By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author

When I applied to business school, I came across this question in the application: "Are your parents graduates of the Harvard Business School?"

I proudly checked "no." Naively, I thought it counted against you if you answered "yes." After all, why would the nation's best universities want to serve as finishing schools for the elite rather than launching pads for the determined?

Children whose parents are in the top 1 percent are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than those whose parents are in the bottom income quintile.

And why would the children of alumni require any boost in the first place? Why would they need anyone to cup their hands together as a step stool to launch them over the class barricade and into the Ivy League if they were born into it?

On the undergraduate side, around 15 percent of Harvard's Class of 2022 are so-called legacy students, according to The Harvard Crimson. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 that selective universities often accept legacies at double the rate of the overall applicant pool, while at Princeton University they're admitted roughly four times more often.

What I saw up close once I enrolled at Harvard Business School my first private school experience since local Montessori preschool was that those students given a lift by their legacy status didn't have more intelligence or ingenuity or resilience than those like me who came from homes without any college degrees. They simply had more access.

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The irony is that one great benefit of an Ivy League education is, also, access. Admission to Harvard Business School or any of its peers is the equivalent of Willy Wonka's golden ticket. Those who work hard and emerge from the gates of elite colleges and graduate schools go on to elite companies and elite government positions a reality illuminated once again by data recently obtained from the State Department.

We all are worse off if these gates open only a crack to people who don't already come from the economic and social high ground. Those who care about building structures and institutions of power that reflect and respond to all of America not only gated-community America could start by giving less of a leg up to those already enjoying the benefits of access.

Many of the Ivy Leaguers around me intuitively knew what I initially didn't, coming from a land of union-belonging single moms working two jobs: that graduating from an Ivy League institution communicated to others what those with less privilege don't always know how to translate. It said that you were smart enough to get into the elite institution, that you belonged to high-status networks from which talent was selected for prime posts and that you thus merited their assistance in finding opportunities.

So it is in the State Department, as Nahal Toosi's reporting in Politico shows. "Foreign Service employees with degrees from Ivy League schools have significantly better odds of earning a promotion early in their careers than colleagues who lack such credentials," Toosi writes. "At one point in the department's career hierarchy, their odds are more than 20 percent higher."

The media are similar to the State Department in embracing Ivy League grads. As FiveThirtyEight put it, "There's no definitive data on where reporters went to school, but the newsrooms of influential media outlets in New York and Washington, D.C., are full of graduates from Ivy League or similarly selective colleges." The writer, Ben Casselman, had enough self-awareness to note that his outlet was "just as bad" as everywhere else: "The vast majority of our editorial staff, including me, went to elite, selective colleges. (I went to Columbia.)"

And then there is corporate America. In its top ranks, Ivy League representation remains well above its proportion of the population. Richard Zweigenhaft of Guilford College found that in 2011, although far less than 1 percent of Americans had ever earned undergraduate or postgraduate degrees from Harvard, 14.1 percent of those who sat on Fortune 500 boards of directors had.

It's no surprise that the Ivy League finds itself heavily populated by America's 1 percent. This is changing, as Yale University pointed out in February, but only slowly. According to a 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, children whose parents are in the top 1 percent are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than those whose parents are in the bottom income quintile.

This reality leads us to a closed system in which the few have the most. And this deprives the places that matter, that shape the country, its economy and its stories, of depth of experience. It shortchanges the nation of leaders who have seen want and known adversity and understand what it's like to fight and fight and fight for a shot. It seeds unfairness and entrenches a status quo, and it leaves us all poorer.

Let me be clear: There is nothing wrong with wealth. Quite the contrary. A shot at wealth is what every single mom working two jobs wants for her children. What is wrong is a playing field that is tilted away from those trying to teach their children that merit matters most and that access to opportunity is shared equally and depends entirely on hard work.

It shortchanges the nation of leaders who have seen want and known adversity and understand what it's like to fight and fight and fight for a shot.

Where I grew up, on the wrong side of the Washington, D.C., suburban class divide, earning your spot mattered it is what our mothers burned into us. Get up, go to work, do your best, do it again the next day. "Life is hard," my mother told me if I complained about getting up at 6:30 a.m. and being the first one dropped off at day care so she could get to work at the telephone company on time. In the evening, she sold Tupperware. "On a scale of major world tragedies, yours is not a three."

It matters that institutions that share America's story represent and reflect America's citizenry. And not just in the State Department, but across the government, the private sector and the media. We are stronger as a country when we draw upon those from all different experiences to drive us to the best outcome and the most creative solutions.

