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Human Behavior

Human Behavior And How It Impacts Your Finances – Forbes

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Decisions regarding finances are often most consequential when we are busy, troubled, and flat out overwhelmed.In the past few months, many investors have made tough choices on the things most important to their financial goals, and this will likely remain in the months ahead. A large portion of the population is struggling to feed their family, let alone contemplating large life expenses such as buying homes, cars, saving for college or retirement and so forth.So the question ishow does decision making change during these times?Or, how often do investors choose to do nothing and ride out the storm?And, is that the right decision?This is where diagnosing your own decision making can help improve the chances of creating better outcomes in the midst of the chaos that is life.

We want to make easy decisions, which is how habits are formed.Think about where you would sit for dinner at home, order from a restaurant, or buy coffee.The booth by the window, the #9 at the lunch place, and a breakfast blend with 2 sugars and no cream.Habits are easy to keep and even more difficult to change.Are habits always what we really want to be doing?The benefit of these routines is that they dramatically decrease the amount of decisions that are necessary to make in a day.Habits fortunately are maintained with little mental effort involved, which is why they are so easy to repeat.

These easy decisions fit within our behavior and intuition when we are confronted with multiple, new choices.

If a coffee and donut cost $1.10 together and the donut costs $1.00 more than the coffee.How much does the coffee cost?

Many immediately answer with 10 cents, its intuition and automatic thinking. When you take a moment to think through the problem and do the math, you see the coffee is 5 cents.Our habits, gut instinct, and quick thinking can lead us to decisions that feel right initially but when you look back on the choices and slow down you see you could have done things differently.

Investors find themselves in these situations frequently these days.Is it time to sell?Is it time to take risk?Is it time to stay the course?The common response to the questions are usually a part of quick thinking and habits that have been learned along the way.

If an investor is holding on to a position thats down 20 percent from its original value.How willing are they to hang on to that investment to see it back to a profit?Generally, investors are risk takers when they see losses recover to break even.Is that the investment thats most likely to return the best going forward?Or, should they look for alternatives?

If an investor is at all-time highs in their accounts.How quickly will losses affect how they feel about their portfolio?Does that cause and investor to sell to keep what they had gained?Investors are generally risk averse with gains theyve created to protect them.

As the markets, policies, and needs for the investor change does it make sense to just do nothing?Is what they have the right thing for the current markets?Are they taking too much risk?Are they on track for what they need?The inefficiencies with quick decision making have measurable impact on performance over time.

From 1990-2016, an individual investor on average lost 1.6% on returns against equity benchmarks and 1.3% against bonds each year.A person who owned a mix of stocks and bonds typically underperforms by 1.8% in that same time frame, according to a 2017 report from Advisor Perspectives.

Investing is a coordination between your financial goals, the amount youve saved, and the time to grow those assets to reach said goals. This means they must slow down and consider all the parts of an investment decision to give yourself the best chance to reach the ultimate vision of success.

Continue to ask yourself the tough questions, like how much risk is needed to realize my goals. How do investors adapt to changes in markets and policies to keep their money moving in the right direction?Has a plan been created and written down to help an investor stay disciplined to their goals?

The more we can slow down our thinking and consider our financial choices, the more we can objectively make decisions and hopefully lead to a better outcome.

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Human Behavior And How It Impacts Your Finances - Forbes

Human Behavior

Secret Philly: When Rittenhouse Square was the city’s Gayborhood – Billy Penn

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Phillys Gayborhood as we now know it lives in Center City just east of Broad. From roughly Chestnut to Pine streets, crosswalks are painted with rainbows and street corners are dotted with gay bars and nonprofits.

While theres ongoing debate about the authenticity of the LGBTQ district plus constant concerns about racism and gentrification its indisputable that the Wash West enclave is known as Phillys queer mecca. But that wasnt always the case.

In the 1950s and 60s, LGBTQ Philadelphians concentrated somewhere else. A half mile west, on the other side of Broad Street, Rittenhouse Square was once the citys gay moment.

Back then, the citys gay nightlife revolved around the park. Men strolled the streets late at night looking for dates. The first Pride march in 1972 started there.

So prominent were gay people in Rittenhouse that when nightlife spots opened up, straight people lamented there was just as good a chance itd be a gay bar as a straight one. I wonder if well be able to go there, a resident mused about a new taproom in a May 1974 Inquirer article.

This is a story about Phillys Gayborhood of yesteryear the nightlife scene, the creativity of romantic pursuit, the way it made straight people shudder and the dramatic lengths local officials went to eradicate queer Philadelphia. (Spoiler: They even used traffic signage.)

That early 1970s Inquirer article described heterosexual people as a minority in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. It was a few years after Stonewall in New York City, and the continuous presence of LGBTQ people was becoming obvious to straight people especially in one of Center Citys wealthier sectors.

The nightlife scene around the Square became notorious. News organizations called it twilight life when the sun went down and queer men and women would hit the bars in search acceptance, a good time, and maybe some action.

Saturday night is the gayest night of the week, read a 1962 story on the Rittenhouse queer scene in Greater Philadelphia Magazine. They come from all parts of the city, from the suburbs, from as far away as Reading and Atlantic City.

So many gay men started setting up camp in the area south of the park that straight people referred to them as the Spruce Street boys.

In some ways, this was a Gayborhood much like the one that exists today: white gay men were the most accepted, and everyone else experienced additional levels of prejudice. Many lesbians and Black queer people purposely lived in neighborhoods like Germantown or North Philly instead.

For what it was, Rittenhouse Squares gay scene was popular. And naturally, along with a convergence of queer people came homophobia and discrimination.

At best, their straight neighbors gawked. As seen in newspaper archives, one remarked to a reporter how silly gay men looked while rollerskating; another said they overheard some queer people discussing gender confirmation surgery. At worst, they wanted those people gone.

