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Dyson’s 360 Heurist robot vacuum will clean your home and may bring about the end of humanity – British GQ

Posted: April 28, 2020 at 2:47 am


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If you keep an eye on the technology press, youll know that we are in the middle of a robot revolution. Advances in artificial intelligence have unleashed a wave of automation thats going to transform the way you live and work particularly if your boss is starting to look at you taking a coffee break and thinking, If only they were a little more machine. So far, so futurey. In centuries to come, however, when a cyborg historian casts his LED eye back at this inflection point in human existence, he will surely find it a source of some amusement that the reason mankind first welcomed robots into their daily lives ultimately leading to the spread of robots across the earth, self-awareness, the Great Insurrection and thermonuclear war was because they didnt fancy doing the hoovering.

In fairness, though, doing the hoovering is a drag.

Thats why for the past two weeks, GQ has been living with a hoover-bot. Its not self-aware (yet) but it is smart. The Dyson 360 Heurist is the companys next iteration of its lauded Dyson 360 Eye. Like the original, it trundles around your house on tank tracks using a top-mounted camera and sensors to navigate obstacles and avoid falling downstairs and, apart from the new colourway, it looks similar too. But it comes with a multitude of upgrades. That camera now has twice the aperture and is improved by a set of LEDs that illuminate the path ahead if required anyone who tried the first model will be aware that low-light conditions pose a challenge. It also has 20 times more memory, which is vital for its navigational strategy, SLAM, which stands for simultaneous localisation and mapping. This involves taking readings from its sensors every 20 milliseconds to make sure it hasnt missed a bit of carpet or is about to knock over a vase. Arguably the most important thing is how well it cleans. The companys gamble when it first got into this space was that there were other robot vacuums out there, but none that offered Dyson-level cleaning. This new model really sucks (in a good way). The new V2 motor spins at 78,000rpm to vacuum 20 per cent harder.

The most interesting difference, however, is implied by the new suffix: Heurist. Its a reference to its ability to learn. With a quad-core processor and 10GB of memory, its able to become an ever-more conscientious house slave. It remembers previous maps that it has made of your property and uses these to build a fuller and fuller picture of what it needs to clean. This also means that finally! you can set it to clean specific rooms or zones. So if you want it to only clean the kitchen, or even just avoid an area thats full of cables or obstacles that could cause it to get stuck, you just have to say so on the app. Thats a major advance.

Our experience with the bot left us impressed. It cleans effectively, the zoning is a welcome new feature and its ability to detect obstacles and avoid stairs is sufficiently reliable that you dont feel the need to watch over it. Its still not perfect, though. There are always bits of fluff and dirt that it doesnt quite get due to its shape, and its height means it cant get under low chairs and coffee tables. It also has a habit of getting stuck if it moves itself onto an awkward surface or chews up a mat. Sure, you could create zones to avoid this, but the fear that you have left something out that might cause it problems means that you wont want to switch it on if you arent on the premises. Our view? Overall this is a robot that will help keep your property in good shape between your main weekly hoovering sessions but it wont replace those sessions altogether.

In the future, the obvious area for improvement is a better battery. This is an industry-wide challenge, not one that is peculiar to Dyson, but it means that this robot takes a long time to give your floors a really thorough clean as it will likely have to return to its charging base halfway through the job. That said, its this very moment when it independently wheels itself out of one room, down the hallway, into another and docks with its charger that it seems most like it has a mind of its own. Theres almost something quite cute about it.

But remember, this is how it begins

799.99. dyson.co.uk

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Dyson's 360 Heurist robot vacuum will clean your home and may bring about the end of humanity - British GQ

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10: I Was Just The Boy Then; Now I’m Only a Man – 25YearsLaterSite.com

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Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 The Boy is nothing if not risky. Last weeks episode ended with Peter, Simone, Janice, and Fredwynn following Clown Boy to discover whether Lee/Clara had redeemed herself through the game, so one might expect the finale to pick up with that question.

Instead, the first quarter of the hour is completely about Clown Boy. There is a direct connection to the previous episode, to be sure, and I have noted the significance of this character and the questions around him for some time, but its hard not to wonder when we will get back to the story of our four friends. And the answer isnever.

Instead, after we see Clown Boys rise to fame and his exploitation at the hands of one Octavio Coleman, Esq (not that one), Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 jumps to Jason Segel at an AA meeting. And this is not Peter, its Jasonwe get that right away. Its Jason Segel as Jason Segel, of course, and not straightforwardly Jason Segel. Eve Lindley is still Simone, Sally Field is still Janice, and I presume that Andre Benjamin is still Fredwynn, if were talking about their names. But even they arent the same characters, and the story is no longer the same story.

This is a bold move, and I have to say that it rubbed me wrong on my first viewing. I wanted a continuation, and resolution, of the story that Dispatches from Elsewhere has offered us over the course of the season, not to exit that story and start feeling like everything had just been in a snowglobe.

But of course, Dispatches from Elsewhere has portrayed a self-awareness of itself as an entertainment from the very beginning, so this meta move here at the end perhaps should not have been as surprising to me as it was. And when I watched the episode for a second time, I started to think that it was brilliant.

Im reminded of the experience of watching Part 18 of Twin Peaks: The Return. I liked it the first time, but it was off-putting. And I certainly know people who hated it, continue to hate it, and refuse to take my advice to watch it again and take it on its own terms. Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 feels like that to me now. Im going to be saying the same thing to people about it: do your best to take it on its own terms.

