, China has raised the limit for foreign ownership of asset management firms from 49 to 51 per cent, and is set to allow 100 per cent foreign ownership in 2020.

At the same time, China equities are becoming part of MSCI indices in larger proportions. The weighting of China A shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets index recently rose from 2.55 to 4 per cent. Its weighting is set to rise to 20 per cent in three increments of 5 per cent each, in May, August and November 2020.

China bonds also debuted on the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index this year.

Said Mr Fink in his 2018 letter to shareholders: "Asia is expected to drive 50 per cent of the organic AUM growth in the asset management industry over the next five years, largely driven by China, where there is increasing demand for more diversified and long term investment solutions. Our goal is to become one of the country's leading global asset managers.''

This is occurring at a time of an ongoing trade war and tensions between China and the US. Says Ms Buckingham: "I was really excited to be given the opportunity to come to Asia for three reasons. I spent a lot of time looking at and thinking about Asia in my (previous) strategy role. For BlackRock, Asia will become strategically more important overall. There is obviously enormous economic growth, savings and wealth, and we help people to move from savings into investments. There is also a real retirement crisis in many countries in Asia. I think BlackRock should play a role to address that.

"Secondly, many investors around the world are under-allocated to Asia. One of the things we can do is to educate and ultimately make available to them the opportunity to invest in some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Creating that global connection is important.

"Thirdly, Asia is a place of extraordinary innovation particularly in technology. There are many countries in Asia where retail financial services are not becoming digital; they are digital. As we learn more and think about how that impacts asset management, that's exciting not just for the business here but also for the wisdom and learning we can take to other parts of the world. To be near that innovation, to be able to deeply understand it, engage it in our business, and to export it to other parts of the world - I found that very compelling.''

She confesses that she herself didn't grow up a digital native. "I remember when my parents bought a CD player. I remember my first cell phone and my dad's first cell phone was like a brick. I'm not on social media at all, but I'm anxious when my cell phone isn't in reach."

Still, technology will have an "extraordinary'' impact on asset management, she says, even if the industry may be something of a laggard at the moment. Distribution is an obvious area of change with the rise of robo advisers. Another area is the use of big data for investment insight. "The impact on investing is already very significant. Operations and the cost of a trade are dramatically impacted already.

"I think all elements of the asset management value chain will be changed by technology. Sometimes when incumbent managers feel change coming, they want to resist it and protect what they have. One of the things I admire about BlackRock - and we need to keep pushing ourselves on this - is the willingness to lean into change. Ultimately we need to serve our clients and help them reach their financial goals. If technology can help us and them, the obligation is on us to think of how to evolve the business to serve them better.''

Retirement challenge

One common theme in Asia is the need for more retirement savings. "The fundamental problem is people don't have enough to fund a retirement where they can live in dignity. Part of the problem is demographic, and (ageing) is playing out dramatically in this part of the world... We've also lived through a decade of very low interest rates, which may be further extended. In the traditional ways, people invest for retirement, the math doesn't work right now. And there doesn't seem to be any indication this will materially change in the next few years.''

The retirement challenge, she says, will need the efforts of multiple parties including governments, employers and asset managers. "We need to stop thinking about retirement as accumulating to 65 and then decumulation. We need to really think about income generation. The traditional ways of doing that via a 60/40 portfolio doesn't work in this environment. We need to help people invest through retirement... This is an area where technology can be incredibly helpful... how we can use technology to provide advice to people so they can make good decisions.''

Market volatility and geopolitical tensions can be intimidating to individuals. Ms Buckingham urges a long-term view. "When you invest for the long term, the day-to-day noise of the trade war isn't as relevant to the portfolio as it feels like from day to day. It's very clear that you will do better by keeping money in the market, through the compounding effect of time.''

US-China tensions, however, are deep-seated and strategic, she says. "It may be a geopolitical reality for 10 or 20 years... There is no doubt there has been an evolution or shift. We see very high cash allocations around the world, something in the order of US$75 trillion, earning nothing. Money in the mattress is not a good strategy for individuals or institutions.''

She notes that discussions in Asia about ESG (environment, social and governance) have gone up in volume and frequency. "Focus and interaction on ESG are very much heightened in Asia but we're not seeing the money move in proportion to the conversations. Japan and Australia are exceptions.''

The challenge in ESG investing lies in the definitions and comparability of data. "What are we actually talking about and how do we measure it? Are we sure about the quality of information? I think a lot of work needs to be done to align the data and definitions with what we mean.'' She recalls that she was in a recent panel discussion where BlackRock was given a very good ESG rating compared to another firm, based on the fact that BlackRock had fewer offices and employees.

"It was a very crude metric and example, but that's the thing about data - measuring things in a basic way.''

Impact of ESG on investment

Another aspect is to help investors understand how ESG impacts their portfolio. "Even if we set aside the moral issues around the environment, ESG is about the potential risk in a portfolio. If someone buys a large amount of assets that over time may become stranded because of their carbon, you want to understand that purely as a risk, not even as a judgement. Our analysis shows that companies that are more carbon-conscious and carbon-light (perform better) over time.''

BlackRock has launched a suite of core sustainable ETFs and an ESG money fund in Asia. "So even with something as simple as cash, you're able to put it into a money fund with strong ESG credentials.''

The environment is something she is deeply concerned about, particularly now that she has a one-year old baby. "I worry about the environment. I do think we're at an inflection point. While I have faith in humanity and its ability to innovate its way out of many problems, I worry that the environment is an issue where we need a global response. The ability of the world to form a global response to anything right now feels really diminished.''

