9 June 2020

The last time you went for a walk outdoors, how engaged were you in the surroundings? Were you scrolling through social media, replying to a WhatsApp message and listening to a podcast episode, or were you truly taking in the sights, sounds and experiences around you?

What are meditation walks and why should we be doing them?

Taking a walk outdoors can work wonders for your mental and physical health during lockdown, but to truly embrace the benefits, experts say we must bring our body and minds in sync.

Known as 'walking meditation', this type of mindfulness in motion is about more than just getting from A to B. Rather, it's an opportunity to clear your mind of any internal worries, by hyper-focusing on the rhythm of your steps and tuning in to what's going on around you.

What is walking meditation?

Also know as 'kinhin', this type of peaceful practice is part of several forms of Buddhism that involve movement and periods of walking between long periods of sitting meditation.

If you struggle with traditional meditation, taking your practice outside gives you an opportunity to harness your awareness and focus on the present, rather than being distracted by internal thoughts, worries or fears.

Proponents often perform a 'body check' while walking, noticing how every area of their body feels as they move from foot to foot. Alongside this, it's important to tune into what's going on around you, whether that's passing cars in a city, or birds tweeting in the countryside.

"Taking mindful moments for yourself whilst exercising is important to help get perspective on your thinking," says Sarah Romotsky, director of healthcare partnerships at Headspace (headspace.com).

If, like many, you're struggling to focus on work at the moment, Romotsky says it's a great tool for improving your concentration and kick-starting your creative mind.

"By incorporating mindfulness into exercising, we can help ground the mind, let go of negative thoughts, and manage the mind-body connection. Regular meditation trains and re-programmes the mind to be more open and less reactive."

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Nature time Enjoying the peace, and serenity of nature is essential for keeping your mind clear. Getting in touch with nature is like a "detox" for your mind and soul. It keeps your head clear. I always leave my phone at home, and like to enjoy my own company. I use my walks as a meditation, becoming intensely alert of my surrounds, the sights, the smells the sounds. Do you enjoy your own company too? Or are you afraid of it? And for how long can you be on your own, alone with yourself, before you become uncomfortable with that "aloneness"? The thing is, when you go for a walk with a friend, you actually create even more noise to add to your already cluttered head. Conversation takes you away from nature & it's harder to notice your intuition, that inner voice that has the solutions to all of your circumstantial problems, if you're still enough to listen! Have you noticed this too? Tell me your insights ??

A post shared by BODY MIND ‍ SOUL (@door2raw) on Jun 7, 2020 at 11:48pm PDT

Alongside this, meditation can also enhance empathy, increase your attention span and help you to sleep better at night.

"It's also scientifically proven to help alleviate stress and increase happiness," Romotsky adds. "It allows you take a step back from stressful situations, pause the mind and feel better in the moment."

How can you do it at home?

Although it's called a walking meditation, Romotsky says that doesn't mean we're walking around on autopilot or with our eyes closed.

"Instead, walking meditation is mindfully walking using a meditative technique, with eyes open, and at a pace that suits you, with our attention on the immediate setting around us."

She adds: "Try meditating by focusing attention on the environment around you, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells particularly those you would not normally notice.

"Whilst moving, your attention should be focused on the act of doing and the sensations your body is experiencing. This can prevent distracting and stressful thoughts, helping you to refresh the mind, and tune into the rhythm of the body."

It's also common for people to first do a sitting meditation in a private space, using an app like Headpsace, and then take their meditative state outdoors on a walk. This is a great way to ease yourself into the practice.

"If you can't get outside right now, moving around your house, room by room , can also be an effective mode of physical and mental exercise.

"While walking around in your home, be sure to check in with your body and how it feels. Is it heavy or light, stiff or relaxed, and how are you carrying yourself? Tune into what's going on around you in your surroundings."

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What Are Meditation Walks And Why Should We Be Doing Them? - FemaleFirst.co.uk

Meditation Chime Market 2020

This report studies the Meditation Chime Market with many aspects of the industry like the market size, market status, market trends and forecast, the report also provides brief information of the competitors and the specific growth opportunities with key market drivers. Find the complete Meditation Chime Market analysis segmented by companies, region, type and applications in the report.

The major players covered in Meditation Chime Market Ehome, TreeWorks Chimes, Woodstock Wind Chimes, Czmusic, Andoer, Thy Collectibles, Stargoods, Wearika, ClearChime, Tosnail, Jive, Ammoon, Ladnis, and Yibuy

The final report will add the analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 in this report Meditation Chime industry.

Get a Free Sample Copy @ https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/sample-request/global-meditation-chime-market-professional-survey-2019-by-manufacturers-regions-countries-types-and-applications-forecast-to-2024?utm_source=3wnews&utm_medium=36

Meditation Chime Market continues to evolve and expand in terms of the number of companies, products, and applications that illustrates the growth perspectives. The report also covers the list of Product range and Applications with SWOT analysis, CAGR value, further adding the essential business analytics. Meditation Chime Market research analysis identifies the latest trends and primary factors responsible for market growth enabling the Organizations to flourish with much exposure to the markets.

Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)

Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

Research objectives:

To study and analyze the global Meditation Chime market size by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2013 to 2017, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of Meditation Chime market by identifying its various sub segments.

Focuses on the key global Meditation Chime players, to define, describe and analyze the value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years.

To analyze the Meditation Chime with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To project the size of Meditation Chime submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

The Meditation Chime Market research report completely covers the vital statistics of the capacity, production, value, cost/profit, supply/demand import/export, further divided by company and country, and by application/type for best possible updated data representation in the figures, tables, pie chart, and graphs. These data representations provide predictive data regarding the future estimations for convincing market growth. The detailed and comprehensive knowledge about our publishers makes us out of the box in case of market analysis.

Table of Contents: Meditation Chime Market

Chapter 1: Overview of Meditation Chime Market

Chapter 2: Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions

Chapter 3: Global Market Status and Forecast by Types

Chapter 4: Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry

Chapter 5: Market Driving Factor Analysis

Chapter 6: Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers

Chapter 7: Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data

Chapter 8: Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis

Chapter 9: Cost and Gross Margin Analysis

Chapter 10: Marketing Status Analysis

Chapter 11: Market Report Conclusion

Chapter 12: Research Methodology and Reference

Key questions answered in this report

What will the market size be in 2026 and what will the growth rate be?

What are the key market trends?

What is driving this market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in this market space?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?

Inquire More about This Report https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/enquiry/global-meditation-chime-market-professional-survey-2019-by-manufacturers-regions-countries-types-and-applications-forecast-to-2024?utm_source=3wnews&utm_medium=36

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Reports and Markets is not just another company in this domain but is a part of a veteran group called Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. It offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for a wide range of sectors both for the government and private agencies all across the world. The database of the company is updated on a daily basis. Our database contains a variety of industry verticals that include: Food Beverage, Automotive, Chemicals and Energy, IT & Telecom, Consumer, Healthcare, and many more. Each and every report goes through the appropriate research methodology, Checked from the professionals and analysts.

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Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Meditation Chime Market to Witness Astonishing Growth With Ehome, TreeWorks Chimes, Woodstock Wind Chimes, Czmusic,...

For many people, even before coronavirus began, meditation was a great way to try and find some balance. And now, during the pandemic, even more of us are turning to it as a coping mechanism, to help reduce stress and anxiety.

If youre keen to try, its easy to get started, say experts.

Dr Megan Jones Bell, chief science officer at mindfulness and meditation app Headspace (headspace.com) says: Overall, Headspace downloads have doubled, with certain courses seeing an increase in users of over 1000%.

With regards to specific sessions, we have recently seen ten times the number of users starting our stressed calming meditation. Specifically in the UK, this has been a six-times increase. Our reframing anxiety home workout has also had a ten-times increase in the amount of UK users trying it out.

Meditation why now?

This is an unprecedented time for all of us. As the world collectively takes steps to safeguard physical health and wellbeing, its also important to take care of our minds, says Jones Bell.

During this challenging time, its normal to feel anxious and overwhelmed. While we work from home, we can get easily distracted from tasks and feel less motivation to be productive.

By being apart from family, friends and loved ones, our relationships with others may also feel strained. This stress is also exacerbated by the anxiety we may feel about what the future holds.

Mindfulness is proven to help people better manage difficult emotions by recognising these feelings and accepting that they are transient, helping you to let them go. Dedicating just a small fraction of every day to self-care can have a huge impact on our wellbeing, relationships, sleep, focus and productivity, adds Jones Bell.

Dominique Antiglio is trained in a type of dynamic meditation called Sophrology (be-sophro.com). She explains: This is a modern type of meditation, a practice for body and mind where we combine relaxation, breathing and body awareness work.

Antiglio has found a lot of beginners are coming to join her Instagram Live guided meditations during the pandemic. She encourages people to start the day with a practice instead of going straight for your phone, try meditating instead, she adds.

Shes also a fan of adding in stretching, so youre aware of your body, and any negative emotions which you can begin to work through.

Who can do it?

Mindfulness and meditation can be practised by anyone at any age, for any amount of time they want to spend on it, even if its for as little as three minutes a day, says Jones Bell.

You can also introduce meditation to children, which helps allow them to be present in the moment and free from any external thoughts or pressures.

Where and when?

While meditation can be done any time of day, the morning can be a good time, as it helps encourage the habit of mindfulness, releases feelings of fogginess and gives the mind clarity, and sets the day up on a positive note, says Jones Bell.

If you have outside space, that can be a lovely place to meditate.

You could start with just five minutes, says Antiglio. You can meditate standing, lying down.. if you breathe properly for five minutes a day, three to four times a week, itll start to add up to a transformation in your consciousness.

