Diamond Vogels 2021 Color of the Year is Dreaming of the Day (0470), a soft, blue-green that offers a relaxed, meditative feel.

Dreaming of the Day offers a harmonious feel, an awakening to a more relaxed state of mind, said Sandy Agar-Studelska, Diamond Vogel marketing manager. This muted blue-green harkens a feel of nature, clarity, and a desire for wellness and healthy living. With Dreaming of the Days color origin centered between blue and green, it offers the best of both worldsfeelings of security, trust, and safety, as well as wellness and health. After a long period of quarantine, separation, and our desire for connection, we all dream of the day we can return to family, share a direct smile, and participate more freely within our community and more fully in life.

Dreaming of the Day can easily transition between interiors and exteriors, and balances warm and cool colors effortlessly, pairing seamlessly with grays, whites, neutral earth-tones, as well as deep green, yellow, and rusty reds.

Our trend report, Comfortable, Nurturing, and Optimistic, provides 20 colors in four trend palettes providing inspiration in our search and desire to stay healthy and strong. Never have our homes been so important, said Agar- Studelska. We have learned to use and adapt them into almost every aspect of our lives. This shift shows just how resilient and creative we are. As we are staying at home, we look to create nurturing environments. Nature has been a partner in finding inspiration. In the great outdoors, we feel safe and know it is important mentally and physically to stay strong.

Pairing Dreaming of the Day with the 2021 Trend Colors offers inspiration found not just in nature but in our search and desire to stay healthy as we dream of the day, we can all be back together.

Diamond Vogel 2021 Trend Palettes:

Durability, strength, and resilience. We desire authentic experiences and relationships during a time when we have a limited ability to have them. In a modern world where it is hard to decipher between what is real or what was created for the experience, we seek the truth. Our new virtual world gives us some of our needs, but we truly need human touch and real encounters to feel strong and alive. This palette offers tender earth neutrals, warm and comforting browns, and a red that makes us feel alive. These durable colors connect us to the reality we seek.

This palette looks to the future with hope, optimism, and confidence. We crave connection and look to elevate our energy for the future. Seeking inner balance at a time when our lives are anything but balanced, this palette offers hope for what lies ahead. Soft blues, saturated greens, and deep yet comfortable neutrals offer a serene, quiet sense of purpose to help us energize for what is ahead.

Appreciating our past while embracing new ideas gives life balance and a deeper understanding. Both old and new ideas offer inspiration, strength, and harmony. Trends in sustainable products, healthy living, wellness, and positive mental attitude offer reassurance for better days ahead. Created by nature, these earth-inspired hues of greens, golds, and yellows offer an encouraging and comfortable backdrop to our lives.

Nostalgia and the desire to escape from the every day is now celebrated. Rekindled hobbies, self-learned crafts, even gardening and preparing our own meals lifts our spirits and gives us a sense of accomplishment. This eclectic palette of classic colors celebrates individualism. Apply these time-tested colors to your own space, as they are sure to deliver.

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Diamond Vogel Announces 2021 Color Of The Year, Annual 2021 Color Trend Report - Coatings World Magazine

Theres a direct correlation between a positive attitude and better relationships, superior health, and greater success.

Some studies show that personality traits like optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being.

The positive thinking that typically comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management.

A positive attitude can boost your energy, heighten your inner strength, inspire others, and garner the fortitude to meet difficult challenges.

According to research from the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking can increase your life span, decrease depression, reduce levels of distress, offer better psychological and physical well-being, and enable you to cope better during hardships and times of stress.

And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits.

Here are several ways to adopt a positive mental attitude:

Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head every day. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.

Surround yourself with positive people. Spend time with people who are positive, supportive, and who energize you. Remember, if you get too close to a drowning victim, he may take you down with him. Pick a positive person instead.

Be positive yourself. If you dont want to be surrounded by negative people, what makes you think others do? Learn to master your own thoughts.

Control your negative thinking. This can be accomplished in the following ways:

See the glass as half full rather than half empty.

Anticipate the best outcome.

Stay the middle ground. Dont view everything in extremes as either fantastic or

Consciously resist negative thinking. Be cognizant of and mentally avoid negative thinking. This will help you modify your behavior.

Be nice to yourself. Unfortunately, some people say the meanest things to themselves. If you criticize yourself long enough, youll start to believe it. This negativity can drag you down over time. It may be time to fire the critic and hire the advocate.

Set realistic, achievable goals. Theres nothing wrong with setting a high bar unless you beat yourself up for not achieving your goals. The key is to build confidence by setting realistic goals and by hitting a lot of singles rather than swinging for the fences.

Keep it in perspective. Life is all about prioritizing the things that matter most in your life and focusing your efforts in these areas. This means that trivial things that go wrong every day shouldnt get you down. Learn to address or ignore small issues and move on. Its time to sweat the big stuff.

Turn challenges into opportunities. Instead of letting challenges overwhelm you, turn them into opportunities. (Rather than hitting the wall, climb over it or go around.)

Count your blessings. Be grateful and give thanks for the special things in your life rather than taking them for granted. Some people do this by giving thanks around the dinner table, keeping a written journal, or posting one special item each day on Facebook. Remember, some of the greatest possessions in life arent material. Take every opportunity to make a wonderful new memory.

