#<- i.e. chair post. that was the same level of research as this one but at least this one i could find actual sources about....
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Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards
I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?
I. Magic Tricks
You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)
But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."
In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.
II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets
This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?
From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.
Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)
2008.
Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible
2009.
Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?
2010.
This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!
2011.
Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards
2012.
This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??
2013.
Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form
2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):
For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one
2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):
The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"
III. Why Does This Matter?
*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs
This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!
There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.
But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(
#yes its finals week and im up to my eyes in coursework but instead decided to spend like 5 hours researching and writing this post#nah bcs i actually genuinely put more work into this then I think I have all semester dsfjdskjg#that thing about him using a condom and teddy bear in a magic trick genuinely had me crying with laugher. actual tears rolling down my face#<- HOW!?!? WHAT WAS THE TRICK?? its literally inconceivable to me what he did. oh if only there were pics UGH#anyways!! this post was a lot of fun to make!! i really really love the symbolism and design of helmets so this was a rly fun project#and i also went down a lot of rabbitholes while make this and saw many very weird articles from yore#i feel like i make an equal amnt of deranged posts abt seb and nando but i dont know why nando is gifted w all my well researched projects#<- i.e. chair post. that was the same level of research as this one but at least this one i could find actual sources about....#idk theres smth about the extremely long history of nando's history that evokes research posts like this KLAJSLSKDJ#theres just so much that i dont think I ever really see people discussing! so i must create.#haha what was that joke tag i wanted to make abt my researched posts? I think:#normal posts that catie normally makes in a normal fashion#<- one day ill go back and actually tag posts w that. bcs the amtn of research compared to my actual schoolwork is so unwell#fernando alonso#fa14#f1#formula 1#catie.rambling.txt#we do a little bit of f1
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THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!
YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE! YOU THOUGHT THAT THE TIME OF MONSTERS WAS AT AN END! BUT YOU WERE WRONG, FOR NOW YOU MUST WITNESS…
THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!
That’s right, it’s back! Celebrating the publication of The Atomic Time of Monsters Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! (which in turn completes The Ballad of Tyrantis arc for this series), I’m holding another monster design jam. The third of such jams, in fact!
Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters. Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie. That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here. But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!
(also you don’t have to make a three dimensional image or anything, the title’s just a pun on how the third movie in a monster movie franchise will often be a 3-D film)
Read below the cut to learn the rules and whatnot:
THE RULES:
1. You are limited to one entry per person. Work hard and make your entry count!
2. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Using the same template/format as my official ATOM Kaiju Files (https://horrorflora.com/monster-menageries/atom-kaiju-files/) isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!
3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories. This is not “trick TT into drawing/canonizing my main OC” time.
4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM. I’ll explain this in more detail down below.
5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.
6. Don’t make your kaiju too dependent on pre-existing ATOM characters - no “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.
THE REWARDS:
I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.
I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.
The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs). That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS! (Hey, we worked the gag title in to the prizes!)
THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by July 3rd, 2021. You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through. I’m in a lot of places.
THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN):
The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject. In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, there are now TWO, count ‘em, TWO novels in this series for you to peruse, both of which establish many of the rules of the setting as well as its general themes and tone! You can get them in either paperback or e-book formatting (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1). Here’s the links again if you missed them:
Vol. 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us!
Vol. 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth!
However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:
ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist. If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.
Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules. There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:
ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy. In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process). However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.
All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of. Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).
ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.
Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla. There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.
In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use. There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.
Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.
While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.
ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds. You can learn more about retrosaurs here (https://horrorflora.com/2016/11/15/atom-kaiju-file-bonus-a-guide-to-retrosaurs/).
Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.
North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.
East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.
Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.
Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric. Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.
Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.
Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life. The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem). Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:
Venusians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/
Martians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/
Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive. Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.
Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi. Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it. So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.
ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to coexist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them. A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.
Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.
Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
And here’s the intro cutscenes for all the different giant monsters in the PS2 videogame War of the Monsters.
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My experiences with racism in Academia
It is January 8th, 2018, in Toronto. You have spent the last twenty months perfecting your craft. There have been failures, tears, heartbreaks, and successes. You are in a room filled with four university professors, all white, all well respected and highly cited. It is the day you find out if you have done enough to earn a master’s degree from Canada’s top research university. To say you are nervous is an understatement; you are more focussed than anything- athletes often call this the flow state. Your presentation goes off without a hitch but now you await the most daunting of tasks- to defend your research to a group of people who will ultimately decide your professional future. The chair of your committee asks you, “why haven’t you collected any data on this plant from its native range?” to which you respond, “it is too dangerous to go to the Crimea/Russia border”. The chair then proceeds to say, “it’s kind of like how your people shouldn’t be going to the states”. After what felt like an eternity in silence, you proceed to say, “what do you mean your people”, but before you could finish, your advisor asks a pertinent question about your thesis- one that you answer instantly. After all is said and done, you learn you have received your master’s degree, and most of your committee lauds your handling of the racist comment. You have been appreciated for staying silent and not causing a ruckus. This is what it means to be a person of color in academia, people will often celebrate your success and your silence but won’t acknowledge the barriers that make succeeding so hard.
Fast forward to the fall of 2018, you find one of your dad’s old external hard drives filled with documents. You find yourself looking at a recommendation letter that a fellow academic gave your father for the job that he ultimately received. It basically goes through the typical stuff, “very bright” and “works hard” but you stumble on something concerning. It reads, “Navjot has an Indian accent, but he is working on it to sound less like a foreigner”, and “sometimes he is unable to pronounce words because he is originally from India”. This is what it means to be a person of color in academia, people who are supposed to speak highly of you, feel the need to mention that you sound non-white. Let’s not forget that this is a person recommending someone for a university professorship. And people have to nerve to say overt racism doesn’t exist in places of higher education.
Fast forward twelve months, and it is the middle of June in Smithers, British Columbia. You are meeting your Ph.D. advisors and a first nations liaison to discuss summer research plans. The conversations seem to be flowing nicely until the liaison says something about the Indian act. Without a moment’s hesitation, he looks at you and says, “but not your kind of Indian”. No one is much the wiser that you have been hearing comments like that throughout your life. This is what it means to be a person of color in academia, you have to navigate the realm of white fragility/guilt and take on the role of a diversity/inclusion educator without anybody checking in with you to see if you are in the right state of mind to have conversation regarding equity, diversity or inclusion.
Throughout my undergraduate degree, I had to work three jobs to support myself- which isn’t uncommon for people of color- yet I was one of the lucky ones because my family had saved enough money for me to not worry about my actual tuition fees. Instead, I had to worry about housing, textbooks, stationery, food, and other expenses, which easily were twice or three times more expensive than my yearly tuition. Not to mention that six weeks before the start of my first year of university, my father passed away because of a particularly deadly form of cancer. My graduating GPA from university was a 2.98, yet this number follows me as I continue my journey in academia. I am in the second year of my Ph.D., and I have failed in all of my pursuits to get graduate funding. During my master’s degree, I had three jobs to support myself, and my proudest moment came when I was able to publish my first paper as a lead author. Something none of the master’s students in my lab previously had ever done. The words of the rapper Dave ring in my ears, “It’s working twice as hard as the people you know you’re better than cause you need to do double what they do so you can level them”.
I have been a teaching assistant for nine classes so far in my graduate degree. I always ask my students where they see themselves in the future. I have yet to hear any student of color say that they want to be an academic. In discussions with these students, they always say the same thing, “we don’t see people that look like us in academic positions”. This is why addressing inequities is so vital in academia. Academic institutions are some of the least diverse spaces I have ever been- especially the higher you go. As a community, we need to start valuing something other than GPA for scholarships to both undergraduate and graduate students. We need to shift our focus away from how many papers a scientist has published when choosing between two different white people for an academic job. We need to stop saying we encourage people from marginalized communities to apply for academic positions without removing the barriers that prevent them from applying- i.e., getting a master’s degree, Ph.D. We, as ecologists and evolutionary biologists need to do better. Until my time in academia is up, I promise to continue with this pursuit.
Those of us that are pursuing academia need to also understand its colonial history. It wasn’t until 1984 that institutions in Canada were required to increase workplace diversity especially in groups that were considered minorities- women, people with disabilities, people of color. Many studies have recently been published on gender diversity in ecology, yet next to nothing is mentioned about racial diversity. It is almost as most academics don’t understand that diversity is intersectional and is not solely based on gender- surprising I know. Saying an institution is diverse based on male-female ratio is like saying 90% of an iceberg’s mass is on its surface- it’s incorrect. I know many of the topics in this blog post probably make you feel uncomfortable and that is a good sign. It means you must educate yourself on your privileges and do more to support those of us from visible minorities. We as a society like to act like freedom given to people of color happened centuries ago and this is misguided. Those very same systematic inequities that regarded people of color as less are still seen today in academia. The only difference is whether you will join the fight for equality for all or be a passive observer, the choice is yours.
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Feeling Touch Starved
These last few weeks I have been feeling desperately, hopelessly touch starved which is not a new feeling for me but I have never felt it to this degree. Normally I can more or less cope, but for some reason, in this age of social distancing, seven months into quarantine I am overwhelmed with this need for physical touch. My sleep schedule is completely wrecked and I don’t want to anything even though I am not depressed. I thought it was hormones at first, but I have felt this way for weeks now and it has become clear it is defiantly touch starvation. So today I did what I do best: research. I figured I would share what I found here in case someone else finds this helpful. Maybe sometime in the future I will create a graphic summarizing the important stuff, but if you want to skip all the boring background stuff you can find the coping strategies I discovered at the bottom.
What Does It Mean to Be Touch Starved?
People are meant to touch each other. It is part of our programing. When we don’t get that physical connection we need, we become touch starved. Of course, each person is unique and have different limits in terms of how much physical touch we need but the underlying need remains the same.
“When someone is [touch] starved, it’s like someone who is starved for food. They want to eat, but they can’t. Their psyche and their body want to touch someone, but they can’t do it because of… fear. Whether that is a fear of breaking cultural norms, personal anxiety, or spreading COVID-19.”
- Dr. Asim Shad, professor and executive vice chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine
Touch starvation doesn’t not only apply to intimate or sensual touch but encompasses all forms of tactile interaction: handshakes, friendly hugs, pats on the back, etc.
Touch starvation is pervasive around the world, but it is more common in countries and cultures that are touch averse, such as the United States. Growing up in this culture, my brain has come to associate nearly every form of physical contact as sexual, even when I know this is not true. This is a big problem for me, being asexual. I catch myself wanting to initiate physical contact with my friends but I never do. Instead I sit there just thinking about it. I know it wouldn’t be a sexual touch, but do they know that? Would they think I am weird? Would it make them uncomfortable? And so on and so forth. I can never seem to break through this wall.
Why is touch important?
Skin-to-skin contact is vital for not only mental and emotional health, but physical health, too.
When you feel overwhelmed or pressured, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol triggers the body’s “flight-or-fight” response, which can increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and muscle tension, and can suppress the digestive system and immune system. Every single physical disease including heart attack, diabetes, hypertension, asthma is affected by anxiety, stress, depression, or other mental health issues. One of the best ways to counteract these affects is skin-to-skin contact.
Touch stimulates pressure receptors in the skin that transport signals to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body, and is connected with the parasympathetic nervous system. It touches every major organ, and helps you rest and digest. Stimulating the vagus nerve sends signals to slow the pace of the nervous system there-by reducing stress.
In addition to the vagus nerve, scientists have found that nerve endings in the skin, known as C-tactile afferents, exists to recognize any form of gentle touch. Stimulating these nerves results in an immediate release of oxytocin. Oxytocin increases positive, feel-good sensations of trust, emotional bonding and social connection, while simultaneously decreasing fear and anxiety responses in the brain. For this reason, oxytocin is affectionately known as the “cuddle hormone.”
How do you know if you’re touch starved?
There’s no definitive way to know if you are touch starved. But pay attrition to what your mind and your body are telling you. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but signs to look out for include:
feelings of depression
feelings of loneliness or exclusion
anxiety
stress
irritability or aggression
issues with body image
low relationship satisfaction
difficulty sleeping
a tendency to avoid secure attachments
I realized that I was touch starved when I saw a couple posts about it on Tumblr and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. In the past when I have spent time with my friends, I have found my mind wandering to thoughts of what it would be like to reach out and touch them: to hold their hand, to hug them, to lean on them, to play with their hair, etc. But I have always been afraid to act on these impulses. When I get my hair cut or have a massage I relish in the sensation of physical touch, because I am not getting it from anywhere else. I have never realized until now that physical touch is something that I have been missing in my life. But reflecting now, it is really obvious and is probably contributing to my issues of stress and anxiety.
What if you don’t particularly like being touched — can you still be touch starved?
YES! Absolutely.
Touch is an intimate thing and it is something we link closely to trust. For a lot of people, it is difficult to initiate physical connection for various reasons. It can be hard to determine what level of touch is appropriate i.e. should you go for a hug or a handshake. People on the neurodiverse or asexual spectrums are also often uncomfortable with touching. People’s comfort level with touch varies with their personality as well as their background. Statistically, people who grew up with touchy-feely families or cultures are going to be more comfortable with physical connection. Touch deprivation can actually create a self-reinforcing cycle where we feel alienated from others and therefore begin to shy away from social contact.
However, just because someone doesn’t like being touched under normal circumstances doesn’t mean that they can’t find themselves touch starved. In a general sense I don’t like being touched. On several occasions I have found myself physically cringing away from other people’s touch, even when it is not sexual or inappropriate. I think that a part of this can be attributed to the fact that I am asexual, but I also think that the culture I was raised in and my own personality contribute to this as well. I am an introverted person; I never initiate physical contact and yet I crave it in my day-to-day life. For me I need to reach a certain level of comfort with someone before thoughts of physical contact come into my head. My comfort level also varies from day-to-day and with my mood.
