#confluence migration assistant

[tzunami1]

Let's face it—migrating platforms is hardly ever fun. But if your team's outgrown Atlassian's Confluence or you're bringing digital assets together, Confluence migration is more of a requirement than a choice. Particularly when migrating from Confluence to SharePoint, it's not merely a matter of transferring pages—it's about maintaining knowledge, structure, permissions, and productivity.

[kritinglobal]

Why Every Student Needs an Education Consultant Australia Today

Introduction

In an increasingly competitive and globalized academic landscape, the pursuit of international education has evolved from a personal ambition into a meticulously orchestrated endeavor. No longer is it sufficient for students to rely solely on school counselors or the fragmented advice of online forums. In Australia, the indispensable role of an education consultant Australia has gained profound traction, not merely as a guidepost but as a strategic necessity. Every student who envisions a future shaped by overseas academia, vocational success, or permanent settlement must recognize the pivotal importance of working with seasoned professionals in this domain.

Navigating Complexity with Precision

For the average student, deciphering the intricacies of international admissions, course prerequisites, institution rankings, visa subclasses, and scholarship eligibility can be overwhelming. Each university, each country, each department — presents a matrix of nuanced requirements. An education consultant Australia acts as a compass, interpreting institutional criteria and aligning them with the student’s unique profile. This tailored approach eliminates guesswork and replaces ambiguity with actionable clarity.

The role extends beyond a perfunctory selection of universities. Consultants delve into academic backgrounds, career aspirations, language proficiencies, and even cultural adaptability. Their recommendations are the result of calibrated assessments rather than cursory overviews. This is not merely assistance; it is strategic alignment.

The Australian Academic Magnetism

Australia’s allure as an educational destination is indisputable. World-class institutions like the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, and University of Queensland stand as bastions of research, innovation, and academic rigor. However, the path to these institutions is strewn with administrative hurdles, each requiring meticulous attention.

International students often find themselves ensnared by bureaucratic labyrinths: the Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) criteria, the financial documentation for visa approval, and the English proficiency mandates that vary subtly across institutions. An Education consultant Perth or an education consultant Brisbane, well-versed in regional regulations, offers indispensable expertise to streamline this process.

Personalized Strategy Over Generalized Advice

There exists a dangerous misconception among students that generalized advice will suffice in matters of international study. A quick search online reveals thousands of templates for personal statements, scholarship essays, or visa applications. But what these generic models lack is the depth of personalization. A compelling application narrative must be as unique as the candidate it represents. That’s where an education consultant Australia becomes a crucial ally.

These professionals are adept at constructing a bespoke academic pathway, often incorporating lateral opportunities such as bridging programs, internships, or regional scholarships. Their acumen lies not only in identifying these avenues but in strategically leveraging them for the student’s long-term advantage.

Legalities and the Migration Nexus

A frequently overlooked aspect of international education is its overlap with immigration. For many, studying in Australia is a precursor to permanent residency. Hence, students must consider not just the course but also its alignment with the Skilled Occupation List (SOL), Temporary Graduate Visa (subclass 485), and regional sponsorships.

In this confluence of education and migration, a migration agent Perth becomes an indispensable partner. Working in tandem with educational consultants, these agents ensure that academic decisions dovetail with migration prospects. This symbiosis amplifies the student’s chances of transitioning from temporary visa holder to permanent resident seamlessly and legitimately.

Regional Expertise: Perth and Brisbane in Focus

While major metropolitan hubs like Sydney and Melbourne often dominate conversations around education in Australia, emerging centers such as Perth and Brisbane are gaining momentum. Their institutions offer globally recognized degrees at comparatively lower living costs and often less competition for scholarships.

An education consultant in Perth, for instance, understands the advantages of studying in Western Australia — such as eligibility for regional migration incentives and proximity to Asia-Pacific industries. Similarly, an education consultant Brisbane can provide nuanced insights into Queensland’s growing sectors like environmental science, tourism, and biotechnology. This localized understanding ensures that students not only study but thrive in their chosen environment.

Psychological Anchoring and Decision-Making Support

Amidst the ocean of choices and variables, students often experience decision fatigue. The stakes are high, the timelines rigid, and the options vast. An education consultant Australia provides more than logistical support — they offer emotional anchoring. Their consistent presence during interviews, correspondence with universities, and sudden hurdles acts as a stabilizing force.

They help the student remain focused, grounded, and clear-headed throughout a journey that is often punctuated by delays, rejections, or policy changes. The ability to recalibrate under such pressure requires both emotional intelligence and professional experience — traits that seasoned consultants possess in abundance.

Avoiding Financial and Academic Pitfalls

Choosing the wrong course, applying to the wrong intake, or submitting an incomplete visa application can have dire financial repercussions. Tuition deposits are often non-refundable. Visa rejections not only waste time and money but can also leave a black mark on a student’s immigration history. Missteps in credit transfers or failure to meet academic prerequisites can result in the loss of a semester or even a full academic year.

These pitfalls are avoidable. When guided by a credible education consultant Australia, students make informed decisions grounded in institutional knowledge and regulatory awareness. The consultant becomes a safeguard against costly errors, a risk mitigator who transforms uncertainty into stability.

The Competitive Edge

In a world where mere competence no longer guarantees success, differentiation is the currency of excellence. An education consultant elevates a student’s profile by enhancing not just what is presented, but how it is presented. From crafting impactful statements of purpose to arranging portfolio reviews and preparing for academic interviews, every step is meticulously optimized for maximum impact.

This refined presentation offers students a competitive edge — an edge that can mean the difference between admission to a top-tier university and being waitlisted indefinitely. In this respect, the consultant’s role is not supplementary but transformative.

Digital Integration and Remote Accessibility

With the rise of digital platforms, students from remote or underserved areas can now access world-class consulting services online. Whether connecting with an education consultant Brisbane via video conferencing or submitting documentation to a migration agent Perth through secure portals, the process is streamlined for convenience without compromising on quality.

This digital democratization of services ensures that every student — irrespective of geography — can benefit from strategic academic planning and visa consulting.

Conclusion: Strategic Necessity, Not Luxury

The age of haphazard planning and hopeful applications is behind us. Today, the stakes are higher, the competition fiercer, and the processes more convoluted than ever before. Students navigating this landscape without expert guidance risk making irreversible miscalculations.

In contrast, those who engage a professional education consultant Australia position themselves for academic success, smoother transitions, and enhanced migration prospects. Whether through the specialized lens of an education consultant in Perth, the regional acumen of an education consultant Brisbane, or the legal insight of a migration agent Perth, the advantages are manifold and substantial.

Source URL - https://medium.com/@kritinglobal1/why-every-student-needs-an-education-consultant-australia-today-3865f4708b70

[mysublimedestiny]

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Key Drivers Fueling Growth in the Market

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Market Drivers

The Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by a confluence of technological advancements, evolving cyber threats, and stringent regulatory requirements. As organizations increasingly migrate to cloud environments, ensuring robust security measures becomes paramount. CSPM solutions have emerged as critical tools in this endeavor, offering automated security assessments, compliance monitoring, and risk mitigation strategies.

1. Escalating Cybersecurity Threats

The surge in cyberattacks, including ransomware, data breaches, and insider threats, has underscored the vulnerabilities inherent in cloud infrastructures. These incidents highlight the urgent need for organizations to adopt proactive security measures. CSPM solutions provide continuous monitoring, real-time threat detection, and automated remediation, enabling organizations to swiftly address potential security gaps.

2. Complex Cloud Environments

Modern cloud architectures are increasingly complex, encompassing multi-cloud and hybrid environments. This complexity introduces challenges in maintaining consistent security policies across diverse platforms. Traditional security tools often fall short in addressing the dynamic nature of cloud infrastructures. CSPM solutions offer centralized visibility, policy enforcement, and risk assessment capabilities, ensuring that security measures are uniformly applied across all cloud assets.

3. Stringent Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) mandate organizations to implement stringent data protection and privacy measures. Non-compliance can result in significant financial penalties and reputational damage. CSPM solutions assist organizations in automating compliance checks, generating audit trails, and ensuring adherence to industry-specific regulations, thereby mitigating the risk of non-compliance.

