The coronavirus is proving that we have to move faster in identifying and mitigating epidemics before they become pandemics because, in todays global world, viruses spread much faster, further, and more frequently than ever before.

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, its that while our ability to identify and treat pandemics has improved greatly since the outbreak of the Spanish Flu in 1918, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Over the past few decades, weve taken huge strides to improve quick detection capabilities. It took a mere 12 days to map the outer spike protein of the COVID-19 virus using new techniques. In the 1980s, a similar structural analysis for HIV took four years.

But developing a cure or vaccine still takes a long time and involves such high costs that big pharma doesnt always have incentive to try.

Drug discovery entrepreneur Prof. Noor Shaker posited that Whenever a disease is identified, a new journey into the chemical space starts seeking a medicine that could become useful in contending diseases. The journey takes approximately 15 years and costs $2.6 billion, and starts with a process to filter millions of molecules to identify the promising hundreds with high potential to become medicines. Around 99% of selected leads fail later in the process due to inaccurate prediction of behavior and the limited pool from which they were sampled.

Prof. Shaker highlights one of the main problems with our current drug discovery process: The development of pharmaceuticals is highly empirical. Molecules are made and then tested, without being able to accurately predict performance beforehand. The testing process itself is long, tedious, cumbersome, and may not predict future complications that will surface only when the molecule is deployed at scale, further eroding the cost/benefit ratio of the field. And while AI/ML tools are already being developed and implemented to optimize certain processes, theres a limit to their efficiency at key tasks in the process.

Ideally, a great way to cut down the time and cost would be to transfer the discovery and testing from the expensive and time-inefficient laboratory process (in-vitro) we utilize today, to computer simulations (in-silico). Databases of molecules are already available to us today. If we had infinite computing power we could simply scan these databases and calculate whether each molecule could serve as a cure or vaccine to the COVID-19 virus. We would simply input our factors into the simulation and screen the chemical space for a solution to our problem.

In principle, this is possible. After all, chemical structures can be measured, and the laws of physics governing chemistry are well known. However, as the great British physicist Paul Dirac observed: The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble.

In other words, we simply dont have the computing power to solve the equations, and if we stick to classical computers we never will.

This is a bit of a simplification, but the fundamental problem of chemistry is to figure out where electrons sit inside a molecule and calculate the total energy of such a configuration. With this data, one could calculate the properties of a molecule and predict its behavior. Accurate calculations of these properties will allow the screening of molecular databases for compounds that exhibit particular functions, such as a drug molecule that is able to attach to the coronavirus spike and attack it. Essentially, if we could use a computer to accurately calculate the properties of a molecule and predict its behavior in a given situation, it would speed up the process of identifying a cure and improve its efficiency.

Why are quantum computers much better than classical computers at simulating molecules?

Electrons spread out over the molecule in a strongly correlated fashion, and the characteristics of each electron depend greatly on those of its neighbors. These quantum correlations (or entanglement) are at the heart of the quantum theory and make simulating electrons with a classical computer very tricky.

The electrons of the COVID-19 virus, for example, must be treated in general as being part of a single entity having many degrees of freedom, and the description of this ensemble cannot be divided into the sum of its individual, distinguishable electrons. The electrons, due to their strong correlations, have lost their individuality and must be treated as a whole. So to solve the equations, you need to take into account all of the electrons simultaneously. Although classical computers can in principle simulate such molecules, every multi-electron configuration must be stored in memory separately.

Lets say you have a molecule with only 10 electrons (forget the rest of the atom for now), and each electron can be in two different positions within the molecule. Essentially, you have 2^10=1024 different configurations to keep track of rather just 10 electrons which would have been the case if the electrons were individual, distinguishable entities. Youd need 1024 classical bits to store the state of this molecule. Quantum computers, on the other hand, have quantum bits (qubits), which can be made to strongly correlate with one another in the same way electrons within molecules do. So in principle, you would need only about 10 such qubits to represent the strongly correlated electrons in this model system.

The exponentially large parameter space of electron configurations in molecules is exactly the space qubits naturally occupy. Thus, qubits are much more adapted to the simulation of quantum phenomena. This scaling difference between classical and quantum computation gets very big very quickly. For instance, simulating penicillin, a molecule with 41 atoms (and many more electrons) will require 10^86 classical bits, or more bits than the number of atoms in the universe. With a quantum computer, you would only need about 286 qubits. This is still far more qubits than we have today, but certainly a more reasonable and achievable number. The COVID-19 virus outer spike protein, for comparison, contains many thousands of atoms and is thus completely intractable for classical computation. The size of proteins makes them intractable to classical simulation with any degree of accuracy even on todays most powerful supercomputers. Chemists and pharma companies do simulate molecules with supercomputers (albeit not as large as the proteins), but they must resort to making very rough molecule models that dont capture the details a full simulation would, leading to large errors in estimation.

It might take several decades until a sufficiently large quantum computer capable of simulating molecules as large as proteins will emerge. But when such a computer is available, it will mean a complete revolution in the way the pharma and the chemical industries operate.