Access to opportunity matters. And it is in our shared interest to spread not hoard it. "Legacy" is not a synonym for "merit." And no one who comes from a family steeped in the Ivy League needs a helping hand when they were already born with a winning one.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author ofNew York Timesbestsellers "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" and "Ashleys War: The Untold Story of a Team ofWomen Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield."

Continued here:
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: Protests on race and injustice should make us look at how the Ivy League enables inequality - NBC News

2020 has proven to be a game-changing year, where the voices of our youth globally and locally have become louder. The status quo is being challenged and we, Trace, a youth-focused brand are all for it!

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Under the new brand mission, we challenged ourselves to build an ecosystem that empowers youth in everything that we do. Through core values of authenticity, innovation, diversity and of course empowerment, we have been able to provide a voice for youth not only in South Africa but around the globe through employment opportunities, content, music and film.

In film, we partnered with the Gauteng Film Commission to create the Trace x GFC Filmmaker competition, an opportunity for young creative filmmakers to win funding towards their documentary of choice that would educate and inspire. We also launched Your Voice, a new social TV show, that gives youth a mic to express themselves and see themselves on Trace TV channels.

We are also currently working with several governments, academic institutions, businesses and celebrities to create the Trace Academia platform. Through the platform we aim to help educate and entertain at the same time, Africas missing middle, those who cannot afford to go further than grade 10 due to socio-economic challenges.

Trace will continue providing the best Afro-urban music and entertainment but we will do it differently. We will embed our empowerment purpose in our existing media and activities and we will launch empowerment platforms and programmes, using the power of afro urban entertainment, to provide engaging vocational training, entrepreneurship, soft skills and wellbeing tools so that all our people can get real jobs and have a better life.

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#YouthMonth: Encouraging our youth to stand up and shine - Bizcommunity.com

Type Fives are known as the Investigators of the Enneagram. Inquisitive, objective, and analytical, Fives are private, intellectual types who love learning and acquiring new knowledge. Because they are mentally focused and can live in their head, it can take Fives a longer time to process emotions and express intimacy, which can come off as detached.

In a Five-One partnership, the Fives find value in the Ones' independence, curiosity, and similar mutual interests. Likewise, the Ones appreciate Fives' lack of judgment and steadiness which gives them comfort. The partnership can build a strong foundation of dependability and trust.

In a Five-Two partnership, this is a true meeting of opposites. The Fives' objectivity and strong boundaries are attractive to porous Twos, who have trouble stating boundaries. The independent Fives crave alone time and don't always want the Twos to overextend and help, which pushes Twos to take care of themselves. In return, the people-oriented Two can add cozy domesticity and a bustling life into the dynamic.

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Here Are The Enneagram Types That Pair Best Together In Relationships - mindbodygreen.com

Mental health issues are alive and kicking in your family, friends, patients and team; maybe even you, Anthony Gedge says.

On todays frantic treadmill, in our stressed-out world, a new threat is at large. Its like the silent, invisible and deadly disease under the gums. At one of my mastermind meetings, former England Rugby coach Stuart Lancaster told a group of practice owners: When we beat the All Blacks, we had the energy and the attitude, but that day we put the top six inches on.

I want to talk about the top six inches, and our and others brains and its not just the psyche. The emerging and expanding and onerous threat is not only under our skulls and in our hearts, but it touches everybody around.

You may have guessed Im talking about mental health in your workplace. Its a hot topic at the minute, but this article is like no other. It gets straight to the real truth. As you will discover, I have interviewed a five-years-sober recovering drug and alcohol-abusing wet-fingered dentist. Ill reveal his heartrending story trying to run his practice with shame and guilt. Ive also chatted with a mental health counsellor who specialises in helping dentists get back on track. I guarantee the following is like no other textbook article.

First, let me ask you do you have team members who feel they cant cope after returning from lockdown? If yes, then read on.

In my daily dentist conversations, Im learning that some therapists on furlough are scared to use AGP, and are delaying getting back to work, claiming their indemnity may not cover AGP. A few nurses are also dragging their feet. The carrot might work for a while, but there will be a few sticks being wielded, as practice owners livelihoods are at stake.

And, added to that, a three-month hygiene bottleneck is now halting new patient high-profit AGP work. That is the gold stuff keeping you afloat. It may be necessary to bus in hygiene and nurse locums. But this time around it wont be Arthur Scargill and his coal miners shouting scab. It just might be your existing hygienists if they refuse to step up to the plate and muck in. Margaret Thatcher was far harder in the 80s than Boris Johnson is now. There is a surplus of talent, but the A players are often already with the best practices, whose castles were built on the solid ground of putting their people first, patients second, and profit naturally flowing thereafter.

