Well, this could get embarrassing. In the West, the word Tantra has, ahem, certain connotations. Sexual rites play a prominent role in Tantric practice, and, since the Sixties, the philosophical movement has been championed as a kind of guide to free love. The sensational subtitle of the last big Tantra exhibition, at the Hayward Gallery in 1971, gives a flavour of what I mean: The Indian Cult of Ecstasy.

Even Mick Jagger was a fan. In 1969, he asked a designer to come up with a logo for the Rolling Stones inspired by the Tantric goddess Kali. Usually, Kali appears with a bright red protruding tongue. In India, this is understood to represent her bloodthirsty appetite on the battlefield. For Jagger and the Stones, however, her lolling tongue had other, suggestive possibilities.

Nor is Jagger the only devotee of Tantra among British rock royalty. Sting has yet to live down a notorious boast about seven-hour Tantric sex sessions. Thanks to him, even mentioning the word Tantra is still likely to elicit a raised eyebrow, a snigger.

Poor old Sting: while Jagger makes the catalogue for Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, a conscientious new exhibition featuring around 130 artefacts at the British Museum, he doesnt get a look-in. I suppose thats no surprise. Its curator, Imma Ramos, wants to scrape away all the clichs that surround Tantra. (Another, still prevalent in India, is that it is a form of black magic.) Her show does contain erotic imagery: a few exhibits near the start, for instance, focus on the Tantric ritual of yoni puja (veneration of the vulva). An 11th-century sandstone temple frieze represents a man performing oral sex on an impossibly acrobatic woman. In general, though, the X-rated material is kept to a minimum. This is a serious-minded show with zero interest in titillating giggles or cheap thrills.

The opening section outlines Tantras mysterious origins. It would be a mistake to think of it as an independent religion. Rather, Tantra first emerged in India around AD 500 as a set of radical beliefs and practices communicated by sacred instructional texts. At its heart is the affirmation that all aspects of the world are manifestations of Shakti, all-pervasive divine feminine power. While adherents of other Eastern philosophies understand the world as illusory, Tantrikas (Tantric practitioners) believe that it is real, and seek enlightenment by engaging with, rather than transcending, the physical realm.

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Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution review, British Museum: this serious-minded show proves it's time we stopped tittering - Telegraph.co.uk

For ages, car dealers have stacked the deck against buyers. They've squelched competition with state laws that their lobbyists helped craft. They've fought attempts to share financial information with buyers, making negotiating unpleasant and difficult. Many of them won't even answer a simple email.

In the past decade, car dealers have haltingly, begrudgingly embraced changes in the retail landscape brought on by the internet. And that slow play would have continued but for a fat little microorganism that traveled the globe earlier this year and disrupted everything. The COVID-19 shutdowns this spring forced dealers to do something they'd been putting off: embrace technology and put buyers first.

"People's expectations changed overnight," said Larry Dominique, chairman and CEO of PSA North America, which is in the process of relaunching the Peugeot brand in the U.S. and Canada after a 30-year hiatus. People began online shopping en masse, ordering groceries, pet food, exercise gear, electronics, and even new cars. The coronavirus crisis raised awareness of what could be done remotely. "People have realized they can use these tools," Dominique said. "They know they exist, they know they work, and they know they're convenient."

Car Buying: Keeping the Dealers at a Distance

Car Buying Stories: Return to Sender

How Does Carvana Work?

Although buying a car and making a large investment will always carry some level of stress, the changing way of doing business promises to make car sales lower-pressure events compared with the past, with prices negotiated online, test drives taken alone without a pushy salesman in the passenger's seat, and financing and insurance sales taking place on the web. This new dynamic has the potential to benefit everyone, but especially women and people of color.

Car sales are steeped in decades of traditions, regulations, and hard-sell tactics. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) was founded in 1917, just nine years after Henry Ford's Model T became available to the masses. NADA's first mission was to convince lawmakers that cars were as vital to the economy as horses and should be taxed accordingly. Since then, NADA and statewide dealer lobbying groups have influenced countless laws protecting the dealers' business interests.

With that safety net in place, many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress. We've seen baby steps, like putting inventory online so people can search to see which dealership has the actual car they want. But many dealers still refuse to answer emails. Often, shoppers are punished for emailing a dealer by being relentlessly spammed. Few dealers have figured out how to make negotiating painless, except for those that do no-haggle pricing. And then there's the agony of having to meet with the back-office finance and insurance salesperson, who can eat up an hour of time trying to sell you extended warranties, anti-theft devices, and paint and fabric protection.