The holy grail end-to-end in-silico drug discovery involves evaluating and breaking down the entire chemical structures of the virus and the cure.

The continued development of quantum computers, if successful, will allow for end-to-end in-silico drug discovery and the discovery of procedures to fabricate the drug. Several decades from now, with the right technology in place, we could move the entire process into a computer simulation, allowing us to reach results with amazing speed. Computer simulations could eliminate 99.9% of false leads in a fraction of the time it now takes with in-vitro methods. With the appearance of a new epidemic, scientists could identify and develop a potential vaccine/drug in a matter of days.

The bottleneck for drug development would then move from drug discovery to the human testing phases including toxicity and other safety tests. Eventually, even these last stage tests could potentially be expedited with the help of a large scale quantum computer, but that would require an even greater level of quantum computing than described here. Tests at this level would require a quantum computer with enough power to contain a simulation of the human body (or part thereof) that will screen candidate compounds and simulate their impact on the human body.

Achieving all of these dreams will demand a continuous investment into the development of quantum computing as a technology. As Prof. Shohini Ghose said in her 2018 Ted Talk: You cannot build a light bulb by building better and better candles. A light bulb is a different technology based on a deeper scientific understanding. Todays computers are marvels of modern technology and will continue to improve as we move forward. However, we will not be able to solve this task with a more powerful classical computer. It requires new technology, more suited for the task.

(Special thanks Dr. Ilan Richter, MD MPH for assuring the accuracy of the medical details in this article.)

Ramon Szmuk is a Quantum Hardware Engineer at Quantum Machines.

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Quantum computing will (eventually) help us discover vaccines in days - VentureBeat

Quantum is the next step toward the future of analytics and computing. Is your organization ready for it?

Quantum computing can solve challenges that modern computers can't--or it might take them a billion years to do so. It can crack any encryption and make your data completely safe. Google reports that it has seen a quantum computer that performed at least 100 million times faster than any classical computer in its lab.

Quantum blows away the processing of data and algorithms on conventional computers because of its ability to operate on electrical circuits that can be in more than one state at once. A quantum computer operates on Qubits (quantum bits) instead of on the standard bits that are used in conventional computing.

SEE: Managing AI and ML in the enterprise 2020: Tech leaders increase project development and implementation (TechRepublic Premium)

Quantum results can quickly make an impact on life science and pharmaceutical companies, for financial institutions evaluating portfolio risks, and for other organizations that want to expedite time-to-results for processing that on conventional computing platforms would take days to complete.

Few corporate CEOs are comfortable trying to explain to their boards what quantum computing is and why it is important to invest in it.

"There are three major areas where we see immediate corporate engagement with quantum computing," said Christopher Savoie, CEO and co-founder of Zapata Quantum Computing Software Company, a quantum computing solutions provider backed by Honeywell. "These areas are machine learning, optimization problems, and molecular simulation."

Savoie said quantum computing can bring better results in machine learning than conventional computing because of its speed. This rapid processing of data enables a machine learning application to consume large amounts of multi-dimensional data that can generate more sophisticated models of a particular problem or phenomenon under study.

SEE: Forget quantum supremacy: This quantum-computing milestone could be just as important (TechRepublic)

Quantum computing is also well suited for solving problems in optimization. "The mathematics of optimization in supply and distribution chains is highly complex," Savoie said. "You can optimize five nodes of a supply chain with conventional computing, but what about 15 nodes with over 85 million different routes? Add to this the optimization of work processes and people, and you have a very complex problem that can be overwhelming for a conventional computing approach."

A third application area is molecular simulation in chemistry and pharmaceuticals, which can be quite complex.

In each of these cases, models of circumstances, events, and problems can be rapidly developed and evaluated from a variety of dimensions that collate data from many diverse sources into a model.

SEE:Inside UPS: The logistics company's never-ending digital transformation (free PDF)(TechRepublic)

"The current COVID-19 crisis is a prime example," Savoie said. "Bill Gates knew in 2015 that handling such a pandemic would present enormous challengesbut until recently, we didn't have the models to understand the complexities of those challenges."

For those engaging in quantum computing and analytics today, the relative newness of the technology presents its own share of glitches. This makes it important to have quantum computing experts on board. For this reason, most early adopter companies elect to go to the cloud for their quantum computing, partnering with a vendor that has the specialized expertise needed to run and maintain quantum analytics.

SEE: Rural America is in the midst of a mental health crisis. Tech could help some patients see a way forward. (cover story PDF) (TechRepublic)

"These companies typically use a Kubernetes cluster and management stack on premises," Savoie said. "They code a quantum circuit that contains information on how operations are to be performed on quantum qubits. From there, the circuit and the prepared data are sent to the cloud, which performs the quantum operations on the data. The data is processed in the cloud and sent back to the on-prem stack, and the process repeats itself until processing is complete."