During your closure, did the conversations with yourself increase and get more aggressively negative, fearful, angry, and frustrated, even slipping into being a hopeless PLOMV poor little old me victim? If yes, then you are reading the right information. If no, carry on reading; you too may have a mental health issue, because thats not normal thinking either. But, then, what is normal thinking?

As you may know, Im a recovering alcoholic. Ive been sober nearly four years, and my life dramatically changed when I stopped picking up drinks.

I met R, the first recovering dentist that I came across in 15 years of strategic consulting in dentistry. Although, over the years, Ive mentored a few dentists to give up alcohol, drugs and other addictions. It was fascinating to actually meet somebody who really engages in an Alcoholics Anonymous for Doctors and Dentists group and The Dentists Health Support Trust (for mental health).

This is a short version of his story. You will see how alcohol and drugs can easily spiral out of control. But, more importantly, how mental health problems in general can easily spiral out of control. I truly believe we are only ever two steps away from being homeless and an addict.

Now, on to the story about the recovering drug and alcohol-addicted dentist. He has become a friend, whom Ill call R, who nursed a 500-a-day cocaine habit and drank like a fish.

I really hit rock bottom, he recalls. And at that point, having spent two years, probably, in real pain every day, realising probably a year or two before that, Id crossed the line they talk about, where I had to have a drink. Now, thats when fear, shame, and guilt would kick in. And the only way to get rid of those emotions and those feelings was to drink and use more.

I knew what I was doing was wrong. I didnt feel that it was right. And I thought I was the only dentist in the country this was affecting. And [I was] thinking about it every day. How can I get out of this?I can do it myself. I can do it myself. Its too shameful to admit itWho do I ask? Who do I speak to? How can I get help?I cant possibly admit it.

Next, I interview Rory from The Dentists Health Support Trust, a mental health counsellor talking about loss. His insights are highly instructive, especially for clinicians.

What is loss? I think in the beginning of lockdown, there was a loss of the freedom to choose what to do. However small or large that was, there was a loss of freedom. Now, I think what came out of it was maybe more of a we for a period of time. We are all in this together, but now as were emerging out of this, there is more of a sense of perhaps its less about us and its more about I.

So there is essentially a lack of togetherness about it. Thats just a comment that we may or may not relate to loss, but I think its worth making. I think the losses [are] the loss of freedom to make choices, the loss of income, the loss of routine, the loss of getting up in the morning and going into the surgery, and then the loss of connecting with people.

Because if you like what you do and you havent got connection, then there is a sense of isolation. There is a loss of certainty, whether thats financial certainty or professional certainty, but the loss of certainty of whats going to happen. I think the hardest thing with mental health is getting people to have a sense of acceptance of it. So their self-awareness goes with it. But if you have somebody thats mindful in that way, then simple things that can make a difference would be regular exercise, sensible eating patterns and the capacity for self-reflection. To be able to see whats going on in my life, to be able to step back and look at it.

I think often when youre a practice owner or somebody in that setting, sometimes its quite difficult to more or less take a helicopter view of whats going on, to look down on what is happening. But that capacity to be able to step back sometimes and do a sort of mental check How am I doing? How am I? Whats different? maybe, dare I even say, a gratitude list, things feel tight, things feel difficult, Are there things I could be grateful for? So, in summary, the element of self-awareness, being able to have a check on where they are, and doing good things like exercise, healthy eating, good sleep hygiene, stuff like that. So, rather than self-medicating, medicate in a different way, which is a healthy way.

Just think about that in the context of how much time you give to other people in a day. I think the idea of taking care of self allows us to be able to take care of others or to give to others. And if we dont spend that little bit of time in a 24-hour day on ourselves, where does it leave us? Eventually burnt out and exhausted. Some may say that occasionally having a day off or a rest day is ok. But if youre paying a high price for it, then maybe being a bit addicted to doing all the time is not so bad and actually helps you. But always remember that self-care requires just a small amount of time. And we often give a lot to others, so a small amount of time for ourselves is a good thing.

Heal yourself first, before you heal others. If you are healed or healing, then heal your people. They need you now more than ever. How to spot if someone has a mental health issue? As dentist R says: Look out for people who are a bit late, more isolated than normal.

Your practice future, at this precarious moment in time, solely depends on engaging your team and monitoring their mental health. Then yes, youve absolutely got a strong chance to get back into profit ASAP. But its going to be an uphill struggle. To grow your practice over the next 42 days and beyond, or even stabilise your practice over the next 42 days, weve really got to focus harder than ever before on our culture.

