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Human Behavior

Voice + AI Is Coming To The Workplace Loud And Clear – Forbes

Robots communicating via voice.

Virtual assistants turn 16 this year and you dont have to look too hard - or speak too loudly - to find them. In fact, there will be around 8 billion voice-based devices by 2023 - more than the worlds population today. From Amazons Echo and Googles Assistant to Apples Siri, Samsungs Bixby and Microsofts Cortana, billions of people around the world are using their voices every day to schedule appointments, get directions, play music or get answers quickly all things that once required us to tediously type or write. Even Twitter recently announced that users can now audio tweet their inner musings.

And yet, despite widespread adoption of voice-based devices in our personal lives, applications based on voice are nowhere as pervasive in our professional lives as they are in our homes. One could argue that consumer technology leads the way in changing human behavior and that the consumerization of the enterprise is always driven first by an expectation that work tools should be equally as convenient as personal technology solutions. Take, for example, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, which started in the late 90s. It wasnt until they reached peak consumer adoption that consumers started expecting communication with coworkers to be just like chatting with their friends; twenty years later, Slack was born.

Voice will be no different. As we gradually use voice as the standard medium of interaction between ourselves and technology in our personal lives, we will start to see an increasing demand for similar technologies in our professional lives. Steve McLendon, news product lead for voice at Google argues that we see voice as the ubiquitous always with you platform that allows you to do things in the real world. As a data point, Gartner predicts 25 percent of workers will use some voice-based technology daily by 2021. Thats not surprising given that the percentage of CIOs already using, or immediately planning to use, virtual customer assistants rose 10 points to 31 percent between 2018 and 2019 [Source: Gartner, Market Guide for Virtual Customer Assistants, Brian Manusama, Bern Elliot, Magnus Revang, Anthony Mullen, 11 July, 2019]. And while virtual customer assistants can process both text and voice, some technologists forecast that speech will become the standard medium of interaction between people and their computers.

In addition, there have been some incredible advancements in technology, making this precisely the right time for enterprise applications of voice to take off. Historically, most voice-based technologies have fallen short of expectations. This is because the typical method of understanding voice is to first collect data, then transcribe and label data to provide structure and lastly, build a machine learning model on top. The issue often comes with acquiring a high enough volume of labeled data, which often serves as a bottleneck.

Most recently, theres been amazing progress in natural language understanding. Natural language models from Google, Facebook, and OpenAI are starting to outperform humans on a variety of basic tasks. These new pre-trained and open source models allow users to fine-tune their needs using much smaller amounts of labeled data. OpenAIs latest model, GPT-3, is material progress towards eliminating the need for fine-tuning entirely. While this research is still in its infancy, it has the potential to eliminate some of the rigidity of voice applications as they exist today and open new ways of understanding and utilizing voice.

Unlocking New Opportunities for Voice Applications with AI

While embracing voice as a technology platform for business applications is not a new initiative, efforts have been quite limited to date. Early applications existed mostly in recording and transcribing calls, such as doctors putting notes in EMRs.

However, with the advancements in AI technology, the applications of analyzing voice move these solutions from a nice-to-have feature to a system of record which can unlock opportunities for revenue growth, costs savings and retaining talent, just to name a few.

Here are some specific areas where the combination of voice and AI are proving to be a powerful duo.

Its almost paradoxical that while we have a myriad of communication tools like email, Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and others, the single most efficient way to transfer information is still by voice. Take for example, explaining a complicated issue or having a difficult conversation; speaking live is always the best medium. Language is, in fact, the original, most important tool setting our species apart from any other. It empowers our most complex capabilities and underlies the achievements of civilization. And now we are finally poised to truly unleash it in an intelligible, logical digital form, allowing entrepreneurs to create unimagined new solutions and solve our societys most pressing problems.

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Voice + AI Is Coming To The Workplace Loud And Clear - Forbes

Human Behavior

Ford, Honda boost relationship with Dealer.com – Auto Remarketing

BURLINGTON, Vt.-

This week, Dealer.com enhanced its relationships with both Ford and Honda.

The Cox Automotive division first announced it has been selected as a premier partner in the FordDirect Advantage Digital Advertising Program. Then, Dealer.com highlighted that it has been selected as a choice Honda website and digital advertising provider through the Honda Digital Customer Experience.

Fueled by Cox Automotives insight into the behaviors of in-market shoppers, key integrations and more than a decade of digital advertising expertise, Dealer.com said it can gives Ford and Lincoln dealers the opportunity to maximize sales through more precise, consistent advertising portfolios aligned to their strategies.

During these unprecedented times, Dealer.com acknowledged market forces are challenging dealers to make more accurate investments. Through Dealer.coms Digital Advertising program, Ford and Lincoln dealers can enjoy the flexibility and business intelligence needed to reach consumers at all stages of their journey, displaying the right ad to the right shopper and on the right channel at the right time.

Dealer.com insisted its secure advertising solutions are right-sized for every dealer.

We are seeing record-breaking online traffic and dealers have to spend smarter on every channel to reach consumers wherever they are digitally, said Wayne Pastore, vice president and general manager of Dealer.com.

Our customers are facing market uncertainty, changing consumer behaviors and advertising fraud in a very competitive industry, Pastore continued in a news release. We have the data and partnerships to drive Ford and Lincoln dealer businesses forward by helping them optimize their advertising portfolio and thrive amid disruption.

While digital advertising technologies may seem complex, Dealer.com emphasized that its approach begins with supporting individual dealer needs. Leveraging the proprietary Compass Advertising Intelligence engine, a portfolio is built to a dealers goals and budget and will flex with a dealers changing needs.

Dealer.coms business intelligence and insights then can help steer Ford and Lincoln dealers toward smarter advertising investments.

Dealer.com highlighted its other advertising solutions key advantages include:

Leverage shopper data from Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book to help dealers capitalize on existing demand in a dealers market.

Filter inventory for advertising through Paid Search with vAuto data, including Market Day Supply, Price Rank, vRank, and Price to Market, ensuring a dealer spends the right budget on the appropriate vehicles.

Apply relevant pricing data from Xtime Schedule in paid search ads, driving more applicable ad copy promoting a dealers service department.

Provide turnkey video creation and delivery service for dealers no matter their budget, driving compelling, offer-based video content to high value, high engagement video channels like Facebook and YouTube.

Detect and combat advertising fraud and ensure dealer investments are protected with a partnership with White Ops and the Trustworthy Accountability Group.

The Dealer.com platform can deploy personalized, integrated ad campaigns that use artificial intelligence and impactful creative to reach prospective vehicle buyers and owners through paid search, display, social media and video channels.

To learn more about Dealer.com advertising, visit https://www.dealer.com/products/advertising.

As mentioned, Dealer.com announced it has been selected as a choice Honda website and digital advertising provider through the Honda Digital Customer Experience.

Through Dealer.coms Website Choice program, Honda dealers can receive customized, strategic and secure management of a dealers advertising strategy and investment to connect with in-market shoppers across the digital channels that drive performance.

Dealer.com pointed out that it is aiding Honda dealers to deliver a personalized, efficient car shopping experience, which customers expect now more than ever before.

