Amazon's Audible has unveiled an audiobook service that lets listeners jump to "the good parts."

Related: Audible's top 10 bestsellers of all time

America's favorite way of curling up with a book?In a driver's seat,of course.Inrush hour traffic.

Erma Bombeck, to start Monday with a smile. "The 7Habits of Highly Effective People," to stiffen your spine for the quarterly meeting. "Dune," for when you wish you were livingon a different planet.

Which might make you wonder howthe Newark-based company Audible not leastresponsible for this extraordinary change in our reading habits is faring, now thatCOVID has taken so many commuters off the road.

Not to worry. When the gods of innovation close a door, they open a window.

"The listening time wasstarting to go down, because road travel was so restricted, particularly topping out in April," said DonKatz of Montclair,thevisionary founder of Audible.

Don Katz, founder of Audible(Photo: Audible)

But of course, all those people notstuck in traffic arenowstuck at home. So aretheir kids. And there, waiting for them, is Audible available any time, thanks to Echo and Alexa.

"Parents in particular began to focus their kids on Audible listeningbecause no one was very happy with the idea of kids having school screen time, social screen time, and TV entertainment," Katz said. "Focusing on an audio experience became very powerful."

It's one more example of the strikingadaptability of Audible thecompany that, since 1995, has made audiobooks and other spoken-word content available on multiple platforms to people who didn't know they needed it. And now can't do without it.

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"I often say to people, if you want to understand Audible, think of the pleasures of being read to as a child," Katz said.

Did you love bedtime stories as a kid?

Well, how would you like it ifAnne Hathaway, Kate WinsletorSamuel L. Jackson read to you?

And if you like stories, how about nonfiction? Current events? Self-improvement? Get-ahead-in-business books? And if you like listening in cars, and while youjog, how about airplanes (Audible has kiosks in many major air hubs)?

"The Sandman," from Audible(Photo: Audible)

And if you like books, how about podcasts? Radio programs? Newspapers and magazines, read to you as you drive? Original content, like the new 11-hour audio version of Neil Gaiman's classic graphic novel "The Sandman," with Gaiman,Riz Ahmed,Bebe Neuwirth,Andy Serkis and many others? And if you like that, how about new works specially commissioned by Audible, featuring local authors, read by local actors?

"I was invited by Audible to write a play for their online platform," saidChisa Hutchinson, a Newark playwright whose "Proof of Love," performed by Maplewood's Brenda Pressley, dropped in July2019.

"Audible, I feel, is really doing the work, as far as trying to make its presence a benefit to the people who work here," Hutchinson said. "They're the real deal."

In this,as in so many other things, Audible is thinking innovatively and thinking big."Positively disruptive companies tend to come from new models," Katz said.

"Positive Disruption" is Katz's favoriteterm of business art.

It's his phraseforupending in a good way the status quo.Challenging received wisdom. Casting overboardthosesandbags called The Way Things Are Done.

It's what has enabled himto turn whatused to be a niche market recorded books, once confined to a few highbrow enthusiastsand educatorsfor the blind into a powerhouse corporation that was sold to Amazon, in 2008, for a reported $300 million (it's worth much more now, Katz says).

Audible is nowthe world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. It is also, along with Prudential, Mars Wrigley, PSE&G, and a few others, one of the anchor corporations that are investing in and betting on thenew Newark.

Audible's campus(Photo: Audible)

"It wasn't about saving the audiobook business," Katz said. "Basically I thought, when I started the company, there are 93 million Americans who drive to work alone. It's about time arbitrage. How do you make value of time?I focused on the 93 million people and the hundreds of millions of hours a week that was not consideredvaluable time."

Now, to many of us, the commute is our golden hour the moment when we can breathe a sigh of relief, crank the air conditioning, and get back to "Into Thin Air" (read for you by author Jon Krakauer) or "Pride and Prejudice" (read for you by Rosamund Pike).

"Pride and Prejudice," from Audible(Photo: Audible)

And Katz's vision embraces something larger than spoken words.Audible aims at nothing less than to remake with some help the city of Newark, its corporate home since 2007.

"Audible is the way we probably want most corporations to operate," saidAisha Glover, president andCEO of the Newark Alliance. "In collaboration with the community, and really thinking about their impact."

And beyond Newark? The rest of the world could also use some help. And not just with itsreading.

"I just thought, what if we actually took the concept of a business, and the capitalist system that underwrites it, and what if we could be an active catalyst for social change?" Katz said.

Katz the classic visionary businessman might almost strike you as a characterout of one of Audible's books(there are 550,000 titlesin 38 languages).

"Dodsworth," for instance the auto magnate in Sinclair Lewis' 1929 novel (read for you by Grover Gardner) who dreams of motorized summer camps to caravan kids across the U.S. Or Undershaft, the munitions tycoon in Bernard Shaw's 1905 play "Major Barbara" (read for you by Kate Burton, Roger Rees and others) who builds an entire model village for his workers.

Not to mentionthe real-life Utopians of Silicon Valley: Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and lots of other prophetic thinkers, also the subject of books available on Audible.

Don Katz(Photo: Audible)

"To have a companythat pursues meaning that can transcend what we do is kindof core to why I'm stillworking," Katz said.

He is, these days, executive chairman of the firm Bob Carrigan is the CEO but in terms of vision, Katz is still the one steering the ship. And Katz, who haslived in Montclair since 1989 with his wife Leslie Larson (they have three grown children), still delights in innovation. Apparently, it's in his DNA.

"I grew up with a very progressive entrepreneur father, who died when I was still in my formative years," Katz said (his fatherSidney M. Katz owned Kay Musical Instruments, an originator and leading maker of electric guitars). "I was only 19. There are a lot of studies that say that entrepreneurs have various characteristics. One of them is a level of fatherlessness."

Happily, Katz found a second father.And that's where the story of Audible really begins.

Ralph Ellison is one of the giants of American literature. His 1952 novel "Invisible Man" was a game-changer: one of the first widely-read books to put readers of all backgrounds into the shoes and the soul of an African-American narrator.

And he just happened to be teaching at New York University when Katz came there from his Chicago home, in 1970, to major in English. By 1972, Katz had become one of his special proteges."He was a part of my life in so many ways," Katz said.

Ralph Ellison(Photo: XXX PBS/PHOTOFEST)

From Ellison, Katz learned about thecultural debtAmerica owes to its Black writers, storytellers, musicians something he already had an inkling of from his Chicago years, and which stayed with him when, years later, he chose Audible's corporate headquarters (Newark is 49.7 percentAfrican American).

"Ralphwas a master student of American culture, and particularly how Black culture is deeply entwined in the best of who we are," Katz said.

The other thing he learned from Ellison was the primacy, in American literature, of the spoken word.

Americans, characteristically, write the way we talk."You don't know about me without you have reada book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'; but that ain't no matter," is how Mark Twain begins "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Or this, from Ellison: "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

"I knew the reason Stephen Crane and Mark Twain wrote like Americans, versus Henry James who is a contemporary,"Katz said."They listened to this rich polyglot storytelling culture that was very singular to the American experience."

Thetelling, and hearing, of stories is the very essence of Audible. Andit's asold as Homer. Older. For most of human history until the invention of the printing press human beings took their literature, like their medicine, orally.Ellison himself, who died in 1994,was a great storyteller. He had, Katz said, a voice that sounded "like a coal car coming out of a mine."

"He had this beautiful Oklahoma way of diction." Katz said, "Ralph is sort of the intellectual godfather of Audible."

To the study of literature, Katz added economics (at The University of Chicago and the London School of Economics). Alsopractical journalistic experience, asawriter for Rolling Stone and Esquire.

Don Katz's Rolling Stone press pass(Photo: Audible)

"Rolling Stone was not just the rock and roll magazine of my generation," Katz said. "Iwas part of a very disruptive journalistic institution."