You can also pick up mental health issues in your monthly 10-minute one-on-ones. It is up to you as a practice owner and, indeed, as a team member to create a dentistry workplace culture people can jump out of bed for. I explain more about this and my complimentary *suite of back-to-work tools, strategies, resources in a special and relevant 2.5-hour video I just recorded on How to prepare your peoples, your patients and your own hearts and minds for the first 42 days of opening and beyond at http://www.TripleNetProfit.com.

Mental health issues are not just for the clinically insane. Mental health issues are alive and kicking in your family, friends, patients and team; maybe even you.

Get in touch with 35 years sobriety dentist Kevin and counsellor Rory for mental health support through this private and confidential email address, [emailprotected], or highly confidential phone line, 0207 224 4671. Mention this article and they will welcome you with open arms. Rory mentioned a heart-warming phrase three times in our conversation, concerning anyone who thinks they may have a mental challenge: we will walk together.

Dentists Health Support Trust dentistshealthsupporttrust.org/contact-html.

Free back to work video training: *complimentary suite of back-to-work tools, strategies, resources in a special and relevant 2.5-hour video I just recorded on how to prepare your peoples, your patients and your own minds and hearts for the first 42 days of opening and beyond at http://www.TripleNetProfit.com.

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How to prepare your teams mental health for the first 42 days of opening - Dentistry.co.uk

By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Published: June 24, 2020 2:10:50 pm A new survey reveals how professionals are opting for mindfulness practices to overcome stress amid the pandemic. (Source: Getty Images/Thinkstock)

The current pandemic has affected us all in numerous ways. From work-from-home to changing our perspective towards health and immunity, it has demanded a complete overhaul in our lifestyles. Reinforcing how the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on how professionals deal with mental health, especially stress, a new survey underlines how they are tackling the unprecedented times.

Data from over 200+ working professionals aged between 30 and 45 in India over the three months of COVID lockdown, revealed that approximately 40 per cent chose mindfulness to manage stress. However, the rest of them chose actions that suppressed their emotions, which steered them to different forms of addictions.

White Ray Coaching, a brand that specialises in leadership coaching, recently conducted the lockdown survey with an aim to understand how lifestyles have changed during the period. As per the survey, 40 per cent of respondents said that practicing relaxation exercises, which could trigger internal reflection such as mediation, and silence has been their go-to strategy. Nearly 30 per cent said they watched Netflix, read a book, or made a phone call to a friend or relative to switch their attention. About 20 per cent chose to smoke or drink, stating that it eased the strain in their nerves, while 10 per cent were those who said that it depended on the situation.

Commenting on the findings of the survey, Shalini Bhattacharya, founder, White Ray Coaching, said that even though all of us talk about stress and anxiety every day, one way to manage stress head-on is by practicing mental resilience, which can help prevent disorders. This research is part of our ongoing efforts to build a better understanding of mental resilience. We should not wait for adversity to hit us and cause permanent damage to our mental well-being. We need to become more self-aware, think out of the box, and resist the urge to give averse instant reactions. The key is to adapt yourself to think differently.

ALSO READ | Coronavirus: How to address mental health issues faced by medical workers

As per the organisation, when it comes to mental resilience, theres a lot of information out there, from how to manage stress and be more mindful of boosting happiness. During the lockdown, managing mental well-being is more important than ever before, as we adapt to the way we work, live and meet people. The organisation further advised people to assess how they are responding during a crisis, and then walk the journey of the 5As for practicing resilience awareness, acceptance, authenticity, agility, and action.

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40% professionals believe mindfulness is a key to manage stress in current times: Survey - The Indian Express

Would you trust an artificial intelligence algorithm that works eerily well, making accurate decisions 99.9% of the time, but is a mysterious black box? Every system fails every now and then, and when it does, we want explanations, especially when human lives are at stake. And a system that cant be explained cant be trusted. That is one of the problems the AI community faces as their creations become smarter and more capable of tackling complicated and critical tasks.

In the past few years,explainable artificial intelligencehas become a growing field of interest. Scientists and developers are deploying deep learning algorithms in sensitive fields such as medical imaging analysis and self-driving cars. There is concern, however, about how these AI operate. Investigating the inner-workings of deep neural networks is very difficult, and their engineers often cant determine what are the key factors that contribute to their output.

For instance, suppose a neural network has labeled the image of a skin mole as cancerous. Is it because it found malignant patterns in the mole or is it because of irrelevant elements such as image lighting, camera type, or the presence of some other artifact in the image, such aspen markings or rulers?