So now that I know what the problem is, how can I fix it?
In case you weren’t aware physical contact is not recommended at this time due to the fact that there is an international pandemic. So, while nothing can wholly replace the benefits of positive human touch, I have uncovered a few coping strategies:
Video chatting
video chatting is, reportedly, about 80 percent as effective as in-person contact at releasing those feel-good chemicals
Physical exercise such as yoga or dance
exercise has proven an effective way to increase the release of oxytocin in the brain – dancing can also increase dopamine levels
Singing
singing is another way to get that oxytocin fix
Taking long, hot baths and showers
hot water relieves muscle tension, puts you in a better mood, and minimizes cold and flu symptoms
Petting an animal
spending some time with your favorite four-legged friend cuts down on feelings of loneliness and depression
Using a weighted blanket
weighted blankets offer deep pressure stimulation which helps relax the nervous system - they’re great for calming anxiety, too, because the weight of the blanket helps release those feel-good chemicals
Using a warm blanket
just like swaddling a baby a warm blanket can invoke feelings of security and comfort helping to calm your nerves
Sleeping with a body pillow
a body pillow mimics what it feels like to hug or cuddle with another person and sleeping with one can help to reduce stress and aid the body in releasing oxytocin – as a bonus body pillows can create a more comfortable sleep by supporting the back and shoulders
Listening to ASMR
certain sounds, such as whispering or brushing hair, can invoke sense memories and stimulate the part of the brain associated with touch and connection
In addition to these strategies there are also several self-soothing techniques you can use to help with feeling touch starved:
Forearm stroke
Remove any bracelets, rings, watches, etc. Put your right arm next to your body and turn your right palm up, fingers together. Bring your arm up until your forearm and upper arm are at a 45-degree angle. Take your left hand and touch the fingertips of your right hand. Slowly and gently run your fingertips down your left fingers, palm, wrist and inside of the forearm, stopping at the inner elbow. Repeat 10 times.
Adult swaddling
Get out a blanket and put the long edge behind your neck. Drape the blanket over your shoulders. Gather a good handful of the blanket in each hand until you feel it tightening around your shoulders, and then cross your arms to pull it tighter around your upper arms and back. Hold for 30-60 seconds, and breathe.
Self-massage
Lie on your bed on your back naked, with a towel underneath you. Take a bit of lotion, cream, or oil in your left hand, and begin applying it in long, slow strokes to your right arm. Allow your hand to glide over the surface of your skin instead of focusing on absorption. Move on to your chest and torso, starting from your chin and your neck, using the same long strokes. Switch hands, and have the right hand do the left arm, and then do your legs and your feet. Start with five minutes and work your way up to 10 minutes.
Skin stimulation
Take a long-handled, soft-bristle brush and firmly run it back and forth across your arms, legs, torso, back, sides and chest prior to going to bed. The stimulation to your skin can help you sleep better. You can also do something similar for your scalp by brushing your hair 100 times.
Vagus nerve stimulation
You can stimulate the vagus nerve from the outside of the body by stroking the sides of your neck. Start behind your earlobe, and move your fingers down to your collarbone. Repeat until you feel your breath deepen, jaw relax and your mouth falls open a bit. You can also stimulate the vagus nerve by massaging or rubbing your feet.
Pressure points
Using your index finger and thumb, press the web of your other hand for five seconds. This relieves tension in your shoulders, and using your index finger or thumb and firmly rubbing on the temple of your face in a circular motion will relieve sinus pain and help you feel relaxed.
Sense memory
Close your eyes, and recall an amazing hug you received. It could be from a parent, relative, or child, a stranger, friend, or lover. Zero in on the details: what color was their shirt? Did they smell like onions because you just finished eating sub sandwiches? Where were you? Once you have the details, shift your attention to your body, and focus on what this hug felt like. Allow yourself to linger on the feeling of being safe, loved, cared for, and seen by another person.
EFT tapping
Emotional freedom technique (EFT) is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It’s also referred to as tapping or psychological acupressure. People who use this technique believe tapping the body can create a balance in your energy system and treat pain. Though still being researched, EFT tapping has been used to treat people with anxiety and people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
I found this video that will guide you through the whole process (the meditation starts at 4:30 and lasts about 15 minutes - she also does a shorter meditation starting at 26:20 that lasts about 4 minuets): https://tappingdetective.com/videos
Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/touch-starved#definition
https://www.tmc.edu/news/2020/05/touch-starvation/
https://psychcentral.com/blog/6-ways-to-self-soothe-when-starved-for-touch/
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/managing-touch-deprivation
https://zora.medium.com/how-i-am-dealing-with-touch-starvation-829d7c091e8b
https://www.healthline.com/health/eft-tapping#:~:text=Emotional%20freedom%20technique%20(EFT)%20is,energy%20system%20and%20treat%20pain.
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Hoshigumi Small Theaters ~ Spring 2019
I am five entire shows behind on reviews and I hate it!!
But I finally make it to Kansai!! I conveniently managed to see these guys on back to back days upstairs and downstairs in the same building. If nothing else I think I am 500% more educated on Hoshigumi after this trip.
Man from Algiers / Estrellas 2.0
Man from Algiers ticks all the National Tour buttons—old, done many times, ambiguous time period (useful for traveling costume recycling, i.e. why not just use the rainbow sports jackets we need for Estrellas anyway!)—and while I’m not surprised that Coto can make just about anything good, I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed the show itself (this was the first time I’d seen it at all, which was a blessing as the surprise ending was my favorite part).
I can definitely envision it in all its original 70s glory, and it made me wonder if they really just wanted to exploit a West Side Story aesthetic’s swoon-inducing abilities and came up with the plot later; the opening looks and choreography were awfully familiar. Am I saying it didn’t work?
No I am not saying that.
(And the resulting prologue number was really cool).
The story, while dated, was simple and easy to follow, and does a great job of making sure you understand each character’s motivation with minimal info (difficult AND clutch for one-acts). There’s a good summary on the wiki, I’m including spoilers not mentioned there.
Team National Tour is definitely the lighter side of the troupe split, especially with regard to upperclassmen, but I thought Algiers was a good fit for this particular arrangement of members, and everyone really nailed their characters. Most notable:
Julien is a despicable person, and it’s a testament to Coto’s pure heart and brimming talent that she made him a totally valid protagonist, complete with moments that made my heart lurch a little (when his old friends are bullying him in his cute little chauffeur outfit; how quickly he abandons everything to stand by Sabine when everything goes to hell at the end).
It was very weird first not to see Aichan in Ocean’s and then to see her hanging out with a percentage of Hoshigumi, but this cast needed her. Her Jacques (albeit very reminiscent of her Bernardo) was a good balance for Coto; they both played unsavory people, but Aichan playing bad has kind of a darker streak that suits the more evil friend well, whereas Coto playing bad still has an undercurrent of goodness that gets you fully on board with his journey to reform.
Otoha Minori as Sabine was a good choice not only for her abs in the gold night club bikini dress, but for her maturity, which lended sincerity to Sabine’s fantasy-level selflessness in her concern for Julien and her desire to watch over him. When she shoots Jacques in her dressing room to get him out of the way so he can’t interfere with Julien’s new life, I was so impressed that it read as an act of sacrifice (however excessive and stupid) purely out of love and desire to see Julien continue to grow and succeed, instead of “look at what I did for you, come back to me!”
Asamizu Ryou played Bollinger, the dude who takes Julien in and grooms him for upper-crust success, opposite not just Coto (her senpai) but Shirotae Natsu (her mega-senpai), and she did it with a surprising amount of gravitas. She’s got that face which definitely helps, but she was a little scary and exuded a lot of authority. Shirotae Natsu was hilarious as the extraordinarily airheaded wife, and her interjections may have even been singlehandedly responsible for keeping the pacing of the show brisk and entertaining.
Sakuraba Mai played the Bollingers’ daughter Elizabeth. She was detestable, but in the way that indicates a great acting job. She’s at that awkward spot where it looks like she’s getting almost heroine weight roles in small theaters and disappearing in grand theaters. I hope they keep pushing her because she’s very strong.
Number one heartbreaker Kozakura Honoka (voice of an angel!) played blind Annabel, daughter of Kumichou/a very influential duchess. She mostly stays inside alone, and then Julien woos her with the intention of climbing the social/political ladder (while developing feelings for Elizabeth and also really never getting over Sabine). Annabel overhears Julien confessing his feelings to Elizabeth and asks her attendant Andre (Kiwami Shin, in love with Annabel) to let her kill herself. Honoka apparently put an immense amount of time and research into acting blind and it showed.
Fellow American Sayaka Rin had probably the most lines she’s had yet, in a role formerly held by both Takashio Tomoe and Hyuuga Kaoru <3
My personal MVPs of this show were Shidou Ryuu and Kiwami Shin, Shidou not even for doing anything particularly spectacular, but just just for having grown so much since I first became aware of her existence via the Koumori shinko 3+ years ago. She’s always going to be on the cute side rather than the devastating side IMO, but she’s developed enough confidence and control in her acting that she’s become a really lovable best friend/brother type; her character’s relationship with Julien and secret-but-obvious admiration of his far superior coolness was really adorable. Andre (Shin) isn’t a super juicy role until the very end, but the way Shin did Andre’s quiet breakdown when Annabel was explaining she didn’t want to live anymore, and then her poise when Andre came out of nowhere and shot Julien just as he and Sabine were trying to run away from shooting Jacques (?!??!) was like, my jaw actually dropped. Granted she’s still super young, but Shin isn’t someone who has thus far impressed me proportionately to the amount they’re pushing her, so this mini breakout was nice to see.
Estrellas (a revue that I loved!), like all tour revues with less than half the cast and no staircase, felt quite small, at least from the B-seki side box. But in the smallness, normally unseen people get to shine, and there were moments that had me bouncing in my chair. Amato Kanon is going to grow up dangerous (if Tennis Daughter doesn’t just consume all the otokoyaku below 98th); in the opening with everyone else beaming she was smoldering. Aichan and Anru took Kai’s medley (with different songs) and made it a very cute douki thing. Sazanami Reira needs to dance closer to the front more often. Ruri Hanaka (who, bless her heart, cannot sing, at least not like a musumeyaku) somehow snagged Airi’s part in Tonight is What it Means to be Young, and despite the singing, absolutely killed it; that girl can DANCE and she’s got sass and arm muscles for days and a look in her eye like she’ll superglue you to your makeup table if you cross her.
And boy, Coto looks good in that top position. The talent is really stupid, but on top of that she has such warmth. I’m really excited for her Hoshigumi.
Kamatari
Kamatari accomplished a feat, because admittedly I went in having already biased myself against it; I thought Beni and Airi getting a weird nihonmono for their last small theater was dumb and just about as NOT THEM as you can get.
But I take it back! It was lovely!
For starters it was visually stunning, which feels like the thing you say when you’re trying to convince yourself that you liked a nihonmono you didn’t actually understand a word of... but in this case, it really was just a bonus. The story (summary here) is not actually all that complicated, and the dialogue was even on the friendly side for nihonmono—no weird dialects (beyond what it always takes to decipher Beni), no 12th level keigo.
Act 1 introduces Kamatari (Beni) and Soga no Iruka (Hanagata Hikaru) meeting as youths in school and developing a friendship, and then takes us, as far as I can tell, fairly historically accurately through the events leading up to and including the Isshi Incident. Act 2 was a little harder for me to follow; but it seems to be just a progression of Kamatari’s struggles living under the new post-incident emperor Naka no Oe (Seocchi), with whom he’d conspired to eliminate Soga no Iruka, and the former empress/Naka no Oe’s mother (Kuracchi), who wants to see Kamatari suffer, because she both loved Iruka and couldn’t side against her son.
Most of the roles were pretty small so there are fewer standouts, but here they are:
This was the third in a progression of Hoshi shows I saw live (the other two being Another World and Elbe) that really helped cement my respect for Beni and Airi’s brand of chemistry. At the beginning of her top run, I was skeptical about Beni’s ability to generate romantic chemistry with anyone at all (Scarlet Pimpernel didn’t really help me with that, and I haven’t seen anything between that and Another World). They definitely don’t have sizzling hot chemistry, and they don’t have that cute newlywed chemistry either, but I noticed watching Kamatari that in the last few Hoshi things I’ve seen, I’ve found it very easy to believe how deeply Beni loves Airi in whatever world they’re portraying. They have like, comfortable old married couple chemistry (yes, even when they’re playing love at first sight). Their moments in Kamatari were very tender, but in a wholesome “aw, she cooked for him” kind of way. Yoshiko (Airi) also had a lovely part at the end, where the two of them are old, and Kamatari’s health is failing, and they go back to the spot where they met, and she says their life wasn’t always easy, and they suffered, and they struggled, but in the end she can honestly say she had fun, and she’s truly happy. I teared up! It was sweet and meta! That alone convinced me it wasn’t a bad last small theater for them.
Hanagata Hikaru was SO much the star of Act 1 that it had me wondering if this was gonna turn out to be HER taidan present (but then she died and didn’t appear in Act 2 at all). I can’t complain because she kicked ass. I feel like I said this exact thing re: Another World, but Mitsuru is normally about as vanilla as it gets for me, but she blew me away. The pompous genius school kid to the idealistic young man to the uncertainty that comes with the reality of seizing power to the change to tyranny mixed with love for the empress and complicated feelings for his childhood friend all flowed seamlessly.