With this equipment, he was ideally suited to write books that celebrated the rebels and trailblazers of corporate culture:"The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears" (1987), and"Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World" (1995). But it wasn't until 1995 that he himself became a large-scale disruptor.

"My wife called it a non-toxic midlife crisis," Katz said. "I was 43 years old whenI started it. The weird thing is, there is now a lot of evidence that over-40 entrepreneurshave a better batting record."

It was a simple thought he had, while jogging in Riverside Park in New York, listening to a cassette player. What if there was a better way to listen to books?One that incorporated the newest technology, rather thanclunky tapes?

The result a combination of his inspiration and some of the best technical know-how in Silicon Valley was the original Audible Mobile Player.

The Audible Mobile Player(Photo: Audible)

It wasa digital audio device, predating the iPod by more than four years,that could store up to two hours of proprietary content the equivalent of two cassettes, with no rewinding. It went on sale in 1997 for $99.

"We invented this player before the term MP3 players was even a thing," Katz said. "It was a very early-stage, relatively primitive device. The iPod was what broke out this category."

Now, 23 years later, Audible content is available on a broad range of platforms: Android and iOS smartphones, desktop computers, iPads, Amazon Fire tablets, smart speakers, on Kindle (some models)and elsewhere.

Having reinvented the reading experience, Audible went on to reinvent itself.

Beginning in a small doctor's office in Montclair, the company enlargedand migrated toa building across from Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, and thenfinally in 2007 to Newark. And not by accident.

"We went to a city that had decades of structural deprivation, Katz said. "I mean, Newark is the story of the fix being in, frankly, for Black peopleand immigrants in particular, going back to Reconstruction We came with about 120 people,and the first thing we did, we decided we could have our paid interns all be studentsfrom Newark."

Today, there are1,800 local employees working in their three downtownsites. Audible has madea $500 monthly housing subsidy available to those who move to Newark and thus choose to become an activepart of the city's rebirth. In 2015, Katz founded Newark Venture Partners, which is working to transform the city into a tech hub.

Audible's Innovation Cathedral(Photo: Audible)

In 2019 they opened their "Innovation Cathedral," an 80,000-square-foot headquarters retrofitted from the 97-year-old Second Presbyterian Church on James Street. Since April, Newark Working Kitchens, a project they spearheadedin collaboration with other Newark companies, has been taking the city's COVID crisis by the horns by funding 25 local restaurants, manyeconomically hurting,to make free meals for some 10,000 local residents who can't leave home.

"This is keeping the lights on, honestly," said Sean McGovern, third-generation co-owner of McGovern's Tavern on New Street. "If we weren't doing this, in terms of our bottom line, we'd be completely boarded up Audible is a tremendous corporate citizen."

Behind all thisisan invisible man.

The ghost of Ralph Ellison, who taught respect for the spoken word and for the unsung, underserved communities who brought itto life in America must be smiling. At any rate, Katz hasn't forgotten to leave offerings for his guiding spirit.

"Invisible Man," from Audible(Photo: Audible)

A conference room, dedicated to Ellison, can be found at Audible's One Washington headquarters.In 2016. Katz presented a "Jazz in the Key of Ellison" program at Newark's NJPAC. And of course, "Invisible Man" is available as an audiobook. Read for you by Joe Morton ("Brother from Another Planet") a Montclair neighbor.

"Joe Morton is a terrific actor and a friend," Katz said. "He's fantastic."

Jim Beckerman is an entertainment and culture reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access tohis insightfulreports about how you spend your leisure time,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:beckerman@northjersey.comTwitter:@jimbeckerman1

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Audible transformed how we read. Now, the NJ-based company is out to change the world - NorthJersey.com

A new week in Phase 2 means a mixed bag of events happening virtually, in-person (modified to accommodate physical distancing, of course), and, sometimes, a combination of both. We're here to guide you through our top picks in every genrefrom the world premiere of Thin Skin, a new film by The Stranger's Charles Mudede, to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and from MoPOP's POP+ Punk series to a virtual Nectar concert with J GRGRY. In addition, check out our guides to supporting black-owned businesses and artists in Seattle, educating yourself through anti-racism resources, and donating to social justice causes. Find even more events on our complete streaming events calendar and our resistance & solidarity calendar, and check back on Friday for a roundup of the best local virtual events this weekend.

Reboot rePresents: ADs from Annex, Dacha, ReAct, MAP! Curious about what the future holds for local theaters that have been affected by COVID-19? Join host Harry Turpin for a virtual catch-up with artistic directorsDavid Hsieh (ReAct Theatre),Peggy Gannon (MAP Theatre),Madison Jade Jones (Annex Theatre and Dacha Theatre), andJasmine Joshua (Reboot).

Virtual Forum on Ranked-Choice Voting North Kitsap Indivisible and Indivisible Bainbridge Island will teach you about ranked-choice voting, a process in which, as you might have guessed, voters have the option to rank candidates in order of choice. Theorganizers will argue that this reform has the power to "[make] your vote more powerful, [make] campaigns more civil, and [ensure] that your vote isn't wasted."

The Stranger Presents: Collide-O-Scope The mind-melting video compilationextravaganza also known asCollide-O-Scope will streamobscure oddities from film, VHS, music videos, and other forms of media live on the internet.

Olmstead Trivia Night The Capitol Hill bar will host trivia in-person and over Zoom every Monday night henceforth. The winners get cash! Olmstead (Capitol Hill)

PLZ Rave From Home: 005 Local chiptune artist and EDM producer Graz will bring the rave to wherever you're currently social distancing via Twitch.

Susan Hough with Sandi Doughton Pasadena-basedresearch seismologist Susan Hough will join Elliott Bay with her new book,The Great Quake Debate: The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology, in which she breaks down both sides of an early 20th-century debate between scientistsRobert T. Hill and Bailey Willis over whether or not Southern California is particularly prone to earthquakes. (Turns out it is.)

Camille Simone: U Don't Have to Love My Body, I Do Check out empowering work by local fashion designer Camille Simone on local clothing store Sassafras's Instagram. Closing Tuesday

Genocide Today: The Uyghurs in China Uyghurs, the Turkic Muslim minority in western China, have long been persecuted by the Chinese government to a degree that many classify as genocide, citing the use of artificial intelligence to incarcerate Uyghurs by the masses, sterilize women, harvest body organs, and more inhumane actions. Learn more about the crisis in this virtual Holocaust Center for Humanity talk withEllen J. Kennedy, the founder of World Without Genocide.

Virtual Tomodachi Gala The Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington's annual gala will move online. Learn about the center'snew online offerings (including its Seattle Japanese Language School), see their newly installed elevator, and enjoy some live entertainment.

Nathaniel Rateliff An intimate livestreamed performance of Rateliff's solo LPAnd It's Still Alright, front-to-back, preceded by a one-on-one interview withRolling Stone's David Fricke. Proceeds benefit Ratecliff's Marigold Project, which "supports community and nonprofit organizations working on issues of economic and social justice."

David Litt David Litt, a former speechwriter for Obama and a former head writer for Funny or Die,will join the King County Democrats with insights from his new book, Democracy in One Book or Less, which touches on partyreform, strategies to ensure Democratic wins in 2020, and priorities for 2021.

Somaiya Daud with Arkady Martine Fans of Arabic poetry and fantasy worlds filled with princesses and rebel vengeance should tune in to this virtual chat with authorSomaiya Daud, who will read from her debut young adult novelMirage. She'll be joined by sci-fi author (and city planner)Arkady Martine.

Nude Kitchen Crystal Barbre and Madeline Owens teach this weekly virtual figure-drawing class for artists of all levels.

