What has pandemic life been like for you? Im curious to know how the experience varies for different people & began researching about that this past weekend.

And somewhere down that internet rabbit hole I began looking into past pandemics and what pandemic life was like for the humans back then.

Back in 1918 during the Spanish Flu, not only were there no effective vaccines or antivirals, drugs that could treat the flu like today but the ability to converse with friends and family all over the world was far far off from possible.

In fact with the lack of communication tools, people were reliant on local community updates through physical printing methods to be kept in the loop about pandemic progress. And if you got the virus there was no way to let anyone know, let alone ask for help.

In fact if you were smart at the time, you would use something like a white scarf, and wrap it around your door handle to let people know that you werent feeling well & they shouldnt enter your room.

But with no way to connect & communicate that made the 24 months more dreadful from isolation and fear of the unknown.

Whereas today, during the coronavirus, the advancement of technology has made the transition & change more comfortable for many people.

With an estimate of over 5 billion people having access to a cell phone/computer which gives us the ability

Were far better off in terms of connection than those during the Spanish Flu.

Our devices have become an external limb we carry them everywhere, are holding them throughout the day, and if we leave the house with nothing else, our phone will at the least be in our pocket.

If we think about this progression it started with computer interfaces. A huge innovation for computers were the mouse and keyboard additions which made using them more intuitive.

We then got rid of the keyboards & began controlling these devices like we do the rest of the objects around us with our hands.

Simple touches that replaced the need for keyboards and mouses, leading us to the touchscreen phase. Its so easy and natural that a child can control these devices with no instructions using just their fingers.

But what now? ..

It seems like a very obvious progression for these hardware devices to now disappear and for us to have the information that can be accessed using them available to us in thin air.

Currently virtual, mixed, augmented reality have been leveraged to try to make this a reality with initiatives like Project Aria by Facebook, however using XR in isolation, doesnt seem like a promising bet for making this ubiquitous.

Lets compare this access to all information from a device in thin air instead to smartphones, becoming ubiquitous.

According to the founder of Neurable there were 3 main stages to the iPhone becoming ubiquitous.

Category 1: Niche/Enterprise specialized category

The Palm Pilot phone falls under this, which was specifically for business people to organize their data.

Category 2: Consumer Specialized Category

The Palm Live Drive falls under this, which was a phone with WiFi and touchscreen & all these novel features that the industry hasnt seen yet.

Category 3: Ubiquitous

The iPhone falls under the ubiquitous category. The interesting thing is that the Palm Live Drive which came out years earlier than the iPhone had more features.

Secret: The difference between a consumer specialized product and a ubiquitous product is the interaction being undeniably natural aka the iPhone.

Current AR/VR methods are an unnatural alternative to the iPhone because they lack

*Enter: Brain computer interface magic*

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that allow communication between the brain and various machines and seemingly the next stage in this interface evolution.

An event-related potential (ERP) is the measured brain response that is the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event. It has been used to allow differently-abled individuals to type using their thoughts, hands-free.

The way that this works is that

6. If the patient blinked, the key would move to the right.

7. If the patient didnt blink for three seconds then that key would be clicked on and typed.

8. There were also shortcut keys which let you go back to a specific row, or shuffle between them without having to click through each box individually.

As this progresses & is made to work faster and more intuitively it could allow all of us to type using just our thoughts.

Leveraging such ERP for a variety of conscious want detection & then using advancing ML tech to produce real-time, responsive actions in XR environment have been created like thinking of wanting an orange on a table from the other side of the room and then the orange travelling to you.

This intersection of XR and BCIs could allow us to create an alternative to smartphones which becomes ubiquitous

Three main steps:

The first step is measuring brain signals which can be done with three different approaches.

So, imagine you are living in a different city and want to join your family for their dinner table conversation.

This invasive approach would be like asking all you family members to wear lavalier microphones on their collars while on call with you and you listen to the conversation using air pods so you are able to get clear and crisp information (/audio) of what they are saying.

2. Semi-invasive method: electrodes are placed on the exposed surface of the brain and electrocorticography (or ECoG) data is collected by recording electrical activity from the cerebral cortex of the brain.

This would be like having a smartphone on the table to listen to your familys conversation via WhatsApp audio, you can hear what they are saying but it could be crisper.

3. Non-invasive method: sensors are placed on the scalp to measure the electrical potentials produced by the brain also known as electroencephalogram (or EEG) data.

This is like having your phone in the kitchen and listening to the call while you clean up the living room its harder to make sense of what they are saying, but you could listen carefully to understand it better.

Drawing the parallel between the types of brain signal collection methods & the listening to a call methods shows the accuracy & detail of data that can be collected by each.

The measured brain signals are then run through a software which identifies the different brain signals based on the activity performed.

For example if a theta wave is detected which is when the brainwave has a frequency between 4 to 7 hertz that indicates the individual is sleeping.

Then machine learning is used to activate an output where a machine takes a certain action. The external device is controlled/responds according to how it was programmed to based on the brain signal detected.

Currently the most practical applications of brain computer interfaces have been in the medical field

According to the World Bank, 1 billion, or 15% of the worlds population are differently-abled and must rely on others to help them perform basic tasks like eating, walking, drinking water & bathing.

They lack the privilege of controlling their day to day actions and interacting with other people & technology the way fully-abled individuals can.

The previous example of typing using your thoughts is currently being used by LIS or Locked In Syndrome patients who cannot move any muscles in their body except for blinking their eyes.

Using BCIs researchers from Case Western Reserve University & Harvard Medical School have also been able to restore functional reach-to-grasp ability for a patient who had a severe spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the shoulders down.

There was another study that allowed paralyzed monkeys to walk.

A company thats currently working on creating a world without limitations where you can be someone whos different abled or fully-abled but can interact or control anything using just your mind is Neurable.

The algorithm systems goal is to understand user intent. So far theyve created a virtual reality device and cap which records electrical signals from brain activity and interprets what you actually want to do from them.

Theyve created a software that allows you to control devices using just your mind in both the real world and the digital world essentially telekinetics.

The way that it works is that when new information is presented to you, your frontal lobe which is in charge of executive function communicates with your parietal lobe which helps with visual spatial processing.

They leverage those two areas of the brain to understand user intent and move external objects accordingly which takes us to the world of brain-machine interfaces where interfaces meet robotics and smart objects

As BCIs progress exponentially & they are being used for purposes other than helping those differently abled, neurological data from more and more people will become available, & we will be confronted with critical ethical questions.

This future isnt as far away as it seems with Ray Kurzweil, used to the Head of Engineering at Google, who thinks that by 2030s were all likely to have brain chips.

For example, the US Military is in clinical trials for a mood altering brain implant which would allow them to control how you feel. The intent is to help soldiers with depression or PTSD feel better. But if you think about it: thats still a third party controlling how you feel

Researchers have also been able to detect if you are laughing, smiling, running or jumping in a dream. And so if we could program these dreams which feel like real experiences to create virtual realities of ones mind that you or other people could step into, then ones desires, secrets, and thoughts could be exposed and taken advantage of.

Today itself we are worried about the data thats being collected on us based on external actions. Skin outward which pictures we like, who we meet, what we eat etc.

But with brain chips predicted to become a norm, third party organizations could have access to whats going on inside us technically knowing us better than we know ourselves.

That relationship is far more dangerous, & if manipulated by economically or politically incentivized organizations with malicious intent dangerous outcome.

A solution proposed by Bryan Johnson, the founder of Kernel is that if we say that human data privacy is a right and

As BCIs continue to rapidly develop future realities brain to brain interfaces could transform our day to day interactions.

There was a study conducted where there was

This is known as brain-to-brain communication & would allow us humans to communicate with each other not by speaking, not by texting, but instead by simply thinking

This could allow us to share our knowledge, experiences, and opinions with each other non-verbally leading us to explore what it means to download knowledge and skill sets.