Fueled by user experience research, data science, and exclusive integrations with Cox Automotive brands, Dealer.com websites can deliver a full service, personalized digital storefront experience that can complementa dealers individual business goals.

We are better positioned to help dealers now and invest in the long-term to respond to the new model of car shopping, Pastore said in another news release.

Through Hondas Website Choice Program, we provide all the levers dealers can pull in the digital marketing ecosystem whether its on their website, through social channels or video, he continued. These tools have impact and will allow dealers to connect in a meaningful way to their customers.

Through insight into human behavior, supported by data from Cox Automotive brands like Kelley Blue Book, Autotrader, Dealertrack, HomeNet and more, Dealer.coms Website Choice program offers professional services that address and solve the challenges faced by dealers and their customers.

Participating dealerships will receive a strategic advantage in content creation, SEO ranking, advertising, social strategies and more.

Dealers who would like to learn more can visit https://www.dealer.com/honda/.

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Ford, Honda boost relationship with Dealer.com - Auto Remarketing

Human Behavior

Why Animism Gives Japanese Characters a NiFTy Head Start on the Blockchain – Cointelegraph

Anime is for kids? Think again.

As you grew older, perhaps you felt the need to put away childish things, as the verse from Corinthians admonishes us to do. You graduated from picture books to literature, from nursery rhymes to Nirvana, from the simple to the complex.

Its the adult thing to do.

Yet anime, the cartoon-ish art form sometimes known as Japanimation, is not childish in either its origins or its message. In fact, anime is art with a message: it helps explain to children the right thing to do in life and some might say, it provides a moral compass to adults.

It is the widespread appeal of both the anime style and its various messages that helps us understand why Japanese characters have an inbuilt advantage in the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), both in blockchain gaming and in the expanding arena of digital collectibles. The answer lies in one of the pillars of Japanese culture, Animism, as we will see. And while anime is but one example of this phenomenon, it is perhaps the one that best illustrates it.

There are many forms of anime, and in the version that is aimed at children the predominant themes are positive. Justice prevails. Friendship thrives. Love wins. The main characters are on the side of good, and the defeat of virtue is unthinkable.

This type of anime concerns itself with the promotion of decent human behavior. It doesnt reflect the severe reality of, say, inequality. It is clean and simple. It encourages children to dream big, and to go claim those dreams.

And in this form, it is a form of cultural reassurance, a guidebook to the basic morality principles that the majority of participants in your society agree on. It seems playful, but its message resonates far beyond play.

This is the form of anime that is familiar to many in the West.

However, it is not the only version of anime. Sub-genres such as Hentai explore darker, adult, or sexual themes. The main characters may lose, and even die. Supporting characters come to dominate the protagonists, and themes become complicated as opposed to simple.

So, growing up in Japan doesnt mean that you outgrow anime; more that you graduate from one style to another as you become more comfortable with adult thematic elements. Life is not easy, and adult anime makes that very clear.

So whats the difference between the anime that Japan exports to a young global audience, and the more complicated domestic product?

Put simply, while many Westerners see cartoon-style animation predominantly as a form of childrens entertainment, the Japanese imbue anime characters with greater complexity, seeing past the animated presentation and considering the characters to have real-world relevance.

Simona Stanzani, a Japanese-Italian-English manga/anime translator/writer, said in an interview last year: What is attractive about Japanese Manga and Anime is its depth. Characters are very human-like, and human psychology and human relations are drawn conscientiously. It is as if watching dramas and movies. You can learn what is important in life.

According to Globe, a fan from Serbia explained the uniqueness of Japanese anime as follows:

When you are a child you believe you are the one who plays the leading part but as you grow up you face a different reality. Anything can happen in life. If a character spends a harsh life and is very realistic you can sympathize with her deeply.

American game producer Maximilian Dood concluded that playing a Japanese video game, in his case Final Fantasy 7, was the first time he felt attached to characters.

For a lot of people including myself, it was the gateway to video games being a narrative to you, getting attached to characters instead of just playing a game for the sake of playing a game () This was the first time you lived with characters. This was the first time you experienced a journey and you didnt feel like you were just watching a movie. You didnt feel like you were just a part of something that was there and then it was over. You felt like you were there with them.

Japanese cultural exports have strongly out-performed what we might expect of a relatively small country. As of November 2019, nine Japanese media franchises ranked in the top 25 of the worlds most successful of all time. Nintendos Pokmon has accumulated the most revenue with $92 billion. The Hello Kitty franchise comes in second with more than $80 billion beating out both Mickey Mouse and Star Wars.

Pokmon has earned three times the revenue created by Harry Potter, or the Marvel cinematic universe.

And Japanese character popularity shows no sign of slowing: Netflix has secured exclusive rights to new episodes of Pokmon, while Hello Kitty is moving toward her Hollywood debut.

Japanese characters have evolved from the concept of Animism, which is rooted in the belief that humans do not have an exclusive franchise on the soul. Animals, plants, and inorganic substances have spirits (and Animism treats all things as having agency. For Animists, anime characters have souls.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy points out:

Notions of Japan as an animistic spirit-infused realm in which humans can commune with animals and other objects and forces of nature are ubiquitous in Japan, coursing through popular manga and anime.

Although few Japanese overtly support the theological concept of Animism today, it has been a major part of Japanese history and has influenced the Japanese way of thinking significantly. According to Takeshi Umehara, one of Japans leading contemporary philosophers, although Animism is considered by many to be a primitive religion its principles are still the basis of Japanese Shinto and Buddhism today.

Umehara claims that the denial of Animism means the acceptance of the concept that humans should, and do, control nature. The concept of Animism therefore directly contrasts with Christian monotheism, in which only human beings are considered to have spirits. In other words Animists see non-humans as active entities with agency, while for the Judaeo-Christian religions and the nations that follow their principles, non-humans are primarily passive objects that must be governed by humans.

So what does any of this have to do with NFTs and blockchain technology?

NFTs are tokens that have unique information or attributes associated with them, and they are therefore not replaceable by other tokens.

OpenSea, a leading NFT auction platform, explains that the reasons why NFTs are appealing to gamers include both provenance and utility.

Utility is the obvious one: Im willing to buy an NFT ticket because it lets me into a conference, Im more willing to buy a piece of art if I can show it off in a virtual world, and Im willing to buy an item if it gives me special abilities in a game. The concept of provenance encapsulates the story behind an NFT. Where did it come from? Whos owned it in the past? As the space matures, the stories of interesting NFTs grow more complex and start to meaningfully impact a tokens value.

The first major spike in usage for NFTs was during the CryptoKitties boom of late 2017, when the game became popular enough to slow down the entire Ethereum network and speculation on famous cats became rife. Scarcity, another feature of NFTs, was the focal point at that time. But scarcity alone doesnt drive demand for NFTs.

Animism is about seeing an authentic relationship between humans and non-human entities in this case, game characters. So when OpenSea explains that users have the opportunity to understand the provenance of game characters, this can mean two things.

First, it means users can know that the NFT is not fake. Thats the most basic use of a token in this instance.

But a second interpretation suggests that provenance allows players to also see their game character as having agency. As being a friend.