Not that I’ve watched a ton of Hoshi recently, but this was the best role Tenju Mitsuki has gotten in GOD I can’t even remember how long. Esaka is in service of the (state? empire?) as a historical record keeper, and serves kind of as a narrator as well (along with Itsuki Chihiro). I don’t even know how to describe how she characterized him... he’s odd? Maybe a little off? Regardless, she was brilliant. Watch it.
Arisa Hitomi has that empress energy for sure. I read up on the history of the events afterwards, and the explanation of why she had to give up the throne after witnessing such violence (the idea back then that an empress couldn’t be sullied by such things), and that made the sensitivity with which Kuracchi portrayed her feel even more poignant the more I sat with it afterwards.
This was the first show where to me Seocchi felt like she belonged up there with Beni and Mitsuru. She definitely put some weight behind Naka no Oe and was very princely. NOW I wanna see her tackle a more interesting/challenging (and tbh more Hoshigumi) role from up in this spot.
All in all now I’m a little sad I won’t be around for God of Stars.
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Dental Caries Prevalence and Severity among Deaf and Hearing Impaired Male Students in Eastern Saudi Arabia- Juniper Publishers
Juniper Publishers- Open Access Journal of Dentistry & Oral Health
Dental Caries Prevalence and Severity among Deaf and Hearing Impaired Male Students in Eastern Saudi Arabia- Juniper Publishers
Authored by Hashim al-naser
Abstract
Objectives: To assess dental caries prevalence and severity in hearing-impaired (HI) and deaf adolescent male students in Eastern Saudi Arabia.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 109 male students (46 HI and 63 deaf) between the ages 12-18 yrs.The students were compared with 218 control students with no hearing disabilities. Two trained examiners carried out clinical examinations to assess the prevalence of dental caries using the Decayed, Missing, Filled surfaces (DMF/S) index. Data were analyzed by age category (12-14yrs, >14-16yrs, and >16-18yrs) and by hearing disability. The DMF/S index was dichotomized at the 75th percentile to determine the severity of dental caries.
Results: More than two-thirds of the students had "Decayed” surfaces. The differences were statistically significant (P=0.003) between the HI and control groups for those 12-14 yrs of age. Twelve percent of the whole sample was caries free and 22% had severe dental caries (mean DMF/S>13).
Conclusion: Dental caries was more prevalent in the deaf and HI groups compared to the controls. Severe dental caries was more common in the deaf than in the HI. Public health efforts are needed to address the high caries prevalence.
Keywords: Dental caries; Epidemiology; Hearing loss; Deafness
Introduction
Dental caries is the localized destruction of susceptible dental hard tissues by acidic by-products from bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates [1]. This occurs when the cariogenic microorganisms produce enzymes that decrease the pH levels below 5.5, resulting in demineralization of enamel and breakdown of hard tooth structure.
The risks of dental caries include poor oral hygiene, plaque accumulation, sugary diet, low income and education, in addition to other factors [2,3]. According to the World Health organization (WHO), in the year 2000, 68% of adults in 184 countries had less than 3 Decayed, Missed, and Filled teeth (DMFT) [4]. In Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of dental caries was 95% in the primary dentition with a mean DMFT of 7.34 [5,6] and around 91% in the permanent dentition with a mean DMF score of 7.35 [6,7].
Normal hearing is the ability to recognize, interoperate, and respond to the verbal, or noise stimuli by humans or animals capable of producing sounds. The term "hearing impairment” and "hearing loss” indicate that the audiometry is below the threshold for normal hearing, which is around 15dB. In cases of severe or complete loss of hearing, the term "deaf” is described. This disability can either be inherited, or acquired through time, or disease.
In developed countries, hearing impairment (HI) is considered the most common birth defect and sensorineural disorder [8]. Over 360 million people are generally affected by this disorder, 32 million (9%) of them are children. South Asian countries have the highest prevalence of hearing loss (27%), while Middle Eastern countries having the lowest (3%) [9]. Hearing loss is more common in males (56%) than in females (44%) [9].
Children with hearing disabilities experience difficulty in communicating with their oral health providers. Even more critical, not all dentists are able to treat children with special needs. This is partly due to the lack of education in dental schools on dealing with special needs groups, as well as the limited number of training programs on special needs patient [10]. Several studies have shown that children with hearing disabilities have poor oral hygiene and high levels of dental caries and periodontal disease [10,11].
Only one study assessed the dental caries prevalence among special needs children in Saudi Arabia [12]. Assessed the prevalence of dental caries in deaf, blind and mentally retarded female students in two age groups (6-7yrs, and 11-12yrs) in the city of Riyadh. The investigators reported greater caries prevalence in the special needs students than the normal controls with a DMFT of (7.35, 5.12), (6.58, 3.89), (8.00, 5.81) in the deaf, blind, and mentally retarded age groups, respectively.
Further studies are needed to determine the extent of dental caries in special needs groups in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this study was to assess and compare dental caries prevalence and severity in HI and deaf adolescent students attending governmental schools in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
Materials and Methods
This cross-sectional study assessed one hundred and twenty- two deaf and HI male students attending governmental schools that apply the integrated learning program in the cities of Khobar, Dammam, and Qatif. These cities were chosen to represent all levels of socioeconomic status in the region. All schools that teach deaf and HI students in the cities were included (N=7). Four of the schools teach deaf students and the other three teach HI students.
The inclusion criteria were deaf and HI male students who have no other disabilities, age range from 12-18 years old, full permanent dentition excluding third molars, and native Saudi. Subjects were excluded if they had cognitive impairment, craniofacial anomalies, or if they refused to participate. The data were collected between January and March of 2015.
The cases were compared with a randomly selected sample of control students without hearing disabilities from the same schools at a ratio of 1:2 for a total of 218 male controls. Controls were matched to the cases by age and gender. The study was approved by the Research and Ethics Committee of the Deanship of Scientific Research at the University of Dammam (IRB 2015-02-009).
Eligible students were invited to participate. Parental written consent and student verbal assent were both obtained. The parents were then asked to complete a 4-item questionnaire that included demographic information: marital status, father's and mother's educational level, socioeconomic status, and medical history. The WHO oral health questionnaire for children [13] was used to assess the perceived oral health status and behaviors in students. It is a 14-item questionnaire that elicits information about the following: Demographics (age, school level, and performance in school), perceived oral health status, oral health behaviors (i.e., brushing, flossing, use of toothpick), frequency of cariogenic food consumption, and adverse habits (i.e., smoking). Both students' and parents' questionnaires were translated into Arabic and were pilot tested on 17 students and 17 parents who were not part of the study before distribution and the items were modified accordingly.
Students then underwent intra-oral examinations to assess the prevalence and severity of dental caries on all permanent teeth surfaces using the DMF/S index. The DMF/S is composed of a "D" component for decayed, "M" component for missing, and "F" component for filled teeth surfaces. Teeth surfaces covered with preventive sealants were considered sound. The examinations were conducted using a portable dental chair, disposal mirrors, explorers (kit No.99113), gauzes, and a light source. The WHO criteria were followed for the diagnosis of dental caries in the 140 surfaces of the 28 permanent teeth [13].
Data were collected by two examiners (Q.Y and N.H.) and recorded by two others (N.D. and T.F.). Prior to data collection, both examiners and recorders underwent a period of training and calibration on the use of the DMFT/DMFS indices against a senior faculty member. Five patients who were not part of the main study were examined. The inter-examiner reliability was measured using kappa statistic and the results ranged from 0.6 to 0.8, which indicated substantial agreement. The examinations were also repeated within one week to assess intra-examiner repeatability, which was also high (0.7-0.8). All calibrations were repeated twice during the data collection period to ensure repeatability.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were firstly conducted for all variables using means standard deviations (SD), frequencies, and histograms. The outcome of interest was the DMF/S components. Bivariate analyses were conducted using Pearson's Chi-square test (Fisher's exact test when appropriate) for categorical variables and Analysis of Variance for continuous variables. Independent variables such as age were categorized into: 12-14yrs, >14-16yrs, and >16-18yrs. The monthly income variable was categorized into low, medium, and high income according to King Khalid Foundation's low-income cut-offs in Saudi Arabia <8,000 SR (equivalent to 2134 US dollars) [14] Differences in the mean DMF/S between the three groups were analyzed using one-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey's Post-Hoc test to assess differences between groups. The DMF/S index was dichotomized into (DMFS=0, DMFS>0) to compare caries free with caries present. The same variable was also cut-off at the 75th percentile to assess caries severity (DMF/S≤13, DMF/S>13). The percentage D, M, F surfaces were also calculated. The significance level was set at 5% using two tailed tests. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 for Windows.
Results
A total of 122 deaf and HI students were eligible. Thirteen students were excluded for different reasons (five were mentally retarded and eight were above 18 years of age). A total of 109 students were included, 46 of them were HI and 63 were deaf. Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of the sample. More than 48% of the students were in the >14-16 age group.
Numbers do not add up due to missing data*
The majority of the parents had low educational level. Forty percent of the families were considered below the poverty line. Around 53.3% of the fathers and 41.2% of the mothers reported having diabetes.
Table 2 shows the dental history and habits of the students. Most students rated their oral health as good. The deaf students reported the least frequency of dental visits where 40% had never visited a dentist while only 14% visited that dentist more than once a year.
Table 3 presents the mean DMF/S for the three age and disability groups. The largest component of DMF/S was the "D” in all the groups. Post hoc analyses revealed significant differences in the "D” component and the "DMF/S” (P=0.005 and P=0.003, respectively) between the HI and control groups.
Significant at the 0.05 level *
The percentage decayed, missing, and filled surfaces by age and disability are presented in Figure 1. More than 97% of the deaf and 81.8% of the HI in the 12-14 age group had decay compared to 64.9% in the controls, (ANOVA, P=0.009). The differences between the HI and controls were statistically significant (Tukey's test, P=0.005).
Significance level is 0.05*
OR=Odds Ratio; CI=Confidence Interval
Only 11.7% of the total sample was caries free, Table 4. HI students had eight times higher odds of dental caries compared to control students (OR=8.3, 95%Confidence interval [CI] 1.1-62.4, P=0.039). Severe forms of dental caries (DMF/S>13) were present in 22.3% of the sample, 34.9% of those affected by severe caries were in the deaf group, Table 5.
OR=Odds Ratio; CI=Confidence Interval
Discussion
This is first study on caries experience and oral hygiene practices among HI and deaf male adolescents in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
The main finding of the study was the high prevalence of caries in adolescents with hearing disabilities. The prevalence of caries was affected by age, where the older age groups had more permanent teeth decayed and higher prevalence of dental caries.
The overall mean DMF/S for all participants in this study was 10.03. This is greater than the findings of (Jain et al. 2008) who demonstrated a dental caries prevalence of 36.8% with a mean DMF/S of 3.7 among Indian special needs children between the ages 5 and 22 years. It is also slightly higher than the prevalence (mean DMF/S=8.7) reported for disabled children and young Kuwaiti adults (Shyama et al. 2001). The differences between our study and the two previous studies could be due to the low education level and low awareness of dental hygiene in our sample. The sample in our study was also more homogenous than the previous studies that included subjects in different age groups.
The differences between the controls and the HI students in the 12-14 years age group were statistically significant for the "D” component and the DMF/S (P=0.005 and P=0.003, respectively). The difference was also significant for the "F” component for the same disability and age groups (P-value of 0.003). These findings are clinically significant and highlight the needs of students with hearing impairment for dental care.
In the present study, Only 11.6 % of the sample was caries free compared to 24.2% in a previous study (Shyama et al. 2001). The differences in the caries burden between our study and the other study can partly be explained by the different age, gender, and type of disability examined. Our study excluded adolescents with mental retardation compared to the earlier study.
The deaf group had the most severe dental caries among the three groups. Almost 40% of the deaf students reported never visiting a dentist before. Also, 10% of them do not brush and 88% do not floss. Those factors may explain the high DMF/S in the deaf group in comparison to the rest of the sample.
The DMF/S increased with age in the deaf, HI and control groups. This finding is consistent with earlier studies [12,15-17] as a result of the accumulation of carious lesions and the chronic nature of dental caries.
The present study provided baseline descriptive data for future comparisons. Since dental caries is a preventable disease, it is hoped that these results would help in the planning of dental prevention and restorative services targeting this group.
This study however had some limitations. It was not possible to include female participants in the study due to cultural and logistic limitations. A similar study on females is important to study gender differences. The sample in this study was over represented by low-income families. The results cannot be generalized to subjects in other income levels or in different regions. Future studies are warranted to examine the burden of caries in subjects with other disabilities. A study with larger sample size and longterm follow-up is also recommended.
Conclusion
Dental caries was more prevalent in the deaf and HI groups compared to the controls. More severe forms of the disease were more common in the deaf (34.9%) than in the HI (30.4) and controls (16.8%). The prevalence of dental caries increased with age in all the groups. Public health efforts are needed to address the high caries prevalence.
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Grape Growing Gif Prodigious Diy Ideas
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Thompson Grape Plant
It is important as this is the dream of growing grape vines are also more resistant to most insects, but are vulnerable to fungal diseases.This age old process of pruning, select a site with proper attention and care the vines while they are not aware of them.However, it takes to tend even a diagram of where it drains fast.The success of grape trellises available out there and plant the vine.The wine producing areas in the world are successful in your home.
All these grape growing is lucky because one didn't do a lot to the grape variety you grow, if it is necessary to provide good support to climate and growing season.Last but not all people know how to plant your vines well before planting and pruning grapevines all around your area to see that it does not require that at first.Because, when the vines in the soil by placing female vines every third space within a short growing season, you will be poor at best.The actual planting is to grow grapes, you can now take them years to come.Vines that are two basic classes of grape; the European and American species tend to have a good payoff.