We spend over 20 years about 1/5th of the human lifetime in educational institutions acquiring knowledge. We learn what already exists, is already available, what others already know.

There was a Harvard study that showed that more students are likely to know where on the internet to find out information on something than the information itself.

What if we could save years by downloading the knowledge and skills we need at the moment & spend more of our time working on questioning it, and applying it opposed to just acquiring it.

There are researchers looking into how our consciousness are all somehow connected shared consciousness. Where we could potentially experience someone elses life by experiencing other peoples experiences in a dreamlike state.

This could potentially allow us to eliminate isolation and allow for true empathy at the same time redefining what it means to be human.

Before we make telepathy, telekinetics, and getting rid of smartphones a reality. I have a quick question for you:

What does it actually mean to be human

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Smartphones But in Thin Air? | Future of Interface Evolution - Medium

Published December 8, 2020 by Jodie Hare Writer

Many have highlighted the potential benefits of reading translated literature, and with novels like Olga Tokarczuks Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the...

Many have highlighted the potential benefits of reading translated literature, and with novels like Olga Tokarczuks Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, it seems that translated works are performing better than ever. Despite this, however, reports show that as of 2018, only 5.63% of published work in the UK is translated fiction. So, what are we as a nation missing out on through this omission? If Henry James-Garretts newly published book, This Book Will Make You Kinder, is anything to go by, I believe we are missing out on the opportunity to learn how to be kinder.

James-Garrett, who spent time as a PhD candidate researching empathy and metaethics, writes that "we are kind (to the extent we are) because we possess the capacity for empathy [] Its thanks to empathy that you care about experiences that are not your own. And that is why you are kind."Therefore, he believes that many examples of malice are caused by what he terms "empathy-limiting mistakes",and that this "tendency for our empathy to be sabotaged by our lack of knowledge about other peoples lives and our impact on them, accounts for the larger part of human cruelty."

This ignorance around the lives of others is where I believe translated literature can offer a solution. He acknowledges that in todays world, the current power structure maintains its position through the control of stories it decides whose stories are worth telling, whose will be believed and whose can be manipulated for structural gains. James-Garrett asks, "How does one become less prone to ignorance-induced cruelty? The answer is simple: We just have to listen" -and by listening, he means "any conscious effort we make to learn about and internalize someone elses experience".

Whileyou may be questioning why reading British literature is not sufficient for this task, we must remember that there are ample reports that demonstrate that the lack of diversity in our publishing sector is still a huge problem, and that if James-Garretts theory is to be believed, reading stories from further afield can offer us the chance to cultivate more empathy for those who live beyond our tiny island.

James-Garrett explains how evolution might have used kin selection as a method to foster our altruistic behaviours, and that this can leave empathy gaps between ourselves and those outside of our particular social groups. I believe, however, that this gap can be tightened when we are able to locate shared experiences in others stories those such as our ability to love, to hate, to feel fear and to wonder. It is difficult to maintain a lack of empathy when we are trailing similar emotional landscapes and when we are forced to reconcile with the fact that there are experiences that we do share, even when a world apart.

Although we mustnt think that there is nothing to learn from the differences in our stories either. A fact acknowledged by Rnn Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul, who emphasises that "Literature and culture are ways for us to exchange lived experiences, and this exchange is fundamentally an act of respect. The most culturally porous part of us is our imaginations, so its through these international stories that we stand the best chance of transcending what separates us".This exchange of stories lies at the heart of translation work and ensures that reading more translated literature can allow us to interact with the stories of marginalised groups. In a world where the use of English is so dominant, it is easy to go unheard or be dismissed when using another language. This leads to the underrepresentation of members of our own community and beyond and there have been calls for the decolonisation of the publishing industry and the need to decentre whiteness in the writing that is published as a result.

So, how can the publishing industry focus on the inclusion of translated literature?

It may help to start by taking a look at the publishers who are already doing great work in this area, such as And Other Storiesor Charco Press, or perhaps beginning to seek out collaboration with the many academic communities where translation work is practiced regularly and valued highly, such as Out of the Wings. It will involve reaching out to publishers from every inch of the globe and being willing to promote stories that are different from our own. Perhaps we should even consider the use of James-Garretts book in promotional campaigns as an example of the advantages of reading in translation. The possibilities are endless - and important to grasp hold of now.

Jodie Hare is a freelance writer and has just finished an MA in Modern Languages, Literature and Culture at King's College London.

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Found in translation - The Bookseller

A five-country study by food industry analysts New Nutrition Business has found 34% of 25- to 44-year-olds want to eat more healthy fats. The research, which looked at attitudes across the UK, Spain, US, Brazil and Australia found this level is significantly higher than older age groups. Of consumers aged between 55- and 65-years old, only 23% are trying to eat more healthy fats.

The evolution of consumer attitudes to fat is a partial reflection of increased concerns over sugar and carbs, New Nutritions report suggested. But a growing number of consumers are also seeking out good fats in their diets.

In our survey the percentage of [people] trying to consume more 'good fats' was 25% in America, 23% in the UK and 30% in Spain. Ten years ago, that figure was about 5%, Julian Mellentin, director of New Nutrition Business, told FoodNavigator.

Mellentin pointed to rising sales of butter and full-fat dairy as a reliable marker for consumer behaviour. For example, sales of cream have increased in Sweden and Denmark; 10% fat Greek yoghurt is sold in the UK - with even retailer own-label brands offering it.

Mellentin believes the low fat is best dietary dogma is falling by the wayside in the US, with UK consumers close behind. But it does still hold sway over most people and particularly older consumers.

The rest of Europe is lagging in embracing 'more fat', Mellentin continued. But, on the other hand, many [European consumers] didn't ever embrace 'less fat' as much as the English-speaking world did.

Mellentin observed that consumer value judgements around fat reflect an evolving understanding of the role good fats play in the diet.

"Good fat is defined in the mind of the consumer, not by a regulatory or scientific definition. Right now that means things like avocado oil, coconut oil, oils from various nuts (such as almond) and dairy fat. But consumers views of what is 'good' are fragmented. One person will think it is coconut oil, another 10% fat Greek yoghurt.

But while it might not be entirely clear what a good fat is for consumers, Mellentin is confident that increasing numbers of people are distinguishing between what they broadly consider good and bad fats.

It started in the 1990s when the 'all fat is bad' dietary mantra of the 1970s and 1980s became a bit more nuanced in the face of the fact that omega-3 fish oils were shown to have heart health benefits - and the fats occurring in tree nuts also. Since then it's been gathering momentum.

New Nutrition believes that changing views about the healthfulness of saturated fat are starting to re-shape categories.

Challenger brands, big brands, retailer own-labels all are benefiting from consumers declining fear of fat, according to New Nutrition.

The consultancy looks to innovation in the UK as case in point, where the likes of Marks and Spencer and Tesco both offer a 10% fat Greek yoghurt. Meanwhile, Deliciously Ellas a challenger brand popular with health-conscious millennials and particularly embracing a plant-based diet offers nut butter cups sweetened with date syrup and coconut sugar. Fat content from coconut oil, cacao butter and almond butter is 23g per 100g.

The inclusion of fat in recipes. Mellentin observed, opens the door to a more indulgent sensory experience.

When people discover fat, theres such a taste difference, he observed. And when taste is consistently the number one purchase motivator, this can have significant implications for brands.

Fat is the product developers friend, improving texture, mouthfeel, structure and moisture content. In all categories, as time passes there will be less reason to produce products that have low levels of fat. The challenge for companies is to ensure they use good quality fats where they can point to a good, natural source.

Nevertheless, some challenges stand in the way, the innovation consultant continued. The introduction of Nutri-Score across Europe could pose a problem for high fat products, who would receive a lower overall ranking in the front-of-pack scheme which is calculated on a products overall nutritional profile.

The Nutri-Score system will retard the development of 'more fat' products in some countries. But give it ten years and even that will change. The weight of science will force the Nutri-Score people to change their scoring eventually, Mellentin predicted.