"I look at my one-year old who has every chance of living to 100. I worry about the world not just in terms of natural disasters but the social implications of what climate change does. We'll have an extraordinary number of refugees. The wealthy can afford to insulate themselves, but others can't. It will be a wonder if governments can be more focused on educating people, providing healthcare, helping the environment rather than screaming at each other across party lines.

"Business is an incredible stakeholder in society. We need to take that responsibility seriously; people are looking to the business world to be leaders in the community, to have a voice and ultimately benefit society as a whole... I'm hopeful for humanity, but we need to do better.''

GERALDINE BUCKINGHAM

Chair and Head of Asia Pacific BlackRock

Born in 1977 in Canberra, Australia

Education

2002 Earned Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees from Monash University

2006 Earned a Master of Philosophy degree in Comparative Social Policy from Oxford University

Career

2007 Joined McKinsey & Company

2014 Joined BlackRock as head of Americas

2016 Senior managing director, global head of corporate strategy, BlackRock

2019 Senior managing director and chair of Asia Pacific, BlackRock "

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The doctor is in - The Business Times

There's at least one industry millennials haven't killed: real Christmas trees.

Millennials could actually be the saving grace for an industry that is facing a growing threat from fake trees.

Environmentally conscious millennials who are settling down with families are helping fuel demand for real trees during the holidays, Doug Hundley, a seasonal spokesperson with the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), told Business Insider.

"We're really glad to see the environmentally minded millennial generation joining the group of people who prefer real trees," Hundley, who worked in the real-Christmas-tree business for 40 years, said. "Because we've been losing market share for some time and it's not because we don't have the trees."

More than 95 million American homes had Christmas trees in 2018, at least 75% of which were fake, Hundley said.

Despite the threat from the fake-tree business, demand for real Christmas trees has seen an uptick in the last year. According to data from the NCTA, 32.8 million real Christmas trees were purchased in 2018, up from 27.4 million in 2017. There was also a smaller uptick in fake-tree purchases from 21.1 million in 2017 to 23.6 million in 2018 which Hundley attributes to a stable and surging economy.

But the NCTA said the uptick in real tree purchases is related to millennials' shopping habits.

"The millennials are now settling down and having children and families and they're looking to let their kids have the experience of using a real tree,"' Hundley said.

Millennials are also known to be more environmentally conscious when it comes to their spending. Real Christmas trees are biodegradable and can be reused and recycled, a press release from the NCTA said.

"In today's world as consumers increasingly seek to reduce the use of plastic straws and plastic bags with their purchasing decisions, choosing a real tree is another way they can make a positive contribution to the environment and their Christmas enjoyment," the NCTA said in the release.

Environmental aspects aside, the real-tree industry always benefits from a generational evolution, Hundley said.

"It's a lot of heritage there," the real-tree expert said of the decades-old tradition of having a Christmas tree in the home. "And I think when people start having kids and wanting to build memories, that's an increase for us."

See original here:
The Christmas tree industry is banking on environmentally conscious millennials to save it - Business Insider

by Jens Zimmermann, Project Director, Human Flourishing; Canada Research Professor for Interpretation, Religion, and Culture at Trinity Western University; Visiting Professor for Philosophy, Literature, and Theology at Regent College; Visiting Fellow of the British Academy at the University of Oxford; Research Associate at the Center for Theology and Modern European Thought in Oxford. Read more about Dr. Zimmermann.

One of the most important contemporary issues is our relation to technology. To be sure, technology is nothing new but has always been integral to human evolution; never before, however, has technology suffused every area of life or shaped human self-understanding to the extent it does today. Consequently, debates about the benefits and possible drawbacks of technology currently dominate all crucial, formative arenas of human existence: work, education, healthcare, social development, and even religion. Critical voices are not lacking in these discussions but, on the whole, we increasingly place our future hopes for society in technological enhancements. Transhumanism, in its pursuit of a humanly engineered evolution that will eventually leave the body behind by uploading our digitized brains to computing platforms, a vision that includes merging human with artificial machine intelligence, is merely the extreme edge of a techno-reasoning that increasingly forms our collective social imaginary.

How is one to assess this development? I suggest that the most effective assessment of techno-reasoning is to probe the range of its imagination. After all, how we perceive the world, others, and ourselves is principally a matter of the imagination. As the well-known Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye put it in The Educated Imagination:

we use our imagination all the time: it comes into all our conversation and practical life: it even produces dreams when we are asleep. Consequently we only have the choice between a badly trained imagination and a well trained one, whether we ever read a poem or not.[1]

Fryes reference to poetry indicates his view that literature best exemplifies the language of the imagination, of how we perceive the world in all its semantic complexity: our use of metaphors and choice of words in everyday speech reveals the vision of society, and indeed of reality that underlies our thoughts and actions. Equally important, the fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce out of the society we have to live in, a society we want to live in.[2] We need fiction to envision reality differently. We often use the word fiction to refer to what is untrue or false, but the word actually means creative invention and describes our capacity for understanding and shaping reality meaningfully through narrative. Hence reimagining society differently depends in turn on the sources that train our imagination to produce narratives for our self-understanding.