Researchers have developed various interpretability techniques that help investigate decisions made by variousmachine learning algorithms. But these methods are not enough to address AIs explainability problem and create trust in deep learning models, argues Daniel Elton, a scientist who researches the applications of artificial intelligence in medical imaging.

[Read: Everything you need to know about recurrent neural networks]

Elton discusses why we need to shift from techniques that interpret AI decisions to AI models that can explain their decisions by themselves as humans do. His paper, Self-explaining AI as an alternative to interpretable AI, recently published in thearXiv preprint server, expands on this idea.

Classicsymbolic AI systemsare based on manual rules created by developers. No matter how large and complex they grow, their developers can follow their behavior line by line and investigate errors down to the machine instruction where they occurred. In contrast, machine learning algorithms develop their behavior by comparing training examples and creating statistical models. As a result, their decision-making logic is often ambiguous even to their developers.

Machine learnings interpretability problem is both well-known and well-researched. In the past few years, it has drawn interest fromesteemed academic institutions and DARPA, the research arm of the Department of Defense.

Efforts in the field split into two categories in general: global explanations and local explanations. Global explanation techniques are focused on finding general interpretations of how a machine learning model works, such as which features of its input data it deems more relevant to its decisions. Local explanation techniques are focused on determining which parts of a particular input are relevant to the decision the AI model makes. For instance, they mightproduce saliency mapsof the parts of an image that have contributed to a specific decision.

Examples of saliency maps produced by RISE

All these techniques have flaws, and there is confusion regarding how to properly interpret an interpretation, Elton writes.

Elton also challenges another popular belief about deep learning. Many scientists believe that deep neural networks extract high-level features and rules from their underlying problem domain. This means that, for instance, when you train aconvolutional neural networkon many labeled images, it will tune its parameters to detect various features shared between them.

This is true, depending on what you mean by features. Theres a body of research that shows neural networks do in factlearn recurring patterns in imagesand other data types. At the same time, theres plenty of evidence thatdeep learning algorithms do not learn the general featuresof their training examples, which is why they are rigidly limited to their narrow domains.

Actually, deep neural networks are dumb- any regularities that they appear to have captured internally are solely due to the data that was fed to them, rather than a self-directed regularity extraction process, Elton writes.

Citing apaperpublished in the peer-reviewed scientific magazineNeuron, Elton posits that, in fact, deep neural networks function through the interpolation of data points, rather than extrapolation.

Some research is focused on developing interpretable AI models to replace current black boxes. These models make their reasoning logic visible and transparent to developers. In many cases, especially in deep learning, swapping an existing model for an interpretable one results in an accuracy tradeoff. This would be a self-defeating goal because we opt for more complex models because they provide higher accuracy in the first place.

Attempts to compress deep neural networks into simpler interpretable models with equivalent accuracy typically fail when working with complex real-world data such as images or human language, Elton notes.

One of Eltons main arguments is about adopting a different view of understanding AI decision. Most efforts focus on breaking open the AI black box and figuring out how it works at a very low and technical level. But when it comes to the human brain, the ultimate destination of AI research, weve never had such reservations.

The human brain also appears to be an overfit black box which performs interpolation, which means that how we understand brain function also needs to change, he writes. If evolution settled on a model (the brain) which is uninterpretable, then we expect advanced AIs to also be of that type.

What this means is that when it comes to understanding human decision, we seldom investigate neuron activations. Theres a lot ofresearch in neurosciencethat helps us better understands the workings of the brain, but for millennia, weve relied on other mechanisms to interpret human behavior.

Interestingly, although the human brain is a black box, we are able to trust each other. Part of this trust comes from our ability to explain our decision making in terms which make sense to us, Elton writes. Crucially, for trust to occur we must believe that a person is not being deliberately deceptive, and that their verbal explanations actually maps onto the processes used in their brain to arrive at their decisions.

One day, science might enable us to explain human decisions at the neuron activation level. But for the moment, most of us rely on understandable, verbal explanations of our decisions and the mechanisms we have to establish trust between each other.

The interpretation of deep learning, however, is focused on investigating activations and parameter weights instead of high-level, understandable explanations. As we try to accurately explain the details of how a deep neural network interpolates, we move further from what may be considered relevant to the user, Elton writes.

Based on the trust and explanation model that exists between humans, Elton calls for self-explaining AI that, like a human, can explain its decision.

An explainable AI yields two pieces of information: its decision and the explanation of that decision.