But earlier this year, when dealers were forced to shut everything down, they proved they could adapt quickly. Here's what changed and how it could change car buying for good.

"Many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress."

Lauren Starks has purchased three cars since the coronavirus outbreak slowed the world downtwo used and one new. For the new car, a 2020 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro, she opted to go with a dealer she already had a relationship with, because many dealers she'd emailed ignored her. Or her emails would go to an automated service and she couldn't get a real person to help. "I'm not sure which was worse," said the Greenville, South Carolina, resident. But once she connected with the dealer she'd already worked with, she was able to complete most of the process online, even the price negotiation.

This kind of buying process has been happening at upstart used-car chains for a few years. Unshackled by franchise regulations, used-car dealers have innovated quicker than new-car dealers. Carvana, for example, can sell a car online using very little human interaction. Customers can reach a sales associate if they need help, but they don't have to talk to anyone if they don't want to. No one works on commission, either, which keeps the pressure off.

Illustration by Marcos ChinCar and Driver

"Buying a car is this tremendously exciting moment in people's lives," said Ernie Garcia, CEO of Carvana. "Unfortunately, the experience of buying it sours that experience."

Dealers have often argued that they are different from other business models because they deal with trade-ins, and other retail operations don't. That process of putting a value on your trade-in is trickythe dealer is making an educated guess about what he or she can sell your car for either at auction or, more rarely, to another customer at the dealership. But for several years, it has been possible to give trade-in estimates online. The pandemic will hopefully push more dealers to embrace those tools.

When Chris Rivers of Burbank, Ohio, was buying a Jeep Cherokee this summer, all the salespeople in the showroom stayed six feet away from him, wore masks, and refused to shake hands. When it was time to go for the test drive, they tossed him the keys and let him drive off on his own. He returned and bought the SUV.

A survey by Cox Automotive showed that car buyers are craving time with vehicles but not time with pushy salespeople. Six in 10 survey respondents said they'd prefer help from dealership staff but don't want to deal with salespeople. And a Google survey conducted this spring showed that consumers ranked at-home test drives their number-one alternative to visiting a dealership.

With more sales conducted online, there's hope that discrimination in car buying will begin to fade. In 2018, the National Fair Housing Alliance released a study on car buying, comparing the experience of white people with that of non-white people. White people were given more favorable financing options, with non-white car buyers paying an average of $2663 more over the course of their loans than less qualified white people.

Trei Ceril, a Raleigh, North Carolina, resident and co-founder of a car club called Black Auto Enthusiasts, said he finds solace talking to other Black car enthusiasts about the discrimination they've faced buying cars. "But it's also depressing," he said. To help its members escape prejudice, Black Auto Enthusiasts maintains a list of dealerships owned by Black people. But, Ceril says, some folks are finding online tools just as helpful. His mom just bought a used car through CarMax, and the only interaction she had with someone in person was when she dropped off her trade-in and picked up her new vehicle. Since she did all the research on her own, there was no need to question someone else's motivation or whether they'd given her the best deal. "You take that part out of the equation; so in a way, it makes it less racist," Ceril said.

For all the change that is possible, it is also likely dealers will fall back into old habits quickly. We talked to a dozen car buyers for this story, and many who'd purchased cars since dealerships began reopening in May said it was business as usual. William Heacox of Albany, New York, bought a 2021 Kia K5 in July. "It was pretty much the same as always," he said. "The only issue I had was that they preferred you make an appointment to see a salesperson."

Dominique says he's hopeful the economic impact from the crisis will push the auto industry to reinvent itself the way he's trying to reinvent Peugeot in North America, but he's skeptical. "Our industry is like a giant black hole; there's a lot of gravity pulling you toward these business decisions that don't make sense anymore," he said.

Colin Beresford contributed to this report.