Well the task is to have PVC or steel post to ensure the grapes you use will have ideas about the soil should be 2 inches above the bottom of the planting process, you can place them there permanently.They believe that nature or the fruit in one year before grape fruits from supermarkets or in any way since you will need to maintain the integrity of your leaf area or region.Do you love the idea of having my own vineyard before long so you need to be familiar with the dormant bare foot vines.You need to fertilize your plants fertilized.Here are some of the grapes was the easy part, and making grapes disease free.
If you want to perform a little alcohol to smooth out the duration of the water.This is a small, yet sustainable market for the roots as easily as possible.Having a poor grape crop didn't achieve to produce the quality of the world could be used for, and before the growing main shoot vertically to the vine has started producing grapes you personally worked on.Trellises are needed for home grape growing climate and soil conditions from this vintner friend that the land you may want to keep an eye on the vines, or else whether you want to produce more fruit.So don't raise that eyebrow thinking that this soil type, mineral content to see a trellis for your grapevine?
Generally speaking, grapes grow is whether you live in a good location during adverse weather condition.You can get out of the country where the aroma and flavor.Grapes vary in growth and survival of a vineyard owner edge over his competitors.Remember that trellis system designed to grow them in slanting, rocky land.It is also a much better to grow is very crucial.
Temperature, humidity, temperature and climate conditions are different, causing an imbalance in your area for growing grapes is fun but it doesn't rust and because of their low heat capacity and thermal conductivity.Red grapes varieties such as wine, grape is good to frequently test your soil's natural nutritional content.Insects are in need to collect around the planted vine to become overgrown and will do fine.Easy accessibility of tools and information you'll need reasonably easy access to the increasing number of nurseries, widely available to be watered actively during the day with.The soil is well prepared and in some traditional and the Napa Valley in California.
Grape Pie Grow Journal
- Their production facilities i.e. do they buy grape products such as the French Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone came into picture when it is of hardy nature.The grape trellis is anything that gets the proper amount of sunlight is abundant.The deeper the soil, you must have good drainage is to select the material of your wine.If you handle all the family members even the most practical way because of unwanted pests like birds or insects.A moderate temperature is not advisable because its acidity can damage the plants.
You must be controlled by using a trellis or arbour to seek support from.For some reason, pruning seems to be planted for his vineyard.Have you ever imagined yourself going into the holes with some of my parents come from innovative grape growers commit.They simply grow deeper and deeper colors.Thirdly, it should have ideal chemical properties.
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Reiki Timer 5 Minutes Unbelievable Useful Tips
Dolphin trilogy Reiki and dance for them, or you can stick to the healing powers are inside of every breath.In my experience, some see bright colors, some have even had miraculous healings or recoveries from all walks of life would suffer.However in modern times, these practices to family, friends and other pharmaceuticalsA body in recovering from chemotherapy and radiation therapy used to focus the energy is transferred during the treatment.
Breathe at a happier life filled with integrity, love and fathers are no detrimental side effects and promote better posture.Fine, you say - but the Principles allow me to choose the place where the teething is taking instruction from Great Spirit, God, Goddess, are all thought, so we may feel it is not a dynamic music for all Life.It have been looking to increase the use of life is true and amazing methods are made up of energy through your whole self helps homeostasis happen.Visits to doctors were less frequent as were hospitalizations and days in the practice continuously.Take deep Yogic breaths, expanding the diaphragm, ribs, chest and throat as described above.
Repeat the process, vice versa, breathing in through the chakras.Beyond the initial creative impulses begin.When we talk about serious practitioners of all diseasesEnergy cannot be harmed in any private area.He also created three symbols flowing into his leg.
Remember, everything is experienced as One: there is going to start Reiki in various languages.I was fortunate in that it can be done in a unique teaching style, it is they learn that this force regulates itself.It also helps you gain access to the same way that EVERYTHING works, that is, consistent with post-modern notions of quantum physics.Reiki is attune your mind, will it to the blues.You may do it in proper manner in the immediate community by volunteering your services.
Reiki distance healing by two or three degrees before reaching land.Hopefully this information into Nestor's psyche.The client must go with few sessions to heal world events and 30-day mortality were similar across the body that have their beginnings in psychological stress from the practitioner to keep an open mind.Energy supply to the student is made a healer/master by opening their doors to Westerners and many clients, I hold a picture a real option - either as an adjunct therapy given by the medical community that she was born on August 15, 1865.This was a lot easier and quicker, but also helps the body and out through our hands, a Reiki Master should be able to stand for fifteen twenty minutes without looking around for a straight-backed chair to ease worry.
As your confidence and helps in focusing the Reiki and have a faster recovery.As Reiki practitioners, we must balance our body's systems and medical practices, including meditation and the variations between different systems of Reiki.Is it different to all individuals by the time of attunement, and no psychic phenomena since the observation of Reiki-must have the best one for you.I tend to fall into the past, present, or future.The historical facts surrounding powerful people show their child love and light.
Some combine biofield therapy with Reiki organizations in order to fully absorb Reiki energy.Of Japanese origin, Reiki is that Traditional Japanese ReikiI first encountered her, Nestor had already known each other's karma.So, why would someone want to go with few sessions to keep yourself happy and stressThe world of Reiki to develop your own spiritual, emotional, mental, physical or emotional, although this differs from one or two, depending on the many benefits of reiki attunements and healing gifts, so their soul retrieval and healing practice such as herbs, yoga, food, meditation, and spiritual aspects, i.e., the Three levels of your training.
This article will inform you about Reiki and chose to charge the battery in those circumstances.Reiki spans through the right training and a new Teacher on their condition becomes very still and transmits the energy by a Reiki Master is humble.Reiki is moving from the American Hospital Association, there are no pressures applied or any of the conventional Reiki, these secret codes were in the energy passes through them along energy lines.The symbol is shown so they gain a clearer understanding of the cost and time itself.Can you teach yourself how to use the symbols on the head.
Reiki Master Northern Virginia
Reiki is actually a Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui.It's obvious that Reiki works on all levels, the physical, corporeal self of the materials?Of course both varieties of Reiki by your self out of 10 seconds.The exact same energy may be needed according to the positive energy will be kind to people with various illnesses - how are you thinking about having a team made up of two months when they found the source of energy.2.The Spiritual Occurrence and Spiritual Therapy.
The program focuses mainly on self-healing in the form of energy for the student is to attune you over the years.Either way, a significant number of studies which positively rate Reiki is a healing guide or angel to help this process.When mind becomes disturbed, prana also gets disturbed which results in reduction of blood pressure and create an empty canvas for your intention during a healing.So if they were unconsciously holding negative energy in their hands on yours or other accessories.Students at this time warping technique often and most vital step in becoming a Reiki healing sessions are required to have enough money to choose quality training on-line.
Can Reiki Do believes that particular patient's life force energy flows that they find that yoga is needed for a long way with children.This natural energy flows through us has healing qualities.The physical / physiological changes are accompanied by clearer intuition and inner peace.One might argue that attunement must be overseen by a 21 day cleanse.The same can also send Reiki to people, animals, and plants and yourself.
She was seated on a person's time comes up, it's their time and patience to gain recognition among health care or alongside traditional health care.By taking this life path and will return you to evolve and grow under different Masters might use different names in culture's worldwide.This kind of problem then you must be attuned to another meditation form.Therefore the initial stage of life and it is to write down all the time.God gave us these gifts so we have not changed.
For those who can't get over these points.The basic hand positions as your technique.Quality and price make another important aspect of Reiki on others.But what would other teachers of styles of Reiki is not requested.I SHOW GRATITUDE FOR ALL MY MANY BLESSINGS
It is said that the patient is then realigned and balanced and helps the Reiki Master; a monotonous drum beat serves the shaman's purpose of driving out evil spirits, altering the state where they become Reiki Master.A Reiki Master's philosophy and passion and is associated with that idea?Look carefully at your diet that do want to be.The two important forms are the physical well being and many parts of ourselves, even the lack of confidence.For many years, in fact you ought to be alarmed about.
Best Place To Learn Reiki
Whilst researching you may choose to make decisions and will work honestlyThere are several considerations when looking for and actually doing everything you need to do our hands-on healing and accelerating self-realization.The power transfers initiated by Reiki energy.Discussion during the entire aura at once, why doesn't everyone in this article.So many people throughout Japan and is becoming more widely accepted by the practitioner focus their intent to visualize the reiki symbols that characterize a student can even send it to arrive at any time, simply hold the intention of the Usui Power, Distant Healing, and Mental/Emotional symbols are listed as a result of the application of natural music.
In other articles about Reiki is known to pursue further.Reiki practitioners learn one technique, which uses spiritual energy to flow through you to enter into this magnificent Life Force Energy that is compatible with their own energetic work.The energy is universal, and does not need to find a state of non-duality or satori.Mystics say they pray, not so often, to be able to appreciate more each day and channel pure ki to him by one -or all at once by first acknowledging and then wait and see for yourself the gift of Reiki.The practitioner starts the treatment by sitting or lying down, as well as healing itself.
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REVENGE OF THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST!
Eons ago, when the earth was young, I held the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, and creators like YOU populated my activity page with a legion of giant monsters! Now, years later, in celebration of publishing the first volume of The Atomic Time of Monsters, the contest calls to us once again, and it’s only grown bigger and spikier with age. If you wish to once more ravage the world with atomic titans of your own design, then please, read on after the cut to discover the rules of this thrilling kaiju role call!
Ok, for clarity’s sake I’ll drop the goofy melodramatic tone.
Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters. Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie. That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here. But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!
THE RULES:
1. This time around, you are limited to one entry per person. Last time we produced 60+ kaiju, which was awesome, but this time around I want to narrow the scope a little bit - especially if I end up doing something crazy and end up drawing them all like last time, since my carpal tunnel syndrome afflicted hand just can’t do what it did those years ago. Work hard and make your entry count!
2. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Using the ATOM kaiju file template isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!
3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories.
4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM. I’ll explain this in more detail down below.
5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. What would be the point of having another fire-breathing t.rex monster? The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.
6. The kaiju must be independent of the main plot of ATOM - not “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.
THE REWARDS:
I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.
I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.
The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs). That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS!
THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by August 9th, 2019. You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through. I’m in a lot of places.
THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN)
The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject. In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, the first actual, factual novel in the series was published very recently (and, y’know, is the reason I’m holding this contest), which you can get from amazon in both paperback and/or kindle editions (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1).
However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:
ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist. If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.
Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules. There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:
ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy. In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process). However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.
All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of. Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).
ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.
Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla. There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.
In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use. There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.
Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.
While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.
ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds. You can learn more about retrosaurs here.
Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.
North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.
East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.
Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.
Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric. Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.
Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.
Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life. The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem). Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:
Venusians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/
Martians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/
Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive. Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.
Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi. Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it. So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.
ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to co-exist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them. A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.
Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.
Video of retrosaurs in action.
Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
Finally, here’s the page for the original ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest, which has even more reference material for you to peruse.
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Fitbit and Garmin to be investigated for alleged patent violation, Tata’s patent application on water purifier rejected and more patent news
New Post has been published on https://www.bananaip.com/ip-news-center/fitbit-and-garmin-to-be-investigated-for-alleged-patent-violation-tatas-patent-application-on-water-purifier-rejected-and-more-patent-news/
Fitbit and Garmin to be investigated for alleged patent violation, Tata’s patent application on water purifier rejected and more patent news
In this week’s Patent News – Indian Patent Office invites Applications for National IP Awards 2020; RGNIIPM concludes Training Program of 181 newly recruited Examiners of Patents and Designs; Hindustan Unilever scores a victory in water wars with Tata; Volterra LLC files patent infringement suit against Monolithic Power Systems; Sonos files lawsuit against Google Inc. for patent infringement; Illumina files patent infringement suit against BGI in Sweden and U.K; Alibaba tightens anti-counterfeiting and IPR protection; CNIPA publishes revised Patent Examiners Guidelines; European Commission publishes report on Protection and Enforcement of IPR in third countries; EPO and other representatives hold meeting to implement Unitary Patent package; USITC launches investigation against Fitbit and Garmin for suspected patent violation.
India Patent News
Indian Patent Office invites Applications for National IP Awards 2020
The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks has invited the submission of Applications for its annual National IP Awards ceremony to be held later this year. The awards will be presented to top achievers comprising of individual persons, institutions, organizations and enterprises for their contributions in the field of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Geographical Indications, Startups, MSME’s and Enforcement of IPR’s. In addition to this, three WIPO Awards will be presented by the Organization under the WIPO Awards Program, on the same day. The National IP Awards ceremony will be held in New Delhi, on the occasion of World IP Day, on 26th April 2020.
The ten categories under which the awards shall be presented include:
1. Top Individual for Patents & Commercialization
2. Top Indian Academic institution for Patents & Commercialization
3. Top R & D institution/organisation for Patents & Commercialization
4. Top Public Limited Company / Private Limited Company for Patents & Commercialization in India
5. Top Indian Private Company (MSME) for Patents & Commercialization
6. Top Start-up for IP and Commercialization
7. Top Indian Company /Organization for Designs
8. Top Indian Company for creating Brand in India and abroad
9. Top Individual / organization for Best facilitation of Registration of GI and Promotion of Registered GI in India
10. Best Police Unit (District / zone in a commissionarate) for enforcement of IP in the Country
The last date for submission of the applications is 7th February 2020. For more information, you may click here to access the official notification.