This is an idea that has been proposed and explored before. However, what Elton proposes is self-explaining AI that still maintains its complexity (e.g., deep neural networks with many layers) and does not sacrifice its accuracy for the sake of explainability.

In the paper, Elton suggests how relevant causal information can be extracted from a neural network. While the details are a bit technical, what the technique basically does is extract meaningful and present information from the neural networks layers while avoiding spurious correlations. His method builds on current self-explaining AI systems developed by other researchers and verifies whether explanations and predictions in their neural networks correspond.

Structure of self-explainable AI (source: arxiv.org)

In his paper, Elton also discusses the need to specify the limits of AI algorithms. Neural networks tend to provide an output value for any input they receive. Self-explainable AI models should send an alert when results fall outside the models applicability domain, Elton says. Applicability domain analysis can be framed as a simple form of AI self-awareness, which is thought by some to be an important component for AI safety in advanced AIs.

Self-explainable AI models should provide confidence levels for both their output and their explanation.

Applicability and domain analysis is especially important for AI systems where robustness and trust are important, so that systems can alert their user if they are asked work outside their domain of applicability, Elton concludes. An obvious example would be health care, where errors can result in irreparable damage to health. But there are plenty of other areas such asbanking, loans, recruitment, and criminal justice, where we need to know the limits and boundaries of our AI systems.

Much of this is still hypothetical, and Elton provides little in terms of implementation details, but it is a nice direction to follow as the explainable AI landscape develops.

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The advantages of self-explainable AI over interpretable AI - The Next Web

Monkey D. Luffy may not look like much at first glance on One Piece, but he's one of the best shonen heroes out there (even if he sometimes fails).

Per statistics and fan reviews; its safe to say that One Piece has already claimed the Shonen throne. Yes, some might disagree with that statement, but in this reality of ours, nothing can ever gain a hundred percent approval from the masses, and thats just a fact.

RELATED:One Piece: 10 Luffy Quotes that Still Inspire Us

With that cleared off the table; lets delve into the topic at hand, the future pirate king, Luffy. From the perspective of a bystander, thats to say a non fan, Luffy might appear to be nothing less of a generic, man-child Shonen protagonist; and to some extent, they are actually right. But what they will never realize is that whatever they think they know about Luffy is merely the tip of the iceberg. Theres more than what meets the eye with Luffy, and every fan knows that.

Headstart here means a clear cut edge over his counterparts. Because as far as we are concerned, the gomu gomu no mi is not even remotely close to being one of the strongest devil fruits out there. Any fan can effortlessly name at least 10 devil fruits that are stronger than the gomu gomu no mi.

This symbolizes that all of Luffys achievements thus far were the results of his own hard work/talent, rather than reliance on hacks.

The guy wears his feelings on his sleeves; its almost as if he is incapable of hiding his feelings. If Luffy didnt like a character, you better bet that he will let that character know it. It doesnt even matter if they asked, they will know it.

While this might seem rather harmless, the pirate world is full of schemes. A simple-minded approach would only get him so far.

Self-confidence is a double-aged sword; if used correctly, one would prevail. Otherwise, the only result is self-destruction if its misused. Did Luffy ever doubt himself? Probably not; did he ever doubt his chances of defeating certain individuals? Absolutely.

The good thing is, Luffys self-confidence did not cross the danger-zone. Well, at least for now.

Stubbornness and self-confidence are two elements that feed off each other. Has Luffy not been so confident, chances are, he would not have been so stubborn at times. While it might be clear that, as a captain, Luffy has to have a firm stand; Most of the time his stubbornness kicks in, it does for dumb reasons.

Nonetheless, this stubbornness has yet to show severe side effects on Luffy and the gang, but it's almost certain that if his methods don't change, it will come back and bite him.

Being calm at all times is the duty of a captain; if the captain gets flustered, the crew will almost certainly collapse. Luckily for the strawhats, Luffy rarely loses his cool regardless of the severity of the situation.

RELATED:One Piece: 10 Badass Monkey D Luffy Moments

Usually, Luffy just goofs around the ship with no real purpose; but when a captain situation arises, he steps forward and handles it in spades.

Recklessness is nothing new to the Shonen, but Luffy takes that to a whole new level. You would think that as a captain, the least he could do is rack his brain a little before acting. But Luffy is the kind that acts first and thinks never.

Frankly, when Luffy prematurely attacked Kaido, nobody knew what he was thinking- not even he himself. No matter what angle you look at it, it still comes down as a dumb and reckless decision.