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Car Buying is Changing and All It Took Was a Pandemic: The Enlightenment - Car and Driver

Electric Jesus will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment By Noah Berlatsky Share Facebook Instagram Facebook Shop POPULAR RESEARCH

Text by Noah Berlatsky

Posted September 22, 2020

Why does God want us to make art? A film about the 80s Christian rock scene reveals fundamental truths about joy

I want to make Jesus famous! So says eager born-again teen narrator Erik (Andrew Eakle) in the new film Electric Jesus. The movie is a half-loving, half-parodic tribute to the Christian rock and metal scene of the 1980s. As such it spends a good bit of time thinking about the question of why (or whether) God wants you to make music and art. For Erik, and for many people in the scene, the answer is obvious: you make music to try to bring the word to as many people as possible. The filmmakers, though, ultimately see a different relationship between God and creativityone thats less about evangelizing, and more about joy.

Electric Jesus is directed and written by Chris White, who also provided song lyrics, and features original music from Daniel Smith, the force behind venerable indie rock collective Danielson. The fictional biopic tells the story of the quick rise and quicker fall of the teen hair metal band 316, which tours during the summer of 1986 behind its (inadvertently R-rated) single Commandos for Christ. 316 is joined on tour by young runaway bluegrass gospel singer Sarah (Shannon Hutchinson). Erik, the films narrator and the bands soundman, and a true believer in both rock and Christ.

I kind of grew up in evangelical Christian youth group culture in the 80s, White told me by phone when I interviewed him and Smith. There was a lot of encouragement to listen to Christian pop music. CPM would be the shorthand. Smith, whose father is the well-known Christian singer-songwriter Leonard Smith, grew up in a similar milieu. I think there was one year my dad made me listen to Christian music as a kind of policy. But hes a musician himself and so after taking us to Christian concerts for a year he said, Enough! This stuffs terrible.

Smith himself has made a career of performing not-terrible music, with Christian themes, that doesnt fit easily into the category of Christian rock. I didnt even want to be on a Christian label, Smith says of his first records. Danielson Famile music is idiosyncratic orchestral indie pop, with weird falsetto vocal yips and intricate Brian Wilson-esque songwriting. I would always insist that Danielson is not Christian music, he says. Its for everybody.

For Electric Jesus, though, White asked Smith to write more straightforward Christian hair metal, with power pop chord changes and catchy hooks. If you watch the movie and think, This is the worst Christian metal song Ive ever heard, but I cant stop singing it, then weve succeeded, White laughs.

Smith is eager to point out that he also got to write the music for made-up black metal band Satans Clutcha group which wears corpse paint and purportedly bites the heads off ferrets onstage. White says Satans Clutch was inspired by Jack Chicks infamous evangelical comics, which warned of the evils of sex, drugs, rock and roll, witchcraft, and secular humanism, and inevitably ended with infidels and sinners dumped into hellfire.

Smith takes as much pleasure in penning faux devils music as faux Christian music, in part because he sees all creativity as Gods work. Creativity to me is a spiritual journey, he says. A lot of times, if Im writing songs, Ill just be alone doing that and I very much feel like theres a mystical process there. So yeah, the one who creates all is still creating.

White adds that creativity is not just a connection to God, but a connection to others. Artmaking, for me, has always been the activity of friendship building and community, he tells me. Collaborating with and befriending Daniel has been part of the joy of making the movie. Its all over Christian culture, you knowthe joy of the Lord. This is, like, a three-year collaboration with Daniel, writing songs and just listening to music together and back and forth. And its complete joy.

The kids in the movie are so obsessed with evangelizing, they forgot that the gift was they got to be friends for a summer and go on the road on this strange trip. You know, thats pretty great. It might be enough for a lifetime, for some people.

Its not like Erik and 316 never have any fun though. Part of whats great about the movie is the way the kids often forget their evangelical mission, and their dreams of hitting it big and are swept up in just being teens with friends and a lot of loud music.

One of the high points of the film is an extended sequence where the teens turn on Strypers To Hell With the Devil and bounce around the room lip-syncing and air-guitaring and generally being silly. The lyrics are hair metal godly (We speak of the devil/Hes no friend of mine/To turn from him is what we have in mind!) but the point isnt to convert anyone or to make Jesus (more) famous. Its just to rock out with your buddiesthose buddies including, in this case, Sarah, 316, White, Smith, the audience, and God himself. Electric Jesus doesnt want to save you. But it does want to prove that Christian rock can have soul.

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'Electric Jesus' will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment - Document Journal

As September creeps on, the High Holidays remind us of the sweet taste of a new year and the chance to improve ourselves for the future. Many people begin to dread the annual Yom Kippur fast 25 hours without food or water marking the promise to be a better person in the coming year. Yet I prepare for a different sort of promise a covenant with myself to begin feeding my soul and my body, to recover from the disordered eating Ive struggled with the past six years.

