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Harry Harding on the Rapidly Changing US-China Relationship – The Diplomat

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The Diplomat and the U.S.-China Perception Monitor recently had a joint interview on the topic of U.S.-China relations with Professor Harry Harding of the University of Virginia.

Harding is a specialist on Asia and U.S.-Asian relations. His major publications include Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy, 1949-1966; Chinas Second Revolution: Reform after Mao; A Fragile Relationship: the United States and China since 1972; and the chapter on the Cultural Revolution in the Cambridge History of China.

Below are Hardings thoughts on the state of U.S.-China relations, from the decline of the engagement policy to the COVID-19 fallout.

What explains the rapid decline in U.S.-China relations over the course of 2020? How much of the current decline can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

I think some of the decline in US-China relations can be attributed to the pandemic. There are some polls in the United States showing that a significant number of Americans blame China as being the origin of the pandemic. They say that China didnt act quickly enough to prevent it spreading outside its borders to other countries. Now, China itself is saying that it might weaponize some vaccines that it develops. In other words, it will favor some friendly countries in distributing the vaccine and punish unfriendly countries by denying it. The same was said about personal protective equipment in an earlier stage of the pandemic.

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I should also add that Chinas reluctance to have an early independent outside investigation of the origins of the virus inside China has contributed to the impact of COVID on the U.S.-China relationship. But I have to emphasize that this was simply adding something to a much wider set of concerns here in the United States. Looking back over a longer period of time, of course, theres been the trade dispute, the question of the access to the Chinese market for both exporters and foreign investors in China, Chinas assertiveness in the South China Sea, its threatening military activities around Taiwan, the proposed law that would have allowed the extradition of alleged criminals from Hong Kong to China, and the national security legislation Beijing imposed on Hong Kong. Its been one thing after another.

Different groups in the United States have been interested in different issues. Some of them are concerned about human rights. My students, for example, have been concerned for some time about Xinjiang. Im a little surprised by this because this was not an area of much concern before. Others who know Hong Kong, where I am right now, are more concerned about Hong Kong. Its a very long list of concerns, and COVID has simply added another item to that list.

Chinese officials often claim the Trump administrations harsh rhetoric towards China is simply a case of a few politicians seeking personal gains during an election year. Would you agree with this? What are the prospects for U.S.-China relations in the post-election period?

If Chinese officials really believe that this is just a matter of a few politicians, basically referring to Trump and some Republican senators who are seeking personal gain, they are getting very bad analysis from those who are providing it. It is a much bigger problem than that. I said a minute ago that its not just COVID, and I can add now its not just Trump either. There has been a sea change in American attitudes towards China over the last few years. And again, it depends on who in the United States you are looking at. I think in the analytic community, both inside and outside government, a major turning point was the global financial crisis of 2008, when there was a growing sense in the United States that Chinese analysts and Chinese leaders were seeing a major shift in the balance of power internationally, away from the United States and toward China.

Of course, America was the source, the origin of the global financial crisis. It was affected by it very severely. China managed to protect itself from it quite effectively and it recovered fairly quickly. The balance of power was shifting, as was the balance of what might be called normative power. The American model of liberalization, especially in finance, came under very sharp and appropriate criticism at that time. So, China was already becoming more confident and more assertive and some people in the United States were picking that up as early as 2008. It intensified after 2012 with the emergence of a new leadership in China. The reassessment of China then spread to the policy community. I sensed the change of attitudes in the policy community around 2014, and especially in 2015. More recently, it has been very evident in public opinion more broadly.

The percentage of Americans having an unfavorable view of China was 12 percent around 2012 and then began to increase dramatically, reaching 47 percent in 2017. And then it soared to 66 percent this year. So a very large majority of Americans now have an unfavorable view of China. Another way to put it is that the previous low point in American attitudes towards China occurred in 1989 and 1990 after the Tiananmen crisis. We basically have wiped out all of the improvement in American public opinion towards China that occurred very slowly after that. To be sure, there are some differences: Young people are somewhat less critical of China than older people and Democrats are somewhat less critical than Republicans. But even in those categories, a majority now have unfavorable views of China.

One of Chinas soothing scenarios about the future of U.S.-China relations is that its all about Trump or, as you said, a small number of politicians who are using it for their electoral advantage. Unfortunately, thats not true.

What will happen if Biden is elected? Another soothing scenario is that Biden will make everything go back to normal. Unfortunately, the new normal is now quite critical of China. I think there will be differences between Biden and Trump. In fact, I think China might properly be more concerned about Biden than about Trump, because I think that Biden will have a smarter strategy for competing with China. He will see the need to form closer partnerships with our allies in dealing with some of the challenges presented by China. Hell focus on the need to restore the vitality of the American economy and make the American democratic institutions work better. I think that he will return to a smarter approach to competing with China, but he will not give up that competition altogether.

Where did things go wrong with the old engagement policy? If China works on issues related to reciprocity, do you think two countries could go back to some form of enhanced engagement policy?

Originally, in the mid-1990s, engagement was simply a decision by the United States to resume official, and then unofficial, dialogue with China on a wide range of issues. You may remember that after the June 4th crisis of 1989, the United States cut back on almost every kind of official interaction between the United States and China. And when we did interact, it was almost entirely on the question of human rights, reflecting the American concern about what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989. And comprehensive engagement that was the original term meant resuming interaction at various levels with the Chinese government and with various sectors of Chinese society on a wide range of issues, not just human rights. I think that in that sense of interaction, discussion and negotiation, engagement is always going to be there. It is inevitable and it is necessary.

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In addition, but as you just implied, engagement then began to include a wider range of strategies. Some of these were good ideas that were not well implemented. Others I think were simply naive, and Im writing a book about this. Its hard to summarize in a few words, but I think that the most naive vision, and something that weve seen again and again in the history of American relations, is that if we simply interact with China, not just government to government, but rather economy to economy, and society to society, then ultimately China is going to become just like the United States.

This is a vision that Americans have had ever since the 1920s and 1930s. Some people call it the missionary approach in American policy towards China; then it was largely religious. We were going to convert Chinese to Christianity. But over the years it took on a much more secular form. The best example I always think of is a Nebraska senator named Kenneth Wherry who summarized some of this in the phrase, With Gods help [so there is still the religious component], we will lift Shanghai up, up, ever up, until its just like Kansas City. Kansas City was at the time one of the most modern cities in the United States, and that was his vision for Shanghai. That was naive then, and it remains naive now. Chinas history is very different; the political values that history has created, the need for a strong government to protect against famine, against external threats and against domestic chaos, are very deeply ingrained in Chinese political culture.

But America is organized around different principles; our fear is not of a weak government, but of a strong government and government tyranny. Our values are individual, not collective. And unless there is a major value change in both countries which I think would be unlikely, or else very far off, I think its very difficult to imagine that China will become just like the United States, or the U.S. like China. The idea that international issues would drive us together, whether its COVID or terrorism or any other major issue, or that economic interdependence would be a solid base for the relationship, was also nave because once a competition starts then the question becomes not just what do we both gain from that cooperation, but who gains more.

One way I like to explain it to the Chinese friends is that the Chinese often talk about win-win relationships. And yes, in academic game theory, where both sides win in absolute terms, that should be a favorable outcome. Each side is better off with the cooperation than it was before. But a more sophisticated game theory raises the question of relative gain. Who wins more? That has been the problem in the U.S.-China relationship, Many Americans have felt that China is winning more than the United States, and equally important that its winning by unfair strategies and tactics in its game. Some cynics have turned win-win around and defined it as China wins once, and then China wins again, and then keeps winning round after round of the game. So, I think that comprehensive engagement was based on some theories of international relations and human behavior that have been proven to be somewhat naive.

The challenge now is to accept that this is going to be mainly a competitive relationship, but then decide how we can we get the benefits of a healthy competition, and prevent it from going off into very costly forms of competition. Arms races can be risky and expensive. Its even worse when competition degenerates into open confrontation, whether its economic or even worse, military.

In an interview that you did in 2017, you said there were a number of countries that were pursuing quiet balancing against China. You hoped that the Chinese leadership could see this and make adjustments accordingly. Three years later, has this counterweight grown stronger? Do you think that China has made any adjustments since then in its foreign policies?

Yes, China has seen the quiet balancing, and it has made adjustments, but the adjustments have quite frankly been in the wrong direction. They have involved doubling down on using pressure rather than conciliation to deal with issues with the United States, and especially with smaller countries. That reflects one of the problems with how China views what motivates other countries.

It believes that the promise of economic benefit, the threat of military pressure, and sometimes the threat of economic sanctions is entirely what motivates people. Some people have used an analogy from the game of bridge, which of course was Deng Xiaopings favorite card game, identifying which suit of cards are trumps. To stress the use of force is to say clubs are trumps. You hit somebody or threaten to do so and thats how you get what you want. The Chinese have gone one step further, saying if the trump suit is not clubs, its diamonds; its money. In other words, its material threat and material reward that motivate people.

Of course those things fear and reward are powerful motivators, but they arent the only ones. The suit that is missing from this analysis, of course, is hearts. Hearts you could see as values and identities, and basically thats where China does not, I think, give sufficient weight. China is still, in this sense, highly Marxist and materialist. Dialectical materialism is still very much a part of Chinese thinking especially, but maybe not exclusively, for those who are trained in Marxist-Leninist ideology.

I think that the Chinese have never really understood the rise of local identity in Taiwan or Hong Kong. They just dont seem to understand why so many people in both these places, despite their ethnicity, family background, language and culture, are saying that they are not Chinese. Why is that? Its values. They now have different values that are, some would say, post-modern. These are the values that people more often begin to incorporate into their lives after their basic needs for personal security and personal material survival are met. These are values of freedom of speech, creativity, freedom of travel, or many other individualistic values that I said are so important to Americans as well. So I think that is what Beijing just doesnt seem to understand; it thinks that either clubs or diamonds are the way to play the game with the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Thats part of the answer but not the whole answer. To emphasize only those two, especially in their coercive form, is counterproductive; it gets exactly the opposite effect of what you want. Its important to give sufficient attention to the importance of hearts, values and soft power.

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Harry Harding on the Rapidly Changing US-China Relationship - The Diplomat

Anatomy

UHS announces scholarships in anatomy – The News International

LAHORE:The University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday announced the launching of a gold medal in the name of Andreas Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy.

This gold medal will be awarded each year to the medical student who scores the most in the subject of anatomy. The student will also receive a cash prize of Rs 100,000. Also, three deserving medical students will be awarded scholarships each year in the name of the father of modern anatomy. The announcement was made by UHS Vice Chancellor, Professor Javed Akram, at a seminar which was held here on Thursday to mark World Anatomy Day. The event was organised by the Anatomical Society of Pakistan.

The chief guest of the event, Chairperson Punjab Healthcare Commission Professor Attiya Mubarak Khalid, emphasised on linking the teaching of the subject of anatomy with the clinical training of medical students. UHS VC Professor Javed Akram said that anatomy was the main subject of medical sciences. The teaching of this subject needed to be adapted to modern requirements. He said that every student entering medical college wanted to become a surgeon or a physician. "No student wants to be an anatomist. They need to know that the subject of anatomy is the basis of surgery and medicine", he added. Professor Javed Akram said that there would be no further delay in professional examinations as the Coronavirus had already wasted quite a lot of time of the students.

He clarified that all examinations would be conducted following government SOPs. He informed the participants that the human trial of Coronavirus vaccine from China had started in Pakistan with UHS as an important partner in this trial.

President, Anatomical Society of Pakistan, Professor Nosheen Omar said that due to Covid-19, medical students were given online education and this should be kept in mind while assessing them as well. The event was attended online by 64 groups of anatomists from various medical colleges across the country. Principal, Air Force Medical College Karachi, Professor Masood Ahmed Sheikh, Brigadier Dr Khadija Qamar of Army Medical College Rawalpindi, Professor Saeed Shafi of Shifa Medical College, Dr Zille Huma of Khyber Medical University and Dr Uruj Zehra of UHS addressed the seminar.

courseS: Postgraduate Medical Institute and Amir Uddin Medical College Principal Prof Dr Sardar Muhammad Al-freed Zafar said launching diploma courses in the central sterile services is very important to provide infection-free environment in all hospitals and for speedy recovery of patients.

Employees working in this field need to be able to maintain world-class medical equipment, medical kits, sheets and operation theatres, and sterilise in accordance with established principles, he said while addressing a function held at Lahore General Hospital on the occasion of CSSD International Week.

Hand washing: Global Handwashing Day was observed at University of Engineering and Technology University (UET) with a demonstration of hand washing by the students.

According to a press release, the day was marked by the UETs Media Society. Dr Tanveer Qasim, Adviser, UET Media Society, said 1,400 years ago Islam highlighted the importance of hand washing and cleanliness. He said the biggest message of the Covid-19 era was hand hygiene and protection from germs.

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UHS announces scholarships in anatomy - The News International

Anatomy

Anatomy Of A Smear: Questions Surrounding The New York Posts Hunter Biden Story – HuffPost

With only 20 days before the presidential election, the New York Post published what it called a smoking-gun email in a front-page feature accusing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of high-level political corruption. Within hours of its publication, the viral story was dominating the news cycle, with aggressive promotion from President Donald Trumps campaign.

Trumpworld seems to believe it has found an October bombshell that will damage Bidens dominant standing in the polls. But critical elements of the story are dubious, contradictory or outright false.

As the Post tells it, Bidens son, Hunter, left his damaged laptop which, the story claims, contained footage of him having sex while smoking crack at a Delaware repair shop last spring, but he never came back for it. The unnamed shop owner, unaware that the laptop was Hunter Bidens, noticed a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it, so he made a copy of the hard drive and gave it to Robert Costello an attorney forTrumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani who later gave it to the Post. The hard drive contained a 2015 email from a top executive at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, thanking Hunter for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and [spend] some time together.

The Post concludes that this is evidence of Joe Bidens misconduct because Hunter Biden introduced his father to the Burisma executive less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. (Bidens campaign says the alleged meeting with the Burisma executive never occurred.)

Its a highly suspicious narrative thats riddled with inconsistencies and other red flags. The storys premise and very first sentence contain a glaring, long-debunked falsehood: Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor in question, was not investigating Burisma, as The Washington Post reported more than a year ago in response to Trumps similar false claims at the time. In fact, Biden and other Western officials had pushed for Shokins ouster precisely because of his failure to probe the firm. The Obama-Biden administration was actually considering launching a U.S. investigation into Burismas alleged money laundering.

Its one of several inconsistencies in the storys version of events. Here are some of the biggest questions surrounding it.

How did the laptop end up at the repair shop?

John Paul MacIsaac, identified as the owner of the laptop repair shop after the Posts story published, told reporters on Wednesday that Hunter Biden had actually dropped off three laptops at his shop last April. MacIsaac initially suggested that because he is legally blind, he didnt recognize the younger Biden when he came into the shop and only later determined that the laptop was his after noticing the sticker, as the Post reported.

But MacIsaac later changed his story, claiming that Hunter Biden had actually introduced himself by name at the time.

Throughout the interview, MacIssac seemed nervous and claimed without elaborating that his life was in danger. He described Trumps impeachment as a sham, vaguely implied the FBI is involved in a coverup surrounding the alleged scandal, and repeatedly declined to answer whether he is or was working with Giuliani.

On Thursday, Giuliani, who was not present at the laptop repair shop at the time of the supposed dropoff, told SiriusXM that Hunter Biden was definitely the person who handed off the computer and that he was in an inebriated, heavily inebriated state at the time.

How did the emails get to the FBI?

MacIsaac claims that he made several unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with Hunter Biden and that his stores contract allows him to take possession of devices if they are not retrieved after 90 days. After the 90-day period had passed, MacIsaac said he grew curious about the contents of the computer. According to the Post, MacIsaac then made a copy of the hard drive and handed the hardware over to the FBI.

But in conversations with reporters, MacIsaac dodged the question of how he came to be in touch with federal agents. At first, he told reporters that the FBI approached him, although it is unclear how the bureau would have known about the existence and location of the laptops. He later told reporters that he reached out to people he trusted who connected him with contacts inside the FBI. And then they showed up, MacIsaac claimed.

How did Giuliani get involved?

MacIsaac told reporters that he became frustrated that the material on the laptop hadnt become public, so he gave a copy of the hard drive to Costello, Giulianis attorney. He refused to say whether he reached out to the attorney or if the attorney sought him out. He also would not say whether he has been in direct contact with Giuliani himself.

Giuliani is a notoriously unreliable source of information. As Trumps personal lawyer, he has long acted as a political operative targeting Biden for the Trump campaign, including traveling with far-right media outlet One America News to Ukraine as part of an effort to spread conspiracy theories about Biden. Over the course of the election campaign, Giuliani has repeatedly made wild claims without any evidence to back them up and has spun bizarre theories in an attempt to create the perception that Biden engaged in corruption.

Giuliani is now promising a slow release of allegedly damning information on the Bidens. On his personal website, he posted what he claims is a 2019 text message from Hunter Biden to his sister, Naomi, that was not included in the Posts story. There is no context for the alleged screenshot, no verification as to whether it is real, and no explanation as to why the Post didnt cover it.

How did the story end up in the New York Post?

The provenance of the Post story and the papers acquisition of the alleged copy of Bidens hard drive is vague and raises numerous questions. The report states that far-right media influencer and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told the Post about the existence of the hard drive in late September before Giuliani gave the outlet a copy on Sunday.

Both Giuliani and Bannon have pushed conspiracy theories and have close ties to Trump. The lead reporter on the Post story, Emma-Jo Morris, was formerly a producer for Fox News host and Trump ally Sean Hannity, as well as a former staffer at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The Hunter Biden stories were her first bylines for The Post, although she has worked there since April, according to her LinkedIn profile. On her Instagram account, Morris has posted numerous photos of herself posing with Trump associates including Bannon and Roger Stone.

Pro-Trump media has already begun to heavily promote and expand upon the story, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson announcing that he would release more of Bidens emails during his Thursday night prime-time show.

Are the emails authentic?

There is no indication that the Post conducted a forensic analysis to confirm the authenticity of the emails and photographs. The Post says it received the material on Sunday, just three days before publishing its report.

The metadata in the PDF files published by the Post, which supposedly contain Bidens emails, show that the files were created in September and October of 2019 months after MacIsaac said the laptops were dropped off and a full year before the Post story dropped.

Hunter Bidens lawyer George Mesires said in a statement, We have no idea where this came from, and certainly cannot credit anything that Rudy Giuliani provided to the NY Post.

Disinformation experts warned that the timing of emails release, the way they became public, and the lack of forensic evidence are all signs that the material could be the result of forgery, a hack, or a combination of the two. The Russian GRU unit responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee in 2016 hacked Burisma, The New York Times reported earlier this year, prompting fears that material from the hack would be leaked near the election in an effort to hurt Bidens campaign.

We want to know what youre hearing on the ground from the candidates. If you get any interesting or suspicious! campaign mailers, robocalls or hear anything else you think we should know about, email us at scoops@huffpost.com.

Calling all HuffPost superfans!

Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter

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Anatomy Of A Smear: Questions Surrounding The New York Posts Hunter Biden Story - HuffPost

Anatomy

The anatomy of an endpoint attack – CTOvision

Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated as tools and services on the dark web and even the surface web-enable low-skill threat actors to create highly evasive threats. Unfortunately, most of todays modern malware evades traditional signature-based anti-malware services, arriving at endpoints with ease. As a result, organizations lacking a layered security approach often find themselves in a precarious situation.

Read Corey Nachreiner of WatchGuard Technologies dissect how an endpoint attack works on Helpnet Security.

Related

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The anatomy of an endpoint attack - CTOvision

Anatomy

Human evolution picking up pace, resulting in additional artery in arm and no wisdom teeth – OregonLive

Humans are continuing to evolve -- in fact, theyre doing so at a faster rate than they have in at least 250 years.

Thats the conclusion of scientists in Australia who found that more and more people now have the median artery in their arms, and more people are now being born without wisdom teeth, among other findings.

The research was published last month in the Journal of Anatomy.

The once-rare median artery, long considered chiefly an embryonic structure, supplements the radial and ulnar arteries, increasing overall blood flow to the forearm and hand. Flinders University anatomy professor Teghan Lucas and University of Adelaide medical-sciences professors Maciej Henneberg and Jaliya Kumaratilake say their work shows that the median artery will be found in most humans by the end of the century.

In the video below, Lucas summarizes the research.

Since the 18th century, anatomists have been studying the prevalence of this artery in adults, and our study shows its clearly increasing, Lucas said in a statement via Flinders University in Adelaide. The prevalence was around 10% in people born in the mid-1880s compared to 30% in those born in the late 20th century, so thats a significant increase in a fairly short period of time, when it comes to evolution.

The Journal of Anatomy study states that people born 80 years from now will all carry a median artery if the trend continues. When the median artery prevalence reaches 50% or more, it should not be considered as a variant, but as a normal human structure.

A sketch shows the median artery. (Maciej Henneberg/YouTube)

The study also concludes that human faces are becoming shorter and jaws smaller, resulting in more people being born without wisdom teeth.

The research found other changes starting to occur in humans, including additional bones and bone connections in the legs and feet.

Lucas says such microevolution indicates that humans are evolving at a faster rate than at any point in the past 250 years.

-- Douglas Perry

dperry@oregonian.com

@douglasmperry

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Human evolution picking up pace, resulting in additional artery in arm and no wisdom teeth - OregonLive

Anatomy

Anatomy of a play: Justin Herbert working the Yankee concept against the Saints – Touchdown Wire

Offenses and defenses are not static. If one side of the football comes up with a scheme, a route concept or a blitz that is working, the other side is going to come up with an adjustment to stop it, or execute against it.

One of the popular route designs in the NFL today is often termed the Yankee concept. At its core, this is a play that uses maximum protection for the quarterback and pairs a deep post route with an intermediate crossing route. The design is simple: Read the safety in the middle of the field and throw off of his decision. If he stays deep to cover the post, throw the crossing route in front of him. However, if he drives down on the crossing route, throw the post over his head.

Defenses have made adjustments. One of the ways teams can still defend this out of single-high coverage schemes is by executing a cut or a nail call. In this adjustment, the free safety is free to drive downhill on the crossing route in front of him. The cornerback that starts out the play over the crossing route then replaces the safety in the middle of the field.

But the timing is critical.

On this example from Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Chargers run the yankee concept. They use motion presnap to let rookie quarterback Justin Herbert know the coverage in the secondary. Even though the New Orleans Saints try to make that exchange downfield, Herbert still is able to hit the post route. Make sure the volume is up for this video breakdown:

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Anatomy of a play: Justin Herbert working the Yankee concept against the Saints - Touchdown Wire

Anatomy

"Anatomy of a Death Flare" –Violent Blast of Light from a Star Devoured by a Supermassive Black Hole – The Daily Galaxy –Great Discoveries…

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 in Science

The idea of a black hole sucking in a nearby star sounds like science fiction. But this is exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event, says Matt Nicholl, a lecturer and Royal Astronomical Society research fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK, about at a new flash of light captured by the ESOs Very Large Telescope and ESOs New Technology Telescope that occurred last year close to a supermassive black hole.

When a star is devoured by these spacetime monsters they create a tidal disruption event, hot, bright flares generated in the centers of galaxies as an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and gets shredded in whats known as spaghettification as its sucked in by the black hole in this case creating the closest such flare ever recorded at just over 215 million light-years from Earth.

Black Holes Infinitesimal Dot

Supermassive black holes teach us, wrote Princetons great quantum physicist, John Archibald Wheeler in his autobiography, Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam, that space can be crumpled like a piece of paper into an infinitesimal dot, that time can be extinguished like a blown-out flame, and that the laws of physics that we regard as sacred, as immutable, are anything but.

Death Throes A Bright Flare of Energy Released

When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material burst of light, which is often obscured by a curtain of dust and debris, explains Thomas Wevers, an ESO Fellow in Santiago, Chile, who was at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK, when he conducted the work. As some of the thin strands of stellar material fall into the black hole during this spaghettification process, a bright flare of energy is released, which astronomers can detect.

We found that, when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards that obstructs our view, explains Samantha Oates, also at the University of Birmingham. This happens because the energy released as the black hole eats up stellar material propels the stars debris outwards.

Tidal Disruption Observed Over 6 Months

The discovery was possible because of the tidal disruption event the team studied over a 6-month period, AT2019qiz, located in a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Eridanus. As the flare grew in luminosity and then faded away just a short time after the star was ripped apart. Several sky surveys discovered emission from the new tidal disruption event very quickly after the star was ripped apart, says Wevers. We immediately pointed a suite of ground-based and space telescopes in that direction to see how the light was produced.

Unique Peek Behind the Curtain

Because we caught it early, we could actually see the curtain of dust and debris being drawn up as the black hole launched a powerful outflow of material with velocities up to 10,000 km/s, says Kate Alexander, NASA Einstein Fellow at Northwestern University in the US. This unique peek behind the curtain provided the first opportunity to pinpoint the origin of the obscuring material and follow in real time how it engulfs the black hole.

Ultraviolet, Optical, X-ray and Radio Light

The prompt and extensive observations in ultraviolet, optical, X-ray and radio light using facilities that included X-shooter and EFOSC2, powerful instruments on ESOs VLT and ESOs New Technology Telescope (NTT), which are situated in Chile. revealed, for the first time, a direct connection between the material flowing out from the star and the bright flare emitted as it is devoured by the black hole.

The observations showed that the star had roughly the same mass as our own Sun, and that it lost about half of that to the monster black hole, which is over a million times more massive, says Nicholl, lead author of the new study who is also a visiting researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

The team reports that AT2019qiz could even act as a Rosetta stone for interpreting future observations of tidal disruption events. ESOs Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), planned to start operating this decade, will enable researchers to detect increasingly fainter and faster evolving tidal disruption events, to solve further mysteries of black hole physics.

Source: An outflow powers the optical rise of the nearby, fast-evolving tidal disruption event AT2019qiz to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa2824).

The Daily Galaxy, Max Goldberg, via ESO and New York Times

Image credit top of page: ESO/M. Kornmesser

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"Anatomy of a Death Flare" --Violent Blast of Light from a Star Devoured by a Supermassive Black Hole - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries...

Anatomy

Anatomy of a Breast Cancer Survivor: ‘I Preserved My Eggs Before Chemotherapy’ – Essence

Let me get this straight. Youre telling me I have a cancerous tumor in my right breast and my chances of having children naturally are slim to none? Got it.

A breast cancer diagnosis is overwhelming. How will my body react? What will happen? What does this mean for my life? And, for women, like me, in their childbearing years, learning about potential fertility challenges elevated the experience to the next, incomprehensible level.

How many times can I type chile? Because, chile.

Its an extremely difficult process, and everything happened at rapid speed. Diagnosed on a Friday, I found myself in my hometown of Houston less than 2 weeks later greeted by a steady stream of back-to-back doctors appointments. I just wanted to scream. It was emotionally draining.

During my initial consultation with Dr. Jamie Terry, the captain of the medical ship and breast surgeon, she discussed how my life would drastically change, then presented a plan of action. She was adamant about honoring my desire to become a mother and referred me to a fertility specialist.

Within days, I met Dr. S. Kemi Nurudeen of the Houston Fertility Institute, whose work includes consulting patients with medical conditions including breast cancer. She recommended I proceed with egg preservation as soon as possible before I commenced an aggressive chemotherapy regimen.

I was too numb and in shock to think that far ahead to the future, while trying to carefully process the present. I put motherhood on the back burner while I focused on my media career, and breast cancer forced me to readjust my priorities. I was so angry at myself for not preserving my eggs sooner and giving them a fair chance. I sunk into sadness for a few days, but honestly couldnt linger there too long because I had to power through the egg retrieval process and start a medicinal journey that would remove the toxins from my right breast.

Our job is to get you started as soon as possible, said Nurudeen of her professional approach. We offer the best, personalized counsel about potential outcomes and want our patients to know the process can happen quickly.

It would indeed be the fastest rollercoaster ride ever.

My mom Ivy, a retired school administrator, quickly transitioned into an at-home nurse. She carefully mixed and prepped vials of medicine like a mad scientist, and injected me with hormones that would stimulate egg follicles.Within a weeks time (my body responded to the medicine super fast), I was rolled into an operating room for egg retrieval.

I have a much deeper appreciation for and understanding about the process of bringing a healthy life into this world. Every womans body is different. Every womans journey to motherhood is unique.

My paternal cousin, Shamekka Lewis, 45, who also carries the BRCA 1 gene mutation, was diagnosed with stage 2 triple-negative breast cancer at the age of 29. She was pregnant with her third daughter. Pregnant!

I felt a lump, but never thought it was cancer. I went for an appointment with my ob/gyn, and she ordered a series of tests, Shamekka recalls. I declared life and victory right then, and put my trust in Him.

The soon-to-be mother of three was able to safely undergo four rounds of chemo treatment, deliver her baby girl, then proceed with four more rounds.

I feel like I was robbed of having more children, she said. I still struggle with that today. Despite me having three, I wanted more. My husband and I desired to have a boy, but I knew for my own health, I had to draw the line somewhere.

Weeks later, she underwent a double mastectomy; six weeks after that, a hysterectomy. All of this by the age of 30.

Sis, I encourage you to take your fertility seriously because you never know what curveballs life will throw you.

Your clock is ticking

If youre single or wed, you dont want to miss your window of opportunity to preserve your fertility. Research your options. Think about it like this freezing your eggs buys you time to plan with your spouse or partner, focus on your career, travel the world without worrying about a specific timeline to naturally procreate. The sooner you do it, the better, because, yes, your biological clock does tick. And, a breast cancer diagnosis makes the clock tick faster.

Know your number

After scheduling your mammogram (yass!), schedule an appointment at a fertility clinic to determine your Anti-Mllerian hormone (AMH) level. The AMH level is a good reflection of your ovarian reserve and egg count. Its a predictor of how many eggs you can produce and retrieve.

A high AMH level is good; a low AMH level indicates a diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). I have the latter. Fifteen rounds of chemo sucker-punched my ovaries and their function is nonexistent. Theyre no good, so theyre going buh-bye. Im scheduled for a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy removal of both ovaries and fallopian tubes as a preventative procedure to reduce my risk of ovarian cancer. Drs. Terry and Nurudeen were on point. Im so glad I preserved my eggs!

Get your coins together

Whew, Chile. It isnt cheap. While some health insurance providers cover doctors visits and labs, the actual IVF (in-vitro fertilization) process requires a significant financial investment.

The process includes two parts: 1) egg retrieval and freezing and 2) egg thawing, fertilization and implantation. In total, one round of this process can cost, on average, an estimated $20,000. These costs dont include the medication nor genetic embryo testing.

I know the cost of the process can be intimidating. Patients should realize there are a lot of support resources. Well help guide you, Nurudeen affirmed.

Women make it their mission to fundraise for other women. There are grants available nationwide. Fertility clinics offer in-house financing, and there are programs exclusively for women undergoing chemotherapy. I was especially grateful for the Livestrong fertility program that provided a discounted rate for fertility services. Youll also want to talk to your health insurance company about any possible coverage or reimbursement. Because of my breast cancer diagnosis, I submitted an appeal to the insurance company for reimbursement and it was approved. A blessing!

Greenlight

After youve done your homework, do the research, make a plan and take action. Youve got this and youre not alone. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to support a childs mother.

I leaned on my faith during this phase of my journey. If youre a believer, you know that your chances of getting pregnant and carrying a baby to full-term are ultimately in Gods hands. Lets meditate on Gods promise for us in Jeremiah 29:11 in which He says, For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope for a future.

As women, our bodies, our temples are incredible. They work wonders. Im truly amazed at the miraculous things they do and how they can surTHRIVE anything.

Lyndsay Levingston Christian is a multimedia talent, host and adjunct professor based in Houston, Texas. Follow her journey via @lynzchristiantv and join the movement @Sur_Thriver

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Anatomy of a Breast Cancer Survivor: 'I Preserved My Eggs Before Chemotherapy' - Essence

Anatomy

Beyond the Box Score: Anatomy of an Upset – Rock M Nation

Missouri came into the game as 14.5-point underdogs and left as 4-point victors. At no point in the week leading up to the game did any of us here at Rock M, myself included, think that Missouri would pull off the upset but I did lay out a blueprint on how it could be done. I want to dive deeper into the actual keys that won the day but, first, I want to go over the keys that I laid out.

In keeping with the format, lets take a quick look at the advanced box score first:

Im going to dive into this a lot as we go through this piece but, until then, here it is in full form. Its...just...beautiful.

Lets revisit my keys for the game:

Missouri hadnt been the most explosive offense while playing Alabama and Tennessee; in that vein I thought it would be a huge sign of improvement - and an indicator of Mizzous ability to hang with LSU - if the passing game was able to generate at least 4 explosive plays.

The offense did, indeed, produced four explosive plays through the air and added two explosive runs for good measure:

I cant remember the last time Mizzou fans had seen so many big plays from the good guys. More of that, please.

Winner: Missouri

Larry Rountree III has been both efficient (against Bama) and explosive (against Tennessee) this year but I postured that the success of the running game would be mostly on the Tiger offensive line. I thought that, If the offensive line is able to create four-yard opportunities 40% of the time, then the Tigers were getting enough opportunities to hold possession and keep LSUs offense on the sideline.

Um...Missouris offensive line created 4-yards for Tiger backs...*cough*...on 63.3% of rushes.

For reference: the last time Missouris opportunity rate was over even 50% was against Ole Miss last year when the line opened up 4-yard holes 55% of the time. And that was against a piss-poor Rebel defense.

LSUs defense might be actually bad but hitting a 63% opportunity rate is absurd, regardless of opponent quality. Bobby Lawrence/Zeke Powell, Xavier Delgado, Michael Maietti, Case Cook, and Larry Borom had themselves a mother forking day.

Winner: Missouri

I was hoping for 5 scoring opportunities with 4.8 points per opportunity which would have lead to 24 points.

The Tigers created 8 scoring opportunities and averaged 5.6 points per visit. Hell yes.

Winner: Missouri

Two goals for this category: I needed to see LSU give up 2 sacks and have a blitz downs success rate under 20%. What happened?

LSU gave up 2 sacks and went 1 for 8 on blitz downs, which comes out to 12.5% success rate. Boom.

Winner: Missouri

I humbly suggested Missouri keeps LSUs third down percentage under 48% and generate 15 passing downs with less than 30% success rate to even have a chance of winning.

LSU went 0-10 on third down. Lmao.

And in case you were wondering, LSUs success rate in passing down was 6 for 19, 31.5%. Thats pretty dang close so Im counting it!

Winner: Missouri

In addition to the keys above, here are some other isolated things that keyed the upset win on Saturday:

Success Rate per quarter looks at the percentage of successful plays an offense has in a given quarter. It gives you a good idea of the flow of the game and how well each side was moving the ball.

These were the four best quarters the Missouri offense but together all season. By far. The best quarterly success rate they were able to scrap together before this game was 56% in the 4th quarter against Alabama...that was mostly helmed by Connor Bazelak.

LSUs second quarter was a disaster in regards to moving the ball but gained an easy 10 points thanks to untimely Missouri turnovers. And while quarters 3 and 4 saw them recover a little bit, most of their yards were empty and unable to keep up with the chains. The only issue is that LSU had godly starting field position which let them hang around.

I mentioned 3rd downs specifically in my preview but...seriously: if a team never converts a 3rd-down it is really hard for that team to win a game. The average LSU down and distance was 3rd-and-9, an incredible average considering they also averaged 7.6 yards on first down. What gives? Well...about half of their first down plays were incomplete passes or stuffed runs, the other half were 8/10/17/28-yard passing plays. So while the average finished relatively high the majority of their 1st-down plays went nowhere.

For Missouri, heres an incredible stat: Missouri averaged 9.4 yards per 1st-down play and only had zero or negative yardage on two first down plays. So, unlike LSU, it was a legit 9.4-yard average. That meant that the Good Guy Tigers were converting early and getting multi-play drives going to at least move the ball and keep the LSU offense on the sideline.

Myles Brennan attempted 48 passes with two sacks which meant LSU had 50 pass plays. Brennan had a 60.4% completion rate but a 45.8% success rate. That means that, while his receivers caught the ball 60% of the time, they were only getting enough yards to keep up with down and distance 45% of the time. That equates to a lot of meaningless yardage and wasted plays.

Connor Bazelak attempted 34 passes with one sack which meant Missouri had 35 pass plays. Bazelak had a 85.3% completion rate and 62.8% success rate. Yes, thats incredibly difficult to do. And yes, LSUs secondary is stinky bad BUT, as BK pointed out last week, if Missouri receivers didnt drop so many dang balls in the Tennessee game Bazelak would have had an 81% completion rate against the Volunteers so, clearly, the kid can do that against excellent defenses as well.

Also, Bazelak had more passes go for 20+ yards (6) than incompletions (5). Lol.

With most of its starters out and the depth perilously thin, Missouris defensive line completely negated any hope of an LSU running game. And, yes, LSU is now more of an spread-ish air-raid team than the Les-Miles-smashy-smash offenses of yore, but when they needed to get yards on the ground the LSU offensive line was crumpled backwards and their running backs had no where to go. Oh, and the blocked field goal was generated by Missouris d-line AND that whole goal line stand that saved the game. Tip of the cap to the outgunned, outmanned Missouri defensive front.

This is less of a concern and more of an observation of a trend: Larry Rountree III only runs on 1st down.

So far this season Rountree has run the ball 50 times. 27 of those runs have come on 1st-down. Again, Im not saying its a bad thing, per se, but if I can figure that out after watching these games four times a piece so I guarantee a hungry GA grinding for a position coach spot will figure this out on Hour-23 of watching Missouri film.

Missouri fumbled the ball five times and lost three of them. Missouri also defensed 9 passes and got zero interceptions.

Turnovers are luck based - regardless of what some coaches might tell you - and Missouri continues to be one of the worst turnover-lucky teams in the world. In three games there have been nine fumbles and the Tigers have recovered three of them (teams usually recover 50% of fumbles); likewise, they have defensed 15 passes and picked off none of them; teams typically pick off about 20% of passes that are defensed meaning they should have three interceptions by now. Hmm.

LSU had more possessions, ran more plays, had more scoring opportunities, had a +16 yard advantage in starting field position, were +3 in turnover margin...and lost. They lost because they couldnt convert a 3rd-down, couldnt run the ball, and had terrible success rates, Oh, and their secondary did not know what they were doing at any given point.

It takes a lot of skill and luck to upset a team that is a 14.5-point favorite, and this exact opportunity - ranked defending national champion that is actually kind of bad but no one knows it yet - will rarely present itself again. But Missouri made the most of its opportunities, played out of its skulls, and ended the day with a statement win. Football can be fun!

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Beyond the Box Score: Anatomy of an Upset - Rock M Nation

Anatomy

Why Having Watched All 16 Seasons of Grey’s Anatomy Makes Me More of a Doctor Than Yale Pre-Meds – Yale Daily News

Dora Guo

Last week, I was nestled in the depths of Bass Library doing work, by which I mean eating Peanut M&Ms and figuring out which readings for the next mornings class I could get away with not doing. Around the corner, I heard a conversation between some students complaining about the workload for their chemistry class. I was a bit bothered by their volume but it wasnt until one of them said that the pre-med track is killer, I shouldve just settled with watching a little Greys Anatomy and done a different major that I became alarmed. Settled? For Greys Anatomy?

I realized at that moment that Yale pre-meds feelings of superiority over medical drama audiences had gone too far, so I instigated the following correspondence:

***

Dear Yale Pre-meds:

I feel comfortable calling myself a doctor. I know the steps to an appendectomy (or an appy, as doctors like me say), I know the proper locations for scalpel incision, I can find the aorta, I can insert a chest tube. Ive learned to work under pressure, to keep my hands steady and to stay standing for 10 hours straight. Im not just a doctor Im a good one.

I say this not because Im on the pre-med track like you all, but because Ive watched 16 seasons of Greys Anatomy, which I will argue is probably more important. I know you are all likely busy studying for your organic chemistry midterm, so Ill try to keep this brief.

Greys begins after each protagonist has completed medical school and is ready to start their surgical residency at Seattle Grace Hospital. Just through watching the first few seasons of the show, I was able to experience the internship (first year of residency) experience first-hand. I was there when George OMalley held a heart in a broken-down elevator, and when Meredith Grey held her hand in a mans chest so that a bomb wouldnt detonate typical residency things. I felt their all-nighters, their stress and their competition.

I hate to break it to you all and I know that this can be an uncomfortable conversation to have but you are all simply college students. You may have fantasies in your head about being chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Johns Hopkins, but your doctor life at this point consists of memorizing names of proteins and polyatomic ions in your bedroom as you watch that biochem lecture you didnt attend two weeks ago.

I know that youre learning a lot about the human body in your classes, but you havent been in the field like I have. Season 17 premieres on Nov. 12. Hop on, or risk falling behind.

Love,

Owen

***

Dear Owen,

We arent completely sure why you decided to write us a letter, and were even less sure as to why were responding to you. Not only do we consider you to be a threat should you ever be around someone in need of medical help (please call 911, Owen), but Greys Anatomy is also riddled with medical inaccuracies and exists almost purely as a drama, not a source of education. You have no clue how to perform an appendectomy.

On a more personal note, Greys is just not a good show. All the main characters are, quite frankly, annoying, and the plot arc gets repetitive. Find a better show, please.

With warm regards,

Yale Pre-meds

***

Hey fools!

I hope your orgo midterm went ok, although Im guessing it didnt, considering a happy person wouldnt write such a passive aggressive letter or is that just your pre-med personality? Anyway.

The Shonda Rhimes masterpiece that is Greys Anatomy has only lasted over 15 years because there is such a high demand for it if it wasnt popular, how could it be Americas longest-running medical drama? How could it rake in 39 Emmy nominations? So, lets unpack your distaste for the show; do you dislike it because its popular? Are you quirky, and adamant that the shows you watch be different than the mainstream? Im sorry you feel that way. Youre missing out.

Sure, some of the characters are annoying. But Cristina Yang youre going to insult Sandra Oh like that? Alex Karev may start the show off as a jerk, but over the course of 16 seasons he gradually grows into a sweet, empathetic division chief. Not sure about you all, but to me, that is an excellent plot arc.

In terms of me being a threat who are you to say that? Lets compare how we would each react to a dangerous situation. If the patient codes and requires CPR, you will do one of the following: recite a bunch of jargon and definitions you had to memorize for your chem final, email your professor for help or simply freeze. You havent experienced the time pressure required to react to these situations the way I have (as a reminder, Ive gone through Season 9, so I can handle it).

Is the show not always 100 percent accurate? Sure. But the average for all of your last bio exam was what, a 65? There are no curves in the real world, sweetheart. I can promise you that the show is far more accurate than you are.

Screw your warm regards.

Xoxo,

Owen

***

Dear Owen,

Nice to hear from you again. Your situation is no longer of interest to us.

Having binged a medical drama does not make you a doctor.

Have a wonderful day,

Yale Pre-meds

***

Hey nerds,

I appreciate your thoughtful reply, although it actually wasnt thoughtful at all. I have some reminders for you all before you enter the world of medicine, because Id hate for you to fuck it up:

Being a doctor requires the ability to build strong relationships with patients. As a Greys fan, Ive seen Meredith get to know her patients so well she could likely recite to me their whole life story, and Ive seen Alex create environments of rich mutual trust between him and the kids in the pediatrics wing. Ive spent years watching these friendships unfold, to the point that I know Id be able to cultivate similar ones. I am sympathetic and kind if I were your doctor, I would make you feel at home.

You all, on the other hand, are a different story. As a patient of the Yale pre-med email service, I do not feel at home. I feel rejected and I feel looked down upon. You have not proved yourselves as warm-hearted doctors. In the words of Chief Webber in Season 1, This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play? Thats up to you.

How are you going to play?

I realize there might be an inclination on your part to reach back out to me for advice I know you all want to be better doctors. But, despite my talent as a mentor, I cannot do that for you. To quote my favorite character on the show, Stephanie Edwards, Deal with your jealousy. Deal with your shortcomings. Dont put your crap on me.

With that, you are on your own.

Best of luck,

Owen

***

Hello:

This is an automated response from Yale Pre-meds. Your request cannot be processed at this time, because you have been placed on a blocked email list. Please contact the Yale Office of Pre-med Services for more information.

Best,

Yale Pre-meds

Owen Tucker-Smith | owen.tucker-smith@yale.edu

The rest is here:
Why Having Watched All 16 Seasons of Grey's Anatomy Makes Me More of a Doctor Than Yale Pre-Meds - Yale Daily News