If you can manage it, there is something beautiful here. Clown Boy is central to Dispatches of Elsewhere because he is Jason Segel, the creator of Dispatches from Elsewhere, and S1E10 gives us the story of that creation.

Segel puts himself on the line. While it is clear that the Jason in this episode is a fictional version of himself, the show makes a point of referencing actual things in his career like the Dracula musical from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (where he also plays a character named Peter, by the way). And when Clown Boy chastises him for not letting his freak flag fly after that, and as moves to leave, he says hell be back if Jason ever wants to make another Muppets movie.

The point of that conversation is that he needs to grow up and stop being the clown. He needs to stop thinking of himself as a victim and recognize how his own decisions and selfishness have brought him to where he is. Hes been a drunk. Now hes sober, but doesnt know what to do next. As he says in AA, in the past he would have tried to make people laugh to make them like him, but now he doesnt much care if they like him, as he doesnt like himself. But he doesnt know what to do with himself.

Simone approaches him after the meeting and they go to the barn where she creates things. She asks him to make a list of things he likes, and all he comes up with is spooky and suprising. So she gives him a postcard and he starts off on an adventure that starts to pull in some things that at least resonate with what we have seen in Dispatches from Elsewhere up to this point: the Jejune suite at the hotel, references to Divine Nonchalance, a sasquatch and a yeti dancing, a token, a milkman, and strange signs to lead him on his way.

This all ultimately takes him to a rooftop where there is a Dispatches from Elsewhere arcade game (this is what the token is for). Its a strange game. A monster keeps eating his character until he realizes that the right move is to just fall into the lava. Then he gets a series of questions that get to his existential despair: Did you have a view of your future?; Did you let it slip away?; Are you staring into the void?; Are you afraid?; The only thing we need to know at any given time is?

He answers Yes to the first four. The last one has two options that say the same thing (What to do next) and this causes Jason to walk away. I wonder if it would have mattered if he had chosen one option over the other, or what others have done in this same situation. It is reminiscent of Buridans Assthe paradox of whether a donkey would be able to choose between two completely equivalent stacks of hay. Of course it would, but Jason is unable to choose here. Instead he walks away from the arcade game and is confronted by Janice.

She asks him what he is best at, and then tells him to put that together with the question above. So he sets out to write Dispatches from Elsewhere, which is the entertainment we have been watching.

And it would appear that includes this last episode we have been watching, as Janice calls out the way in which she thought the show was about community but the final episode just focused on Segels character.

Thats not the end, though, as Jason Segel turns to the camera and calls out all of those who have worked on the show as they enter the frame behind our four leads. Then we cut to Octavio (Richard E. Grant) for a closing narration, which includes a number or ordinary people saying their names and that I am you.

Octavio takes some water from a fish tank into a glass, notes that the water inside the glass is the same as that in the tank, but then that so too is the substance which contains the water the same. There is no You, and there is no Me; there is only We.

Is this cheesy, or inspiring? Ive viewed it both ways now. Last night I was groaning and bemoaning how Dispatches from Elsewhere had so thoroughly left its narrative frame, left its intrigue behind, and entered into this space of schmaltz. But today when I watched it again, I was tearing up a bit.

Dispatches from Elsewhere is about community, and it has been clear from the get-go that the import of the show was supposed to extend beyond the characters within the story and out to all of us. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that those lines blur or fold in on themselves at the end of the day.

Dispatches from Elsewhere becomes not just a story about people playing the game of the Jejune Institute, but one about Jason Segel creating the story that we have been watching.

I dont know just how biographical this story is, but it does seem the Segel has struggled with alcohol, and the references to his own life that occur in The Boy make this all feel deeply personal. I may have wanted the action to pick up where it left off in S1E9, and I may have been disappointed by what this finale did to the plot, but thematically it really is sort of brilliant.

Go back to the end of The Creatorwe learned that Lee was Clara and that she had made the game in an attempt to redeem herself for how she had betrayed herself. This is Jason, betraying the younger version of himself embodied by Clown Boy. Thats why its up to him. And the project is not the game, but the very show we have been watching, which Segel has created as an attempt to rediscover the self that he had lost through years of drinking. Has he redeemed himself in the eyes of that boy through what he has done? Well, its a start.

Whether I am talking about the real Jason Segel or the fictional one there, I do not know. I suppose the lines blur, as they have about questions of reality throughout Dispatches from Elsewhere. And at the end, the show attempts to break that barrier altogether. Segel talks to the camera. We have all of these voices and faces from the real world blended in to Octavios closing monologue. It becomes clear that the point of Dispatches from Elsewhere is about empathy, and community.

Octavio tells us that he lied in saying Peter is you, Simone is you, Janice is you, Fredwynn is you, etc. because only you are you. And yet its not a lie, because we are bound together by our human condition. And perhaps even beyond that, we are bound together by being.

The idea that there is no I or You, but only We, is a radical one. It flies in the face of the kind of individualism that has defined modernity, and capitalism in particular. This message from Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 lands at an interesting timeone they could not have predictedas we all quarantine ourselves while certain idiots pop off about their individual freedom.

Its not about you; its about us. Its about all of us. As much as I get that feeling of constraint and that value placed on personal liberty, the point in the pandemic is precisely that were all in this together. Its not about whether you or I are willing to risk things, but about the risk we expose others to.

There are dangers, of course, to this kind of communal vision. I dont know if Dispatches from Elsewhere quite grapples with those, but it does gesture at how individuality and community can come into some tension to some degree. Regardless, this is not Hegel. The show doesnt need to resolve the deep problems of modernity.