Its unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body.

Its also thought that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and dont smoke or drink alcohol in excess.

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Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference - Myjoyonline.com

Michael Bradley

In happier times: Ainsleyana Puleiata takes the ball for her St Mary's College side, before her two ACL reconstructions changed her outlook on life.

One distressing knee injury after another would be enough to crush most young athletes, but not Ainsleyana Puleiata. The rising netball and sevens star tells Suzanne McFadden how she twice overcame the mental and physical torment and now the black dress beckons.

Twelve minutes. Its a timeframe Ainsleyana Puleiata can never wipe from her memory.

Just 12 minutes was all it took to send the promising sports star into a downward spiral. A career-challenging moment the now 20-year-old breaks into tears recalling.

A thrilling young talent from Porirua, excelling in both netball and rugby, Puleiata had just pushed herself through a nine-month comeback from knee surgery, and this was her first real netball game back.

It was early last year, a pre-season match in Auckland with her champion Central Manawa side. A game of little importance.

I remember thinking, OK Im the starting wing attack, Ive worked really hard to get here, Puleiata says.

READ MORE: * Midcourt dynamo Maddy Gordon's big chance to stake claim for Silver Ferns spot * Banishing dark days, Silver Fern Erikana Pedersen changes direction * Sulu Fitzpatrick forever the student as she juggles netball and studying

On court she forgot about her left knee - no painful twinges; no hesitancy.

Twelve uneventful minutes into the game, Puleiata took a ball in the air and landed in the left-hand pocket of the court. As she put a perfectly weighted lob into her shooter, her rebuilt knee just caved in.

Crumpled on the ground, her only thought was: Please dont let it be the ACL.

An MRI scan revealed her worst fear: Puleiata had damaged the same knee twice.

Facing another season off the court and the rugby field, the Samoan teenager hit rock bottom. She doubted she had the strength to do it all over again.

But with a supportive team around her including her parents, former Silver Fern now physio Sharon Gold, and victorious Central Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie Puleiata did another 12 months of intense rehabilitation.

An athlete described as unbelievably gifted, with incredible power and strength, that team only wanted to see the best for her.

And this week, Puleiata joins the New Zealand U21 squad, in camp working towards playing the Silver Ferns in the Cadbury Series in a month's time.

Honestly I didnt expect to make it, Puleiata says. Especially after being off the court for two years. But after hearing the news I was like Oh my god, I need to get myself together! This is a big step for me.

A huge step, considering she had to learn how to walk again twice.

Monique Ford/Stuff

The St Mary's sevens team arrive home from Fukuoka, Japan as 2017 world youth champions.

The year 2017 was, mostly, an outstanding one for 17-year-old Puleiata.

She went to Japan and came home a world champion. The Year 12 student at St Marys College in Wellington a hothouse for young female athletes was part of the schools sevens rugby side who won the world youth tournament. (Also in that team were Monica Tagoai, who became a Black Fern, sisters Lyric and Dhys Faleafaga, who later played for the Black Ferns Sevens, and Renee Saviinaea, who this season played netball for the Pulse.)

Puleiata's side also won the national first XV school title, and she was named in the New Zealand sevens training squad for the 2018 Youth Olympics.

In netball, Puleiata had signed her first contract as a training partner with the Central Pulse, and starred for Central Manawa as they won the inaugural Beko League netballs second-tier championship.

At the 2017 national secondary schools netball champs, St Mary's captain Puleiata was named NZ schools player of the year recognised for her speed, agility, vision and leadership, and her respect for those around her.

Puleiata, who has three younger brothers, was shocked by her sudden rise. Id never expected to get this far in sport, she says. For primary, I went to Windley School [in eastern Porirua] where sport wasnt that big.

Her sport of choice there was basketball. I wasnt really good at it, but I just liked that I could shoot, she says. That shows how modest she is - Puleiata made the New Zealand U14 basketball team.

Around 11, she began taking netball seriously. After arriving at St Marys in Year 9, she was pulled up into the schools senior A side, coached by Pelesa Semu, now Pulse assistant coach.

One of Puleiatas strengths is mastering all three midcourt positions. Midcourt is hard on the lungs, she laughs. But I just love how creative we can be.

Shes always looked up to Silver Ferns Whitney Souness and Laura Langman, and Australian sisters Kelsey and Madi Browne.

At high school, Puleiata decided to give rugby a try. The more I got exposed to it, the more I thought I could balance the two.

A speedy wing, she was preparing to defend their Condors Sevens national title late in 2017 with her St Marys team, coached by Tuga Mativa and his All Black mate, Ardie Savea. The Rongotai College old boys arranged a training game against the Rongotai sevens on their school field.

During the game, Puleiata went to sidestep, but her foot got stuck in a pothole. As I started to turn, my upper body went but my leg stayed, she recalls.

She felt a weird click in her left knee. Off the field, she jogged and did lunges, and was convinced it was okay. She ran back on, but her left leg gave way.

Puleiata refused to let her team-mates carry her off. Hobbling to the sideline, she just wanted to go home.

An MRI scan revealed shed torn her anterior cruciate ligament and needed surgery. I was in tears, thinking why is this happening to me?, she says.