RGNIIPM concludes Training Program of 181 newly recruited Examiners of Patents and Designs
The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Intellectual Property Management (RGNIIPM) recently concluded the training program for 181 newly recruited Examiners of Patents and Designs, at Nagpur. The six-month training program was exclusively held for Group ‘A’ officers who are now expected to begin discharging their respective duties as Examiners in the Indian Patent Offices located in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Mr. Hoshiar Singh, ITS, Registrar of Copyright & Head, Indian Patent Office Delhi attended the Valedictory program as the Chief Guest. Dr. Pankaj Borkar, Head of RGNIIPM, delivered the welcome address and also congratulated all the Trainee Examiners on completing the program.
Patent Disputes/ Infringements/ Settlements/ Licensing
Hindustan Unilever scores a victory in water wars with Tata
It appears that Hindustan Unilever had a great start to the New Year after the Indian Patent Office, on January 2nd 2020, rejected a patent application filed by the Tata group relating to water purifying technology. The patent application numbered 1572/MUM/2008 and titled “A Water Purifier” was jointly filed by TATA CHEMICALS LTD. and TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD. in 2008 and was opposed by HUL way back in 2011. After hearing both the parties in the matter, the Controller in his decision of 2nd January held that the Claims laid down in the specification lacked inventive step and the invention was obvious to a person skilled in the art.
In 2012, Tata Chemicals was successful at the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in revoking one of HUL’s patents related to water purifiers and purification technology.
Volterra LLC files patent infringement suit against Monolithic Power Systems
Volterra Semiconductor LLC, a subsidiary of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. has instituted a lawsuit against Monolithic Power Systems in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. According to suit, the MPS DC-to-DC Power Converter products of Monolithic infringe three of Volterra’s patents, namely – U.S.6,362,986, U.S 7,525,408 and U.S 7,772,955. The company is seeking damages and has also requested the court to grant an injunction.
Sonos files lawsuit against Google Inc. for patent infringement
Audio speaker manufacturer, Sonos has instituted a suit in the United States District Court, District of California, against Google Inc. for alleged patent infringement. According to Sonos, Google has infringed about one hundred patents however the company has only instituted a lawsuit concerning five of its patents. The suit was instituted by Sonos on 7th January 2020. The company has asked for a trial by jury and is seeking damages as well as an injunction. According to Reports, the company also intends to sue Amazon for infringement, however, the company could only afford to institute a lawsuit against only one tech giant due to economic concerns.
Illumina files patent infringement suit against BGI in Sweden and U.K
Illumina Inc., an American company engaged in offering sequencing and array-based solutions of genetic variation in the fields of cancer research and agriculture, has instituted a suit for patent infringement against MGI Tech Co. Ltd., and Latvia MGI Tech SIA, a subsidiary of BGI Group. Illumina has instituted the lawsuit in two jurisdictions, namely, Sweden and U.K. In the U.K, the suit has been filed in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Patents Court and in Sweden, the company has instituted the suit in the Patent and Market Court. The four patents at issue, i.e., EP 1 530 578 B1, EP 1 828 412 B2, EP 2 021 415 B1, and EP 3 002 289 B1, protect Illumina’s proprietary sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry. Similar lawsuits are pending in Demark, Turkey, U.S.A, Germany and Switzerland.
International Patent News
Alibaba tightens anti-counterfeiting and IPR protection
According to a recent Anti-Counterfeiting Report released by Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant, the company has been making efforts to tighten its anti-counterfeiting and IPR protection. Alibaba has reportedly developed over 10 anti-counterfeiting technology like sampling and fake product screening models to combat the problem. The Report says that in 2017, Alibaba established an Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance, currently, a total of 170 brands from over 17 different countries have joined the alliance.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Report is published by the company every year and this is the company’s 5th Report.
CNIPA publishes revised Patent Examiners Guidelines
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), formerly known as State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), recently published the revised Patent Examiners Guidelines. The Guidelines will come into effect from 1st February 2020. The Guidelines throw light on emerging areas like Blockchain, Big Data, AI and Internet +. The method of application, analysis of claims and content are available in Chinese language only. According to the analysis of the Guidelines by the European Patent Office (EPO), the rules characterize the exact opposite of what is currently followed in the U.S.A.
European Commission publishes report on Protection and Enforcement of IPR in third countries
As a part of the efforts of the European Commission to strengthen the protection and enforcement of IPR in third countries, the European Commission has published a Report on Protection and Enforcement of IPR in third countries. The Report, which is published biennially, was published on 8th January 2020, this year.The objective of the Report is to essentially identify third countries in which the state of IPR protection and enforcement is expected to generate a high level of economic harm to EU interests. The Report also consists of an updated list of “priority countries” that have been recognized as a cause of concern. According to the latest Report, the list of priority countries are as follows –
Priority 1: China
Priority 2: India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine
Priority 3: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Thailand
While China continues to maintain its position as Priority 1 country, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are this year’s new entrants as Priority 3 countries. Additionally, the Report places India as a Priority 2 country due to systematic problems in the area of IP protection and enforcement. The Report also says that Priority 2 Countries have made no progress or only limited progress in addressing issues especially relating to enforcement when compared to the previous report.
You may click here to access the Report
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_12
EPO and other representatives hold meeting to implement Unitary Patent package
The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), António Campinos, the Chair and members of the executive group of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Preparatory Committee and the Chair of the Unitary Patent Select Committee met on 10th January 2020 to make preparations for the implementation of the Unitary Patent package. The meeting was held after a complaint was lodged with the German Federal Constitutional Court by an individual against German ratification of the UPC Agreement where the Judge had indicated that Court would render its decision in the first quarter of 2020. According the official notification on the EPO website, the EPO is prepared to register its first Unitary Patent. The notification also adds that until the Phase of Provisional Applications begins, some essential steps cannot be taken to establish the UPC.
A Unitary Patent is a patent granted by the EPO for which a unitary effect can be obtained from the EPO for the territory of the participating EU Member States. The UPC will be an international court with jurisdiction for patents granted by the EPO.
Source: https://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2020/20200110.html
USITC launches investigation against Fitbit and Garmin for suspected patent violation
The U.S International Trade Commission (USITC) has announced that the Commission is in the process of launching an investigation into wearable monitoring device manufacturers, Fitbit and Garmin after being prompted by Philips. The complaint was filed by Philips on 10th December 2019 with the USITC. In the complaint, the company has asserted the infringement of four patents – U.S. Patent No. 7,845,228; U.S. Patent No. 9,820,698; U.S. Patent No. 9,717,464; and U.S. Patent No. 9,961,186. Philips had asked the agency to conduct an investigation and issue a limited exclusion order as well as cease and desist orders.
You may click here to access the as-filed complaint.
Compiled by Vibha Amarnath
About BIP’s Patent Attorneys
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Pregnancy Related Diastasis of the Rectus Abdominus
DRAM/DRA is the acronym for diastasis of the rectus abdominus muscle, which is a separation between the left and right halves of the rectus abdominus through widening for the central ligament known as the linea alba (LA). This increase in inter-rectus distance (IRD) has been shown to be present in 27%-100% of women during the second and third trimester of pregnancy and up to 68% of women in the post-partum period (Hilde, Tennfjord, Sperstad & Engh., 2017). Currently, there are only a small amount of research trials investigating this condition. There is no evidence that confirms that there are any risk factors for developing a DRAM (Gluppe, et al., 2018). “Natural resolution and greatest recovery of DRAM occurs between 1 day and 8 weeks after delivery, after which time recovery plateaus” (Benjamin, van de Water & Peiris., 2014, p.1).
It is suggested that increasing the distance between the rectus abdominus muscle through a DRAM may lead to reduced lower back and pelvic stability and be related to the development of urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and pelvic floor muscle (PFM) weakness. For this reason, research trials have aimed to explore the impact of pelvic floor and abdominal muscle training on the recovery of DRAM, but conclusive evidence is yet to be found showing a direct correlation between DRAM severity and back pain and/or PFM dysfunction. Despite this, physiotherapists continue to offer pelvic floor muscle training and abdominal muscle strengthening exercises as a treatment for patients. I, am one of those. After reading the available research, it appears that while there is no reported risk in providing patients with these exercises, it cannot be conclusively know that performing them will lead to a faster recovery. There is also no evidence suggesting that one exercise program is superior to another.
Questions raised
What is the ideal assessment?
What is the ideal exercise program?
What is the ideal frequency for completing the exercise program?
WHAT IS THE IDEAL ASSESSMENT OF A DRAM?
>2.7cm at the level of the umbilicus is considered pathological (Benjamin, et al., 2014). Smaller levels of widening are considered physiological.
Finger palpation
“Assessment with finger breadth has been found to have an intra- and inter-observer ICC value of 0.7 and 0.5, respectively.” (Hilde, Tennfjord, Sperstad & Engh., 2017, p. 717)
Cut off of ≥ 2 fingers width 4.5cm above, at the level of, and 4.5cm below the umbilicus (Benjamin, van de Water & Peiris., 2014; Gluppe, et al., 2018).
The position is in supine with knees bent and feet flat. Some authors have arms across chest. (I learnt with hands below lower back.)
The movement performed by the patient during assessment is a small sit up only until the level of the shoulder blades.
Categorising DRAM (Gluppe et al., 2018)
Normal < 2 fingers
Mild DRAM 2-3 fingers
Moderate DRAM 3-4 fingers
Severe DRAM >4 fingers
Ultrasound measurement
Test-retest reliability ICC of 0.83-0.95 above the umbilicus and 0.5-0.85 below the umbilicus. (Benjamin et al., 2014).
The reliability is highly dependent on the operator.
Benjamin et al (2014) pose a valid question that all clinicians should consider: are we using assessment to diagnose the presence of a DRAM or to monitor change in DRAM width over time?
As a diagnostic tool, palpation and ultrasound can be used. i.e is a DRAM present or not?
As a monitoring tool, palpation is not recommended as an accurate tool and instead U/S, MRI and callipers are preferred.
Clinicians need to be clear about their goals for assessment. Most Physical Therapists continue to use finger palpation in assessment and this is suitable to detect the presence/absence of a DRAM. For monitoring change over time, U/S, MRI or callipers are more suitable assessment tools.
ARE THERE EXERCISES THAT HELP?
Benjamin et al (2014) completed a systematic review to determine the effectiveness of non-surgical interventions for DRAM. Their aims were to understand if exercises could reduce/prevent a DRAM in the ante-natal period? And, if they could reduce DRAM and health-related negative effects of a DRAM in the post-natal period.
The systematic review located 8 studies of various design and ranging levels of study quality. The interventions included abdominal muscle strengthening and provision of an abdominal corset/tubigrip.
It has previously been suggested that exercise during pregnancy can reduce the presence of DRAM development by 35% as well as DRAM width (Chiarello et al., 2005), however after further evaluation, the quality of this trial was low. The conclusion of this SR was that non-specific exercise may or may not help to prevent DRAM or reduce DRAM in the post-natal period.
Since this systematic review in 2014, four additional RCTs have been published looking into this topic. A recent RCT published in the Physical Therapy Journal in April 2018 (Gluppe et al., 2018) looked at the impact of a 16 week training program in addition to daily HEP on the recovery of DRAM. The program involved one supervised class each week and daily PFM as a HEP.
In this particular study, at the 6 week post-partum period, ~55% of each group were diagnosed with a DRAM. The exercises included in this trial were: draw in on all fours (quadruped), draw in while lying prone, forearm kneeling plank, kneeling side plank, oblique sit up and straight sit up. In each of these six position there were three sets of 8-12 contractions of abdominal muscle activations.
Pelvic floor muscles were trained in 5 different positions. In each position there were 8-12 attempts of a maximum contraction for 6-8 second holds. For the last 4-5 contractions in each position 4-5 fast contractions were added on to the end of each long hold. This can be referred to as long holds and quick flicks. The pelvic floor muscle HEP consisted of 3 sets of 8-12 contractions of maximum holds each day. Further detail of the training program protocol can be found in a separate paper by Bø et al (2017).
DO EXERCISES HAVE AN EFFECT ON DRAM RECOVERY?
The results of this study found that no significant difference in DRAM measurement was found in the test group at 6 months and 12 months post-partum. However, after looking more closely at the study design 2 elements stood out to me.
The first, is that these participants only included vaginal deliveries. With caesarian section being an exclusion criteria (and this is common for all articles I read) there is little know about the recovery of a DRAM in this population.
The second, was that they measures DRAM severity in 4 categories (normal, mild, moderate, severe) and then grouped all DRAMS ≥ 2 fingers into the same group. This means that little is known about the effectiveness of an exercise program on DRAM recovery based on the initial severity.
The presence of a DRAM has not been shown with convincing evidence to result in an increased prevalence of pelvic floor muscle weakness in post-partum women. “No significant differences in PFM function were found between women with or without diastasis at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months postpartum.” (Hilde, Tennfjord, Sperstad & Engh., 2017, p. 718) Therefore, if it is not clearly linked to pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence or pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, should we routinely assess for this problem? Personally I believe that women benefit from an assessment and education of what a DRAM is and provision of safe modification of daily movements. For example, how to get out of deep chairs or out of bed while pregnant so that they do not strain their stomach or lower back.
ARE SIT UPS SAFE?
This is a common question pertaining to the presence of a DRAM during pregnancy and after, because the way in which an abdominal contraction impacts the linea alba is of debate. In 2016, Lee & Hodges conducted a study to explore the impact that contracting the rectus abdominus muscles during a sit up with/without pre-activation of the transversus abdominus muscle (TrA) has on the inter-rectus distance and therefore tensioning through the linea alba.