4. Shortage of Skilled Cybersecurity Professionals

The cybersecurity industry faces a significant talent gap, with an estimated shortage of millions of professionals globally. This shortage hampers organizations' ability to effectively manage and secure their cloud environments. CSPM solutions address this challenge by automating routine security tasks, providing actionable insights, and reducing the dependency on specialized expertise. This enables organizations to maintain a robust security posture despite limited personnel resources.

5. Proliferation of Cloud-Native Technologies

The adoption of cloud-native technologies, such as containers and microservices, has transformed application development and deployment processes. However, these technologies introduce new security challenges, including misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. CSPM solutions are evolving to support cloud-native environments, offering features like container security, runtime protection, and integration with DevOps pipelines. This ensures that security is embedded throughout the development lifecycle, from design to deployment.

6. Increasing Adoption of Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Architectures

Organizations are increasingly adopting multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies to leverage the strengths of different cloud providers and avoid vendor lock-in. However, managing security across multiple cloud platforms presents challenges in terms of visibility and policy enforcement. CSPM solutions provide a unified approach to security management, enabling organizations to apply consistent security policies across diverse cloud environments and ensure comprehensive protection.

7. Integration with Emerging Technologies

CSPM solutions are integrating with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Automation to enhance threat detection and response capabilities. AI and ML algorithms enable CSPM tools to identify patterns and anomalies indicative of potential security incidents, facilitating proactive threat mitigation. Automation streamlines security operations, reducing the time required to detect and remediate vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

The CSPM market is poised for significant growth as organizations recognize the imperative to secure their cloud infrastructures amidst evolving cyber threats and regulatory pressures. By providing automated security assessments, compliance monitoring, and risk mitigation strategies, CSPM solutions empower organizations to maintain a robust security posture in complex cloud environments. As the adoption of cloud technologies continues to rise, the role of CSPM solutions in safeguarding digital assets becomes increasingly critical.

[enreap]

How to Choose the Right Atlassian Partner for Your Dubai Business

Atlassian Cloud Migration Services in Singapore tools like Jira, Confluence help companies manage operations and projects better. But their full potential needs expert assistance in choosing the right features and set-up matched to company needs. This depends on many small details. Atlassian implementation requires both software knowledge and an understanding specific business goals to give success.

Understand Whole Atlassian Suite

Foremost see if the vendor has worked extensively with all Atlassian offerings - Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, etc.

IT Service Management Insight

IT teams aim to deliver excellent support coordinating with other departments. Modern tools from Atlassian Partner in Dubai improve this. The right partner should have strong strategy specific to your IT line of business using platforms like Jira Service Management. They should assess current processes and suggest step-by-step improvements suiting your constraints. This needs both software and management understanding. Simply installing the app alone will not transform service quality greatly. So, check their approach to helping adoption across teams and not just technical knowledge.

Regional Presence

Vendors with dedicated Dubai staff work better than offshore-only teams for responsiveness. Physical closeness improves understanding of your urgency and objectives to shape Atlassian rollouts accordingly. Native partners also ensure solutions consider regional culture and styles unlike foreign counterparts. Consistent in-person workshops and post-launch troubleshooting require localized presence driving lasting success.

Trust and Accountability

It is key that a partner creates confidence long-term through transparent communication and integrity. They should not overpromise quick results at the outset just to win projects if they are unrealistic. The working dynamic must feel like a collaboration striving for shared organizational success.

Observe if they clearly explain solution pros/cons or project risks without hiding behind technical terminology. Can staff articulate business justification and expected use cases in plain business language? Do they follow diligent change control and impact analysis principles before system alterations? What governance mechanisms assure the reliability and data security levels that enterprises demand?

Validating such transparency indicators beyond rapid sales pitches ensures accountability for selecting true partners rather than vendors chasing short-term gains. This establishes the reliability imperative of delivering enduring Atlassian Cloud value that is aligned tightly to business imperatives beyond tactical software servicing.

Conclusion

To bring true transformation via Atlassian Cloud Migration Services in Dubai, a partner needs to match business goals with software excellence. For long-term impact beyond short-term wins, specialized experts like EnReap Consulting distinguish themselves through a strategic solution-making approach to understanding Dubai firm contexts.

By maintaining local Atlassian professional talent and hands-on engagement models, they drive solutions promoting business-IT coordination around priorities. So instead of mere technical deployments, localized partners translate Atlassian Cloud functionality into workflow upgrades and user adoption driving enterprise-wide productivity at your pace.

When selecting implementation advisors, evaluate these key aspects going beyond vendor product certifications or offshore-only teams. Partner with https://enreap.com/ today for accelerated modernization securely aligned to your objectives.

[medispec]

Lionheart Automated Microscopes - Medispec (i) LTD

For any queries and buy products please contact us A Wing / 601, Lotus Corporate Park, Jay Coach, Off Western Express Highway, Goregaon (East), Mumbai – 400 063, India. Phone : - +91-7718810036 / 7718810037 / 7718810038 Email : - sales@medispec.in Website : - https://www.medispec.in/

Lionheart™ FX Automated Microscope is a compact, inclusive microscopy system for a broad range of imaging workflows. It offers up to 60x air; 60x and 100x oil immersion magnification, with fluorescence, brightfield, color brightfield, and phase contrast channels for maximum application reach. An optional environment control cover provides incubation to 40°C and effective containment for CO2/O2 control, a humidity chamber optimizes conditions for long-term live cell imaging applications, and an available dual reagent injector facilitates rapid kinetic assays. Lionheart FX and Gen5 together comprise Augmented Microscopy the automation of image capture, processing, analysis and development of publication-ready images and data. Automated digital microscopy up to 60x air; 60x and 100x oil immersion Fluorescence, brightfield, color brightfield and phase contrast imaging Label-free cell counting for cell proliferation studies Live cell assay support with environmental controls More than 20 imaging filter/LED cube colors reach many applications Compact design for quick installation and setup Sourcing your microplates shouldn't be an added task in preparing your cell-based workflows. Agilent now offers cell culture and imaging microplates so you can complete your workflows seamlessly. Click here to request your free sample.

WHAT'S NEW

BioTek’s AutoScratch Wound Making Tool automatically creates reproducible scratch wounds in cell monolayers grown in 24- or 96-well microplates for cell migration and invasion studies. AutoScratch automates the sample prep for imaging using BioTek’s Lionheart Automated Microscopes. The Scratch Assay App automates image collection and analysis of wound width, wound confluence and maximum wound healing rate.

APPLICATIONS

Lionheart FX is designed for easy implementation of a broad range of fixed and live cell assay workflows. BioTek’s concept of Augmented Microscopy™ brings automated image capture, processing, analysis and publication-ready images and data to the benchtop – for many applications, including these important areas: Cell migration and invasion assays Live cell imaging High resolution microscopy Immunofluorescence Phenotypic assays Histology

Live Cell Proliferation and Viability Application Guide

The Scratch Assay Starter Kit automates cell migration and wound healing assays:

AutoScratch automatically makes consistent, repeatable scratch wounds.

The Scratch Assay App automatically calculates % confluence, wound width and maximum healing rate (max V).

AutoScratch creates scratch wounds with excellent performance, compared to manual methods.

Adding 10 µM ATP activates HeLa endogenously expressed P2Y receptor

Rat kidney mitosis, prophase at 60x.

Visit our Applications pages to learn more about all of the critical applications enabled with Lionheart FX.BioTek Field Applications Scientists (FAS) and Product Specialists provide unparalleled scientific support, assisting with experimental planning and assay optimization on BioTek’s instrumentation and software. Learn how they can help move your science forward… faster!

FEATURES

Automated digital microscopy up to 100x

Lionheart FX with Augmented Microscopy automates your imaging workflow to yield amazing images and powerful data. Automated image capture starts with image-based and laser autofocus, plus auto LED and exposure. Automated image pre-processing optimizes images for downstream analysis, from cell counting to characterization of subcellular details.

Four imaging modes, multiple imaging processes

With brightfield, color brightfield, phase contrast and fluorescence imaging in four channels – and nearly twenty available filter/LED cubes, Lionheart FX offers fantastic versatility that isn’t limited to image capture. Follow your imaging processes through z-stacking to z-projection, montage collection to stitching and digital phase contrast to analysis, all one hardware and software platform.