I think it moves in the right direction by emphasizing community and empathy in a world that can seem to be more and more defined through individualism and self-interest. Its a breath of fresh air. I hope youve enjoyed it as much as I have, and if this finale rubbed you wrong I truly do encourage you to watch it again and do your best to take it on its own terms.

A recondite family awaits.

I am Caemeron and I am you.

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Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10: I Was Just The Boy Then; Now I'm Only a Man - 25YearsLaterSite.com

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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Islanders: Barclays Center Forgets Team Played There – Eyes On Isles

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Trying to find content for social media teams hasn't been an easy thing. The New York Islanders have done a really good job with their Isles Daily Challenges for example and other brands are starting to do similar things.

The Barclays Center official account, @barclayscenter tweeted out a Barclays Center Bing. Some of the things were "took the subway to an event", "went to a Nets game", "saw your favorite college team play", etc.

You can go up and down this board, in all 24 spaces and not a single time will you see anything Islanders related. No, I'm not making this up.

Are we surprised though? How many times has the Barclays Center hinted at them not wanting the Islanders to be there or completely botching something Islanders related.

At first, they tried to change the goal horns, only the championship banners were raised, and those awful black and white uniforms were launched to help "commemorate" the move to Brooklyn.

If you walked around the building you would think it was a neutral site facility, not an Islanders game. So now, after the Islanders played their final game in the building just a couple of months ago, they don't even get included on Barclays bingo board.

Who makes this stuff? Can't think of another team we hosted for half a decade, let's put in "ate Nathan's fries" that'll really get the people going.

You genuinely couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. The Barclays Center twitter account hasn't responded to the Islanders fans in the comments who found this lame excuse for a bingo board and I doubt they do.

At this point, all you can do is laugh at the lack of self-awareness.

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Islanders: Barclays Center Forgets Team Played There - Eyes On Isles

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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‘Westworld’ Reveals the Truth About Caleb’s Past in Episode 7 (RECAP) – TVInsider

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[Spoiler Alert: This recap contains spoilers from Westworld Season 3 Episode 7, "Passed Pawn."]

Westworldis a show that is really difficult to take seriously, even though it so desperately wants to be seen as cutting-edge, hard sci-fi. However, there are moments so goofy, so utterly preposterous, that all you can do is laugh. That wouldn't be such a problem if the show operated with a wink-and-a-nudge. And, to give it its due, therearebrief glimpses of self-awareness, but these are so fleeting they barely register. Instead,Westworldprefers a tone so morose and self-important that it only serves to highlight the absurdity.

Take this episode, which sees Caleb (Aaron Paul) discovering the secrets of his past by way of a giant, sentient, light-up ball with a computerized French accent. This early prototype of the System, nicknamed Solomon, was based on the mind of its creator, Serac's (Vincent Cassell) schizophrenic older brother. "An insane AI, great," quips Caleb, in a rare moment of tongue-in-cheek humor. But that one line is about as far as the show goes in acknowledging the ridiculousness of the situation. Before you know it, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Caleb are conversing with the ginormous glowing orb about determinism and pathways and strategies for revolution.

Aaron Paul's shoulders must be aching because he does his damnedest to carry this storyline on his back. He manages to extract emotion out of a situation that wouldn't have felt out of place in 1980sDoctor Who albeit with a much smaller budget and a far brighter color palette. Caleb learns that everything he thought he knew was a lie. His friend Francis (Kid Cudi) was never killed in wartime combat. In fact, both Caleb and Francis were discharged from the army and sent home, where they were taken to a lab in Mexico as guinea pigs in Serac's reconditioning experiment. They were reprogrammed as assassins for hire, manipulated through the RICO app to hunt down anyone that may be an outlier to the System's new world order.

This is all revealed in a series of scattered flashbacks as Caleb and Dolores take a tour of Serac's facility in Mexico the building conveniently turning on the lights to a new room when it's time to move the plot on. The pair come upon a warehouse of thousands of unconscious humans all the captured outliers kept in stasis, away from disrupting Serac's utopian vision for the world. The echoes to Westworld are apparent even before Dolores points it out directly. Humans are treated just like hosts. Those who disobey are locked up and hidden away. Others are transformed and manipulated into doing the bidding of an insane megalomaniac. The rest cluelessly follow their predetermined paths.

So, just as Dolores rose up to free her people and lead a revolution, now Caleb must do the same. He might only consider himself a lowly construction worker, but so what? As Dolores says, she was only meant to be a bit player, the kindly rancher's daughter. But she changed her destiny. Now Caleb needs to do the same and march his people into the future, a future determined by Solomon, the talking French spheroid. I'd be lying if I said I completely understood what was going on here. I thought Dolores's whole thing was about breaking free of predestined pathways? That's why she left Westworld. That's why she destroyed the System. So why is she so willing to follow the strategies of Solomon?

Regardless, the decision is left in Caleb's hands, and he almost walks away after discovering the ugly truth of his past. It was he who killed his best friend, Francis. A flashback reveals that a captured outlier spoke too much of the truth to Caleb and Francis, and so, the omnipresent System ordered that one of them had to die, to tie up loose ends. Both men were given the instruction to kill the other and a substantial monetary reward for carrying it out. Caleb really had no choice but to shoot his comrade in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Again, Paul does his best to draw emotion from this rather cold material, even though we have very little reason to care about Francis.