These f-s are taking over Philadelphia, one Spruce Street pharmacist told the Inquirer.

At the time, homophobia was deeply ingrained in local government.

Under Mayor Frank Rizzo, the city put up signage around Rittenhouse Square to discourage gay people from cruising aka driving around the park to find dates.

The signs prohibited left turns from 21st onto Delancey Street between midnight and 5 a.m. Even then-Deputy Streets Commissioner John Scruggs told the Inquirer he thought it was an overreach: Its kind of stretching it to think you can regulate human behavior with a traffic sign.

But the sign never came down yes, its literally still up today and Phillys queer community slowly but surely migrated eastward.

In 1976, Philly opened its first gay community center near 3rd and South Street. The building, which would later be called the William Way Community Center and move to 13th and Spruce, pulled Philadelphias queer community across Broad Street.

Owners of gay bars with mob ties paid off police to leave them alone, and the nightlife scene survived, dubbed Lurid Locust by local news organizations.

Federal funding dried up in the 1960s for planned redevelopment in the Washington Square West area. Construction stalled on the Vine Street Expressway. Both abandoned projects left plenty of vacant lots where gambling, prostitution and drug dealing flourished.

The downturn didnt last. In the 80s, queer people pumped their own efforts into the area. A gay business owners association formed. In 1995, the Gayborhood got its official name during an Outfest celebration under then-Mayor Ed Rendell. In the years to come, rainbow crosswalks and flags were proudly put on display. Wealthier residents moved in, contributing to gentrification.

These days, parts of the neighborhood, which is filled to the brim with buzzy restaurants, go by Midtown Village instead. Several flourishing gay bars, bookstores, gyms and community centers remain.

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Secret Philly: When Rittenhouse Square was the city's Gayborhood - Billy Penn

Human Behavior

VCRs, iPhones and face masks – The News International

Growing up, I spent the early and mid-90s in Beijing. The Beijing of that time was a lot grimier, a lot less shiny and just very different overall from the metropolis I found when I visited again almost two decades later.

One of the many memories that I still have from those days is that of the ubiquitous citizen monitors, chosen from local neighborhoods and communities, who were identifiable by the red armbands with text on them. Ensuring compliance with every law in a city as populous as Beijing is not a job for the police force alone. Dealing with criminals has to be prioritized above fining litterers and jaywalkers.

This job fell to citizen monitors, who did not have the authority to arrest anyone, but were able to fine people for misdemeanors. Nowadays, the citizen monitors have likely been replaced by Chinas mass surveillance system that feeds into its Social Credit System that went operational in 2014. Little surprise then that as medical professionals gradually began recognizing the efficacy of face masks in stemming the spread of the disease, human and automated surveillance was brought into the service of ensuring compliance with new guidelines.

To be fair though, people in most far East countries (China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, etc) trusted the advice from their experts and did not need to be told twice and quickly and voluntarily adopted the recommended guidelines. Moreover, wearing masks was an ordinary sight in these countries even pre-Covid.

In her June 6 article (Is the Secret to Japans Virus Success Right in Front of Its Face?), Motoko Rich of the New York Times described her experience of moving to Tokyo. She recounts an experience from 10 years ago, how she had picked up a cough on the flight there. Not used to wearing masks, a family friend politely nudged her and introduced her to the cultural expectation of wearing one, particularly when showing signs of illness.

Japan presents an important case study for the effectiveness of wearing masks in public to control Covid. Japan dragged its feet on lockdowns and shutdowns, making many social distancing measures voluntary. Yet, despite a slow response and voluntary measures and an old population, Japan saw fewer deaths per million than many countries that took drastic measures to contain the pandemic, likely attributable to the one thing it did do right - the widespread use of face masks.

Meanwhile, at the culturally opposite pole of the globe, in the United States and its West European allies, people were getting largely the same news coverage and advice. But over there people are still stuck in a debate about whether mandating the wearing of masks infringes on freedoms. We have seen videos circulating showing customers getting abusive or violent when told by retailers to mask up.

Then there is us: an over-populated, under-resourced, under-educated, and under-informed developing nation, but with the same will to buck authority as the free world, even if it costs us and our families our lives. Now that even our prime minister seems to have come around to the need of wearing face masks, the question is, how can we ensure people take this guideline seriously?

Our police forces are too small and not up to the job of running after people for misdemeanors and enforcing wearing of masks and distancing measures. A few days ago, an argument between a policeman and a man not wearing a face mask escalated to a point where the policeman ended up tasing him.

In our countrys context, a job like this is tailor made for local government, where community representatives with credible ties to the communities they represent can identify and rope in influential locals to get the word out. Instead we got the Tiger Force, a group that is bound to polarize and stir up controversy and opposition for its political association.

Back in March, awareness of the pandemic had just begun to take hold in Pakistan. A colleague at my workplace, let me call him Asim*, had adopted wearing a face mask and following precautionary measures yet. One day Asim was sitting in a filled room where he was the only one wearing his mask. Another colleague, let me call him Baber, entered the room, went around and shook hands with everyone but him. Feeling peer-pressure, even Asim reluctantly extended his hand for a shake. But at that point Baber said: No, Asim. You are wearing a mask which means you are taking precautions, so I will not shake your hand.

Baber respected Asims decision, and you may think this was an outlier response because many others may insist on shaking hands. However, consider this: On June 5, Craig Timberg of the Washington Post wrote an article (How do masks change human behavior?) describing the findings of Massimo Marchiori, an Italian computer scientist, who specializes in the use of mobility data. When the pandemic struck, he directed his efforts at related problems he had expertise in.