Label-free cell counting

It’s fast and simple to count live cells using the available high contrast brightfield option. Higher contrast allows a direct and label-free method for object identification using Gen5 software to count cells and characterize cell proliferation in kinetic studies.

Kinetic live cell assay support

Several options are available to support live cell assays with Lionheart FX, including an environmental cover to maintain temperature and gas levels within the system. Long-term live cell kinetics are supported, using the unique humidity chamber that fits on the stage itself, keeping the live cell in a completely nurturing environment. A dual reagent injector provides quick inject/image capability for observing fast reactions.

More than 20 imaging filter/LED cubes

BioTek has the most comprehensive selection of imaging filter and LED cubes available for use with our Lionheart and Cytation imagers. This large selection of colors enables image capture for a broad range of applications. Download our convenient Imaging Cube Selection Guide here.

Quick installation and easy setup

Fifteen minutes is all it takes to install and set up Lionheart FX for image capture and analysis. The filter/LED cubes and objectives are accessed from the front panel, and tool-free connections for injectors, gas control and the environmental cover add to the easy installation. Its small size takes up minimal benchtop space.

[mattbrown8601]

List of the Best and Worst Stocks of 2022

There are a few lists you can look through to learn more about the best stocks for the coming year, whether you want to start investing in stocks or learn more about companies you might be interested in investing in. The list of 2022's Top and Bottom Companies' Stocks is one list I've enjoyed reading. It includes both well-known and reputable businesses as well as relatively unknown ones.

ServiceNow

Investors are gravitating toward defensive stocks during a period of economic uncertainty. These stocks are able to withstand rising interest rates and inflation. Due to their clean balance sheets, these businesses are less susceptible to recessionary effects. Additionally, they give you a lot of pricing power to offset inflation. In 2022, these are the best stocks to buy.

The companies with the longest growth runway should be taken into consideration when choosing stocks for your portfolio. Additionally, you can pay attention to the sentiment's direction. It may assist you in locating dividend-paying businesses.

Axon It's hard to pick the best stocks to buy in 2022. Stores with sufficient price power to offset inflation and stable dividends should be chosen by investors. These businesses will have clean balance sheets, sufficient pricing power to withstand inflation, and sufficient cash to cover expenses during the subsequent recession.

NASDAQ Axon Enterprise

 Inc. Taser electroshock weapons are developed by a technology company called AXON. Additionally, it supplies body cameras, drones, and digital evidence management for emergency management and law enforcement. With its own cloud network, the company's products are connected.

Atlassian Despite Wall Street's gloom and doom, Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: One of the best businesses to buy right now is ATLS). A wide range of software applications are produced by the company. Confluence, Trello, Jira, and others are among these.

Over the past three years, Atlassian's revenue has increased by 32%. With over $500 million in net cash on its balance sheet, the business has an outstanding balance sheet. After stock-based compensation, it is also positive in terms of free cash flow.

CrowdStrike

Investors have been dissatisfied with CrowdStrike despite its impressive growth and valuation. This is as a result of its inability to make a profit in recent years.

However, it still stands a good chance of succeeding financially. To meet its financial obligations, the company has a substantial cash reserve. In addition, the cloud-based migration of existing security protocols is a primary focus of its offerings. The Falcon platform, which scans devices and transmits data to an AI algorithm, is another one of the company's offerings. This system is able to identify and eliminate local threats.

Palo Alto Networks

Making an Investment in Palo Alto Networks If you're looking for a tech stock that can help you expand your portfolio, PAN) is a fantastic option. The business is well-known for its innovative cloud security solutions. Its management has recently disclosed a number of encouraging signs that may suggest that it is close to sustainable profitability.

Palo Alto's ability to sustain profitable operations despite a volatile market is one of its most impressive features. In addition, the business is making the most of its expanding cash flow and has increased both its revenue and profit margins.

MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre (MELI) is a major player in the Latin American e-commerce market. It offers a wide range of financial technology and online solutions. It serves sixteen nations within the region. It has been in business in the area for more than a decade and has a long runway for expansion.

MercadoLibre offers a number of online services, one of which is Mercado Libre Marketplace, which lets businesses list products. Additionally, it offers Mercado Ads, which are comparable to Google Search. It also provides a number of additional services, such as financial technology. With 81 million users, the company has a large active user base.

Costco

Costco has maintained strong earnings despite the Federal Reserve's series of interest rate increases. The top line grew by 16.2% in the most recent quarter. The share price, however, has decreased. It is important for investors to keep in mind that price fluctuations may occur in the near future.

Costco's strategy has helped it maintain a strong competitive edge as a leading discount retailer. It negotiates favorable deals with vendors and purchases large quantities of goods. Additionally, its membership model reduces operating expenses.

Berkshire Hathaway

Whether you want to invest in stocks for the long term or keep up with the latest trends, there are a few stocks you can buy in 2022 that offer the best value. Additionally, these stocks will be priced to withstand an inflationary economy.

Over the past two decades, for instance, Prologis REIT (PROL) has proven to be an excellent investment for investors. Even though Prologis is a real estate investment trust that makes a lot of money, its shares are currently trading low. However, there is justification for the company's long-term growth potential. The stock of the company is currently trading about 35% lower than its 52-week high.

Bio of Author

My name is Matt Brown. I am working as an academic writer at Essays UK. They provide the best Essay writing services in the UK. When I was doing PhD in 2007, I used to help my classmates with their essays, and immediately after completing that, I started providing Essay writing services in the UK to a larger audience. I have helped more than 500 students achieve their desired grades.

[endwalkerlore]

Day One

Got through the Unlocking of the Tower of Zot - full spoilers

Hydaelyn mentions a promise made in another age, to be fulfilled when we truly understand what is at stake - a promise made to Azem? -what did Venat promise Azem?   Hydaelyn doesn't have to power to bring our minds to her any longer.

Forum factions Bibliotechs/teqs? - conservatives, want to remain isolated unnamed radical faction - Galuf, Louisoix - supported being more open however, forum vote to deny Eorzea assistance was unanimous of all 99 members

Alchemists in Radz-at-han are part of a different tradition than Ul'dah alchemists

Krile needs an "archon or two" to get access to more reading material - so she's NOT one?

Gleaners use an old currency - the gemstones are something older - a possible dividing point in history then?

Mischievous miqo'te mentions that a "Big Moony" would help her - was "so tall and smart."  Oh... now I made myself sad -she told the girl stories about a powerful wizard friend who could summon his own carbuncle - that's Urianger there.

Albright Manor: lord is a master astrologian, wanted a book on Ishgardian Astromancy by Janniquard

The Ecclesia was the democracy that existd prior to the Forum, elected Thaliak as patron

Thaliak is depicted as an elezen

Pathless Way - the archon "graduation ceremony."  Secret path inside the statue of Thaliak

Babbling book lover has been corresponding with a "Far Eastern contact" who swore by "Into the Yonder" (Honoroit's book).  Suigetsu?

Nyunkrepf was a student of astrology - divined the flood. -teleportation spell landed the ship in Abalathia's spine -Nyunkrepf left with his crew and passengers from his ship to build a new ship at the shore

Corvos: founded by the Allagans, miqo'te were subjugated and brought there as laborers -G'raha's ancestors remained when others left during the Fifth Umbral Era's Ice Age, to keep others from misusing the Allagan tech -Corvos is under Garlean rule, renamed Locus Amoenus -nearby town to his childhood home came under control of House Darnus, who had an interest in Allagan tech; G'raha was the last born with the Allagan Eye, so his family buried the Allagan tech and gave him to a friend in the Students of Baldesion to register him as a Sharlayan (Galuf)

Alphinaud's description confirms that there were "fledgling" souls after the Second Sacrifice

Gleaners collect rarities from around the world.  They've been very hectic of late - as if afraid of losing treasures.

Decision to expand Labyrinthos was made 4 days after Telophoroi declaration, but the plan would have needed to have been made much sooner - they chose to implement AFTER the announcement. -Had to do one of these a few summers back - i.e. 5 years ago or so.   **Theory** This is part of the next arc.  They are using the uncertainty caused by the Telophoroi as a cover.