They can have an attachment to that character because blockchain presents the opportunity to build a genuine relationship based on a shared history. Villages, cities, nation states and countries have all been built on the same principle. Our shared history defines us.

Consider Dungeons & Dragons, and the deep connection players created between themselves and their alter egos in the game. There are instances of characters who have persisted for decades in home games.

This level of attachment can be gained only when users see their relationship with a game character as more than transactional or transient. In other words, when the character itself becomes imbued with a spirit, a soul.

When a shared history becomes available via demonstrable provenance (blockchain), and it intersects with a narrative that promotes the concept of imbuing non-real characters with personality and agency (Animism) its not a leap to infer that technology and philosophy are converging in a powerful way.

Japan has sold character-driven narratives to the world for decades. Godzilla, Pikachu, Mario, Transformers, Hello Kitty, Doraemon the list goes on. And the fan connection to these characters is illustrated by their global financial success.

Perhaps it seems somewhat strange for Westerners to consider that non-human entities have souls. But on the flipside, we open our wallets repeatedly to prove that we love cool characters with personality. And thanks to a history of Animism, Japan is a world leader in creating these unique and engaging characters.

Both in gaming and in collectibles, a sense of connection with character is one of the key assets in creating success. And as a country with decades of experience creating character narratives, its unsurprising that Japan should therefore be at the forefront in building blockchain brands that bring the technology both closer to our existing experiences, and also beyond them.

Its equally unsurprising that the first (and to date, most) successful implementation of NFTs at scale was a game that featured cats, a species that both confounds and delights humans in almost equal measure, and which we anthropomorphize to a greater degree than perhaps any other.

As our lives change and we adopt remote working as we sit at home through pandemics as virtual reality edges ever closed to mass adoption our connection with the physical world may change too.

As Sian Sullivan suggests in Nature on the Move III: (Re)countenancing an Animate Nature, perhaps we will eventually find ourselves enmeshed in a network of ever-changing relationships with non-human entities.

Japanese ones, if history is any guide.

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Why Animism Gives Japanese Characters a NiFTy Head Start on the Blockchain - Cointelegraph

Human Behavior

The ‘Have More Children and Disciple Them Like Crazy’ Culture War Strategy is Neither New Nor Responsible – Religion Dispatches

In a blog post for The Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung calls for conservative Christians to have more children and disciple them like crazy, a new culture war strategy that has me scratching my head. Not just because its sexist to tell mothers, who typically bear the disproportionate burden of child-care, to have more children than you think you can handle. And not just because its anti-child to catechize these small human beings to win a culture war. As offensive as that is, Im confounded because this isnt a new culture war strategy at all. For those of us who grew up in evangelicalism, we just called this the way we grew up.

As a child, I was catechized by youth group leaders, missionaries who had the zeal to add numbers to their newsletter reportsuh, I mean, for the Kingdom. Of course, as a child, I didnt have the awareness of this culture war strategy, I simply believed I was being taught the love and grace of a good God. When I grew older and, gasp, developed my own critical thinking abilities, I began to see with more clarity the unspoken strategies put in place to ensure I stayed in the fold long after I departed from the shelter of my Christian bubble.

If you look at one of the leading influential voices of evangelical culture, Focus on the Family, youll see very clear guidelines on how exactly to do this. When kids are very young, its important to instill respect, which means blind obedience to authority figures.

God gives us rules that we must obey.

Even if Mommy or Daddy cant see what you are doing, God sees it.

As they enter early Elementary years, erect a boundary between the Christian worldview, often referred to as the biblical way, and the secular world.

In late Elementary years, families are instructed to land the target: convert the child. Note this quote,

The majority of people who trust Christ as Savior do so before they are teens.

The National Association of Evangelicals notes a Barna study citing the average age of conversion, between 4-14.

Implicit in this reminder is the urgency to convert kids before they grow upwhat I call the Get-em-while-theyre-young ideology. What happens to kids who grow into middle school age and teenagers, as their world slowly expands and they begin to see discrepancies between the doctrines theyre taught and their own experiences? How are Christian families to keep their kids toeing the line?

Christian families are taught to repeat two steps. Step 1: Obey God no matter what. In more sophisticated language this is taught as the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God, which is prevalent on the website of the Gospel Coalition on whose board Kevin DeYoung sits (along with 8 other men). Step 2: Continue fearing the secular world. This, of course, is the driving force behind the culture wars.

The culture wars did not arise out of a vacuum; the players are carefully cultivated in their homes and families, through curation of Christian-subculture content for kids, and via the meticulous wiring of childrens minds and spirituality to blind obedience and fears of departing from the imagined safety of Christian environments.

When DeYoungs piece was published I was surprised to see a lot of fellow ex-evangelicals mock this piece by stating that this strategy will fail because their own story is that it did not work on them. Because they left.

I disagree. I think it works very well. As humans were molded by our environment. To deny this would be to ignore evidence from the scientists who study human behavior. Children are deeply impacted by the teachings they receive and the culture which shapes them. Those of us who grew up to be adults who questioned the assumptions of our childhood have done so at great mental anguish and weve paid a significant social cost. For every individual who was willing to pay that premium, there are many who stay and perpetuate the ideology of their childhood. And the culture war retains its warriors.

Kevin DeYoungs new culture war strategy isnt new, but it is effective. However, winning this war means everybody loses. A healthy and vibrant society doesnt advance itself through the imposition of sectarian interests, but through meaningful engagement with a plurality of cultures and ideas.

Rather than catechize children to win culture wars, lets raise them with values of respect and love of robust diversity. And the best way to teach kids to treat others in their community with humanity is to respect our childrens humanityto give them agency and freedom to think, to feel, to learn with gentle guidance rather than authoritarian manipulation.

Nobody raises kids in a vacuum of values, but theres a difference between leadership and indoctrination. The latter creates culture warriors. The former will raise responsible and engaged citizens for a healthy society.

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The 'Have More Children and Disciple Them Like Crazy' Culture War Strategy is Neither New Nor Responsible - Religion Dispatches

Human Behavior

Does the threat of being blacklisted change behavior? – Brookings Institution

Abstract

In late 2016, the EU Commission began a detailed review of over 80 non-European jurisdictions to determine how compliant they were with international standards around tax transparency, fair taxation, and adherence to the OECDs Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) minimum standards. The EU subsequently published both a grey and black list of jurisdictions to promote their cooperation with these standards. I investigate the impact that this process has had on several measures of international tax governance by employing a regression discontinuity design derived from the unique process the EU used to select jurisdictions for review. I find that although jurisdictions selected into review were substantially more likely to be grey or blacklisted, detectable improvements in tax governance are largely limited to (i) increases in transparency around the presence and removal of harmful tax regimes and (ii) increases in the effective implementation of exchange-of-information (EOIR) agreements. However, countries selected into the EU process were significantly more likely to join the Inclusive Framework, a forum dedicated to implementing the BEPS minimum standards and deliberating over changes to international tax rules. Back-of-the-envelope estimates suggest that the Inclusive Framework is roughly 15 percent larger thanks to the EU review process, although its composition in terms of representation by developing countries or jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens remains roughly the same.