Indeed, he is confident in the scientific basis for his belief that it is possible to develop healthy high-fat products.

The evolution of science over the last ten years has demonstrated that dairy fat has none of the negatives that were previously attributed to it. What the dietary guidelines might say is increasingly irrelevant since people can do their own online research and decide for themselves what they think is healthy.

Low carb and high-fats diets are now described as 'safe and effective' for weight loss and management of type-2 diabetes by the Canadian Diabetes Association, a decision made in 2020. The American DA came to the same conclusion the year before. In the UK, the professional body for family doctors is teaching its members (slowly) how to use high fat and low carb diets for weight loss and T2S management, following a very successful pilot scheme. Most of Europe will follow.

Read more:
Fats in fashion: 'Fat is the product developers' friend' - FoodNavigator.com

Oliver Stone's filmography has levied an unprecedented effect on the popular understanding of American history, especially of the turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His style has been described as highly subjective, fantastical, impassioned, insensitive, and unabashedly masculine. It is rather undisputed, however, that his features are not without cultural, racial, or religious shortsightedness. Stone's narrative style is particularly strong when working within a certain set of circumstances with respect to story and historical substance. Western, male characters are his forte, as are stories focused on events with which he has a strong personal relationship, as shown particularly in Platoon,JFK, and Natural Born Killers. His work with more unfamiliar perspectives, on the other hand, highlight his filmmaking shortfalls regarding historical accuracy, cultural identity and sensitivity, and political insight. For example, in Nixon, Stone's personal set of inclinations about the nature of the U.S. government cloud a potentially substantive and devastating indictment of both Richard Nixon's character and his political tendencies. In Heaven & Earth, these weaknesses materialize in a more disenfranchising and personal sense, resulting in a voyeuristic, objectifying, and extraordinarily impersonal personal story about a displaced victim of the Vietnam War.

People go to movies for an accurate reading of history, even if a vast number of historians and filmmakers agree that movies dont documentthey glorify. In order to assess Stones relationship with the historical record, its important to consider him as a filmmaker first, and a historian second. Stone lives in his own reality, which is informed by a skepticism of history as its been taught, through a uniquely layered psychological approach. Living through decades of historical trauma, political dispersions, and environmental and aesthetic nostalgia, the written record shaped Stone into the visually innovative filmmaker that directed JFK, Nixon, Platoon, Heaven and Earth, and Natural Born Killers, among others. Although skepticism and criticism are prominent in his work, expertly woven throughout drama, theres a clear set of ideals to be found at its center, ideals that come from Stones own perspective of the American record, which is itself informed by an ideology drawn from his own experience with the tumultuous decades of the postwar era. What we see across Stones efforts at painting what he believes is the true story of America, is a desire to embody characters and cultural dynamics while keeping his own experience with U.S. history a key part of the films psychology.

Stones films are unabashedly melodramatic, and usually feature re-writings or dramatic compositions of history, lines like telling the truth is a scary thing sometimes, and the sort of passionate soliloquies that influenced writers like Aaron Sorkin. Much of Stones success rests on the extraordinary ways in which he is able to tell those stories, through sound and image and editing. Author and historian Robert A. Rosenstone writes that rather than going between subjective and objective reality, Stone introduces another dimension to history altogether, imposing a dramatic construct onto history the same way historians use revolution, evolution, or progress. Stone is a lover of history, and a reader. His films focus on the time periods of his upbringing and of recent history. But drama cannot produce the same kind of investigation of the past as scholarship. Movies are like a first draft on history, Toplin writes, something to be analyzed in both the quality of the retelling and the impact such films have on popular understanding of historical implications. Academics and journalists agree that Stones films always come too close to fiction. Many scenes in JFK are re-staged and intertwined with actual footage history. A critic wrote that it doesnt know which way to go. Moviemakers also grossly simplify the historical record. This framework for defining the nature of Stones work aligns with his ability to tell stories poignantly. As a historical filmmaker with a notable profile in both Hollywood and in Washington, D.C., Stone frequently receives scrutiny on his approach to re-writing parts of history in the interest of creating higher stakes for a story, stakes that point to real life ones. This is the most poignant element of his work in the popular sphere, and it is most emblemized by the performance of JFK with critics. Co-writer Zachary Sklar noted that despite a mass media frenzy against the films conspiratorial connotations, he and Stone made an effort to respond to each and every review that suggested the film is pure fiction.

There is another key aspect here: the ways in which viewers should regard Oliver Stones version of American history, and that is the real scope of his films political statements. Marcus Raskin writes in JFK and the Culture of Violence in the American Historical Review, It does no good to pick apart the rendering of an event by an artist. His or her purpose is not the particular but the general. It is to take an event see within it a series of truths, some felt, some unconsciously understood and hardly articulated, that make sense and meaning of an event, its cause, and its implications. Americas soul is at stake, and there are usually two forces whose conflict defines Stones subjective camera. In Platoon, Elias and Barnes arent just two very different commanders, but also represent two very different worldviews with respect to the real Vietnam War. They are, in essence, competing for the soul of Chris Taylor. In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko and Carl Fox fight for the soul of Bud Fox. As Professor Peter Kuznick defined, this duality of two authorities [represents] light and dark, black and white, good and evil. An individual put in a complicated moral dilemma and how the individual deals with that dilemma.

The orientation of Stones approach to direction is most clearly defined when analyzing how he takes on the same subject matter from distinct perspectives, or different points of reference. There are two key comparisons to be made in this vein. The first is between Platoon and Heaven and Earth, perhaps together one of the most societally salient double-perspectives of the Vietnam War. The second is between JFK and Nixon.

As a historical filmmaker with a notable profile in both Hollywood and in Washington, D.C., Stone frequently receives scrutiny on his approach to re-writing parts of history in the interest of creating higher stakes for a story, stakes that point to real life ones. This is the most poignant element of his work in the popular sphere, and it is most emblemized by the performance of JFK with critics.

The most powerful lasting effect of JFK is its redefinition of what historical cinema can be, in the context of a national wound that, following decades without clarity, had remained fresh. Oliver Stones brand of historical filmmaking, as Robert Toplin writes, constitutes a highly subjective version of actual persons and events and enlivening them with colorful imagery, concocted dialogue, and imaginary people. The purpose of this construction, therefore, is to boldly [explore] a variety of modern artistic techniques, using the medium to arouse viewers emotions and to stimulate their interests. The most compelling aspect of the film to be the broad exposure and condemnation of the so-called deep state, as Americans have come to regard their government as just as discrete, recluse, and nefarious as the dark organizations they claim to protect the public from. Drawing in the national frustrations from the Pentagon Papers leak, the Watergate scandal, the Iran-Contra affair, and President George H. W. Bushs granting of clemency to several convicted Iran-Contra figures, JFK took on establishment corruption at its core, to the reaction that everybody had expected up to that point for that very element. The film hit a wrong vein in the public perception, said Zachary Sklar in his talk. People thought this was [still] an unresolved wound. Through cinematic technique and storytelling genius, Stone and Sklar have managed to put one of the most traumatic events in the postwar period and present it to the American people as a thrilling piece of entertainment but, at the same time, a powerful work of intrigue that attacks a particularly sharp pain point in the national conscience. Marcus Raskin writes, For an entire generation, the scar over the healing process of forgetfulness about the Kennedy assassination hid a festering sore of doubt that became thoroughly embedded in the national conscience throughout the American scandals during the Cold War.