While all this is happening, Dolores steps outside to do battle with Maeve (Thandie Newton), who arrives in a black jumpsuit, carrying a katana on her back, looking like a beacon of badassery. The two women finally fight it out, and as always, it's another highly entertainingWestworldaction sequence. There are acrobatics and drone-controlled weapons and lots of brutal stabbing. Dolores even has half of her arm blown off. There's a similarly exciting fight scene at the start of the episode when Charbot (Tessa Thompson) orders a hit on the fake Musashi (Hiroyuki Sanada). He's taken out by a returning Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) and Hanaryo (Tao Okamoto), who I assume are both working for Maeve.

But as all the hosts begin to turn on each other, there is another man with a mission to destroy every last host remaining. The Man In Black (Ed Harris) faced his demons, and now he's woke. Even though Serac stole Delos out from under him, and he clearly falls on the System's outliers list, the Man In Black shares Serac's concerns. Dolores and the hosts are bad news, and he's never been able to block out his part in creating them. The "original sin" he calls it. "I helped build you and Dolores and the lot of you," he tells Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). "So now I'm gonna wipe out every host from the face of this Earth."

The Man In Black continuously belittling Bernard and Stubbs is easily the best part of the episode. "Don't lecture me, you f***ing can opener," he snaps at Stubbs at one point, an insult so hilariously vitriolic it wouldn't have felt out of place inVeep. Bernard has been such a spare part this season, only used to stare at screens and hammer us over the head with monotonous exposition. "Serac thought his machine could save the world, but it couldn't save humans from themselves, so he began reprogramming them..." wait for it, "... like hosts." Thanks, Bernard, I would have never drawn that comparison without you. If it takes the MIB ridiculing Bernard to break up the dreariness and add a bit of levity to the show, I'm all for it.

So we head into next week's season finale with Dolores and Maeve at war, Caleb embarking on revolution, and the MIB returning to his host-killing roots. And after this week's talking French orb of wisdom, I'm praying the finale goes full balls-to-the-wall bonkers. I just hope that if it does, it will embrace its ridiculousness and stop taking itself so seriously.

Westworld, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO

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'Westworld' Reveals the Truth About Caleb's Past in Episode 7 (RECAP) - TVInsider

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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7 things we learned in episodes 3 and 4 of ‘The Last Dance’ – For The Win

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The Last Dance is a ten-part documentary from ESPN/Netflix that showcases the final run of the late 90s Bulls, one of the great franchises of modern sports history.

With outrageous access and interviews with just about everyone, these episodes have given us new light into a team that many of us grew up adoring, or, if you were a fan of a rival team, fearing.

We learned a lot on Sunday night, when episodes 3 and 4 aired on ESPN. Lets get to what we learned.

(Big caveat: I know most of this stuff was already known or reported on at the time. I get it. Very few documentaries truly bring to light new things, especially with teams this well covered. So lets just say these are things we were reminded ofand you can not tweet at me.)

Dennis Rodman was the star of Sunday night, and we broke down all his best moments already in great detail. What I was left with watching Sunday night was how seamlessly Rodman fit into that team, and how quick Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were to embrace him because of his excellence.

Whether it was Rodman breaking down the extensive prep work he did to learn how different shooters would result in different types of rebounds, or other players marveling at his ability to defend five positions,

Look at Trae Young realizing that Michael Jordan won MVP, the scoring title, All-Star Game MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and the Slam Dunk contest in the same year.

I remember how good Jordan was, but to put together a year like that while averaging 35 points a game on 53.5% shooting, as a guard, while leading the league in steals, I mean what? What?

I remember the Bulls needing to get over the hump of beating the Bad Boy Pistons in the late 80s, but it was definitely interesting to see how GM Jerry Krause had to basically rebuild the team with one opponent in mind.

When you have Michael Jordan, he can get you through 30 or so NBA teams, but to beat the absolute best, the Bulls had to acquire players who could match the physicality of the Pistons. They did it, and it started their run to greatness.

Again, we broke this down in the Rodman post, but I truly love that Dennis Rodman not only understood that he needed to take a break after helping Jordan carry the team during Pippens absence, but that Phil Jackson also understood it, and allowed it. (With Michael Jordans permission.)

With that one interaction, I understood Jackson, Rodman, and Jordan all differently. Rodman for his self-awareness, Jackson for his empathy and lenience, and Jordan for his empathy and not as much lenience.

Good lord Craig Ehlo took a beating on Sunday night, arguably worse than the one Jordan gave him however many years ago. Jordan said having Ehlo guard him was a mistake and Ehlos then Cavs teammate Ron Harper had an incredible reaction to the decision even all these years later.

Michael Jordan doing press scrums in every city he went to, talking to media members off-guardedly while getting taped up this justdoesntreally happen now. Teams are much more protective of players time, and the sort of interactions you see with Jordan, Rodman, Pippen in this documentary is stunning to see.

One of the stranger moments on Sunday night was when a Bulls employee went into a room with Michael Jordan and five or six guys in suits, and started introducing them as The Sniff Brothers, explaining that they had the name because they all sniffed [Jordans] jockstrap. They were his bodyguards, I guess? All of them?

I need to know more about these men. Someone tell me more about these men.

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7 things we learned in episodes 3 and 4 of 'The Last Dance' - For The Win

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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"I fell from the dizzying heights of hypomania" | MHT – Mental Health Today

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Ann-Marie D'Arcy Sharpe 27 April 2020

Throughout my teenage years I really struggled with mental illness but, at the time, I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is that I was lost, confused, feeling out of control, and in emotional pain. For a long time I thought that I was "just a bad person".