Savoie estimated that broad adoption of quantum computing for analytics will occur within a three- to five-year timeframe, with early innovators in sectors like oil and gas, and chemistry, that already understand the value of the technology and are adopting sooner.

"Whether or not you adopt quantum analytics now, you should minimally have it on your IT roadmap," Savoie said. "Quantum computing is a bit like the COVID-19 crisis. At first, there were only two deaths; then two weeks later, there were ten thousand. Quantum computing and analytics is a highly disruptive technology that can exponentially advance some companies over others."

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Quantum computing analytics: Put this on your IT roadmap - TechRepublic

Dario Gil from IBM Research

In this video, Dario Gil from IBM shares results from the IBM Quantum Challenge and describes how you can access and program quantum computers on the IBM Cloud today.

From May 4-8, we invited people from around the world to participate in the IBM Quantum Challengeon the IBM Cloud. We devised the Challenge as a global event to celebrateour fourth anniversary of having a real quantum computer on the cloud. Over those four days 1,745people from45countries came together to solve four problems ranging from introductory topics in quantum computing, to understanding how to mitigate noise in a real system, to learning about historic work inquantum cryptography, to seeing how close they could come to the best optimization result for a quantum circuit.

Those working in the Challenge joined all those who regularly make use of the 18quantum computing systems that IBM has on the cloud, includingthe 10 open systemsand the advanced machines available within theIBM Q Network. During the 96 hours of the Challenge, the total use of the 18 IBM Quantum systems on the IBM Cloud exceeded 1 billion circuits a day. Together, we made history every day the cloud users of the IBM Quantum systems made and then extended what can absolutely be called a world record in computing.

Every day we extend the science of quantum computing and advance engineering to build more powerful devices and systems. Weve put new two new systems on the cloud in the last month, and so our fleet of quantum systems on the cloud is getting bigger and better. Well be extending this cloud infrastructure later this year by installing quantum systems inGermanyand inJapan. Weve also gone more and more digital with our users with videos, online education, social media, Slack community discussions, and, of course, the Challenge.

Dr. Dario Gil is the Director of IBM Research, one of the worlds largest and most influential corporate research labs. IBM Research is a global organization with over 3,000 researchers at 12 laboratories on six continents advancing the future of computing. Dr. Gil leads innovation efforts at IBM, directing research strategies in Quantum, AI, Hybrid Cloud, Security, Industry Solutions, and Semiconductors and Systems. Dr. Gil is the 12th Director in its 74-year history. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Gil served as Chief Operating Officer of IBM Research and the Vice President of AI and Quantum Computing, areas in which he continues to have broad responsibilities across IBM. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud. An advocate of collaborative research models, he co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a pioneering industrial-academic laboratory with a portfolio of more than 50 projects focused on advancing fundamental AI research to the broad benefit of industry and society.

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Video: The Future of Quantum Computing with IBM - insideHPC

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.,May 14, 2020 Registration is now open for the inauguralIEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE20), a multidisciplinary event focusing on quantum technology, research, development, and training. QCE20, also known as IEEE Quantum Week, will deliver a series ofworld-class keynotes,workforce-building tutorials,community-building workshops, andtechnical paper presentations and postersonOctober 12-16inDenver, Colorado.

Were thrilled to open registration for the inaugural IEEE Quantum Week, founded by the IEEE Future Directions Initiative and supported by multiple IEEE Societies and organizational units, said Hausi Mller, QCE20 general chair and co-chair of the IEEE Quantum Initiative.Our initial goal is to address the current landscape of quantum technologies, identify challenges and opportunities, and engage the quantum community. With our current Quantum Week program, were well on track to deliver a first-rate quantum computing and engineering event.

QCE20skeynote speakersinclude the following quantum groundbreakers and leaders:

The week-longQCE20 tutorials programfeatures 15 tutorials by leading experts aimed squarely at workforce development and training considerations. The tutorials are ideally suited to develop quantum champions for industry, academia, and government and to build expertise for emerging quantum ecosystems.

Throughout the week, 19QCE20 workshopsprovide forums for group discussions on topics in quantum research, practice, education, and applications. The exciting workshops provide unique opportunities to share and discuss quantum computing and engineering ideas, research agendas, roadmaps, and applications.

The deadline for submittingtechnical papersto the eight technical paper tracks isMay 22. Papers accepted by QCE20 will be submitted to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The best papers will be invited to the journalsIEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering(TQE)andACM Transactions on Quantum Computing(TQC).

QCE20 provides attendees a unique opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities with quantum researchers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, developers, students, practitioners, educators, programmers, and newcomers. QCE20 is co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Communications Society, IEEE Council on Superconductivity,IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS), IEEE Future Directions Quantum Initiative, IEEE Photonics Society, and IEEETechnology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS).

Registerto be a part of the highly anticipated inaugural IEEE Quantum Week 2020. Visitqce.quantum.ieee.orgfor event news and all program details, including sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities.