The most interesting of his several findings is the reaction face masks elicit from passersby. He collected empirical data of distances by which pedestrians passed by each other. Even during the pandemic, people would draw closer to oncoming pedestrians when they were not wearing a mask. However, when an oncoming pedestrian was wearing a mask, they would pass her at a greater distance.

This goes to show that face masks are effective on multiple levels, not just to filter out contaminants from the inhaled air and contain their spread from exhaled air. Visible face masks, even makeshift ones, signal others to keep a bigger-than-usual distance. In the absence of the states capacity to enforce necessary measures by traditional law enforcement or anything else (yes, I am discounting the Tiger Force), that leaves us only with the kind of soft measures like the implicit signaling conveyed by a worn face mask.

Unlike other nations, we are not familiar with the concept of personal space. Stand in a queue some place, and the person standing behind you will be breathing down your neck, literally. Introducing people to the idea of personal space will be a slow process.

In time, when we reach a critical mass of mask wearers, perhaps can we count on the kind of social pressure we see in Japan, that makes it socially unacceptable to not wear one. Social pressure to keep up with the Chaudhrys/any other elite has made us buy VCRs in the 1980s, satellite TV receivers in the 1990s, cars we could not afford in the 2000s and expensive iPhones in the 2010s.

Maybe this time around we can channel it to make people want to wear a mask and not look ill-mannered, uncouth, and inconsiderate. Maybe this time around we can leverage it to achieve something useful for a change.

Email: [emailprotected]

The writer is an independent education researcher and consultant. She has a PhD in Education from Michigan State University.

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VCRs, iPhones and face masks - The News International

Human Behavior

‘Bound’ Is Still The Wachowskis’ Best Movie – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Thats not to knock The Matrix, Speed Racer or Cloud Atlas. Its just Bound is that good. Perhaps today, the idea of a crime thriller with two lesbian leads would not be a high concept. It would just be a movie, hopefully. In 1996 the relationship of the main characters did distinguish Bound from other noirish crime films. The quality of the execution by Lilly and Lana Wachowski put it up there with Double Indemnity and the other greats.

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From 30s and 40s black and white film noirs to modern day crime stories, the archetypes of the femme fatale roping (pun intended) a man into her scheme were common. Violet (Jennifer Tilly) is the femme fatale who ropes Corky (Gina Gershon) into her plan. Violet is the moll of mafioso Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano).

Violet has a plan to steal money from Ceasars bosses and set him up for the fall. Shell need a partner though. Normally femme fatales use sex to manipulate men. Violet and Corkys love is sincere, not a manipulation. They really are Bound together.

The 90s were also the era where erotic thrillers thrived. It was a good genre, but Bound stands out for its relative restraint. The classic film noirs couldnt show graphic sex so they created heat with innuendo and subtlety. Bound has a perfect combination of both.

Violets seduction of Corky is intense. The Wachowskis frame Tillys legs behind Gershon as she works on the drain. Violet has called her over under the pretense of dropping an earring down the drain (Corky works maintenance in their building).

Their innuendo with words like thirsty and curious remain timeless. Thirsty has been appropriated for social media with new relevance, and curious could still be used with double meaning, or to test the waters with a potential lover as Violet uses it.

The passion is palpable, the heavy breathing and whispering in closeups of their shadowed faces. Corky moves her hand to feel Violets arousal without using explicit language. The shot looking up at them from under the steering column is something, and cinematography will reveal more of the crime plot too.

Violet had to hide her sexuality and live in domesticity as a gangster moll, ogled by all of his henchmen too. This may be the relatable story of people living in the closet whether theyre in a crime family or not. In Bound, Violet uses it against her patriarchal persecutors.

Ceasar remains clueless until the very end. It never occurs to him Corky could be a threat to him criminally or romantically. In fact, he gets mad when he first walks in and thinks Corky is a man. His relief when he sees shes only a woman is so heternormative.

RELATED: The Matrix 4: Actor Joe Pantoliano Wants to Return as Cypher; Heres How It Could Happen

Most importantly, Corky says she hates when women apologize for wanting sex. This is also a timeless double standard. Violet clarifies shes not. In fact shes apologizing for not completing their encounter. Their love scene is R-rated because you see Gershons breast, but its the details that make it sensuous, particularly the fitted sheet coming off the mattress.

In concert with Bounds respect for womens sexuality, The Wachowskis aslo craft a lean, direct plot. The way Corky and Violet explain their plan while theyre already enacting it is brilliant and economical. Later Wachowski movies would suffer from exposition dumps as their concepts grew more complicated.

RELATED: Keanu Reeves Revealed the Only Reason Why He Returned for The Matrix 4

They use Ceasars prejudices to play him like a piano. The plan is all based on human behavior. They just wind the male gangsters up and watch their plan play out. A few points could go either way, but they have a plan for either outcome.

When Ceasar gets unpredictable, its suspenseful because hes operating under wildly false assumptions. He thinks Violet is conspiring with mafiosos, not her lover. Someone who thinks they know things is more dangerous than an idiot.

Bound should be an all time classic, but perhaps its floating under the radar is appropriate. The world underestimated Violet and Corky, so if the world underestimates the Wachowskis first movie, they can discover how great it is too. Bound is streaming on HBO Max, Crackle with ads, Popcornflix and Pluto TV.

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'Bound' Is Still The Wachowskis' Best Movie - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Human Behavior

Steve Bucknor accepts his incorrect decisions against Sachin Tendulkar, says those were mistakes – The Financial Express

Steve Bucknor accepts mistakes: Umpire Steve Bucknor, of the infamous Bucknor-Benson umpiring duo that was in the eye of the storm during the controversial 2008 Sydney Test between India and Australia, has been accused by many cricket fans in his umpiring career, but it was a couple of his decisions against Sachin Tendulkar that still haunt him. Recalling those two occasions when he had judged the batting legend out, Bucknor said that such judgments live with the umpires and their careers could be massively hit due to such instances. However, Bucknor, who was considered among the top umpires in the 2000s, said that in his view no umpire would want to do a wrong thing and that error in judgment is a psrt of the human behavior.