In my mid-twenties I received my bipolar disorder diagnosis and finally got the help I needed.

Looking back, I understand that during my teenage years I had very few - if any - periods of mental stability. Ifell from the dizzying heights of hypomania down to soul crushing depression and back up again, over and over again. It was a truly horrendous, destabilising time in my life.

Now that I understand my disorder and I have more self-awareness, I can recognise clear signs of hypomania throughout my teenage years.

Acting out of character Most of the time I was hypomanic in my teenage years I can see that I was acting extremely out of character. I knew that at the time, sometimes even while it was happening, but I felt like I had no control over my behaviour at all. It was terrifying. I was saying and doing things that I would never have done if I was my usual self.

Risky behaviour Unfortunately, I engaged in a lot of risky behaviour in my teenage years during episodes of hypomania.

I was binge drinking a lot, I partied a lot, and because of this I was often around people I didnt really know, in situations that probably werent safe. I often walked home alone or ended up in places Id never been with no way to get home. Im incredibly lucky that nothing too awful happened as a result of these situations.

Hypersexuality As much as I am ashamed to say it, hypersexuality was one of the hypomanic symptoms I struggled with the most during my teenage years. Its one of the risky behaviours I engaged in, and it has been difficult to get past that.

Barely sleeping Coming home from parties or nights out during the early hours of the morning meant I barely slept when hypomanic.I was going to bed around 4am or 5am and even then, I was lucky if I slept for a couple of hours before I woke up again.

Many of these nights of not sleeping were the catalyst for me crashing back down into a deep depression.

I would suddenly come back down to earth' and be absolutely distraught at what I had done and the way I had been acting. Those depressions were some of the worst, and most dangerous, I have ever experienced in my life.

Restlessness I remember finding it really difficult to sit still or to engage inmy usual activities, like watching TV with my family or going for a nice day out. I always felt like I was being held down, like I needed to break free. I felt like I constantly needed to be doing something,which usually meant doing something risky, going out with friends, or going to a party.

As much as I tried to focus on education and various jobs, I found that I was entirely incapable of focusing on normal life. As hard as I tried, my mind would race ahead to other things that seemed far more important, even vital, at the time.

Spending money I didnt have I spent money I didnt have on silly things which seemed like the most important thing in the world at the time: a night out with friends, a whole host of new outfits, or a trip to visit a friend who lived far away.

Being irritable When my parents or friends couldnt keep up with how fast I was talking, or with the thoughts I was having, I became very frustrated and irritable.

When they didnt understand my actions it reminded me that I too didnt understand them and I felt increasingly alone. I often was short tempered, snappy, and harsh with those I love.

The present day: learning to release guilt and forgive myself Thankfully I now have the treatment and support that I needed when I was younger.

My hypomanic episodes are far less frequent. Im able to recognise indicators of their arrival and when I do experience hypomania, its far less severe.

I no longer struggle with hypersexuality and very rarely struggle with excessive spending or other risky behaviours. My hypomanic episodes tend to centre around racing thoughts and great ideas which I never finish even though they seem absolutely genius at the time.

I have a medication regime which works for me and the tools through therapy to manage my disorder.Acombination of an anti-depressant and mood stabiliser to be the most helpful for me, along with a sedativeto take when needed. Ihad to try a lot of different combinations and types of medication to get to where I am now . I find general talking therapy to be helpful in supporting me to address the root issues and triggers.

I have an amazing husband who helps me to manage my episodes when they do happen, and I feel so much more in control of my life. While bipolar disorder is lifelong, now that its well managed, I feel more me than I have since I was a child. Im happy and Im thriving.

As ateenager I was aware that I was acting out of character a lot of the time, but didn't know why or know that it was mental illness. Now that I know it's hypomania and I have my diagnosis, I tend to be able to feel rising.

However, once I'm actually in a hypomanic episode, I'm rarely aware that this is the case until afterwards. My husband may tell me that I'm having a hypomanic episode but, at the time, I often refuse to believe him. Sometimes I'm able to grasp that self awareness, but that's something I'm still working on.

Now I know that that time in my life wasnt my fault. I understand my behaviour back then was the result of a powerful, uncontrolled mental illness combined with a very lost young girl in immense pain. So, I have been able to forgive myself.

That period of my life is still hard to talk about and to think about, but Ive released the guilt and shame I carried with me for so long. Instead, I have replaced those negative emotions with a sense of intense pride in myself that I got through that, that I survived, and that I am here today.

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"I fell from the dizzying heights of hypomania" | MHT - Mental Health Today

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

Posted in Self-Awareness

Start slow and the rest will come – Columbia Daily Herald

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The last thing I want to do is tell someone how to live their life, even if the person just told me something outrageously stupid and unwise.

Not only is it none of my business, it isnt as if Ive carried a glowing resume of good behavior throughout my life when it comes to my personal choices. However, now is the time when how we behave will determine just how quickly things can return to normal, whatever that means anymore.

Gov. Bill Lees executive order that has kept us all cooped up at home over the past few weeks is set to expire by the end of this month. This will mean some businesses will reopen once again and well have more options to get out and do things. However, that doesnt necessarily mean we open the floodgates for a massive retail and bar-hopping free-for-all.

Even though the wise thing would probably be to stay under quarantine until rapid testing for COVID-19 is made readily available, theres only so long before doing nothing will itself make things worse. Having to weigh the publics health and safety against the states economic health is a tough conversation, because you really cant have one without the other.