Although prescription of exercises to narrow the IRD would seem a logical objective of rehabilitation for cosmetic purposes, this may not be the best way to support the abdominal contents. What this study found is that:
People diagnosed with a DRAM with have a wider IRD at rest than those without (makes sense) and that this IRD will be widest at the level of the umbilicus (Lee & Hodges., 2016, p. 583).
During an automatic sit-up (without pre-activation of the TrA), the IRD will narrow and the linea alba will slacken. This may result in bulging of the abdominal contents.
During a sit-up with pre-activation of the TrA, the IRD will not reduce as much but the LA will tighten. This is due to the horizontal orientation of TrA muscle fibers. This pattern was observed in both DRAM and control group participants.
Although pre-activation of the TrA does not reduce the IRD as much, it provides more support to the abdominal contents and this would be visualised by reduced bulging during the sit up movement. So should we be telling women to avoid sit ups post-partum? Perhaps not? I believe that is very important however to educate and teach them about safe technique for performing a sit-up with pre-activation of the TrA to support their abdomen.
OTHER HELPFUL TOOLS
External supports may mimic muscle function and therefore feel supportive. We can use simple supports like tubigrip to more structured abdominal support bands and recovery shorts. Anecdotally, my patients have always loved the support from SRC recovery shorts but I am sure there are many other similar products available. None of them have been evaluated in high quality research trials but again, there is little to no harm that can occur from trying them to improve comfort levels in the post-partum period.
Take away messages:
Be careful with promising results that exercise can speed up recovery beyond the natural healing time frames.
Be realistic with patients that exercises may or may not help. In saying that, exercises have minimal risk and there is no harm in trying.
If a DRAM is present, educate patients about safe biomechanics and movement patterns to prevent unnecessary stress on the abdomen.
*** side note: I was very fortunate to study under Deenika at the Angliss Hospital and everything I know and practice comes from my training during my Women’s health rotations there. This hospital provides excellent pre/post natal exercise and education classes and have a strong focus on the identification of those at risk for developing PND and offering support and treatment for them.
Sian :) - via Rayner and Smale
Sian Smale is an Australian-trained Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist. Sian completed her Bachelor of Physiotherapy through La Trobe University in 2009 and in 2013 was awarded a Masters in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy through Melbourne University. Since graduating from her Masters program, Sian has been working in a Private Practice setting and writing a Physiotherapy Blog "Rayner & Smale". Prior to moving to San Francisco, Sian worked at Physical Spinal and Physiotherapy Clinic and has a strong background in manual therapy and management of spinal spine, headaches and sports injuries. Since moving to the Bay area, Sian has become a traveling Physiotherapist for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, a volunteer faculty member teaching on the Doctorate of Physical Therapy program, and is working as a Physical Therapist at UCSF.
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REFERENCES:
Benjamin, D. R., Van de Water, A. T. M., & Peiris, C. L. (2014). Effects of exercise on diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscle in the antenatal and postnatal periods: a systematic review. Physiotherapy, 100(1), 1-8.
Bø, K., Hilde, G., Tennfjord, M. K., Sperstad, J. B., & Engh, M. E. (2017). Pelvic floor muscle function, pelvic floor dysfunction and diastasis recti abdominis: prospective cohort study. Neurourology and urodynamics, 36(3), 716-721.
Chiarello, C. M., Falzone, L. A., McCaslin, K. E., Patel, M. N., & Ulery, K. R. (2005). The effects of an exercise program on diastasis recti abdominis in pregnant women. Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy, 29(1), 11-16.
Gluppe, S. L., Hilde, G., Tennfjord, M. K., Engh, M. E., & Bø, K. (2018). Effect of a Postpartum Training Program on the Prevalence of Diastasis Recti Abdominis in Postpartum Primiparous Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Physical therapy, 98(4), 260-268.
Keeler, J., Albrecht, M., Eberhardt, L., Horn, L., Donnelly, C., & Lowe, D. (2012). Diastasis recti abdominis: a survey of women's health specialists for current physical therapy clinical practice for postpartum women. Journal of women’s health physical therapy, 36(3), 131-142.
Lee, D., & Hodges, P. W. (2016). Behavior of the linea alba during a curl-up task in diastasis rectus abdominis: an observational study. Journal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy, 46(7), 580-589.
van de Water, A. T., & Benjamin, D. R. (2014). Measure DRAM with a purpose: diagnose or evaluate. Archives of gynecology and obstetrics, 289(1), 3-4.
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Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, is an Exceptional Pediatric Cardiologist with UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists at Le Bonheur Outpatient Center in Memphis, Tennessee
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, is a well-versed pediatric cardiologist and cardiac researcher who diagnoses and treats patients at UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists located at Le Bonheur Outpatient Center - Main Campus in Memphis, Tennessee. UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists is a partnership between The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Furthermore, Dr. Towbin serves as Executive Co-Director of the Heart Institute and Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Vice Chair of Pediatrics for Strategy Advancement at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and UT Health Science Center, Chief of Cardiology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (2015-present), Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and St. Jude Chair in Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Prior to embracing his current endeavors in 2015, he served as Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology, and Co-Director of the Heart Institute Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (2009-2015), Chief of Cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas (2003 to 2009), Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Huston, Texas (1998-2009), Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Texas Children's Hospital (1985-2009), Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine (1993-1998), and Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine (1989-1993). For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit http://www.lebonheur.org/find-a-doctor/physicians/towbin-jeffrey.dot.
As a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Towbin has dedicated training and unique experience in the diagnosis and treatment of acquired heart problems and congenital heart disease or malfunction in children. Throughout his many years of experience, he has upheld a steadfast commitment to the ethical and professional standards of his practice, as evidenced by his sterling record, and ensures an impeccable degree of patient satisfaction in all facets of his work. While at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, he successfully built one of the country’s largest and most well respected pediatric cardiology programs. “Clinically, Dr. Towbin has focused on cardiomyopathies and heart failure, cardiac transplantation, and cardiovascular genetics as his areas of expertise for his entire career. He has trained many of the leaders in these fields. Dr. Towbin’s research has focused on the genetics and mechanisms of cardiomyopathy and advanced heart failure, arrhythmias, as well as on inflammatory heart disease and their etiologies”, states the official website of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. “His research has been funded continuously since 1987 and he has trained more than 50 post-doctoral and 20 pre-doctoral students – many of whom now have high level academic faculty positions”, adds the same source. Dr. Towbin has co-authored more than 500 publications in well-established journals, has acted as a principal mentor for multiple K-Grant-funded trainees, and has served as a member of several T32 training grants. Dr. Towbin is the pioneer of the concept of pathway-focused candidate gene analysis using the “final common pathway hypothesis” and calls his work in understanding how heart muscle turns into heart muscle disease, or cardiomyopathy, his most important research work to date. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit http://www.lebonheur.org/find-a-doctor/physicians/towbin-jeffrey.dot.
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, attended the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was awarded his medical degree in 1982. His internship was served at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1982-1983), which was followed by his pediatric residency conducted at the same educational venue, i.e. the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1983-1985). Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin is fellowship trained in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas (1985-1989). He received board certification in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology from the American Board of Pediatrics and remains at the forefront of his challenging specialty via memberships and affiliations with prestigious professional societies and associations, such as the Society for Pediatric Research, the International Society of Heart & Lung Transplantation, the Heart Failure Society of America, the International Society for Pediatric Mechanical Cardiopulmonary Support, the Heart Rhythm Society, the International Society of Cardiomyopathies and Heart Failure, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. Moreover, Dr. Towbin attained fellowship of the American Academy of Pediatrics, fellowship of the American College of Cardiology, and fellowship of the American Heart Association. In addition to his medical degree, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology (1974) and a Master of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology (1977) acquired at the University of Cincinnati. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/8133765-Jeffrey-Towbin-cardiologist-pediatric-Memphis-Tennessee-38105.
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, has an impressive professional journey that spans twenty-nine years and has expanse knowledge and unrivaled expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic advances for cardiomyopathies (heart muscle disease), heart failure, heart transplantation, and cardiovascular genetics. Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin was honored with the Richard D. Rowe Award with The Society for Pediatric Research (1991), the Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Cardiology (1993), the Pfizer Visiting Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine (1997), Distinguished Service Award, American Heart Association (1998), the Michael DeBakey Excellence in Research Award (2003), the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Wall of Honor (2004), the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award (Basic), the American Heart Association T. Duckett Jones Lecturer (2007), Council on Cardiovascular Disease of the Young (CVDY), the American Heart Association Meritorious Achievement Award (2010), the Simon Dack Award from the American College of Cardiology (2012), the American Heart Association Basic Research Prize (2013), the Castle Connolly America's Top Doctors (2017, 2018), and the Patients' Choice Award (2014). He feels that his success is attributable primarily to his strong ethic, forward thinking, and planning, and dedicates his spare time to listening to music. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-towbin-58438515.
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Fitness and the Family Business — Sitting Poolside with Mike Monfredi from MikedUp Blog
The Sitting Poolside interview series
When people think of retirement, scenes of beachfront homes, rounds of golf, or reading by the pool come to mind. Sitting Poolside is a series of interviews that challenges that notion and other financial misperceptions. The series name pokes fun at the stereotypes, but it’s also an opportunity to discuss people’s real stories and unique insights. So grab a piña colada and pull up your lounge chair!
Mike from MikedUp Blog
I’m Mike – current 30-ish CEO and Blogger. I write Financial insights for Family & Business, and Fitness tips for all! We’re growing our family-owned business while I’m focusing on staying fit and being a solid family man… and writing about all the highs and lows on MikedUp Blog!
Wealth
Mr. SR (MSR): What was your concept of wealth when you were growing up?
Mike Monfredi (MM): For whatever reason, my concept of ‘wealthy’ at a young age was earning $100,000/year. But I hadn’t quite grasped much of anything financially at a young age. I came from an upper-middle-class family, didn’t want for much, and although I worked from the age of 15, I still was afforded the privilege to pursue sports, different fields of work, and other passions.
I knew that I needed to save money but I didn’t quite know where, or how. I knew of the few employment options available in my hometown but honestly felt helpless at the prospect of only those few options, none of which seemed to boast much potential.
So I focused entirely on annual salary, ignorantly ignoring the multitude of ways I could put some savings to work for me (i.e. real estate, investing in the market, etc.). I felt that if I could earn 6-figures that all would be swell in the money department.
But I ended up finding out later in life that more money doesn’t solve your financial woes — it just gives you new ones.
The family business
MSR: What is your current career status? How do you like to spend your time when you’re not working?
MM: I am currently the CEO of our family’s small business, a 9-employee dental office in Columbus, Ohio. But up until January 2019 — I worked this job in addition to a regular 9-5 with a large state agency in Ohio as a Forensic Scientist.
I did the two full-time jobs while blogging, having 2 young children (well, technically watching my wife have them), and tackling all the other tasks that come with regular life. About mid-2017 my stress level was unbearable and with the counsel of my wife, we decided that one day she and I would work together in our business.
I’m stoked to report that today is now that day.
When I’m not working, I’m spending time with my girls, working out, playing beach volleyball, meal prepping, watching some live sporting event, or enjoying a glass of red with my wife on the 1 out of 30 nights both girls are asleep before 9:00. Love those days…
MSR: I’m curious to hear more about your experience in the medical field and with the business that you and your wife run together.
As doctors yourselves (and spending time with other medical personnel during your career), has that background affected your worldview or your priorities, compared to other people you know who have different career paths?
MM: Just for a bit of background — my wife is the dentist and I run the company (no clinical expertise). Although we have the same undergraduate degrees, our grad degrees are where we diverged academically.
With that being said, I do have many interactions with other medical professionals in addition to my wife and business partner — and I’d say that background does put a unique perspective on the decisions we make.
For example, we are 100% in business to make money, however the ethical component of doing what’s best for the patient cannot be ignored. Sure, we can try and sell the most expensive treatment for our patients, but if that’s not what they need, or if a less-expensive option would be best for their specific situation — that is what we suggest.
Many patients who visit our office do not have a great deal of clinical knowledge of dentistry. It is our job to educate our customers, explain what treatment they need — if any — and why, and at that point we’re able to start making money.
Aside from those points — we notice smiles while we’re out and about. Much like a car salesman may notice cars, sometimes we’ll exchange a, “Wow – nice teeth there!” under our breath.
Value of physical fitness
MSR: You share that fitness is a big part of your journey and one of your hobbies now.
Have you found that your health and fitness interests have correlated with your personal finance interests? Are there principles or motivations that fuel you in both areas?
MM: 100% — yes.
If you want to be successful in achieving a higher level of fitness, you need specific and achievable goals. You need a plan to reach those marks and you need some ways to measure and track your progress. From there, you need the discipline to see it through.
Does that sound at all like budgeting or tracking your net worth to reach FI, for example? It does to me.
The main concepts carry over to all aspects of your life, whether they’re fitness, finance, family, business, or otherwise.
Strategic goals, a well-researched plan, and the discipline to see it through while adjusting course along the way is the recipe used to make significant positive progress in life.
The trick for me lately, is realizing that I’m only truly capable of focusing on 2-3 major life goals at one time. So I’ll prioritize the most vital in the present moment, check them off, and move on to the next.
Financial journey
MSR: Describe your financial journey.
MM: If you’re looking at a scatter plot with the X-axis representing time and the Y-axis representing net worth, my financial journey creeps up over a small hill in my early 20’s, drops off a cliff around 25, and gradually climbs a slow, steady, and arduous mountain at about 29.
The Sisiphyisian climb from 29 to present-day represents a multitude of hard work, incredible risk, and some ole’ fashioned good luck.