Finding quiet time can be tricky at the moment for some people, Antiglio acknowledges, particularly parents at home with children. But she suggests: Even if the kids are around, you can ask them to play for a moment and take five minutes. Theyll learn from that, seeing you breathing and closing your eyes youre setting a great example.

Get started today with this breathing exercise from Headspace.

1. After finding a quiet spot, close your eyes, and focus your attention to your breath.

2. Dont alter or rush it, allow it to continue at its own rhythm and simply observe the rising and falling sensation that it creates in your body.

3. Focus on the quality of each breath, asking without judgement: Is it long or short? Deep or shallow? Fast or slow?

4. Begin silently counting each breath: 1 as you inhale, 2 as you exhale, 3 on the next inhalation and so on, up to 10. Then start again from the beginning at stage 1.

5. If your mind wanders, dont worry, thats completely normal. Notice new thoughts, but then let them go, bringing your attention back to your breath.

6. Once you have completed 10 minutes, congratulate yourself, recognising how the process made you feel.

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How meditation can help you cope during the pandemic - Enfield Independent

A woman practises yoga. Photo: Axel Schmies/Alamy Stock Photo

Chandan Padhan, yoga instructor at SwaSwara by CGH Earth, shares an asana and pranayama to help during the lockdown, for the fourth day of our series, #21DaysOfYoga. Ahead of International Yoga Day on 21 June, as many of us continue to stay indoors to help curb the pandemic, this series shares wisdom from the experts to help build a better yoga practice for all. SwaSwara, a 26-acre retreat in Gokarna, Karnataka comes with serene views of Om Beach and a blend of yoga, ayurvedic massages and activities from trekking to pottery to foster healing. Asanas, pranayama and meditation are all core yogic practices. Padhan shares an asana and pranayama below, followed by a dhyana yoga meditation led by Dr Cijith Sreedhar, Chief Medical Officer at Prakriti Shakti, Clinic of Natural Medicine by CGH Earth in Kerala.

While you are sheltering in place, practising yoga can be key to enhancing your health and well-being, as it increases vitality and appreciation of lifes wonders. Ardha Kati Chakrasana makes you supple and brings balance to the bodys energies.

Remember to breathe in, breathe out, and begin with a smile on your face.

The name Ardha Kati Chakrasana is derived from the Sanskrit words ardha meaning half; kati or waist, and chakra or wheel. We bend and form a half-wheel or half-moon posture with our arm and waist stretched fully towards the side. The arc formed in this asana relaxes both sides of the body, eases the flow of breath, removes stiffness in the thighs, hips and waist and improves flexibility. It also relieves pain in the lower back and tones your abdominal muscles, besides trimming excess fat from the waist.

Please do take some time out to engage in self-care amid the chaos and uncertainty. Daily practice helps you realise the benefits of yoga and ayurveda, which we can really use during these trying times. Follow the step-by-step guide to the half-moon pose in the video below, guided by Chandan Padhan, yoga instructor at SwaSwara, Karnataka.

In times of uncertainty, its hard to keep the mind calm. Pranayama has been practised in India for thousands of years. It uses breath to calm the mind and body, reducing stress and anxiety, and increasing vitality.

Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama, or alternate nostril breathing, has been proven to have numerous benefits ranging from improved concentration to reduced negative thoughts. It helps strengthen the lungs, improve blood circulation and maintain normal blood pressure. It also reduces the formation of free radicals and cellular injury in the body. Join SwaSwaras Chandan Padhan in the guided practice below.

When we look at traditional yoga texts, there is a clear difference between concentration and meditation, says Dr Cijith Sreedhar, Chief Medical Officer at Prakriti Shakti. The sage Patanjalis text Yoga Sutras explains the eight steps of yoga as yama (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). What is the difference between dharana and dhyana? Concentration is a single flow of thought. It is not a thoughtless state of mind; your conscious mind is active. It is helpful to reduce the mental processes from which stress arises, but it is not equal to the state of meditation, which is thoughtless. Dhyana yoga is an active process; you govern your prana and help your mind reach a thoughtless state. In this modern world, our stress is often a physiological response to our thoughts about a problem and its imagined dangers. We need to reverse that physiological arousal and calm your body, which can be attained only by avoiding unnecessary thoughts. Remember that the body can heal itself only when you are relaxed. We developed this method of meditation by understanding the real concept as per traditional yoga. Once you learn the technique, you can practise it regularly and gradually improve the feeling of thoughtlessness everyday.

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21 Days of Yoga: The asana, pranayama and meditation that will help you through the lockdown - Cond Nast Traveller India

Lead story - The future of hands-free commerce - is COVID-19 the catalyst?

MyPOV: Overseas travelers to the U.S. have noted that the U.S. is taking its sweet @ss time not exactly out in front on contactless commerce. But is that finally changing? As Chris notes in Is COVID-19 the catalyst for tapping into a contactless payment revolution in the US?:

In contrast, figures out this week in the U.K. from U.K. Finance... revealed that 80% of people made a contactless purchase in 2019, up from 69% the year before. That is, of course, pre COVID-19, which is likely to prompt a further uptick.