Its tough to argue in favor of extending the stay-at-home order because I, for one, havent been without work like so many others (approximately 400,000 Tennesseans according to the state unemployment office), nor do I have children to feed and look after. I cant imagine what life would be like if the paychecks stopped coming in and Id have to consider either joining the unemployment line, or find a job bagging groceries or flipping burgers. Im sure Id be pretty upset too.

Whether its next week or two months from now, the choice to reopen would have always been met with uncertainty, hesitation and people like me asking, Are you sure were ready for this? I think its possible at this time to reopen, sure, but there has to be a level of finesse and self-awareness that we keep among ourselves.

One thing we cant lose sight of is why we were put under self-quarantine. It was to make the number of cases go down, give health organizations time to work on a vaccine and for the public to educate itself on the proper hygiene practices.

The reason the case numbers have gone down is because were doing the right thing by staying home and abiding by the states health recommendations. It doesnt mean its all a hoax or that the government and media are blowing it out of proportion. Its as if some people need an extra 10,000 lives lost before they get the point.

Just because things are good doesnt mean they cant get worse. If anything, now is the time when we could become the most vulnerable to the virus, when our chances of getting it are hundreds of times greater because we will be interacting on a much greater scale now.

Hopefully our time in quarantine, as well as the repeated sanitizing of surface areas and places people touch, has given us a fighting chance that this thing is all but eradicated. But thats looking at the best case scenario, not necessarily the reality of what probably is.

I think people forget that giving in because you think this is ridiculous could mean putting the lives of your loved ones, of other peoples loved ones, at risk. Im confident that most of us know well enough to keep washing their hands and to maintain distance from one another. But there is always a chance the excitement of being out among the population could overshadow the seriousness we must remain aware of.

Even if we wanted to run out and pretend the last two months didnt happen, there is a plan in place to prevent that. As announced Friday, Lees Tennessee Pledge rollout plan is designed as a gradual return to business. The plan includes restrictions on how many patrons are allowed at certain establishments, with many restaurants, bars and retail centers operating at half capacity.

Businesses which involve close contact with clients, such as barber shops, salons and tattoo parlors will remain closed until later in May. There goes my hope for a good haircut for another few weeks, but rocking a haphazard mullet is a fair trade if it means the safety of others.

The next few weeks will be interesting, and its good to be optimistic that things are going to get better, because they are. We just need to be aware that this is going to be a slow process, and jumping the gun could mean this whole thing was for naught.

On a local level, Columbia is planning its own phased re-open plan, which more or less follows Lee and the states plan to reintegrate one step at a time. If the community abides by the rules the way they have been during the quarantine, I think were going to be just fine. The local economy will still suffer, somewhat, and Im sure the news of reopening doesnt necessarily mean local businesses are out of the woods, but the plan does provide a much-needed sense of direction.

There will be a sense of hope, I think, once we start seeing people out again, are taking strolls around the square and laughing together. Personally, I look forward to the day I can revive my Friday Things to do column to inform people about all the great stuff weve got happening around town. Itll be weird at first, sure, but if theres one thing the COVID-19 quarantine has taught me, its the virtue in being patient and to take things one day at a time.

Thats the only way the good days can happen again. Its that we listen, remain self-aware and take it slow, otherwise well just wind up back at the place we started, or worse.

Jay Powell is a reporter for The Daily Herald. Contact him at jpowell@c-dh.net or follow him on Twitter @JayPowellCDH.

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Start slow and the rest will come - Columbia Daily Herald

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Never Have I Ever Review: An Emotional Roller-coaster Ride You’ll Enjoy for the Most Part – News18

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Never Have I Ever

Cast: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, Lee Rodriguez

Creators: Lang Fisher, Mindy Kaling

With Never Have I Ever, the inimitable Mindy Kaling, attempts a show for and about teenagers and does so with the aplomb of a seasoned hand. Kaling who has featured in television shows as actor, producer, writer among others puts on the creators hat once again along with co-creator Lang Fisher (The Mindy Project and 30 Rock). Only this once its for a show that does not have her facing the camera. Instead, she gives us a teenage heroine-- sophomore Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who breaks any cultural stereotypes you may have of geeky teenagers or Indian women. Devi is no demure young lady. Or a nervous geek. What we have instead is a feisty and rebellious teen who lets her temper get the better of her more often than not.

Early on in the series, we see Devi recovering from paralysis of the legs caused by the sudden and tragic loss of her father (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who she loved dearly. Her recovery, on the other hand, takes place in a delightfully comic way when she unconsciously stands up from her wheelchair while trying to get a better look at the school heartthrob Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet)! This light comedic touch consistently laces even the gravest and most difficult situations throughout Never Have I Ever and makes it shine. It also helps that the writers dont shy away from unapologetically putting the ethnic eccentricities of Indians on the table albeit with great self-awareness and a healthy dose of self-deprecating humour.

The young Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is superlative as the smart, humorous, and confident Devi. Apart from the trauma of her fathers death, there are multiple emotional issues she is grappling with and yet as a true-blue Indian American, she gets good grades, aims to go to an Ivy League University and is expected to not have a boyfriend for a long, long time. However, rather unfazed by all of this, she marches to her own beat.