Gleaner thinks they're migrating south - possibly Meracydia?

Labyrinthos was modeled on Corvos

Heartbloom: flower that responds to emotions, but they don't know how it does so.  low reproductive rate, hard to find younger populations in the wild -the pollen area looks like Hydaelyn's pupil

Sharlayan once was charged with a sacred duty, and now are trying to fulfill it

Hydaelyn ferried someone ELSE to the Aetherial Sea as well as Minfilia's soul - who else? **THEORY** Emet Selch

Society was reshaped to preserve knowledge, rather than knowledge being used to serve society, after a certain event, about 270 years ago -closest event: discovery of what would become the Antitower -when outraged, one of the Forum members became unable to speak -They're all tempred - that's the unanimity.

Montichaigne - head of the studium, friend of Louisoix

Fourchenault was a Sage in his days as a student

Fourchenault only became buried in his work WHEN the twins were born - the Journal Entry?

Moenbryda's parents work for the Confluence The nautilus Aetheryte is experimental - teleports individuals between two aetherytes that are pre-attuned to each other.

Thavnair has two kinds of gods: Manusya - beings of wisdom, forms of man - and Mrga - beings of might, form of beast -were at war, traded heads to understand the other; though now, Manusya are depicted with animal heads, and Mrga with human limbs -Mnga are gods of nature -the earliest Satrap formed a pact with a dragon "deity"

The Great Work is using Dragon Scales to nullify the tower.  Dragons CAN be tempered... but these come from the Dragon "ally" - Vritra most likely -as one of the First Brood, they may be immune to the effects -Daemir family founded the Great Work

The Au Ra came to Thavnair and joined the Arkadosha against the Gajarusa - the ones in the Steppe now The Satrap acts as mediator of disputes needed after hyur came in to area

Fandaniel rememberd someone else trying to do the talisman thing - "Oween" Fandaniel is, as ever, his own worst enemy

Theory: Varshahn is actually the Satrap

Khadga - the sword - the formation in the background of giantsgall - supposedly used by the Mayusa in their war

Supposedly, all others in Varshahn's position have gone to other nations to represent the satrap

Fandaniel's Patrons of Old Fandaniel is AMON?!?  And also isn't sure the memories of Fandaniel fit him right This Fandaniel first remembered being Amon, not Fandaniel Emet Selch had him send a clone to the tower in his stead

Varshahn is a simulacrum that houses one of Vritra's eyes.  Vritra is the true Satrap, hiding behind a puppet to avoid attracting attention

[cryptocoinguides]

VECHAIN WILL BLAST FOR 40% VERY SOON!

VeChain Price Prediction Crypto experts believe VeChain is one of the most underrated cryptocurrencies that have the potential to blow up in the future. So do you think it’s worth investing in it? What might the future hold? Stay tuned to find out! Hi VeChain lovers!

Welcome to VeChain Land, your daily dose of VeChain! If you are interested in everything around VeChain, this is the place for you! Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe for us to provide you with more VeChain news, and let us know in the comments how much you think VeChain will cost next year/month/week!! Let’s get to it.

Know that prices of cryptocurrencies change frequently, so by the time you watch this video it might have changed to a whole new value.

All the financial decisions should be made after doing your own research. For beginners, the VeChain network differs from other projects for several reasons. For one, it uses a blockchain-as-a-service model that helps companies like DHL, Shanghai Gas, and BMW. Firstly, it’s important to establish what Vechain technology is in order to know how it affects the supply chain sector.

Vechain technology was developed mostly to address insecurities faced by many business and enterprise owners, more specifically in a transaction process. It is divided into three sections. These are real-time supply chain tech, cryptocurrency, and the Vechain platform. The developers of Vechain have also used distributed ledger technology to improve the product life cycle management and supply chain protocols. Vechain provides businesses with the opportunity to track a large amount of data and can be bought using trading pairs.

One feature that distinguishes Vechain from other technologies is the fact that it has the ability to blend centralization with decentralization. This provides users with high-speed transfers, transparent information flows, and efficient collaboration. In addition to combining centralization with decentralization, Vechain has several other desirable advantages that help the supply chain industry. One such advantage is Radio Frequency Identification. By adopting RFID sensors and tags, Vechain is able to track essential data while it’s being transferred.

Factors such as temperature, location, and shipment movements are broadcast across the Vechain blockchain. This means that shipments of supplies are less likely to go missing. Another advantage that helps Vechain make a sizable impact on the supply chain industry is its use of the Internet of Things or IoT and DLT technologies. The first to adopt both technologies, Vechain uses IoT to comprise all of the smart device networks used globally. IoT, as well as DLT, also allows for the movement of a large chunk of data from one user to another.

Vechain also uses the dual token strategy. While not an advantage as such, this strategy works by turning tokens into digital cash when Vechain is purchased. This cash can then be spent on the Vechain platform itself or for paying for network services. However, it is essential for users to have a number or the Vechain token to fully be able to track their supply chain operations successfully. In April, the VeChain Foundation implemented a 99% reduction in the Base Gas Price to encourage developers to build apps on the blockchain, tapping into the surge in popularity for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Liquidity provider Wootrade said in April it will support VeChain on bridging native assets including VET cross-chain, offering liquidity and pricing for DApps, providing liquidity for VeChain-based stablecoins, and helping drive adoption of the VeChain ecosystem. Enterprises are more likely to attract quality NFTs to the ecosystem, which is important for its sustainability. To get the most benefits from NFTs, enterprises can develop elements of the ecosystem such as NFT wallets, websites, and apps. Enterprises also have reason to ensure that the legitimate owner of NFTs is enforced, to avoid damaging their reputation.

The VeChainThor blockchain uses a proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus algorithm, which ensures high throughput by allowing nodes to make the best use of network bandwidth for transmitting transactions.

There need to be qualified nodes participating directly in the consensus process to guarantee sufficient decentralization. According to the developers, PoA 2.0 introduces the block-committee mechanism that not only improves network security but further lifts the theoretical upper bound of the maximum throughput of VeChainThor. Moreover, it provides block finality, an absolute guarantee of the safety of the public ledger. PoA 2.0 is currently in testing. The VeChain protocol supports fee delegation, which allows third-party accounts to pay for transactions.

This enables enterprises to obscure the blockchain and increase the usability of their decentralized applications. VeChain notes that trading is essential for the eNFT ecosystem to be sustained. It is focusing on migrating to POA 2.0 to improve the network’s security and scalability, improving tools to assist developers, and incorporating stablecoins into the ecosystem. The blockchain is mainly used in supply chain logistics management and is developed by one of the founders of The Belt and Road Initiative Blockchain Alliance.

This makes it one of the only projects allowed in the country. In addition to that, the developers hold 38 blockchain patents. However, for quite some time, the VeChain price was not immune during the recent crypto sell-off as it dropped to $0.

0665, which was 76% below its highest level on record. The reason behind VeChain’s sudden popularity and rise in price has many reasons. Since VeChain is a blockchain platform designed to enhance supply chain management and streamline business processes, the goal of VeChain crypto is to simplify complex supply chains through the use of distributed ledger technology. VeChain has already collaborated with many famous companies in order to provide supply chain data and tracking solutions, which have made VeChain steadily more popular and a good choice for investors.

While a lot of cryptocurrencies have a high evaluation, not many currencies have a real-world application yet.

On the other hand, VeChain has already demonstrated their product in action, and their platform has been deployed in companies such as BMW, Walmart China, and many more, as mentioned in their official blog. Moreover, as per an article by InvestingCube, VeChain has also started development on Enterprise Non Fungible Tokens. VeChain price is retracing to a stable demand barrier as the previously sparked rally failed to breach past the immediate swing high. The retest of this support level might spark a bull rally, allowing it to cut through massive overhead barriers. Price Predictions for cryptocurrencies can be difficult.

Fortunately, many crypto experts have given their piece predictions for VeChain. Wallet Investor predicts that the VeChain price could go up to $0.19 in June and up to $1 by 2025.