Thin Skin World Premiere Thin Skin, a new film directed by The Stranger's Charles Mudede (Police Beat, Zoo) and co-written by Lindy West and Ahamefule J. Oluo, stars Oluo as a man weighed down by divorce, family drama, and the bureaucracy of his corporate job, who finds solace after hours as a trumpeter in Seattle's jazz clubs. The film will have its world premiere at the Bentonville Film Festival, with a cast and crew Q&A the following day.

POP+ Punk MoPOP's fandom takeover series explores different pop culture moments and themes through a plethora of online experiences. This time they're roughing things up with the music, fashion, activism, and culture of punk scenes throughout history.This week kicks off with a panel discussion on Tuesday and an Instagram Live takeover with Rain City Rock Camp on Thursday.

The Daily Show Writers Standup tour A special livestreamed evening at the Nowhere Comedy Club, starring the comics behind the jokes that make you laugh nightly onThe Daily Show. Featuring Kat Radley, Randall Otis, Devin Delliquanti, and Joseph Opio.

Virtual Silent Reading Party with Special Guest Kary Wayson Thefirst worldwide silent-reading partywas such a huge success that we're making it weekly. Every Wednesday at 6 pm we're going to throw these parties, at least until stay-at-home is over.Attendees at the first Zoom silent-reading party included famous actors, writers, composers, artists, families, teenagers doing their homework, people staring into space listening to the music because it was just so beautiful, cats, and even one household on Orcas Island that was eating dinner and decided to broadcast the reading party as their background music. (What a brilliant idea!)It wasn't just a great party to be at. Behind the scenes, this was a roaring success as well.The Strangerbrought in revenue from the reading party for the first time ever, our musicianPaul Matthew Mooremadeten timesmore on Venmo tips than he's ever made in the tip jar at the Sorrento (thank you for your generosityhedeservesit!), and hundreds of people at the party have written us emails, clamoring for more. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

Seinfeld Trivia Test your knowledge of Seinfeld, the beloved TV show about nothing, at this trivia night.

Lunchtime Tunes with Market Busker Charlie Beck For a mid-week treat on your lunch break, tune into Facebook Live to hear Pike Place buskers doing their thing.

David Sheff: The Buddhist on Death Row David Sheff recounts the story of Jarvis Jay Mastersa man who, before he was sentenced to death in 1990, had transformed his life and became dedicated to helping others while in prisonin his new book, The Buddhist on Death Row. He'll join Town Hall for a virtual talk.

59th Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival While COVID has closed off many opportunities to enjoy live music the way we used to do, it's also opened up a ton of opportunities to enjoy experiences we likely would have never gotten around to seeing in ye olden times (of 2019). The Philadelphia Folk Festival (now in its 59th year) is a pretty big deal, but not a lot of Portlanders usually have it on their radar. But for 2020, now you can bring that fest to your TV with a couple clicks, and that means enjoying live music from Los Lobos, Allen Stone, Shakey Graves, Ben Gibbard, Rhiannon Giddens, Ivan Neville, and many, many more. It's not just live music, either: The Philadelphia Folksong Society is planning on adding campfire open mics, zoomable campsites, a craft show, and all the things that make going to a fest feel likegoingto a fest.

Virtual Tour of Meeker Mansion Check out the nooks and crannies of the historic Southend mansion without leaving your house. This virtual event with Pretty Gritty Tours is free.

Organic Mango & Sticky Rice Pop-Up A quintessential Thai treat is coming to Wallingford for a sunny window of time. Stop by this pop-up for a whole mango with lots of coconut milk and freshly made sticky rice in your choice of classic coconut, pandan, or Thai tea. 1714 N 44th St. (Wallingford)

Virtual Sky Tour with Pierce College Science Dome Take a virtual tour of the night sky viareal-time telescope observations captured with the Slooh telescope network.

HDLSC Presents: neither Bears nor Forest Enjoy a live set from local pop/R&B sextet Neither Bears Nor Forest, which features members fromSky Cries Mary, the Long Winters, and Voyager One.Donations will benefit King County Equity Now.

Lucinda Williams There are very few American singer/songwriters whove been able to transcend the purgatory of genre and cross over into national treasure territory. While debating nominees, one should consider Lucinda Williams, who has written a ubiquitous Grammy jam (Mary Chapin Carpenters Passionate Kisses), a universally acclaimed Americana masterpiece (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road), and produced a fruitful catalog that includes collaborations with legends like Ramblin Jack Elliott and Elvis Costello. Like a twangier Chrissie Hynde wearing well-worn cowboy boots, lost in the Laurel Canyon wilderness, Williams expertly glides between steely grit and tender grandeur, shedding tough layers to expose vulnerable heartstrings and then wrapping them back up with swathes of faded denim.

Music Gives: Together For St. Jude SupportSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital and be treated to an evening of live music from the likes ofTim McGraw and Brad Paisley, with "culinary content" from well-known chefs thrown into the mix.

NVCS presents: J GRGRY Have you seen that movie Velvet Goldmine? With Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a David Bowie stand-in, Ewan McGregor doing his best Iggy Pop impersonation, and a youngish Christian Bale trying to keep up with the punk/glitter rock of it all? Okay, well imagine if that film somehow birthed a band. I think J GRGRY would be it. In early performances, members of the LA-based outfit would wiggle around to their electro-pop dance music, covered in body paint reminiscent of that low-key fictionalized Bowie flick. JASMYNE KEIMIG

Raise The Cakes! Online Concert Fundraiser Local food truck My Sweet lil Cakeshad their tangerine-colored trailer stolen, and we'd all like to see them back on the curb selling hotcakes as soon as possible. Tune in to this livestreamed Retro Earth Studio fundraising concert, where you can help cover the losses by donating to their GoFundMe.

Speakeasy! Former Stranger staffer Callan Berry, the creator ofPolice Reports Illustrated and a person who is good at making cocktails, will teach you how to mix up a boozy concoction and draw a little comic every other Thursday. He'll also answer your most pressing questions.

XALT: Digital Premiere + Dance and Tell Watch all-new dance films from Whim W'Him's XALT program, featuringphysically distant choreography by Penny Saunders and Olivier Wevers. In addition to sharing interviews and clips about the making of the dances, the hosts will also introduce the new IN-with-WHIM streaming service, where you'll be able to watch the program even if you miss the premiere.

Candace Robb: A Choir of Crows Just as a newarchbishop is about to take the throne in 14-century York, two bodies are found on the grounds of York Minster, and the captain of the city bailiffs is called to investigate. Hear more fromCandace Robb's new mystery in this livestreamed conversation with fellow authorsMichelle Urberg and Marian Seibert.

Virtual Book Talk: Deep River w/ Karl Marlantes Described in press materials as "a stunningly expansive narrative of human suffering, courage, and reinvention," Karl Marlantes will join the National Nordic Museum for a reading of his new novelDeep River. The event is part of Nordic Sl.

Welcome to El: An Intimate Night of Comedy with El Sanchez Beloved local comedian El Sanchez recorded an intimate, hilarious show at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center just before the quarantine took effect. For those who missed it, the show is now on demand!

Pike-Pine Summer United Get 10% off your bill at local bars and eateries like Amandine Bakeshop, A Pizza Mart, Bateau, and tons of other places on Capitol Hill moving into Phase 2 of reopening by mentioning The Stranger's Pike-Pine promotion. Various locations (Capitol Hill)

Doe Bay Fest Local artists have been invited to post up in the Orcas Island-adjacent Doe Bay resort (which is currently operating at 50% capacity) to bring live music to the people throughout the summer. Catch sets in-person from performers like local favorites Kate Olson and Evan Flory-Barnes this week. Doe Bay Resort (Olga)

Saint Joan Despite George Bernard Shaw's trenchant atheism, his classic depiction of the Maid of Orleans stresses her strength, bravery, faith, and humanity in the face of political and religious oppression. The original date of this production, staged by Mathew Wright, was canceled due to COVID-19. This is a digital rendition.