In February 2018, some of her hamstring was used to rebuild the knee. The rehab with her personal trainer Malcolm Toeaiga at Centurion Athletic Performance in Porirua was demanding, but she was driven.

A couple of weeks in my rehab stages I hated being labelled an injured player, Puleiata wrote on Instagram. I felt like an outsider among the athletes, and boy did that fire up my adrenaline. For the next nine months, I would always wake up [in the] early hours to do my knee stretches and muscle activation, I would go to the gym every day to build myself up, I would meditate every night and I would do a lot of video analysis for 273 days straight.

The hardest part, she says, was learning to walk, run and bend her knee again.

CAP

Ainsleyana Puleiata spent almost two years rehabbing in the Centurion Athletic Performance gym.

In November 2018, Puleiata was cleared to return to netball. She was named captain of the Central Manawa team for the 2019 Beko season and was again a training partner for the Pulse. Id made it back to where I wanted to be, she says.

Puleiata got a little court-time at a Pathway to Podium camp, building up players towards New Zealands defence of the 2021 World Youth Cup. Then she headed to Auckland with the Manawa team and that fateful training game that almost broke her after just 12 minutes.

I dont know how this one movement was different; Id done it so many times before, she says.

This time, she explains, her hamstring graft had torn. With her second surgery, they added a tissue graft to the side of the knee to give it more stability.

Puleiata is not alone - around 400 New Zealand netballers have ACL reconstruction surgery each year.

Research from ACC data shows theres been a 120 percent increase in the number of teenage girls in New Zealand having ACL surgery over the last decade. The game has become faster and more physical, and there are more girls playing.

Netball NZ have been proactive, developing an injury prevention programme, NetballSmart, to change how players warm up.

Understandably, Puleiata struggled to come to terms with another long stint off the court.

My mindset changed. I doubted myself. Could I do this again, take another year off? she says. I went downhill.

But with the support of her parents, Diana and Faauliuli, her trainer Toeaiga, and her new physiotherapist, Sharon Gold, Puleiata headed back to the Centurion Athletic Performance gym.

I had their voices in my head when I couldnt be the voice myself, she says.

She decided to step away from the side-lines for a while. Even on crutches, she was going to team trainings and games, but it was torturing her mentally.

There was this imbalance between my mind and my body. Mentally I was like Yo, I could do that when physically I couldnt, she says.

So I thought I should distract myself. She became a full-time student at Victoria University, studying health.

The second rehab was slower and more painful. But Gold knew it was worth nurturing Puleiata towards a netball future. Gold, nee Burridge, played 19 tests for the Silver Ferns between 1988 and 1995, and could see the abundant talent the young woman had.

We all knew we were dealing with someone special. Not just physically, but mentally with all shed been through. Everyone wanted to do something extra for her, Gold says.

Shes one of the coolest kids Ive ever dealt with. She was just so determined and disciplined, and she wasnt going to let this stop her.

Having an ACL tear, then tear again after reconstruction, isnt are, Gold explains. But in Puleiatas case, she was just so powerful.

She generates so much power and force, it put a lot of pressure on that graft, she says. We told her we cant treat you like other people because youre different.

Her strength and power was outrageous. We were taking her to levels we dont take other people because she was just pushing all the time.

As well as the most amazing mental attitude, shes unbelievably gifted. And she wasnt just going to come back, she was going to come back better. Thats an amazing attitude to have.

Gold would regularly liaise with the Pulse physio, Nikki Lynch, who would keep Pulse and NZ U21 coach Yvette McCausland-Durie updated on Puleiatas progress. Everyone was working together for the same cause, Gold says.

Puleiata also had support from another former Silver Fern, Belinda Colling her mentor through a three-year Tania Dalton Foundation scholarship. She was one of the original inductees into the foundation in 2018.

Belindas been so good to me - always checking in to see if Im doing okay, if I need help with uni, Puleiata says. Its really good to talk to someone whos been in the high performance environment, and get some tips on how I can get there too.

Supplied

Ainsleyana Puleiata on the Sky commentary bench.

The biggest lesson Puleiata learned from two ACL comebacks was patience.

I wanted to go for the 12 months recovery the second time round. I kept thinking: Im still young; there will be more opportunities. Youve got to be patient, she says.

In March, Puleiata was ready to return. For her third year running, she was contracted as a Pulse training partner, and she planned to rebuild her skills playing club netball for SMOG (St Marys Old Girls).

Then Level 4 lockdown tested her patience again. It seemed to be such bad timing, but it was actually really good, she says. My expectations and my hopes to play were suddenly taken away so I had to prep myself to adapt again and not get lazy.

Her first club game was horrible, she says, but it wasnt her knee. After 12 months of rehab I only got to play one quarter!

Her game preparation is different now - doing a full warm-up while listening to podcasts. Gold and Toeaiga have helped her build strength in her hamstrings and glutes.

Her plan, she says, is to survive this weeks U21 camp in Wellington, and hopefully play in the Cadbury Series against the Silver Ferns, the NZ Men and a New Zealand A line-up in Palmerston North next month. Then theres the World Youth Cup in December 2021. And then she might return to rugby.

McCausland-Durie is glad shes kept a close eye on Puleiatas lengthy comeback.