Therefore, with the triangle pattern close to its confluence zone, there is a possibility that the price will have a breakout. At this stage, it is relatively difficult to predict the breakout direction. However, since the triangle formed after a sharp decline, there is a possibility that it will break out lower. VeChain price slid roughly 30% from $0.153 to $0.106 over the past week. VET waits for the bearish momentum to dissipate as it treads closer toward the support level at $0.102. Although unlikely, investors can expect a sweep of the subsequent support level at $0.092 before kick-starting the potential run-up. The buyers will face stiff resistance at the 50% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.129. Breaching this barrier might allow the bulls to extend up to $0.144 or the 62% Fibonacci retracement level.

The leg-up from $0.102 to $0.144 is roughly 40%, but investors need to observe $0.115 and $0.120 levels present in the said range.

VeChain price rally is likely to slow down or halt at these levels if the buyers fail to follow through.

Thus, the upside for VeChain price is well-defined, but the downside has a relatively meager price action and, hence, fewer levels. Although a sweep of $0.092 is likely, a convincing 4-hour candlestick close below this barrier is exceptionally bearish. If such a move were to follow a breakdown of $0.091, the bullish thesis would face invalidation. Under these circumstances, investors can expect VET to slide 25% to the range low at $.0655. VET is waiting for the bearish momentum to dissipate as it treads closer toward the support level at $0.102.

Although unlikely, investors can expect a sweep of the subsequent support level at $0.0924 before kick-starting the potential run-up. The buyers will face stiff resistance at the 50% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.129. However, breaching this barrier might allow the bulls to extend up to $0.1444 or the 62% Fibonacci retracement level.

The leg-up from $0.102 to $0.144 is roughly 40%, but investors need to observe $0.115 and $0.120 levels present in the said range. VeChain price rally is likely to slow down or halt at these levels if the buyers fail to follow through. Well, that is all for today; we hope you liked this video. Tell us more about VeChain in the comment section and make sure to subscribe, and give us a thumbs up! See you next time at VeChain Land.

Read More: $1 VeChain! MUST SEE!!

via VECHAIN WILL BLAST FOR 40% VERY SOON!

[rabbitcruiser]

Shoshone Falls, ID (No. 1)

Shoshone Falls is in the Snake River Canyon on the border of Jerome and Twin Falls Counties, 615 miles (990 km) upstream from the Snake River's confluence with the Columbia River. It is the tallest of several cataracts along this stretch of the Snake River, being located about 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream from Twin Falls and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) upstream from Pillar Falls. Directly above the Shoshone Falls, the Snake River narrows to less than 400 feet (120 m) wide and rushes over a series of rapids split by islands, before plunging over a vertical, horseshoe-shaped cliff 212 feet (65 m) high and 925 feet (282 m) wide. The appearance of the falls varies significantly depending on the amount of water in the Snake River. During high water, the falls appear as a single block stretching the full width of the river. In low water, the falls split into four or more separate drops; the widest, northern section is also called Bridal Veil Falls.

Located in an arid region, Shoshone Falls naturally received most of its water from snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Wyoming near Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and to a lesser extent springs in the Snake River Canyon above Twin Falls. A large number of reservoirs, and massive diversions for the irrigation of nearly 2,000,000 acres (810,000 ha) of farmland, have greatly reduced the volume of water reaching the falls, such that the canyon springs are now the primary water source. The average Snake River flow at the Twin Falls stream gaging station is 3,530 cubic feet per second (100 m3/s). For comparison, the average Snake River flow at Idaho Falls – 190 miles (310 km) upstream – is 5,911 cubic feet per second (167.4 m3/s).[7] The average flow below Milner Dam, 24 miles (39 km) upstream, is just 884 cubic feet per second (25.0 m3/s), and is frequently zero in the late summer and fall.

Shoshone Falls Dam, located directly above the falls, diverts water for hydropower generation and can greatly reduce the flow of the falls in the dry season.

Idaho Power's Shoshone Falls Dam is located directly upstream from the falls and diverts water to the Shoshone hydroelectric plant, further reducing the water volume. Idaho Power is required to maintain a minimum daytime "scenic flow" of 300 cubic feet per second (8.5 m3/s) from April through Labor Day, although even this small flow can be difficult to achieve due to a lack of water in the Snake River.[9] Further complicating the issue is that most irrigation water is needed in the summer, which coincides with the peak tourist season. The Shoshone power plant draws up to 950 cubic feet (27 m3) of water per second; thus, the flow of the falls will only increase if the Snake River flow exceeds the combined plant capacity and scenic flow requirement. The best time to view the falls is between April and June, when snowmelt is peaking, and when water is released from upriver reservoirs to assist steelhead migration.

The highest flow ever recorded at Twin Falls was 32,200 cubic feet per second (910 m3/s) on June 10, 1914, and the lowest was 303 cubic feet per second (8.6 m3/s) on April 1, 2013. On a monthly basis, June generally sees the heaviest flows, at 6,280 cubic feet per second (178 m3/s), and August the lowest flows, 956 cubic feet per second (27.1 m3/s)

Source: Wikipedia

[blind-house]

Recent Work Experience

🧳 IT Specialist | Formstack | Full-time Jun 2011 – Present

Migrate new acquired companies to Formstack G Suite. Merge existing domains from acquired companies to Formstack domain. Help employees with any internal IT issues software or hardware related. Monitor and set up computer systems for employees. Manage company email and domain using G Suite as well as other company accounts such as, Ally, 1Password, Udemy, Atlassian (Jira and Confluence), Slack, Zoom, and Concur. Maintain fixed assets for employees as well as quarterly laptop replacements.

🧳 IT Administrator | Monthly Payment Plan, Inc. | Contract Jun 2011 – Present

Maintain remote AWS server. Xbasee++ and Visual Dialogscript programming. Assist in installing and maintaining company software for agencies on their local network as well as hosted on the Jenesis software servers.

🧳 IT Administrator | InsureSign Jun 2011 – May 2019

IT Administrator and lead developer for InsureSign desktop software (digital document signing software) using Visual Dialogscript and LiveCode. Provide top level IT/tech support. Manage tech support team. Manage company email and domain using SiteGround cPanel from our domain. Manage Amazon Simple Database (SDB) and customer data. Use Slack for internal company communication. Use Groove/ZenDesk/Intercom for customer support tickets. Assist in direction of new updates and testing of web platform. Currently learning JavaScript and PHP. Built frontend to InsureSign Kiosk interface using PHP (http://myinsuresign.com).

Social

LinkedIn | Instagram

Some of my favorite sites

Lifehacker.com | Donationcoder.com | Formstack

[tzunami1]

Let's face it—migrating platforms is hardly ever fun. But if your team's outgrown Atlassian's Confluence or you're bringing digital assets together, Confluence migration is more of a requirement than a choice. Particularly when migrating from Confluence to SharePoint, it's not merely a matter of transferring pages—it's about maintaining knowledge, structure, permissions, and productivity.

[marketingseries]

Blog 1

Blog 1

 Dated – October 2nd, 2020

 About the company:

 Blended Perspectives Inc. is an IT consulting firm based in Toronto, dedicated to enabling the full

 the potential of team collaboration, using Atlassian tools such as Jira, Confluence, and many others. Among their services, they focus on the following parameters- 

     1. Migration of the full suite of our products to our hosting solution

      2. Bitbucket Data centre migration and implementation

     3. Service desk implementation and support

     4. Confluence workflows and advanced configuration

     5. Training for all Atlassian products

     6. Dev Ops implementation utilizing Chef and other automated tools

     7. Agile support, coaching, and facilitation

 Work Experience / Work Responsibility:

 Work responsibility includes ensuring Marketing activities. 

 Assisting in organizing webinars. 

 Create social media content for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and derive publishing the content 3 times a week on those platforms. 

 Conduct Market Research in terms of Marketing tactics and competition. 

 Closing watching the competition and appreciating social media activities of partners and clients. Constantly update the status of the task and constantly follow up with the respective person-in-charge. 

Blended Perspectives conduct a webinar on frequent basics that talk about Atlassian products and they provide consulting in terms of these products that include – Jira, Confluence. Being an IT company that focused on Atlassian products is highly competitive who provides the same product but opts for different measures for it to promote it. The company allies with other partners to deliver their content and their target audience mainly being North America – Canada and the US. The underlying aspect includes how these applications will make the working atmosphere so much as ease wherein working in teams is super smooth and coordinated effectively. The main mode of communication is through Slack (company internal communication application) besides email and task are listed in Jira and Confluence. 

[enreap]

Leading the way in safe Atlassian Cloud Migration and Administration in Singapore and Dubai

We have a well-thought-out strategy in place to fulfil our commitments to you. Given the importance of the Atlassian cloud migration process to your company, we thoroughly examine both your operations and our plan before moving forward with it. As a result, we provide you with an overview of your infrastructure along with our knowledge so you can choose how to proceed. to create and implement the safest, most effective, and efficient cloud migration possible. 

Use our Atlassian Cloud Migration Services in Dubai to start a smooth cloud migration. As we skillfully manage your migration, you can be confident of increased cooperation and output. Put your trust in us to optimise performance for unmatched efficiency while streamlining your Atlassian tools. Elevate your company in Dubai with our customised cloud-based workspace solutions that are fit for the future."

Our Atlassian Cloud Migration Service in Singapore ensures increased flexibility and productivity by moving your Atlassian tools to the cloud in a seamless manner. Our professional services ensure a seamless move while maximising efficiency for unmatched production. You may rely on us to improve your company in Singapore by providing customised cloud-based workspace solutions.

Jira Service Management Solutions in Singapore simplify your processes, improve communication, and provide outstanding customer service. To match your unique business requirements, our knowledgeable staff tailors Jira Service Management, guaranteeing prompt incident response and proactive problem-solving. With a strong platform, empower your team from request to resolution. 

We deliver unmatched knowledge to optimise your project management and collaboration as your go-to Atlassian Partner in Singapore. Comprehensive Atlassian solutions customised to your business requirements are provided by our qualified team.

We equip your teams with Jira Software and Confluence to increase productivity and efficiency. Take advantage of successful integration, knowledgeable assistance, and creative solutions. Improve project management with a dependable Atlassian Partner in Singapore that is dedicated to giving your company outstanding outcomes.

Using the help of our Jira Service Management Solutions in Dubai, revolutionise your service management. Our expertise lies in customising Jira Service Management to your specific business needs, guaranteeing efficient processes and excellent handling of incidents. 

Our knowledgeable staff enables your company to provide proactive and effective service. You can rely on our solutions to improve the skills of your team by managing inquiries and providing resolutions. Join forces with us to enhance your business performance and streamline your service management procedures in Dubai's ever-changing environment.

To summarise, unique advantages include our seasoned DevOps consultants, our in-depth understanding of cloud computing, our cross-industry experience, our steadfast adherence to security, and our never-ending pursuit of process improvement. 

conclusion 

"A strategic and secure Atlassian cloud migration is guaranteed in Dubai and Singapore by Enreap, your reliable partner. Your business demands are given priority in our comprehensive assessments and customised programmes. Work more effectively and collaboratively with our knowledgeable management. As your Atlassian Partner in Singapore, we provide complete solutions to improve your project management with Jira Software and Confluence. 

[whenelephantswereyoung]

Some Superheroes Have Tusks

Photo:  Melanie Hittrich                                                              

Elephants are critical players in the fight against the climate crisis. We need them. But because of that *other* global crisis, they’re more vulnerable than ever. They need us, too.

By Lance Gould

World Elephant Day is, of course, a global celebration of the planet’s largest land mammal. But while humans on the planet are battling two existential emergencies �� the pandemic and the climate crisis — it’s worth noting that elephants can play a critical role in preventing both.

With global attention understandably focused on the more immediate dangers of the COVID-19 crisis, the climate crisis has gotten short shrift. But if you think the novel coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it, just wait to see what cataclysmic consequences await us when global temperatures rise just 2 degrees Celsius. That path is virtually assured unless we drastically change course on greenhouse gas emissions and a number of other environment-destroying policies that are threatening life on the planet.

We are going to need all the help we can get to fight the climate crisis, which, to be clear, will be considerably harder to navigate than COVID. To fight rising global temperatures, we’ll need assistance from key allies — like elephants.

Elephants and other megaherbivores (rhinos and hippos) are undercover climate change superheroes, which play a key role in keeping the planet cooler. The three recognized species of elephants (bush and forest elephants in Africa, and the Asian elephant) mitigate temperature rise in two types of essential ecosystems: grasslands and forests:

Grasslands reflect sunlight away from the planet’s surface, reducing solar radiation and keeping temperatures cooler.

Forests — particularly hardwood forests — are essential storers of carbon.

Guardians of both, elephants help maintain balance between the two habitats. Without elephants, notes professor Graham Kerley, director of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at South Africa’s Nelson Mandela University, “trees and bushes would take over the grasslands … and grasslands would take over the tree and forest areas.”

Elephants “contribute to the dispersal of the seeds for hardwood trees and are therefore essential to the growth of hardwoods that grow slowly and hold their carbon for long periods.”

A keystone species, elephants also play critical roles in keeping soil healthy and nutrient rich. Healthy soil is essential to carbon sequestration (drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ground), considered one of the most important solutions to fighting climate change.

So humans don’t even realize how much we need elephants.

Of course, ever since COVID hit, elephants need us more than ever, too. It’s a symbiotic, existential relationship that is imperiled by the twin crises of the moment.

Avoiding ‘Hundreds of Thousands of Novel Viruses’

Photo: Bruere Kloppers

Elephants were already in deep trouble before the COVID-19 crisis hit. Between poachers slaying at least 20,000 African elephants a year, the ever-dwindling numbers of Asian elephants in the wild, and humans encroaching ever further into elephant ecosystems, elephant numbers globally are at a flashpoint.

The organization that monitors the planet’s fauna and flora health — the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — listed the two African species as “vulnerable” and the Asian elephants as “endangered” on it’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Now that the pandemic has hit, elephants will be subject to even greater dangers, and that is primarily because of the shutdown of global tourism.

The tourism shutdown has crippled the artificial elephant ecosystems in much of Asia, where in most countries with elephant populations (exception: India), the numbers of captive elephants outweigh the wild populations. Since global travel has cutoff tourists from elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka, elephant keepers (known as mahouts) have been challenged to come up with the funds to feed their quarry. Elephants consume huge amounts of food and without guest-admission revenue, there is no income to feed the elephants. Returning them to the wild is near impossible, because there really is no “wild” where human incursion has not yet reached.

In Africa, the greatest threat to elephants are poachers, driven by international criminal cartels that receive astronomical sums for elephant tusks. Just as it has their Asian cousins, the tourism shutdown has impacted African elephants, but in Africa it has manifest in reducing the two biggest obstacles for poachers: 1) tourists, highly visible, whose presence deters poachers, and 2) rangers, who actively serve to protect wildlife.

The sudden vanishing of tourists has led to an increase in poaching, as well as to a revenue drought to support rangers. Tourism and travel contribute $169 billion to the continent’s combined economy, representing more than 7% of combined GDP. But the shutdown of tourism has devastated economies in Africa, and rangers are fighting off emboldened poachers, more desperate for the economic riches the illegal contraband of elephant tusks, rhino horn, and other animal prizes will bring. Twelve rangers in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were killed in April, attacked by armed militias.

Arguably worse for the planet, the tourism shutdown’s negative impacts on global and local economies has also led to an increase in another, non-commercial kind of poaching: subsistence poaching, for food.

Considering the circumstances that have given rise to our current pandemic, the more interaction that humans have with wildlife species, the more vulnerable both species are to zoonotic diseases, which jump from one species to another.

When poaching goes from commercial to subsistence, that raises an alarm with epidemiologists, because that’s where novel coronaviruses come from. The renowned epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant — who helped eradicate smallpox — cited as much in a Ted Talk in 2007, in which he laid out the case for a causal link between climate change and pandemic threats. Megatrends, such as climate change, he noted, had set off a domino sequence of unexpected effects, from desertification to urban migration to soil depletion, which “disproportionately harm the poorest and the most vulnerable.” This confluence of circumstances has led to “humans turning more towards animal consumption,” and, in 2006, the consumption, for example, by Africans of 600 million wild animals and consumed 2 billion kilograms of bushmeat.”

“Every kilogram of bushmeat,” he noted presciently more than a decade ago, “contained hundreds of thousands of novel viruses that have never been charted, the genomic sequences of which we don’t know, their fitness for creating pandemics we are unaware of, but we are ripe for zoonotic-born emerging communicable diseases.”

Navigating the current pandemic has challenged every nation on the planet — some much more than others. The idea that there are hundreds of thousands more novel viruses out there — and that they are a hungry person’s meal away from impacting huge swaths of the world’s population — should give us all pause, and focus a global effort on saving elephants and other wild creatures. Likewise, if we imagine how much worse the challenges of the climate crisis will be than the pandemic — a scenario in which no looming vaccine will alleviate the crisis — it is clear that we need to stand up for and protect elephants and other megaherbivores.

Lance Gould is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of the media-strategy firm Silicon Valley Story Lab. He is also on the board of World Elephant Day’s public charity, World Elephant Society, and is a commissioner on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Commission on Education and Communication.

[worldelephantday]

Some Superheroes Have Tusks

Photo:  Melanie Hittrich                                        

Elephants are critical players in the fight against the climate crisis. We need them. But because of that *other* global crisis, they’re more vulnerable than ever. They need us, too.

By Lance Gould

World Elephant Day is, of course, a global celebration of the planet’s largest land mammal. But while humans on the planet are battling two existential emergencies — the pandemic and the climate crisis — it’s worth noting that elephants can play a critical role in preventing both.

With global attention understandably focused on the more immediate dangers of the COVID-19 crisis, the climate crisis has gotten short shrift. But if you think the novel coronavirus has disrupted life as we know it, just wait to see what cataclysmic consequences await us when global temperatures rise just 2 degrees Celsius. That path is virtually assured unless we drastically change course on greenhouse gas emissions and a number of other environment-destroying policies that are threatening life on the planet.

We are going to need all the help we can get to fight the climate crisis, which, to be clear, will be considerably harder to navigate than COVID. To fight rising global temperatures, we’ll need assistance from key allies — like elephants.

Elephants and other megaherbivores (rhinos and hippos) are undercover climate change superheroes, which play a key role in keeping the planet cooler. The three recognized species of elephants (bush and forest elephants in Africa, and the Asian elephant) mitigate temperature rise in two types of essential ecosystems: grasslands and forests:

Grasslands reflect sunlight away from the planet’s surface, reducing solar radiation and keeping temperatures cooler.

Forests — particularly hardwood forests — are essential storers of carbon.

Guardians of both, elephants help maintain balance between the two habitats. Without elephants, notes professor Graham Kerley, director of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at South Africa’s Nelson Mandela University, “trees and bushes would take over the grasslands … and grasslands would take over the tree and forest areas.”

Elephants “contribute to the dispersal of the seeds for hardwood trees and are therefore essential to the growth of hardwoods that grow slowly and hold their carbon for long periods.”

A keystone species, elephants also play critical roles in keeping soil healthy and nutrient rich. Healthy soil is essential to carbon sequestration (drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ground), considered one of the most important solutions to fighting climate change.

So humans don’t even realize how much we need elephants.

Of course, ever since COVID hit, elephants need us more than ever, too. It’s a symbiotic, existential relationship that is imperiled by the twin crises of the moment.

Avoiding ‘Hundreds of Thousands of Novel Viruses’

Photo: Bruere Kloppers

Elephants were already in deep trouble before the COVID-19 crisis hit. Between poachers slaying at least 20,000 African elephants a year, the ever-dwindling numbers of Asian elephants in the wild, and humans encroaching ever further into elephant ecosystems, elephant numbers globally are at a flashpoint.

The organization that monitors the planet’s fauna and flora health — the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — listed the two African species as “vulnerable” and the Asian elephants as “endangered” on it’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Now that the pandemic has hit, elephants will be subject to even greater dangers, and that is primarily because of the shutdown of global tourism.

The tourism shutdown has crippled the artificial elephant ecosystems in much of Asia, where in most countries with elephant populations (exception: India), the numbers of captive elephants outweigh the wild populations. Since global travel has cutoff tourists from elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka, elephant keepers (known as mahouts) have been challenged to come up with the funds to feed their quarry. Elephants consume huge amounts of food and without guest-admission revenue, there is no income to feed the elephants. Returning them to the wild is near impossible, because there really is no “wild” where human incursion has not yet reached.

In Africa, the greatest threat to elephants are poachers, driven by international criminal cartels that receive astronomical sums for elephant tusks. Just as it has their Asian cousins, the tourism shutdown has impacted African elephants, but in Africa it has manifest in reducing the two biggest obstacles for poachers: 1) tourists, highly visible, whose presence deters poachers, and 2) rangers, who actively serve to protect wildlife.

The sudden vanishing of tourists has led to an increase in poaching, as well as to a revenue drought to support rangers. Tourism and travel contribute $169 billion to the continent’s combined economy, representing more than 7% of combined GDP. But the shutdown of tourism has devastated economies in Africa, and rangers are fighting off emboldened poachers, more desperate for the economic riches the illegal contraband of elephant tusks, rhino horn, and other animal prizes will bring. Twelve rangers in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were killed in April, attacked by armed militias.

Arguably worse for the planet, the tourism shutdown’s negative impacts on global and local economies has also led to an increase in another, non-commercial kind of poaching: subsistence poaching, for food.

Considering the circumstances that have given rise to our current pandemic, the more interaction that humans have with wildlife species, the more vulnerable both species are to zoonotic diseases, which jump from one species to another.

When poaching goes from commercial to subsistence, that raises an alarm with epidemiologists, because that’s where novel coronaviruses come from. The renowned epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant — who helped eradicate smallpox — cited as much in a Ted Talk in 2007, in which he laid out the case for a causal link between climate change and pandemic threats. Megatrends, such as climate change, he noted, had set off a domino sequence of unexpected effects, from desertification to urban migration to soil depletion, which “disproportionately harm the poorest and the most vulnerable.” This confluence of circumstances has led to “humans turning more towards animal consumption,” and, in 2006, the consumption, for example, by Africans of 600 million wild animals and consumed 2 billion kilograms of bushmeat.”

“Every kilogram of bushmeat,” he noted presciently more than a decade ago, “contained hundreds of thousands of novel viruses that have never been charted, the genomic sequences of which we don’t know, their fitness for creating pandemics we are unaware of, but we are ripe for zoonotic-born emerging communicable diseases.”

Navigating the current pandemic has challenged every nation on the planet — some much more than others. The idea that there are hundreds of thousands more novel viruses out there — and that they are a hungry person’s meal away from impacting huge swaths of the world’s population — should give us all pause, and focus a global effort on saving elephants and other wild creatures. Likewise, if we imagine how much worse the challenges of the climate crisis will be than the pandemic — a scenario in which no looming vaccine will alleviate the crisis — it is clear that we need to stand up for and protect elephants and other megaherbivores.

Lance Gould is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of the media-strategy firm Silicon Valley Story Lab. He is also on the board of World Elephant Day’s public charity, World Elephant Society, and is a commissioner on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Commission on Education and Communication.

[khalilhumam]

Will the Afghan peace process be Pakistan’s road to redemption?

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New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/will-the-afghan-peace-process-be-pakistans-road-to-redemption/

Will the Afghan peace process be Pakistan’s road to redemption?

By Madiha Afzal About a year after President Trump publicly excoriated Pakistan for “lies and deceit” and cut off security assistance in early 2018, the country became the key third player in the U.S.-Taliban peace talks. It was a swift change of fortune, even by the standards of Pakistan’s typical ups and downs with the United States. By February 2020, when the U.S.-Taliban peace deal was signed, Pakistan had not only propelled itself back into America’s good graces, it was testing out an ambitious new approach to foreign policy, hoping that it could begin to shed its image of a state associated with terror. The pandemic has paused this new phase somewhat, as Pakistan and others have had to turn inward, but that may be temporary.