About the IEEE Computer Society

The IEEE Computer Society is the worlds home for computer science, engineering, and technology. A global leader in providing access to computer science research, analysis, and information, the IEEE Computer Society offers a comprehensive array of unmatched products, services, and opportunities for individuals at all stages of their professional career. Known as the premier organization that empowers the people who drive technology, the IEEE Computer Society offers international conferences, peer-reviewed publications, a unique digital library, and training programs. Visitwww.computer.orgfor more information.

About the IEEE Communications Society

TheIEEE Communications Societypromotes technological innovation and fosters creation and sharing of information among the global technical community. The Society provides services to members for their technical and professional advancement and forums for technical exchanges among professionals in academia, industry, and public institutions.

About the IEEE Council on Superconductivity

TheIEEE Council on Superconductivityand its activities and programs cover the science and technology of superconductors and their applications, including materials and their applications for electronics, magnetics, and power systems, where the superconductor properties are central to the application.

About the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society

TheIEEE Electronics Packaging Societyis the leading international forum for scientists and engineers engaged in the research, design, and development of revolutionary advances in microsystems packaging and manufacturing.

About the IEEE Future Directions Quantum Initiative

IEEE Quantumis an IEEE Future Directions initiative launched in 2019 that serves as IEEEs leading community for all projects and activities on quantum technologies. IEEE Quantum is supported by leadership and representation across IEEE Societies and OUs. The initiative addresses the current landscape of quantum technologies, identifies challenges and opportunities, leverages and collaborates with existing initiatives, and engages the quantum community at large.

About the IEEE Photonics Society

TheIEEE Photonics Societyforms the hub of a vibrant technical community of more than 100,000 professionals dedicated to transforming breakthroughs in quantum physics into the devices, systems, and products to revolutionize our daily lives. From ubiquitous and inexpensive global communications via fiber optics, to lasers for medical and other applications, to flat-screen displays, to photovoltaic devices for solar energy, to LEDs for energy-efficient illumination, there are myriad examples of the Societys impact on the world around us.

About the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society

IEEE TEMSencompasses the management sciences and practices required for defining, implementing, and managing engineering and technology.

Source: IEEE Computer Society

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Registration Open for Inaugural IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering - HPCwire

Research team: (from left) Associate Professor Stefano Palomba, Dr Alessandro Tuniz, Professor Martijn de Sterke. Photo: Louise Cooper

Light is emerging as the leading vehicle for information processing in computers and telecommunications as our need for energy efficiency and bandwidth increases.

Already the gold standard for intercontinental communication through fibre-optics, photons are replacing electrons as the main carriers of information throughout optical networks and into the very heart of computers themselves.

However, there remain substantial engineering barriers to complete this transformation. Industry-standard silicon circuits that support light are more than an order of magnitude larger than modern electronic transistors. One solution is to compress light using metallic waveguides however this would not only require a new manufacturing infrastructure, but also the way light interacts with metals on chips means that photonic information is easily lost.

Now scientists in Australia and Germany have developed a modular method to design nanoscale devices to help overcome these problems, combining the best of traditional chip design with photonic architecture in a hybrid structure. Their research is published today in Nature Communications.

We have built a bridge between industry-standard silicon photonic systems and the metal-based waveguides that can be made 100 times smaller while retaining efficiency, said lead author Dr Alessandro Tuniz from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics.

This hybrid approach allows the manipulation of light at the nanoscale, measured in billionths of a metre. The scientists have shown that they can achieve data manipulation at 100 times smaller than the wavelength of light carrying the information.

This sort of efficiency and miniaturisation will be essential in transforming computer processing to be based on light. It will also be very useful in the development of quantum-optical information systems, a promising platform for future quantum computers, said Associate Professor Stefano Palomba, a co-author from the University of Sydney and Nanophotonics Leader at Sydney Nano.

Eventually we expect photonic information will migrate to the CPU, the heart of any modern computer. Such a vision has already been mapped out by IBM.

On-chip nanometre-scale devices that use metals (known as plasmonic devices) allow for functionality that no conventional photonic device allows. Most notably, they efficiently compress light down to a few billionths of a metre and thus achieve hugely enhanced, interference-free, light-to-matter interactions.

As well as revolutionising general processing, this is very useful for specialised scientific processes such as nano-spectroscopy, atomic-scale sensing and nanoscale detectors, said Dr Tuniz also from the Sydney Institute of Photonics and Optical Science.

However, their universal functionality was hampered by a reliance on ad hoc designs.

We have shown that two separate designs can be joined together to enhance a run-of-the-mill chip that previously did nothing special, Dr Tuniz said.

This modular approach allows for rapid rotation of light polarisation in the chip and,becauseof that rotation, quickly permits nano-focusing down to about 100 times less than the wavelength.

Professor Martijn de Sterke is Director of the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science at the University of Sydney. He said: The future of information processing is likely to involve photons using metals that allow us to compress light to the nanoscale and integrate these designs into conventional silicon photonics.

This research was supported by the University of Sydney Fellowship Scheme, the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Germanys Excellence Strategy EXC-2123/1. This work was performed in part at the NSW node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).

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Light, fantastic: the path ahead for faster, smaller computer processors - News - The University of Sydney

If years ago what everyone wanted to lose weight was talking about going to the gym and getting pounded doing sports, now many nutritionists and sports experts have turned the tables.New trends in the world of nutrition warn that leading a healthy life is no longer (or at least not only) a matter of doing sports.Over the years and with an increasingly powerful food industry and the increase in sedentary lifestyle and associated diseases such as obesity, consumption trends have changed and there are now many people who, as nutritionists themselves report, They cannot lose weight for much sport that they do. So it is necessary to put aside junk food and start eating real food.

In this link we told you yesterday an example of a woman who had succeeded. The photo speaks for itself. The results are surprising. Once you change your diet then you do have to start exercising. And the first step is to start the house little by little and by the foundations. That is: do not face the first day a half marathon.Just do the fashionable exercise that everyone talks about and that more and more people practice.It is simple: just walk. Doing about 15,000 steps each day will suffice.

More and more people are joining this trend. And it is a way of exercising without you noticing it excessively. In fact, several viral coach challenges are circulating around the network that try to improve the lives of their followers.What does it consist on? In that you get a smart phone or an activity bracelet and count the steps you take. The goal is for you to exceed 15,000 each day. If you succeed, put a mark on the calendar and start introducing small actions that can lead you to move more and (therefore) burn more calories.

Keep in mind that moving (in this link you can read how beneficial it is, for example, doing it after each meal or each dinner), will make your body activate and burn more calories. If you do more than 15,000 steps a day (or even reach 20.00)you can subtract 4,000 calories.A challenge at the height of a few for which up to groups (both women and men) that go out throughout Spain periodically to walk together have already been formed.

But this is not the only action you can do. Quite the contrary. Moving and walking has to be a complement.In fact, scholars assure that if you add to this, for example, a renunciation of alcohol or ultraprocessed, the changes in your body you will begin to notice before. And that is the last of the keys that nutritionists transmit: losing weight is a matter of time. You have to be patient because the results are not achieved in a moment or a minute. Every effort has its rewards.

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May 16, 2020

May 16, 2020

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Weight loss tricks: The exercise that sweeps the nets and what you should do to lose weight and subtract calories without starving - Explica

Posted on May 15, 2020

Words by Donna Torres, General Manager of SMB Sales & Operations UK & EMEA, Xero

In the current climate, many of us have found ourselves in different working environments with the majority of people working from home. With our home and work spaces becoming the same place, its more important than ever to ensure you take steps to create some separation and avoid burnout a common issue faced by small business owners.

Here are six ways to help avoid burnout:

Often a business is the result of a life-long passion, so its easy for that business to become a fundamental part of your everyday routine. This makes it difficult to separate work life from home especially when both now exist in the same location.

Try to keep to normal working hours, and avoid working late into the evening where possible. Its vital to ensure a distinction between your working day and your time to relax, otherwise youre more susceptible to burnout. Working after hours can actually make you less productive too, as youre less able to switch off when it counts. Small things like clearing your work space away at the end of the day will make a big difference.

Prioritising your wellbeing should be just as much a part of your daily routine as a to-do list is. Physical and emotional burnout can sometimes be tracked back to elements of your lifestyle, such as diet, exercise and sleep.

Rest is crucial. It might be tempting to stay up late working on something but without the right sleep, your week is not going to be as productive as it could be. Exercise is also important, even if its just once or twice a week or going for some short walks in the day to get some space away from your screen. There are a number of great workplace apps such as Unmind who can help business owners and their employees with their wellbeing.

Time management in a small firm can be difficult, especially when you are first starting out. Xero research revealed that the main triggers for entrepreneurs stress are staff management (42%), admin (35%), feeling personally responsible for the success of the company (31%) and filing taxes (19%).

When youre overwhelmed, everything on your to do list might seem like it needs to be done ASAP, but in reality most of the time tasks can be split into urgent and important. Prioritising tasks is key to focus the mind. Apps like Wunderlist and Todoist can help you to prioritise, set reminders and share your work load with colleagues whilst working remotely too.

Always be realistic with how much you can accomplish in one day. If you commit to doing too much in an unrealistic time frame, it is likely that you will feel more burned out.

Entrepreneurs are always worrying about cash flow and profit and loss sheets especially at the moment. If you have a comprehensive bookkeeping system set up, you will feel more in control of your finances.

Cloud accounting software can be used from any device all you need is an internet connection. It gives you an up-to-date snapshot of how your business is doing, giving you the insights you need to make the right decisions for your company. The time consuming accounting tasks are automated, and anyone from your team who needs to can access information and collaborate on activity.

Although were not able to go abroad at the moment, that doesnt mean you should go without a holiday. Book a day or two of annual leave if possible to switch off.

And if thats not possible, try to schedule some down time every day, the same way you would a meeting. Whether its getting out on your daily walk or run, or listening to your favourite podcast, ensure that youre getting away from your desk and taking your mind off work.

Running a small business can be all consuming. Implementing a routine which includes downtime is going to benefit both you and your business in the long-run. A brain thats allowed to switch off works more efficiently when it needs to be switched on.

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Five ways to avoid burnout when your home and work environments become one - HR News

Are you trying to shed those extra kilos? Dont fall for these 5 common weight loss myths.

Good fats are very important for your overall health and they work wonders for weight loss.

Losing weight is not a piece of cake. This is especially true during lockdown when there is hardly any movement and it gets even more difficult to stay fit. Many people now look for advice from the Internet, magazines, and friends on how to keep up with their fitness requirement and lose weight amidst quarantine. However, though most of the information may be relevant, there are a few dangerous myths which are also doing the rounds. These misconceptions about diet plans and weight loss may shatter your fitness goals and can even lead you to gain extra weight instead of shedding it. Therefore, here we try to bust some common weight loss myths, which will help you save yourself from falling for the fake traps of weight loss. Take a look: Also Read - 5 most common misconceptions about our bodies

Reality: Carbs are essential macronutrients, which are needed to sustain life and supply energy to your brain. However, carbs have earned a bad reputation in the world of fitness due to their tendency to cause weight gain. But not all carbs are unhealthy. There are bad carbs and good carbs. The bad ones contain all sorts of refined and processed foods, like white bread, refined-grain pasta, instant noodles and more which tend to contribute to weight-gain. Whereas good carbs are the ones which are rich in fibre. For example, whole grain products, leafy green vegetables and legumes are high in good carbs. They make you feel full and satiated so that you are less likely to overeat.Therefore, dont cut out on carbs but choose them wisely. Also Read - World Immunization Week 2019: Top vaccination myths dispelled

Reality: Just like carbs, theres a misconception about fats too. Fats can also be classified as good and bad fats. Good fats are very important for your overall health and they work wonders for weight loss. They may seem high on calories, but these are not empty calories. Rather, they are dense in nutrients. Therefore, if you feel full, you would naturally not overeat. Also Read - Top 10 weight-loss myths you need to say goodbye to

Reality: No matter what the diet trends say, starving or skipping your meals has not been a sustainable weight-loss strategy. This happens because you can refrain from food for a certain amount of time, and when you break your fast, you tend to eat anything that comes your way. This leads to overloading of calories. Make sure you eat at regular intervals, which will keep you satiated for longer spells. In case you want to snack on something, grab a fruit or some nuts instead of binging on fried and fattening foods.

Reality: Working out on an empty stomach is not considered healthy as it may lead to muscle loss. Therefore, it is best to munch on something light and nutritious before you get ready to sweat it out in the workout session. Have some easily digestible carbs like banana, almonds, baked eggs and more before an intense exercise regime.

Reality: Snacking between meals is not a problem and it is very normal to feel hungry every 2-3 hours. It is all about what kind of snack you pick up to eat that affects your weight loss regime. Like, for example, snacking on heavily fried, sugary or ultra-processed food can add on the calories and may lead to excess amount of fat storage in your body. On the other hand, healthy snacks like fruits, nutty trail-mix, oats and protein shakes may help you shed weight by increasing your metabolism.

Published : May 16, 2020 4:45 pm

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5 weight loss myths that can prevent you from slimming down during quarantine - TheHealthSite

Nearly a decade into their existence, Denvers In the Company of Serpentsled by guitarist and vocalist Grant Netzorg and drummer J.P. Damron (Vermin Womb, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire)are changing things up. In the Company of Serpents recruited guitarist and bassist Ben Pitts to round out the lineup forLux, the Denver trios fourth and most-developed album to date.

Luxis a riff-driven affair, something In the Company of Serpents make very obvious from the first second of mammoth opener The Fools Journey to the dark spaghetti western sounds so present on The Chasm at the Mouth of All and album closer Prima Materia. The combination of influences gives In the Company of Serpents a unique sound; the droning sludge trio have riffs for days, but its the thoughtful inclusion of spaghetti western music that elevatesLuxto a new level.

In the Company of Serpents will officially release Luxtomorrow, May 15, butDecibelhas an early album stream as well as a track-by-track walkthrough with Netzorg about the albums themes, special guests and more. It becomes quickly apparent: there is more toLuxthan meets the eyeLux is heavy with spirituality and esoterica, each lyric and decision carefully weighed. Pre-order the album here.

This record is titled Lux, i.e. light in Latin, and one of the central ideas behind it is the notion of a Prima Materia, or fundamental root essence behind everything in the manifest universe, Netzorg explains of the albums theme. Philosophers, hermeticists, alchemists, occultists and all manner of different wizards have speculated what that Prima Materia, or root essence, is, but the three chief analogies Ive employed in this record are: All is sound All is mind and, critically, All is Light.

With that in mind, we are employing a wealth of Solar imagery with this record, both in the front cover, and lyrically. The cover is essentially an artistic re-imagining of The Sun arcana from Tarot. This ties into the broader solar & light themes at play in the album, but the title, cover, and broader theme is also uniquely personal to me. Lux is the etymology of my daughters name, Lucia. So, while this album functions as form of esoteric prayer on one hand, it also serves as a message to my 2-year-old, who, as they say in the clich, is the light of my life.

The basic idea of this song is that a tarot reading was done on the fate of humanity should we continue to follow our current trajectory, and it spelled bad news in no uncertain terms. However, divinations like this only portend future events should we not change our path in any way, and we ultimately have the agency to avoid negative outcomes should we decide to change our course when we foresee them. As such, the message here is not so much that were doomed, but that we stand at a critical juncture where we have the opportunity to ultimately change things for the betterment of all. But this will require us to act. The second half of the song appeals to that agency. On the heels of the tarot reading corresponding to the initial doomed question, a second question is posed: What can we do about this? The result points to our own fundamental ability to self-empower.

The title of this song is a nod to the tarot. In many decks the Fool is depicted as a young individual who is carelessly about to step off a cliff. This metaphor is often used to describe the first steps of a persons magical initiation, but it is also represented in the lyrics which begin, Were standing on the precipice of our own demise, laughing in its face. It will ignore our cries.

I like the idea that our understanding of time is fundamentally flawed, and the implication that, if we can use tools like Tarot to glean the shape of things to come, it also empowers us with the agency to shift fates. Yes, the world is a bit of a dumpster fire on the broader level, but on an individual level we can affect positive change. As the writer and host of the Rune Soup podcast, Gordon White, has been quoted saying several times, Optimism is a Spell! The song closes with a quote from Jodorowskis The Holy Mountain, a film rife with tarot symbolism relevant to this song and album.

The imagery here is of the weighing of ones heart/soul against a feather in Egyptian mythology. The scale was calibrated by Maat, and if you had lived a just, good life, your heart would be lighter than the feather. If you lived an unjust, evil life, you would be cast into darkness. The principle theme here is that we are all judged by our deeds, actions and sympathies. The closing lyrics which feature guest vocals from Ethan Lee McCarthy of Primitive Man, Vermin Womb and Many Blessings and Ben Hutcherson from Khemmis and Glacial Tomb to this song are, When were gone well be consumed by the maw of the all. Will we have been a worthy vessel for the light of the void?

This centers around themes of life, birth and rebirth, and general cycles of renewal. It is the first of two instrumental pieces on the album featuring my friend, Paul Primus, of the Colorado Symphony, performing the Viola DAmore, a type of viola which uses drone strings beneath the fingerboard to vibrate in sympathy with the other strings. It is tuned to the somber tuning of DADFAD with A=432hz. That tuning is known to guitarists as the Skip James tuning, as that bluesman was famous for utilizing it to wonderful, eerie effect in his songs like Hard Time Killing Floor Blues and Crow Jane, and its the tuning which four of the albums songs employ. However, it bears mentioning that it is said in certain esoteric circles that A=432hz is the vibration at which all of creation resonates, and thus is sometimes called the God frequency. This whole album was recorded with our tuners calibrated to A=432hz, and this is meant to consciously tie in to the theme of Prima Materia, or a fundamental root-essence, that runs throughout the whole record.

The overarching theme of Prima Materia and the All is Sound/All is Mind/All is Light current I mentioned above are chiefly whats at play here. The title of the song, and the opening lyric, We live in Chasm at the mouth of the All, is meant to confer that we live in an embodied, living universe, or God, if you will. The second line, Her lips are wet with venom and her quarry will fall, is both a homage to a vinyl-only bonus track from one of my all-time favorite records, SunnO))) and Boris Altar, as well as an assertion that, if we live in an embodied universe and it is all of God, God gets what it wants.

There are other themes at play as well here: in the second verse we have the lines, The sky above is the celestial womb; the soil beneath us the seed and our tomb. This is playing with a Nuit/Hadit dynamic from Crowleys infamous Book Of The Law, which he posited he had received telepathically from an angelic entity after performing the Headless Rite from the Greek Magical Papyri in the chamber of the great pyramid. The themes of Sex/Life/Death are all fairly intertwined here, and this could function thematically as a sibling of the earlier tune, Scales Of Maat. On that same theme, we all know that our journeys will end in death, and the reality is we must navigate that.

In Qabalah, the sephira, Binah, is associated crossing the void of death, and one of its alternate titles is The Great Sea, and this is what Im referencing in the lyric, Born unto the universe, The Great Sea we must traverse. Ive since come to realize that themes of life and death are utterly intertwined for me and this record. One rather unsettling example of this is that, on the day (and probably down to the hour) that we finished recording this album, we unexpectedly lost my wifes father. The later track, Nightfall, on which my friend Paul Primus once again performs Viola DAmore, was used during the memorial service, and is thematically about death and the ends of cycles.