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation The Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, presented by Velocity Dance Center, will move online this year, allowing you to register for the whole festival or mix and match to build your own schedule. Just like the past 26 festivals, this one will feature a week of intensive and drop-in workshops, including one with local dancers Morgan Thorson and Fox Whitney.

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair The Seattle Art Fair was canceled, but a bunch of local galleriesmany of which are in Pioneer Squareare taking it upon themselves to keep the tradition alive while abiding by social distancing guidelines with a DIY, self-guided version featuring exciting new pieces by artists like Anthony White. Various locations

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The 39 Best Things to Do in Seattle This Week: August 10-13, 2020 - TheStranger.com

By IANS

NEW DELHI: Actress Priyanka Copra executive-produces Evil Eye, which is one out of eight spinechilling and interlinked films that constitute the upcoming original OTT series, Welcome To The Blumhouse.

The eight films will have a common theme centred on family and love as redemptive or destructive forces.

The first two films -- Veena Sud's "The Lie" and Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.'s "Black Box" -- will drop on October 6. These will be followed by Priyanka's "Evil Eye", and "Nocturne", written and directed by filmmaker Zu Quirke, on October 13.

The rest of the slate will be unveiled in 2021.

Based on playwright Madhuri Shekar's award-winning production, "Evil Eye" is directed by Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani, and stars Sarita Choudhury, Sunita Mani, Omar Maskati, and Bernard White. It shows how a seemingly perfect romance turns into a nightmare when a mother becomes convinced that her daughter's new boyfriend has a dark connection to her own past.

"The Lie", written and directed by Sud, stars Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaard and Joey King. It is about two desperate parents trying to cover up a horrific crime by their daughter, which leads them into a complicated web of lies and deception.

"Black Box" stars Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad and Amanda Christine. It is about a single father, who, after losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is.

"Nocturne" is written and directed by Zu Quirke. Starring Sydney Sweeney, Madison Iseman, Jacques Colimon and Ivan Shaw, the film takes one inside the halls of an elite arts academy, where a timid music student begins to outshine her more accomplished and outgoing twin sister when she discovers a mysterious notebook belonging to a recently deceased classmate.

To be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, the thematically connected original series is produced by Jason Blum's Blumhouse Television and Amazon Studios.

"We are excited to launch 'Welcome To The Blumhouse' with this exhilarating and provocative slate of original films for the first time ever. These chilling stories have something for everyone -- ready to fright and delight genre fans and newcomers alike," said Julie Rapaport of Amazon Studios.

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Priyanka Chopra's 'Evil Eye' headed to OTT platform - The New Indian Express

By Rose Vaughan

Student Intern, Davie

Cooperative Extension

The trend of the agricultural industry in Davie County is looking up.

Despite the threats of farmland loss, Davie farmland is growing. North Carolina ranks number two in the top 12 states at risk for loss of farmland due to urbanization.

Davie County is resisting that trend. Before 2012, the county was losing 12 percent of its farmland. Since then, there has been a 29 percent increase in the total amount of farmland. Farmers in Davie County are beginning to gain land back and they have used it to more than double the income of the industry.

Across all farms in the county, costs are decreasing and profits are increasing. In just five years the net profits for farmers increased by 270 percent. These improvements took place despite the fact that the number of farms declined by eight percent. Theres no doubt that the strength of agriculture in Davie County has grown.

Although data shows that Davie County agriculture is becoming stronger, it is evident that some things are changing. Some crop sales have decreased substantially. The production of tobacco has gone to zero dollars in sales, which was a significant decline since 2012 when the sales were nearly $1 million. On the other hand, the value of fruit, nut and berry products has gone up by 29 percent and the value of sod, greenhouse, nursery and floriculture products is up by 17 percent.

The amount of land used to harvest forage, corn, soybeans and wheat has grown.

Even more, modern and unique forms of agriculture like agritourism have taken off. In less than a decade, revenue from agritourism has increased by 121 percent. Therefore, many crops and other forms of agriculture have been in an upward trend in terms of production and profits. Its easy to think that the loss of one crop leads to a decline in agriculture as a whole based on those numbers, but the industry is making progress in other areas.

Being ranked No. 20 in the state, one of the strongest agricultural programs in Davie County is in the production of layer hens. Layers are the breed of chickens that are produced primarily for the purpose of laying eggs, hence the name layers. Whereas pullets are the chickens that are produced to replace the layers that die. The numbers of both the layers and the pullets have been increased to more than 318,000 chickens. On top of that, the county was able to raise the profits from egg production by $782,000 in a single year; thats a lot of eggs. The growth in layer hen and egg production has coincided with a 14 percent increase in the value of animal products since 2012.

What does that mean?

While the county is experiencing loss in some areas of agriculture, its making up for those losses by making progress in other areas of production. The shift from tobacco to grains and forages, for instance, may be more profitable for farmers because it allows them to focus their efforts on the more successful crops. On top of that, Davie County is resisting the threat for loss of farmland and even gaining more farmland back.

Ultimately, the changes in the industry seem to just be redirection. As George Bernard Shaw said, Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. The changes in Davie County agriculture has produced an overwhelmingly positive result which is evidence of progress, not decline.

Farmers are supported by consumers through local sales. They have grown their sales to consumers by 21 percent in five years. The Cooperative Extension Davie County Center has made an effort to increase the connection of farmers to consumers through local farmers markets and by giving consumers access to local farm information. You can support these farmers further by visiting our Web page at https://davie.ces.ncsu.edu/davie-local-farms/ for more information on how to reach local farms.

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Agriculture alive and well in Davie County - Davie County Enterprise Record - Davie Enterprise Record

If one wishes to count in decades, the 1920s was surely the greatest single decade in Irish writing in English. What other one could equal it for the sustained quality of its artistry, the immediate and lasting impact of its major works, its conviction in the value of the written word?

There is scarcely a year in the decade in which something remarkable did not occur. In 1920, George Bernard Shaws Heartbreak House premiered in New York. In 1921, WB Yeats published Michael Robartes and the Dancer, the volume that contains Easter 1916, The Second Coming and A Prayer for My Daughter. Ulysses made 1922 a watershed in modern literary history. Yeats received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.

The Abbey Theatre produced The Shadow of a Gunman, the first work in Sean OCaseys Dublin trilogy, that year, and Shaws Saint Joan, a play about political martyrdom, was premiered in New York. In 1924, OCaseys Juno and the Paycock was staged at the Abbey; Daniel Corkerys The Hidden Ireland, probably the most significant work of cultural criticism produced in Ireland that decade, appeared too. In 1925, Shaw received the Nobel Prize and Yeats published A Vision. This was the only the decades midpoint.

In 1926, OCaseys The Plough and the Stars was staged in the Abbey, prompting riots. The year 1927 was a quiet one, though Shakespeare and Company published Joyces Pomes Pennyeach in Paris. In 1928, The Tower, one of Yeatss finest volumes, was published. Anna Liva Plurabelle, extracted from Joyces Work in Progress, was also published by Faber & Faber and the Gate staged Oscar Wildes Salom for the first time in Ireland. Elizabeth Bowens The Last September was published in 1929.

In 1930, Yeatss Words Upon the Window Pane appeared and a 24-year old Samuel Beckett, making a beginning, published Whoroscope.

Across the Atlantic, Irish-American writers made a real mark in the 1920s. Eugene ONeills The Emperor Jones was staged in New York in 1920 and established ONeills reputation as an experimental playwright. F Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby was published in 1925. In 1927, ONeills All Gods Chillun Got Wings premiered with Paul Robeson starring in New York, and in 1928 ONeill won a Pulitzer Prize for Strange Interludes, premiered in New York that year.

