Navigating the Realities of Being A Data Scientist - Medium (No paywall)

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Navigating the Realities of Being A Data Scientist - Medium (No paywall)     Some of the struggles I face frequently as a data scientist Continued here

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No, overwintering turtles don't breathe through their butts: Getting to the bottom of a popular misconception     On a crisp February day, a filmmaker and I were walking across the 45-centimetre-thick ice covering Opinicon Lake, a small lake in eastern Ontario. We were heading for a very special spot where hundreds of northern map turtles coalesce every year to spend the winter months. The filmmaker stuck a camera attached to a long pole in holes drilled through the ice to capture turtles for a nature documentary. Read more: Northern map turtles survive cold winter conditions by staying active under ice Continued here

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Does a 4-day workweek work? Companies share results after 1 year     More efficiency, happier employees and lower turnover rates are among the positive results found by the study. Continued here

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Truth, Disrupted - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     In March of 2018 President Trump’s tweets claiming that Amazon pays “little or no taxes to state & local governments” sent the company’s stock toward its worst monthly performance in two years. Trump had his facts wrong — and the stock price has since recovered — but the incident highlights an unsettling problem: Companies are profoundly vulnerable to misinformation spreading on social media. Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media has focused primarily on whether false news affected the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But the truth is that nobody is safe from this kind of damage. The spread of falsity has implications for our democracies, our economies, our businesses, and even our national security. We must make a concerted effort to understand and address its spread. Continued here

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Your heart changes in size and shape with exercise - this can lead to heart problems for some athletes and gym rats     Exercise has long been recognized by clinicians, scientists and public health officials as an important way to maintain health throughout a person’s lifespan. It improves overall fitness, helps build strong muscles and bones, reduces the risk of chronic disease, improves mood and slows physical decline. Exercise can also significantly reduce the risk of developing conditions that negatively affect heart heath, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity. But large amounts of exercise throughout life may also harm the heart, leading to the development of a condition called athletic heart. Continued here

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Brian Mulroney's tough stand against apartheid is one of his most important legacies     With his passing announced on Feb. 29, Canadians have cause to reflect on the legacy of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. What will last when the great book of history is written is that Mulroney played a central role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. This contribution, along with Canada’s contributions to the First and Second World Wars and the creation of peacekeeping, will stand among the great foreign policy contributions in Canadian history. Continued here

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The data is in: how QT impacts markets - FT (No paywall)     Moves by central banks to reduce their balance sheets have not had the impact feared by some Continued here

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Researchers create AI worms that can spread from one system to another     As generative AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini become more advanced, they are increasingly being put to work. Startups and tech companies are building AI agents and ecosystems on top of the systems that can complete boring chores for you: think automatically making calendar bookings and potentially buying products. But as the tools are given more freedom, it also increases the potential ways they can be attacked.Now, in a demonstration of the risks of connected, autonomous AI ecosystems, a group of researchers has created one of what they claim are the first generative AI worms—which can spread from one system to another, potentially stealing data or deploying malware in the process. “It basically means that now you have the ability to conduct or to perform a new kind of cyberattack that hasn't been seen before,” says Ben Nassi, a Cornell Tech researcher behind the research. Continued here

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How art and literature can help us rethink our problems with sleep     With the arrival of Daylight Saving Time soon, losing that hour of sleep in the morning might be front of mind for many people. Troubles with sleep have become something of a public obsession. Up to half of the population in Canada reports trouble sleeping, and the global sleep industry is valued at US$67 billion.Consumer products like sleep trackers and scented pillow sprays imply that sleep loss is a matter of personal responsibility, something for individuals to solve with quick tips and gadgets. Continued here