Fully aware and dreading that her return to school (post-recovery) will be an object of pity, Devi has a plan to turn things around. She tells her best friends Fabiola and Eleanor (Lee Rodrigues and Ramona Young) that they all need to get themselves boyfriends to shake off the geeky, undateable tag! Devi herself tries to get attached in many ways than one to the hunky Paxton leading to the various complications that make up a large chunk of the show. Along the way, the girls make interesting discoveries--Fabiola about herself and Eleanor about her mother. Devi for one discovers that its actually her arch-nemesis Ben (Jaren Lewison) who brings out the best in her!

Another very significant character of the show is Devis mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan). Nalini personifies the tough love integral to good Indian parenting. As the suddenly-single working mother, she reads Devi the riot act every time she is out of line. Jagannathan is excellent in this role and does not miss a beat when seguing from a cordial conversation to turning into a Momzilla! She typifies the Indian American parent who constantly monitors their children's progress and lays down strict cultural Laxman Rekhas that are never meant to be crossed.

The two lead characters of Devi and Nalini are finely etched out and extremely well performed highlighting cultural idiosyncrasies and divisions with an authenticity that is rare. Additionally, for good measure, there is Devis cousin Kamla (Richa Moorjani), a smart young Indian woman primed for settling down in an arranged marriage even though shes studying for a Ph.D. at CalTech. Although she appears to be a corollary, her presence adds a multi-generational perspective that prevents the show from caricaturing its protagonists.

In fact, its a relief to see that Devi is a character that has moved away significantly from the stereotype of the confused desi living in the Land of Opportunity.

The series (all 10 episodes) tackles issues common to all teenage dramasfamily conflicts, friends, teen-sex, and boyfriends not strictly in that order. What Never Have I Ever does exceptionally well is that it steers away from being a meaningless, vapid story about a young girl finding a suitable guy to accompany her to the high school prom. In the bargain what you have is an emotional roller-coaster ride, one that you enjoy for the most part.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Never Have I Ever Review: An Emotional Roller-coaster Ride You'll Enjoy for the Most Part - News18

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Rick and Morty season 4 episode 6: more insanely meta than ever before – Metro.co.uk

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Rick And Morty is back and more meta than ever before (Picture: Warner Bros.)

Rick and Morty left us hanging when they went on a sudden hiatus back in December 2019, but they are finally returning and made sure to give us everything we wanted.

Adult Swim announced on April Fools (of course they did) that the beloved sci-fi cartoon will be returning to TV on 3 May (7 May for us in the UK).

And after a lifetime of waiting, we got to preview episode six of season four and its a whirlwind 22 minutes filled with new zany characters and a little too much self-awareness.

Each season usually consists of one episode of Interdimensional Cable (or season 3s Morty Mindblowers), where Rick and Morty watch random and completely insane sketches from parallel universes cable TV.

From Tiny Bits and Little Legs to Eyehole Man and an extremely gruesome commercial for Lucky Charms, these episodes have some seriously quotable moments.

This time, however, the concept is similar but both Rick and Morty become parts of these wacky moments all while fighting bad guys in space.

Our beloved characters are all about breaking the fourth wall and even going beyond it, which is a quirk of the show weve always loved.

What made Interdimensional Cable scenes so perfect was the simple fact that they all felt improvised and random, which is not the case this time.

The universes smartest man and his not-so-smart grandson become part of these short stories whether they like it or not and try to come up with new tales between each fight scene.

Theres no point judging how cool (or pointless) the new characters are as Rick and Morty make sure to do it for us: to their faces.

We also get to see all of Ricks former lovers and, oh jeez, theres a lot of em.

You know what else he has a lot of? Enemies, and we get to meet them too.

Its a lot to shove into one episode, but we doubt Rick cares about what we have to say.

What makes their return episode so epic is the return of basically every minor character weve seen over the last four seasons, and theyre all back with a vengeance.

Oh Geez, Rick and Morty co-producer is writing Ant-Man 3

Rick And Morty drops trailer confirming season 4 return date - this is not a drill!

Rick and Morty drop bonus episode amid coronavirus crisis ahead of season 4b

Dont bother dwelling too much about whether the script and wild scenes fit with the overarching storyline, because writers Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland (a fan of being meta and all) made sure to mention all the cheap shots that happen in the episode.

They know exactly what theyre doing, and theyll do it when they want.

So sit down, let Rick and Morty do whatever the hell they want, and enjoy.

Rick and Morty returns on 7 May at 10pm on E4.

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If youve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with theMetro.co.ukentertainment team by emailing uscelebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page wed love to hear from you.

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Rick and Morty season 4 episode 6: more insanely meta than ever before - Metro.co.uk

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April 28th, 2020 at 2:47 am

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Review: ‘Sawayama’ is musically fascinating, but falls short of greatness – The Dartmouth

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by Jack Hargrove | 4/27/20 3:00am

Every 20 years, like clockwork, American culture repeats itself. This does not mean that the same exact trends are recycled in an endless loop. Rather, after about 20 years, outdated culture becomes retro, and nostalgia for past decades shapes new styles and artwork. The 1970s had Happy Days, and the 1990s had That 70s Show. In a more abstract sense, the infatuation with the glamorous lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy in the 1980s inspired reality television and Gossip Girl in the 2000s. As we enter the 2020s, the music stylings of the early aughts are making a comeback. Artists like Charli XCX and Slayyyter evoke Britney Spears-style pop, while Poppy and Grimes both recently released music that is heavily reminiscent of nu metal.