There has been a rapid shift in global tax governance in the past decade. This has been prompted by a recognition that there are two significant externalities driving the movement of financial assets and profits to offshore financial centers (OFCs). The first is financial secrecy, provided by offshore jurisdictions to clients who are able to obscure their ownership and potentially avoid taxation. Studies estimate the amount of wealth being held in offshore tax havens to be approximately 8 percent of all household wealth or 10 percent of global GDP, a significant portion of which goes unreported (Zucman 2013; Johannesen et al. 2018). The second externality is a set of corporate tax policiesa combination of rates, loopholes and lack of transparencythat create incentives for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to shift their profits away from high tax jurisdictions to lower tax ones where there is little economic activity of substance. In a recent study, Trslv, Wier, and Zucman (2019) estimate that up to 40 percent of global MNE profits are shifted to tax havens.1

To collectively deal with these externalities, jurisdictions across the globe are in the process of committing to two separate OECD frameworks aimed at reducing international tax evasion and avoidance. The first of these is the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative, which is being taken forward by the international forum known as the Inclusive Framework (IF) on BEPS. The goal of the IF is to promote specific actions and standards that will help countries tackle tax planning efforts by multinationals which lead to an erosion of the corporate tax base. At the very least, members of the IF are expected to adopt four minimum standards, built around reducing harmful tax practices, combating tax treaty abuse, handling treaty disputes and arbitration and finally documenting transfer pricing. The last of these include country-by-country reporting (CbCr), the requirement for parent companies of multinationals to disclose significant details about their operations, profits and tax payments, which will then be exchanged between participating tax authorities. It should be noted that the BEPS Minimum Standards are only part of the entire package of reforms promoted by the OECD and by themselves do not represent a sufficient set of policies for eliminating cross-border tax externalities. As of April 2020, 137 jurisdictions have joined the Inclusive Framework as members, committing to adopting its standards.

The second initiative is the adoption of the OECDs Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). Jurisdictions that adopt this standard will require financial institutions to report account information for non-resident taxpayers and for that information to be automatically exchanged between tax authorities in participating jurisdictions. Recent studies suggest that bilateral AEOI exchanges lead to a shift of offshore assets out of tax havens, although it is unclear how much of this presumably untaxed wealth is repatriated (Beer, Coelho, and Leduc 2019; Casi, Spengel, and Stage 2019; OReilly, Ramirez, and Stemmer 2019; Menkhoff and Miethe 2019). Approximately 130 jurisdictions have committed to exchanging under CRS, over a third of which which began their first exchanges in 2017, another third in 2018 and the remaining third between 2019 and 2023. The CRS framework is seen as an improvement from an older system of information exchange, known as exchange-of-information on request (EOIR), where tax authorities must make active requests for information on specific taxpayers. Despite this, there are still efforts to ensure that EOIR is being adequately implemented, as jurisdictions are reviewed through the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purpose.

In late 2016, the EU Commission began a careful review of 80-90 non-European jurisdictions to determine how compliant they were with international standards around tax transparency, fair taxation and adherence to the OECDs Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) minimum standards. After the review and some dialogue with non-compliant countries, the EU released a grey list of jurisdictions who were non-compliant with these standards, but had committed to make improvements, as well as a black list of jurisdictions who were non-cooperative, who were to be subject to a number of EU countermeasures.

In this paper, I investigate the impact that this process has had on the standards that the EU intended to enforce. I rely on the process the EU used to select countries for consideration in its listing process to compare jurisdictions who scored just high enough to be considered with those that did not. Using a regression discontinuity specification, I find that countries that were selected into the EUs review process were substantially more likely to be grey or blacklisted, but that there is mixed evidence that, to date, the process has affected policy adoption. On average, index measures of global tax governance, based off of the EUs own goals, do not show large improvements. The main exception is for Fair Taxation, where jurisdictions selected by the EU saw a large increase in the probability that their tax regimes had been inspected by the EU or the OECD and, as of the time of writing, that they no longer had any harmful regimes present. There is weak evidence that the EU review process increased the the number of BEPS minimum standards adopted. There is also some evidence that the EU process led to a sharp increase in the probability that the Global Forum rated a jurisdiction as largely compliant or better on its implementation of EOIR.

The most robust and striking result from the analysis is the fact that countries selected into the process were substantially more likely to join the Inclusive Framework, thus committing themselves to implementing the BEPS minimum standards. This means that even if the EU review process has not improved international tax governance by much in the medium term, it might do so in the long term as these commitments become more binding. It also has implications for the future of deliberation over new international tax rules, as it shows that unilateral involvement of regional unions can influence participation in international standard setting. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, I show that, on average, the EU review and listing process increased the probability of IF membership by approximately 30 percent for selected jurisdictions, translating into an increase in total IF membership by around 15 percent. While the composition of the IF is not radically different due to the EUs involvement, its impact on the participation of developing countries might have been stronger had it set lower thresholds for the review, or had it not excluded least developed countries (LDCs) from the review process.

The other result worth emphasizing is that the EU review process appears to have had positive spillovers on the probability a jurisdiction was reviewed by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices. This may have been driven purely by the fact that IF members are subject to these reviews, but indicates how unilateral efforts by one entity can have spillovers onto others. While I am unable to identify the net impact the EU review and listing process has had on the total number of harmful tax regimes that have been struck down, the results in this paper are consistent with the EU review process having a sizable impact.

This paper makes several contributions. First, it is the first rigorous test of the impact of the EUs efforts to improve tax governance worldwide. While it is easy to observe how countries included in the listing process have improved, we would not normally know how these countries would have improved without the EUs intervention, particularly because there is ongoing pressure from a multitude of institutions (e.g. the OECD, US Government, IMF, World Bank) to improve tax governance.

Second, this paper adds to a nascent empirical literature on the effect of listing exercises on institutional behavior and outcomes. For example, Morse (2019) shows that those added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)s greylist of countries that lack compliance with international anti-money laundering (AML) standards are significantly more likely to criminalize money laundering. Kelley and Simmons (2015) find that countries listed on the U.S. State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons report are more likely to subsequently criminalize human trafficking. These empirical studies are backed up with case study evidence that jurisdictions are nudged into compliance by the threat of blacklisting (in both the space of AML/CFT and in tax transparency), even when there are no explicit sanctions (Sharman 2009).

The rest of the paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 discusses the recent history of the EU review and listing process. Section 3 discusses the empirical approach I take in this paper, Section 4 presents the main regression discontinuity results as well as results exploiting changes across time. Section 5 discusses the implications these results have for international tax governance as well as reasons the EU blacklisting process may not have a powerful effect on state behavior. I conclude the paper with Section 6.

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Does the threat of being blacklisted change behavior? - Brookings Institution

Human Behavior

Covid-19 will reveal critical aspects of how human activity impacts wildlife, researchers say – theRising

For the past few months, many of us were under quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to this, human activity beyond our homes has ground somewhat to a halt, leading to some unintended consequences.

In fact, a recent study found that our lack of mobility directly links to changes in animal behaviors. Whether the observations are positive or negative, this research has devised different ways for humans and wildlife to peacefully coexist on this crowded planet.

While some of the U.S. reopens, its imperative to understand the ripples we make in over environment, including how interdependent animals and humans are.