Tendulkar was given out on two different occasions when those were mistakes. I do not think any umpire would want to do a wrong thing. It lives with him and his future could be jeopardised, Bucknor said on Mason and Guests radio programme.

One of the two mistakes that Bucknor has pointed out as his mistakes were the decisions to give Sachin out LBW against Australia at the Gabba in 2003 while the other error being the caught-behind decision against Pakistan.

At the Gabba in 2003, Tendulkar had left a Jason Gillespies delivery that had pitched outside the off stump. Tendulkar may have misjudged the movement of the ball, but given Gabbas reputation of being a bouncy pitch, it was not criminal of Sachin to have left the delivery. The ball jagged back and hit Tendulkars pad and after an appeal, Bucknor nodded in his typical manner and raised his finger to send Tendulkar back to the pavilion.

In 2005, Tendulkar was given out caught behind off the bowling of Abdul Razzaq. He was well settled at the crease when Bucknor adjudged him out while the replay clearly indicated that there was a gap between his bat and the ball. Bucknor, however, has blamed his inability to hear the sound properly and said that at the Eden Gardens, if India is batting, you hear nothing.

Like Bucknor says, to err is human, but when that error in judgment leaves an enormous impact on the outcome of the game you are adjudicating, it can tarnish your reputation permanently.

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Steve Bucknor accepts his incorrect decisions against Sachin Tendulkar, says those were mistakes - The Financial Express

Anatomy

What went wrong at 72nd and Dodge? The anatomy of Omaha’s May 29 street conflict – Omaha World-Herald

It started off as one of the most extraordinary demonstrations ever staged at Omahas busiest, most visible intersection, long a gathering place for those looking to make their voices heard.

An estimated 2,000 people crowded around all four corners of 72nd and Dodge on Friday night, May 29. The diverse, mostly white crowd held aloft Black Lives Matter signs and chanted to decry the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Omaha showed up in peace! exclaimed Peyton Zyla as he streamed the event live on his Facebook page. We stand in solidarity! This is beautiful!

But things were about to get very ugly.

After an incident in which aggressive protesterssurrounded an occupied State Patrol cruiser one man climbing on top and another appearing to try to smash out a window Omaha police officers suddenly descended on the scene in force.

They donned riot gear. Soon pepper balls, flash grenades and tear gas canisters were flying in what mushroomed into the most violent street clashes seen in Omaha in half a century. The images over the next few days were stark:

Omaha police fire tear gas as they approach protesters sit in the eastbound lane of Dodge Street just west of 72nd Street on May 29.

Lines of armored police officers advancing in lock step.

Protesters standing their ground, hurling taunts, plastic water bottles, rocks and whatever else they could find.

People choking on tear gas and injured by pepper balls, including at least one man struck in the eye.

Vandals shattering windows, first near 72nd and Dodge and eventually along blocks-long swaths of downtown businesses.

A protester shot dead in a fight with a downtown bar owner.

A state of emergency in Omaha, along with a rare citywide curfew imposed over four nights.

And in the wake of it all, lots of finger pointing and questions left hanging in the air like a haze of tear gas: How did what started as a peaceful protest devolve into several nights of mayhem, vandalism and arrests in Omaha? And could it all have been avoided?

Many protesters blame the Omaha Police Department for the violent outcome, accusing officers of escalating non-violent incidents into full-fledged conflict. When police suddenly appeared in riot gear and began firing pepper balls and tear gas, they said, it shocked, antagonized and angered many protesters and some fought back.

Everything that happened was 100% on them, said Morgann Freeman, who helped organize the Friday night demonstration. A peaceful protest against police brutality was met with police brutality. If they dont see the irony in that, theres no saving them.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer defended law enforcement actions as necessary to control a significant number of agitators who were bent on fomenting trouble. He said it was unfortunate that behavior overshadowed and undermined the message of the majority, who were there peacefully calling for police accountability.

Police and protesters clash during arally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

There appeared to be a concerted effort to turn it unruly, Schmaderer said. Out of all the people that came, most were darn good people exercising their right to free speech amessage that was very important. I don't think you will find a police officer around that doesn't say that.

To try to discern why the situation turned so violent, The World-Herald interviewed police officials and more than a dozen protesters, watched hours of video and consulted national experts on policing protests. The newspaper focused particularly on the critical minutes around 8 p.m. when police and protesters first clashed directly.

The examination revealed the dynamics of the forces that came together at the citys crossroads that night. Both police and protesters had very different motives, mindsets and imperatives, and some in each group had an uneasy mistrust of the other.

And they reacted to each other in very predictable ways. Police officers showed up in force when one of their own was seen as endangered by protesters. And protesters who had come out to decry police excesses reacted to what they saw as overbearing force with defiance and resolve.

In the end, pinning down just who was responsible for lighting the fuse is difficult, as police and protesters have vastly different interpretations of the level of provocation and danger that officers were facing. But other points are more clear.

Theres little doubt that a group of young, mostly white people joining the crowd that night were intent on instigating conflict with police. That showed early on when they began repeatedly occupying islands at the intersection in defiance of police orders. Its unclear whether those same people were involved in later escalations such as the one involving the state troopers.

Police communications with the crowd were insufficient for the large scale of the event. That gap sowed confusion among peaceful protesters and still contributes today to a widely held belief among many that police actions werent justified.

The police decision to deploy officers in riot gear bears scrutiny, and questions surround the circumstances in which officers first resorted to firing chemical agents for crowd control. Once police launched those steps, the chances of preserving a peaceful protest may have been doomed.