Shes worked so hard and been very committed to getting back to this level. Weve seen her resilience, she says.

And McCausland-Durie knows shes an amazing player. There arent many specialist wing attacks around who have continued to be wing attacks. Its really important to help her grow in that area, she says.

She plays low to the ground and can quickly change direction. She has beautiful feeding skills that come from having vision and being able to read the game. She uses a good change of pace to get where she needs to be, but makes it look easy, like she has time. Thats the mark of a great player.

Even though Puleiatas netball career is beginning all over again, shes already looking beyond it.

Ironically as a kid she wanted to be a physiotherapist, but now shes interested in the health and wellbeing of the Pasifika community.

If I can make a change not only in netball but in my career, it would have to be something that relates to Pasifika, she says. And if I could change their health status, and give everyone equal health treatment, that would be great.

I need to have something to fall back on when my netball career is over. Luckily, Im still young!

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Netball prodigy Ainsley Puleiata rebounds from injury and targets Silver Ferns - Stuff.co.nz

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - JUNE 06: Protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue on June 6, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia, amidst protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced plans to remove the statue. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images)

The citizens of Paris awoke one morning in 1792 to find the statue of Louis XV toppled and destroyed, laying in pieces on the ground of its eponymic square. France had been undergoing the early stages of what had been called by the likes of Edmund Burke and many others the most astonishing [revolution] that has hitherto happened in the world, a movement in which ancient social and political truths were challenged. Oppressive institutions that had long masked themselves in benevolence were being re-examined and overturned. Accepted truths about status, religion, and power were rejected. And iconography which had long been a symbol of the greatness of France was smashed to the ground, for its true meaning exalted the elites of an oppressive regime. This was a revolution, and it would give its name to the now reclaimed square, the Place de la Rvolution.

Despite Burkes exaltations, however, the Revolution in France was neither the first of its kind as was shown by the American Revolution in 1776 nor the last. The familiar scenes described above, though changed in setting, have resurfaced in our lives and experiences today. We have found ourselves in what I would call a New Enlightenment. Much like the great thinkers of the age Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, to name a few we have gradually unearthed, with empirical evidence and the aid of reason, fundamental problems with the way racism and classism are embedded in our national institutions. Much like those before us, we have denounced a seemingly benevolent establishment for perpetuating a status quo that preserves these deplorable biases. In this New Enlightenment we find ourselves in the midst of this renewed revolutionary process, and like Burke, we have regarded it with both awe and criticism. However, there was an important consideration Burke ignored when he published his Reflections in 1790: what would happen next.

Our position today is no different we are entering uncharted territory. As students, many of us have performed our historical duty as sources of activism and education on ideals that challenge the reigning orthodoxy. These processes are not pleasant, and they shouldnt be. As leaders of this new movement, we can only effect meaningful change if we dare challenge those who oppose us directly. This involves recognizing our harmful, prejudiced views, and holding those in power accountable for their role in perpetuating oppressive and discriminatory systems. Once we are comfortable in this role, and exercise it frequently, we are at our most powerful, but also at our most vulnerable. We run the risk of succumbing to destructive factionalism.

And this is what happened after Burkes reflections were published 1790. Two years after Burkes pamphlet came out, the Reign of Terror descended upon France, when radical Jacobins executed many Girondins once their allies for not being revolutionary enough. The former King and Queen soon followed, along with thousands others who died upon the guillotine erected in place of the statue of Louis XV. Throughout France, tens of thousands more suffered their deaths during this unfortunate year, which ended with the demise of the same Jacobins who started it, consumed by the wildfire they had unleashed and tried to tame. The cobblestones of La Rvolution were now stained with blood.

I do not mean to turn the French Revolution into some silly morality play, but to dispel the romanticism that has been built around it, and around the word revolution. We are at a turning point in which we have the potential to make so much change. The ideas we have conceived in this New Enlightenment such as the need to acknowledge and actively combat systemic racism have fueled impressive feats of activism and solidarity that have made it possible for progress to start. The work is not done, but the only way it will be fulfilled is by responsible, principled and peaceful activism. It is tempting to view caution and difference in approach as weakness. However, while caution might seem slow, brashness is outright destructive, not only endangering lives, but the integrity and credibility of our ideals.

Exercising caution does not mean we must stop the revolution. Arguably, revolutions cannot be stopped, and those who try often escalate the violence by doing so. Our sense of urgency, while fueling us, can make us derail the progress we carry in our actions. If we focus our energies on persecuting those who disagree with us on certain points like those who are less comfortable with some stances of the more left-leaning candidates we will descend upon unnecessary tangents that will delay, and eventually defeat the causes we fight for. The Jacobins feverish desire to divorce themselves from the Ancien Rgime led them to not only reject religion, but to fabricate a cult of reason and even go so far as to re-invent calendars and units of time because of their historical origins within the church. We must work to find common ground despite our differences on issues such as who to vote for or whether to vote at all and the levels of reform needed for police forces. For a revolution is not truly equitable if all perspectives within it are not respected. Radicalism within factions can only lead to a deadly circular firing squad, which will surely leave no one left to advocate.