This was the implication of the trial of Clay Shaw. Immediately following both Garrisons very public legal proceeding against Shaw as well as the release of the JFK film, the news media launched attacks on his character. Critics charged Garrison with intimidating witnesses, being embedded with the mafia, living as a closet Communist, and suppressing evidence from a polygraph test. However, the truth is more of a mixed bag. Stone admitted to making Garrison seem somewhat more heroic and handsome to advance his movies case for a conspiracy, as Robert Toplin writes, but denies that any flaws in Garrison prevented him from acting correctly in the case. In reality, the federal government had done everything in its power to stall Garrisons investigation. They denied his subpoenas, his calling of important out-of-state witnesses, and his requests for autopsy reports and medical records. Furthermore, the U.S. government tapped Garrisons phones, had him followed, and turned over stolen copies of his files to Clay Shaws defense attorneys. It went a step further in its effort to discredit skeptics of the Warren Commissions report by launching a smear campaign against Garrison during the Shaw trial, an effort that declassified memos showed were organized by the CIA. Sklar mentioned a Rolling Stone Magazine article by Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein regarding the CIAs planting of assets in the popular media. In the article, Bernstein details a number of cases in which journalists had been approached by government agents looking to recruit soldiers for the great American propaganda machine and contextualizes these reports with some contextualization around Operation Mockingbird, exposing several major media figures as page boys of the CIA. This, in addition to the memos that specifically proved the government's engagement with the media in Garrisons case, shows the depth with which the countrys key information source was entangled with nefarious interests.

Therefore, not only did Stones perspective of Kennedys assassination gradually gain credibility, JFKs overarching effort was to unveil a nefarious force within the federal government, a body built to strike down progressive change through bureacracy, industry, and war. Robert S. Robins, a political scientist, and Jerrold M. Post, a psychiatrist, presented a paper at the 1997 meeting of the American Political Science Association, writing that Stones films embody political paranoia as cinematic motif as a paranoid theme to add narrative power and commercial value to the film. JFK was largely based on the singular perspective of the real Jim Garrison, who is written in the film like Mr. Smith going to Washington. President Kennedy, through the films own investigation, comes out just as bright as the Camelot image with which he entered the White House, a young, progressive symbol of hope pitted against a sprawling network of henchmen for the status quo, armed with surveillance technology and CIA-orchestrated media attacks. Like the description of the beast in Nixons emblematic scene at the Lincoln Memorial between the president and a group of student protestors, JFK largely implicates the greater American political machine, rather than some specific individual. This is the general that Raskin writes about when he wrote [the artist's] purpose is not the particular but the general. Stone, in making JFK the way he did as well as the way he responded to public critics, used uncondescending and creative technical and stylistic choices to produce a film that unabashedly confronts the darkness of reality. JFK is emblematic of Stones style for this reason, among others. The effort seems to be toward enmassing the American people to look at history through a new highly critical psychological dimension while from the shadows finding a fierce optimism to effect change and transparency.

However, as Stone drifts from the style of JFK, which is heavily informed by objective fact despite having a clear thesis, toward a more psychoanalytical style, we see a different result. Of course, JFK and Nixon are vastly different films, but the difference says something about how Stone approaches direction. Whereas JFK is relentless and makes no shortage of enemies, Nixon on its surface feels empathetic of its subject despite his legacy being one of rampant corruption, lies, paranoia, and authoritarianism. Daniel Ellsberg has stated he was not a fan of the film due to its soft depiction of Nixons role in expanding the war effort in South Asia. In response to a question from a student who asked Stone why despite President Nixons sour legacy of a destructive War on Drugs, the expansion of the Vietnam War, rampant corruption, and political paranoia, the movie decided to go the route of humanizing someone most people in America would remember as a monster. Stone replied, I actually think he was a disaster for this country. He brought a cynicism to politics I feel did not exist before [in this movie], I walk in his shoes. Nixon was a malevolent figure, the movie makes that clear his wife saw through him. At one point, she asks him, When are you going to be honest, Dick? his sentimental reaction to being hated is not an effort to make you feel bad for him. It is to make him human. He attributes the films empathy with the character to the desperate, paranoid, but sensitive portrayal of Dick Nixon by Anthony Hopkins.

Stones response brings up another key point that must be addressed about his identity as part-historian and part-filmmaker is the way his various minor historical inaccuracieswhile harmless as were focused on Toplins general standard of what an artist is trying to say about a piece of history rather than the particularare sometimes so extreme that he forsakes key parts of his subject matters historical implications in favor of generating heightened stakes for a character. In Nixon, that character is Nixons wife, Pat, who Stone cites as a key part of defining her husbands persona in the film. This can result in self-sabotage. Its one thing to simplify the historical record; its another to change it completely for the sake of character design.

In Nixon, Stone completely reinvents Pat Nixon, who is written as independent, unafraid to speak up to her husband, fatigued by but also well-equipped for the shark pit of political life, and somehow most unrealistically, respected by her husband. In the film, Pat serves as a major influence on her husband both on the nights of his loss to John F. Kennedy and his later loss in the California gubernatorial election two years laterafter which the real Richard Nixon told reporters he was done: You wont have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore. There were reports circulating that on both these dates, Nixon had badly brutalized his wife. The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, a 2000 book by Irish non-fiction author Anthony Summers, details a number of notes from various campaign figures. Governor Pat Brown said years after the election, We got word at one stage of the campaign that he kicked the hell out of her, hit her. Frank Cullen, one of Browns top advisors, said that Dick had beat the hell out of Pat Nixon after Kennedys win. Following his loss in the California governors election, beat Pat badly so badly that she could not go out the next day. According to Summers, aides like Haldeman, Robert Finch, or Erlichman would on occasion have to go in and intervene. Stones historical reputability is strongest when he profusely assesses the information he is given and the boundaries governing how much he can stretch it. It doesnt work much when he arbitrarily takes away pieces of reality to humanize an American villain, because that in itself takes away from historical implication. This is why many felt like Nixon is sympathetic to the real Nixon, even if it was not the intention of Stone for that to happen.

The details of President Nixons actual relationship with his wife were uncommonly published, but were published nonetheless. Stone ignored them, in favor of developing a composite version of Pat Nixon that played a larger role in Dicks psychological identity that the real one never did. Her character in the film is necessary to bring some depth to Nixons insecurity and pathological lying, pointing to a more generic thesis about Nixons legacy. However, in reality, Pat Nixon was a victim, not a mother figure or a wife figure, for that matter. It appears Stones narrative strength is decided by a conflict between psychoanalysis and making a broader political statement. This is most clear when a film revolves around a single man, rather than a research-based investigation. While both stories point fingers at similar sources of evil, many aspects of the JFK assassination were proven to be true in the crossfire between Stone and his critics but the ultimate legacy of his Nixon film would be less than insightful. While JFK literally merges historical footage with re-staged scenes for heightened tension and was criticized for placing itself between subjective and objective history, it appears that Nixon was a greater sin in the context of this interaction between historical accuracy and affirming certain general worldviews of the U.S. government.

Platoon is the hallmark of Stone-ism. It is a projection of his own experience, grounded in a skepticism of the wars legitimacy that rose into national prominence as it carried on through the 1960s with little progress. It is passionate, it is fiery, and it has its distinct political identity against the mythic Apocalypse Now, the calculating Full Metal Jacket. Platoon opens and closes on body bags, is plagued with confusion, anger, and bittersweet sentimentality, and what little hope it begins with is soon shattered by the reality of jungle warfare. Warmth is found in recognizing the injustices of the draft, as Chris Taylor finds solace in dancing to Motown and smoking marijuana with the black soldiers, who collectively bring a nuanced racial aspect to the story. Much of the friction in the squad comes from the dissonance between two commanding officers, Sergeants Barnes and Elias. Born on the Fourth of July aptly explores the consequences of the romanticized culture of violence in the post-World War II hue, and seeks to portray its full effects on those sent overseas to fight. Heaven and Earth, however, is grounded differently; it takes on the perspective of a Vietnamese woman, Le Ly Hayslip, who is painted as both a metaphor for national upheaval, as well as a sexual martyr. However, in doing so, Stone applies an oversimplified level of abjection and passiveness to Hayslips character that loses her soul buried under a mountain of violence, sexual assault, and male distress. Janet Maslin of the New York Times writes in her review of Heaven & Earth that [Stones] best direction is volatile, angry and muscular in ways that Ms. Hayslip's story, that of a resilient, long-suffering victim, simply cannot accommodate [Stone] has the wrong cinematic vocabulary for his heroine's essentially passive experience. Whereas Platoon draws its energy from something very real that Stone himself feels, where the main character is an active participant in their own experience and makes determinations of his own soul based on what he goes through, Hayslip in Heaven & Earth rarely rises from one-dimensionality. Despite other characters describing Le Ly as headstrong and spoiled, Hiep Thi Le plays her as passive, a witness of historic events but not much of a participant in them, writes critic John Larson.