With lockdown in place, there have been surprising shifts in wildlife behavior. In some areas, weve even seen the return of wildlife in urban cities. For example, people reported dolphins in harbors of Italy, jackals in urban parks of Tel Aviv, Israel, and pumas in downtown Santiago, Chile.

Yet for some species, Covid-19 has brought upon new challenges. Many animals, like rats, gulls, and monkeys, have become heavily reliant on food waste discarded by humans, which is reduced due to our limited activity.

To make matters worse, people started to migrate outside of metropolitan areas to avoid the spread of Covid-19. Researchers found that this may negatively affect wildlife because local animals arent used to human interactionwhich is becoming more common as we try to socially distance ourselves.

However, while people are going more remote and avoiding travel, decreased tourism leaves places like Africa more susceptible to poaching. This raises many concerns for red-listed animals, such as the pangolin, because scientists are finding that their numbers are rapidly dwindling due to their potential links to the pandemic.

As the human population continues to expand, we will continue to be interdependent with animals. Learning more about how we affect them will be crucial for sustainability in the future.

Humans are transforming animal environments at unprecedented rates. Therefore, understanding how human activity affects wildlife will benefit us in many ways. It helps us preserve global biodiversity, maintain ecosystems, and predict future zoonotic diseases.

So, recently, bio-logging teams have formed to collect animals movements, behavior, activity, psychology, and environment.

Using this data, author of the study state they will be able to investigate if the movements of animals in modern landscapes are predominantly affected by built structures, or by the presence of humans.

This can reveal which species are most affected by human interaction, and to what degree human disturbance will cause detrimental effects on animals. Modifications in transportation networks could reduce disruption in animal movement, which would save us from future diseases being spread.

Ultimately, we cannot predict when the next global pandemic will occur. Thus, by using this opportunity, researchers can see how animals respond when human activity is at its lowest.

By comparing the presence of wildlife before and after Covid-19, we can better understand the human impact on the environment. And with this information, we have the chance to protect ourselves and other Earthly creatures.

Covid-19 gave us a serious wake-up call in terms of reforms for a healthy environment. We must use this opportunity to reflect on our actions to preserve the planet, one relationship at a time.

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Covid-19 will reveal critical aspects of how human activity impacts wildlife, researchers say - theRising

Human Behavior

‘I’ll Be Gone in the Dark’ dives into much more than hunting for a killer – Metro US

True crime is something that many are fascinated by.

The thought that there are people among us who prey on the pain and misfortune of others isnt exactly a new notion, but it is one that can spark an obsession. For Michelle McNamera, that sentiment came from the Golden State Killer. The writer who was married to comedian Patton Oswalt was working on an investigative book surrounding the mystery man who had raped 50 people and murdered 12 in California for decades without being captured.

While working on her book, Ill Be Gone in the Dark, McNamera began to delve into much more than just the crime, for her it became something more personal and brought out her own traumas. Before the book was finished, McNamera passed away in her sleep from an accidental prescription drug overdose, but the hunt to find the Golden State Killer did not stop there. With the help of crime writer Paul Haynes and investigative journalist Billy Jensen, Oswalt was able to help finish the book and it was published posthumously almost two years after McNameras death. Two months later, the Golden State Killer was taken into custody after over 40 years of alluding capture.

Its this exact wild ride that is the focus of HBOs six part docu-series, Ill Be Gone in the Dark. The series doesnt just delve into the case, but also explores the fascination humans have with dark behavior and how we process our own traumas, as well as shining a light on the victims and survivors of the Golden State Killer himself.

Director Liz Garbus sat down with Metro to discuss more on what went into making HBOs Ill Be Gone in the Dark.

When you were first approached by HBO for this series, what was it that really hooked you and made you want to sign on with this project?

So much, this was a man who was responsible for 50 rapes and 12 murdersits just a mind-boggling number and it was really not on my radar. As a New Yorker, I was not aware of this story at all, and so I read Michelles book a little bit before it came out and was published. The approach that Michelle used in the book I found really inspiring. It was kind of victim-centered and survivor-centered, [and] always foregrounded their stories and really resisted kind of fetishizing at that time the unknown killer. [It also really was a story of our own obsession into these cases with Michelle being our avatar, so it was really all of those things that made me feel like this was really rich and multi-layered.]

When you watch these documentaries about crime, a lot of them are hyper-focused on the crime and the killer itself. With Ill Be Gone in the Dark, you go more in-depth with Michelle and her story. Why was that important to show?

I think it speaks to so many of our interests in these kinds of cases. We as a society are always fascinated by these extreme, malignant versions of human behavior, and Michelles voice and her reflection was like an avatar for the rest of us. I felt like there was a lot for us to learn there as well through the survivors and their stories. For me, it was a really rich storyline and I think it brought up other issues that I really related to as a working mother and a working woman trying to balance the demands of life, parenting, being a wife, being an artist and all of her aspirations on being a writer. I found all of those things really relatable.

Why choose actress Amy Ryan to convey Michelles words for this series?

I had worked with Amy Ryan on Lost Girls and she is a phenomenal actor. She brings a kind of precision and depth to her roles and I just thought she would be perfect to bring Michelles voice to life where we didnt have the original archival recordings.

With this film covering all of this intense and dark subject matter, how are you able to stomach it all?

I think having the support of a team. I think one of the things that was hard for Michelle, and we talk about it in the series itself, was getting all of these materials and all of these crime scene photos. [She was] alone at night looking through it and trying to see what was missed in that crime scene photo, or what could she draw out to help find out who did it to help solve the case? For me, I had a team and I had people working with me and we could talk about this stuff together and you can process it, so youre able to share your feelings and take a break when you need to. So, I think for that, my support system is really important.

Everything in this film is shocking, but what struck me was the amount of victim-blaming going onwas there anything in the film that also struck a chord with you to the same degree?

Its shocking that this person could prey on so many of these people and do it for so long without being caught, but I [also] think that its hard in this day and age to remember that we still have some trouble with how we deal with sexual assault as a crime. Obviously, some people dont come forward because they feel like they wont get a fair chance, but in the 70s of course, it was way worse. What you see in both the police talking to these victims about, Oh yeah, I can see he chose the pretty one, or parents saying to teenagers who have been raped, Were not going to talk about thisthose kinds of attitudes and what these survivors had to go through and [then] kind of jut out the other end where they are today is just really stunning. I have such admiration for them.

How was it working with Patton Oswalt through all of this? You got to work with him closely on something that Im sure was an extremely emotional time in his life.

Patton was amazing, he did very similar [with me] to [what he did] finishing the book when he found Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen and said he wanted to finish it for Michelle. He gave them everything, and they did it and did it beautifully. Similarly here, he gave up everythingall of her videos, all of her notes, everything for us to mine through and be able to make us feel like we were really on the journey with Michelle. His trust was extraordinary, and he also said Im here as a resource, but this is what you do. There was no sort of interference or trying to control the process in any way other than just being supportive and helpful.

Since you spent so much time delving into these cases, when the news did break that Joseph DeAngelo was being taken into custody, what was that like for you?