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The Argument Over a Long-Standing Autism Intervention - The New Yorker (No paywall)     When Tiffany Hammond was growing up in Texas, in the nineteen-nineties, other children teased her for how she spoke: she talked too softly, she talked in a monotone, she paused too long between words, she didn’t talk enough, she talked to herself. “Something’s wrong with her head,” kids would say. She was always fidgeting with pens or Troll dolls. She tried to connect with her peers by taking on their interests as her own—the Goosebumps series of scary novels, the N.B.A.—but the attempts backfired, as when she printed out an N.B.A. schedule, laminated and color-coded it, and brought it to school as a conversation piece. She kept a notebook on “how to be human,” which included tips such as remembering to staple your worksheets at the top-left corner and acquiring a pair of the correct Filas. Nothing worked. “I wondered why I didn’t have friends, or if I even deserved friends,” Hammond said. She dreaded school so much that, on a few mornings, when she was supposed to be walking there, she instead tried to make it to her great-grandparents’ house, some twenty-five miles away.When Hammond was twelve, she took an overdose of Tylenol. She told me that she’s not sure if she intended to attempt suicide; she just wanted the noise and negativity in her head to stop. Her mother brought her to doctors who gave Hammond a prescription for Paxil and a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, which, at the time, was recognized as an autism-related disorder that affects communication and social-emotional skills. She began going to a clinic for therapy twice a week, and continued for two years. “It was, ‘You have to sit right in the chair, you can’t cross your legs this way, you have to enunciate, no fidgeting,’ ” Hammond said. She might be asked to practice speaking clearly by reading the same paragraph from “Charlotte’s Web” out loud, over and over, and then do it again the next session. The work was tedious and difficult. “As a kid, you think, Why am I like this? Why can’t I get it?” Hammond said. “And then you have those times when you’re, like, Why can’t they just let me sit the way I want to sit?” Continued here

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Over-emphasising some things, underplaying others: ASIO's threat assessment is underpinned by confusing logic     Recently, Australia’s internal security agency declared there is a greater threat to Australian security than new terrorist attacks. Instead, it’s systemic and existential. The report read:In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed terrorism as Australia’s principle security concern. Continued here

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Greenwashing claims on trial: should NZ ban fossil fuel advertising?     Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington According to independent watchdog Consumer NZ, New Zealand is “rife with greenwashing”, with many companies positioning themselves as “sustainable”. No doubt you’ll have seen such claims on the products in your weekly shopping basket. Continued here

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What do you do with 191bn frozen euros owned by Russia? - The Economist (No paywall)     In economic terms, an asset has value because an owner might derive future benefits from it. Some assets, like cryptocurrencies, require a collective belief in those benefits. Others, like wine, will undeniably provide future pleasure, such as the ability to savour a 1974 Château Margaux. Still others, like American Treasuries, represent a claim on the government of the strongest economy in the world, backed by a formidable legal system. Continued here

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Netflix's 'Avatar' Remake is Already Messing Up Its Most Complex Villain     The live-action remake tries to flesh out the full story, but it hurts its most nuanced characters in the process.We’re living through an era of sympathetic villains. There’s nothing wrong with that, as the success of films like Black Panther and the popularity of characters like Anakin Skywalker have proven time and again. Netflix’s biggest shows have also had a lot of success in that arena, but attempts to translate that success to the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake are already starting to backfire. Continued here

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I Went to Carl's Jr.'s AI Drive-Thru and All I Got Was Sad     Fast food chains are experimenting with having AI assistants take orders. The results aren’t particularly satisfying.Rolling up to the Carl’s Jr. a few blocks from my house, I was greeted with a line for the drive-thru. There’s a certain culture that forms only when a drive-thru is taking particularly long. Fast food veterans, people who are high, and your quarterly french fry enjoyers direct their confusion and anger at the same person holding everyone else up. It forms a fleeting, but nonetheless enjoyable camaraderie. Continued here