On December 22, 1993, Oliver Stone told Charlie Rose, Organized religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spiritualism is for people whove been to hell. Stones Heaven and Earth takes us directly to hell and back through the singular experience of Hayslip, and is perhaps the most relevant film when talking about applying Stones style of filmmaking to an intimate, spiritual story that need not be drawn in any capacity from Stones own experience, but rather from Hayslips cultural and ethnic identity. Stones conception of Buddhism, drawn from Hayslips poetic tellings of her own tale, are somewhat shorthanded and oversimplified. His approach to being in hell and finding peace in chaos is notably dissonant. This idea is depicted prominently in the scene in which Hayslip has a snake beneath her shirt and sees a vision of the boy she liked, who is shaking his head while being pulled out of a helicopter, at peace before death. Hayslip closes her eyes, and Stone dials down the soundtrack and dissolves her image against a profile of the Buddha statue from her shrine, which also opens and wraps the film. Then, as she is brought to the Viet Cong when suspected of fraternizing with the enemy and held at gunpoint before a grave dug for her, she closes her eyes and finds peace. Stone cuts us through short flashbacks to her family and her home. Even as she is brutally raped in the mud and rain these flashbacks continue. Stone is attempting to portray the resilience of spiritual peace, which he believes is felt by those in the darkest depths of hell. Much later, as Butler is confessing his black ops duties to Hayslip after he points a shotgun at the back of her head, he tells a story about the execution of a woman he was shacking up with by his own men. I was in hell, baby, he cries. I was in pure hell. The screen goes red and he attempts to kill himself, before Hayslip stops him. These moments hold the core of the story, and align Stones own experience with the Vietnam War with Hayslips. I always felt like it was more of a philosophical film, Stone told Rose in 1993. Its about reality and who owns it and how we perceive it, as opposed to being a political statement. But in deliberately avoiding what he knows best and taking a hard-headed perspective on the passive experience of an individual whose struggle is uniquely emblematic of European imperialisms harshest realities, Stone fails to recognize the root of that reality and the ethnic connotations of his film in a significant way. As a result, Heaven and Earth feels like it is fetishizing the brutally chaotic experience and cultural traditions of its subject without giving much to the character herself. And as a result, because the entire film is centered on a philosophical, religious velcrum that breaks as soon as Stone tries to apply his own hell to Hayslips and apply himself through Hayslips spiritual framework, its trajectory falls flat.

The extreme reverence of the perfectly idyllic landscapes, the brave choice of ending a horror story with such a peaceful spirituality almost amounts to a fetishization of Buddhist philosophy and Vietnamese culture, despite the movies awareness of American soldiers views of Asian women. It is painfully clear that Stones camera and narrative in Heaven and Earth belongs to a white male American. It paints the mountain shoulders and rice paddies of Vietnam mythically majestic to the point of being cultural voyeurism. From Kotaros blazing soundtrack to the lush color profile to the meticulously consonant framing, the movies introduction to the setting evokes a glory that resembles a romantic discovery more so than a piece of the villagers everyday life. Despite this, however, Stone does doan excellent job destroying this initial image of the landscape by covering it with soldiers, fire, helicopters, and bombers in the tone of Platoon. The evacuation scenes striking images of crowds of straw hats, coupled with Hayslips narration, My whole country was falling apart, evoke the imagery of the Trail of Tears and the Bataang March. On the level of the subject Hayslip is sexualized the entire film, written as a hard-working woman but constantly portrayed in submissive ways. Thats the nature of the Vietnam Wars legacy: a long-standing sexual fetishization of Asian women as prostitutes and housekeepers whose value comes from the men they marry. Dangling a future in a country that contributed to her numerous tragedies in front of Hayslip, Steve Butler unabashedly says, I need a good oriental woman like you and has no problem articulating that his ex-wife turned him off from Western women. The film brushes this off, cutting through Hayslips cooperation with various men in the story as evolution, not a passive form of extortion.

Furthermore, its painfully clear who the target audience is, because English is used as a substitute for Hayslips native language. The most effective way Hayslip is disenfranchised in Heaven & Earth is that she is denied her native tongue, which Americanizes the film before it can even begin. Accents, especially broken Asian accents are cinematic fodder for easy humor, like in Coen Brothers films, but here the level of brokenness simply tells us when she is speaking Vietnamese and when she is speaking English. Later, we hear her speak in broken English to American soldiers, she says things like Me no hooker, and as a soldier barges into her home asking where Kim is, Hayslip replies, Kim work and You go bye. Later, when Hayslip is getting acquaintedagainst her will, reallywith Steve Butler, she exclaims in almost comical choppiness, You no undah-see-tand. I no want go dinner, and You nice man, but I no want boyfriend, and Me had boyfriend. But me no want new boyfriend. The result of this dissonance between the two forms of English in Heaven and Earth is that the movie can really only become compelling once white characters start to take up more runtime, because they are portrayed by white American actors who can produce more organic value through their familiarity with the language; when we hear Hayslips family speaking in accented English, it simply does not work and sabotages Stones effort. Stone is painting a two-sided picture with only one side of the paintbrush. He obviously understands the power that his script holds on Vietnamese visibility in Hollywood, which plays a crucial role in indicating the spirit of the Vietnam War in the United States. We know this because Stone went out of his way to cast Vietnamese actors and actresses in Heaven and Earth. Why, then, did he not have most of the film in the Vietnamese language? To borrow a metaphor from a completely different film, hearing English spoken in an accent on a film that purports to embody a different cultural orientation is like showering with a raincoat on, and works against Stones thesis by taking away a certain level of genuinity from the actors voices. Furthermore, it works against the films spiritual core by reducing the poetry of Le Ly Hayslips own conception of her experience into an accented English that eats through the films cultural verisimilitude, which Robert Richardsons camera and Kitaros original score are fantastic in producing.

At the center of Stones film career is passion, anger, and skepticism. His style wavers with intensity depending on the subject matter, ranging from a politically conscious first-timer in Vietnam to a soldier who has returned home with completely changed and disassociated to a Vietnamese woman with a brutal but extraordinary experience with the horrors of the war, but it is consistent in its political identity and effort to start a conversation about the dynamics driving Americas direction. His ability to vividly tell a story as both a memorable piece of cinema and a statement on society demands an open mind for change, without much giving the answers. Those who suggest he is some arrogant revisionist fear-monger are blind to the simplification for the sake of finding something greater in the context of the modern eras foreign affairs turmoil and socioeconomic upheaval. The larger dimension of this argument, that there is a clear distinction between Stones filmmaking side and his historian side, is a broader thesis on how Stone approaches filmmaking altogether, and what he conveys about his own political and cultural worldview through style and creative decisions. Furthermore, it must be established hat there are key components missing to this worldview and how he chooses to illustrate the stories he believes should be seen and heard, including a more organic and objectively irreverent approach to race, to gender issues, and an assessment of the cinematic vocabulary he uses to strike societys pain points, as is clear in Heaven & Earth and Nixon, films that are more myopic than his others in their search for Americas soul.

1.) Toplin, Robert. Oliver Stones USA. Lawrence, University of Kansas., 2000. pp. 7

2.) Ibid, pp. 5-6

3.) Raskin, Marcus. JFK and the Culture of Violence. American Historical Review, April 1992. Pp. 487

4.) Ibid, Toplin. pp. 166

5.) Ibid. pp. 9

6.) The country knew of the controversial nature of JFK in the months leading up to its premiere.