Studies have shown that the mere deployment of riot police and agents like tear gas in mass protests escalate tensions and can spark violent responses. That means that police must walk a fine line, ensuring that their response is proportional to the actions and mood of the crowd while at the same time protecting officers, the public and property.

Live-streamed video that night clearly shows the volume of protester defiance rose exponentially after street officers fired the first pepper balls and riot police moved in.

Edward Maguire, an Arizona State University professor who authored a recent U.S. Justice Department-funded policy paper on best practices for policing protests, said its difficult to judge whether the tactics deployed were warranted without knowing all the circumstances the Omaha officers faced.

"The question is, was the event sufficient enough to call it a riot? he asked rhetorically. If you approach a largely peaceful event as a riot, you will create a riot. You will get what you seek to prevent.

* * *

Thousands of protesters rally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

Once the video of George Floyd dying at the hands of Minneapolis police went viral showing a white officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for some eight minutes despite the black mans pleas that he couldnt breathe it sparked outrage across the country.

Protests calling out the history of police brutality against African-Americans were held from coast to coast, including in Omaha. Some smaller ones were held in the city during that week. But the biggest protest to date billed on social media as the Stand Against Injustice was planned for May 29 near the Crossroads Mall. Organizers made it clear in their event post that they wanted a peaceful gathering.

Not only were planners making preparations for Friday night, but Omaha police were, too.

After learning of the planned protest that morning, Capt. Laurie Scott began to reach out to organizers in an effort to work with them. She also met with Freeman at the scene just before the event started.

The way law enforcement agencies attempt to police protests has changed much in the last 50 years.

Back in the 1960s, Omaha and many other cities saw devastating race riots, the scars of which remain in the city today. The typical police strategy then was to show up in riot gear and put up a dominant show of force to deter any lawbreaking. Studies would later show that harsh police posture only escalated tensions and promoted conflict.

Now best practices call for uniformed officers to work with protesters, helping them peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights while also protecting public safety. Officers control traffic and, if there is unlawful activity, best practices call for enforcement efforts to sharply focus on the lawbreakers, not the entire crowd.

Police need to strike the right tone and balance, said Justin Nix, a University of Nebraska at Omaha criminal justice professor who studies police tactics.

We know from five years ago in Ferguson that police simply by showing up dressed in riot gear and showing that force can escalate things, Nix said, referring to the riots in Missouri in 2014 and 2015 that followed the shooting of a black man by a police officer.

But while working to ensure a peaceful protest, Omaha police also prepared for the worst. They had already seen the massive rioting, looting, arson and property destruction that had occurred in Minneapolis and other cities.

So 18 officers dressed in riot gear Omaha police call them RDF, for Rapid Deployment Force were staged beforehand inside the Crossroads parking garage. The idea was to keep them out of sight to avoid inflaming the crowd, but to have them ready quickly if needed.

Police hold a man on the ground as tear gas is deployed and thousands of protesters rally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets in Omaha on May 29.

By 6 p.m. when the event was set to start, hundreds of protesters already occupied all four corners of 72nd and Dodge.

Xavier Carr showed up early and marveled when he saw the size and diversity of the growing crowd, which was mostly white and young, but included people of all ages and races. They held signs aloft and chanted slogans like Black Lives Matter, No Justice, No Peace, and I Cant Breathe George Floyds last words.

Carr said it was fitting they planted themselves beneath the familiar Crossroads sign. He said it felt like a crossroads, a transformational moment for the city. Through the night, the crowd would swell to 2,000 or more.

It wasnt even a protest, it was a rally, said Freeman, a 29-year-old communications and diversity consultant who had helped organize big demonstrations before, including the Omaha Womens March. It was just this beautiful moment of community.

It was more a celebratory crowd of unity, not an angry crowd, agreed Daemon Donigan, a white, 45-year-old state public health worker who said he went to the protest to show support for people of color disproportionately impacted by police violence.

Thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

But the crowd also included conspicuous, smaller pockets of young white protesters who struck a more hostile tone from the start, chanting F--- the police or F--- 12, slang for the same thing.

Zyla, a 21-year-old community organizer in North Omaha, had arrived just after 6 p.m. and was providing a running commentary to an audience of thousands through his Facebook Live feed. Early on, he walked by a group of a dozen young white men and women who were standing atop a garbage dumpster chanting F--- 12. He also passed someone carrying a sign reading "ACAB" short for "All Cops Are Bastards" whose head and face were completely covered by a green ski mask.

Carr, a 31-year-old who calls himself a big black dude, said such sentiments were definitely in the minority.

Some people were trying to chant that stuff, but we would shout them down, he said.

Donigan, too, heard the young white protesters and their chants. He said they put my radar up as them not necessarily being there for the right purposes.

Such offensive words are, of course, protected by the First Amendment. But they could suggest that some protesters had a bellicose intent. Schmaderer has said hes convinced there were anarchists determined to create conflict with police that night.

Omaha Deputy Police Chief Scott Gray noted that with protests today being largely promoted through social media, event organizers have no idea who is going to show up.

Its certainly conceivable there may have been police officers present that night with negative attitudes toward the protesters. After all, the crowd was there to speak out against actions by police.

You can have 1,000 protesters and two are jerks, and you can have 100 cops and two are jerks, and thats all it takes to inflame conflict, said ASUs Maquire, familiar with that 72nd and Dodge intersection as he began his criminal justice academic career at UNO. It can spin out of control so rapidly.

As they had planned, police officers initially kept a low profile, with officers largely set back from the street corners. Some observers were stationed on the roof of the Do Space building on the southwest corner. Scott, who was overseeing the operation, was at a command center set up in a nearby Nebraska Furniture Mart parking lot.

Almost from the beginning, police and organizers had to deal with protesters who illegally stood amid traffic on the medians of the busy intersection.