There is no single revolution that will better the world for good. While remarkable, the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries still did not address myriad issues that now are of paramount importance. Human history is a cycle of revolutionary renewal. With every generation, our light shines upon new ideas and measures that allow us to build a happier society. We are entering another of these great cycles, and privileged with the hindsight afforded to us by historiography, we must do all we can to use that knowledge to avoid repeating the blunders of the past. Frances mistake cost it its liberty and stability for the next century, as the country reverted to despotic monarchies at least five times after the Revolution.

This does not have to be us. With every step we take toward progress, we need to ask ourselves: will this help our cause? Most of the time, as many students and activists have shown both in Princeton and beyond the answer will be yes. But it is never excessive to be cautious, for caution is the best measure against excess. Momentum is a sacred flame that can die by gradual decay, but also by rapid, uncontrollable burning, in which case it can take all of us with it. It is our duty to keep that flame burning constantly, but at a level that does not consume everything weve built, and everything we are yet to build.

The French soon realized this. In the aftermath of the revolution, the old Place Louis XV later Place de la Rvolution which had seen the advent of a world without autocrats, and borne the bloody sacrifice of revolutionaries, received a new name. The Place de la Concorde, Square of Harmony, exchanged its guillotine for a fine obelisk, a ray of light frozen in stone, that reminds us how in revolutions the path of harmony is the most enlightened.

Juan Jos Lpez Haddad is a junior in the School of Public and International Affairs from Caracas, Venezuela. He can be reached at jhaddad@princeton.edu.

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The New Enlightenment, and what it means for us - The Daily Princetonian

Well, this could get embarrassing. In the West, the word Tantra has, ahem, certain connotations. Sexual rites play a prominent role in Tantric practice, and, since the Sixties, the philosophical movement has been championed as a kind of guide to free love. The sensational subtitle of the last big Tantra exhibition, at the Hayward Gallery in 1971, gives a flavour of what I mean: The Indian Cult of Ecstasy.

Even Mick Jagger was a fan. In 1969, he asked a designer to come up with a logo for the Rolling Stones inspired by the Tantric goddess Kali. Usually, Kali appears with a bright red protruding tongue. In India, this is understood to represent her bloodthirsty appetite on the battlefield. For Jagger and the Stones, however, her lolling tongue had other, suggestive possibilities.

Nor is Jagger the only devotee of Tantra among British rock royalty. Sting has yet to live down a notorious boast about seven-hour Tantric sex sessions. Thanks to him, even mentioning the word Tantra is still likely to elicit a raised eyebrow, a snigger.

Poor old Sting: while Jagger makes the catalogue for Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, a conscientious new exhibition featuring around 130 artefacts at the British Museum, he doesnt get a look-in. I suppose thats no surprise. Its curator, Imma Ramos, wants to scrape away all the clichs that surround Tantra. (Another, still prevalent in India, is that it is a form of black magic.) Her show does contain erotic imagery: a few exhibits near the start, for instance, focus on the Tantric ritual of yoni puja (veneration of the vulva). An 11th-century sandstone temple frieze represents a man performing oral sex on an impossibly acrobatic woman. In general, though, the X-rated material is kept to a minimum. This is a serious-minded show with zero interest in titillating giggles or cheap thrills.

The opening section outlines Tantras mysterious origins. It would be a mistake to think of it as an independent religion. Rather, Tantra first emerged in India around AD 500 as a set of radical beliefs and practices communicated by sacred instructional texts. At its heart is the affirmation that all aspects of the world are manifestations of Shakti, all-pervasive divine feminine power. While adherents of other Eastern philosophies understand the world as illusory, Tantrikas (Tantric practitioners) believe that it is real, and seek enlightenment by engaging with, rather than transcending, the physical realm.

See more here:
Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution review, British Museum: this serious-minded show proves it's time we stopped tittering - Telegraph.co.uk

For ages, car dealers have stacked the deck against buyers. They've squelched competition with state laws that their lobbyists helped craft. They've fought attempts to share financial information with buyers, making negotiating unpleasant and difficult. Many of them won't even answer a simple email.

In the past decade, car dealers have haltingly, begrudgingly embraced changes in the retail landscape brought on by the internet. And that slow play would have continued but for a fat little microorganism that traveled the globe earlier this year and disrupted everything. The COVID-19 shutdowns this spring forced dealers to do something they'd been putting off: embrace technology and put buyers first.

"People's expectations changed overnight," said Larry Dominique, chairman and CEO of PSA North America, which is in the process of relaunching the Peugeot brand in the U.S. and Canada after a 30-year hiatus. People began online shopping en masse, ordering groceries, pet food, exercise gear, electronics, and even new cars. The coronavirus crisis raised awareness of what could be done remotely. "People have realized they can use these tools," Dominique said. "They know they exist, they know they work, and they know they're convenient."

Car Buying: Keeping the Dealers at a Distance

Car Buying Stories: Return to Sender

How Does Carvana Work?

Although buying a car and making a large investment will always carry some level of stress, the changing way of doing business promises to make car sales lower-pressure events compared with the past, with prices negotiated online, test drives taken alone without a pushy salesman in the passenger's seat, and financing and insurance sales taking place on the web. This new dynamic has the potential to benefit everyone, but especially women and people of color.