Typical Shonen Protagonists are derived by many factors of which include Self-righteousness. They would go out of their way to serve justice, even when it's uncalled for. This type of mentality, while not necessarily bad, is unrealistic on many levels.

It's true that Luffy is a man controlled by his emotions, but it's not to the level of him going around, saving everyone just for the heck of it.

By this point in the series, it's pretty obvious that Luffy's brain game is a little flawed. He is borderline incapable of processing complex thoughts.

RELATED:One Piece: 10 Awesome Fan Art Of Characters Drawn In Different Anime Styles

We have seen instances of dumb Shonen Protagonists, but the knowing ones could count on one hand those who are dumber than Luffy.

Now, you might be wondering how an idiot like Luffy could even shape up the most basic form of self-awareness. And the truth of the matter is, nobody truly knows how he did it.

Luffy is well aware of his own position; he very well knows that he is a pirate and that he might as well be a 'bad guy'. But he couldn't care less, nor does he even try to sugar-coat it.

A little bit of optimism never hurts; in fact, it could even positively affect those around you and attract positive vibes. But as a wise man once said: "nothing good ever comes from the excess of anything".

For example, Luffy -on his quest to save Ace- never once thought of the possibility of Ace's demise. He just went out, fully believing that he could save his brother. And the results were horrific, to say the least.

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Suliman is a writer, or so he likes to think. his hobbies are gaming, reading, writing...etc; all that you would expect from a self-proclaimed writer.

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One Piece: 5 Times Luffy Proved To Be The Best Shonen Protagonist (& 5 Times He Fell Short) - CBR - Comic Book Resources

The psychedelic experience can be rough on a person's ego. Those who experiment with magic mushrooms and LSD often describe a dissolution of the self, otherwise known as ego-death, ego-loss, or ego-disintegration.

For some, the experience is life-changing; for others, it's downright terrifying. Yet despite anecdote after anecdote of good trips and bad trips, no one really knows what these drugs actually do to our perception of self.

The human brain's cortex is where the roots of self awareness are thought to lie, and growing evidence has shown the neurotransmitter, glutamate, is elevated in this region when someone is tripping.

But up until now we've only had observational evidence. Now, for the first time, researchers have looked directly into how taking psilocybin affects glutamate activity in the brain. And the evidence suggests thatour tripping experience, whether good or bad, might be linked to glutamate.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment, neuroscientists carefully analysed what happens to glutamate levels and a person's ego when taking psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the brains of 60 healthy volunteers, the team found significant changes in activity in both the cortex and the hippocampus in those taking psilocybin.

Glutamate is the most common neurotransmitter in the brain, and it's known to be critical for fast signalling and information, especially in the cortex and hippocampus, the latter of which is thought to play a role in self esteem.

It also looks like psychedelics have a way of tapping into this system.

Interestingly enough, in the new clinical study, these two regions of the brain had quite different glutamate responses to psilocybin. While the authors found higher levels of glutamate in the prefrontal cortex during a trip, they actually found lower levels of glutamate in the hippocampus.

What's more, this may have something to do with whether a person has a good experience with their ego or a bad one.

"Analyses indicated that region-dependent alterations in glutamate were also correlated with different dimensions of ego dissolution," the authors write.

"Whereas changes in [cortical] glutamate were found to be the strongest predictor of negatively experienced ego dissolution, changes in hippocampal glutamate were found to be the strongest predictor of positively experienced ego dissolution."

Practically, we still don't really understand how this activity in the brain is linked to our ego, or even if it is. Still, it's been suggested that psychedelics decouple regions of the brain, so factual or autobiographical information is momentarily separated from a sense of personal identity.

"Our data add to this hypothesis, suggesting that modulations of hippocampal glutamate in particular may be a key mediator in the decoupling underlying feelings of (positive) ego dissolution," the authors suggest.

After decades of limited research, drugs like psilocybin, LSD and DMT are now finally being considered for their therapeutic benefits.

Understanding how these drugs work on a neurochemical basis could allow scientists to develop better treatments for those with mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.

Although if we're going to be using these substances to treat mental health issues like anxiety, depression and addiction, we're going to need to also understand the way the drugs mess with our ego - hopefully without the bad trip to go along with it.

The study was published in Neuropsychopharmacology.

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First-of-Its-Kind Study Hints at How Psilocybin Works in The Brain to Dissolve Ego - ScienceAlert

BOSTON (CBS) There will be no olive branch between Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Portnoy and Barstool have a now infamous rivalry with Goodell, stemming back to Deflategate and the suspension of Tom Brady.

When Goodell announced during the NFL Draft that the person who won an auction to benefit coronavirus charities would have the chance to watch Monday Night Football at his home, Portnoy went to work and won with a bid surpassing $250,000.

But Friday night, Portnoy posted on Twitter that the NFL alerted him he would not be allowed into Goodells home because he did not pass a background check due to a series of run-ins with the league. Among other things, Portnoy was arrested during a Free Brady protest at league headquarters, snuck into Super Bowl media night, and was later dragged out of the game by security.

We knew it was going to happen, Portnoy posted on TwitterFriday night.

Portnoy said the NFL told him his credit card will not be charged and the league will donate the amount to the charities.

You did the research on me? You dont have to do the research on me. You have a file on me the size of Niagara, said Portnoy. People are like Oh. Roger Goodell will play ball. Hell make himself look good. I told everybody, Roger Goodell has no self-awareness. No sense of humor. Doesnt know how to deal with a brain like this.

I won it fair and square and they say no. Why? Because theyre afraid of me. Theyre afraid of the brain. And theyre not going to have some fun with it.

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Barstools Dave Portnoy Wont Be Allowed To Watch Monday Night Football At Roger Goodells House - CBS Boston

This column is part of our ongoing opinion commentary on faith, called Living Our Faith. Find this weeks reader question and get weekly roundups of the project in your email inbox by signing up for the Living Our Faith newsletter.

In John Donnes Ninth Holy Sonnet, there is a terrible moment when the poems speaker blasphemes, suggesting that if God can do anything, then he can certainly forgive any sin (including telling ones creator how to run the universe). The speaker catches himself, and to the relief of faithful readers, utters an abashed rhetorical question: But who am I that dare dispute with thee/O God?

A moments failing is resolved in penitence, certainty is restored, all is well. Except that Donne does not provide instructions insisting the question is rhetorical. If it is not, then the speaker, after his freedom of conscience leads him into defiance, is left with doubt: God, why did you give us the freedom to cross lines you said never to cross?

Doubt pervades Donnes religious art, and the art has survived and is still debated precisely because it evokes, but does not pretend to resolve, this fundamental and sometimes agonizing human experience. Donnes readers have a choice a blue pill or red pill moment in which an unchallenging faith may be restored in a moment of foreclosed options, or faith becomes infinitely more complex and daunting. This choice is a struggle, an open mind confronted with a world that is more complex than can be immediately understood.

I mention Donne because, several years ago, I had a student who, when we discussed the poem mentioned above, told me (in tears) that her minister had proclaimed doubt to be a sin. I discussed the matter one day with a Baptist youth minister who worked with some of my other students. He found it appalling that a fellow cleric had so casually demanded impressionable followers to sever themselves from an essential aspect of their humanity in the name of faith. I will never forget his description of this advice to switch off doubt: A spiritual lobotomy performed without anesthesia.

I have always considered that my primary purpose is to present puzzles made out of words John Donnes are sublime and to ask young people to take the supreme risk of casting aside the comfortable lie that a poem, or the world, comes with instructions for easy understanding. In the best of times, some students struggle with competing standards set by those whom they trust.

This year was the worst of times. Our school closed its doors to students in early March, in response to a pandemic that first seemed likely to be transient and even something of an adventure. Most students were engaged, and many were eager to discuss demanding ethical issues directly connected to the new normal.

But April was crueler, and brought a closure more ominous than the physical shuttering of the school. Isolation, loss of routine and fear of economic uncertainty wrought graver changes, drawing far too many of my students away from any academic engagement and towards despair.

What seemed to challenge my students most viscerally was a faith-shattering confrontation with a world of uncertainty. The pandemic was (and is) relentlessly elusive its purpose and its containment beyond any adult assurances designed to comfort or to engender faith in the capacity of religion or science (or politics) to make the natural world cooperate in preserving the trust and innocence of young people.

In the end, my students have had to confront the same terrible dilemma that tore apart the girl who was ordered never to doubt: There are times, like some poems, too fraught with unknowns to be covered up by any demand simply to maintain faith. As Donne demonstrates, faith is ultimately not a simple thing at all. It demands not infinite awareness, but self-awareness, the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed or even understood.

Some students accepted the profound limits of adult understanding (my own included): They have grown in wisdom and humility. But others withdrew from all attempts to engage with schoolwork or even to be contacted. I am more afraid of what these withdrawn ones have lost than I am of anything else I do not know about the world right now.

David Newman is a high school English teacher in Odessa. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

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Many teens are wrestling with doubts about God amid the pandemic; I'm worried about those who refuse to engage - The Dallas Morning News