In 2017, Rina Sawayama self-published her first collection of songs, a mini-album titled Rina. In only 24 minutes, Sawayama packed her project with eight perfect pop songs, heavily inspired by the turn-of-the-century pop music of Britney Spears and R&B production reminiscent of The Neptunes. Instead of songs about relationships, however, the songs on Rina explored themes of depression, drug addiction and an unhealthy attachment to social media. This mini-album remains one of the most exhilarating first offerings of any pop artist, and fans eagerly waited to find out what she would do next.

Nearly three years later, Sawayama has finally released her debut studio album, named simply Sawayama. On this debut, Sawayama discusses themes that revolve around her relationships with her family, both biological and chosen. Musically, Sawayama provides a fascinating pastiche of various early 2000s sounds. But while Sawayama is a fantastic debut album, it falls just short of reaching the potential implied by Rina.

The album begins dramatically, with the song Dynasty introducing one of the primary 2000s styles utilized on Sawayama: nu metal. The crunching sound of the guitars and vocal flourishes in the chorus are a clear homage to the early aughts nu metal band Evanescence. Sawayama explores nu metal much more deeply on her third track, STFU! The booming, aggressive guitar riff and low growls sound unlike anything Sawayama has released before. The angry lyrics, including, Have you ever thought about taping your big mouth shut?/Cause I have, many times, many times, compliment the harsh instrumental. Nu metal influence appears subtly across the rest of the record, particularly in the guitar line for XS.

Pop sounds from the early 2000s also feature throughout the album, although not as much as on Rina. Track six Paradisin sounds like a television theme song, with its high tempo and simple melody. The vocals on the tenth track Whos Gonna Save U Now? sound just like Christina Aguilera in 2002. The song Akasaka Sad has a synth backing instrumental that evokes the mid-2000s. However, these pop synths are combined with modern trap elements, especially in the percussion. In fact, before the chorus, Sawayama goes so far as to imitate the triplet flow, a vocal cadence associated with trap artists like Migos. Similarly, the second track XS provides a modern take on 2000s pop, this time through its lyrics. XS describes the luxury and opulence that accompany a wealthy lifestyle in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Sawayama points out the absurdity of such a lifestyle in the lines, Flex, when all thats left is immaterial/And the price we paid is unbelievable/And Im taking in as much as I can hold/Well, here are the things youll never know. Instead of playing the premise straight like was common 20 years ago, Sawayama shows ample self-awareness and draws attention to the wealth inequality in the modern world.

While the pastiche of early 2000s musical styles is brilliant, it is important to keep in mind that the instrumentals are only half of the record. Lyrically, Sawayama explores her identity and the various groups she considers family. The first of these groups is, as implied by the title of the album, her biological family. The opening track Dynasty analyzes the ways in which Sawayama has inherited the troubles of her ancestors with the line Im a dynasty/The pain in my vein is hereditary. Throughout her life, Sawayama has dealt with financial and mental health issues passed down from her parents. At the end of the chorus, Sawayama implores the listener to join her in overcoming hereditary issues, asking, Wont you break the chain with me? Sawayama references these mental health issues again in the song Akasaka Sad, singing, You make me/Akasaka sad/Cause Im a sucker, sucker, so I suffer/Akasaka Sawayama/Just like my mother.

On other tracks, Sawayama writes about her relationships with her friends. In the song Bad Friend, Sawayama wistfully reflects on how easy it is to fall out of touch with a close friend. In the chorus, she sings, Im so good at crashing in/Making sparks and shit, but then/Im a bad, Im a bad, Im a bad friend. Later, on the track Chosen Family, Sawayama shows appreciation for the support she receives from the LGBTQ community as a bisexual and pansexual woman. She notes that We dont need to be related to relate/We dont need to share genes or a surname/You are, you are/My chosen, chosen family. These non-familial relationships help support Sawayama when her family cannot.

Though most of the songs on the album have fantastic lyrics, there are a few that are bland and generic. Whos Gonna Save U Now? is a generic condemnation of those who are stuck in their ways. Sawayama makes no reference to anyone or anything specific, making this track sound out of place among all of the personal tracks on the album. While the lyrics of Love Me 4 Me are commendable both for their deeply personal nature and positive message of self-love, the overall message feels trite. Pop songs have explored this topic a thousand times over, making the song uninteresting. Finally, the track Fk This World (Interlude) expresses legitimate grievances about climate change and inequality, but lyrics like Lets start a new life on Mars/Forget it, lets get fked up are immature and unproductive.

The final track, Snakeskin, provides a thrilling conclusion to the album and may be its finest song. The varied structure not only keeps listeners on their toes but also makes this song sound unlike any others on the album. While the influence of early 2000s pop can be heard throughout, Sawayama comes into her own, creating a completely unique sound. The interpolation of a melody from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack is exactly the type of reference I expected going into Sawayama. The lyrics are also clever; Sawayama sings, Buy my expensive, exclusive, pain wear/My fine couture is your branded repayment/I tear my soul into two so that you can/P-p-p-pretend despair. Here, Sawayama expresses the discomfort she feels making commercial music out of her own painful experiences. The song ends with a recording of a conversation Sawayama had with her mother, recalling the motif of familial relationships.

Overall, songs like Snakeskin, XS, Dynasty and Akasaka Sad were what I had hoped the entire album would sound like. Every song on this album is good, but a few are more conventional than they could be for an artist with as much potential as Sawayama. Rina was as close to perfection as I have ever heard on a mini-album, and I truly believe that she will someday replicate that on a full album. Sawayama was a step in the right direction, but it is nowhere near the best record that she is capable of making.

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