Car sales are steeped in decades of traditions, regulations, and hard-sell tactics. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) was founded in 1917, just nine years after Henry Ford's Model T became available to the masses. NADA's first mission was to convince lawmakers that cars were as vital to the economy as horses and should be taxed accordingly. Since then, NADA and statewide dealer lobbying groups have influenced countless laws protecting the dealers' business interests.

With that safety net in place, many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress. We've seen baby steps, like putting inventory online so people can search to see which dealership has the actual car they want. But many dealers still refuse to answer emails. Often, shoppers are punished for emailing a dealer by being relentlessly spammed. Few dealers have figured out how to make negotiating painless, except for those that do no-haggle pricing. And then there's the agony of having to meet with the back-office finance and insurance salesperson, who can eat up an hour of time trying to sell you extended warranties, anti-theft devices, and paint and fabric protection.

But earlier this year, when dealers were forced to shut everything down, they proved they could adapt quickly. Here's what changed and how it could change car buying for good.

"Many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress."

Lauren Starks has purchased three cars since the coronavirus outbreak slowed the world downtwo used and one new. For the new car, a 2020 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro, she opted to go with a dealer she already had a relationship with, because many dealers she'd emailed ignored her. Or her emails would go to an automated service and she couldn't get a real person to help. "I'm not sure which was worse," said the Greenville, South Carolina, resident. But once she connected with the dealer she'd already worked with, she was able to complete most of the process online, even the price negotiation.

This kind of buying process has been happening at upstart used-car chains for a few years. Unshackled by franchise regulations, used-car dealers have innovated quicker than new-car dealers. Carvana, for example, can sell a car online using very little human interaction. Customers can reach a sales associate if they need help, but they don't have to talk to anyone if they don't want to. No one works on commission, either, which keeps the pressure off.

Illustration by Marcos ChinCar and Driver

"Buying a car is this tremendously exciting moment in people's lives," said Ernie Garcia, CEO of Carvana. "Unfortunately, the experience of buying it sours that experience."

Dealers have often argued that they are different from other business models because they deal with trade-ins, and other retail operations don't. That process of putting a value on your trade-in is trickythe dealer is making an educated guess about what he or she can sell your car for either at auction or, more rarely, to another customer at the dealership. But for several years, it has been possible to give trade-in estimates online. The pandemic will hopefully push more dealers to embrace those tools.

When Chris Rivers of Burbank, Ohio, was buying a Jeep Cherokee this summer, all the salespeople in the showroom stayed six feet away from him, wore masks, and refused to shake hands. When it was time to go for the test drive, they tossed him the keys and let him drive off on his own. He returned and bought the SUV.

A survey by Cox Automotive showed that car buyers are craving time with vehicles but not time with pushy salespeople. Six in 10 survey respondents said they'd prefer help from dealership staff but don't want to deal with salespeople. And a Google survey conducted this spring showed that consumers ranked at-home test drives their number-one alternative to visiting a dealership.

With more sales conducted online, there's hope that discrimination in car buying will begin to fade. In 2018, the National Fair Housing Alliance released a study on car buying, comparing the experience of white people with that of non-white people. White people were given more favorable financing options, with non-white car buyers paying an average of $2663 more over the course of their loans than less qualified white people.

Trei Ceril, a Raleigh, North Carolina, resident and co-founder of a car club called Black Auto Enthusiasts, said he finds solace talking to other Black car enthusiasts about the discrimination they've faced buying cars. "But it's also depressing," he said. To help its members escape prejudice, Black Auto Enthusiasts maintains a list of dealerships owned by Black people. But, Ceril says, some folks are finding online tools just as helpful. His mom just bought a used car through CarMax, and the only interaction she had with someone in person was when she dropped off her trade-in and picked up her new vehicle. Since she did all the research on her own, there was no need to question someone else's motivation or whether they'd given her the best deal. "You take that part out of the equation; so in a way, it makes it less racist," Ceril said.

For all the change that is possible, it is also likely dealers will fall back into old habits quickly. We talked to a dozen car buyers for this story, and many who'd purchased cars since dealerships began reopening in May said it was business as usual. William Heacox of Albany, New York, bought a 2021 Kia K5 in July. "It was pretty much the same as always," he said. "The only issue I had was that they preferred you make an appointment to see a salesperson."

Dominique says he's hopeful the economic impact from the crisis will push the auto industry to reinvent itself the way he's trying to reinvent Peugeot in North America, but he's skeptical. "Our industry is like a giant black hole; there's a lot of gravity pulling you toward these business decisions that don't make sense anymore," he said.

Colin Beresford contributed to this report.

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Car Buying is Changing and All It Took Was a Pandemic: The Enlightenment - Car and Driver

Electric Jesus will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment By Noah Berlatsky Share Facebook Instagram Facebook Shop POPULAR RESEARCH

Text by Noah Berlatsky

Posted September 22, 2020

Why does God want us to make art? A film about the 80s Christian rock scene reveals fundamental truths about joy

I want to make Jesus famous! So says eager born-again teen narrator Erik (Andrew Eakle) in the new film Electric Jesus. The movie is a half-loving, half-parodic tribute to the Christian rock and metal scene of the 1980s. As such it spends a good bit of time thinking about the question of why (or whether) God wants you to make music and art. For Erik, and for many people in the scene, the answer is obvious: you make music to try to bring the word to as many people as possible. The filmmakers, though, ultimately see a different relationship between God and creativityone thats less about evangelizing, and more about joy.