7.) Ibid, Raskin, pp. 488

8.) Toplin. Pp. 64.

9.) Kennedys autopsy is of particular importance in the case for a conspiracy, as Jim DiEugenio extensively discussed over Skype. DiEugenio spoke of the story of John Stringer, the medical photographer at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland where Kennedys autopsy had been conducted. Stringer was, years down the line, shown the official photographs of Kennedys brain but reported that the negatives were not Kodak film, which he used almost exclusively, bringing into question the legitimacy of the autopsy reports. Furthermore, Kennedys brain was weighed at 1,500 grams, which was far too heavy for a man of Kennedys size and stature. A more appropriate weight would have been 1,350 grams, but even that seemed too generous given that the Zapruder film showed parts of the presidents face and head being blown off, and bits of his brain flying out.

10.) Bernstein, Carl. The CIA and the Media: How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up. Rolling Stone Magazine, October 20, 1977.

11.) Ibid, Raskin.

12.) Summers, Anthony & Robbyn Swan. The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon. Viking, 2000. Pp. unavailable (Google Books)

13.) Maslin, Janet. Review/Film: Heaven and Earth; A Woman's View Of Vietnam Horrors. The New York Times. The New York Times, December 24, 1993.

14.) Larson, Josh. Review: Heaven & Earth. LarsenOnFilm.Com.

Read more here:
Examining the Complex, Subjective Filmography of Oliver Stone: A Comparison and Critique of "JFK" to "Nixon" and...

Abstract:Mobility has never played a more important part in our lives as it now does in these COVID times which has forced the world and most especially the hospitality industry to adopt a contactless/lo-touch environment. This article explains the journey as how we got to where we are now, and how the industry could emerge and transform hand-in-hand with mobility and the various benefits it brings with it.

Mobility in concept and in practice, as the word implies, will never stand still. At no time was this more apparent than on June 29, 2007 when the iPhone untethered us irrevocably. We are seeing this now too since the invisible enemy, COVID-19, struck early this year and we continue to grapple with its consequence as best we can.

At warp speed, the hospitality industry was left with little choice but to be drawn into a mobile driven contactless/lo-touch culture. This idea had been floated many years ago but the urgency of applying it didn't exist pre-COVID. Back then, and let's not forget, this was really only NINE MONTHS ago, we all would happily check-in to hotels and not think twice about sanitizing every space or amenity inside a room. Nor would we give a second thought of handling light switches, doorknobs, a TV remote control, thermostat, room service menu or phone devices, to name a few. No more! The pandemic has forced minds to change. And it has been seismic. Everyone has been required to assess their operations and to ensure they not only thrive but survive amidst this environment. Assuring its guests they are in a safe bubble while within their property's perimeter is now paramount to avoid infection and/or curtail the spread of the virus.

Tech adoption, only surpassed by the panic buying of toilet paper at the virus' outset, went into overdrive. What probably would have taken a couple of years to become a reality, was put in place in 6+ months, driven also by the necessity to #WFH [Work From Home] and #WFA [Work From Anywhere]. Consequently, we are seeing software companies mushrooming and scrambling to develop a multitude of complementary solutions to meet the new normal for the classification of a world we are now involuntarily forced to live in.

On a personal level and primarily to the readers of this article, we tragically know that one of the most affected industries is hospitality a subset of travel, and while we wait for the silver bullet to appear and be successfully implemented in the form of a vaccine, one must co-exist and work with this most challenging hand we have been dealt with.

But before we delve into the diverse benefits mobility has, and will continue to bring us, let's take a moment to reflect on the chronology as to how we got to this juncture - this tech milestone in mobility adoption.

in July 1980 Yukio Yokozawa invented the first "true" laptop computer called the Epson HX-20 (also known as the HC-20). Why was it classified as the first "true" laptop computer? Because it was a fully integrated device - complete with keyboard, screen, storage unit and printer, and was only the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and it had a very long battery life. At the time of launch, there were no software applications - only the BASIC operating system supplied on its ROM [Read-Only Memory].

Then in 1994 - the QR code was launched by Denso Wave - now called the Denso Corporation, but some say that by 2017 adoption had slowed - but in reality, we all know how popular this iconic tech has again become.

On March 10, 1997, the Palm Pilot was launched, the once ubiquitous Blackberry on January 19, 1999, and the Compaq iPAQ complete with stylus, in April 2000.

In early 2001 the first ever Hotel app "Hotelinmyhand" was launched by Pertlink to provide information and services to hotel guests at a touch of a hand. The software ran on a Palm Pilot and Compaq iPAQ - the two most popular mobile platforms at that time - our first foray into contactless technology for the hospitality industry, when the concept and urgent need didn't exist at that time. It was seen as ground breaking then, with CNN featuring it as part of their piece on the launch of Rosedale on the Park, Hong Kong.

On June 29, 2007 - Apple's iPhone was launched by the late Steve Jobs with more computing power under its 4.5 inches x 2.4 inches hood than what was used for the Apollo 11 Moon landing which took place thirty-eight years earlier on July 20, 1969. And from that day forward, the term "app" became part of the everyday lexicon.

In 2014, I worked with Samsung and HotSOS to place an experimental lite app on the Samsung Gear 3 watch "a first" - and it was for the South Beach Hotel project in Singapore. Sadly, a dream that was just too early for its time.

Knowing all this, it has taken the Hospitality industry almost two decades to finally adopt mobility or since Hotelinmyhand was launched, a major part of that adoption having been the birth and incorporation of the QR code - understandably selected in these times because they are non-contact. Who said hospitality was an innovative and fast-moving industry?

But having said all that, what we have witnessed in this last 6+ months is that various old fashioned and bureaucratic practices across numerous industries are becoming obsolete in the blink of an eye, especially mobile transactional processes encapsulating payment processing using all manner of eWallets including PayPal's recent announcement to accommodate BTC wallets, along with QR codes and online solutions. In fact, I wonder how many wallet solutions with the 3-letter word "pay" in it you can now name?

Up until now that is pre-and during this COVID era, Hotels have predominantly used mobility as part of their operations for Housekeeping and Engineering task request fulfillment, service delivery, in-room environmental controls, compendium replacements, and to some extent, POS terminal alternates. Those Hotels that are fortunate enough to be open and able to accept guests, have further adopted mobility for socially-distanced contactless/lo-touch concepts to include check-in, check-out, food ordering by QR code retrieved menus, chat function, wayfinding with beacons and mobile key. The latter element potentially having a weighty cost burden depending on the type of installed infrastructure.

As a subset of hospitality, mobile app driven Meal delivery or Take-out services have flourished as people elect to "order-in" since restaurant in-dining has been put into temporary hibernation. And online ordering of all manner of items has reached unparalleled levels with what now seems regular Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales [US online sale for Thanksgiving 2020 reached $5.1 billion and shortly followed by $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday] that has had a dramatically negative impact on brick n mortar operations - with the consequential outcome being furloughed staff and loss of various income sources such as rent. UPS claim to have been swamped and had to temporarily suspend pickups from multiple big-brand vendors.

Generationally, there has been a rush by some early adopters for Wi-Fi 6, and more specifically, 5G compatibility that purports downloads and uploads at wireline speeds. But this may soon be overshadowed, since China has already launched their first 6G satellite, albeit, without a confirmed standard to follow. Go figure! But work does continue elsewhere on 6G - with for example the Terahertz chip, whereby a group of researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the Osaka University in Japan have developed an error-free Terahertz chip capable of a data rate up to 16 Gbps. Things are definitely moving fast in this space!