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In Praise of Extreme Moderation - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     You can’t throw a paper airplane in some offices without hitting a person who is training for a marathon, planning a 10-day silent meditation retreat, or intending on scaling Kilimanjaro. Workaholism is a badge of honor, and extremism is becoming the norm not only in our professional lives but increasingly in our personal lives as well. Extreme parents overinvest in building competitive kids. People take up sports to find some balance in their lives — and get caught up becoming triathletes. What if, instead, we embraced extreme moderation, extreme balance? What if instead of giving 110% to everything, we gave just 80%? So many of us say we want balance, but maybe we aren’t extreme enough in our devotion to this ideal.Why does it seem like you can’t throw a paper airplane in some offices without hitting a person who is training for a marathon, planning a 10-day silent meditation retreat, or intending on scaling Kilimanjaro? On top of working 24/7 for a company that doesn’t pay overtime? Extremism is becoming the norm not only in our professional lives but increasingly in our personal lives as well, from politics and parenting to food and fitness. Continued here

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Christophe Boesch (1951-2024), primatologist and champion of chimps     In 1979, ethologist Christophe Boesch and his wife Hedwige Boesch-Achermann began researching the behaviour of a community of wild West African chimpanzees in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. Their study became the first long-term research on chimpanzees to be conducted in a continuous rainforest, rather than in a mixed savannah habitat such as Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where primatologist Jane Goodall had been working for almost two decades. It led to numerous discoveries about cultural diversity and behavioural variation — revealing, for example, that chimpanzees used hammers to crack nuts, that males cared altruistically for unrelated orphans and how predation by leopards influenced grouping patterns. Boesch argued that, because the Taï population was relatively undisturbed, it yielded a uniquely informative picture of chimpanzee behavioural adaptations. The Taï project remains the only study of a large population of habituated West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), a rapidly dwindling subspecies (taichimpproject.org). He has died aged 72.Boesch promoted the conservation of chimpanzees by organizing population surveys, launching chimpanzee-research sites and driving the creation of national parks, including Moyen-Bafing National Park in Guinea. When faced with obstacles, from changing governments and obstructive mining companies to sceptical donor agencies, he had little patience for bureaucracy or unnecessary delays. He envisaged a continuous protected area that stretched from Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire and pursued this goal through the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF), which he and Boesch-Achermann co-founded in 2000. Under Boesch’s leadership, the WCF engaged local people and lobbied industries and ministries to avert threats from mining activities and infrastructural development. The foundation continues to lead conservation efforts in West Africa. Continued here

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The Quest for 'Budget Ozempic' Has Led to this Harmful TikTok Diet Trend     The drug’s soaring popularity online has not only contributed to shortages and bootleg versions of the drug but also harmful practices. Social media is obsessed with the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. But Ozempic’s ability to control blood sugar isn’t the reason it’s so popular online. Instead, the drug is trending because it has been shown in clinical trials to cause weight loss in diabetic patients taking it. Continued here

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65 Clever Things Under $30 on Amazon That Are Effing Dope     There are heaps of ways to spend your money on the internet, so it can be a challenge to sift through the noise to find the really cool products that actually fill a need — and it’s harder still to do it on a budget. Thankfully, the collection here is full of carefully selected products that make cooking and cleaning simpler, organization easier, and everything else just a bit more fun. And better yet, you can score all the items on this list for $30 or less.Ensure your workstation has all the juice it needs with this power strip tower. Each of the four sides has three AC outlets (for a grand total of 12 sockets), and they can be turned on and off individually to save power. On top of that, there are three USB-A ports and one USB-C port. Choose from options with 10- and 16.4-foot extension cords. Continued here

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'Dune 2's Radical Chani Reboot Fixes Frank Herbert's Biggest Mistake     In Dune: Part Two, Chani is not taking any of Paul’s sh*t. While Zendaya’s Fremen warrior badass is, canonically, the only true love for Muad'Dib, in the novel, she doesn’t end up marrying him, mostly because Paul chooses to take as much power as possible and get hitched to Princess Irulan. The novel Dune ends with Lady Jessica telling Chani that “history will call us wives,” reminding her that even though they don’t have a formal claim to power, each of them is more powerful without a marriage than with it. But, in Dune: Part Two, Chani’s love for Paul is less straightforward, and she’s far less complicit in his acension to the throne. This is a not-so-subtle change to Chani’s character even though her role in the plot is generally the same as the book, the tone is decidedly different. And, for director Denis Villeneuve there’s a specific reason why. Continued here

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Navigating special education labels is complex, and it matters for education equity     The Ontario Ministry of Education’s special education policy and resource guide provides instructions to school boards and schools on administering special education programs. It also emphasizes the importance of education equity, and involving parents in special education designations. Continued here

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Your face for sale: anyone can legally gather and market your facial data without explicit consent     The morning started with a message from a friend: “I used your photos to train my local version of Midjourney. I hope you don’t mind”, followed up with generated pictures of me wearing a flirty steampunk costume.I did in fact mind. I felt violated. Wouldn’t you? I bet Taylor Swift did when deepfakes of her hit the internet. But is the legal status of my face different from the face of a celebrity? Continued here

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Yabby traps and discarded fishing tackle can kill platypuses - it's time to clean up our act     Recreational fishing is a popular pastime in Australia’s inland rivers and streams. Unfortunately in the process, many people are unwittingly killing platypuses. The animals can become trapped in nets commonly used to catch yabbies such as “Opera House traps” (so-called because their shape resembles the sails of the Sydney Opera House). The enclosed structure stops platypuses swimming back to the surface to breathe, causing them to drown in minutes. Continued here

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'Office culture' as we know it is dead. Workers have other ideas     Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures. Continued here

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A West African ode to a spicy and tangy chicken dish     Beyond its rough translation of "good hospitality", the West African philosophy of teraanga (sometimes spelled "teranga") means giving without expecting anything material in return, rooted in the deep cultural belief in the reciprocity of blessings. In Senegal it is a way of life, a commitment to offering the best of what one has to guests, treating them with unparalleled kindness."There's a word in Wolof, the syrupy mother tongue of my native Senegal in West Africa, that perfectly describes the spirit of our food culture. That word is teraanga," reflects Senegalese author, chef and restauranteur Pierre Thiam in the introduction to his cookbook, Simply West African, published in 2023. This guide to West African cuisine celebrates Senegalese culture, as well as the culinary treasures that span the African diaspora, from Thiam's vegan entry into the Jollof rice wars, to his iconic piri-piri chicken – a West African ode to a spicy and tangy southern African dish. Continued here

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Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done?     The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.Large language models (LLMs) are a paradigm-changing innovation in data science. They extend the capabilities of machine learning models to generating relevant text and images in response to a wide array of qualitative prompts. While these tools are expensive and difficult to build, multitudes of users can use them quickly and cheaply to perform some of the language-based tasks that only humans could do before. Continued here

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View from The Hill: Does Dunkley tell Peter Dutton he should give more attention to the former Liberal heartland?     Depending how you want to read it, you can say not a great deal happened in Saturday’s Dunkley byelection, or you find there are messages in it for everyone. On the first view, Labor’s comfortable win suggests people are feeling the cost-of-living pinch but they’re not blaming the Albanese government. Continued here