Electric Jesus is directed and written by Chris White, who also provided song lyrics, and features original music from Daniel Smith, the force behind venerable indie rock collective Danielson. The fictional biopic tells the story of the quick rise and quicker fall of the teen hair metal band 316, which tours during the summer of 1986 behind its (inadvertently R-rated) single Commandos for Christ. 316 is joined on tour by young runaway bluegrass gospel singer Sarah (Shannon Hutchinson). Erik, the films narrator and the bands soundman, and a true believer in both rock and Christ.

I kind of grew up in evangelical Christian youth group culture in the 80s, White told me by phone when I interviewed him and Smith. There was a lot of encouragement to listen to Christian pop music. CPM would be the shorthand. Smith, whose father is the well-known Christian singer-songwriter Leonard Smith, grew up in a similar milieu. I think there was one year my dad made me listen to Christian music as a kind of policy. But hes a musician himself and so after taking us to Christian concerts for a year he said, Enough! This stuffs terrible.

Smith himself has made a career of performing not-terrible music, with Christian themes, that doesnt fit easily into the category of Christian rock. I didnt even want to be on a Christian label, Smith says of his first records. Danielson Famile music is idiosyncratic orchestral indie pop, with weird falsetto vocal yips and intricate Brian Wilson-esque songwriting. I would always insist that Danielson is not Christian music, he says. Its for everybody.

For Electric Jesus, though, White asked Smith to write more straightforward Christian hair metal, with power pop chord changes and catchy hooks. If you watch the movie and think, This is the worst Christian metal song Ive ever heard, but I cant stop singing it, then weve succeeded, White laughs.

Smith is eager to point out that he also got to write the music for made-up black metal band Satans Clutcha group which wears corpse paint and purportedly bites the heads off ferrets onstage. White says Satans Clutch was inspired by Jack Chicks infamous evangelical comics, which warned of the evils of sex, drugs, rock and roll, witchcraft, and secular humanism, and inevitably ended with infidels and sinners dumped into hellfire.

Smith takes as much pleasure in penning faux devils music as faux Christian music, in part because he sees all creativity as Gods work. Creativity to me is a spiritual journey, he says. A lot of times, if Im writing songs, Ill just be alone doing that and I very much feel like theres a mystical process there. So yeah, the one who creates all is still creating.

White adds that creativity is not just a connection to God, but a connection to others. Artmaking, for me, has always been the activity of friendship building and community, he tells me. Collaborating with and befriending Daniel has been part of the joy of making the movie. Its all over Christian culture, you knowthe joy of the Lord. This is, like, a three-year collaboration with Daniel, writing songs and just listening to music together and back and forth. And its complete joy.

The kids in the movie are so obsessed with evangelizing, they forgot that the gift was they got to be friends for a summer and go on the road on this strange trip. You know, thats pretty great. It might be enough for a lifetime, for some people.

Its not like Erik and 316 never have any fun though. Part of whats great about the movie is the way the kids often forget their evangelical mission, and their dreams of hitting it big and are swept up in just being teens with friends and a lot of loud music.

One of the high points of the film is an extended sequence where the teens turn on Strypers To Hell With the Devil and bounce around the room lip-syncing and air-guitaring and generally being silly. The lyrics are hair metal godly (We speak of the devil/Hes no friend of mine/To turn from him is what we have in mind!) but the point isnt to convert anyone or to make Jesus (more) famous. Its just to rock out with your buddiesthose buddies including, in this case, Sarah, 316, White, Smith, the audience, and God himself. Electric Jesus doesnt want to save you. But it does want to prove that Christian rock can have soul.

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As September creeps on, the High Holidays remind us of the sweet taste of a new year and the chance to improve ourselves for the future. Many people begin to dread the annual Yom Kippur fast 25 hours without food or water marking the promise to be a better person in the coming year. Yet I prepare for a different sort of promise a covenant with myself to begin feeding my soul and my body, to recover from the disordered eating Ive struggled with the past six years.

Since high school, Ive been lost in a cycle of bingeing and restricting, eventually leading to a year of self-correction by counting less than a thousand calories a day. I went from eating too much to eating not enough, from one side of the spectrum to the other. I was only ever too full or too empty; if I was merely satiated, I was not content. Fasting on Yom Kippur is traditionally intended to be an act of self-punishment as repentance for past sins or a quest for clear-headedness leading to enlightenment. For me, fasting on Yom Kippur will never again be about asking for repentance or seeking enlightenment, but will rather become a preparation for my real act of penitence and healing: choosing to break the fast safely.

Two years ago, I would have broken my fast by eating too much at the break fast, mentally justifying it by thinking of how I hadnt eaten all day. I would have lost all sense of control, only stopping when the embarrassment of eating so much in front of others overpowered my desire to have it all. Then I would have come home and eaten still more because I would not have felt whole until every crevice within me was filled, leaving no room for self-doubt or shame to dwell within. And thats exactly what I did for five years.

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If I had broken my fast two months ago, I would have eaten nothing at the break fast, giving in to the voice in my head telling me that if I only made it a little longer without food it would be a perfect day, with zeros on all the registers and nothing to feel guilty for. I would have reveled in the worried looks and accusatory questions of Arent you hungry? Then I would have come home and eaten still nothing because I would not have felt whole until there was too much empty space within me, opening an abyss to swallow the self-doubt and shame. And thats exactly why I lost 15 pounds this past summer.

Fasting is no longer a challenge when youve been willingly training for starvation, when being hungry has become your hobby. Hunger pangs have alternatively been white flags in the battle for my self-control and victory trumpets in a war of friendly fire. I have used them as permission to eat everything I had been restricting and I have used them as a source of twisted pride in just how much I could restrict. They have simultaneously been my salvation and my damnation, both the life vest keeping me barely buoyant and the waves calmingly pulling me under.

This year, Yom Kippur for me is about revitalization and rebirth. Our fates are sealed in the Book of Life and it is decided who will live and who will die in the new year, but I know a part of me has already died over the past six years as I have abused my body and dimmed my soul. This coming year, as I step gently into recovery, I hope the rest of me may be reborn a renaissance of body, spirit and soul, my most holy, most personal, most worthy temples.

When I break my fast this year, I will eat to satiety, sealing my promise to properly nourish my body and soul in the new year. I will enjoy the company of those around me and be thankful that I have fresh, nutritious food to eat every day. Then I will come home and maybe eat more, or maybe not, because I trust my mind and my body and I know that I have no reason to doubt myself and nothing to be ashamed of.

I have spent enough time fasting over the past six years to fill decades of Yom Kippurs. It is time for me to break my fast, once and for all.PJC

Dionna Dash, originally from Philadelphia, attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she studies communications and linguistics and serves as the vice president of Pitt Hillels student board.

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After the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, 114-106, Phil Jackson reached out to Jeanie Buss.

Jackson led the Lakers to five NBA championships when he coached the team from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011.

He knew Buss, the Lakers' governor, needed some words of encouragement to cheer her up. So he texted her a photo of him wearing a team sweatshirt with some words of wisdom.

"Knowing I was feeling a little down today Phil texted me this picture and some words of inspiration to lift my spirits," Buss wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. "He said it was ok to share the photo. 'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.' His point is stay focused on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. He said it many times over the years."

The Lakers, who have a 2-1 series lead over the Nuggets, are competing for their first championship since 2010, when Jackson led the team to their last title. Game 4 is Thursday at 6 p.m. PST on TNT.

Buss, who dated Jackson for 17 years, called the 11-time champion coach the "most influential man (outside of my family) in my life" on his 75th birthday on Sept. 17.

After receiving his note, Buss went on to try and inspire Lakers fans.

Even though the Lakers are playing inside the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World, she encouraged fans to stay just as engaged as if they were cheering for the team in person.

"But what can I do to help?" Buss asked. "Be there for the team. So Laker fans, lets bring our energy for tomorrows game, like we always do but lets be a little bit louder, a little bit more focused. Light a candle at game time. Wear something purple or gold or both. Lets be present together but socially distanced. This we can do. "

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Phil Jackson Sent Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss A Photo Of Him In A Team Sweatshirt To Cheer Her Up - Sports Illustrated

By Rosemary Bennett 21, Marketing & Communications

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded Pacific Lutheran University Professor of French Rebecca Wilkin, a $133,333 grant under the Scholarly Editions and Translations interest area.

Wilkin and her collaborator Angela Hunter, an English professor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, received the grant for their ongoing project titled An Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women.

The project aims to present the work of Enlightenment French Feminist, author, and philosopher Louise Dupin to a wide audience for the first time by translating and editing a selection of her most important political and philosophical ideas in an approachable anthology.

We are confident that our editionLouise Dupin, Work on Women: Selections will appeal to students and scholars of history, philosophy, literature, and feminist and gender studies, said Wilkin.

Wilkin became interested in Dupin in 2012 while working on a student-faculty collaborative research project with Sonja Ruud 12 who is assisting the ongoing project as a r esearch associate and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

In the Humanities, we educate students to engagecreatively, critically, and empatheticallywith what it means to be human across the sweep of history, in diverse cultures and environments.

Pacific Lutheran Universitys Departments of English, Languages & Literatures, Philosophy, and Religion comprise the Division of Humanities.

Wilkin and Ruud began assembling the Work on Women by obtaining copies of manuscript from the Municipal Library of Geneva; the Houghton Library (Harvard); the Beinecke Library (Yale); the University of Illinois Rare Books library; and from the Clark Library (UCLA). The two were joined on the project by Hunter in 2017 after Hunter and Wilkin met through their shared research subject, as the two professors were among very few scholars researching the long-neglected work of Dupin.

Making Dupins work more accessible to a new generation of students and scholars is a fantastic feeling! said Wilkin. In the humanities, we deal with subjects of universal human import, so we need to be able to explain to people what our scholarship is about and why it matters. Yet that can be hard, especially when we work on historical material or contexts people have little familiarity with.

The project, when completed, is to be published in an upcoming volume with the New Histories of Philosophy series at Oxford University Press.

The Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

The post PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was first publishing on the Pacific Lutheran University website.

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