Police hold a man on the ground as thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

Freeman said police had told her earlier they needed to keep people off the medians or the event would be shut down, so she personally got involved. We were hurrying and rushing and trying to keep people off, she said.

But she said a group of young, mostly white males seemed intent on occupying the medians under any circumstances.

I literally told them the police will shut down the protest, you may get arrested, please move because I dont want to put everyone else at risk, she recalled. They said they were all right with that.

Police say at some point around 7 p.m., the median occupiers started crossing from median to median to stay ahead of officers attempting to shoo them off. Police said the group was large enough at one point to stretch an entire block along one median.

Then at 7:24 p.m., 40 to 50 protesters blocked traffic on Dodge just west of 72nd, trapping several vehicles in westbound traffic. Some protesters sat in the street. An OPD cruiser responded in minutes and the crowd scattered.

Gray later called it a huge safety concern. There have been cases in other cities of drivers caught in a mob of people panicking and running over protesters, he said.

At 7:35 p.m., a large number of protesters who had been occupying the center median again entered westbound traffic, blocking all three lanes and stalling more than a dozen cars. Thats when police decided to shut down traffic in all four directions heading into Omahas busiest intersection.

Weve lost the street, one officer said over the scanner. There is nothing we can do at this point.

Why were police shutting off traffic? Most demonstrators didnt know. Any police efforts to give a reason to the crowd, which was dispersed over a wide area, became lost in the din of the protest. And that caused much confusion.

There was no communication to us on what they were doing, said Donigan. Police basically gave us the intersection.

Indeed, he and many protesters took the police action as an invitation to move into the streets, and hundreds did so now that there were no traffic concerns. Donigan likened it to when police close off streets to facilitate parades. And a parade was exactly what next ensued.

Organically, a group of 300 people or more began marching east about 7:40 p.m. in the vacant westbound traffic lanes. Zyla joined in.

Im not sure exactly why police have shut down Dodge, but it has encouraged people to start moving east, he said on his stream. The entire intersection of 72nd and Dodge is technically ours.

Thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

The group paraded east up the hill to 68th Streetbefore turning and coming back down toward 72nd. Police would later report as the group reached 69th, protesters pushed aside barricades, and someone threw a water bottle at a cruiser.

Zyla trailed the group, and as he neared 72nd, a woman walking by can be heard calling out, Theyre putting on gas masks.

Zyla told his audience he saw no sign of police officers putting on masks. Its unclear whether there was anything to the woman's report or whether it was itself a provocation.

It was now approaching 8 p.m., an hour before the protest was scheduled to end with a solemn moment of silence for Floyd lasting eight minutes and 46 seconds the length of time commonly cited for how long the officer was kneeling on him.But that moment would never arrive.

Many of the marchers continued east past 74th Street. It was there, on eastbound Dodge just west of the Olive Garden restaurant, that two state troopers who had helped Omaha police close down and reroute Dodge Street traffic were sitting in their cruiser.

Lt. Greg Miller, a 21-year patrol veteran in the cars passenger seat, had heard on the radio the group was coming and watched it approach. He and Trooper Jake Arnold were soon enveloped by a crowd estimated at 100.

Some protesters then became hostile, giving the troopers hand gestures, yelling obscenities and things like Dont shoot me and F--- the police. As a cop, Miller was pretty used to such treatment.

But things only escalated from there. A water bottle was thrown. Someone jumped up on the hood, and others started pounding on the car.

Then protesters got the idea of putting signs over the windows, blinding the officers to what was happening around them.

Most ominously to Miller, someone placed a piece of cardboard over his window and hammered hard against it several times. It appeared to Miller the person was trying to break the glass, using the cardboard to protect his hand.

Miller pressed his own hands hard against the window, trying to blunt the force and keep the window from shattering.

Said Miller last week: Ive been in a lot of situations in 21 years. Ive been on the SWAT team for 14 years. What was going on in that car was very near the top of my list of uncomfortable situations.

Feeling the threat but not able to see or respond to it, Miller urgently said to Arnold: We need to get more people here now.

Arnold tried to get on the radio, but over the din of car-pounding and shouting even Miller couldnt hear what he was saying.

Police and protesters clash during arally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.

At the Omaha police command post, Scott was observing it all via video and standing with a state patrol commander, who attempted to contact the troopers by radio to check on their condition.

When the commander failed to reach them, Scott at 7:58 p.m. put out a help an officer call. The decision was also made to deploy the RDF squads in an effort to determine the condition of the troopers and free up their vehicle, Gray said.

Deploying riot police was clearly a significant move, and Schmaderer said it wasnt taken lightly. Police officials were conscious of stirring the crowd, the reason the riot officers had been held in reserve. But in this situation, the chief said, safety has already been compromised.

Said Scott of her decision: You are looking at an officer rescue at that point.

The surrounding of the troopers and the "help an officer" call profoundly changed the entire nature of the protest that night. As Allie Curttright, who was serving as a legal observer for the ACLU, would later put it, it really went from zero to 100 really quick.

Its part of the code of police officers to protect each other. The call for help sent dozens of police officers racing toward 74th and Dodge.

Officer safety is kind of a prime directive of police its deeply woven in their culture, ASUs Maguire said. Once you send out that call, all bets are off. They are going to race to the scene and do what they need to do.

Indeed, officers converged at the Crossroads from all parts of the city and from other agencies, too. Within seconds, a police helicopter was circling over 74th and Dodge. Before the night was out, there were officers on horseback, officers with dogs, and even officers manning a military-style vehicle.

Donigan said he saw the heavy surge of officers arriving. He didn't know why and became uneasy.