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6 Ways Generative AI Will Transform Healthcare - Forbes (No paywall)     Generative AI is ushering in a transformative era in healthcare, with far-reaching implications for patient care, diagnostics, and more. Will the technology help to overcome some of the biggest problems facing our stretched healthcare systems and democratize access to healthcare for all? If these use cases are anything to go by, generative AI certainly has the potential to add very real value to the healthcare sector. Sophisticated generative AI models like GPT-4, combined with human doctor expertise, have led to a new wave of virtual health assistants. Ada is a doctor-developed, AI-driven app designed to assess symptoms and offer patients medical guidance in multiple languages (including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili). So far, the app has amassed 13 million users and has completed more than 30 million symptom assessments. It works by asking you questions about your symptoms (you can also create separate symptom profiles for loved ones) and then pointing you to possible conditions and medical guidance. The app also tracks your symptoms as they progress. Continued here S25 Scientists Are Tantalizingly Close To Identifying The Gut Bacteria Linked To Stress     Probiotics have been getting a lot of attention recently. These bacteria, which you can consume from fermented foods, yogurt, or even pills, are linked to a number of health and wellness benefits, including reducing gastrointestinal distress, urinary tract infections, and eczema. But can they improve your mood, too?Behavior and mental health are complicated. But the short answer, according to my team’s recently published research, is likely yes. Continued here S8 Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts     Update note: This article was originally published in May 2022 based on data from the 2013 report on European mammal populations from the Zoological Society of London; Birdlife International; and Rewilding Europe. It was updated and republished in September 2022 based on the new 2022 publication of this report from these organizations.The European bison is the continent's largest herbivore. It was once abundant across the region. Archaeological evidence suggests that the bison was widespread, stretching from France to Ukraine, down to the tip of the Black Sea.1 The earliest fossils date back to the Early Holocene period - around 9,000 BC. Continued here S9 Why I Encourage My Best Employees to Consider Outside Job Offers - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     Most bosses live in fear that their best employees will leave, so it might seem to be a bad idea to encourage your stars to consider outside offers. But in fact, it sends employees a clear signal that you really care about their learning and development. Openness allows for an honest conversation between you and each employee about their future career path. If they do decide to leave, they’ll be more likely to recommend you as a great boss, and also more likely to return at some future point.Every day we get new reminders of just how tough the war for talent can be. It isn’t enough to attract the greatest employees — you have to retain them. That’s become a bigger challenge with “job hopping” on the rise. One survey found that 64% of workers, and 75% of those under the age of 34, believe frequently switching jobs will benefit their careers. Continued here S10 How to Increase Your Influence at Work - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     To be effective in organizations today, you must be able to influence people. Here are some tips on how to position yourself as an informal leader, even if you’re not a formal one. (1) Strategize. Create a “power map” — an org chart of decision makers related to the initiative you wish to promote — to guide your campaign. Think about how and when you will approach your colleagues. (2) Craft your message. Prepare a concise elevator pitch about your idea. Then, based on your map, customize your pitch, taking into account your individual colleagues’ needs, perspectives, and temperaments. (3) Cultivate allies. Ask colleagues for their advice and incorporate their feedback. Enlist colleagues who are enthusiastic about your idea to serve as ambassadors. (4) Develop expertise. Stay up-to-date about your topic area. Attend conferences, enroll in a certification program, or assume a leadership position in a professional organization. These visible steps help you become that go-to person that others look to for advice.To be effective in organizations today, you must be able to influence people. Your title alone isn’t always enough to sway others, nor do you always have a formal position. So, what’s the best way to position yourself as an informal leader? How do you motivate colleagues to support your initiatives and adopt your ideas? How can you become a go-to person that others look to for guidance and expert advice? Continued here S15 Why science relies too much on mathematics - New Scientist (No paywall)     “Science is written in the language of mathematics,” proclaimed Galileo in 1623. And over the past few centuries science has become ever more mathematical. Nowadays, mathematics seems to hold total hegemony, particularly in the fields of quantum physics and relativity – the teaching of modern physics seems to involve deriving an… Continued here S21 Putting Nutrition Labels on Bottles Could Decimate the Wine Industry -- Or Save It     When you reach for that bottle of wine this Valentine’s Day, do you know how healthy it is? Many people have a too-rosy view of the beverage and are surprised when confronted with the facts about it on a nutrition label, according to a study my co-author, Natalia Velikova, and I recently published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing.Our findings could have big implications for the wine industry, particularly as some groups in the U.S. are pushing for wine to have mandatory nutrition labels. Continued here S26 Max Just Quietly Added The Trippiest Medieval Epic You Haven't Seen     2021 was a tough year for movies. With a global pandemic effectively rewiring the world as we knew it, theaters struggled more than they ever had. Huge tentpole franchises did what they could to get audiences back into the theater, but a lot of smaller projects were still unfortunately underseen.The Green Knight is one such hidden gem. The film, produced by A24 and directed by David Lowery, should have been a hit with the arthouse crowd — and though the studio put a lot of faith in its success, it only just barely recouped its $15 million budget at the box office. The Green Knight garnered a wide theatrical release in the heat of blockbuster season, despite being the antithesis of the word. It’s as epic as Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and just as esoteric... but that tends to happen when adapting a centuries-old chivalric romance for the big screen. Continued here S27 Are the exact words of a language arbitrary or necessary? | Aeon Essays     is a writer and AI researcher who applies machine learning techniques to Bayesian models of language and vision. He lives in Amsterdam.Cratylus and Hermogenes disagree about language. As only the format of a fictional debate will allow they hold opposing and extreme positions. Cratylus believes that the sound of each word is a reflection of what it describes in the world. The sliding sound of the /l/ in liparon, for instance, is there precisely because the word means ‘sleek’ or ‘slippery’ in Cratylus’ native Greek. If he spoke English, he might argue in the same vein that the word ‘wind’ acquires its meaning from its sound, which resembles what it describes. Nothing is arbitrary. Continued here S28 After his son's terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing - and his granddaughter | Aeon Videos     Azdyne Amimour’s world was forever altered when, in the wake of the Islamic State attacks on Paris in November 2015, which left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured, he learned that his son Samy was one of the terrorists responsible. Filmed in Paris between 2019 and 2023, this short documentary from the UK director Myriam François follows Amimour as he works to build bridges and forge friendships with those affected by the attacks, notably Georges Salines, whose daughter Lola was one of the victims. As Amimour and his wife Mouna grapple with the pain wrought by Samy’s actions, they also try navigate the complex, years-long process of bringing his young daughter, Alaa, whom they’ve never met, from a camp in Syria to live with them in Paris. A powerful portrait of grief, pain and compassion, the film traces the winding, uncertain paths that healing can take. Continued here S29 The Middle Passage: A Jungian Field Guide to Finding Meaning and Transformation in Midlife     “Our task at midlife is to be strong enough to relinquish the ego-urgencies of the first half and open ourselves to a greater wonder.” Continued here S31 What Lynx Air's failure tells us about the state of the Canadian airline industry     Lynx Air is the latest in a long line of low-cost airlines to fail in Canada. The airline ceased operations on Feb. 26, four days after announcing it had entered creditor protection on Feb. 22.This scenario is not novel in Canadian commercial aviation; Canada has had its fair share of discount carrier failings due to poor financial health. Continued here S36 Why do millions of Americans believe the 2020 presidential election was 'stolen' from Donald Trump?     Since the 1980s, Super Tuesday has been one of the most important dates in the American presidential campaign: about one third of the delegates will be awarded to the presidential candidates in each party. There is very little suspense as to who the winners will be this year: both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been the frontrunners and have shown commanding leads in the polls, despite their low popularity.Never before has a non-incumbent GOP candidate enjoyed such a lead at this point of the campaign, not even George W. Bush in 2000. One reason may be that Donald Trump is not really a non-incumbent. More importantly, he is seen by a majority of his base as the only legitimate president. Two thirds of Republican voters (and nearly 3 in 10 Americans) continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that Biden was not lawfully elected. In fact, this “election denialism” is one of the major differences between those who support Trump and those who voted for his rival, Nikki Haley. According to them, “massive” fraud occurred in certain states (fake voters, rigged voting machines, etc.) with the blessing of election officials and unscrupulous judges, thus tipping the contest. Continued here About Me Sayan Will copy and paste later from my official biography! View my complete profile Powered by Blogger.