What should concern us is that Transhumanisms imagination runs only along engineering and computational lines. Transhumanists like to call themselves critical rationalists,[3] but the fact is that this critical aspect is limited to a techno-reasoning that produces a narrative of techno-fiction. When we examine the current techno-reasoning of transhumanism, we will find a strongly diminished view of human identity that reduces consciousness to the activity of neuronal networks we can detach from the body and transferable to a computing platform.[4]

It is generally known that transhumanism denigrates the human body as rather primitive biological form of existence that requires perfection through nano- and computing technologies. Ultimately, as Ray Kurzweil argued in his book How to Build a Human Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (2012), the brain is a complex biological machine in which human ideas, feelings, and intentions are ultimately tied to neuronal functions of the brain. Kurzweil imagines that the imminent completion of mapping this biological machine anatomically will allow us to digitize its functions and thus transpose human thinking into computational format, permitting in turn the uploading of ones mind (of consciousness, self, or personality) to a data cloud storage. This transhumanist vision indicates a breathtaking ignorance of human cognition and its dependence on biology for a human consciousness. For one, aside from being technologically unfeasible, the computational model of the brain and its possible detachment from the body is flatly contradicted by recent neuroscience and its insistence on embodied cognition.

For example, the well-known neuroscientist Antonio-Damasio breaks with the traditional cognitivist view of human beings as rational minds inhabiting insentient bodies.[5] In his book The Self Comes to Mind (2010), Damasio reintroduces the body as essential for structuring the brain, albeit still based on a representational view of cognition: Because of this curious arrangement, the representation of the world external to the body can come into the brain only via the body itself, namely via its surface. The body and the surrounding environment interact with each other, and the changes caused in the body by that interaction are mapped in the brain. It is certainly true that the mind learns of the world outside via the brain, but it is equally true that the brain can be informed only via the body.[6] You may not consider this concession very great, but eight years later, Damasio rejects the Cartesian mind-body dualism behind traditional neuroscience, arguing that a new, biologically integrated position is now required.[7]

This new position leaves behind a computational model of the mind, rejecting the dried-up mathematical description of the activity of the neurons because it disengaged neurons from the thermodynamics of life.[8] New brain science acknowledges, according to Damasio, that the body as organism, for example through our nervous and immune systems, possesses a kind of perception conveyed through feelings that are registered in turn as complex mental experiences that help us navigate life. Damasio concludes that neural and non-neural structures and processes are not just contiguous [i.e. adjacent, sharing a common boarder] but continuous partners, interactively. They are not aloof entities, signaling each other like chips in a cell phone. In plain talk, brains and bodies are in the same mind-enabling soup.[9] On the basis of this new insight (new to brain scientists at any rate), Damasio rejects the reductive, but sweepingly common notion in the worlds of artificial intelligence, biology, and even neuroscience, that natural organisms would somehow be reducible to algorithms.[10]

Damasios new insights from Neuroscience are a welcome antidote to the severely stunted imagination of the Transhumanists. Even so, neuroscience in general, and transhumanism in particular, suffer from a striking lack of philosophical reflection on the historical origins of the naturalist and functionalist view of organic life that still forms the imaginative framework of cognitive science. Natural scientists, along with all those who pursue their research into human perception in the investigative mode of the natural sciences, still have a hard time with admitting that metaphysics is always at play when imagining what it means to be human. How many scientists (and indeed philosophers) are fully conscious of the historical developments that made possible a purely materialist view of reality?

The philosopher Hans Jonas offers a superb philosophical analysis of this development and its effects on the study of human nature in The Phenomenon of Life: Approaches to a Biological Philosophy (1994). He describes how the duality of mind and spirit of the ancient world was reified into a mind-body dualism by Descartess division of reality into the two spheres of timeless mental ideas on the one hand, and spatio-temporal mechanisms of material stuff on the other hand. Leaving the side of mental ideas to religion and philosophy, he reduced nature (including animals and the human body) to an inert machine running on functional, mathematical principles, wholly explorable through quantifiable data. The legacy of Cartesian dualism was the modern conception of nature without soul or spirit.[11] Encouraged by the enormous success of the scientific method, it was only a matter of time until a secularist science, eager to do away with Descartes God, also claimed the mental sphere for its mechanistic understanding of reality.

This mechanistic monism was further aided by Darwins theory of evolution. Naturalistic evolution exploded Cartesian dualism or a separate mental realm by integrating human beings into a general developmental process. Jonas argues that even though evolution raised once again the problem of how the transcendent freedom and intentionality of consciousness could arise from such a process, the functionalist bias of naturalism closed the door to any arguments that may have led out of the reductionist dead-end of materialist monism. Early evolutionary theory dogmatically adhered to a mechanistic view of causality that tried to explain organic life analogously to complex machines, declaring consciousness to an epiphenomenon, a random side-effect of an essentially material process. This view, argues Jonas, inverts how organic life forms, and in particular human beings, actually function. Human thought and action originate from an intentional center and exercise volitional freedom in their striving to accomplish goals. While we are certainly able to automate strategies for accomplishing goals, this ability does not warrant reducing our humanity to the workings of a complex machine.

Jonas work himself has helped inspire profound changes in evolutionary theory, including the growing conviction among evolutionary psychology that an embodied intentionality or consciousness is intrinsic to organic life itself. The phenomenon of organic life is impossible to describe, let alone understand, without recognizing that a minimal form of intentionality, individuation, and indeed freedom is evident in even the most primitive living organisms striving to survive.

Neither transhumanism, however, nor the AI research that fuels transhumanists hopes for melding human and machine intelligence, have followed this trend of evolutionary biology. Instead, the transhumanists and AI researchers remain beholden to the basic premise of cybernetics that human life and thought boil down to mechanisms controlled by the exchange of information and are therefore amenable to transposition into algorithms so that the essence of human thought and emotion can be digitized and replicated on computational platforms.