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What went wrong at 72nd and Dodge? The anatomy of Omaha's May 29 street conflict - Omaha World-Herald

Anatomy

Anatomy of . . . Serena Williams | Sport – The Times

Serena Williams has announced that she will compete for her 24th grand-slam title at the behind-closed-doors US Open but what makes the 38-year-old such a phenomenal athlete and competitor?

Her power allows her to dominate from the baseline with fearsome groundstrokes. She can hit a serve as fast as some of her male counterparts, reaching speeds of up to 128mph.

She has saved match points during runs to three of her 23 grand slam singles titles. Regularly she will rehearse match situations in practice, such as having to hit a second serve while 15-30 down. A weakness has developed, however, in recent years in which she allows emotions to get the better of her, with the meltdown during the 2018 US Open final a

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Anatomy of . . . Serena Williams | Sport - The Times

Anatomy

The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp and other lessons – Mumbai Mirror

By Christopher de Souza

There has been a major revival of Rembrandts paintings at the Hague this year. Among the many paintings opened for viewing was the one picture that I was most familiar with: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp. It was introduced to many doctors in Mumbai more than 30 years ago. And they were introduced to anatomy and Rembrandt.

Anatomy is taught to students in their first year in medical college. It is mistakenly thought that anatomy is a dead subject since it is taught on cadavers and skeletons, on lifeless, glass slides viewed through a monocular microscope and on brightly coloured, luridly painted, inanimate charts. Once the euphoria of getting into the MBBS course has worn off the study of anatomy in all its aspects is viewed as a necessary evil in order to get to the clinical sciences where the real living action is.

Still, one man changed all that. All the famous doctors of the past and present addressed him as sir. That man was Dr Eustace J de Souza. First trained at the Seth GS Medical College as a general surgeon. A scholarship; The Rockefeller Scholarshipto the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, changed his destiny. Over there under the mentorship of the famous Dr Arnold Seligman he learned histocytochemistry- then a brand new and emerging science. He also learned genetics and its applications.

These skills brought him into the department of Anatomy of the BYL Charitable Nair Hospital and later he became the Dean of the Nair Hospital. There he infused his students with his knowledge and wit.

He would begin with a question, How do you know the sex of a chromosome? No one knew the answer to that.

By pulling down its genes, he would say with a twinkle in his eye pointing to the Levi and Wrangler jeans that the students wore which were the rage at that time.Needless to say there were plenty of guffaws and right to this day many of his students remember that statement.

When teaching the study of bones, he would hold the bone in his left hand and enquire, To which side of the body does it belong?

The left side sir, would be the reply. Right, he would say with an impish smile. He made it a point to find out what a student knew rather than dwell on what they didnt. This was atypical of examiners of that time where examiners looked for lacunae in your knowledge and used that to hammer home your weaknesses and fail you.

Dr Eustace would pepper his teachings freely with references to art, literature and music and so exposed us all to the importance of the study of anatomy as a frame of reference.

Spend a night with Venus and a lifetime with Mercury, was one of his favourite aphorisms regarding the once primitive treatment of syphilis. Most of the students who had no understanding of Roman mythology were carefully explained the connotations and play on words. Venus the god of love transmitted syphilis which was treated long agoby administering mercury a dreadful and painful medicine (the god given the healing caduceus by Apollo). The lifetime of the patient was brief because the cure was worse than the disease.

Dr Eustace de Souza informed us that artists like Leonardo Da Vince spent lifetimes dissecting human bodies in secret to get a better understanding of the human body. Their studies were responsible for now making the study of human anatomy an art and a science.

Da Vincis illustrations of the fetus in the womb and the Vitruvian man were shown to us to better understand how privileged we were to get an actual human body to dissect and appreciate its intricacies. This sense of privilege has stayed with me and nearly all my colleagues,all our lives enhancing our appreciation of the sanctity of life and its residence; the human body.

He had in his office on the third floor, a picture titled The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp by Rembrandt. The students were asked to find out what was wrong with the picture. None of us could identify the flaw in this marvellous painting. He then showed us that the muscles in the corpses left hand were shown to be arising from the outer side (lateral epicondyle) of the hand when actually they should have arisen from the inner side (medial epicondyle). We were also treated to a short informative discourse on Rembrandt and his other paintings.But, this image remained vividly with us. Whenever I visited his office it was on prominent display.

I moved to the USA to do a fellowship and many years later I had the good fortune to be appointed a professor at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. Following a series of lectures, a dinner was hosted for me at an exclusive black tie event near the Hudson river. Incredibly, there were pictures of Rembrandt on the wall. There was the Nightwatch, Bathsheba at her bath and I saw the one picture with which I was most familiar, The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp. Dr Lucente my host, saw me get excited and was amazed that I was able to correctly identify this painting and I also pointed out to him the flaw in this picture. He was amazed because he was unaware of this facet of the painting. I spent the evening talking to him about Dr Eustace J de Souza. By then a crowd had gathered around us. When I finished recounting my experiences he raised his glass of wine and said, It appears that you received more than just a lesson in anatomy by this great man Dr Eustace de Souza. I think you received more than mere lessons. You received,what is now extremely rare and what I would call,an extraordinarily good education.

(Dr Christopher de Souza is editor-in-chief of The International Journal of Head and Neck Surgery and honoray ENT Head and Neck Surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's own. The opinions and facts expressed here do not reflect the views of Mirror and Mirror does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

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The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp and other lessons - Mumbai Mirror

Anatomy

Q and A: Who is Niall Haslam and what is Axial3D’s vision? – Medical Plastics News

MPN editor Laura Hughes caught up with Axial3Ds CTO Niall Haslam.Could you tell me a little bit about your background?

My background is in helping clinicians and scientists understand biological data and integrate complex analytical tools. This helps them ask better questions and make better decisions about the care pathway for their patients.