For me, it was definitely a bump on a rollercoaster of this project, it was our first day of shooting. I thought well maybe this guy will be found while were in production, but really he had alluded people for so many years and frankly he had stopped. Michelle, Billy Jensen, Paul and all these guys thought he was alive, and in my mind I thought how could he be alive? But they were right. So, I felt happy for the survivors. I didnt know them yet, but I thought wow, this is going to be monumental for them and it was also bittersweet for Patton, Billy and Paul just hearing this and how much it would have meant to Michelle. That was exciting because justice was being done but also very painful because that was something she would have really cherished.

Is there anything you hope audiences take away after watching the series?

This is not just a story about stuff that happened to other people, its also very personal and its about how you process trauma. We all have our own struggles, hopefully though many of us have not gone through the torture that Jospeh DeAngelo inflicted on the survivors, very few people have had that kind of trauma. But I think what you learn from them and also the things that Michelle went through with her own traumas is how important it is to kind of unbury those demons and bring them out into the light. When you do that you can go on with your life. So I think that theres something in there for everyone about lifes darkest moments and how you move on from them.

Ill Be Gone in the Dark premieres June 26 on HBO.

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'I'll Be Gone in the Dark' dives into much more than hunting for a killer - Metro US

Anatomy

TV star’s female anatomy question baffles men – and it really shouldn’t – Mirror Online

TV star Laura Byrne was completely baffled to find out that there are a lot of men out there who don't know know the answer to a simple female anatomy question - including her fianc.

Mum-of-one Laura took to her Instagram story after recording a segment for the Life Uncut podcast which she co-hosts, to ask fellow fans a question regarding the anatomy of the vagina.

She said: "Guys, if you listened to todays episode, we asked a very important question and I need to know your answers.

"That is, if you have asked your boyfriends or your brothers or any other men in your life, if they know how many holes a woman has down there."

Her partner, Matty, 32, interrupted to say: "Theres like 15! So many! Everyones different. Weve all got a different amount of holes. I have five!"

Laura then went on to explain: "3 GUYS!!!! It is 3!!!! I think we need to revise our sex ed" reports News.com.au.

Just to clarify... Women have the urethra, the vagina and the anus - not 15 as Laura's partner Matty believed.

But it seems he's not the only man confused by the number.

Laura later revealed that a number of her fellow female fans partner's were just as clueless.

One person said: "I just asked my partner thinking there was no way he would get it wrong he said 2 and then said no way show me!"

Another said: "I asked my boyfriend and he said '3 + your bum hole. One for peeing, one for sex and one for pregnancy.' Wow I really thought he knew me."

A third also added: "I asked my partner the female 'hole' situation. His answer was 4... 1 for urinating, 1 for no. 2's, 1 for period and 1 for uterus. He realised as soon as he said it aloud it was incorrect."

And a fourth women said her 55 year old boyfriend - whom she has six children with - thought she had four.

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TV star's female anatomy question baffles men - and it really shouldn't - Mirror Online

Anatomy

The Anatomy of a Nightmare: How Garfield Came to Kennywood – Very Local New Orleans

Our historical walkthrough of Garfields Nightmare answers many important questions, including whether or not Jim Davis creator of Garfield ever rode it.Published on Wednesday, Jun 24th, 2020

I remember the first time I floated slowly through the watery, Day-Glo tunnel emblazoned with pizza, Ruffles chips and foot-tall cans of Mountain Dew.

A journey through Garfields Nightmare lasts less than five minutes, but the ride sticks with you prompting lingering questions like how did a ride featuring Americas premiere lasagna-loving, Monday-hating cat end up at Kennywood? Last fall, I decided to embark on a journey of my own, to uncover the history of this beloved and much-maligned attraction. And although there were no Ruffles or 3D glasses involved, it was a journey that took more turns than I ever expected.

In September of 2019, I met up with Nick Paradise, Kennywoods Director of Public Relations. We chatted on a bench just down the path from Garfields Nightmare. Nick acknowledged that I wasnt the only one with lingering questions about the ride, saying, we hear a lot of feedback about it. Its probably one of the rides that generates the most conversation. People largely do want it to go back to the Old Mill, whatever that may mean for them.

Over the years there have been a lot of iterations of the ride. It was originally built as The Old Mill in 1901 (and rebuilt in 1921), but between then and now, it was also re-themed as Fairyland Floats, Rapid Gorge, The Panama Canal, Tour of the World and Hard Headed Harolds Horrendously Humorous Haunted Hideaway among others. Every few years theyd rename it The Old Mill again though the theming was always different.

Brian Butko, Director of Publication at the Senator John Heinz History Center, looks at it from a historical perspective. A majority of people in recent years say they dislike Garfield, but decades ago, it was the Old Mills haunted Old West theme that was scorned for being dated and dumb. At the time, it had become boring except for couples needing some dark/quiet time.

Andy Quinn, who retired as Kennywoods Director of Community and Government Relations a few years back, agrees. It didnt matter what the theme was. Anyone who rode that ride in the sixties, seventies, eighties, they were not on that ride to look at the scenes.

Andy was the first person I reached out to who had been working at Kennywood during the rides Garfield-inspired transformation. I thought that he might be able to provide some context for Garfields arrival in the early 2000s. Andy explained that at that time, there was a big push for amusement parks to align themselves with popular cartoon characters. Six Flags had Looney Tunes. And Jim Davis (the creator of Garfield) looked around at all the parks and all the big ones were taken. Our company had five parks at the time and I believe it was Jim Davis who called us.

We had a long relationship with Jim Davis, Pete McAneny told me. Pete was the General Manager of the Kennywood Entertainment Company from 2003 to 2008. Since hes retired, hes been spending a lot more time with his grandson, who he was on his way to pick up when I reached him on the phone in his car. Pete recalls that his first contact with Garfield creator, Jim Davis, was related to an entirely different project. Jim Davis wanted to build a Garfield themed park in Indianapolis and he asked if wed come out and take a look at it and so we went out and met with him.

An entire theme park just for Garfield?!?! Just think of the possibilities! Lasagna bounce house? Odie tongue splash ride? A 90-minute musical revue celebrating Garfields beloved teddy bear, Pookie? Sadly, it wasnt meant to be, according to Pete, that Indiana park never really came together. The property was there, but there just wasnt the infrastructure for it or the capital. And so we talked about doing a Garfield ride at Kennywood.

I tracked down Larry Kirchner after I saw his company, Halloween Productions, mentioned briefly in a 2008 Pittsburgh Post Gazette article about new attractions at Kennywood. In the early 2000s, Larry was installing a ride at Kennywood when he noticed that the Old Mill hadnt been updated in a while, so I mentioned that if anything comes up with any of your dark rides, we would love to do it. I would almost do it for free. Larry started Halloween Productions, based in St. Louis, in 1989 and, as you might have guessed by the name, they had mostly built haunted houses and spooky rides up until that point, but he was excited to get into the dark ride business. As I learned in my research, dark ride is the industry term for an indoor ride that sends cars (or boats or trains) of visitors through lit scenes or tableaus. For instance, Its A Small World at Disneyland is a dark ride as is Pirates of the Caribbean and, of course, Kennywoods Old Mill.