This brief historical sketch shows us that transhumanisms abandoning of the earth by leaving behind the body constitutes not a neutral fact based on scientific progress but is indeed a historically conditioned choice. This choice takes one particular aspect of human perception, namely our ability to abstract material from the rich flow of experience to objectify and quantify it for better understanding, and the re-imagines all of reality in these terms. This reductionist ontology ignores the organic and especially the personal aspects characteristic of human life.

It is worth reiterating that the materialist, functionalist premise of transhumanism (and much AI research) is neither empirically convincing nor in any way morally neutral. From a historical point of view, it is actually astonishing how beholden the field of techno-science still is to scientistic attitudes originating in the scientific revolution and the European Enlightenment.

For example, the well-known AI researcher Marvin Minsky (d. 2016), equated belief in consciousness with the kind of religious mumbo jumbo science is supposed to combat.[13] For Minsky, there is no such thing as consciousness, there is no such thing as understanding.[14] Those who believe in such silly superstitions ignorantly hold to this religious idea that there is magic understanding: there is a magic substance that is responsible for understanding and for consciousness, and that there is a deep secret here.[15] For Minsky, the problem of consciousness and understanding with regard to AI simply doesnt exist because he has a thoroughly mechanical, functionalist view of the human mind. For this reason, he looks to Freud as an important figure because hes the first one to consider that the mind is a big complicated kludge of different types of machinery which are specialized for different functions.[16] While most of psychology and other sciences have moved on from Freuds nave mechanical view of the psyche, transhumanism and much popular opinion has not.

One cannot blame transhumanists for wanting to improve human life, but a sober, historical-philosophical analysis of transhumanism exposes it as delusive and naive. The whole idea of engineering a post-human existence by abandoning the organic body is based on an untenable materialist metaphysics. As Hans Jonas perceptively put it, materialistic biology (its armory recently strengthened by cybernetics) is the attempt to understand life by eliminating what actually enables this attempt in the first place: the authentic nature of consciousness and purpose.[17] Only because they suppress the basic structure of organic life and reduce consciousness to an epiphenomenon of materialist functions can transhumanists propose their futuristic vision. Only because they have already reduced life to a machine, however complex, can they imagine a post-humanist future of immortality through technology. The transhumanist imagination concerning our humanity is deceived by the strange proclivity of human reason to interpret human functions by the categories of the artifacts created to replace them, and to interpret artifacts by the categories of the human mind that created them.[18]

Given that transhumanism is driven by this historically conditioned reductionist view of human life, I am less worried about the question whether transhumanism functions as Ersatzreligion, though the growing number of Christian transhumanists is somewhat alarming. Their belief in technology as providential means for procuring god-likeness and immortality makes one wonder about the efficacy of the incarnation. Why did God bother to become a human being rather than a cyborg? Only an imagination already hooked on techno-fiction could suggest that the divine transformation of biological matter is inferior to, or even akin to a man-made metamorphosis through technology.

From a traditional Christian perspective at least, techno-fiction that deems the body to be optional ranks among gnostic heresies. As the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained, from an incarnational point of view, we dont have bodies but we are our bodies, and are thus rooted in the earth. Abandoning the earth, he declared, therefore means also to lose touch with our fellow human beings and with God who created us as embodied souls. Bonhoeffer concluded that the man who would leave the earth, who would depart from the present distress, loses the power which still holds him by eternal, mysterious forces. The earth remains our mother, just as God remains our Father, and our mother will only lay in the Fathers arms him who remains true to her.[19]

However, what is of greater concern than grouping transhumanism among gnostic heresies is that the movement perpetuates the pervasive techno-reasoning in our culture by glorifying the functionalist image of human existence that continues to enthral the public social imaginary by means of social media and AI research. Transhumanism is just one example, perhaps the most glamorous one, of our current collective culture delusion that the human mind, human language, and human relations boil down to functions that computers will eventually master in far better ways.

We would do well to listen to critical voices of those well familiar with the computing industry like Jaron Lanier. Lanier, credited with inventing virtual reality, exposes the false and dangerous presuppositions of techno-fictions. For example, he debunks the delusion that AI has anything to do with computers gaining intelligence, let alone sentience. AI, he reminds us, is nothing but a story we tell about our code.[20] This story, he confesses, was originally invented by tech engineers to procure funding from government agencies. AI, in short, does not exist if one implies that machines actually think or feel with even the lowest form of consciousness we know from organic life.

Lanier warns that current techno-fiction and our use of technology are deeply dehumanizing. Social media apps are designed to manipulate users into addiction to exploit their consumer habits. Moreover, the whole gamut of computing technology erodes our self-understanding of what it means to be truly human. Lanier worries that if you design a society to suppress belief in consciousness and experienceto reject any exceptional nature to personhoodthen maybe people can become like machines. The greatest danger, he concludes, is the loss of what sets us apart from all other entities, the loss our personhood. His warning echoes the prophetic voices of other critics like the former software coder Steve Talbot, or the late philosopher Hubert Dreyfus, who also worried that instead of adapting technology to human intelligence we slowly conform human consciousness to the functional logic of machines.

These thinkers show us that one does not have to be a luddite or religious zealot to reject transhumanism or entertain a critical attitude towards the nave embracing of current technologies. What is at stake in the discussion about technology and transhumanism is nothing less than our true humanity. Now, it is certainly the case, in my view, that the more holistic approach to human existence offered by religions, and in particular the Christian teaching that God became a human being, provide better anthropological frameworks for approaching technology than secularist or naturalist approaches; however, the time may be ripe for all those concerned about losing our true humanity to come together in exposing the dehumanizing misconceptions put forward by transhumanists, no matter how much these are presented in the radiant, Luciferian promises of divinity. Sicut eritis deus . . . .

[1] 134-135.