Industry giants see an opening. Stuart picks the story up in Tracking contactless - how Visa and Mastercard are planning for a COVID-19 bump for hands-free digital commerce. Health needs and CX converge:

Leaving the public health implications to one side, a shift to contactless tech also provides financial services providers and retail merchants with a better customer experience.

But a so-called "contactless revolution" can widen the digital divide - not exactly the type of tension we need in the U.S. right now. Chris puts it well:

The challenge remains the extent to which digitally-excluded customers and the unbanked may find themselves living in a cashless society by default, perhaps locked out from being able to pay for some goods and services.

There are potential solutions to these problems, e.g. contactless payment cards bought with cash. As with most things tech, a good rollout calls for a thoughtful design.

Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. It was a news blowout from collaboration economy darlings, each with their dilemmas and upsides:

Meanwhile, Derek's ServiceNow Knowledge 2020 coverage caravan rolls out, with the fun of a sit-down with quote machine and CEO Bill McDermott:

A couple more vendor picks, without the quotables:

Jon's grab bag - Neil examines the regulatory resistance to telemedicine in Telemedicine adoption amidst a pandemic - can we overcome the barriers?. Sooraj documents how a company avoided ransomeware by taking a wake-up call to heart in Aston Martin CIO - WannaCry pushed us into a cyber security refresh.

Guest contributor Simon Griffiths shares How to re-engineer business processes in uncertain times. Uncle Den opens up the digi-kimono, and details how (not) to make your core team nuts to deliver platform upgrades in record time in How not to drive users and developers crazy.

Genuine change is about action, not platitudes or P.R. festivals. Ergo, I enjoyed Jason Corsello's Diversity & The Future of Work We Can No Longer Sit on the Sidelines! Corsello has a similar ax to grind, and wants to see companies push for corporate change as well:

As leaders of people and organizations, those same executives can stand up to racism by the examples they create in their own companies.

Where to get started? That can be an excuse or a legit area of question. To counter this, Corsello runs through ten action steps, from addressing pay inequity to rolling out mentoring programs, a la Slack's "Rising Tides" for diverse, emerging leaders. I doubt any organization could give themselves a solid grade on all ten - including diginomica. We all have work to do, but it's the right work.

Honorable mention

Speaking of incredibly exciting developments in A.I. respect for the bruising lessons of tech history, I got a kick out of this weekend's discovery:

But hey, there's good news: A.I. has come a long way from 1972, making our workplaces so much better:

Speaking of the future, McKinsey got way ahead of themselves with this extravagant headline:

Without doubt, the most concerning whiff of the week: The May jobs report had 'misclassification error' that made the unemployment rate look lower than it is. Here's what happened. Thankfully, even after the three percentage point error, the news was still better than expected, but that's a market whopper nonetheless.

I need to leave you with a lighter headline than that. How about Bill Would Prevent the President from Nuking Hurricanes.

Not quite light enough? Okay, I'll revert to animals. How about this video of a pet cockatoo strenuously objecting, in many languages known and unknown, about a pending trip to the vet? See if that doesn't put a smile on your Monday. Catch you next time...

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.

Continued here:

Enterprise hits and misses - contactless payments on the rise, equality on the corporate agenda, and Zoom and Slack in review - Diginomica

Sanctuary and serenity Mazandaran province, in northern Iran. Photograph: Angelo Andreas Zinna/Alamy

Revolutionary Guards pull a family off the road to check for forbidden items in their silver Buick; they find neither alcohol nor music but Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude. After passing the copy around, they conclude that politically, it was not a dangerous book. The censors have been less forgiving of Shokoofeh Azars first novel for adults, which was banned in Iran, though many copies have been printed underground. It is now on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker prize a first for fiction translated from Farsi.

As signalled by the nod to Garca Mrquez, the novel applies magic realism with a Persian twist to Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979, focusing on one family destroyed by the upheaval. It opens in 1988 as a mothers grief-driven epiphany at the top of a greengage plum tree coincides with the execution of her son, hanged without trial and dumped in a mass grave in the deserts south of Tehran one of fifteen thousand people killed for their political beliefs in the 1980s, alone.

The youths 13-year-old sister Bahar had burned to death in a cellar when zealots stormed the family home in Tehran a mansion filled with Persian poetry, tar music and an uncensored library, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sadegh Hedayats modern classic The Blind Owl. It is ostensibly the dead girls ghost who narrates how her bereaved parents, Reza and Hushang, her sister Beeta and brother Sohrab, sought sanctuary and serenity in the ancient forests of Mazandaran in northern Iran. As four guards and a mullah pursue them, Sohrab is removed in handcuffs, Reza abandons their forest home, and Beeta, grappling with delusions, morphs into a mermaid in the Caspian sea.