I started off in genomics designing new methods of DNA sequencing - identifying the limitations of the new technology platforms and understanding the resolution that they could provide. Ive also been involved in the scale-up production of drugs and drug design, so I have a good understanding of the manufacturing challenges required for healthcare applications. Quality in the manufacturing sense is key to the service that we provide.

My background is an odd mix of manufacturing and software development in the medical sectors, therefore Axial3D is the perfect blend of this experience. We manufacture patient-specific anatomical models and use software to generate these designs. Increasingly, these days cutting edge technologies are converging so you need experience in multiple fields in order to succeed. We see that in the team at Axial3D. We have people from a wide range of backgrounds and each of them contributes something unique to the company.

We take MRI and CT scans and use machine learning to identify the anatomy within them. We then create a 3D printable version of the anatomy and print it for surgeons to help them plan operations more effectively and aid the patient consent process.

I wanted to get involved because it is a perfect blend of my interests and I get to help people. I love using computational models to understand biological problems (like identifying anatomy) and I love making things (printing that anatomy). There is something special about creating a tangible output and knowing that will be used to improve the standard of care for a patient.

I hesitate to use the word synergy, but honestly it is the best suited to describe the power of Axial3D. We bring together a number of powerful technologies and use them to make 3D printing more accessible. By doing this we make 3D printing routine and ultimately unlock other potential technology platforms in the future.

We see 3D printed anatomical models being used routinely in complex operations and pre-operative planning. We are starting to see the evidence confirming the effectiveness of this approach and the impact it makes in clinical education and decision making. We will be recruiting more patients for these trials to expand the type of operation that can benefit from this technology in the near future.

In the long term, the algorithms we are developing will be used to reduce the barriers to accessing custom made implants from a biocompatible material. We are doing some work in this area with Ulster University and other partners through the EU InterReg funded NW CAM project.

We regularly present at meet-ups in Belfast and Dublin, as well as more technical conferences focused on artificial intelligence and 3D printing.

We are always open to collaboration and have worked with a number of other companies over the years on different aspects of our core and adjacent technologies.

If you are interested in working with us and there isnt a role open do reach out as we are always interested in potential opportunities.

Social media:

Twitter:@Axial_3D and@HaslamNiall

Instagram:@axial_3d

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Q and A: Who is Niall Haslam and what is Axial3D's vision? - Medical Plastics News

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy:’ Why Katherine Heigl Once Called Working Conditions ‘Cruel and Mean’ – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Greys Anatomy alum Katherine Heigl portrayed Dr. Izzie Stevens from 2005 to 2010. Withdrawing from the Emmy Awards in 2008,Heigl went public withher disappointment in her storylines with tabloids reporting that she was angling to get out of her contract.

The actress voiced her frustration again regarding the prime time drama during an appearance on a late night talk show,stating that showsschedule demands were over the top.

When Heigls statements regarding the 2008 Emmys hit the headlines, the Greys star began developing a reputation for being difficult.

I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention, Heigl stated, according toEntertainment Weekly.In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.

Though she apologized to show creator Shonda Rhimes for her remarks, Heigls comments had already made their mark.

On some level, it stung and on some level I was not surprised, Rhimes toldOprah Winfrey in 2012of the actresss actions. When people show you who they are, believe them.

RELATED: Greys Anatomy Alum Katherine Heigl Reveals Her Least Favorite Scene from the Show: That Was Weird

By 2009, Heigl was already fielding film offers and juggling her schedule to fulfill her commitment to Greys. Starring alongside Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth, both Heigl and Greys producers had to make some creative arrangements regarding her shooting time. Yet when Heigl made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, the actress was quite vocal on her grueling work agenda.

Our first day back was Wednesday, she told Letterman in July 2009, according to Newsday. It was Im going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them a 17-hour day, which I think is cruel and mean.

At the time, her characters fate was left hanging due to surgery for a brain tumor. You last saw Izzie, you know, flatlining, Heigl explained. So, I wont give it away, but, you know, Im there so Im either there as a ghost, on the other side, or I survived a disease no one survives.

RELATED:Greys Anatomy: Ellen Pompeo Singled Out Katherine Heigls Problem on the Show

Letterman picked up on her comment, noting Im guessing if youre working 17 hours, that means youre not dead. Heigls responded saying, What if, however, Dave, I was in a bed in a coma for 17 hours? They could do that to me.

The brass at ABC didnt take too kindly to Heigls remarks, issuing some comments of their own.

I think its unfortunate, ABC entertainment presidentStephen McPhersonsaid, as reported by NBCLosAngeles.com. People are going to behave in the way they choose to behave. There are so many people who work so hard on Greys, and all of our shows, without any notoriety and those are the ones Id be concerned about, people who feel like theyre being criticized or looked down upon.

While show producers revealed that Heigls long work day was to accommodate her film schedule for The Ugly Truth, the actress wasnt completely convinced and felt she put a burden on the production crew.

If that is true, I really wish [the producers] had warned me. I would have forgone the talk shows, she told Entertainment Weekly in 2010. I asked the entire crew without really understanding that I was asking this to work a 17-hour day. And for them its much worse than just 17 hours. They get there an hour before us and they leave an hour after us. And they all have families they want to get home to. They dont get any of the attention and they dont get the paycheck.

RELATED: What Greys Anatomy Alum Katherine Heigl Thought of the Izzie-George Romance: Thats Not Hot

Heigl claimed she didnt get any flak after the interview when she returned to the set, though she did get appreciation from the crew. No one brought it up because I think they were all like, Ehh, Katie, the Greys alum recalled. But there were some members of the crew who actually thanked me for saying something because they cant say anything.

In January 2010, Heigls last episode of Greys Anatomy aired.

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'Grey's Anatomy:' Why Katherine Heigl Once Called Working Conditions 'Cruel and Mean' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet