Human Behavior

Maybe the Coronavirus is the Hard Reset the Human Race Needed – BrownGirlMag

4 min read

On day one of my kids Corona-break from school, I noticed a take-out delivery guy wearing asurgical mask stepping out of the elevator in our building. He gave me a little nod before hecasually extended his arm towards the wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser that had magicallyappeared overnight. After that quick exchange, a thought ran through my head: We are all in thistogether.

Isnt it funny (well, maybe not funny, but ironic, tragic, and poignant) that a tiny virus that is invisible to the naked eye has affected everyone around the world? From the rich to the poor; the Easterner to the Westerner; the take-out delivery guy to the stay at home mom. COVID-19 doesnt care about who you are, what the color of your skin is, who you love, or who you pray to. It affects all of us because a virus is indiscriminate. It humbly reminds us that on the inside we are all blood, tissue, and bone.

When the virus first started to spread in China early this year there were warnings that it may reach pandemic status. But why did the United States and some other countries take the threat so lightly? As someone with a background in biology, I was taught that many infectious strains, whether bacterial, viral or fungal, follow a similar trajectory. It can exponentially travel from person to person, vector to vector, and may evolve to survive. Every year there are new strains that usually present in the general population with symptoms similar to the common cold. Some are more virulent than others, lingering for weeks, and though they typically arent life-threatening, they do become awkward annoyances. People will still go to work and find themselves saying to colleagues, I have no idea where this nasty bug came from!

As we now know, COVID-19 is highly transmissible and can become fatal if pneumonia develops, especially in those with pre-existing health conditions. Though deaths have occurred in a small percentage of younger patients, it has been touted as a disease more serious in the elderly.

Maybe thats how the novel coronavirus was able to slip with little fanfare and bring countries to a staggering halt and national economies to its knees. In a matter of days, it has altered our way of life in ways that our generation has never seen before. It has bound us together with the closings of businesses, public spaces, gyms, and schools. With social distancing, our lives have moved even more online than they were before. We are seeing celebrities give concerts on Instagram, and yogis stream their classes online. Teachers all around the world are testing out remote learning for the first time, which makes me wonder, will this become the norm? And will my kids grow up in a world without snow days?

The most remarkable thing to me is that the virus has revealed a side of humanity that we drastically needed. Its not an exaggeration to say that as of late the world and society, in general, has had a lot of problems. An example and one of the most pressing concerns is climate change. In a short time, the quarantines and the slowing down of human behavior have reduced the amount of pollution over China and cleared up the waters of Venice. With a reduction in travel, shopping, and traffic, what other changes await Mother Earth?

In a short time, many of us have altered our lives, proving that collectively changing our behavior is possible if our lives and the lives of our families depend on it. And we can do it relatively quickly. Not after years of public service announcements that tell us how bad smoking is or that seat belts save lives. It can happen rapidly, aided when governments can relay strong messaging and say, Theres a threat, and I know it sounds drastic, but its for the good of your parents, grandparents and your fellow man.

Maybe as people sit in their homes, socially distancing themselves from each other they may realize that we do need some government involvement to safeguard our health and welfare. That access to healthcare is a basic human right, and that a preexisting condition shouldnt be a death sentence. That education is important, teachers should be valued, and paid adequately. That the general public needs to understand that medicine is not an exact science and that there is rarely a magic bullet. A disease is not obligated to abide by a textbook scenario, though we naively expect it to. Of course, we also need to focus on education to nurture young minds to help us find cures for other viruses down the line.

Like with any tragedy, there will be unnecessary loss of life. Personal stories have already been shared, and its unfortunately just beginning. For me, it will be a trying time because I have a husband who works in the emergency room, a brother who works in an ICU, and another brother who is a primary care physician. On the flip side, there will be stories of kindness, happiness, and the ever-elusive hope.

But I am confident that one day soon we will emerge from our homes stronger than we were before. How will we be different? Will we go back to having every minute of our life scheduled? Or will we continue to check in on our neighbors and loved ones? Will we teach our children there is no app for empathy, and that more problems can be solved by looking out for one another rather than chasing materialism? Maybe we needed to be reminded that the elderly neighbor, the nurse working the night shift, or the immigrant who just arrived from a war-torn country needs to be taken care of too for all of us to be taken care of. That no one is immune to hard times and that compassion is at the heart of survival.

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Maybe the Coronavirus is the Hard Reset the Human Race Needed - BrownGirlMag

Human Behavior

Five Best Practices Security Leaders Should Implement Now To Fend Off Threat Actors – Forbes

Last week, Sequoia Capital penned an article about weathering a business downturn that went viral as fears around the global pandemic extended to every corner of the world. It talked about how, in some ways, business mirrors biology and quoted Darwin on who will survive as "not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change."

This really resonated, as we fully subscribe to the notion that flexibility and adaptability are instrumental in our ability to thrive as individuals, as teams and as organizations. Today, this becomes more important than ever before particularly for security teams as businesses pivot toward all things digital in order to take recommended safety precautions in the face of crisis.

With much of the world's workforce mandated to work from home, it is imperative that security leaders take a step back from ordinary operations and focus their time and attention on taking the appropriate steps to guard against malicious or thrill-seeking threat actors, such as the fake coronavirus maps used to spread malware or fake text message "alerts" claiming to sell CDC-approved remedies to symptoms.

Here are five best practices our own team and some of our customers are implementing today that can help keep your organization as safe as possible during a time in which everyone is more susceptible to hackers.

1. Ruthlessly prioritize real security measures, and ditch security theater.

Security leaders have several competing priorities, from meeting existing regulations to moving your IT stack to the cloud to finding the right talent amid the most acute cybersecurity skills shortage we've ever faced. Use this as an opportunity to be brutally honest about which programs will have the highest impact and which ones can be classified as security theater countermeasures that provide a feeling of improved security and "check the box" but in reality do very little (if anything) to increase security. Focus on initiatives to form a solid foundation, such as creating a bulletproof incident response plan. Cut or table projects that aren't absolutely necessary to your security operations right now.

2. Brace for insider threats.

When it comes to cybersecurity, our minds are quick to jump to external threats we might be prone to. However, threats exist internally as well. If your company is in an industry where layoffs are either anticipated or inevitable, prepare to mobilize against internal threat actors who might act out. Implement data loss prevention solutions, and ensure you have relevant guardrails in place, such as logging and monitoring. Focus on a few specific use cases where you can intercept known risk, and amp up your security monitoring and incident response accordingly.

3. Bring social engineering to the forefront of internal conversation.

Social engineering uses fear and urgency to deceive victims into taking action. While some cybersecurity attacks exploit technical vulnerabilities in software, others exploit psychological vulnerabilities in human behavior, which is particularly relevant as people cope with higher-than-usual levels of mental stress.

Increase awareness around social engineering simply by starting the conversation and underscoring the importance of adhering to safe practices at home. For those who have not kept security top of mind, now is the time for them to start. It's your role to engage as many members of your workforce as possible to reduce overall risk. Warn of malicious links and provide validated resources for employees to check for updates. When in doubt, make sure your customers and employees know that if they see something suspicious, they can (and should) ask you about it, and provide a process and forum for communicating these concerns.

4. Develop contingency plans for mission-critical, third-party services.

You can only control what goes on in your own organization (to an extent). So what happens if the vendors you rely on get hacked, experience a breach or become unavailable? Take inventory of the services that your business operations would be severely impacted by losing access to. Reach out to vendors on that list, and, in partnership with those teams, create contingency plans that you can quickly adopt to minimize the impact internally.

5. Cement your seat at the table.

CISOs have been edging their way toward having a seat next to the CEO and CFO, but it's still not standard across organizations. As a security leader, you must be privy to what is happening at the highest level because business operations are changing daily if not hourly in the midst of this pandemic. Without staying abreast of how things are evolving at the organizational level, it becomes difficult at best and impossible at worst to align your security strategy with the overall business strategy. Now is the time to educate the C-suite around the changes to the threat landscape, the value of cybersecurity in identifying and mitigating risk, and short-term to midterm plans to weather the storm.

As security leaders, managing risk and operating under uncertainty is core to our roles. This is our opportunity to lead the way for others who are trying to figure out how to do the same right now. None of us can be sure how long this situation will last, but one thing is certain: We must do everything in our power to mitigate the risks that internal and external threat actors pose in order to protect our organizations.

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Five Best Practices Security Leaders Should Implement Now To Fend Off Threat Actors - Forbes

Human Behavior

Tell us your favorite NBA team and well give you a book to read – SB Nation

You, me, and everyone we both know have more spare time indoors than ever before. Isolation (hopefully) equals safety, but its also stressful, monotonous, and, when endured without any outlet to temporarily slink away from long days that feel like bad dreams, alarmingly passive.

The NBA would be said outlet for millions of people during a time as difficult as the one were in, however its currently out of commission. But books escapisms undefeated No. 1 draft pick remain as accessible and welcome as ever. As a way to connect the two, Ive decided to recommend one (that Ive read in the last 18 months) to every fanbase in the league.

Several of these selections were obvious and explicit, tied to geography or stereotypes. Some remind me of a team owner or playing style or current trajectory. Some remind me of a mood or vibe I associate with the team for reasons that are impossible to articulate. If that sounds ridiculous, well, it is! Never forget how unscientific this exercise is.

Recommending literally anything to an amorphous collection of individuals who happen to root for the same NBA team is not possible. People have different tastes. The books listed here cross genres, from science fiction short stories to self-help memoirs. All wont be for everybody, but I dont regret the time I spent with any of them.

Im ashamed to admit I didnt know this book existed until I semi-recently saw it tucked in the back of a used bookstore. I grabbed it off the shelf and noticed Whiteheads signature on the inside jacket. Despite several dog ears and fading cover art, it cost $45. A smidge too expensive for my blood, even if the authors prose makes almost any other look like a condo compared to the Taj Mahal. A few days later I walked to the Carroll Gardens public library and checked it out.

Within the first three pages I realized this book was not for me. I dont get poker, which is not what Noble Hustle is necessarily about, even if besides Whiteheads overt antipathy for everything he chooses to meditate on (most notably self-doubt) its the closest thing it has to a backbone. Theres no structure, which is fine. Instead, it rambles from depressing Atlantic City bus rides to depressing Las Vegas casino floors to the mind of a man who might be depressed.

I couldnt help but feel pessimistic navigating a world that is literally one endless crap shoot, but 1) the book is not without fits of piercing insight (I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside), and 2) depending on what type of mood youre in (i.e. maybe after 200 straight days without seeing the sun) reading it can actually be kind of soothing?

Absolutely nothing written above or in the book has anything to do with the Atlanta Hawks. But someday someone will appreciate that $45 price tag. Which is to say: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, whether its a morose memoir about gambling or Travis Schlenks polarizing ground-floor rebuild of a basketball team.

Put in different, simpler terms, this book suits anyone whose favorite team regularly makes them want to cry, which doesnt not apply to anyone who is emotionally invested in Trae Youngs defensive ceiling.

For whatever reason I tend to struggle with essay collections. Maybe its my shrinking attention span, and how if I dont let one narrative carry me from beginning to end the reading process tends to feel like a crawl through rush-hour traffic.

Trick Mirror the most satisfying and relatable collection of essays Ive ever read was like that but for the exact opposite reason. After I finished each chapter, my brain played tug of war: Should I continue on or save the rest for as long as I possibly can? Sometimes she crawled into my head and untangled a knotty thought I had never been able to clearly make sense of: Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we were now chained to ourselves online, and this made us self-conscious. Platforms that promised connection began inducing mass alienation.

Before Trick Mirror, Tolentino was already my favorite writer on the internet meaning what she mostly covers and the primary home for her work and, to make a ludicrous analogy for the purpose of this column, in terms of age, promise, and sheer talent, she is to American literature what Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (combined) are to the NBA.

Not everyone can identify with this books unnamed protagonist a nihilistic orphan who muffles her misery with dubiously-prescribed medication but many would be consoled by her lifestyle. (Money isnt an issue, day-to-day responsibilities dont exist, and VHS tapes of old movies are her best friend. Things could be worse!)

The stakes in this novel which is very funny despite everything written about it here are pretty much non-existent because the present is communicated from the perspective of a wannabe coma patient. One day bleeds into the next, which bleeds into the next, which bleeds into the next. Her life is one rolling blackout.

This stasis is obviously unhealthy, but someone whose favorite basketball team recently signed one of the 15 best players who ever lived just a few months after he tore his Achilles tendon might not mind it.

I was reading this on a plane when the flight attendant stopped to take drink orders for my row. She recognized the colorful book jacket, crinkled her nose, then asked how I liked it. I tilted my head and shrugged. She chuckled and passed me a ginger ale. That one lost me.

The confidence game the con is an exercise in soft skills. Trust, sympathy, persuasion. The true con artist doesnt force us to do anything; he makes us complicit in our own undoing. He doesnt steal. We give We believe because we want to, not because anyone made us. And so we offer up whatever they want money, reputation, trust, fame, legitimacy, support and we dont realize what is happening until it is too late.

Few books will teach you more about human behavior. So long, GarPax, and shout out to every Bulls fan who is finally out from under their thumb.

You know when you feel terrible about something but cant cry? Instead, your stomach ties itself in a loop and your face clenches into the shape of emotional exhaustion? That was me during the last 50 pages of this novel, a soul-shattering foredoomed journey about the impossible choices made with our heart instead of our brain (and vice versa). To every Cavaliers fan floating through an ocean of basketball misery, it made me think of you.

I did not write these recommendations in order, and also could not for the life of me link any books Id recently read with the Mavericks. The closest was Judas, a candid jaw-dropper that turned the volume of my own heartbeat up to 1000. I bought it in Amsterdam earlier this year, then carried it around the city, stealing pages on department store couches and in hotel lobbies while my wife shopped with her sister.

If youre wondering why Ive connected the story of a woman who testifies against her homicidal brother to Dallas, a few months ago, as the national anthem played before Kristaps Porzingis very first game back at Madison Square Garden, a couple fans near press row shouted Judas! and Traitor! multiple times. (I realize that this says more about the Knicks than the Mavs, but lets jus go with it.)

I adore this story, even if its almost impossible to describe. Its a 300-plus page series of hilarious jump cuts that, by the end, are nothing short of a miracle. You know what else is a miracle? Nikola Jokic: franchise tentpole, top 10 player, and wholly unique NBA superstar. So little about the Nuggets and Frankissstein makes sense, but both work for that very reason.

For a fanbase thats living through prolonged dark days with a past to be proud of, heres a book about memory as in: cherish the good ones, because zero lie in the pipeline.

Does this queasy insider account of an ostensibly progressive utopia run by an endless stream of megalomaniacs have anything to do with the revolutionary basketball dynasty that happened to ascend right across the bay?

Not quite, even if one could argue that the Warriors eventually collapsed under the weight of their own hubris. Weiners first-person account of life in Silicon Valley hones in on morally-suspect data collection, oblivious misogyny, and unchecked ego. We talked about our IPO like it was dues ex machina coming down from high to save us.

To associate that mindset with the Warriors borders on parody. Unless Golden States strength-in-numbers rallying cry ever made you scream into a pillow.

If theres one continuous temperament that runs through the Rockets, from diehard fan to franchise player, its unappreciation. Much of it is valid. Most who dont root for Houston either begrudgingly accept James Hardens offensive virtuosity or aggressively shine light on his blind spots. Same deal for Daryl Moreys approach to team building or Mike DAntonis coaching style.

Now, Scorsese is not the perfect analog here partly thanks to the different scales on which a director and members of a basketball team can be weighed but he has been overlooked by critics and paying customers just the same. (In her review of Goodfellas, legendary New Yorker film critic Pauline Karl wrote: Is it a great movie? I dont think so.)

This isnt to suggest both Scorsese and the Rockets wont be celebrated until theyre gone. The former is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most influential directors alive, while Harden has an MVP, DAntoni has two Coach of the Year awards, and no single human being receives more credit for the NBAs analytical revolution than Morey. But all will be revered differently after their collective bodies of work are complete and in the case of Scorsese, hes already lived long enough to appreciate the bend in his own narrative arc.

The career of a player, coach, or general manager is never long enough to evolve the same way, but the perception of their impact can, and almost definitely will.

This slim, intense novel begs to be consumed in one sitting. The only break I took after I started it was getting off the couch to tip a pizza delivery person. There might not be a more efficient way to kill three hours. My Sister, the Serial Killer knows exactly what it is; no words are wasted or in the wrong order.

This is how I feel whenever I watch the Pacers. Theyre confident with their own structure and how they play, even if its so different from almost every other team. There are no excuses. They hunt for the shots they want, defend the post how they want, and play the lineups they want. I personally dont agree with most of their choices, but theres no arguing with the consistent results that come from them.

Every sports fan, athlete, and human being who exists inside a physical body should consider reading this. Success for any team requires luck in the health department, but arguably none of them need it quite like the Clippers. Their long-term future was recently exchanged for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, two injury-prone superstars who will be 29 and 30 years old, respectively, the next time they play in an NBA game. They can also opt out of their contracts next summer. In other words: Let that Epsom salt flow.

When I alluded in the intro to some of these choices maybe being a bit on the nose, this is what I was referring to. The Lakers are Hollywood; Hollywood is movies. But even more important than that: When I first noticed an entire chapter in this book called Do you wanna read an essay about Friday? I knew it was my new bible. Go buy Sheas book if for whatever reason you have not already.

This book piqued my interest for two reasons: 1) Arrival was a beautiful movie, and 2) Barack Obama blurbed it. In her review, Voxs Constance Grady described Chiangs writing as a particularly utopian episode of Black Mirror. Sold!

Its specifically right here because everything thats happened to the Grizzlies over the past 18 months equals science fiction. For them to zoom straight from the Grit N Grind era a lovable, grimy, anachronistic stretch of underdog prestige that perennially came up a few inches below championship contention to Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. is not real life. No rebuild is perfect, but Memphis goes beyond their most optimistic fans imagination.

The core Memphis recently aged out of always had one or two stylistic flaws that lowered its ceiling. Morant and Jackson are two budding cornerstones who have no ceiling to speak of; the organization spent approximately 15 seconds in the wilderness before they landed back on track.

I dont know if theres any revelation or moral to this story, but those fans are living in a complete dream world and I salute them all to the maximum degree.

Its cheesy to connect these two on the basis of their shared unapologetic desire to push boundaries until they break, but thats exactly what I did here. American Spy takes no prisoners. Neither does Pat Riley.

Wilkinson also just used a bunch of lines that are easy to envision on a giant poster board in Rileys office. Live with your head in the lions mouth,or The first few moments after you meet someone are precious, because the data on them is plentiful and your own subjectivity has yet to interfere. I mean, come on. If Riley hasnt read this yet someone should give it to him immediately. (Also, Im a sucker for book covers that pop. American Spy is the Miami Vice jersey of cover art.)

At this point, Bucks fans might as well swerve into the skid and bury their heads inside this expansively claustrophobic horror story thats one part simmering identity crisis, two parts work-life paranoia, and 18 parts zombie apocalypse. No fanbase deserves more empathy right now.

As the narrative jumps from present day to the main characters recent past, a global pandemic even scarier than our real one paralyzes the human race. I wouldnt call it comforting, but this novel dimly illuminates an even darker tunnel than the one were currently inching through.

A while ago I told my wife, who is from Michigan, that shed like this. Right around the time she was nearly finished, I let her know about this very article and asked which NBA fanbase shed recommend it to. Her response, without hesitation, was Minnesota. I asked why. Because Midwesterners enjoy racy material that they cant talk about in person. Case closed!

If I were to compile a list of non-science-or-health-related public figures who must be protected at all costs, Samantha Irby and Zion Williamson would both be on it. Earlier this year someone who doesnt know anything about the NBA asked me which one player should he watch to hook himself in. I exhaled Zion without thinking.

This is kinda how I feel about Irbys latest essay collection. If theres one book/movie/TV show/anything Id recommend to anyone right now, its that, a body-shaking funny gem that Ive already devoured more than once. I wish Irby and Williamson couldve somehow entered my life 10 years ago. Better late than never, though.

In his prime, Ovitz was an omnipotent Hollywood deal-maker and relentless bully who inevitably helped shift parts of how the movie industry does business. A co-founder of CAA and one of the most powerful talent agents who ever lived, Ovitzs memoir is sincere yet steeped in delusion, with words that often come across as a fantastical misrepresentation of reality. Lying to me is a point-blank misstatement with no purpose in mind, Ovitz, a notorious liar, wrote.

Taken at face value, its little more than a brick of narcissism. Some statements are from a man staring at a mirror, talking to his own reflection. I had two hundred magazine subscriptions, and Id skim the magazines. What?

Ovitz was also petty, power hungry, and quick to point a finger. In that vein, the gossip makes this book entertaining, if nothing else. But its most revealing moments are overshadowed by a massive ego thats protected by egg shells.

For the one fanbase thats had to cope with divorce more than any other, heres a pseudo-therapeutic bestseller that nosedives into one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. Its unpredictable, told from a few different points of view, and slightly confusing. But this will make you feel something. Especially if you watch the Rockets and wish their two best players were in blue.

I didnt include Tanking to the Top because Yaron is a friend who threatened/offered to pay me when I first told him about this column. Its insightful and packed with fresh anecdotes about how a bold experiment generated a fascinating inflection point. Go buy it.

Why isnt it recommended to Sixers fans? 1) They should already have it, 2) It somehow felt more appropriate connecting this to a fanbase that deserves to know what a good, arduous tank job looks like. Few franchises are more in need than Orlando.

My original answer here was Sprawlball: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA by Kirk Goldsberry, but proposing that informative examination of modern strategy to segments of a fanbase that still believe in their own craggy infrastructure made me feel too much like Skip Bayless. (By all means, dont let that stop you from buying Sprawlball, reading it, and then venting to Josh Harris with a 7,000-word email.)

Instead heres a relishable murder mystery that felt like a more appropriate way to acknowledge one of the most bizarre seven-year runs any relevant NBA organization has ever had.

The Sixers are stranger than fiction, and every time they come up in conversations had with friends, people who work in the NBA, other writers, etc. the same questions are asked:

Do the Sixers trust Joel Embiids body?

Will Simmons ever develop a reliable jump shot?

Was the Markelle Fultz situation ever repairable?

Why didnt they keep Jimmy Butler?

Did Sam Hinkie actually have to die for our sins?

Tea leaves can answer the aforementioned questions well enough (nope, leaning towards no, probably not, still unclear, sir this is a Wendys). But thats not the same as hard evidence. The Sixers are all conjecture.

For any fan whos fed up with their favorite teams need to obfuscate the truth, either deliberately or through their own bumbling incompetence, let Witch Elm be your medicine. At the very least, by the end youll finally have some answers.

Imagine being forced into a one-way, emotionally abusive relationship with an obscenely wealthy white man who knows he can directly impact your happiness but never never makes an effort to change his behavior. Your feelings are at the bottom of the totem pole to this person. There are some things he can use you for but far more often than its you who needs him.

Suns fans have no idea what Im talking about, but they can learn more by reading this memoir.

Apologies to every Blazers fan who saw this and immediately rolled their eyes. Last month I saw it in the front window of a new bookstore in Brooklyn and it felt like a sign. My original copy was lost somewhere down the line, so I walked in and bought this one, with a grimacing Bill Walton and his scraggly red hair on the cover.

Aside from some dated language and how it was obviously written long before analytics transformed the scouting process, so many of its ideas are timeless, if not prescient. (The delicate balance between chemistry and talent, the exhausting regular season being too long, and the swelling power struggle between owners and players to name a few themes sprinkled throughout.)

One part I forgot that for sure solidifies Portland as the most cursed team in NBA history (sorry again, Blazers fans!) is how they had Moses Malone as Waltons backup, then traded him for a draft pick. Two years later, Malone was the NBAs MVP and Walton was in San Diego. Woof. (Also forgotten but equally important: Walton once had two shower heads in his home. The higher one for himself, and the lower one, as he put it to wash the soap off my balls. This book really has it all.)

No one is suggesting you snort DMT just because your mood is irrationally affected by Vlade Divacs whimsical understanding of the NBAs collective bargaining agreement, but if that is in fact ever something youve considered doing then sink into this exploration of the tantalizing hidden benefits held by various psychedelic drugs before you do.

Does anyone out there honestly believe that San Antonios demise just happened to coincide with the NBA season being put on hiatus? Theres no such thing as a coincidence. The Spurs will never die. By the time basketball is back in full swing, Dejounte Murray will be one of the five best players in the league and LaMarcus Aldridge will move like hes 26. This is just the way of the world.

My favorite genre is any behind-the-scenes come-up story where a professional writer illustrates their life as a professional writer. I ingested most of it during a weekend trip to Greenwich, where my wife was a bridesmaid in her college friends wedding.

Now, theres really no reason why a book about Hillary Clintons failed 2016 presidential campaign would be super interesting to your average Canadian, but your average Raptors fan might be able to compare Chozicks pursuit of Clinton to the tension they felt watching Kawhi Leonard throughout the playoffs, unsure if hed re-sign or leave for Los Angeles. If that sounds like a stretch, it totally is! I just really wanted to include this book because it belongs in a time capsule.

The few self-help books Ive ever read were approached with the following expectations: If this does not 100 percent cure all my problems overnight then whoever wrote it belongs in prison, which is an extremely healthy way to be.

A few years ago when I was living in Los Angeles, this sentence was more or less uttered verbatim in my therapists office and she responded by endorsing 10% Happier. So I ordered it the same day. Then I watched it collect dust on a shelf in my bedroom room.

A short time ago, after lugging it on moves to Boston and Brooklyn, I gave the book a try, more out of curiosity than anything else. It didnt rectify my own anxiety (I still use fancy-sounding words I dont technically know the definition of The Invisible Man was bad but the uncouth scenes almost held it together in conversations with people I dont know very well/my wife in the hope theyll think Im smart, which is never embarrassing) or convince me to pick up meditation. But I couldnt help but admire how it was packaged useful life advice thats Trojan-horsed inside the authors re-telling of his professional nadir.

This has literally nothing to do with the Jazz or their fans, other than the fact they are human beings and Harris story is nearly universal. Were all anxious. We all have self-doubt. This book might not be meant to solve those problems, but if youre looking for a way to pass the time before basketball comes back, giving it a try cant hurt.

We end with one of the most tortured fan bases in professional sports. This book a bleak exploration of masculinity, addiction, and hopelessness will lock you into an emotional death spiral, which is how I imagine being a fan of the Wizards has felt for the past 20 years.

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Tell us your favorite NBA team and well give you a book to read - SB Nation

Human Behavior

Poets&Quants | Why This Dean Is Optimistic About An On-Campus Start In The Fall – Poets&Quants

Duke Fuqua Dean Bill Boulding. File photo

When the fall term begins at business schools in late August and early September, the dean of Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business is optimistic that instruction will return to the physical classroom and the campus. Dean William Boulding believes that once the country gets beyond the surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, a confluence of changes will emerge to make people feel safe enough to reengage in society.

Im optimistic about physically opening for three reasons, says Boulding. Number one, we are going to see better treatments.We will have solved the testing issues which have continued to plague this country. The key to really successful management and engagement is whether you have access to really easy testing. My belief is by the time we get into the summer, I believe we will have a home test kit. With better treatment and best practices, the level of panic will go down.

He doesnt rule out a second wave of the pandemic in the late fall, however.Like the rest of the world, he says, we are making a guess that the optimal time to open is the beginning of September. The best guess is that when we reopen things we will probably have another wave of COVID-19 which will happen in the fall. So it wouldnt be surprising if things shut down again until we get to the vaccine in the spring.

WHY APPLICATIONS TO FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAMS WONT EXPERIENCE A BOOM IN THE NEXT CYCLE

In a wide-ranging and highly revealing interview with Poets&Quants, Dean Boulding also explains why he believes business schools will not experience a boom in MBA applications in the next admissions cycle, why the current admissions season is the craziest in the history of business schools, how he is dealing with the challenges in finding this years graduates jobs in a severe recession, and what he believes will be the long-lasting impacts of the coronavirus on business education. He also addresses the current controversy over tuition refunds for MBA students who are now in Zoom classes.

His views are as sobering as they are optimistic. He believes that many business schools and universities will go out of business, especially those that have weak balance sheets and are heavily dependent on tuition revenue. Boulding believes the most vulnerable MBA graduates this year are those who are in the midst of self-directed searches for jobs. All of that has been thrown up in the air, he says. Who (among employers) is ready to make decisions right now? They are just trying to hold on until the storm passes. So I worry quite a bit about people in that position who need something to get through the storm until companies are open for business and are hiring like gangbusters. I think that will happen when the vaccine is finally out there in the spring of next year.

Boulding is an especially authoritative voice in these uncertain times. Besides leading Fuqua as dean for the past eight-plus years,he chairs the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council, the organization that administers the GMAT exam. A professor whose teaching interests spanthe areas of management, marketing, and strategy, he also serves as a member of the World Economic Forums Council on Values.

The health crisis has also hit home. By mid-March, at least 15 Duke MBA students who traveled to Israel over spring break tested positive for COVID-19 and had been isolated at their homes off-campus. An additional 11 individuals in the Duke community tested positive after traveling internationally as well, according to news reports.

The conversation with Poets&Quants Founder John A. Byrne occurred remotely via Zoon, as everything does these days, with Dean Boulding in his home office in Durham, N.C., and Byrne in his man cave in the Bay Area just outside San Francisco. In common with other schools, Fuqua has moved all of its 101 current courses out of the physical classroom and online. It was a move involving 45 faculty members at the school and 80 of those courses were transitioned over a two-day period for the schools full-time residential programs.

An edited transcript of our conversation follows:

So this is clearly a crazy time. How are you and how have you been dealing with the crisis?

This is a time that is unprecedented in our lifetimes. This is something that we have never experienced so it has been interesting and challenging. What I feel really good about is what people often say, that in a crisis you can see both the best and the worst of human behavior and we are really lucky that we get to see the best.

Despite all these challenges, I feel extremely grateful to the community I am part of to help us get through this. Some of the things we are doing now because we have to we will continue to do. So this is not without upside in terms of identifying ways to connect our community in ways that we werent using before. So there definitely are positive aspects despite the onslaught of really scary, damaging events that are happening.

Bill, can you give us a few examples of the upside?

What this helps faculty and students understand is what works well online and why do you need face-to-face. I think there is a generation with a belief that by definition everything face to face has to dominate. And yet I believe that faculty and students are discovering that there are examples where they can change up the material in interesting ways to put some content online that actually enhances the face-to-face component. There is this massive forced experiment, and out of it you are going to have some failures and some discoveries around better practices than what we know-how.

If you choose a face-to-face program, so much of that experience happens outside the classroom. So we need to be very much aware of not only how we teach but how we facilitate that interaction. I just came out of a meeting where the insight was, Wow. These interactions online are attracting much bigger audiences because people dont have the barriers of having to get out of their homes and into a particular location. Whether its physical or psychological barriers, it is opening up access to programming at a scale that you dont get in a face to face environment. Those are things that will be sticky for us.

A ritual for all schools is Admit Weekend to help admissions seal the deal with admits. Did you have your big admissions event online this year?

A month or two ago, we had a Blue Devils Weekend on campus but that feels like centuries ago. Now our second one will be virtual. Well learn what works well in a virtual environment and then on an ongoing basis we will create an online alternative for someone who cant get to campus for the actual event. At the same time, were creating opportunities for programming, including interviews with on-campus guests who you may have to work with for weeks to figure out a time in their schedule to come. Now weve been able to put together a series of events more easily because the barriers to participation have been lowered. There are definitely positive things that will come out of this crisis but lets not kid ourselves this is a humanitarian crisis of enormous consequences, both in terms of health and economics. This is serious stuff.

How difficult was it for Fuqua to make the transition from the physical classroom to remote instruction?

We were on spring break with two days to go when the university announced that we would be closing down the campus. Because the announcement was so precipitous, the university said it would extend the spring break by another week to give faculty time to stand up on line. We did not take the extra week. We felt why not go the next Monday as planned on the schedule. Weve been through this drill before having to close down our campus in China. We had very little notice and we stood up the online version of our program there for students overnight. So we knew what to do and made the decision to take no more than two days over spring break. Luckily, we also have several programs that either have 100% online delivery or a fraction is online. So we have a faculty that is very experienced in using the online modality of teaching. So we actually have several years of investment in building up our online capabilities so when the moment came we were ready.

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Poets&Quants | Why This Dean Is Optimistic About An On-Campus Start In The Fall - Poets&Quants

Anatomy

The TV Show I Love: Greys Anatomy – The New York Times

Stuck on a desert island or confined to a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, I will take the 15-year-old medical drama Greys Anatomy as distraction over any of its newer, shinier, more critically acclaimed, more endlessly dissected and meme-fueling competition.

Ive been onboard since 2007. The shows creator, Shonda Rhimes, or its current showrunner, Krista Vernoff, could replace the lead character, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), with an android: I have no desire to ever stop watching. The longevity of my emotional investment is partly the point. Nothing replaces the feeling unique to television of watching a show age in real time. And this one has remarkably held up.

Besides the occasional tremor when a cast member leaves or acts out or a pandemic prompts a season to end prematurely, as happened last week series like Greys are often taken for granted. Yet the pleasures they dispense are both rare and very real. Heres why Im a fan.

I embarked on my Greys journey around the middle of Season 4. ER, to which I was devoted, was in its penultimate season and running on fumes, and I must have been looking, consciously or not, for another prime-time drama focusing on adults rather than children or families. (The medical genre wasnt a draw in itself: I never got into, say, House, and I didnt even bother with the Greys spinoff Private Practice.)

One night, I stumbled onto Seattle Grace Hospital, and I never left. I cant remember the episode or why I was hooked maybe it was an intriguing case, maybe it was a snarky exchange between Meredith and her person, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh). No matter: I was back the following week and have remained loyal.

Its not just inertia that has kept me hanging on. I have ditched other favorites, like The Walking Dead, many seasons in. But Greys has never flagged in brilliantly stitching together the personal, the professional and the soap-operatically outrageous. Of course, the show handles the medical side of the stories well, deftly balancing one-in-a-million cases with less colorful but just as dangerous illnesses. (Its amazing how many people have been impaled by implausible objects over the years.)

Yet operating-room action alone would not have kept me interested: I have stayed for the ever-changing permutations of horny doctors and to watch characters either settle into relationships or flamboyantly sabotage them. This is a series in which adults have adult concerns, but the impulse control of hormonal teens.

The show has also never shied from hot-button issues (Meredith has recently become obsessed with the inequity of the American health-insurance system) or from addressing the moral and ethical quandaries of fallible doctors blinded by hubris, pigheadedness or lust.

And all of this has unfurled with a matter-of-factly progressive approach to race (inclusive casting has always been a huge part of the appeal), sexual orientation and physical and mental disabilities a tolerance woven into the shows fabric rather than funneled into Very Special Episodes.

Renewal is built into the shows DNA: Grey Sloan Memorial, as the hospital is now known, is a teaching institution, which means that new interns and consulting doctors arrive at regular intervals. They are put under observation, and the show either absorbs or rejects them, like a body with a transplanted organ. Established stars cant sleep soundly either, and anybody can get walking papers overnight. When the powers-that-be killed off the dreamboat Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) in Season 11, ratings did not sink and the show remains a hit for ABC.

If you become overly attached to a character or a couple on Greys, chances are that at some point you will wind up either sobbing or furiously throwing objects at the wall. And you will keep watching because the show is uncommonly well-written and directed, even when the plot goes off the rails.

Loving means tolerating flaws. Greys often deploys weapons of mass emotional manipulation that drive me crazy in other shows. I cant stand sappy acoustic covers of pop songs, but when they play over patients being informed they are going to live or die, I start crying. Likewise, preternaturally perceptive children are my Kryptonite on all series except Greys. Perhaps this is because said kids are almost always patients, so they come and go fairly quickly. (Many of the doctors have offspring now, but they barely figure in the story lines.)

As a rule, I accept that shows must end. In 2019, the ABC entertainment president Karey Burke said that she would keep the series going as long as Rhimes and Pompeo were game. Pompeos contract runs until Season 17, in 2021; she could well renew and renew and renew, until Grandma Meredith bosses around interns a third her age. I will tag along, even if it requires walkers for everybody involved.

Originally posted here:
The TV Show I Love: Greys Anatomy - The New York Times

Anatomy

Political anatomy of sugar scam – The News International

Political anatomy of sugar scam

ISLAMABAD: Pakistans sugar landscape seems to be whos who of national politics, and even in extreme political polarisation, there is bipartisan consensus on one thing and thats sugar.

A close reading of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) inquiry report, displays that while documenting the political anatomy of the sugar industry, it either skipped certain officially-established, documented facts or ignored them. Some factual errors or omissions have been noticed in the overview of ownership of the largest exporters and recipients of sugar subsidy from the Punjab government in years 2019-2020, done by the probe body.

The JWD (Jamal Din Wali) Group and JK Group, both under the management control of Jahangir Tareen, have the largest share of sugar export and export subsidy. These groups exported 122,621 tons of sugar, which is 15.66% of total sugar export in 2019. In lieu of this, they received Rs561m export subsidy, which is almost one-fourth of the total subsidy.

The JDW is a public listed company, with largest share of production in sugar industry of Pakistan. Tareen is the CEO and Director of this group, while Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab President former Punjab governor and Tareens brother-in-law Makhdum Ahmad Mahmood is founder Chairman of the group. Ahmad Mahmoods wife is also director of the company. Both husband and wife hold 27% shares.

Tareen holds 37% shares of JDW along with his son Ali and wife Amina. The mills falling under the JK Group are exclusively owned by Tareen. JDW and JK groups own six sugar mills and produce 20% of Pakistans sugar.

Chief operating officer of the JDW group Rana Naseem, who is a former district management group officer, holds 7.4% share in the sugar empire. Many credit him with the phenomenal rise of the group over the last two decades.

The official record reflects that the remaining shares (almost 28%) of the JDW group are held by institutional investors and general public through the Karachi and Lahore stock exchanges. The JDW is considered a blue chip of sugar industry. Its share was trading at Rs360/share a few weeks ago while its present value is Rs241/share. The 2018 annual report shows that the JDW group has assets worth Rs50b.

The second sugar producing cluster, declared by the FIA committee as the major beneficiary of export subsidy, is the RYK group, owned and led by Makhdums of Mianwali Qureshian in Rahim Yar Khan. The family is presently led by its young scion, Federal Minister Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar. He was the minister for state for foreign affairs in Pervez Musharrafs cabinet, and was elected a member of the National Assembly (MNA) in 2013 on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket. He left it just before 2018 general elections and formed the Janoobi Punjab Shuba Mahaz along with half a dozen other politicians, mostly associated with the PML-N. Before 2018 polls, the alliance was merged in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Khusro Bakhtiar and his younger brother Hashim Jahan Bakht made to National Assembly and Punjab assembly respectively.

Both were inducted into the federal and Punjab cabinet. Khusro Bakhtiar was made planning minister and Hashmi Jahan Bakht got the finance portfolio in Punjab. The elder brother was subsequently shifted to the ministry of national food security, a portfolio directly responsible for sugar policy.

The RYK Group was created in 2005 by Khusro Bakhtiar, Chaudhry Muneer [father-in-law of Maryam Nawazs daughter] and Chaudrys of Gujrat as a political antidote to the rising political influence of Makhdum Ahmad Mahmood and Tareen in Rahim Yar Khan District. At the time, Ahmad Mahmood was district Nazim and Tareen federal minister in the PML-Q regime. They fell out with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat in 2006.

Official record shows that the RYK group, which the inquiry report attributes to be owned by a relative of Khusro Bakhtiar is actually a family concern of his family.

As per the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the group has a total of 15,000 shares and six family members of Khusro Bakhtiars family hold 2,500 shares each. They are Makhdum Rukunddin and his wife (parents of Khusro Bakhtiar), Hashim Jawan Bakht, and Omer Sheryar, both real brothers of Khusro Bakhtiar, and wife and mother-in-law of Omer Sharyar.

The RYK group has other sugar mills including Etihad in Rahim Yar Khan, Alliance in Ghotki (Sindh) and Two Stars in Kamalia. Other shareholders in these mills are Chaudhry Muneer, Chaudhry Monis Elahi, and Bhanero group of Faisalabad, who are in-laws of Omer Sharyar.

According to the FIA inquiry report, the RYK group and affiliates exported 146,515 tons of sugar, which is 18.7% of total exports, and got Rs452 million export subsidy.

The third major sugar producer benefiting from the sugar export and subsidy is the Shamin Khan group, which owns four mills - Al Moiz I, Al-Moiz II, Thal Industry, and Baba Farid sugar mills. Its directors are Shamim Khan, Nauman Khan, Mrs Shamim Khan, Adnan Khan, Mrs Sarah Hajrah Khan, and former civil servant Fariduddin Ahmad. The group also has stakes in textile and Pepsi bottling companies. The group, which is not in direct politics and is closely related to Hamuyun Akhtar Khan, exported 104,558 tons sugar and got Rs406m (13.5%) export subsidy.

The Indus Sugar Mill as mentioned in the report exported 53,000 tons of sugar and was awarded Rs148m export subsidy. A key factor not cited in the findings is that mills is owned by Sardar Nasrullah Dareshak and his son Hasnian Bhadur Dareshak, who is the minister for livestock in Punjab. The head of Dareshak clan and seasoned politician Sardar Nasurullah is the ruling party member of the National Assembly from Rajanpur.

The major shareholder in the Indus Sugar Mills is Izhar Group of Lahore. Its scion Izhar Yaqoob is a member of Prime Ministers Task Force on Housing. The inquiry report attributed ownership of the Indus Mills to a minority shareholder Mehr Dastagir Lak of Bhalwal. Lakh has been member of the Punjab assembly (MPA) five times and twice provincial minister. He started his career as independent in 1985, then joined PML-N, became minister in the Manzoor Wattoo cabinet, and was last time elected an MPA on PML-N ticket in 2013.

Another principal beneficiary of the sugar export is Hunza Sugar Mills in Faisalabad and Jhang. The group exported 91,000 tons of sugar, almost 73% of its sugar production, and got Rs429m subsidy, which is 17.4% of total subsidy. Its directors include Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, Chaudhry Idrees and Chahdhry Waheed, who have no political connections.

The Fatima Sugar Mills, another recipient of the export policy, belongs to famous political and business family of Multan. Its directors include Fawad Mukhtar, Faisal Muktar, Fazal Sheikh, and Fahd Mukhtar. Faisal Mukhtar has been Mayor and Nazim of Multan.

He was a key associate of Pervez Musharraf and PML-Q in the 2000 decade. Mukhtars are third generation businessmen, coming from the famous Colony Group.

The Mukhtar family has immense political and business in Multan, and all political parties try to cultivate them at the election time.

The Fatima group exported 72,000 tons sugar, which was 67% of their produce and got Rs248 million subsidy from the Punjab government.

Noon Sugar Mills, owned by Adnan Hayat Noon, who is grandson of the former prime minister of Pakistan Malik Feroz Khan Noon, exported 13,000 tons sugar and was given Rs48m subsidy. Adnan Hayat was the PML-N MNA in 1997, and his wife is presently MPA in Punjab on the reserve seat on the PML-N ticket. She was also elected to provincial assembly in 2013, and worked as the chairperson of the task force on livestock. Adnan Hayat hails from the political and landed aristocracy of Punjab, and is a collector vintage and classic cars.

The Husein Sugar Mills, Sheikhu Sugar Mills and Jauherabad Sugar Mills exported negligible quantities of sugar. They are owned by businessmen Ahmad Ali Tariq, Anis Sheikh, and Jamal Ahmad, having no political connections.

The inquiry commission established by Prime Minister Imran Khan to further probe into increase of sugar prices, has constituted one dozen forensic audit teams to deeply examine the sales, export, subsidy, tax and other aspects of the business.

The inquiry committee report reveals that ten sugar mills will go through deep forensic audit. They are three JDW mills, two mills of Al Moiz (Shamim Khan group), two mills of Hunza Group, Hamza Sugar Mill, only one mill of the Alliance Sugar Mills of Chaudhry Muneer, Monis Elahi and Khusro Bakhtiar family, and Al-Arabia Sugar Mill of Salman Shahbaz.

Questions have been raised over the fact that a number of mills, which got major share in export and subsidy in 2019, have been excluded from the detailed audit.

A review of sugar exporters and mills being audited exhibits that the Khusro Bakhtiar familys mills - RYK, Ethihad and Two Star -, Indus Sugar Mills belonging to Dareshaks, Fatima Sugar Mills of Mukhtars from Multan, Noon Sugar Mills, and some others having exported more 150,000 tons of sugar, have been kept out of the forensic audit.

The Al-Arabia Sugar Mills, which neither exported any sugar in 2019 nor claimed subsidy from the Punjab government, has been included in detailed audit.

Some sugar mills, which have no concern with the Sharif family (Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif), have been clubbed under the Sharif family mills.

Of them, the Chanar Sugar Mills Faisalabad belongs to Javed Kiani family and Ittefaq, and Kashmir Sugar Mills is owned by the Al-Shafi Group, who are relatives of the political Sharif duo.

The Chaudhry Sugar Mills owned by Nawaz Sharif and his nephews is shut down for the last three years. The Ramzan Sugar Mills and Al-Arabia belong the Shahbaz Sharif family.

Link:
Political anatomy of sugar scam - The News International

Anatomy

Anatomy of an investigation: How India Todays madrasa sting misled its viewers – Newslaundry

By Allahs grace, we have enough space, Shaique told Newslaundry, adding that the madrasa was spread over 500 guz, or around 4,456 square feet.

In the context of the Tablighi Jamaat event, India TV praised the madrasas preparations to handle the coronavirus outbreak, showing how its students wore masks, and used sanitiser and soap.

Similarly, at Madrasa Islahul Mumineer, Jabir said the campus has three floors. Students have been given separate beds to keep distance.

Newslaundry asked Jabir and Shaique if they had any links to the Tablighi Jamaat or if they had attended its event.

Shaique denied having any connection to the Tablighi Jamaat. Jabir said, I used to go to Nizamuddin to buy toffees and handkerchiefs, but have no links with the Jamaat.

India Todays sting had Jabir saying that he had visited the markaz with his students, referring to the Tablighi Jamaats headquarters. Why did he say that? Jabir alleged: They probably edited my audio.

Did the story need a sting?

Sting operation as a way of breaking stories remains a contested idea, dividing news professionals about its efficacy and ethics. For those who support it, its a necessary evil in public interest, designed to expose those in power.

Every sting operation warrants crucial questions for the media outlets editor and reporter. One, is the story of such great public interest that it must be told through undercover reporting or it wont come out otherwise? Is the subject of the story so powerful that the only way to expose them is through a sting?

The India Today reporter who went undercover for the story gave Jabir and Shaique the same story. Jabir said, His name was Aamir. Dressed in a kurta like us, he came with someone I know on the pretext of helping out the kids during the lockdown.

India Todays investigation received backlash on Twitter, with many people pointing out that it was a blatant attempt to communalise a pandemic. Rahul Kanwal stuck to his guns.

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Anatomy of an investigation: How India Todays madrasa sting misled its viewers - Newslaundry

Anatomy

Justice League Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Hawkman’s Body – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Since the Justice League is home to many of DC's greatest heroes, it's easy to lose track of Hawkman. While his signature wings might not be as flashy as some of the team's other stalwarts or its newer members, Carter Hall -- the latest reincarnation of the Egyptian prince who was cursed to live through an endless cycle of death and resurrection -- has a lengthy DC history both on his own and alongside DC's other heroes.

With a history unlike any other Hawkman has accomplished feats that would make even the strongest aliens blush using his unique anatomy. Now, we're taking a closer look at what makes this winged warrior a fearsome fighter in any age and on any world.

RELATED: DC's Strongest Hawkman Was Just EMBARRASSED by Its Scariest Hawkman

While Hawkman might be named for his wings, every version of the character wasn't born with them. However, Carter Halls prosthetic wings do more than just complete his look, they provide him with flight stabilization and are laced with Nth metal.

Nth metal is an alloy native to Thanagar, homeworld of the Thanagarians -- the alien race which Hawkman was a member of in a past life. It can be formed into various tools and bestows abilities to the user who wields it, including but not limited to anti-gravity -- which allows the user to lift heavier objects than they would normally -- and flight. Halls wings have been shown to cross the 200 MPH mark and can fly indefinitely, which isn't bad considering he flaps them using his shoulders.

Part of Carter Halls long, convoluted history is the fact that hes very, very mortal. An ancient Egyptian prince by the name of Khufu Kha-Tarr stumbled upon a Thanagarian ship that contained Nth metal, and his exposure to it altered his existence. He was doomed or destined to be forever reincarnated alongside his lover, Chay-Ara whenever they pass. Unfortunately for the star crossed duo, they are joined by their consistently lethal high priest Hath-Set, the man who cursed the three of them in a never-ending cycle of death and reincarnation by repeatedly killing them both in each lifetime.

After a few millennia of death and rebirth, the current incarnation of Hawkman, Carter Hall, uses his Nth metal gear to stand alongside some of DCs heavy hitters. While it may seem like a disadvantage knowing he is about to be murdered by the same individual over and over again in a new form, its also a strength knowing death isn't likely to show up from anywhere else. Hes able to withstand falling from great heights, capable of handling extreme temperatures and even going toe to toe with the likes of Black Adam, someone who could give Superman a run for his money.

RELATED: DC Introduces a Very, VERY Different Hawkman in April

While Hawkman isn't quite on par with someone like Superman or Martian Manhunter, Hall is capable of carrying hundreds of pounds into the air with relative ease. He has also been shown to easily rip apart cars in addition to being able to fight for hours on end.

In one of the many Hawkman lifetimes, he was a police officer on Thanagar- a planet with much more gravity than that of Earth. When that version of Hawkman arrived on Earth, his strength was amplified due to the sudden lack of gravity restrictions. Combined with his Nth metal gear, his strength would become far greater than "the strength of 12 men" which he was said to have in his earliest appearances.

In keeping with the bird theme of his power set, Hawkmans eyes are keenly tuned to the environment around him and have allowed him to perform such feats as watching the Flash vibrate through walls before he was completely visible. With his enhanced eyesight comes a faster reaction time and of course, better reflexes.

Boosted by Nth metal, his eyes also have the acuity to track quickly moving objects like a hummingbird's flapping wings, which also helps him use firearms and projectile weapons. As a result, hes quite the sharpshooter, and he was Hannibal Hawkes, a Wild West vigilante who was known for his accuracy, in one of his past lives.

Due to his aforementioned habit of dying and rebirth, Hawkman has had plenty of lifetimes to fine-tune his tactical senses and skills. Much like the X-Men's Moira MacTaggert, Carter Hall has used death and reincarnation as a learning experience to make himself even more of a fierce warrior. His skills are well-regarded enough that he was selected to bring down Batman by Lex Luthor. His knowledge isnt limited to combat, and his unique condition has made him one of the most prominent historians and archaeologists in the DC Universe.

He has also used his ingenuity for more altruistic endeavors like creating flying vehicles and managing food supplies during wartime. While its tempting to write him off as just another hero sub-par in comparison to the Justice Leagues main roster, its always important to realize just how much unique versatility Hawkman brings to the table. With Hawkman rumored to be featured in the upcoming Black Adam film, it may not belong until Hawkman stops being the DC Universe's best-kept secret for much longer

KEEP READING: Hawkman, Young Justice's Aqualad Join the DC Legends Roster

Stargirl: The Justice Society's Green Lantern, Explained

A content creator since 2005, Kai's work has netted several awards in the online community. From fiction to documentary, page or screen, you'll find much of his work covers a little bit of everything. Follow him on Instagram as @themediabay

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Justice League Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Hawkman's Body - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Anatomy

X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Juggernaut’s Body, Explained – CBR – Comic Book Resources

*Juggernaut image in feature byDavidBksAndrade.

The X-Men may be known for protecting the world from mutant threats, but one of the team's most famous villains and occasional members isn't a mutant at all. The Juggernaut, Charles Xavier's stepbrother Cain Marko, acquired his super-strength through mystical means. Still, the Gem of Cyttorak made him one of the strongest and deadliest forces in the Marvel Universe.

But just because the Juggernaut's powers are magical doesn't mean that they're without explanation, and there's actually a surprising amount of comic book super-science behind the gargantuan body of the unstoppable Marvel villain.

RELATED: How X-Men Comics Kept Retconning the Dark Phoenix Saga

Due to his personal connection to the X-Men's founder Charles Xavier, it's easy to assume that Juggernaut is simply a mutant. After all, Stan Lee first developed the idea for mutant powers as an easy way to dispense with lengthy origin stories to explain so many different powers, but even as early as Juggernaut's first appearance in X-Men #12, Lee and Jack Kirby detailed the Juggernaut's mystical origins.

While serving alongside his stepbrother in the Korean War, Cain Marko entered a lost temple where he discovered the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. Though the temple collapsed around him and Xavier thought him dead, the Gem actually imbued Marko with phenomenal power as the avatar of the dark otherworldly god Cyttorak. This meant that many of the technologies that could work on mutants -- such as power dampening collars and Sentinel tracking device -- simply had no effect on Juggernaut. It also massively increased his human body to Hulk-like proportions, making him roughly 9.5 ft. tall and weighing slightly under two tons.

Due to the mystical enchantments of the Gem of Cyttorak, the Juggernaut is physically unstoppable once he starts building up momentum. Once he sets himself in motion, he can pummel through anything in his path while running at speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour. His immense strength and unending invulnerability make him a big enough threat even when he's not in motion, but this is the true power of the Juggernaut.

To make matters even more difficult for anyone trying to stop Juggernaut, he's made all the more invulnerable by the ability to produce a powerful force field around his body. The aura has even resisted the power of Thor and Mjolnir with its own dark enchantments. All of this works together to make the Juggernaut almost impossible to stop through any kind of physical means.

Though Juggernaut's power does seem unending, his body only acts as a conduit for energies from Cyttorak. If the nigh-omnipotent being decides to cut Juggernaut off, he can reduce the flow of power to a fraction of its former strength, and Marko has had to get by with scraps of power that pales in comparison to what he is used to more than once. Cyttorak is a jealous and focused god of destruction, and he punished Marko whenever he accepted power from other beings or wielded those powers in the name of preservation rather than destruction.

Despite that, Cyttorak's powers rarely leave Juggernaut's body in their entirety. Even when Marko is cut off he often retains a still impressive degree of super strength and invulnerability, and he's certainly got more than enough power to deal with most threats in a weakened state, even if he just can't take down a Hulk.

Conversely, the Juggernaut is strong enough to smash through the walls of reality itself as the Trion Juggernaut.

RELATED:X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Emma Frost's Body, Explained

To truly be unstoppable, the Juggernaut needs enough power to keep on goingad infinitum. For Juggernaut, his ceaseless reservoir of mystical energy serves as that power, and that means that he does not need sustenance in order to fuel himself or even survive.

Juggernaut has gone weeks and even months without eating, sleeping or even breathing. In The Amazing Spider-Man #230, Juggernaut once famously fended off the raging supervillain by tricking him into a pool of wet cement he slowly sank into. While Juggernaut could not get leverage to free himself, he simply sat in waiting until the opportunity to escape presented itself much later on.

Even if Juggernaut is famously "unstoppable," that doesn't mean he can't ever be stopped. Over the years, the most tried and true method of putting Marko down is to hit him with a psychic blast strong enough to KO him directly, bypassing all of his physical defenses and attacking his mental ones instead. The easiest way to do that is to take off his helmet, which serves as a magical armor that protects from telepathic intrusions. But even beyond that, Juggernaut has psychic defenses of his own, and it takes a formidable telepath like Xavier or Jean Grey to break them down.

As the X-Men know all too well, the goal to putting Juggernaut down usually involves most of the team trying to tear off Juggernaut's helmet while Xavier or another telepath breaks down his mental barriers. Over time, this has gotten harder, and Juggernaut has learned to guard against this particular form of attack. While the Juggernaut might be one of Marvel's most physically imposing villains, this goes to show that even characters with extraordinary amounts of power have their limits.

NEXT: Hulk vs. Juggernaut: Who's REALLY Marvel's Strongest Powerhouse?

Justice League Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Hawkman's Body

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X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Juggernaut's Body, Explained - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Anatomy

Discover: This LU researcher blends science and art to create anatomical masterpieces – Sudbury.com

Amanda Durkin isnt your typical researcher. As a PhD student at Laurentian University, she is developing a drug to treat diseases caused by inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis. When she leaves the lab, she returns to her art studio to create anatomical masterpieces.

Durkins journey to art started with the Laurentian University SciArt Exhibitionin 2015. Each year, the exhibition showcases pieces created by elementary and high school students, LU faculty and students, and members of the community. The diverse range of art includes paintings, short films, poetry, fashion, sculpture, and photography. Each masterpiece connects to a scientific field for Durkin, that was human anatomy.

I drew an anatomical heart on a textbook page, Durkin explains. I had it in a shadow box with a glass cover, and I painted an ECG (electrocardiogram) line on it. That year, her piece won first place at the SciArt Exhibition.

Over the next few years, community support for her art grew. Her organ illustrations were intricate, impactful, and personal. Some people have emotional ties to organs, Durkin shares. People who had an organ removed and they want an image of it or [...] an organ they had a disease in that they overcame, as a tribute to how strong that organ is.

Inspired by the positive reception to her art, Drukin launched the AmandatomicalArt Etsy shop, selling prints, enamel pins, stickers, and greeting cards.

I base my images on ancient anatomy textbooks that Im slightly obsessed with, Durkin explains. One of her inspirations is Leonardo da Vinci. He did a lot of anatomical drawings that were very spot on for what they knew at the time. Looking at her pieces, you truly feel like youve entered the study of an ancient anatomist.

When she began creating art, Durkin had no idea that there was an entire community of people sharing the creative side of science through illustration, animation, and design. The #SciArt hashtag on InstagramorTwitterreveals thousands of artists showcasing their masterpieces.

Two Photon Artfunds small grantsfor artists and writers by selling art.Gaius J Augustushelps researchers tell science stories through illustration and multimedia. The London Natural History Museum opens their doors to photographers in their annual Wildlife Photographer of the Yearexhibition. Scientists around the world are finding beauty beyond the lab, field, or software they use to make their discoveries.

When shes not creating art, Durkin works at the Health Sciences North Research Institute. She studies a drug initially created to treat cancer. However, she discovered that it works even better as an anti-inflammatory drug. Inflammation is our bodys response to harmful bacteria, virusesand physical damage.

Most of us have experienced swelling or redness after a bug bite or injury. Typically, this is a healthy response. You need inflammation to get rid of infections or a bacterial intruder that comes in your body, explains Durkin. But when that inflammation gets dysregulated, thats how you end up with autoimmune diseases.

There are more than 100 autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. For the millions of people living with these conditions, their immune system attacks healthy cells in their body. The drug Durkin is developing has the potential to treat these conditions.

Art has been a great way for Durkin to balance rigorous lab work with a creative outlet she enjoys. Her stunning pieces show that there is more to science than meets the eye.

Some people dont appreciate the beauty of what organs are, Durkin shares. The idea of drawing an organ on a textbook page was to bring back the beauty of what the organ does but also tie it back to what the parts do.

You can shop for Amanda Durkins anatomical art on Etsy.

Ive Velikova is a science communication student at Laurentian University and the host of the Science Sucks podcast. You can find the podcast on Stitcher and other podcast sites.

Source: Autoimmune Disease List. (2018). American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association.

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Discover: This LU researcher blends science and art to create anatomical masterpieces - Sudbury.com