Azar deploys dreams and Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a civilisation devouring itself

Footnotes proliferate: Azar deploys dreams and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a revolutions decay and a civilisation devouring itself. The insatiable eight-year Iran-Iraq war, stoked with the flesh of child mine-sweepers, is poignantly evoked through orphan mothers who bury their sons with the small golden bells that are tied around childrens ankles so they wouldnt get lost. In a supernatural revenge fantasy, these ranks of cannon fodder join forces with the disappeared to vanquish the stonily arrogant Ayatollah Khomeini in his subterranean palace of mirrors, his corpse emitting the same stench that all dictators secrete in the end.

Some playful prose, as when Reza and a blue-eyed Italian backpacker find themselves high upon the enlightenment of love, suggests a Farsi Isabel Allende. But the main problem is an ill-conceived, and poorly controlled, teenage narrative (I was nothing but a delusional dead person) more reminiscent of magic realisms New Age spinoff a cloying genre that went global in the 1990s with novels such as Chitra Banerjee Divakarunis The Mistress of Spices. The plot itself suffers from blind alleys (an irrelevant treasure trunk); a premature climax (Khomeinis early nemesis); and a limp ending.

The author, who sought political asylum in Australia in 2011, has said she wrote the novel primarily for western readers. But, despite a catalogue of appalling events, we learn surprisingly little of the history behind the revolution. The shahs Literacy Corps is mentioned, but not his secret police. In place of the historical forces at work in Garca Mrquezs fiction, we have national myth. Bahars immolation is likened to the Arab conquest of Persia, when Islam ousted Zoroastrianism around the seventh century. The family persist in referring to this modern orgy of book burning and killing as the Arab invasion: They came and burnt, plundered, and killed. Just like 1,400 years ago.

The US-based translator, whose name the UK publishers have withheld for reasons of safety and at the translators request, has made a good job of sections. But, too often, it reads like a draft, tripping up the reader. Consider this description of a treehouse: It had a window facing the sunrise and a door facing its setting the suns setting, that is. Or this: Life is precisely that which she and others were prodigiously killing the moment itself.

In the most convincing section, set decades after the revolution, the bereaved father passes morality police and chador-clad women in Tehran, feeling alien in his own country. Detained, he writes a record of his life, investing desperate hope in the power of the imagination to transport him from the stale minds of his captors. Few would quarrel with such a sentiment. Yet to overlook the books flaws risks what South African writers under apartheid, eager for a robust critical response to their art, memorably scorned as solidarity criticism. It would also be regrettable if the claims made for this ambitious but uneven novel deterred even a few readers from venturing further into Farsi literature.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous, is published by Europa Editions (RRP 13.99). To order a copy go toguardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree review magic realism in Iran - The Guardian

Cheese curds are a typical Wisconsin food.(Photo: Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc.)

A true cheesehead knows more than how to identify fresh curds.Any cheese amateurcan squeak the squeak if the cheese curd is fresh.

The path to full cheesehead enlightenment begins with knowledge beyond the curd. Here are 10 Wisconsin cheese facts to begin your journey.

Curd color:Most cheese fanatics know cheese curds are fresh globs of cheddar and should squeak when eaten. True cheeseheads know the difference between white and orange-yellow curds is the addition of a dye made fromannatto seed.

Best fried curds: Two recent efforts declared two different Wisconsin restaurants the deep-fried cheese curd champion. One reportsthe best curds are at Stone Arch Brewpub in Appleton; the other says head to The Old Fashioned in Madison. If you scoffat any list that doesn't begin with "your" cheese curd destination, add a stamp to your cheesehead passport.

True Sconnie cheeses: Curds are undeniably a Wisconsin cheese specialty. It doesn't take a cheese detective to connect Colby to its origins in Colby, Wisconsin. The cheese history buff knows that in 1877 John Jossi started using bricks to press a new cheese known today as, well, brick. Working in Limburger cheese plants led Jossi to use acurd for brick cheese that was drier than Limburger with lower levels of the bacterium linens used to rub the outer rind to develop the flavor.

Limburger loner:Speaking of Limburger, every hunk of thischeesemadein the United States comes from Wisconsin. We can all thank the Chalet Cheese Cooperative near Monroe for keeping stores stocked with this formerly popular but still odorous cheese.

String perfection:Baker Cheese produces nearly 3 million string cheese sticks per day. The St. Cloud-based cheesemaker is a specialist tapped by companies to make string cheese wrapped in their brand name. Almost 90% of the string cheese produced here is private label shipping out to all50 states, Mexico, South Korea and other countries.

Cheddar by age:You don't have to be a cheese genius to know cheddar gets sharper as it ages. Memorize this chart to earn a stamp on your true cheesehead card.

Lots of mozz: Cheddar and curds get lots of love but neither is the big cheese when it comes to Wisconsin production. One third of all Wisconsin cheese made in 2018 was mozzarella. Cheddar was a close second at 20.9%.

U.S. quantity champs:Wisconsin cheesemakers produced 3.36 billion pounds in 2019, which is 26% of the nations cheese.

U.S. quality champs:Wisconsin cheesemakers won the most medals at the 2019 United States Championship Cheese Contest, including 57 best of class awards.

Level up your status:If you want to improve your cheesehead status, stock your fridge with the best Wisconsin made cheeses. Here are the top scored Wisconsin made cheeses at each of the biannualUnited States Championship Cheese Contest. (* indicates overall champion)

Grand master cheeseheads maybegrudgingly offer a tip of theircheese wedge foam hats to anyone whoseexpertise is limited by the knowledge put forth here. Be patient young curdsqueaker, the journey of the full cheese enlightenment begins with a single bite.

Contact Daniel at (920) 996-7214or dphiggin@gannett.com. Follow himon Twitter and Instagram at @HigginsEats.

More: This recipe found on a can of Del Monte corn makes a super easy and surprisingly tasty taco pizza

More: Should you parboil brats? Nope. And science can tell you why.

More: Higgins Eats ingestigative report: These seven frozen pizzas have surprisingly distinct flavor profiles

Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Subscribe to a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin site today with one of our special offers and support local journalism.

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10 slices of Wisconsin cheese wisdom a true cheesehead should know - Green Bay Press Gazette

Elle Fanning in The Great, Hailee Steinfeld in Dickinson and Elisabeth Moss in Shirley. Composite: Hulu/Apple TV+/Sundance/AP

It is a point in favor of TVs sprawling proliferation that one gets, in the course of a year, both a lush, serious historical drama starring Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great on HBO, and its tonal opposite, Hulus raucous, gleefully brutal The Great, which puts an asterisk right on the title card: An Occasionally True Story. The Great, developed by Tony McNamara, the writer of absurd court send-up The Favourite,cares little for the historical accuracy of the 18th-century Russian monarch. Its Catherine (Elle Fanning) arrives in the backward, hedonistic Russian court as a naive 19-year-old bride in 1761. The real Catherine was 35 and a mother by then, but thats fine free from the constraints of biography or pedantic seriousness, The Greats occasional truth delivers, ironically, a more lasting impression of a real, flesh and blood princess one slowly but determinedly amassing power, enlightened but ambitious to rule.

Its a counterintuitive and refreshing insight the show shares not only with its clear predecessors The Favourite and Sofia Coppolas 2006 film Marie Antoinette but with other recent historical-ish content such as Apple TVs Dickinson, or the new film Shirley. In these absurd, anachronistic or downright fictional depictions of oft-biographied historical figures women frequently defined against the restrictions of their period it turns out that the farther one strays from the record, the more clear and accessible the window into their character.

Take, for example, one of the most effective highlights of The Great: 19-year-old Catherine, cinched in a corset and petticoat, silk shoes squelching in mud, arrives on a battlefield intending to cheer the soldiers with a flushed smile and a box of pastel macaroons. But the bloodied man she meets has lost his fingers and cant grasp the cookie. Ill just pop it in your mouth, Catherine attempts, baffled and floundering. Its pistachio, if thats helpful.

The scene is comically rich for its obscene clash of opulence and suffering the ludicrous macaroon box, the farce that is Catherines sincere scheme to appear helpful. Never mind that the real Catherine was a palace veteran by then, or that cream macaroons were invented in the 1930s. The historical record is absolutely beside the point; the shows razor-sharp reveal is in Catherines laughable naivety, in the archly callous disregard of life, the clash of aloof power with Enlightenment ideals. The real Catherine was, indeed, absorbed by Enlightenment thinkers and a voracious reader who nonetheless consolidated power, a point conveyed with a highly anachronistic FUCK!!!! as she tosses the silly macaroons out of her carriage window on the ride home. Russia cannot continue on this path! she exclaims, a one-stop line of self-serving earnestness.

The Great, like The Favourite, relishes the timeless comedy of bodily messes (the macaroon episode is called Blood and Vomit). A splotchy rash which blooms across Catherines chest becomes its own punchline; Fannings flushes as she errs or storms off feel like characters of their own. The performance draws viewers in; its easy to recall your own storms of emotion in watching Catherine traverse disappointment and ambition even if her naivety is a fiction within an absurd court farce.

Theres a similar drive for relatability underscoring Dickinson, Apple TVs riff on the life of American poet Emily Dickinson, which fills a loose sketch of her biography with half-ironic #feminism one-liners, swearing and a death fantasy starring rapper Wiz Khalifa. The series, developed by Alena Smith, takes some inspiration from the show Drunk History, in which the past becomes sweetly, hilariously companionable through boozy retellings dubbed over celebrity actors. The real Emily Dickinson was an introvert who rarely published in her lifetime; privately, her poetry experimented with form, the better to capture waves in the storm of ones mind. TV Dickinson manifests that creative radicalism externally, dispensing with the poets longstanding public persona shy, reclusive in favor of candid, barbed ambition.

As played by the excellent Hailee Steinfeld, to varying effect (I didnt initially love the show, which felt half-baked in parts, but have warmed to it in later episodes), this Dickinson maintains an affair with her brothers fiancee, calls bullshit on doing chores and manipulates a crush into publishing her poetry. Confronted with a no-girls-allowed rule for science demonstrations at the local college, Emily translates the eras subtext plainly: Maybe theyre so scared that if they teach us how the world works well figure out a way how to take over. Its a weirdly entertaining send-up of the real societal limitations facing Dickinson, giving real talent and ambition, however unarticulated or thwarted or quiet, room to breathe and flaunt.

Dispensing with the facts entirely can be more evocative of said talent, as demonstrated by Shirley, released on-demand this week in the US (its theatrical run scrapped by Covid), a film which rejects the biopic entirely for a fiction mirroring the work of its protagonist, the mid-century horror writer Shirley Jackson. The film, directed by Josephine Decker and based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, takes real-life inspirations for Jacksons work her agoraphobia, her emotionally abusive but co-dependent marriage, her imposing house in Vermont as material for a psychodrama in which a younger couple staying as guests, and the womens hold on reality, combusts under the Jackson roof. The film aims not for accuracy but instead to drop the viewer into a Jackson story, which does far more to dig into the truth of her genius, and to honor her work excavating the ghoulish, terrifying depths of womens insecurities and mental prisons, than any by-the-numbers portrait ever could.

Though in an entirely different register than the two comic series, Shirley presents perhaps the best example of liberated fictions potential as the most effective female biopic. A lifes recounting bound to fact would necessarily focus on constraint, struggle or the negotiation of image and ambition in a mans world. Instead, Shirley centers the authors artistic brilliance, Dickinson revels in the poets real creative confidence, The Great trickily extricates the contradictions of the Enlightened despots position. Its not fact, per se, but whos to say thats not closer to the truth?

Dickinson is now available on Apple TV+, The Great is on Hulu in the US with a UK date to follow and Shirley is released on 5 June digitally and on Hulu in the US with a UK date also to follow

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History remixed: the rise of the anachronistic female lead - The Guardian

Siddhivinayak Temple Mumbai live Tuesday darshan details

The Siddhinivayak temple in Mumbai's Prabhadevi region is one of the most famous shrines in the country. Those who visit the city for the first time, do pay obeisance to Siddhivinayak, the 'lord who fulfills wishes' or the 'lord of enlightenment' or the 'enlightened one.'

Tuesdays or mangalvar are generally meant for worshipping Mangal Moorti Ganpati Bappa. He is called Sukh Karta (giver of happiness) and Dukh Harta (remover of sorrow). Therefore, he is Mangal, meaning auspicious. Devotees usually walk barefoot from their homes on Tuesdays to take the first darshan of Bappa in the morning. It is believed that people's wishes get fulfilled, and therefore, Siddhivinayak is considered as the one who grants people's desires. Devotees pay a visit to Bappa before asking for a wish and after it gets fulfilled too.

The idol of Siddhivinayak is unlike the other Ganesha idols. Here, Bappa looks resplendent in red, has the third eye on the forehead, four hands and the trunk titled towards the right. This is a rare sight because most of the idols elsewhere have his trunk inclined towards the left. Siddhivinayak Bappa holds a lotus, an axe, ajapmala(garland of sacred beads) and a modak in the upper right, upper left hands, lower right hand, and lower left hand respectively. Goddesses Riddhi and Siddhi are seen seated on either side.

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The Siddhivinayak shrine is one of the most visited temples in the country. Thousands flock the temple throughout the week, but Tuesdays are considered more special. The temple is presently not open to the public owing to the lockdown implemented to contain the spread of coronavirus. However, you can take a virtual Darshan of Ganpati Bappa.

You may click this link for the LIVE darshan. http://www.siddhivinayak.org/virtual_darshan.asp

Tuesday's special (early morning Shree Darshan) - 3.15 AM to 4.45 AM

Kakad Aarti and early morning puja- 5.00 AM to 5.30 AM

Shree Darshan - 5.30 AM to 12.15 PM

Naivedhya -12.15 PM to 12.30 PM

Shree Darshan - 12.30 PM to 8.45 PM

Aarti - 9.30 PM to 10.00 PM

Shejaarti (final aarti of the day) - 12.00 AM

Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal Moorti Morya.

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Siddhivinayak Temple Mumbai yet to open; check out aarti timings, other details and where to watch it live - Times Now

Mahershala Ali and Ramy Youssef in Ramy season two. Photograph: Hulu

Ramy, a sharp, POV-based comedy by Muslim-American Ramy Youssef, was one of 2019s most original and promising new shows. The joint Hulu/A24 production spent most of its 10-episode first season upending, with a wink and plenty of heart, both the audience expectations of idiosyncrasies within a Muslim family in New Jersey, and the protagonists bumbling attempts to live a more spiritually enlightened life.