This is the song that is most directly a message to my infant daughter, in terms of the broader themes of this record. With the lyrics, Child of Light, Blessed of inner sight, I am playing with the etymology of her name once again, but also the broader theme of the Prima Materia being something that could be described as light, and that her capacity to look within is a blessing. The next line, Your mind is larger than you think; divinitys within your reach, is playing with the notion that, if everything is of the All, and it All is divine, then we are each microcosmic reflections of the All experiencing itself, and thus divinity is not some abstraction that is apart from us.

As above, so below is one way this notion is usually articulated. Another way that the root essence has often been described is all is love or that love is fundamental to the operation of the universe. This idea manifests in lyrics like the one that ends the song, Inflame thyself with reverence, a love supreme enthroned which is both a nod to Coltranesclassic album, A Love Supreme, as well as the instruction to inflame thyself with prayer that is commonly quoted in occult discourse as a reminder that passion begets results.

This is running with the Gnostic idea that were trapped in a spiritual prison of sorts, and that the demons/prison wardens (the Archons of the song title) are constantly engaged in keeping us thoughtless, disengaged sheep. The lyrics are a call for us to engage directly and presently with our lives, and thus regain some semblance of what lies in our true spirit. The chorus (if you want to call it that) of the first half of the tune is, The machinations of control, Hiding in plain sight, Gilded Bars upon our cage, Slip them and take flight, and is very much in line with that notion. The mystic Gurdjieff remarked that most people are dead, or asleep, to their own innate spirituality and/or our souls. Only by directly engaging with the world around us, particularly when the gilded bars of our cage are so lovely and comfortable, can we regain our sense of spirit.

As mentioned earlier, this is the other tune which features Paul Primus on Viola Damore. Its meant as a somber mirror of the earlier tune, Daybreak. The compositions are almost identical, but this is thematically more about death, fall, and the end of cycles.

This is the most simple, direct version of the overarching theme of a fundamental root-essence which runs throughout the rest of the record. It plays with the three iterations of that notion mentioned above: All is Sound/All is Mind/All is Light in verses that are meant, on one level, as devotionals. The last part of the tune just lays that all out in caveman termsLight pervades allPrima Materia.

Link:
Full Album Stream: In the Company of Serpents - "Lux" - decibelmagazine.com

CARMEL A word of advice from a local stylist for those getting tired of the shaggy dog look or emerging ombre hair coloring:

I tell my clients, just wear a hat! says Gwendolyn Beauregard of Heidis Studio in Carmel.

Salons have been deemed unessential businesses and are closed until further notice, so most people are on their own when it comes to maintaining their hairstyles. Since the Monterey County stay-at-home order was issued in March, people have been getting creative with their newfound free time.

Hiovanni Gonzalez, a 22-year-old CSU Monterey Bay student, chose to dye her hair hot pink as well as give it a trim while self-quarantining.

I was in need of some change, she says. Ive dyed my hair crazy colors before, and I figured now would be a better time than ever since Id be in the house most of the time.

Gonzalez recommends others to try changing up their hairstyle while at home because hair grows back, and you can always change (the color) back if you dont like it.

Hot pink may not be for everyone, so others are choosing to maintain their usual color. Local business owner, Roshi Pejhan, touched up her hairstyle with some color to cover up any greys and to take a moment for herself.

Even though no one is really going to see it, it feels like an important part of self-care if it helps you feel better about yourself, states Pejhan. What self-care is for me might be different for others, but the hair color is one small thing I can do to make me feel better.

Although she went the hair color route, Pejhan doesnt plan to cut or trim her hair from home.

Some people really want to try cutting their hair at home, but I feel more comfortable letting a professional do it.

Beauregard and other stylists are receiving requests to provide hair services at clients homes, but she plans to stay at home as directed until it is safe to go back to work.

Itd be nice to have your hair done, but I dont really think that its an essential, she states. I havent seen any bad haircuts so far, and dark roots are fashionable right now.

If you plan to follow in Gonzalez and Pejhans footsteps, they have offered some pro-tips to help achieve your desired look.

Gonzalezs hair dye tips are to be very careful if youre using bleach, so bleach your roots last since they dont take as long because if you leave it on for too long, it can leave blisters; apply vaseline on the perimeters of your face and base of the neck so the dye doesnt stain your skin; and try applying some kind of heat after your hair is wrapped to ensure the color really takes.

Pejhan recommends home remedies for dry ends that need trimming. I noticed my hair was getting dry so I just did a coconut oil treatment for a day. Just rubbed in my coconut oil, put my hair in a bun and let it set, rinsed it out the next day, and it made a big difference. She also says, Cranberry juice rinses are also good for brunettes if you dont have henna handy.

Hair professional, Beauregard suggests people reach out to their hairstylist. They can do their hair at home. Id be willing to tell someone what hair color to get.

She also knows of some fellow stylists that are sending clients premixed hair dye so they can achieve their salon look from home.

I know when we get back to work, well be really, really busy.

Originally posted here:
Theres help for hair care, but youre largely on your own - Monterey Herald