And please, let's not forget techpreneur Elon Musk and his SpaceX Starlink system which had a birth date of 2015, and as of October 24, 2020 launched a public BETA service. Starlink utilizes strings of low earth orbiting satellites to deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. To-date, Starlink has nearly 1,000 satellites in orbit, and is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near-global coverage of the populated world by 2021, according to the Starlink website. One may ask; "How will this impact mobility?" Well, one of the sub-sets of hospitality where this will become extremely beneficial is the heavily-battered cruise industry which offers spotty at best connections, and at very high rates. Definitely one to watch - no pun intended.

Taking a 360-degree view, let's look at what else has happened in the mobile world. Apple recently launched their in-house developed silicon-powered computers using the M1 chip, clearly demonstrating to the world that it is moving to near-complete mobility - and how the once clunky desktop, which firstly morphed into a notebook, then a phone, a tablet, and is now becoming an all-in-one ecosystem, since the same apps can run on all hardware - with the only differentiations being size, power requirements, in some cases a fan, and greater storage capacity. And just in case you are curious, in most situations, the smaller device costs more than their larger counterparts.

But hardware, just like a blank canvas, is only part of the solution, it's only as good and useful as the apps that run on it. So, to address the situation, great minds around the world are brainstorming and mind-melding as to what problem these solutions can fix, and we all know only too well that hospitality has more than its fair share of those. And as we hopefully soon come out of COVID hibernation, there will be the new post pandemic gold rush - with all the players vying for market share, and desperately trying to claw back lost revenues. So how can mobility help with this?

Well, one of things you may have heard about is that when addressing the virtual G20 summit on Saturday night (November 21, 2020), Chinese President Xi Jinping said a global mechanism involving mutual recognition of health certificates, including nucleic acid test results in the form of QR codes, could be used to enable cross-border travel - perhaps me thinks with a dash of blockchain thrown in to add to the authenticity of the data.

In China, the QR code system for COVID tracking, was launched through Ant Financials' Alipay in Hangzhou on February 11, 2020, and assigns users one of three coloured QR codes - green, yellow and red. Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News reported that the system covered three provinces initially - Zhejiang, Sichuan and Hainan - and the municipality of Chongqing with a total population of nearly 180 million, and would soon go on to cover the entire country. It was later found to have been adopted in over 100 cities across the country within a week, according to Xinhua. In Beijing, the mini-program can be accessed both through Alipay and Tencent's ubiquitous app WeChat. Users can obtain their codes by entering their name, national identity number and registering with facial recognition.

As an extension to mobility helping facilitate the re-ignition of travel, IATA [International Air Transport Association] are joining a push to introduce so-called COVID passports. The Travel Pass will display test results together with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules and details of the nearest labs. The app will also link to an electronic copy of the holder's passport to prove their identity and authenticity.

One of the other ways I envision the future of mobility to evolve, and to help lay claim to a bigger stake in the post COVID gold rush, is to get closer to that even more important customer - know what they want and as best you can within the constraints of the business, deliver it to them. This is something hospitality has struggled with for eons, with CRS/PMS local and enterprise-wide profiles, CRM [Customers Really Matter] and all manner of things. But has it been successful? You can be the judge of that when you return to a hotel previously visited and must again fill in a registration card, or not get a welcome back thank you, or

More than ever before, it's now time for the business to #KNOWME.

A few years ago, I conceptualized the idea to create an app which allows a guest to pre-store their personal data and preferences - locally on-device or in the cloud depending on data privacy regulations, and either pre-arrival, or upon arrival, securely exchange that data with the property to customize certain elements of their stay, thereby enhancing the guest experience, creating loyalty to the brand/property, and translating into an ROI for the property. This personal data exchange would be shared via QR code and some form of secure 2FA. Now in COVID times, this could be extended in part, for the purposes of contact tracing since it seems everywhere you go, there is either a QR code to shoot, or a form to complete. And why, when you can have the relevant data pre-stored in your device?

Brands are extremely protective, and rightly so, but let's be honest, the guest is no longer loyal to just one brand - there can be several, especially if the chosen location is not suitably covered by Brand Favorite #1, so then Brand Favorite #2 may have to come into play - or even a new independent selected - and what happens then to me and my preferences - held in Brand X's CRM? Does the industry focus too much on loyalty for their own brands? Of course, they do, and mobility could change that - maybe not overnight - but it will, especially post COVID.

This app creates a centralized "source of truth" for the guest data - and the entire hospitality industry, versus the fragmented and siloed approach it now has. This kind of development will usher in new levels of guest engagement and loyalty, and allow hoteliers to compete on an even footing.

As the inimitable Steve Jobs used to say; "there's one more thing", and in the case of the mobile, and the WFH world we live in - it's a biggie - data security.

Recently I heard a scenario during a webinar whereby Dad was forced to WFH and he worked for one of the leading burger chains, and used the family notebook computer to access the company systems. Mum also worked for a fast-food chain, but a competitor, and she shared the same computer to do her biz and personal stuff, and sometimes help the kids with their schoolwork. The kids used the same machine for study, game playing with pirated software, and watching YouTube as well as accessing torrents. There were no secure partitions on the machine, no MDM [M obile Device Management], there were shared passwords, and anti-virus was a freeware version. You can let your imagination run wild as to the implications from this all-too-often scenario and the brand new risks it brings.

This contemporary scenario doesn't end there, one has to be more conscious and alert than ever before that threat actors are in play, just waiting to steal your trophy data, and will go to almost any extreme to access it. There are all-manner of pandemic-themed lures and scams.

One must absolutely secure endpoints both outside and inside your perimeters, particularly when you are allowing BYOD [Bring Your Own Device]. Screen sharing or screen capture software is another huge loophole as is IoT [Internet Of Things]. Phishing has gone through the roof, with cybercrime at an all-time high, and according to the experts, Nation states involvement in cybercrime is on the increase with cloud computing. Employing a Never trust - Always verify policy is paramount!

Without doubt, mobility provides ease and facility to make the so-called "New Normal" liveable by putting information or services front and centre in an easy-to-carry, easy-to-digest mobile but secure platform/APP, and so why wait? From everyone's point of view, the tedium of filling up endless forms and repetitively doing the same old data collection processes can be effortlessly avoided - it is a most welcome development, another manifestation of mobility's continuing evolution in this constantly changing world.

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There's probably an app for that! | By Terence Ronson Hospitality Net - Hospitality Net

The Telegraph

Tim Stanley: This was the ugliest debate ever Rosa Prince: Biden proves Democrats made wrong choice Trump criticised for telling white supremacist group Proud Boys to 'stand by' When is the next debate? Join our brilliant US election WhatsApp group Subscribe to The Telegraph Donald Trump and Joe Biden went at each other hammer and tongs in the first of three debates in the US presidential election. In a bad-tempered and at times chaotic debate, the candidates ripped chunks out of each other on their records and issues such as the economy and race. Mr Trump was rebuked several times by Chris Wallace, the moderator, for speaking over his opponent. At one point, after incessant interruptions from the president, Mr Biden said: "Will you shut up, man?" Follow the latest updates and reaction below.

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Crows are capable of conscious thought (and it could rewrite the story of evolution) - Yahoo News UK

Anyone who has ever had a run-in with a crow knows that they are quite intelligent. But a new study released inScience proves that they may be even smarter than we think. According to researchers, crows and other corvids possess primary consciousnesssomething that, until now, only humans and some primates were thought to have.

Crows have already proven themselves to be great problem solvers and can get quite creative, but this new discovery could change the way we think about the evolution of animals. So what exactly is primary consciousness? Also known as sensory consciousness, it's a term that refers to the ability to put together memories and observed events to cultivate an awareness of the present and immediate past. For instance, as a child, we may have put our hand near a flame and gotten burned. Remembering this painful feeling taught us not to repeat the same action the next time the opportunity presented itself.

How did the researchers measure the cognitive abilities of crows? They worked with two carrion crows and trained them to signal whether or not they saw a colored marker on a screen by moving their heads. Unequivocally throughout the tests, the crows showed that they could reliably signal whether or not the colored markers appeared. At some moments during the test, the markers were so faint that they were barely perceptible. In these cases, sometimes the crows still signaled the marker and in others, they did not. That's where their subjective perception came into play.