Since high school, Ive been lost in a cycle of bingeing and restricting, eventually leading to a year of self-correction by counting less than a thousand calories a day. I went from eating too much to eating not enough, from one side of the spectrum to the other. I was only ever too full or too empty; if I was merely satiated, I was not content. Fasting on Yom Kippur is traditionally intended to be an act of self-punishment as repentance for past sins or a quest for clear-headedness leading to enlightenment. For me, fasting on Yom Kippur will never again be about asking for repentance or seeking enlightenment, but will rather become a preparation for my real act of penitence and healing: choosing to break the fast safely.

Two years ago, I would have broken my fast by eating too much at the break fast, mentally justifying it by thinking of how I hadnt eaten all day. I would have lost all sense of control, only stopping when the embarrassment of eating so much in front of others overpowered my desire to have it all. Then I would have come home and eaten still more because I would not have felt whole until every crevice within me was filled, leaving no room for self-doubt or shame to dwell within. And thats exactly what I did for five years.

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If I had broken my fast two months ago, I would have eaten nothing at the break fast, giving in to the voice in my head telling me that if I only made it a little longer without food it would be a perfect day, with zeros on all the registers and nothing to feel guilty for. I would have reveled in the worried looks and accusatory questions of Arent you hungry? Then I would have come home and eaten still nothing because I would not have felt whole until there was too much empty space within me, opening an abyss to swallow the self-doubt and shame. And thats exactly why I lost 15 pounds this past summer.

Fasting is no longer a challenge when youve been willingly training for starvation, when being hungry has become your hobby. Hunger pangs have alternatively been white flags in the battle for my self-control and victory trumpets in a war of friendly fire. I have used them as permission to eat everything I had been restricting and I have used them as a source of twisted pride in just how much I could restrict. They have simultaneously been my salvation and my damnation, both the life vest keeping me barely buoyant and the waves calmingly pulling me under.

This year, Yom Kippur for me is about revitalization and rebirth. Our fates are sealed in the Book of Life and it is decided who will live and who will die in the new year, but I know a part of me has already died over the past six years as I have abused my body and dimmed my soul. This coming year, as I step gently into recovery, I hope the rest of me may be reborn a renaissance of body, spirit and soul, my most holy, most personal, most worthy temples.

When I break my fast this year, I will eat to satiety, sealing my promise to properly nourish my body and soul in the new year. I will enjoy the company of those around me and be thankful that I have fresh, nutritious food to eat every day. Then I will come home and maybe eat more, or maybe not, because I trust my mind and my body and I know that I have no reason to doubt myself and nothing to be ashamed of.

I have spent enough time fasting over the past six years to fill decades of Yom Kippurs. It is time for me to break my fast, once and for all.PJC

Dionna Dash, originally from Philadelphia, attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she studies communications and linguistics and serves as the vice president of Pitt Hillels student board.

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Yom Kippur in recovery | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

After the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, 114-106, Phil Jackson reached out to Jeanie Buss.

Jackson led the Lakers to five NBA championships when he coached the team from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011.

He knew Buss, the Lakers' governor, needed some words of encouragement to cheer her up. So he texted her a photo of him wearing a team sweatshirt with some words of wisdom.

"Knowing I was feeling a little down today Phil texted me this picture and some words of inspiration to lift my spirits," Buss wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. "He said it was ok to share the photo. 'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.' His point is stay focused on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. He said it many times over the years."

The Lakers, who have a 2-1 series lead over the Nuggets, are competing for their first championship since 2010, when Jackson led the team to their last title. Game 4 is Thursday at 6 p.m. PST on TNT.

Buss, who dated Jackson for 17 years, called the 11-time champion coach the "most influential man (outside of my family) in my life" on his 75th birthday on Sept. 17.

After receiving his note, Buss went on to try and inspire Lakers fans.

Even though the Lakers are playing inside the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World, she encouraged fans to stay just as engaged as if they were cheering for the team in person.