They dont belong to Irish writing in any direct sense, but ONeills and Fitzgeralds works mark a moment when Irish-Americans left a permanent stamp on American literature. ONeills grandparents emigrated from Kilkenny in the wake of the Famine. His Irish-born father, James, grew up in a Buffalo slum, the family cared for by his mother Mary ONeill when her husband returned to Ireland. James made a considerable fortune in American touring theatre. In two generations, the family had moved well up the class system, though Eugene ONeill never forgot his fathers terror of the famine poorhouse or his familys Irish or class origins.

The collective contribution these writers Irish and Irish-American made to the arts of modern poetry, fiction and theatre in a single decade is immense. It is worth remembering, too, that many of them engaged, some occasionally, some consistently, with public political issues.

Roy Fosters biography of Yeats relates how on February 7th, 1921, the poet gave an address to the Oxford Irish Society, declaring to a young Irish republican student, James OReilly, that he would tell his audience their kings soldiers are murderous. As good as his word, he used his oration to praise Sinn Fin justice and denounce the Prussianism of the Black and Tans.

On November 8th, 1923, he defended Joyce in Trinity College against the charge of dullness. Ulysses, Yeats responded, might be as long as Johnsons dictionary and as foul as Rabelais, but Joyce was the only Irishman who had the intensity of the great novelist.

His 1925 Senate speech challenging the Cosgrave governments anti-divorce legislation is better remembered today than these earlier contributions. Knowing his side would lose, Yeats told his listeners on that occasion that There is no use quarrelling with icebergs in warm water and that while his opponents would now carry the day when the iceberg melts [Ireland] will become an exceedingly tolerant country.

OCaseys The Plough and the Stars prompted a riot at the Abbey which still possessed an audience passionate or excitable enough to make one. Norah Hoults short story collection Poor Women! (1928) portrayed the inner consciousness of women from varied class backgrounds struggling with religion and suggested that new constituencies were starting to find their own voices. Bowens first novel launched the career of a superb stylist.

Still, if the 1920s was a glorious literary decade, changes soon to come would irrevocably alter Irish writing and literary production generally. The first Pan-African Congress met in Paris in 1920 and the Harlem Renaissance was getting into its swing in New York. The Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1920 and in 1922 Gandhis Non-Cooperation Movement began in India.

ONeills The Emperor Jones, in its own way a critical commentary on the 1915 US occupation of Haiti, and a work that gave a leading role to an African-American character, now looks a decidedly dated play that deploys crass stereotypes of African-Americans and Caribbean peoples. The African-American actor Charles Gilpin, who played the lead role of Brutus Jones quarrelled continuously with ONeill and throughout the production changed the n-word in the dialogue to Negro or coloured to ONeills chagrin.

As the non-white colonies of Britain and the US asserted themselves in the decades ahead, the kind of casual racism to be found in most white writing in the 1920s would be called out more and more vigorously. And as Irish society settled into conservative state consolidation, and most Irish writers failed to connect with new struggles emerging across the British Empire, much Irish writing lapsed into its own version of a post-independence insularity and would not long remain to the fore in the annals of anti-colonial struggle.

In 1925, John Logie Baird transmitted the first television image and in 1928 made the first transatlantic TV transmission from London to Hartsdale, New York. In 1929, the Academy of Motion Pictures conferred its first awards, known as the Oscars, in Los Angeles. Though the full effects would take time to impinge on Ireland, when TV and cinema created new publics locally and globally, and shaped new kinds of attention and distraction, the literary authors authority, like an iceberg in hot water maybe, slowly declined.

In the familiar narratives of the 20th century, TV and cinema threw light on a darkened autarchic Ireland and created a more open society. This seems at best partially true. They also locked Ireland even more firmly into an Anglo-American transatlantic perspective, to the point that it could sometimes seem that anything happening beyond Great Britain or the United States scarcely mattered.

In any event, as the world became media-saturated over the course of the 20th century, in western-style liberal democracies especially, fewer and fewer writers would enjoy the immense public esteem once commanded by major 19th-century writers such as Victor Hugo or mile Zola in France, Charles Dickens or George Eliot in England, or Leo Tolstoy in Russia. Yeats in Ireland and Sartre in postwar France could inspire and provoke a nation in ways few writers in any contemporary liberal democracy can do today.

It is easy to criticise in retrospect, but the writers themselves may not always have helped matters. When Yeats rejected Sean OCaseys The Silver Tassie in 1928 and OCasey left in dudgeon for London, the fallout may have damaged both. The Abbey Theatre lost its only serious left-wing political writer; OCaseys experimental works in London never had the impact of his Dublin plays . The Abbey, Irish political drama and OCasey may all have been the long-term losers.

More generally, with the advent of what was already beginning to be called mass culture (FR Leaviss Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture was published in 1930), many of the greatest writers of the time tacked in the opposite direction towards avant-garde difficulty and specialist-audience obscurity.

Joyces Work in Progress, published as Finnegans Wake in 1939, is an astonishing feat with many admirers but few avid readers. Yeatss alienation from the new Ireland to which he had tied his fortunes led to works such as On the Boiler, published by the The Cuala Press in 1939; it was a fanatic rant seething with eugenicist disdain for the lower classes, mainly Catholic in Ireland. The strident anti-populist impulse that disfigures his later life especially set a pattern in Irish letters repeated later by others including Francis Stuart and Conor Cruise OBrien, the former drawn to Hitlers Germany, the latter indulging in late career belligerent Zionism and Islamophobia.

In an age of celebrity, Beckett would win celebrity by apparently eschewing celebrity. One way or another, the tango between writer, media and public remains even now tortuously difficult.

For those to whom it matters, the coming decade will be a time to look back, to celebrate, to think critically about Irish literary achievement. No commemorations or conferences in the 2020s, however, will return us to the 1920s. Nor will any amount of Booker Prizes or Tony Awards greatly change the situation of the contemporary writer either.

Today, accomplished poetry, literary drama and maybe even the literary novel are typically quiet niche pursuits closer to ballet or opera than to the novel and poetry a century ago. TV or cinema can make an occasional sensation of The Commitments, The Butcher Boy, Brooklyn or Normal People, but transmedia adaptability doesnt typically do much for the work of a Derek Mahon or Sinad Morrissey. Even when they do serve fiction writers, such as Colm Tibn with Brooklyn, they rarely serve as their more ambitious works, such as Tibns The Master.

The streaming companies that secure strong ratings on the back of works like Normal People rarely repay the favour to the literary world. Though a good novel with a neat story will always serve their purpose, it would be idle to look to Hulu or Netflix for serious critical programming on modern writing. Since writers contract to publishing corporations, and publishing corporations to distribution behemoths like Amazon, or to conglomerates like Disney or Time Warner, the writer, as much any other profession, lives in a world saturated in neoliberal capitalist hierarchy and values.

Looking back on Irish writing in the 1920s, two obvious things stand out: how male that world was and how Protestant. After the fall of Gaelic Ireland, the world of Irish writing and the Irish visual arts were a Protestant stronghold and Joyces exile and Daniel Corkerys crankiness need to be understood in that context.

Neither privileged masculinism nor Protestant patricianism inhibited work of quality. Yet, like ours now, the 1920s world was changing faster then than anyone could keep up with. Did Yeats in 1901 look farther into the future than he knew in Ireland and the Arts when he wrote: We who care deeply about the arts find ourselves the priesthood of any almost forgotten faith, and we must, I think, if we would win the people again, take upon ourselves the method and fervour of a priesthood. We must be half humble and half proud.

In a 21st-century Ireland where almost forgotten faiths are the norm, writers struggle, like priests or ministers, for real vocation and publics that care. Still, young writers continue to appear and even Trinity College, the early 20th-century heart of Irish dullness, continues to produce a few. The Irish generation that came of age after the 2008 financial crash has moved sharply leftwards and wants its own new Ireland. Its support for causes like that of the Palestinians or Black Lives Matter indicate that its views are more internationalist than narcissistically nationalist. The current pandemic and its fallout may push them further to the left.

Today, several youthful Irish writers, most prominently Sally Rooney and Oisn Fagan, announce themselves Marxists, resurrecting another almost forgotten faith, and are doing their best to create a new Irish political fiction capable of speaking to their own era. Their task will not be easy. For all the attention, nationally and internationally, lavished recently on Rooney, what her Marxism might mean for Irish writing today has generated little comment.

What does it mean to be a Marxist writer in the 21st century? Or to be an Irish one more particularly? How can it become something more than a marketing tag a distinguishing brand image? These are questions for critics even more than for writers like Rooney. However, for Irish critics to address such questions well, they will need to take capitalism, Marxism and literature all equally seriously, a rare enough occurrence in Irish studies.

The fact that Rooney and Fagan both attended Trinity reminds us, if reminder is needed, that the literary arts have always been, for better or worse, the preserve of elites. This has not changed greatly since the 1920s. No one can cut a leftist swathe in that world without difficulty. Still, the ambition is to be admired and bespeaks of the writers a faith in themselves and in literature, and a hope for a responsive public willing to consider the issues they raise seriously.

As we move into the centenary of the 1920s, we must wish these young starters well and hope that they, and their readers, can be half humble, half proud, and set our ambitions high. There is a literary tradition to inspire, much in it to emulate, much to avoid, much to renew.

Joe Cleary teaches English and Irish literature at Yale University. Cambridge University Press will publish his Modernism, Empire, World Literature next year.

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Golden decade: How Irish writing roared in the 1920s - The Irish Times

By Vejas Liulevicius, Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville The Haymarket Riot, May 4, 1886, Chicago. Beginning as a strike rally, an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb that killed eight police and a number of civilians.. (Image: Everett Historical/Shutterstock)

During the decades after the death of Karl Marx, the socialist movement expanded in many countries. Although there were fears among the Marxists that his ideology might grow faint or diverge from its initial principles, it continued to thrive, although with internal clashes between theory and practice. Also, there were many factions based on the interpretations of the principles in many countries.

Learn more about the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

In Austria-Hungary, under the rule of the Habsburg Empire, Marxists struggled to reconcile Marxs idea of fading nationalism with their ethnically diverse social structures. These Austro-Marxists came up with novel ideas and models such as federalism and autonomy to prevent the fading of ethnic identity. This was a problem that was persistent in the coming years and proved especially challenging to practice.

Another peculiar aspect of the Austro-Hungarian socialist movement was the immense mass power it had. This power was demonstrated through rallies in the streets. This was hugely impressive for a young man who had just arrived in the city in 1908. His name was Adolf Hitler. Although he was not attracted by the Social Democrats, the idea of mass politics was highly fascinating to him. In his book, Mein Kampf, he recalls how impressed he was with those masses selling to the proportions of a menacing army.

In the late 18th century, Poland was divided by Russian, German, and Austrian empires. Different regions of the country were ruled by these empires. As a result, the socialist parties were not able to form unified and long-lasting parties in this country. Different parties under different names were formed, including the Proletariat Party, a Polish Socialist Party, the Polish Social Democratic Party, and the radical party of SDKPiL (Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania). These were all underground parties that broke up in the early stages.

This is a transcript from the video series The Rise of Communism: From Marx to Lenin. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

In France, the socialist movement was revived after it was wiped out by the suppression of the Paris Commune. There was a wide range of movements including non-Marxist socialists, Anarchists, and Utopian Socialists. All of these revolutionary and non-revolutionary movements had their share of supporters.

The socialist movement in Britain was completely different from the rest. Although Marx had spent a good portion of his life in exile in Britain, his ideas were not as widely accepted there as in his home country, Germany.

British socialists had opposite ideas to the revolutionary Marxists. Instead of revolution and sudden upheaval, they believed in gradual reform. These ideas were adopted by British socialists from the principles of Fabianism. Some of the most noted members of the British socialist party include George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Fabianism also influenced the Labour Party. According to Harold Wilson, a Labour Prime Minister, the Methodist movement was a more influencing factor in the development of British socialism than Marx.

Learn more about World War I as a revolutionary opportunity.

Like Britain, America was different from the mainstream European socialism. The Americans perceived socialists as dangerous non-American foreigners who were not different from anarchists. This idea, known as the Red Scare, was the result of a historical event in 1886.

On May 4, a group of German anarchists were holding a protest in Haymarket Square, downtown Chicago. With police intervention to end the rally, things got out of hand after someone threw a bomb. The police opened fire and seven policemen and four civilians were killed. Some of the anarchists were found guilty and four of them were executed.

This tragic day still has its marks on American society. In most parts of the world, May 1 is celebrated as Labor Day, which was announced by the Second International to honor the Haymarket affair. But in America, the first Monday of September is Labor Day to separate it from the violent incident in Haymarket.

The incident has been known as one of the reasons why there is no mass socialism in America. But there are some other reasons which are more rooted in American culture and lifestyle. A number of scholars believe that capitalism is more imprinted in the minds of Americans than socialism. The high living standards in America are in contrast with socialist ideas of an absence of social class and private capital.

The Haymarket affair in America increased anti-radicalism and anti-anarchism sentiments. The Americans associated socialism with anarchism after this incident. This is one of the reasons why there is no mass socialism in America.

The Haymarket affair, which had great implications for the socialist movement in America, ended with the arrest of several anarchists. Four anarchists were hanged. Several policemen and civilians were also killed in the riot.

Socialism after the death of Marx continued to spread in Europe through trade unions and socialist parties. They vowed to improve working conditions for workers and create a better life. The Second International brought these parties together in periodic congresses.

Karl Marx, the German philosopher first put forth the ideas of social justice and equality. In his Communist Manifesto, together with Freidrich Engels, he laid the foundations of Communism. After his death, socialist movements spread in the world and created massive changes in history.

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Marxism after Marx in Europe and America - The Great Courses Daily News

Editors note:Dr. Shedingeris a Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He is the author of a recent book critiquing Darwinian triumphalism,The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms.

Recently I acquired a copy of the fourth edition of Strickbergers Evolution (2008) from a retiring biology colleague. Edited and updated by Brian K. Hall and Benedikt Hallgrimsson, Strickbergers Evolution bills itself as the most broadly based textbook on evolution and a staple in undergraduate education in evolutionary biology.

But what will biology students actually learn from this textbook? On my reading, this textbook functions more as staple in indoctrination in Darwinian triumphalism than it does a staple in undergraduate education. In a series of posts, I hope to provide a critical review of many of the ways this textbook misleads students and fails to provide a foundation for real education, which must always present an accurate and nuanced picture of our current state of knowledge.

Here, I will point out several basic errors of fact to be found in Strickbergers Evolution. Any textbook must be rigorously fact-checked, lest the existence of clear errors undermine the credibility of all the information presented. Such a process seems not to have happened here. As one small example, Francis Galton is called Darwins first cousin in a discussion about eugenics. Of course, Galton was only Darwins half-cousin, having been born to a daughter of Erasmus Darwin who was a half-sister to Robert Darwin, Charless father.

Unlike many textbooks on evolution, Strickbergers Evolution includes a section called Belief, Religion, and Evolution. In it we read:

Until Copernicus and Galileo in the sixteenth century, no one had seriously challenged the idea of a powerful deity controlling the physical universe. In the new worldview they and others ushered in, however, God appeared as an initial creator rather than as an incessant manipulator of the universe. The advent of Darwinism posed further threats to Western religion by suggesting that biological relationships, including the origin of humans and of all species, could be explained by natural selection without the intervention of a god.

Here we see the often-repeated error viewing the Darwinian revolution as the fulfillment of the Copernican revolution, in which humans were systematically removed from the center of concern. But left out of the discussion is the inconvenient fact that Copernicus primary motivation for placing the sun at the center of the cosmos was religious. Copernicus had no empirical evidence compelling this move. The Ptolemaic system still worked and accounted for observations, though it had become aesthetically messy due to the addition of many ad hoc features.

Copernicus reasoned that the God he worshiped as the great Artisan would never have created such an aesthetically displeasing monstrosity. Placing the sun at the center created a simpler cosmos more in keeping with Copernicus theologically motivated aesthetic sensibilities, and this was his primary argument for why a heliocentric model must be correct.

A few pages later, this error is repeated:

The first significant cracks in the theological armor of continued divine intervention in nature were made in the discoveries of natural laws regulating the motion of the solar system, by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.

But, of course, the idea of divine intervention did not end with Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, for Isaac Newton would come along and become the closest thing in the 17th century to an advocate of intelligent design!

Hall and Hallgrimsson are biologists, not historians of science, so perhaps these errors can be excused. But what should we make of their statement, Natural selection acts because of the differential survival of individual organisms with particular features? Even a novice would know that natural selection is a term to describe differential reproduction, not survival. Survival means nothing if organisms with particular features fail to out-reproduce organisms lacking these features. But Hall and Hallgrimsson seem to double down on this error when they write, Biological evolution tracks opportunistic pathways, and is blind to destinations other than survival. But natural selection cannot track anything, and even if it could, it would track reproduction, not survival. Darwin may have focused on survival, but the focus on differential reproduction has been at the center of evolutionary theory at least since the advent of population genetics in the 1930s. As Thomas Kuhn once pointed out, scientists are often woefully ignorant of the historical development of their own subjects.

This is not the only instance of faulty understanding of basic aspects of evolutionary theory and its history. In a section titled Randomness of Mutation, Hall and Hallgrimsson write:

Until the 1950s, the accepted view among bacteriologists was that bacteria had a unique plastic heredity in which appropriate mutations arise as an immediate response to the needs of the environment.

Actually, the randomness of mutation had already become an article of faith by 1943 due to the famous fluctuation test of Salvador Luria and Max Delbrck, whose seminal Genetics paper (Mutations of Bacteria from Virus Sensitivity to Virus Resistance) doesnt make it into the textbooks bibliography. The randomness of mutation was very much an accepted fact within the biological establishment long before the 1950s.

Eventually, this idea was challenged in 1988 when John Cairns and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health reworked Luria and Delbrcks fluctuation test and claimed to find evidence for directed mutation. This was followed in the early 1990s by two papers by Barry Hall purporting to demonstrate anticipatory mutagenesis. But these complicating challenges to the randomness of mutation, published in such respected journals as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, and Genetics, are entirely ignored in the textbook.

Finally, in one grand statement of Darwinian triumphalism, Hall and Hallgrimsson write:

Darwins theory made it clear that species fixity was not natural. These radical ideas, which revolutionized biology, also affected sociology, anthropology, economics, politics, womens rights, fiction, poetry, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, George Eliot, George Bernard Shaw, Henri Bergson, and Sigmund Freud are just a few of those who incorporated evolution into their studies, writings, politics, and world views.

The oversimplification here is staggering (Darwin and womens rights?!) and would take an entire book to unpack. At the very least, the late 19th and early 20th century eclipse of Darwinism (to borrow Peter Bowlers term) is ignored here. Lamarckian and vitalistic theories continued to be popular until the development of the evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s. George Bernard Shaw was a harsh critic of Darwin, and in coining the term lan vital, Henri Bergson was certainly no friend of Darwinism. I suppose such historical inaccuracies are a small price to pay in service to Darwinian indoctrination. But this makes a mockery of the educational process. Students deserve better.

In upcoming posts, I intend to discuss Strickbergers Evolution on issues such as its portrayal of Darwin, its presentation of some of what Jonathan Wells calls the icons of evolution, its discussion of coevolution and the initial stages of variation, the meaning of convergent evolution, and a few additional items like eye evolution and selection in pre-biotic chemistry. If Thomas Kuhn was correct that science textbooks constitute initiations into currently reigning scientific paradigms that bleach the blemishes of complicated histories, then Strickbergers Evolution could stand as Kuhns paradigmatic example.

Image: Charles Darwin, by Francis Darwin (Ed.) / Public domain, 1891.

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The Triumphalism of Strickberger's Evolution - Discovery Institute

Covid-19 has brought along tremendous changes in our daily lives. It has compelled us to adopt technology and digital tools in all areas of our lives. With so much of our time being spent online, an hour-long webinar with Mrs. Aditi Rindani, a media and communications specialist with more than 10+ years of experience probed me to write about the evolving digital world of education and communication.

The webinar began with the basics of communication and gave insights on the importance of non-verbal communication. 60-70% of human communication is inclusive of non-verbal communication and it is said that non-verbal cues strengthen a verbal conversation. The lack of personal connect and physical meetings have made it difficult to understand people and have paved the way for numerous assumptions and misunderstandings. Another disadvantage of online modes of communication is frequent distractions fueled by notifications, accessing other tabs and applications causing poor attention span of a person.

Various communication barriers like emotional barriers can be overcome by simply being empathetic and a good listener. Enquiring about their emotional status and well-being would go a long way in eliminating such hurdles. The communication barriers with respect to the ongoing Coronavirus need to be understood and dealt in a healthy way. At a time when inter-personal communication has gone for a toss, it is difficult to gauge non-verbal cues and build trust among people. Stress levels are high more than ever and deeming the need to be understood and showing empathy a priority.

The deeply affected education sector has now paved the way for using technology in education. Even with the boost of EdTech systems, there is an empathy deficit and a lack of human-centric feedback. Being confined to homes and screens has created a lot of anxiety and impatience among students. The responsibility of teachers has increased manifold as they have to create visual content to teach, keep track of students individually and conduct assessments simultaneously along with keeping a tab on the childrens well-being. The Delhi Government uses Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) under the umbrella of its Mission Buniyad. Parents and students can give a missed call to get an audio lesson every alternate day for more than 8 lac children enrolled across various public government schools. Such noteworthy initiatives ensure outreach of education to various communities of the society.

Professional communication for workplaces needs to be evolved and changed keeping in mind the dynamic circumstances. Respecting time and privacy, selecting the right mediums of communication, and keeping humans at the center rather than the task at hand would better help in maintaining a healthy relationship between employers and the employees. Setting group norms such as keeping color codes for various states of the mind (red for stress, green for happy and relaxed), having light conversations before meetings, or even group activities would provide more enthusiasm and provide a sense of belonging to the workforce. Previous responses and texts can be analyzed and improved to be more empathetic in the future. Importance must be given to proofreading emails and messages and using the right exclamations at the right time leaving no room for misunderstanding and hurt. Use appropriate sentences like these are good suggestions, let us discuss them tomorrow and give appropriate feedback whenever required.

Providing a sense of assurance to the people, be it employees or children must be done through constant communication. Conversing about things apart from work and conducting creative activities can prove much beneficial. Understand if they are coping with the changes, offer assistance, and inculcate kindness and empathy. Be a good listener and provide the benefit of doubt.

Battling challenging times like these, especially when it comes to education and communication, must be difficult at different levels and it is a leaders role to ensure the correct management of people. Understanding their perspectives and building a rapport with them can help to overcome the communication barriers.

As George Bernard Shaw rightly said, The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

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The Other Side Of Education And Communication In Covid-19 Times - Youth Incorporated

If economists were laid end on end, George Bernard Shaw once famously said, they would not reach a conclusion. Economists agree on many things, of course, but when their views clash, it attracts attention because economics, after all, revolves around the fundamental issues of peoples livelihoods and incomes. The fact that 100 economists recently asked parliament to roll back finance minister Tito Mbowenis supplementary budget appears to lend credence to Shaws view.