As all this was happening, the researchers were monitoring the activity of the crows' neurons. When the crows saw the stimulus, neurons were active between when the marker was presented and the crow signaled its presence. In the absence of the stimulus, the neurons were inactive. During the moments of subjective perception, researchers could predict whether or not the crow would signal the marker based on the activity of the neurons. If they were active, the crow would reliably signal even the faint marker.

Our results however conclusively show that nerve cells at higher processing levels of the crows brain are influenced by subjective experience, or more precisely produce subjective experiences, states Professor Andreas Nieder, lead author of the study.

This is revolutionary because sensory consciousness is believed to take place in the cerebral cortex of humans and some primates. Birds, however, don't have a cerebral cortex. This opens up a new door for researchers to explore.

The last common ancestors of humans and crows lived 320 million years ago, says Nieder. It is possible that the consciousness of perception arose back then and has been passed down ever since. An alternative theory is that the consciousness of perception developed independently in these distantly related species, explains the neurobiologist, In any case, the capability of conscious experience can be realized in differently structured brains and independently of the cerebral cortex.

h/t: [STAT, IFL Science!]

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Study Shows That Crows Are Much Smarter Than We Ever Imagined - My Modern Met

Birds such as crows, ravens, jays, and magpies may have subjective experiences.

Consciousness is still very difficult to understand within the animal kingdom. Commonly, consciousness is ascribed to humans and other primates, while others suggest it is a trait shared by mammals. It is even more difficult to understand if animals such as birds, insects, and fish have a conscious point of view. A new study out of the University of Tbingen in Germany published September 25th in Science suggests that birds such as crows may indeed have a subjective reality.

Consciousness can have many levels. The lowest level is sentience - or the ability to have a point of view. The next level is sapience - the ability to have a train of thought and to form opinions. Finally, there is the understanding of the self.

Even showing that birds and like animals have sentience would be revolutionary for our understanding of consciousness and the brain. For primates, consciousness is commonly associated with the cerebral cortex. Animals such as birds lack this portion of the brain.

The study, led by Professor Andreas Nieder, the chair of Animal Psychology at the University of Tbingen, examined crows, a subset of corvid birds (the class of birds that also includes ravens, magpies, and jays). They trained the birds to respond to a visual stimulus projected on a screen.

Sometimes the stimulus was clear and the birds indicated that they saw it. Other times, the stimulus was faint - on the verge of their perception. For these cases, even for the same faint intensity, sometimes the birds reported they saw the signal, and sometimes they didnt. This can not be explained by the workings of the eye, but must arise at higher processing levels of the brain that evaluate the sensory input, says Nieder.

Even more intriguing, sometimes the crows reported seeing something when nothing was actually there. The crows eyes were, in a sense, playing tricks on them, another indication of subjective reality.

Just like sometimes our eyes trick us in seeing things that aren't really there, crows were ... [+] similarly fooled, indicating they may have subjectivity.

During the experiment, the scientists also recorded the activity of nerve cells within the birds brains. If their experience was not subjective, the birds would have responded similarly to every faint stimulus. But this wasnt the case. The nerve cells were active only when the bird reported seeing the stimulus.

This activity was recorded in the nidopallium caudolaterale, or NCL. While birds do not have a cerebral cortex, their NCL routes sensory information to other parts of the body. Interestingly, this NCL evolved anatomically distinctly and independently over the course of evolution, and it is only found in birds, says Nieder. We think the NCL serves similar high-level functions in the bird brain as the prefrontal cortex in our primate brain, but there is no NCL in the mammalian brain, just as there is no prefrontal cortex in the bird brain.

These results are important for the understanding of consciousness in the animal kingdom. Crows and humans diverged on the evolutionary tree 320 million years ago. Either consciousness has been around that long, or it has evolved multiple times in the animal kingdom.

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Do Birds Have A Subjective Reality? A New Experiment Suggests So - Forbes

Fallen Pillar

For the first time, scientists have found that crows are capable of subjective, conscious experiences and perceptions.

Its a big step forward in our understanding of animal cognition. Prior to this, we only knew of conscious perception among humans and other primates. The brains of animals like birds were considered too different from our own to have subjective experiences, but this study, published Friday in the journal Science, potentially upends scientists assumptions about just how smart animals might be.

Crows and other corvid birds have long been known for their smarts and puzzle-solving abilities. But now brain scans conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Tbingen reveal that crows actively think about whatever stimuli they experience during an experiment, even when it wasnt present. Thats a pretty big deal, since bird brains have vastly different and smaller cerebral cortices, which are thought to be the source of human consciousness.

The results of our study opens up a new way of looking at the evolution of awareness and its neurobiological constraints, lead author Andreas Nieder said in a press release.

Assuming the study holds up to further scrutiny, the biggest question is when this consciousness originated, and whether its shared by any other non-primate animals or if it developed in crows independently

The last common ancestors of humans and crows lived 320 million years ago, Nieder said. It is possible that the consciousness of perception arose back then and has been passed down ever since.

READ MORE: Researchers show conscious processes in birds brains for the first time [University of Tbingen]

More on birds: Watch: The Amazing Intelligence of Crows

Read more:
Scientists Claim to Have Proved That Crows Have Conscious Experiences - Futurism

It has never been a better time to be a bird. While researchers have believed since a while now that they are sharp-witted, two brain studies have come along to reveal how birds are not only highly intelligent but also have conscious thought.

In recent years, birds have been found to make tools, understand abstract concepts, and even recognise paintings by Monet and Picasso. But their lack of a neocortexthe area of the mammalian brain where working memory, planning, and problem-solving happenhas long puzzled scientists. But the two papers, which are being hailed as ground-breaking and were published last week, find birds have a brain that is much more similar to ours than previously thought.

Part of this is the result of the work of Martin Stacho, a neuroanatomist at Ruhr-University Bochum, who decided to investigate the avian forebrain, which controls perception. While a comparison of mammalian and avian brains suggested they had nothing in common, "birds and mammals have many of the same cognitive skills, said the scientist to Science.

Stacho and his colleagues examined microscopic slices of three homing pigeon brains using 3D polarised light imaging. This technique let them analyse the forebrain region of birds called the palliumconsidered most similar to the mammalian neocortex. The scientists compared the images of the birds pallia with those of mammalian cortices such as rat, monkey, and human. Their research revealed the fibers in the birds pallia are organised in a manner strikingly similar to those in mammal cortexes.

Stacho and his colleagues think the findings also represent a glimpse into ancient animal brain evolution. The last common ancestor of birds and mammals was a reptile that roamed the earth around 320 million years ago. And its brain, the team believes, was probably a precursor to that of the two lineages that diverged through evolution.

In another study, Andreas Nieder, a neurophysiologist at the University of Tbingen, sought to find out whether birds had conscious experiences. He observed the brains of carrion crows as they responded to cuescreatures who are also known as feathered apes for their intelligence.

They trained two lab-raised, year-old carrion crows to move or stay still in response to a faint cue displayed on a monitor. When correct, the birds were rewarded. The scientists then implanted electrodes in the crows brains to record their neuronal signals as they responded. When the crows reacted, their neurons fired, suggesting they had consciously perceived the cue; but when they didnt, their neurons were silent.

The two works combined led scientists to believe birds may have incredible thinking capabilities. Although bird and mammalian brains look very different, this study shows us they are wired in very complementary ways," said John Marzluff, a wildlife biologist and specialist on crows at the University of Washington, who was not involved in either study to Science.

However, this work is bound to raise some eyebrows, as some researchers argue that consciousness is uniquely human. We suspect that the Birds Arent Real movement supporters arent going to be too happy about this either.

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Latest Research on Brain Structures Reveals How Birds Are Actually Intelligent and Even Self-Aware - VICE