"But what can I do to help?" Buss asked. "Be there for the team. So Laker fans, lets bring our energy for tomorrows game, like we always do but lets be a little bit louder, a little bit more focused. Light a candle at game time. Wear something purple or gold or both. Lets be present together but socially distanced. This we can do. "

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Phil Jackson Sent Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss A Photo Of Him In A Team Sweatshirt To Cheer Her Up - Sports Illustrated

By Rosemary Bennett 21, Marketing & Communications

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded Pacific Lutheran University Professor of French Rebecca Wilkin, a $133,333 grant under the Scholarly Editions and Translations interest area.

Wilkin and her collaborator Angela Hunter, an English professor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, received the grant for their ongoing project titled An Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women.

The project aims to present the work of Enlightenment French Feminist, author, and philosopher Louise Dupin to a wide audience for the first time by translating and editing a selection of her most important political and philosophical ideas in an approachable anthology.

We are confident that our editionLouise Dupin, Work on Women: Selections will appeal to students and scholars of history, philosophy, literature, and feminist and gender studies, said Wilkin.

Wilkin became interested in Dupin in 2012 while working on a student-faculty collaborative research project with Sonja Ruud 12 who is assisting the ongoing project as a r esearch associate and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

In the Humanities, we educate students to engagecreatively, critically, and empatheticallywith what it means to be human across the sweep of history, in diverse cultures and environments.

Pacific Lutheran Universitys Departments of English, Languages & Literatures, Philosophy, and Religion comprise the Division of Humanities.

Wilkin and Ruud began assembling the Work on Women by obtaining copies of manuscript from the Municipal Library of Geneva; the Houghton Library (Harvard); the Beinecke Library (Yale); the University of Illinois Rare Books library; and from the Clark Library (UCLA). The two were joined on the project by Hunter in 2017 after Hunter and Wilkin met through their shared research subject, as the two professors were among very few scholars researching the long-neglected work of Dupin.

Making Dupins work more accessible to a new generation of students and scholars is a fantastic feeling! said Wilkin. In the humanities, we deal with subjects of universal human import, so we need to be able to explain to people what our scholarship is about and why it matters. Yet that can be hard, especially when we work on historical material or contexts people have little familiarity with.

The project, when completed, is to be published in an upcoming volume with the New Histories of Philosophy series at Oxford University Press.

The Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

The post PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was first publishing on the Pacific Lutheran University website.

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PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - The Suburban Times

Lord Buddha is said to have found enlightenment while sitting under a Peepal tree at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya.(PTI Photo/File)

Visitors will soon have access to the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya as the temple management committee has decided to reopen the shrine from September 21 following the guidelines issued a few weeks ago by the Union home ministry regarding reopening of monuments along with many other institutions.

Mahabodhi, the first world heritage site of the state at Bodh Gaya, was closed in March this year due to Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown and though it opened for some time between June and July (from June 8 to July 15, 2020), entry of general visitors was stopped again to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

From Monday, when the temple will reopen, use of masks and sanitizers will be mandatory for visitors and while only 10 people will be allowed inside the Garbha Griha or the sanctum sanctorum of the temple at a time, the temple premises too, will not have more than 100 visitors/pilgrims at a time.

Besides, visiting hours to the temple too will be limited, from 6 am to 9 am in the morning and from 3 pm to 6 pm in the evening.

Mahabodhi temple is the site where Lord Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment under a Peepal tree.

This arrangement will continue till September 30 and from October 1st, the visiting hours will be restored to the original routine, that is from 6 am to 9 pm, N Dorje, BTMC (Bodh Gaya temple management committee) secretary, said.

Also Read: On eve of polls, Bihar parties underline importance of ecological issues

But all the protocols of the Covid-19 pandemic will be strictly followed, he added.

Things seem to be getting back on track after a long time. Due to Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the Budh Purnima festival was turned into a low-key affair. Only the rituals were performed at the temple while the devotees in different countries could attend it virtually on Mahabodhis Facebook page. Hope things will remain stable this time, he said.

Rakesh Kumar, president of the tourist guide association, said the reopening of Mahabodhi temple has raised hopes of better days in the coming months. Tourism season is to start from October and though foreign tourists may not come here as international flights from Gaya airport have remained suspended, domestic tourists may turn up, he said.

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Bodh Gayas Mahabodhi temple to reopen from September 21 with restrictions - Hindustan Times

CULTURE

Editorial Staff

September 24, 2020 - 14:51

The autumn looks bright at the Uffizi Galleries with three inspiring exhibitions focusing on Raphael and the restoration of the portrait of Pope Leo X, a look at the role of women in Ancient Rome, and the enlightenment of science in Joseph Wright of Derbys painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.

These three initiatives fit well within the Uffizis exhibition philosophy, explained Uffizi Galleries director Eike Schmidt in a press release. The Roman women exhibition marks the tenth show dedicated to womens art in recent years, while the Leo X show focusing on the technical implications of a ground-breaking restoration and the magnificent painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, which outlines the wonder derived from an experiment, connect with the theme of research and natural science, with a multidisciplinary approach that benefits humanistic knowledge.

Joseph Wright of Derbys 1768 masterpiece An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump comes to Italy for the first time thanks to a loan agreement with Londons National Gallery. The candle-lit painting quickly became an icon in the history of science. Now, in these months of the pandemic, the work takes on additional significance in the light of scientific discoveries and peoples reactions. The show will run from October 6, 2020 to January 24, 2021.

Following the paintings restoration at Florences Opificio delle Pietre Dure and subsequent display at the start of the major exhibition at Romes Scuderie del Quirinale to mark the five hundredth anniversary of Raphaels death, the Portrait of Pope Leo X with cardinals Giulio de Medici and Luigi de Rossi returns home to the Uffizi. The show documents the restoration and conveys the scientific analysis of the work. The subtle differences between the various shades of red, textures of the fabrics and the artists introspection in portraiture can now all be noted. The exhibition will run at Palazzo Pitti from October 27, 2020 to January 31, 2021.

This Uffizi exhibition compares opposing models that typify the depiction of women in Roman times and is separated into three sections: negative female examples, positive examples and the public role of the matrona. Sculptures, epigraphs, gems and drawings, mostly belonging to the Uffizi Galleries and others loaned from institutions, illustrate a widely documented span of time, the golden age of the empire, from the rise of Augustus to the death of Marcus Aurelius. The show will run from November 3, 2020 to April 11, 2021.

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CULTURE Autumn 2020 exhibitions at the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti - The Florentine

When are we going to get real about the looming retirement and aging crisis in this country?

If we dont do something its going to make theCOVID-19crisis look like a walk in the park.

The latest evidence that theres an iceberg straight ahead comes courtesy of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which has just published its 20thannual retirement survey of U.S. workers.They commissioned polling company Harris to survey about 5,300 workers. Oh, and most of the data were accumulated last fall and winterbefore the crisis struck and made things even worse.Among all the depressing data points, arguably none is more gloomy than the news that 48% of women, and 56% of men, have a serious, well-thought-out plan for dealing with their long-term care needs when they get old.

The plan? Family and friends.

No, really.

Amazingly, they say spouses are only half of that as well. Theyre genuinely relying on friends, and family members other than spouses, to pitchin, too.

Read: Hope to retire someday? See if you can answer these six simple questions

Cue the sound of palms hitting foreheads in financial planners offices across the country.

As someone who once helped provide long-term care to a family member for over a year, let me say: You really dont want to go there if you can possibly help it.

A report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that about 70% of those who reach 65 are going to need long-term care at some point.

Boston-based financial planner Sandra Gilpatrick warns, You shouldnt assume your family will live near you to make care easy. They may have their own financial or life struggles making it a major burden or impossible to give care later.

She adds: Spouses close in age may think they can take care of each other when they have a conversation at 60. Fast forward to 85 and it is a tremendous physical strain to try to lift someone out of a chair. Giving care can rapidly deteriorate the healthier spouse as well.

Meanwhile, I dont want to give you the wrong impression. I dont want to suggest that the failure to prepare for long-term care needs is the only part of the survey that is alarming.

It isnt.

Among the men surveyed, the median household retirement savings were$69,000.

Heavens. A man of 65 with that amount of money can buy a lifetime annuity worth, oh, $330 a month according toimmediateannuities.com.Among the women surveyed, the median household retirement savings were less than half as much, a mere $28,000. Just under a third of the women surveyed had $10,000 or less set aside.

To give you a flavor of how dismal this is, if you type $28,000 into the Amount to Invest box at immediateannuities.com, to see how much of an annuity this will get you, it tells you that number is below their minimum threshold for calculations.

Mmm. Good times.

As usual, everyone is wringing their hands about the financial struggles of the poormillennial generation, but the picture arguably looks even bleaker for Generation Xthe largely overlooked cohort born between 1965 and 1980.

Generation X men reported median retirement savings of $80,000 and Gen X women $46,000. For people who are already aged 40 to 55, with diminishing numbers of years left in which to accumulate wealth, these are alarmingly low numbers. (By contrast, baby boomer men reported median household retirement savings over $200,000.)More than a quarter of Gen X women said they had less than $10,000 set aside for retirement.

Maybe its no wonder. Gen Xers have dealt with three or four once in a lifetime economic collapses in their adult careers, including not only Covid but also the Great Recession and the worst housing collapse since the Great Depression, the stock market crash, economic slump and terrorism crisis of the early 2000s, and a really dismal economic slump of the early 1990s.

They got little uplift from the stock market boom of the late 1990s, which came too early for them to have a lot to invest, but were around and pouring money into their 401(k)accountsduring the dismal decade that followed.

Ouch.

Meanwhile, the survey confirms that women are in a worse position for retirement than men. Thats because of the infamous double whammy. On the one hand they are likely to accumulate fewer retirement savings in the first place, because they are apt to earn less and take more time out of full-time work. But on the other hand they actually need more than men because they tend to live longer.

No wonder just over half of men and women polled said they planned to retire after age 65, if at all. And 38% of men, and 27% of women, say they plan to carry on working in retirement.

The only thing we know for sure at this point? This wont be your parents retirementfor good or ill.

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Your retirement probably won't be anything like your parents'...and that's not good news - MarketWatch

Senior Hispanic man checking his finances online at home using a laptop computer at night Getty Images/iStockphoto

People who retire early suffer from accelerated cognitive decline and may even encounter early onset of dementia, according to anew economic studyI conducted with my doctoral studentAlan Adelman.

To establish that finding, we examined the effects of a rural pension program China introduced in 2009 that provided people who participated with a stable income if they stopped working after the official retirement age of 60.

We found that people who participated in the program and retired within one or two years experienced a cognitive decline equivalent to a drop in general intelligence of 1.7% relative to the general population. This drop is equivalent to about three IQ points and could make it harder for someone toadhere to a medication scheduleorconduct financial planning.

The largest negative effect was in what is called delayed recall, which measures a persons ability to remember something mentioned several minutes ago. Neurological researchlinks problems in this area to an early onset of dementia.

Cognitive decline refers to when a person has trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating or making decisions that affect their everyday life. Although some cognitive decline appears to be an inevitable byproduct of aging, faster decline can have profound adverse consequences on ones life.

Better understanding of the causes of this has powerful financial consequences. Cognitive skills the mental processes of gathering and processing information to solve problems, adapt to situations and learn from experiences are crucial for decision-making. They influence an individuals ability to process information andare connected to higher earningsand abetter quality of life.

Retiring early and working less or not at all can generate large benefits, such as reduced stress, better diets and more sleep. But as we found, it also has unintended adverse effects, like fewer social activities and less time spent challenging the mind, that far outweighed the positives.

While retirement schemes like the 401(k) and similar programs in other countriesare typically introduced to ensure the welfare of aging adults, our research suggests they need to be designed carefully to avoid unintended and significant adverse consequences. When people consider retirement, they should weigh the benefits with the significant downsides of a sudden lack of mental activity. A good way to ameliorate these effects is to stay engaged in social activities and continue to use your brains in the same way you did when you were working.

In short, we show that if you rest, you rust.

Because we are using data and a program in China, the mechanisms of how retirement induces cognitive decline could be context-specific and may not necessarily apply to people in other countries. For example, cultural differences or other policies that can provide support to individuals in old age can buffer some of the negative effects that we see in rural China due to the increase in social isolation and reduced mental activities.

Therefore, we can not definitively say that the findings will extrapolate to other countries. We are looking for data from other countries retirement programs, such as Indias, to see if the effects are similar or how they are different.

A big focus of theeconomics research labI run is tobetter understandthe causes and consequences of changes in what economists callhuman capital especially cognitive skills in the context of developing countries.

Our labs mission is to generate research to inform economic policies and empower individuals in low-income countries to rise out of poverty. One of the main ways we do this is through the use of randomized controlled trials to measure the impact of a particular intervention, such as retiring early or access to microcredit, on education outcomes, productivity and health decisions.

Plamen Nikolov is an assistant professor of rconomics at Binghamton University, State University of New York. This was first published by The Conversation Retiring early can be bad for thebrain.

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This study finds that those who retired early lost brain power - MarketWatch