But the dire socioeconomic effect of Covid-19, both globally and in SA, calls for tough decisions about lives and livelihoods, buoyed by empirical evidence and a unity of purpose. The fact that the economists have asked parliament not to merely adjust but to reject Mbowenis supplementary budget must be taken seriously and answered.

What have the Treasury, the cabinet (which approved the revised budget strategy), the Reserve Bank, other economists and the markets overlooked in determining how the Covid-19 economy should be managed? The supplementary budgets warnings of a future sovereign risk debt crisis for SA are compelling, as are the economic policy steps needed to avert it. An old proverb says that heavenly vengeance pursues a crime slowly but nevertheless catches up with it in the end. In matters of debt the penalty is not halting; it pursues the culprit at a gallop.

But what is striking about the intervention by the 100 economists in the debate is the extent to which the Treasury has apparently had to fight this battle, at least so far, almost entirely on its own. Where are structures like the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) and even the National Planning Commission (NPC) as the custodian of the National Development Plan and its offshoots, in this important fiscal decision-making process?

In particular, the absence of the PEAC in recent economic deliberations and developments is very noticeable. Though occasionally mentioned in dispatches, the PEAC has not, surprisingly, assumed prominence during a period generally described as SAs worst economic setback since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Difficult decisions have had to be taken about the Covid-19 lockdown process. If ever there was a time for the PEAC to be visible and offering sage advice, it is now.

It may be that structures such as the PEAC have indeed been consulted informally behind the scenes. Doing good by stealth has its merits, but it is inappropriate for these times. The PEAC was specifically created nearly a year ago to serve as a forum for in-depth and structured discussion on emerging global and domestic developments, economic and development policies ... and ensuring greater coherence and consistency in the implementation of economic policy. Transparency is needed to build confidence and support.

Yet given the unprecedented and rapid developments over the past few months, most of the economic debate has been left to others, with the PEAC not playing its assigned public role. That does not mean the PEAC, the FFC or the NPC would necessarily be unanimous in their views. But given their professional expertise and credibility, the research that has already been done, and these bodies mandate to give practical advice to decisionmakers, they would bring balance to the debate.

And with the margin for error in policymaking in SA now drastically reduced, the PEAC especially must bring its unquestionable insights to bear in determining what will and will not work in the present economic circumstances. The medium-term budget policy statement in October should now bear the imprint of its counsel. Ultimately, the PEAC is helping to run a country, not a seminar.

Public finance is one of those subjects that sits on the border between economics and politics even more so given SAs febrile socioeconomic climate, now aggravated by Covid-19. Political factionalism in the governing ANC complicates the task of finding practical solutions to pressing socioeconomic challenges. The danger of strongly ideologically driven economic policy is that it turns practical matters into issues of principle.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will find the PEACs advice either valuable or hampering, depending on the extent of political dissent within his own ranks. But if the PEAC now smartly sets about its task, it will nonetheless be in a position to encourage the good economics SA desperately needs for the hard times it is experiencing.

Moreover, the council must be seen to be proactive and not passive in shaping its agenda. It needs to acknowledge the big Covid-19 issues, think about them with a clear and steady mind, and be ready with the right advice at the right time.

Ramaphosa originally said he wanted the PEAC to provide him with frank and honest advice. If SA is to forge a successful, economic plan for after Covid-19, the time for such advice is now.

Parsons is a professor at the North-West University Business School

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RAYMOND PARSONS: Where are all the presidents councils? - Business Day

Greg Wilson, Special to the USA TODAY NETWORK Published 3:02 p.m. ET June 30, 2020 | Updated 8:33 p.m. ET June 30, 2020

In one month, the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota transformed our national debate. The protests moved beyond a call for an end to white police officers killing unarmed black men to calls for sweeping criminal justice system reform.

As our new national debate informs officials to remove Confederate statues and flags from public squares and NASCAR races, contemporary symbols of police brutality are falling as well. In Philadelphia, the statue of Mayor Frank Rizzo known for his indulgence of police brutality toward minorities was removed out of concern for public safety. In Georgetown, Delaware, a monument to the states own peculiar institution the whipping post is finally being seen for thesavagery it represents and removed.

Sociologist Robert Graham Caldwell in his 1947 book, "Red Hannah: Delawares Whipping Post," chronicled Delawares years of corporal punishment from the mid-1600s through the mid-20th century. Caldwell found between 1900 and 1942 more than 1,600 prisoners were publicly whipped, 66.2 percent were negroes, 65.8 percent were either unskilled laborers or farm hands. For those four decades, African Americans comprised just 16 percent of the states population.

While millions of Americans saw police brutality meted out to George Floyd for allegedly passing a counterfeit$20bill, Delawareans for over 200 years watched prisoners whipped for theft of property of very little value ... less than $10, or for simply stealing chickens.Caldwells research and data shattered myths held by whipping postproponents. He found the post did not deter crime, or reduce recidivism or incarceration.

Delaware reminded free people of color that brutality and white supremacy still reigned seven months after the Civil War ended, when Sarah E. Robinson, an African-American woman, was convicted of larceny. She was whipped with twenty lashes and sold for 5 cents into servitude for seven years.

The whipping posts and public floggings in each of Delawares three counties sullied the states reputation nationwide for decades. In 1912,theSan Francisco Startook Delaware to task for whipping prisoners: In a cruelty that is of the past, she stands alone, and is ashamed in her loneliness. She should awake ... and move forward among those who happily have discarded the ways of savagery. As it is, she earns not only startled wonder, but contempt as well.

In 1931, playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote theNew York Times, in America, the frightfully long periods of solitary confinement and Delawares flogging suggest the civilization of fiends rather than human beings.

In 1935, the warden of the New Castle County Workhouse, Elmer Leach, described the whipping post as a barbaric relic of the past.

Thelast public whipping took place on June 16, 1952. It wasnt until 1972that Republican Gov. Russell Peterson and the Delaware legislature finally removed the whipping post from the Delaware criminal code.

In 1993, the Georgetown Historical Society in Delaware dedicated a whipping post for public display just off the town square. The text on the marker for the post is misleading. While it is accurate on the number of lashes for larceny, it states: During the 1840s many people thought the laws concerning the whipping post should be looked at. In reality, Delawareans fought to abolish the whipping post for over 150 years.

The marker also leaves the impression that the last time a person was whipped in Sussex County was in 1906.In fact, a person was whipped in Sussex County in 1942, for stealing a tire.And the last time a person was whipped in Kent and Sussex Counties happened in 1950.

Dover resident Dr. Reba Hollingsworth remembers the Kent County whipping she witnessed in the late 1930s.

They whipped people on Saturdays, generally, said the 93-year-old woman of color.

She said the white man convicted of stealing chickens, was already chained when I got there.

Her most distinct memory:there was a big crowd ... they were quiet ... I remember the sound of the lash.

When asked about the whipping post and Confederate statues, the former school counselor said, Whipping posts and Confederate monuments should be taken out of the public square, and so we do not forget the history, put into museums.

On Wednesday, the whipping post will finally be removed from public view in Georgetown.

"Now is the time for doing this, said Tim Slavin, director, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, and shame on us for not doing it sooner."

George Floyds death, countless other deaths from over-policing, and the whipping post in Georgetown remind all Americans how unequal treatment under the law isnt a new trend by any means; its been around for centuries.

A whipping post stands outside the Old Courthouse in Georgetown.(Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER, DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL)

Which is why Delawares Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs should work with the state board of education to review how Delaware schools teach race relations, and develop new lesson plans pertaining to corporal punishment, criminal justice reform and Red Hannah.

Delawareans need to know why removing the whipping post matters.

Greg Wilson is a consultant and lives in Wilmington.

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