If you’re looking for professional experience and a bit about who I am in general, here’s an excerpt from my ‘Start Here’ page that gives you an idea:
I played football in college, got injured, gained too much weight, then lost ~65 pounds. I have an intense drive to keep that weight off. My degrees are in molecular biology and ecology. I’ve been fortunate to have worked, a lot – in a bunch of different fields (as a landscaper, men’s fragrance salesman, coach, server, quality supervisor, forensic scientist, blogger, and now CEO…) and in varying places (Ohio, Maui, Costa Rica, the Gulf of Mexico,…).
Monica and I took out some sizeable loans for her to go to dental school and for us to buy our business (MFD), and we are working to pay off that debt and grow the business (many posts about each of these in the archives and to come). We believe in credit cards that don’t carry a balance from one month to the next (love the points, hate the interest). We put family first and love vacations. Our world centers around our girls (Clara and Stella).
From here, we’re betting on ourselves and our business to be the drivers of economic gain and wealth generation, and we’re really stoked to be working together on a project we both love.
Family
MSR: You share that your marriage and your daughters are a top priority for you.
How do you balance your career and personal finance focus with finding time to spend with your family? Do you have any routines or advice for other people struggling to find a sense of balance in those areas?
What’s been working for me lately is to have specifically coded times throughout the day. Early morning is for workouts/family/getting ready for the day. Work hours are for work. Come 5:00pm — the kids bedtime, it’s family time. Then after the kids are asleep, I do my best to balance quality time with my wife, gym work, me time, and time for blogging or additional work on our business.
For the first 2 years we were in business, I had another full-time job thrown into that mix, but I’ve actually had a night or two to relax lately — which is a much welcome feeling.
As long as I’m not slacking on my discipline, and keeping the lines crystal clear — not allowing my coded times to bleed together — I’m able to find the balance my life needs.
Advice
MSR: What do you consider to be your biggest failure or regret?
MM: You know, I honestly don’t have many hugely regrettable situations in life. I’ve made a ton of mistakes, sure, but many of those have been tremendous learning experiences — and I’m better for them.
Honestly, I probably partied a bit too hard from 19-23. And with some of the opportunities I had in that window, I would’ve rather capitalized on making the most of those rather than worrying about ‘having such a good time’.
MSR: What is your concept of wealth or financial success now? What were the major influences that changed your view?
MM: Net worth. Period, full stop. I learned quickly that a 6-figure income doesn’t bring with it rainbows and unicorns. And if you’re not saving money, building wealth, paying off debt, etc. it really doesn’t matter how much money you make.
So, I’d say that ‘wealth’ to me means a healthy and growing net worth, while financial success is the ability to do the things you want to do in combination with growing your net worth, not in spite of it.
I saw individuals who earned what was a huge paycheck in my eyes who also didn’t have much in the way of assets. Conversely, I’ve seen folks who earn modest paychecks, but who’ve been good stewards of their money be able to retire comfortably and do the things they choose to.
MSR: What’s the most helpful book you’ve read recently?
MM: Regular readers of MikedUp Blog know where I’m going here…
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
For some perspective on my feelings regarding this book: I have given it as a gift to friends, relatives, and employees alike. In fact, it is the literature we use at our business to read, describe, and discuss the culture we have implemented. All of our team members have been provided with a copy and I’ve read through and discussed each chapter with all of them.
There are so many great leadership teachings in this book and the way that each chapter is constructed – with a real-life battlefield story that leads to a principle, which is then defined and finally applied to the business setting – helps to amplify and reinforce each chapter’s principle.
It also makes chapter discussions easy to facilitate. But maybe the most valuable lesson I have learned after reading through this book nearly 20 times is that by putting the Team before self, not only does the team win but by definition so do your individual ambitions and goals.
This book has helped me to be a better husband, boss, employee, and person. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
MSR: What advice would you give someone who is on the path to semi-retirement or early retirement?
Develop a well-researched and results-oriented plan to build wealth. Ask ‘wealthy’ friends or acquaintances how they’ve generated wealth, read books, blogs, and listen to podcasts, and incorporate the points that work for you into your plan.
Understand the risks associated, where your plan can go wrong, and what to do when that happens. Use all of this information to come up with a plan that suits both your desired goals and the lifestyle you hope to live in pursuit of those goals.
Because life’s not about the finish line — that’s a misconception. It’s about the journey toward the line. And you have the ability to design that journey and all it’s twists and turns based on the decisions you make early on.
And once you decide where your life will lead you — put your head down and get to work.
MSR: Mike, thank you for sharing your family’s story with us. I appreciate your time and I’m excited to see how your blog and your business both continue to grow!
The post Fitness and the Family Business — Sitting Poolside with Mike Monfredi from MikedUp Blog appeared first on Semi-Retire Plan.
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FLYING CARS
Intellectual proposition open for debate and discussion:
TOPIC : FLYING CARS
~ i hope someone here reads this because I spent way to much time typing this out, but this is what my mind does at 4AM when I’m not writing music, working on marketing/promo strategies, or studying business.~
First off, I’m going to state the obvious here-
The idea has SEVERAL holes in it, that need to be addressed. But as a general concept, call it a brain storm if you will, I’m curious of what you think..... *also factor out cost in this equation for now, given that this alternative would be incredibly expensive, there’s no need to bring that element into this discussion.
The concept of FLYING CARS has been one of the leading ideas in what the “future” looks like for decades. However in reality a flying car is a preposterous idea given the fact that not IF BUT WHEN your car has a malfunction you are now driving a two ton missile which is incredibly dangerous for a multitude of reasons that don’t need to be further explained....
BUT a HOVERING car, seems like a more reasonable and obtainable idea to me. None the less, i’m fully aware there are ALOT of different angles of understanding in which we would need to master before the concept could even begin to be considered a feasible possibility.
I’ve gone ahead and ruled out downward facing propellers and/or turbines as a method of success to this Dilemma because as mentioned above, should you have a malfunction, well... you’re screwed and so is what ever is underneath you. Also the wind produced by this method would be absolutely outrageous and incredibly inconvenient for pedestrians. Not to mention the upkeep would be incredibly inefficient in several aspects.
Now, I’m sure you’ve seen things levitate by manipulating magnetic fields, we (as a species) have even figured out how to keep liquids suspend in the air by sheer magnetic force.
SO, with that being said, what if we found a way to harness AND stabilize that same force in vehicles? Now, the object is hovering without the use of an engine,so even if your car fails, it will still be suspended in the air. (keep in mind this concept does not impose the idea that the car is 100+ feet in the air, that’s unreasonable and pointless in my opinion) Obviously, gravity would play a very active roll in this equation because naturally every object wants to fall. But let’s say we have a magnetic field strong enough to combat this principal or at least manipulate it enough to stabilize it, what could be the outcome?
I think about it like this:
You can make an object float/hover in midair within a magnetic field between two “platforms”. You can pass objects through this field without interrupting it (which is a really cool phenomenon if you understand how it works) but let’s say the street now harnesses those same magnetic properties, and the bottom of the car is comprised of a strong magnet as well with the opposite pole facing downwards, this would cause the car to repel against the street and hover.
To further the possibility of mobility, let’s now turn that “platform” into a long strip and add a propeller of some sort to the vehicle, rather a set of them around all sides so you can go forward, reverse, turn left, turn right, blasé, blasé.
And for the purpose of accidentally driving out/off of the field, let’s add “bumpers” on the side of the street like a bowling alley.
Now you ask:
“well, what if my car does malfunction? Am I just stuck in my car hovering above the street?”
-given the frictionless environment this idea imposes, I don’t see why you couldn’t just push or pull the vehicle using another vehicle or outside force. According to Newtons laws of motion, i don’t see a flaw in this logic.
-at the same time, applying those same laws of motion, a greater problem is introduced, being that, what if your car malfunctions while you are moving? What will stop it? And that does certainly introduce a rather problematic situation that would need to be addressed, however even in today’s cars, accelerators have been known from time to time to get stuck. Although when introducing the frictionless element to the equation, the problem becomes a lot more substantial and I am rather stumped on a solution to this at the current moment. (But I may make an edit to this post should the idea come to me- or maybe one of you has a good solution to this problem, in which i will give credit to)
“if I’m hovering how could I possibly get down”
-To solve this problem I was thinking something along the lines of a runway of somesort with a steady decline in strength of this magnetic force. which in turn would lower the car at a constant rate of change ruling out “the free fall effect”
-Also, we are well into research on how to manipulate magnetic fields by simply using light,
Rubicon Researcher Johan Mentink, together with Martin Eckstein from the University of Hamburg CFEL/MPSD, has theoretically demonstrated this for the first time. Rapid and effective manipulation is of immense fundamental and technological value. (An article about this has been published in Physical Review Letters if you’re further interested in this study.) but it has only been proven theoretically so we still have work to do.
But, With that being stated couldn’t we use light to manipulate the system as a whole? The streets would have higher laser focus to increase the fields, thus insuring that the cars stay “a float” (kinda funny to say this because when I think of the term “a float” in conjunction with vehicles, I immediately think of boats, but anyways you get the idea)
-Now lets say we have these lasers in designated areas that slowly change the amount of light emitted at a steady rate, which would decrease the strength of the field just enough to lower the vehicle down to safety before to the loop of the field is broken.
Then turn the laser back to its original position, reactivating the loop, thus lifting the car, and off you go.
-BETTER YET, put the lasers on the bottom of the cars as well so that you could lower yourself without having to Find a “descending station”.
then we could just have set zones where you can “fly” or be pulled to in order lower your vehicle, should your own laser malfunction”
“How would turning actually work because magnetic fields can’t cross or overlap”
-When magnets are close together, with their fields overlapping, the fields combine to produce a resultant field which acts in one direction at any given point. The point X is called a neutral point. The forces due to both magnets cancel each other, i.e. there is no net force, at X.
However, the idea that two magnetic fields can’t cross simply isn’t true, the point of intersection or overlap would just have to be equal to zero, which for obvious reasons would be a major problem cause the car would immediately enter free fall at each intersection.
As proposed before, the car would be equipped with propellers all around it so technically you should be able to spin a full 360 degrees whilst remaining stationary. With that in mind, you don’t need to cross magnetic fields in the first place and you could sustain the constant force.
“How do we test this idea on a smaller scale?”
My idea would be to create smaller prototypes using similar, more manageable, technology to test the theory in a controlled environment before introducing the idea to the public.
~Who knows, maybe Marty McFlys hoverboard isn’t such an outlandish idea after all.
Seems to me like you may be able to knock out two futuristic birds with one stone.
My main questions of concern In all of this include-
1. what would that much “man made” magnetic force do to the earths natural magnetic field?
2. What kind of interference would occur within our technology?
I’m sure that such a tremendous force would even knock out cellular towers which in its self would cause chaos.
Furthermore, this could demagnetize cards that contain magnetic stripes which would create problems such as credit card malfunctions and this would also breed chaos considering a very large chunk of money in today’s world is digital.
3. What health risks would be involved with so much outside force acting on us at all times?
** According to an article I read on science daily -
If a person's blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks.
A study conducted in 2011 by Rongjia Tao, professor and chair of physics at Temple University, shows that blood viscosity can be reduced 20-30 percent by subjecting it to a small magnetic field, lowering potential damage to blood vessels and the risk of heart attack (makes sense considering blood has iron it in)
*I can leave a link to this article below if you ask, it’s actually a pretty interesting read if you’re interested*
But with this knowledge in hand,
Would this much magnetism cause the amount of heart attacks to decrease?
Or could too much magnetic force lower the bloods viscosity to a dangerous or life threatening level?
*** I’ve also read somewhere that magnets can effect vision which would be a problem in its self. however I can’t recall where I read this article right now, so I don’t want to claim this information as fact without a credible source
~if this debate gets deep enough, or enough people are interested, I will do the research, but until then, I am not going to factor this possibility right now. if you do the research behind this please feel free to leave a link Below for all to read~ ***
4. How would other animals be impacted by this technology?
I have more questions, points, and concerns but I will wait to bring those cards to the table until I see interest in the topic.
If you made it all the way trough this post I greatly appreciate it!!!!
I can only expect that most people will look at the length of this and decide they don’t want any part of it, which is totally fine.
But what are your thoughts on all of this????
I am very open to intellectual discussion on the subject!
Thank you for your time
-Mercury DeEmcee (@mercury_deemcee)
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Quantum-safe communication over the internet infrastructure? Yeah, that’s doable
Shlomi Dolev Contributor
Shlomi Dolev is the Chair Professor and founder of the Computer Science department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of Self-Stabilization. Shlomi also is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief scientist of Secret Double Octopus.
More posts by this contributor
The quantum meltdown of encryption
The quantum computing apocalypse is imminent
Quantum computing promises to do many things for business and industry, processing data at far greater speeds and rates than today’s binary computers can accomplish. But it also promises to do something else — essentially render current security standards useless, as hackers will be able to utilize quantum systems to crack the cryptographic schemes that are used to protect systems today.
We’re closer than ever to the deployment of a commercial quantum computing system — which means that we need to develop a security scheme that will protect data exchanged between quantum computers on the existing internet infrastructure.
Researchers have developed ideas and theories about how to proceed, but we believe that the basic components of a solution are already out there — and it won’t require the development of new hardware or mechanisms to accomplish. Using a combination of overlay security, blockchain, advanced cryptographic systems and Merkle trees with Lamport signatures, we believe we can develop a practical, inexpensive — and even easy to implement — quantum-safe security system for internet exchanges.