A return to relevance

When Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed U.S. envoy to the Afghan peace process in September 2018, Pakistanis were worried. Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was known for his skepticism on Pakistan. Over the next year and a half, almost each one of Khalilzad’s trips to the region included a visit to Islamabad. Tracing his statements over time, you can see his reliance on Pakistan increasing, and his tone softening. In many ways, Pakistan was uniquely positioned to take advantage of the two-phase structure of the peace process — the Taliban refused to negotiate with Kabul until a U.S.-Taliban deal was signed — because of Pakistan’s relationships with both the U.S. and the Taliban. It seems to have done so masterfully, producing Mullah Baradar, the deputy leader of the Taliban who had been in Pakistani custody, and engaging in behind-the-scenes maneuvering that the U.S. has repeatedly acknowledged (and appreciated). Pakistan helped bring the Taliban to the table, ultimately resulting in a deal. Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was present at the peace deal signing in Doha on February 29, warmly congratulating both sides. Perhaps a deal would have been signed anyway. The Taliban got everything it wanted, securing — in its eyes — a U.S. surrender for an absolute minimum in promises. President Trump, meanwhile, had his mind set on exiting Afghanistan, and wanted a deal before the election. That may cast doubt on how much Pakistan did, or why. Regardless, it was Pakistan sitting at the table alongside the two parties to the deal in the end. Having long worried about other players in Afghanistan, mainly India — indeed its calculations on Afghanistan are based precisely on that worry — that was exactly what Pakistan wanted. Trump and Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan’s relationship got off to a somewhat rocky start. A few months after Khan’s election in July 2018, the two populists exchanged a war of words on Twitter over U.S. aid to Pakistan and the country’s role in the war on terror. But by December, soon after Khalilzad’s first trip to the region as U.S. envoy, Trump had written Khan a letter asking for his help in the Afghan peace process. There was a key confluence of interests on the Pakistani side: Khan has long opposed an American military presence in Afghanistan and favored a negotiated settlement with the Taliban; the Pakistani army, meanwhile, recognized that an ascendant Taliban meant that any power-sharing arrangement accompanying a peace deal would likely align with Pakistan’s vision of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan (i.e. a Pakistan-friendly government in Afghanistan). These factors prompted Pakistan to help get the Afghan Taliban to the table. In January 2019, Senator Lindsay Graham visited Pakistan and met with Khan to talk about “reconciliation with the Taliban.” Graham then paved the way for Khan and Trump to meet. They personally hit it off at their White House meeting in July 2019, and have met multiple times since, including on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The relationship seems to have been reset.

Foreign policy ambitions

At the same time that Pakistan made itself useful to the United States in Afghanistan, President Trump toned down his rhetoric branding Pakistan a terrorist state. Pakistan also received an IMF bailout, and its status with the Financial Action Task Force — an international watchdog — stayed constant at a warning “grey” level. A more confident Pakistan began trying out an ambitious, proactive new approach to its foreign policy. In the fall of 2019, after meeting Trump at the U.N., Khan offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Pakistan has long balanced its relations between those two countries, but inserting itself in the middle so publicly and deliberately suggested a new tack. After the U.S. killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in January, Pakistan lost no time in inserting itself diplomatically in the U.S.-Iran conflict. Khan said he would be happy to mediate; the chief of army staff urged “maximum restraint” and de-escalation in a phone call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and much the same in a phone call with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper; and Foreign Minister Qureshi promptly visited Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United States. Pakistan’s efforts at the time seemed evocative of the country’s foreign policy under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s, with its principles of nonalignment and a special relationship with Muslim countries. As the country began dealing with the health and economic fallout from the pandemic, Khan sent out a call, on behalf of all developing countries, to industrialized nations and multilateral institutions for debt relief. The G-20 and International Monetary Fund have agreed to suspend all debt payments for developing countries through the rest of the year. Khan’s government claimed this as a victory, saying Khan had led the charge for relief on behalf of other developing nations. What of China and India? With China, Pakistan’s closest ally, Pakistan’s relationship remains constant. With India, Pakistan has limited itself to strident rhetoric since the revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy, and no more; nevertheless, tensions at the border have been running high. The question that remains is: Will Pakistan’s approach to militant groups — the Haqqanis in particular — substantively change? The suspicions post-9/11 on Pakistan’s notorious double-game — giving haven to terrorists while also cooperating on counterterrorism with the United States — run deep. To answer this, it is worth understanding what Pakistan wants in Afghanistan.

What Pakistan wants in Afghanistan

There are two things Pakistan does not want in Afghanistan. The first is a hasty American withdrawal. To Pakistan, that evokes the time period after the Soviet-Afghan war, which fueled its sense of and narrative of abandonment, setting the stage for many of Pakistan’s subsequent destructive behaviors. Pakistan also does not want an unfriendly government in Kabul — to be precise, it does not want a government that is more friendly with India than it is with Pakistan. And it is no secret that it has had a rough relationship with the current Afghan government. Thus, one could conjecture that Pakistan wants some kind of power-sharing arrangement to emerge in Afghanistan. If the Taliban has a large enough role, the government is likely to be friendlier to Pakistan. But I would caution against assuming that Pakistan wants the Taliban in complete control in Afghanistan. For one, Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban is not seamless. Two, Pakistan does not want an Islamic emirate in the vein of 1990s Afghanistan on its western border. That didn’t work out well for Pakistan — and a sequence of events led to it becoming the target of terror for years. In some ways, the status quo is working for Pakistan. It seeks to sustain its status as a key player in some form through the second phase of Taliban-Kabul talks, with a slow U.S. withdrawal. Of course, that status is not guaranteed during intra-Afghan talks, given Pakistan’s tough relationship with Kabul. But its chief of army staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited Kabul recently, meeting both President Ashraf Ghani and High Council for National Reconciliation leader Abdullah Abdullah, and those relationships seem to have improved in some ways.

A road to redemption?

Will any of this change Pakistan’s fundamental calculus in the long-term, or alter the strategic imperatives that have led it to rely on militant proxies? Will Pakistan ultimately let go of its support for the Haqqani network? The short answer is that it hasn’t proven yet that it will. The State Department, in its latest country reports on terrorism, notes that the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban still have safe haven in Pakistan. Pakistan would need a wholesale redefinition of policy to let go of its (existential) insecurities (vis-à-vis India, that lead it to “invest” in militant proxies on both its western and eastern borders). This is easier said than done, since the military thrives on those insecurities. As long as the military, the prime architect of Pakistan’s jihadist foreign policy to date, remains the most powerful institution in Pakistan, it is hard to argue that anything will change. Worryingly, Pakistan’s military has significantly consolidated its hold on the civilian government in the last two years. Domestically, it is increasingly cracking down on dissent. And Pakistan’s laws and educational policies that have given rise domestically to extremism remain intact as ever. Its prime minister, too, engages in narratives sympathetic to terrorist groups; he did so again on June 25, when he alarmingly referred to Osama bin Laden as a martyr. But Pakistan has also enjoyed the benefits of being back at the table, and it badly wants to shed its image associated with terrorism. It knows that cracking down on terrorist groups brings economic and soft-power benefits — directly, via its status with the Financial Action Task Force, and more broadly as well. Ultimately, if the benefits of this newer approach start to outweigh the net benefits Pakistan perceives from hedging its bets and from relying on militant proxies, Pakistan’s long-term policies could slowly start to shift.

What the United States can do

The United States can nudge it along that path by raising both the costs of Pakistan’s old behaviors and the benefits of its new ones. The obvious way to do this in one move would have been to condition Pakistan’s seat at the table for the Afghanistan talks on it definitively denouncing the Haqqanis, with proof — but that did not happen. Going forward, Pakistan’s Financial Action Task Force status should be tied more closely to it cutting its ties to the Haqqanis. And two potential carrots are the best bet to incentivize good behavior on Pakistan’s part: First, Pakistan appreciates and closely follows any positive diplomatic language and attention it receives from the U.S., so the State Department and White House should praise Pakistan when it behaves well (as the Trump administration has done to some extent). Pakistan indicated, for instance, its “disappointment” with the State Department’s recently released country reports on terrorism, including by saying the report had not acknowledged the full scale of its help with the Afghan peace process. Secondly, more than aid, Pakistan wants to increase its trade with the United States. Trump promised a great deal more trade with Pakistan in his first meeting with Khan. The U.S. can now condition any expanded trade on Pakistan’s good behavior. And the U.S. government should privately be absolutely clear with Pakistan on what behaviors it is rewarding, and what it is punishing.