[2] 140.

[3] Max More, The Philosophy of Transhumanism in Transhumanist Reader (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 1-17), 6.

[4] Martin Rothblatt, Mind is Deeper than Matter, in Transhumanist Reader, (317-326).

[5] Economist John Greys endorsement of Damasios recent book The Strange Order of Things (2018).

[6] The Self Comes to Mind, 97.

[7] The Strange Order of Things, 240.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid., 200. Damasion recognizes that the worlds of artificial intelligence, biology, and even neuroscience are inebriated with this notion. It is acceptable to say, without qualification, that organisms are algorithms and that bodies and brains are algorithms. This is part of an alleged singularity enabled by the fact that we can write algorithms artificially and connect them with the natural variety, and mix them, so to speak. In this telling, the singularity is not just near: it is here. For Damasio, these common notions are not scientifically sound because they discount the essential role of the biological, organic substrate from which feelings arise through the multidimensional and interactive imaging of our life operations with their chemical and visceral components (201).

[11] Jonas, Phenomenon of Life, 140.

[12] Das Prinzip Leben, 219.

[13] Why Freud was the First good AI Theorist in Transhumanist Reader, 169.

[14] Ibid., 172.

[15] Ibid., 170.

[16] Ibid., 169.

[17] Das Prinzip Leben, 230.

[18] Prinzip Leben, 199.

[19] Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English, 10, 244-45.

[20] Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

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Abandoning Earth: Personhood and the Techno-Fiction of Transhumanism - Patheos

For millennia, people have found support and community through defining factors, ranging from age and race to income and education levels.

However, these characteristics are not staticand drastic demographic changes are starting to create powerful ripple effects in the 21st-century economy.

Todays infographic from BlackRock delves into the significant impact that demographics and human rights movements have on global markets. Of the five megatrends explored in this series, demographics are predicted to have the farthest-reaching impact.

Demographics are the characteristics of populations that change over time. These include:

As a result, major demographic trends offer both unique challenges and opportunities for businesses, societies, and investors.

What are the biggest shifts in demographics that the world faces today?

The global population is aging rapidlyas fertility rates decline worldwide, those in the 65 years and older age bracket are steadily increasing in numbers.

As the population continues to age, fewer people are available to sustain the working population. For the first time in recorded history, the number of people in developed nations between 20 to 64 years old is expected to shrink in 2020.

Immigration has been steadily increasing since the turn of the 21st century. Primary migration factors range from the serious (political turmoil) to the hopeful (better job offers).

In particular, areas such as Asia and Europe see much higher movement than others, causing a strain on resources in those regions.

A steadily aging population is slowly shifting the purchasing power to older households. In Japan, for example, half of all current household spending comes from people over 60, compared with 13% of spending from people under 40.

Demographics are the characteristics of people that change over time, whereas social change is the evolution of peoples behaviours or cultural norms over time.

Strong social change movements have often been influenced by demographic changes, including:

Examples of major human rights movements include creating stronger environmental policies and securing womens right to vote.

These changes pose some exciting opportunities for investors, both now and in the near future.

Global healthcare spending is predicted to grow from US$7.7 trillion in 2017 to over US$10 trillion in 2022. To meet the demands of age-related illnesses, companies will need solutions that offer quality care at much lower costsfor patients and an overburdened healthcare system.

With a declining working population, adapting a workforces skill set may be the key to keeping economies afloat.

As automation becomes commonplace, workers will need to develop more advanced skills to stay competitive. Newer economies will need to ensure that automation supports a shrinking workforce, without restricting job and wage growth.

By 2100, over 50% of the world will be living in either India, China, or Africa.

Global policy leadership and sales of education goods and services will be shaped less by issues and needs in the U.S., and more by the issues and needs of Africa, South Asia, and China.

Shannon May, CoFounder of Bridge International Academies

In the future, education and training in these growing regions will be based on skills relevant to the modern workforce and shifting global demographics.

Spending power will continue to migrate to older populations. Global consumer spending from those over 60 years is predicted to nearly double, from US$8 trillion in 2010 to a whopping US$15 trillion in 2020.

Demographics and social changes are the undercurrents of many economic, cultural, and business decisions. They underpin all other megatrends and will significantly influence how the world evolves.

As demographics shift over time, we will see the priorities of economies shift as welland these changes will continue to offer new opportunities for investors to make an impact for the future of a global society.

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The Global Inequality Gap, and How It's Changed Over 200 Years - Visual Capitalist

Gartners definition: A citizen developer is a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.

The idea of a citizen developer is edging its way into reality across many Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platforms. Through a simple graphical interface and smart building tools, non-tech users are empowered to automate processes via software bots into production environments. The benefits provided by RPA technologies and solutions are significant. Giving standard users the ability to drag-and-drop future-proof apps without touching source code or having to know anything about programming languages creates a force multiplier for speed and value.

RPA can enable more rapid innovation and provide a leg up on competition. It can also save time and money and enable the dev team to work on more impactful things.

The list goes on.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Citizen Developer

However, no technology is perfect or perfectly safe and RPA is no exception. In my previous blog, I touched on how RPA expands the organizations overall attack surface and how rushing into this technology without examining security considerations introduces substantial risk. The genesis of many RPA projects can be found within the organizations Center of Excellence (COE). At the COE-level, the first priority, before even beginning to consider the benefits of RPA, is securing and managing the access rights of this digital workforce. Its important to make the security team a part of the conversation on RPA implementation from the beginning. Including the security team means that security issues are addressed up front before they can cause delays in the final stages of deployment. Sustaining world-class performance and value cannot be achieved if security is an afterthought.

Gartner reinforces this point in its Predicts 2019: RPA Evolution1report:

The rapid adoption of RPA software has created a lot of hype in the market, leading many organizations to jump into RPA initiatives without proper analysis, planning, defined strategies and COEs. All this elevates the risk of errors by failing to automate the right processes, identify the right guardrails, and focus on security issues and access rights for the new virtual users (RPA bots).

Whats the Risk?

Security needs to be built in directly as part of the automation workflow. As citizen developers become increasingly common, security by design becomes even more critical. Anyone can make mistakes, but citizen developers who lack both technical and security knowhow are more likely to make the kinds of mistakes that unknowingly expose access to sensitive corporate networks and systems.

Many of the current low-code platforms do not have built-in security, but IT can hook the platforms into best-in-class security solutions, taking security out of the hands of the less security conscious citizen developer. If there arent enough developers to go around at the organization, before diving into low-/no-code environments or giving access citizen developers, credential management and security need to be top of mind. Moreover, they need to be at the top of the list of strategic objectives for the COE to ensure that RPA is implemented securely and the desired outcome of the program is achieved successfully.

Gartner reaffirms the importance of credential security in its Best Practices for Robotics Process Automation Success2report:

One of the most critical functions of the management platform is credential management. With robots actively accessing and manipulating data, thoughtful consideration and intentional implementation of credential management is a requirement of all RPA deployments. The management platform of an RPA system should allow for the creation, deletion and expiration of credentials for the RPA system, as well as the encryption of any locally stored credentials, if the use case requires them. IGA, RPA, and Managing Software Robot Identities is required reading for architects and technical professionals responsible for IAM.

Why Security Matters

Developers often work fast and dirty. They have aggressive deadlines. They have internal and external pressures to get their code out the door at lightning speed. Anything that has even a remote chance of slowing code production takes a back seat and security is no exception to this rule. Now consider the citizen developer. The majority of traditional developers at least have some knowledge of the importance of developing secure code whether they choose to maintain technical ethics and write their code in a secure manner is another story. However, the citizen developer doesnt think like the traditional developer. The citizen developer is often times a standard business user in some sort of managerial/supervisory capacity. They probably know very little about application and credential security, so they introduce risk to the app development pipeline.

Here are a few things to consider to help maintain the correct balance of security and usability:

Embrace Digital Transformation with Confidence.

Move fearlessly forward into the new digital landscape with CyberArk and take the first step by requesting a demo today. See how easy it is to start securing RPA workflows and processes with the #1 leader in privileged access security. To learn more about how to get started securely deploying RPA, read Gartners analyst report, Predicts 2019: RPA Evolution.1

1 Gartner, Predicts 2019: RPA Evolution, 6 December 2018, Analyst(s): Stephanie Stoudt-Hansen, Frances Karamouzis, Arup Roy, Arthur Villa, Melanie Alexander

2 Gartner, Best Practices for Robotic Process Automation Success, 18 June 2019, Analyst(s): Gregory Murray

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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from CyberArk authored by Corey O'Connor. Read the original post at: https://www.cyberark.com/blog/rpa-citizen-developers-at-the-corner-of-speed-and-value/

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RPA: Citizen Developers at the Corner of Speed and Value - Security Boulevard

LODI, Calif., Dec. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --FitVine Wine,creator of crisp, clean-tasting, lower sugar wines to help you "Live Your Fit", unveiled a new label design. The new vibrant layout, including a new label shape expressing the movement of the brand's signature running man logo, offers the brand further opportunity and access to enthusiastic, health-conscious consumers by visually guiding them to FitVine Wine.

"Navigating the wine aisle can often be intimidating and overwhelming, so we wanted to create a new look and feel that is colorful, fun and approachable," said Tom Beaton, co-founder of FitVine Wine along with Mark Warren. "As we continue to grow our distribution in new retailers nationwide and offer more varietals, this new brand architecture supports our evolution, while still offering the same low sugar, fewer sulfites and no flavor additives wine."

With the rebrand rolling onto shelves nationwide, FitVine Wine continues to maintain a 'grape to bottle' philosophy, sourcing only the highest quality, pesticide-free grapes from small farmers in California. With a rich variety of red and white wines, the brand's crisp, clean-tasting and full-alcohol wines contain less than 1g of sugar per liter and low sulfites, for easy integration into many diets, including keto, paleo and celiac.

FitVine Wines portfolio includes a broad variety of white and red wines, ranging from the bubbly Prosecco to the limited-edition Holiday Red alongside classic varietals equally perfect for pairing with weekday meals or a 5k road race. FitVine Wine is available at major retailers nationwide, such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Earth Fare, Fresh Thyme, Binny's and more, with recent distribution in Meijer.

FitVine Winery is located at 5573 W. Woodbridge Rd, Lodi, CA 95242. To learn more aboutFitVine Wineplease visit http://www.fitvinewine.com.

About FitVine Wine FitVine Wine was born when friends made a pact to craft amazing wines that also fit their active lifestyles. FitVine Wines contain less sugar, fewer sulfites, and no flavor additives without compromising taste or sacrificing alcohol content. To create clean and rich tasting wines with the flavor, mouthfeel and alcohol content you'd expect from a fine wine.

MEDIA CONTACTS:Lauren Newhouse / Hasmik Piliposyan 213.225.4403 230080@email4pr.com http://www.konnectagency.com

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fitvine-wine-uncorks-a-new-bright-and-bold-look-300969058.html

SOURCE FitVine Wines

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FitVine Wine Uncorks A New Bright And Bold Look - Benzinga

Regardless of your political identity, there is a good chance you see clear bias in political media, especially cable news. But while media bias is a wholly subjective debate, there is an objective bias to which all cable news networks slant, and that is towards conflict.

It is in this milieu that we take note of Jessica Tarlov, who may very well be the unlikeliest of the rising cable news stars this year.

As one of a handful of progressive voices on Fox News, Tarlov has consistently provided a sharp and dispassionate voice that serves as a compelling counterbalance to the reliably right-of-center opinion programming that has made Fox the top rated cable news outlet.

While Tarlov often gives voice to moderate liberal policies and engages in well-thought and often spirited discussions (that often lead to Mediaite posts) she also undermines critics who oversimplify Fox News as state-run TV.

Mediaite sat down with Tarlov at the recently decorated commissary on the 44th floor of Fox Corporation in Manhattan a space that felt inspired by a Copenhagen-set remake of Succession. We talked at length about the private charm of her ideological foe Sean Hannity, how she manages to deal with big piles of disinformation out there, persuadable voters on Fox News, and her standing among the ranks of fellow Fox News contributors.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MEDIAITE: How did you get first get on Fox News?

JT: I came home from working on Boris Johnsons mayoral campaign right before Obamas reelection campaign to work for Doug Schoen, who is a Fox News contributor and Bill Clintons pollster and now works for Bloomberg. Doug encouraged me to start doing media to make me a better public speaker and to get more exposure. So Doug was really enthusiastic about the opportunity. And I started coming on Fox and they liked me and I liked them. And so, Ive been here for about four years, since before the 2016 election. And about three years ago, I left working for Doug to move over to Bustle Digital Group, and I run their research outfit.

MEDIAITE: Your first big, most visible hits were on Hannity, where you continue to contribute. What would a progressive audience hate to hear about Sean Hannity?

JT: He is the nicest dude Ive met. He is the most generous and caring. He remembers the little details about everybody. He takes everyone out all the time. Hes just gracious and lovely and so open. Also, with his own experience and his story of how he got to where he is and genuinely wants to know also about how you got to where you are.

MEDIAITE: Can you explain how your role as a panelist is different from of monologists like Tomi Lahren or Dan Bongino?

JT: Yeah, I think I mean, with a show like Outnumbered, which is an ensemble show that I do quite regularly, a little bit of your personal ego has to go away to support the greater good of the show.

MEDIAITE: Youre such a socialist.

JT: I am a socialist in all ways! (Editors note: a joke) You know, you want to make sure that everybody gets in and you also want to make your colleagues feel good about the points that theyre making. And thats just important to the dynamic. You have to say we have one lucky guy who is our guest. So your first priority is to bring out whatever information they came there to offer to your audience. Right. If they have a specialty, you want to make sure that youre highlighting that. But for the viewer at home, if youre just screaming at each other, its not good TV.

MEDIAITE: Outnumbereds conceit is featuring a panel of four women and a male cast as the one lucky guy. Yet, ideologically, very often YOU are outnumbered. How do you deal with that inevitable frustration that comes with being ganged up on?

JT: Breathing. not to get too therapeutic about it is a big part of it. And to really take a moment to think, is this an avenue that I really want to go down or is this a hill to die on, like where I want to raise the decibel level to, you know, 100 versus 50 and something like that. I keep in mind the fact that I truly believe what Im saying. And that also my views represent a majority of Americans, not the views of many of the people that Im on with.

MEDIAITE: Like what?

JT: If you look at the polling on things like a womans right to choose or raising the minimum wage or how we do an impeachment, how we deal with immigration in this country, right? Democrats are in the majority here and there. Their platforms actually could be sourced right out of current polling and it would do a hell of a lot better than what the president has put forward.

MEDIAITE: Since much of opinion programming on Fox News is very pro-Trump, do you feel like you have a greater responsibility to carry a big part of the progressive burden?

JT: I take it really seriously and I know that people are watching. And its a complete myth that liberals dont watch Fox. Right now the polling goes anywhere between 10 and 20 percent are liberals and then a good 20 to 30 percent are independents that are right. So those are persuadable voters. Its a really big number, and I think that that word on the street has kind of been that this is just an echo chamber for President Trump and Mick Mulvaney to sit around and eat popcorn and watch Fox. But thats not whats going on here. I feel like thats a complete fallacy. And I do also feel a responsibility to the liberal Twiterrati to say Im here and Im doing a really good job. But Im not backing down. Im not being mealy-mouthed about this. Im not bashing Hillary. Thats something that I take really seriously. I think there are too many liberals that go on TV and kind of feed Republican talking points about how bad her campaign was. I do feel like I have something to prove.

MEDIAITE: Do you ever catch hell from progressives for cashing a check fromFox News because theres so much animus towards the network?

JT: Theres been an evolution in the perception of me from when I started to now. I think that doesnt have to do necessarily in a change in my belief system, but how Im able to advocate my beliefs. So when you start out doing TV youre less sure of when you can jump in, and like, how hard can you push, youre not as comfortable with theseyou find your rhythm like I know more or less the boundaries of how far I can go with X host. And also what makes good TV and what makes bad TV and when you should cut someone off and when you shouldnt.

JT: The first rule of television: have your talking points and get them out. And they should be short and succinct. And its really hard if you feel like there has been a big pile of disinformation thrown out there.

MEDIAITE: A big pile of disinformation? You clearly have a different point of view than your fellow Outnumbered panelists.

JT: Well, Im a hired partisan. Im very happy to be. I mean, people will come to me and say youre not being fair or what kind of journalist are you? Im not a journalist. Im a hired liberal. So I dont have to both sides it. What I think is something I mean, and I revel in that at this moment. I would really hate to be sitting there saying, oh, well, Hunter Biden really shouldnt have had that job.

MEDIAITE: Theres a small group of progressives at Fox News. Do you offer some support or you do stay in touch or do you just sort of like theyre just another talent?

JT: Im definitely closest with Juan and Marie. Juan fills a mentor role for a lot of people in this building. And its something he takes really seriously. And hes wonderful at it. I mean, hes seen everything. Obviously, being a print journalist, moving into TV legend, and youre totally right. And he also in a tough environment where you are the outnumbered one, hes really good at helping you talk through the topics that youre gonna be discussing. Whats the best way to focus on what you really think is important? Its like I mentioned before. Sometimes if a lot of things are going on, you might not even get out the point that you wanted to make because youre busy addressing wherever the conversation went. And likewise, I think that Juan looks to me and to Marie and other progressives that are here to chat about the issues. But its kind of its a fun little fraternity party.

MEDIAITE: Media that covers media is a new thing. Are there moments where you or the set of Outnumbered immediately realize that this is gonna be up on Mediaite?

JT: I think about 90 percent of the time we know what happened, you know, and what kind of headline it will be like, blah, blah, blah, lets loose on or panel erupts over. So you can usually feel it coming. I genuinely feel like the majority of the talent here doesnt care. And its just part of the day.

MEDIAITE: Seems a slippery slope to obsess over the coverage

JT: And I think what people are most conscious of is if they have offended somebody that they care about. Right. Because you dont want to if you have to have a thick skin to do this anyway. But you dont necessarily want a post to go viral that pits you against your colleague in such a way that suddenly theyre being inundated with liberals saying youre terrible, so disrespectful and you dont want it to come in the reverse. And I assume my colleagues are conscious of that visa vis me.

MEDIAITE: After the lights go off, do you ever sort of meet up with people that youve had a spirited debate with and say, like, are we good?

JT: Im a big fan of extra talking and follow up. So I will pretty regularly send a note or a text and just say, like, You know, hope everything is cool. Nothing personal. Or to actually follow up on the point. Ive done that, too. Ive sent links then to whatever study I was citing. To say this is where I got my information out because the truthfulness of the way that you represent yourself on TV is all you have here So if youre putting out data and facts, which is how I like to do it. And if they get disputed on air, I want to make sure that I have a reputation for not making things up, because I think there are people across the whole spectrum of channels that are saying things that arent true.

MEDIAITE: Have you felt moments where you were just like felt like if I dont if we dont wrap this segment, Im gonna burst into tears, or just scream my head off, or youre just like, I cant deal with this anymore?

JT: There was a moment about when Cindy Hyde-Smith made those lynching comments where I just cant understand backing her up in any way whatsoever. And that thats frustrating. Or Im talking about the presidents racism has been something thats really personal for me. I made it clear from very early on that I believed him to be a racist. And there was a lot of evidence for it. Going back to not letting African-Americans live in Trump housing complexes up until the tweets that he sent about Elijah Cummings in Baltimore. But that was something that was really hard for me. Going back to what I said a little while ago about representing a majority viewpoint, the majority of Americans think the president is a racist. That shouldnt be a controversial thing to say at all, that it is the majority viewpoint.

MEDIAITE: And yet thats not really covered that much at Fox News. And so Im curious where do you think Fox is going editorially right now?

JT: Lynne Jordal Martin, who runs the opinion section, is fantastic and a huge advocate of mine. She always wants a Democratic voice on FoxNews.com and asks all of us to write regularly. But one thing that Fox does that, I cant say necessarily about all the other channels, at the same time is like a voice like mine is always there. The news and opinion side is obviously split, but during the day, much to the chagrin of a viewer, someone who thinks like me is showing up and being quite loud about it. So when there are these accusations of State TV I think to myself, I had half the airtime in that segment and I was calling the president a racist. How? How are you backing up that theory?

MEDIAITE: People here at Fox News treat you well.

JT: They do treat me well. Im not best friends with everybody, but I think that people who even abhor my political beliefs, they like me personally. Ive had a lot of dual pairings where its been consistent, like with Tomi Lahren and with Jesse Watters, with Kayleigh McEnany. Any. Those arent conservative wallflowers. They are really passionate about their beliefs and who will go for the jugular if they need to elbow. And I think theres also something thats changing a bit in 220 versus 2016. So I think in 2016 it was a lot of like Bernie flame-throwing types and that was the more appealing Democrat for TV clashes. But I think that if you can make good TV and if you can have a thoughtful argument about the real issues of the day from a more moderate position, which is where I consider myself to be so obviously a Democrat, a liberal part of a progressive coalition.

I think a lot of conservatives have found themselves on the back foot about that because they went in saying its impossible, you know, best economy ever. And guess what? People showed up and voted no one on health care and overwhelmingly said the Democrats were the people that they wanted to lead. Right.

MEDIAITE: Rapid fire to end it Yeah? Yes or no: Will Trump be impeached?

JT: Yes.

MEDIAITE: Will Trump be removed from office?

JT: No.

MEDIAITE: Who is will be the Democratic candidate in 2020?

JT: Joe Biden.

MEDIAITE: Who will be elected president in November 2012.

JT: Very worried it be President Trump. I said on air actually outnumber just a few minutes ago. I think its certainly over 50 percent odds. And I got big natural support from Chris Stirewalt. Well, I mean, its really hard to unseat a president.

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Foxs New Progressive Star Jessica Tarlov Talks to Mediaite About Being Outnumbered - Mediaite