The first season was a boon for critics an underrepresented perspective, daring, underseen, worthy of a major Golden Globe win but its second season, which premiered last week, lifts it to a must-see: an ambitious, contradictory and refractive exploration of one mans sisyphean trek toward meaning and spirituality in a deeply profane, messy and sometimes wondrous world. And, more pointedly for viewers in the fractious summer of 2020: a portrait of the many ways self-improvement turns self-serving, apologies mask as empty pleas for absolution, and enlightenment serves as exploitation of another.

Ramy is a contradictory character, a spiritual jester attuned to both Friday prayers and Friday night Im like at both. I wanna pray, I wanna go to the party, and Im breaking some rules, Im following others, he tells his cousin in Egypt in one of his many attempts to justify spinning his wheels.In the first seasons final two transfixing episodes, Ramy travels to Egypt, a country he has romanticized but not visited in years, in search of a magic clarity pill on who to be, but instead of a Muslim panacea finds a real country of complicated people naively Trump-supporting relatives, alcohol. His one moment of communal release and transcendence, at a Sufi center in Cairo, manifests as an attraction to his cousin.

For its second season, Ramy recruits two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali to play a Sufi sheikh leading a mixed congregation at an adapted church picketed by Islamophobic locals. Reeling from his problematic tryst in Egypt, called out by his friends for skipping prayers and masturbating too much, Ramy seeks the sheikhs mentorship with the energy of a skittish puppy dog. I feel like I have this hole inside of me thats always been there, this kind of emptiness, and Im always trying to fill it with something, he unspools to the sheikh. His comedy lies in small justifications and mundane excuses he had sex with a married woman during Ramadan, but I just want you to know, he reassures, that it was during eating hours. Ramys intent seems straightforward enough: to kill the ego. But the application proves harder, the glitch of the whole season. Ramy commits to honesty, then dodges the truth on the last time he masturbated with a technicality.

Ramys enduring at times, too enduring passivity in the face of consequences defines the whole second season, which like the first contains several side-character capsules in which he disappears entirely (Hiam Abbass, as his brittle yet deeply sympathetic mother Maysa, once again delivers a standout turn). The sophomore outings 10 episodes are darker and more damning of Ramys self-justifying antics each thrust into the journey of enlightenment, leavened by good intentions and his flirtatious charm, only digs deeper into a mountain of self-obfuscating deflection and deception. (Im sorry, I feel like this is all my fault, is one of his fallbacks, guilt relief masked as a probing apology). His recruitment of an Iraq war veteran struggling with PTSD to the Sufi center models being a good Muslim, but ultimately serves more to impress the sheikh; likewise with his attempt to amend for his disastrous outreach with a fever-dream fundraising trip to a rich Emiratis Connecticut estate.

But the most egregious deception is his earnestly enacted delusion that hes in love with the sheikhs daughter, Zainab (MaameYaa Boafo), a wary, if underwritten, spitfire deeply committed to her faith, including saving oneself for marriage. The relationship goes (stop here to avoid spoilers) foreseeably awry, and when Ramy wakes to an empty marriage bed, hes greeted with the sheikhs death stare. The scene is a masterclass in flailing appeals to likability filling a bottomless hole of deferred personal responsibility; swaddled in a sheet as if an overgrown, diapered toddler, Ramy pleads before the sheikh for unearned forgiveness, for an explanation, for opportunity as a place to grow from. Under pressure, guilt-ridden and exposed, Ramy mistakes using someone as reciprocity. The rest of the world exists so you can reflect on it and perfect yourself, is that it? responds the barely composed shiekh. Fuck you, Ramy you little fuck, you little fucking boy. You hurt people.

Ramys second season dropped on 29 May, as protests over the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and of racist police brutality in the United States erupted across the country. Obviously, the show was not made in that context and, of course, it is a show firmly rooted in one mans perspective of Islam and his self-serving attempts to adhere to it but, as a white person, its hard not to view the characters unworked attempts at introspection and their resulting damage in the second season as depressingly timely. In the past week, white people across the country belatedly woke up to systemic racism with a series of, often, performative posts, barrages to black people asking for educational resources and well-meaning but silent black tiles crowding out critical space on the Black Lives Matter hashtag (I am not exempt from this).

To be clear, Ramy is a brilliant show for many reasons, especially the space devoted to its female and middle-aged characters; nor is the new season unimpeachable (see: acapsule episode for his sister Dena (May Calamawy), which does little to expand her character beyond the first season). But perhaps the most potent insight in this second season is the leads amenable but pathological defiance of personal responsibility, his well-meaning and winsome brew of good intentions and self-obsession. Ramys perspective might be hyperspecific, but that complex is not.

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Ramy: the smartest, darkest TV comedy that you're not watching - The Guardian