That commercial-grade quantum systems are almost — if not already — here, as at least one quantum system has been sold, and a Maryland firm has recently developed a 79-qubit system. One of the operating principles of qubits — the quantum bits that are the bedrock of quantum computing — is the quantum entanglement that allows quantum gate operations over non-neighboring quantum bits (enabling teleportation of qubits). As a result, operations are completed far faster than in standard bit computers — meaning that, given Shor’s algorithm, hackers should have no problem breaking current security systems. Even without quantum computing, some of the algorithms that were thought to be impenetrable were found to be vulnerable; with the power of qubits at work, the danger is even greater.
The asymmetric encryption schemes proposed by Merkle, Diffie Helman and Rivest and Shamir and Addelman, pioneers in the use of cryptography for computer security, brought about a revolution in cryptography. Asymmetric encryption enabled the creation of a symmetric key among communicating parties in a communication link, and is even able to identify the intervention of a malicious party in the communication. This is possible because these encryption schemes allow for the signature of certificates, monolithically associating a public key with the description of the entity to which the public key belongs. The signature is issued by a trusted third party, the certificate authority. This public key infrastructure is the de facto security infrastructure in use today, securing the entire internet — including sensitive and super-secure communications for the military, government and financial institutions.
Open up your favorite tech website on any given day, though, and you’ll likely find news of a breach — sometimes a big one that compromised the data, finances and livelihood of millions. Clearly, even before the quantum computing era, there is work that needs to be done to shore up the internet.
Overlay security as a model
A model for quantum-safe communications is already in use — in the concept of overlay security, used by many services to secure their communications. Let’s take as an example the sending of credit card information to a web site. Clearly, sending that data in clear-text via a single message is asking for trouble. One alternative would be to send the data via different segments — i.e. sending one email with the first digits of the credit card and then another email with the rest. But savvy hackers could compromise the data on a server, essentially using the email servers and the internet server providers to carry out a man-in-the-middle or “tap in” attack, capturing part of or all the digits of the credit card.
But overlay networks provide a window to a solution. Overlay networks provide “closed” networks utilizing security protocols for services atop an existing network (in this case, the internet). As internet services have proliferated, each one — e-mail, SMS, push notifications, messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, LINE, LinkedIn, Telegram, Weibo, Slack, etc. — have created their own logical secured channels. Each channel, even if using the same physical infrastructure, is secured in its own overlay, with trust in identification and authentication of communications through the channel taken as a matter of faith.
This overlay system provides what could be a model for quantum-safe communications. If, for example, we were to send part of our credit card data (encrypted, of course) via WhatsApp, and another string via Gmail, we would in essence be reproducing the entangled aspect of quantum communications. In this sense, we are using the overlay network these services provide — with the accumulated secrecy, authenticity and identification of the diverse capabilities of the communication channels, applications and protocols — to ensure security.
With that, there are some flaws with this approach. Overlay security uses several channels and random numbers to obtain a high level of confidence in identification, authentication and secrecy. In a quantum-safe security system, security protocols could be used over each channel that would be part of the encrypted data that needs to be reassembled in order to get at the data. If the channels are known — i.e. if hackers know we are using SMS, e-mail, etc, and in which order to authenticate communications — each of those channels could be compromised, with the communication at the very least blocked.
Secret sharing the secret to Quantum-safe security?
One way around this is with the secret-sharing protocol developed by Professor Adi Shamir, which utilizes a variable number of channels to reconstruct a message, depending on the message. Shamir’s secret sharing is based on using polynomials over a finite field, where each “participant” — in our case each channel — receives one point of the polynomial; the secret is the free coefficient of the polynomial. For example, if the polynomial is a random linear function with the secret being the free coefficient, any two participants/channels can reveal the secret, but no single participant/channel has the information needed to reveal the secret. Following the logic, the more polynomials and the more channels, the more “esoteric” the secret becomes, and the more remote the possibility that a hacker can get at it.
Blockchain authentication
One of the “keys” (pun intended) for the public key infrastructure upon which the authentication systems we rely on are built is the certificate authority. A trusted authority signs off on a certificate that associates a public key with the entity description, thus providing assurances that the entity we are contacting and providing authentication to is indeed the entity we intend to contact, and not a rogue pretender. However, the certificate system is far from perfect, and there have been plenty of compromises (see here, here, here and here) over the years.
One way to bolster authentication is to entrust the verification to blockchains. Combined with secret sharing, blockchains could prove a formidable challenge to even the most talented of hackers.
In a blockchain, the identity of a trusted party would be carried out by numerous already trusted entities, including governmental, financial and notary entities. Each trusted entity would have a portion of the security secret (as described above) in its portion of the ledger; when a user seeks to ascertain the trustworthiness of a service or site that relies on this scheme, the security system searches through the ledger for the required polynomials, enabling the creation of a new random symmetric key that can be used in an advanced encryption standard (AES) authentication scheme over a single channel. Unlike the asymmetric encryption largely used today, AES is considered quantum-safe, and a long-enough key length should be enough to protect the communication from the super-charged quantum hacking software that will be working very quickly (taking into account the quadratic search speed-up implied in Grover’s Algorithm). Along with AES, secure hash algorithms (SHA) are also considered to be quantum-safe.
Quantum-safe signatures
Finally, we need a way to sign messages and transactions, like financial transactions, in a way that hackers will not be able to compromise. There are numerous signature schemes already in use, including Lamport one-time signatures, which can utilize a secure hash function, such as secure hash algorithms (SHA). Lamport signatures are fine for single-use authentication, but even better are Merkle trees, which include many private keys in the leaves (which also can be produced by several nested hash functions). Those leaves offer infinite possibilities for private keys, with the root of the tree serving as the public key. Distributing that public key over a blockchain ledger would provide even more security — giving even quantum systems a run for their money in trying to guess authentication information.
There’s been much wringing of hands in recent years about the seemingly inevitable Quantum Apocalypse — the end of security as we know it. In a sense, that’s accurate; if we are using standard systems that utilize standard bits and standard security protocols, then yes, quantum systems will probably kill them on the first day their superior computing power is unleashed.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are schemes and technologies — overlay, secret sharing, blockchain, advanced signature systems, etc. that can protect communications even over the standard, open internet. Those technologies are not theoretical; they exist, and are in use in some capacity or another right now. By implementing these systems now, we can segue into the quantum computing era with nary a worry.
source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/19/quantum-safe-communication-over-the-internet-infrastructure-yeah-thats-doable/
0 notes
Text
Quantum-safe communication over the internet infrastructure? Yeah, that’s doable
Shlomi Dolev Contributor
Shlomi Dolev is the Chair Professor and founder of the Computer Science department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of Self-Stabilization. Shlomi also is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief scientist of Secret Double Octopus.
More posts by this contributor
The quantum computing apocalypse is imminent
Quantum computing promises to do many things for business and industry, processing data at far greater speeds and rates than today’s binary computers can accomplish. But it also promises to do something else — essentially render current security standards useless, as hackers will be able to utilize quantum systems to crack the cryptographic schemes that are used to protect systems today.
We’re closer than ever to the deployment of a commercial quantum computing system — which means that we need to develop a security scheme that will protect data exchanged between quantum computers on the existing internet infrastructure.
Researchers have developed ideas and theories about how to proceed, but we believe that the basic components of a solution are already out there — and it won’t require the development of new hardware or mechanisms to accomplish. Using a combination of overlay security, blockchain, advanced cryptographic systems and Merkle trees with Lamport signatures, we believe we can develop a practical, inexpensive — and even easy to implement — quantum-safe security system for internet exchanges.
That commercial-grade quantum systems are almost — if not already — here, as at least one quantum system has been sold, and a Maryland firm has recently developed a 79-qubit system. One of the operating principles of qubits — the quantum bits that are the bedrock of quantum computing — is the quantum entanglement that allows quantum gate operations over non-neighboring quantum bits (enabling teleportation of qubits). As a result, operations are completed far faster than in standard bit computers — meaning that, given Shor’s algorithm, hackers should have no problem breaking current security systems. Even without quantum computing, some of the algorithms that were thought to be impenetrable were found to be vulnerable; with the power of qubits at work, the danger is even greater.
The asymmetric encryption schemes proposed by Merkle, Diffie Helman and Rivest and Shamir and Addelman, pioneers in the use of cryptography for computer security, brought about a revolution in cryptography. Asymmetric encryption enabled the creation of a symmetric key among communicating parties in a communication link, and is even able to identify the intervention of a malicious party in the communication. This is possible because these encryption schemes allow for the signature of certificates, monolithically associating a public key with the description of the entity to which the public key belongs. The signature is issued by a trusted third party, the certificate authority. This public key infrastructure is the de facto security infrastructure in use today, securing the entire internet — including sensitive and super-secure communications for the military, government and financial institutions.
Open up your favorite tech website on any given day, though, and you’ll likely find news of a breach — sometimes a big one that compromised the data, finances and livelihood of millions. Clearly, even before the quantum computing era, there is work that needs to be done to shore up the internet.
Overlay security as a model
A model for quantum-safe communications is already in use — in the concept of overlay security, used by many services to secure their communications. Let’s take as an example the sending of credit card information to a web site. Clearly, sending that data in clear-text via a single message is asking for trouble. One alternative would be to send the data via different segments — i.e. sending one email with the first digits of the credit card and then another email with the rest. But savvy hackers could compromise the data on a server, essentially using the email servers and the internet server providers to carry out a man-in-the-middle or “tap in” attack, capturing part of or all the digits of the credit card.
But overlay networks provide a window to a solution. Overlay networks provide “closed” networks utilizing security protocols for services atop an existing network (in this case, the internet). As internet services have proliferated, each one — e-mail, SMS, push notifications, messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, LINE, LinkedIn, Telegram, Weibo, Slack, etc. — have created their own logical secured channels. Each channel, even if using the same physical infrastructure, is secured in its own overlay, with trust in identification and authentication of communications through the channel taken as a matter of faith.
This overlay system provides what could be a model for quantum-safe communications. If, for example, we were to send part of our credit card data (encrypted, of course) via WhatsApp, and another string via Gmail, we would in essence be reproducing the entangled aspect of quantum communications. In this sense, we are using the overlay network these services provide — with the accumulated secrecy, authenticity and identification of the diverse capabilities of the communication channels, applications and protocols — to ensure security.
With that, there are some flaws with this approach. Overlay security uses several channels and random numbers to obtain a high level of confidence in identification, authentication and secrecy. In a quantum-safe security system, security protocols could be used over each channel that would be part of the encrypted data that needs to be reassembled in order to get at the data. If the channels are known — i.e. if hackers know we are using SMS, e-mail, etc, and in which order to authenticate communications — each of those channels could be compromised, with the communication at the very least blocked.
Secret sharing the secret to Quantum-safe security?
One way around this is with the secret-sharing protocol developed by Professor Adi Shamir, which utilizes a variable number of channels to reconstruct a message, depending on the message. Shamir’s secret sharing is based on using polynomials over a finite field, where each “participant” — in our case each channel — receives one point of the polynomial; the secret is the free coefficient of the polynomial. For example, if the polynomial is a random linear function with the secret being the free coefficient, any two participants/channels can reveal the secret, but no single participant/channel has the information needed to reveal the secret. Following the logic, the more polynomials and the more channels, the more “esoteric” the secret becomes, and the more remote the possibility that a hacker can get at it.
Blockchain authentication
One of the “keys” (pun intended) for the public key infrastructure upon which the authentication systems we rely on are built is the certificate authority. A trusted authority signs off on a certificate that associates a public key with the entity description, thus providing assurances that the entity we are contacting and providing authentication to is indeed the entity we intend to contact, and not a rogue pretender. However, the certificate system is far from perfect, and there have been plenty of compromises (see here, here, here and here) over the years.
One way to bolster authentication is to entrust the verification to blockchains. Combined with secret sharing, blockchains could prove a formidable challenge to even the most talented of hackers.
In a blockchain, the identity of a trusted party would be carried out by numerous already trusted entities, including governmental, financial and notary entities. Each trusted entity would have a portion of the security secret (as described above) in its portion of the ledger; when a user seeks to ascertain the trustworthiness of a service or site that relies on this scheme, the security system searches through the ledger for the required polynomials, enabling the creation of a new random symmetric key that can be used in an advanced encryption standard (AES) authentication scheme over a single channel. Unlike the asymmetric encryption largely used today, AES is considered quantum-safe, and a long-enough key length should be enough to protect the communication from the super-charged quantum hacking software that will be working very quickly (taking into account the quadratic search speed-up implied in Grover’s Algorithm). Along with AES, secure hash algorithms (SHA) are also considered to be quantum-safe.
Quantum-safe signatures
Finally, we need a way to sign messages and transactions, like financial transactions, in a way that hackers will not be able to compromise. There are numerous signature schemes already in use, including Lamport one-time signatures, which can utilize a secure hash function, such as secure hash algorithms (SHA). Lamport signatures are fine for single-use authentication, but even better are Merkle trees, which include many private keys in the leaves (which also can be produced by several nested hash functions). Those leaves offer infinite possibilities for private keys, with the root of the tree serving as the public key. Distributing that public key over a blockchain ledger would provide even more security — giving even quantum systems a run for their money in trying to guess authentication information.
There’s been much wringing of hands in recent years about the seemingly inevitable Quantum Apocalypse — the end of security as we know it. In a sense, that’s accurate; if we are using standard systems that utilize standard bits and standard security protocols, then yes, quantum systems will probably kill them on the first day their superior computing power is unleashed.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are schemes and technologies — overlay, secret sharing, blockchain, advanced signature systems, etc. that can protect communications even over the standard, open internet. Those technologies are not theoretical; they exist, and are in use in some capacity or another right now. By implementing these systems now, we can segue into the quantum computing era with nary a worry.
Via David Riggs https://techcrunch.com
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