Pete knew that it was time for The Old Mill to be replaced, but he initially wasnt sure what to put there. Its a high maintenance ride with a huge footprint. There were some suggestions that we should tear it down and use that parcel for something that had a higher capacity, but tradition and history is an important thing at Kennywood. Then he remembered his conversation with Jim Davis. They had already integrated some Garfield theming into the new Pounce Bounce in Kiddieland, but Jim Davis was especially interested in a dark ride. Pete admits, he wanted to sell merchandise, obviously. He thought if we put a ride together like that, then it would help.

So I got a call, Larry told me, and Pete said they were thinking of turning it into Garfields ride, but the budget wasnt that big. Larry took the job. As Pete remembers, Jim Davis himself wrote the script for the ride and did the initial drawings, but Larry remembers it a little differently. We did 20 or 30 drawings. He didnt do anything. I never talked to Jim Davis. The biggest thing was he, or someone, gave us some Garfield books and then we had to figure out which story we wanted to tell.

Initially, Larry had big plans that involved 3D effects and CGI and animatronics. We wanted to make it look like a billboard smashes open and theres a Frankenstein food character, and then we squirt them all with water. I wanted to do other CGI effects so it wasnt so static and so the characters were interacting with them. Obviously, there was a budget thing. In addition to budget restraints, there was another reason that they had to scale the ride back. Larry remembers being told that, we cant make it too great because too many people would want to ride it. It has a pretty limited capacity since its a boat ride.

Pete recalls that too and explained that many decisions at a theme park come down to ride footprints and capacity. On a good day, that ride can accommodate 3,500 people in 10 hours. One of the things we had to do is not make it too spectacular because it doesnt have a high capacity. So on a day that theres 15,000 people in the park and if you made it too good, youd have a line up to the Rankin Bridge.

Larry looked through the stack of Garfield books hed been given, he remembers, I came up with a simpler ride where it was more like you were riding through a book. So youd see these captions and comics that showed him having a nightmare. I asked Larry how they ended up going in the nightmare direction. We were known for Halloween and haunted house stuff so thats probably why we went in the direction of Garfield having the nightmare.

Reworking a hundred-year-old ride comes with some challenges. Larry points out that, without doing some massive redo, you couldnt move people faster or slower. Since the flow of water is controlled by the one big water wheel at the front of the ride, theres no way to speed it up or slow it down. We couldnt do a lot of the things we wanted to do because those boats pass through those scenes so quickly.

Throughout the process, Larry had to submit everything to PAWS, Garfields holding company for review. We had to do drawings of every scene and then get them approved by the creator of Garfield. Despite the limitations and instructions to not make it too great, Larry and his team gave it their all. It took months. We built and painted all the sets in St. Louis and then we sent painters to Pittsburgh and they worked through the winter it was freezing.

Throughout the process, Larry kept getting inspired and sneaking in more details. We scrutinized every little thing. Wouldnt it be cool if there were a salt and pepper shaker? What if we added a fork? We just kept adding more and more stuff. We were really creative and I dont know if we made a penny doing it.

On May 1, 2004, Kenny the Kangaroo climbed into a wooden boat along with Garfield and Odie for the inaugural ride through Garfields Nightmare. I remember being there on the day that it opened, Larry told me. I was there with my whole family. I have a video of my kids riding it and they loved it.

Nick remembers his first ride a little differently. Its sort of humorous on a personal level because the first time I ever rode that with a girl, potentially for that private time, was the very first year that it became Garfields Nightmare. So you get in there and were like what is this? This isnt what we thought we were going into. So it kind of dampened the mood. Garfields Nightmare is many things, but romantic is not one of them.

Despite the many detractors to the ride, Nick was quick to point out last fall that, when you walk by on a Saturday afternoon and the line is spilling out of the queue its kind of like it cant be that unpopular.

I asked Nick if Garfields creator, Jim Davis, had ever taken a ride through Garfields Nightmare. Im not sure. I dont recall seeing anything in the coverage or in our photo archives. Now I was even more curious. I made a mental note to make sure to ask every other person I talked to, to see if I could determine whether or not Jim ever experienced the ride.

Rob Henningers family has been involved with Kennywood for over a century. He started working at Kennywood over thirty years ago as part of the grounds crew. Now hes the Assistant General Manager and Maintenance Director of the park. He remembers that first summer too. I thought it was cute when it was fresh and new and a nice addition for smaller kids in the park.

The ride worked out exactly as Pete had hoped. It attracted families but wasnt so popular that it attracted too large a crowd. Brian Butko from the John Heinz History Center notes that at the time, only one writer, a columnist, gave it much coverage, and he did mention that locals might be sad about the shift away from the tradition.

After opening, Garfields Nightmare stood intact for a decade and a half, welcoming hundreds of thousands of Kennywood visitors into its watery, neon channels. Rob mentions that as one of the older rides, it does take a lot of upkeep between seasons. The old tongue and groove system just swells up and it holds the water. If its not the last one in the world its one of two. We rebuild some of that trough every year.

In recent years, the public outcry for a return to the Old Mill has grown louder. In September of 2019, Brian posed a question in his Kennywood Behind the Screams Facebook group. He asked We know you want the Old Mill back, but tell us WHY. That post quickly garnered 236 responses. Brian believes that, one big factor in the shifting attitudes has been the rise of social media. There may have been regret at the time the Old Mill was changed, or when, say, the Dipper coaster or Gold Rusher dark ride were removed, but other than person-to-person chit-chat, the changes went mostly unnoticed. Now every minor tweak is shared instantly and a sense of outrage and entitlement can rise quickly if a crowd decides the change is for the worse.

On March 9, 2020, Kennywood posted a video to its social channels that, at first, looked like a historical retrospective. Nick Paradise is giving an overview of The Old Mills many versions before the video cuts dramatically to a shot of a crane removing the Garfields Nightmare sign from the rides facade. In the video, Nick announces, Were going to be bringing back The Old Mill as so many of you have requested, restoring the ride to the retro-western theme thats been remembered by so many over the years but with plenty of new twists for a whole new generation to enjoy. He pauses before adding dramatically, The nightmare has ended.

Over 1,300 people shared that post on Facebook alone.

Just a few months earlier I had chatted with Nick at Kennywood and while he had hinted that Garfields Nightmare might not be there too much longer, he also didnt say anything to indicate that it would be gone by the next season. It seems that some dealings in the greater media world might have forced their hand.

In 2019, Nickelodeon (a division of Viacom) bought PAWS (the holding company that owns the rights to Garfield and some of Jim Davis other creations). Rob says Garfields new ownership was only part of the equation. I think Garfields time has come and gone and so I pushed for the re-theming of the ride. It just kind of got stale over time and then they wanted to substantially increase the licensing fees so it felt like a good time to go back to the Old Mill that a lot of our guests were clamoring for. I asked if anyone at Kennywood campaigned to keep Garfields Nightmare. I dont think there was anyone pushing to keep Garfield. After 16 seasons at Kennywood, it seems the ride had lost its freshness, not unlike a 16-year-old lasagna still sitting on the counter.

While I had Rob on the phone I, naturally, had to ask him if he remembered Jim Davis ever visiting the park. Im not sure why I became obsessed with this question but I love imagining a very meta scene in which Garfields own creator rides through his own creations nightmare. Rob didnt recall Jim visiting but he did recall his brother, Dave, visiting Kennywood once.

I was curious about what happened to all those Garfield cut-outs and evil animatronic foods. Rob explains, Those had to be destroyed. It would have been fun to have them around but with all the intellectual property, we even had to document it being destroyed. Its strange to think of an employee at the Nickelodeon offices watching that video of Garfield and Odie and that giant animatronic bulldog being smashed and pulled apart.

Larry Kirchner, of Halloween Productions, was sad to hear the news. He still thinks back fondly of Garfields Nightmare, adding thoughtfully I think its some of the best artwork thats ever been done in blacklight. Its beautiful.

Larry also would have liked to be a part of this new chapter of The Old Mill. I wish that we could have redone it but they had some real time constraints and that was before coronavirus. They had to do it with some local people. Larrys still hoping to get back to Kennywood soon. He says, my new goal would be to redo Ghostwood Estates. He built the original ride and he thinks its ready for a refresh, adding that all the CGI effects were done before HD so I would love to redo them all.

Though Pete McAneny hasnt been the boss at Kennywood for a number of years, all the recent decisions made sense to him. You have to remember what the goal was back then to keep the Old Mill concept in place but not make it so great that everyone who came to the park would want to ride it. So you have to gear it to a younger audience. And thats probably what theyre wanting to do again.

As Pete and I were wrapping up our call, I thought Id ask my burning question one more time. Had Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, ever taken the trip through Garfields Nightmare? Pete responded immediately, He came to Kennywood, oh yeah, he came a couple times. He rode the ride. His brother came as well. He was coming through Pittsburgh and we had dinner.

Finally learning that Jim Davis did in fact float through the ride inspired by his feline creation was so satisfying. I imagine Pete and Jim sitting across from each other at an Italian restaurant, recounting their favorite parts of the ride as they dig into a piping hot, celebratory lasagna.

On June 7, 2020, Kennywood released a few photographs of the newest version of The Old Mill on their Facebook page. While Garfield and Odie are now gone, the Day-Glo paint scheme is still intact and there are even some appearances by the coyote from the old Gold Rusher ride.

While much of our offseason efforts were paused or delayed over the past three months, some ghouls got going in our oldest ride. Here's a little sneak peek inside The Old Mill

Posted by Kennywood Park onSunday, June 7, 2020

The comments were full of people both praising and criticizing the new look. Nick understands their strong feelings, saying, its always hard to compete with peoples memories. Thats always a big challenge here at Kennywood. We try to walk a fine line between staying on the cutting edge and staying modern while also honoring the past and peoples memories.

Brian Butko adds, My Kennywood: Behind The Screams group members sometimes veer into I wish the park was as good now as it was then. I like to ask, When was that perfect time 1996? 1965? 1950, 1930? Logically we could go back to 1899, but even then, they cleared hundreds of trees to change a picnic grove into a trolley park. So, of course, the real answer is, it was best when we were young enough for nostalgia to make it all seem perfect.

Im sure its only a matter of time before someone starts a thread on Brians Facebook group pining for the good old days of Garfields Nightmare.

Ill leave you with some bonus viewing.

In Case You Want to Relive the Version of the Old Mill from Just Before Garfields Nightmare

Header Image:Garfield makes an appearance at the grand opening of Garfields Nightmare in 2004. Photo courtesy of Kennywood.

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The Anatomy of a Nightmare: How Garfield Came to Kennywood - Very Local New Orleans

Anatomy

Why ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Camilla Luddington Found This Episode So Difficult to Film: ‘I Was Just Shaking and Crying’ – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Greys Anatomyfans are eagerly awaiting the premiere of Season 17. The character of Dr. Jo Karev,portrayed by Camilla Luddington, has gone through many ups and downs on the show. Most recently, her husband and longtime love Dr. Alex Karev (played by Justin Chambers) just left her for his former flame Izzie Stevens.

Luddington has played out several dramatic storylines over the years, with one particular episode bringing on a myriad of emotions.

The British actress debuted on Greys in 2012. With her characters backstory including abandonment at a fire station at birth and being in foster homes and also homeless at times, Luddington has learned to master portraying Jo. Last year, the Greys star came up with an idea to add to Jos history and emailed show runner Krista Vernoff.

Maybe this is crazy, but what if we do a story about consent and have Jo be the product of rape,' Luddington recalled in April 2019 to Zimbio of emailing Vernoff. I didnt know what she was thinking at the timeorif shed already gone into the writers room the day before but said, We need to do an episode about consent. Krista wrote back to me immediately and said shewas onboard with the idea.

Luddington knew shed have her work cut out for her on the traumatic plot. I have to say that once we started filming the episode, thats when it really sunk in, she admitted. I kept wondering how Jo was going to overcome this tragedy, but the idea itself came together like it was kismet.

RELATED: Why Greys Anatomys Camilla Luddington Says Her First Scene With Ellen Pompeo Was Legitimately Terrible

Airing on March 28, 2019, the episode entitled Silent All These Years named for a Tori Amos song involved two storylines which melded together. One highlights Jo discovery that she was a product of rape, which is why her mother abandoned her. In the other plot, a patient named Abby (portrayed by Khalilah Joi) arrives at Grey Sloan and is seen by Jo, who finds out Abby was sexually assaulted after leaving a bar.

Being a victim of domestic abuse from her former husband, Jo identifies with the patient. She reminds Jo of herself, especially when Abby says that she hit her head on the cabinet, Luddington told Zimbio. Jo knows instantly thats not true and that someone hurt her. I think Jo can relate to the situation because she sees herself in Abby.

In the episode, Jo teams up with Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) to help Abby through the trauma. While Abby is afraid to report the assault to the police or her husband, she eventually agrees to provide evidence for a rape kit.

One of the episodes most groundbreaking scenes is when, after Abby reveals she is now afraid of all men, the women of Grey Sloan line the hallways to prevent any men from entering as they wheel Abby down the corridor. It felt like I was part of a warrior sisterhood, Luddington said of the scene which they called the Wall of Women.

NBC News reported that a study revealed the episode on consent and sexual assault led to an increase in hotline calls after it aired.

The content of Silent All These Years was the most traumatic Luddington had experienced while on the show.

There really wasnt a day of filming that wasnt difficult, to be honest, the Greys star shared. Shooting scenes about the rape kits were really intense and I had no idea what happens next after you say yes to administering one. I also remember readingthe Wall of Women scene, and I was just shaking and crying. Doing it was so emotional.

Luddington revealed that all who worked on Greys wanted to to show their support of the subject matter and its message.

RELATED: Greys Anatomys Camilla Luddington Pays Tribute To Her Late Mother on Instagram

The this is the first timeIve worked on an episode where everybody from production to editing wanted to be a part of a scene, she said. So, what you see in that hallway isnt just our normal background of female actors.This scene also includes women from all different areas of our production. Thats how much they believed in and wanted to be a part of this iconic moment on the show. So, that day was especially hard to shoot.

Greys Anatomys episode truly broke barriers when it aired Silent All These Years.

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Why 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Camilla Luddington Found This Episode So Difficult to Film: 'I Was Just Shaking and Crying' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet