text:
Fortnight in Review
By Ann Rostow
Corporations…Corporations Who Love Corporations
Hello dear readers. The holiday GLBT news lull continues on its meandering drift towards Twelfth Night, and yet we are not completely becalmed. Indeed, the High Court has just accepted a couple of cases that may not directly involve gay rights, but will certainly have a major impact on our community's legal position in the future. So much so, in fact, that I would have expected every GLBT newspaper, blog and website to cover this story with a rainbow blanket.
And yet? The blockbuster is ignored! But fear not. The San Francisco Bay Times will never shirk its duty to keep you up to date on any and all gay-significant nuances in constitutional jurisprudence, and this time, there's more than a nuance at stake.
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether or not a for-profit corporation has the same right to religious expression as a person under the First Amendment. The issue at hand is the obligation to provide insurance for the full range of contraception under Obamacare, but it could just as easily involve the duty to welcome gay customers under a state antidiscrimination law.
The legal underpinnings are basically identical. Under a fairly recent law (passed in the early 1990s), the state may not infringe upon our religious comings and goings without a compelling interest, and even then, the trespass must be narrowly targeted towards that interest. Think drug laws that prevent you from your favorite peyote ritual. Or maybe our recent example of laws against handling venomous snakes in church— a policy now under court challenge in Tennessee.
Certainly, no state authority could force you to take contraceptives, particularly those that might prevent an egg from implanting in the uterus after fertilization. But can the state force a company to offer health insurance that includes this option? What if the company's officers think it's wrong? What if the company's objections are founded on religious beliefs? If the answer is no, then surely a company also has the right to ignore gay rights laws for faith-based reasons.
Maybe "surely" is too strong, because there's also a case to be made that gay bias is not a valid "religious belief," any more than racial prejudice can be justified by scripture. But let's just say that a Supreme Court ruling that recognizes corporate personhood for the purposes of religious expression is not an opinion any of us would welcome.
Many commentators have scoffed at the notion that a corporation is a person, but corporations certainly have constitutional rights, and commercial speech has always been given First Amendment protection. That said, it's always been far less expansive than the protection accorded to an individual speaker. That limitation appeared to be, shall we say, "relaxed" under Citizens United, the ruling that allowed corporations to pour zillions of dollars into the political coffers under the guise of Free Speech.
Given the precedent of Citizens United, some fear the Roberts Court will be only too happy to bend the rules for conservative companies like Hobby Lobby and their likeminded buddies at some Mennonite furniture company who are also suing for religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act. At the appellate level, Hobby Lobby won their case at the Tenth Circuit, while the Mennonites lost at the Third Circuit. Or maybe the reverse. Let's just say there was a split between the two appellate courts, which probably inspired the justices to accept review.
The core problem with laws that purport to lift religious expression high and above the secular rules and regulations that serve society as a whole is this: Who decides what specific form of religious expression deserves a transcendent status? As I implied before, the notion that "gays are evil," is not a tenet of any religion. It's a
traditional attitude that is linked to, but not intrinsic to, various conservative faiths.
Likewise, when is a feature of religious expression a deal breaker, like eating kosher meals, and when is it a superficial gimmick, like wanting to wear a kitchen strainer on your head for your driver's license because you're a Pastafarian? Don't get me wrong. I love the Pastafarians, who worship the Spaghetti Monster and drink beer every Friday, but can they claim First Amendment protection? Indeed, they were created to test exactly this kind of conundrum, and in at least one case they have won the right to wear strainers for their license photos. That may have been in Europe, but the question remains. Who decides these things? Who picks and chooses between the Wiccans and the peyote guys, and the Christians and the Muslims, and all the people who might define their own personal religious mandates?
The dilemma is tough enough when individuals are involved, but throw in corporations and we'll have a real nightmare. Meanwhile, I should mention that Britain's highest court has just ruled against an innkeeper who wanted to ban gay couples from sharing a room. And I know you remember the case of the photographer in New Mexico who wanted to ignore state antidiscrimination laws and refuse service for a gay commitment ceremony. That case is on appeal to the Supreme Court, but the justices have yet to decide whether to take review. Two other cases are in various stages of litigation: a baker in Colorado and a florist in Washington. And I have no doubt that there are others on the list.
Speaking of the High Court, I read somewhere that they have accepted even fewer cases than usual for this winter, a decline that follows a trend of accepting fewer and fewer petitions in general. I'm sure they have their reasons, but then I wonder when I learn that they have just heard oral arguments on the trenchant question of whether or not an airline can dump a "platinum" VIP club member simply because he complains incessantly about every little thing.
The answer may be yes. Apparently airlines have a lot of control over their customer dealings. Frankly I don't care whether the answer is yes or no. I only care whether or not they're making the best use of their valuable time.
Actually, I do care. I sort of hope the whiner gets dumped. Apparently, he's lodged 24 official complaints against Northwest Airlines over the past eight months, and tried to demand undeserved discounts and other perks that go well beyond his platinum status. I hate people like this. Litigious, arrogant, and obsessed with petty accoutrements of success. Plus, he's a rabbi! Isn't there something in the Torah about this kind of frivolous nitpicking?
And what is it with these airline categories? Have you flown recently? Have you noticed that there's a lengthening list of people who can board first? I think the kids still go first, or maybe the First Class passengers. But then come the platinum people, followed by the gold people, followed by the priority-boarding people, followed by the special club people. Now, they've stuck active military people into the mix at some point, as well as people without carry-on luggage.
Yet everyone still hangs around in a big anxious crowd, waiting for their designation to be called so they can rush into the packed jet the very first chance they get. Why not sit back and wait until most people are gone
and then board? Are people afraid someone will take their seat? The
specific numbered seat that is already assigned and printed on their boarding pass?
I may have previously mentioned the height of boarding mania. And that is the phenomenon of Southwest passengers who obtain an "A" pass and proceed to stand in the "A" line, up to an hour before the plane is scheduled. Presumably they went to great lengths to get the early seating in order to make their trip a little bit nicer. But instead of taking advantage of a guaranteed position, they impose an added and unnecessary hardship on themselves, for what reason? In order to be three rows closer to the front? Is that worth an hour on their feet?
Would you give up a perfectly good Bloody Mary for that? I wouldn't. Let alone the two or three that I could down if given sixty minutes in an airport bar. (There's something about airports that nullifies all the rules on drinking.)
Divorce, Gay Style
Moving right along, I see that a state court judge in Mississippi has denied a divorce to two lesbians who married in California in 2008. According to press reports, the judge seemed sympathetic to the women's plight, but was hamstrung by the state's antigay amendment that considers same-sex marriages void.
We have the same problem in Texas, where the state supreme court has recently heard arguments on two gay divorce cases, but where antigay blowhards, um, lawyers from the Attorney General's office, insist our marriages are also void from the start. There's another divorce case pending in Kentucky, and you may recall that Wyoming surprised everyone a couple of years ago by actually allowing a gay divorce to proceed. That said, unlike Mississippi, Texas and Kentucky, the Brokeback State has no amendment defining marriage and no statute that specifically bars recognition of same-sex marriage.
There are a number of legal side streets in the fight for marriage equality that can theoretically lead us to victory, and divorce is one of them. Our main routes, of course, are to argue our constitutional rights, either to marriage under the Due Process Clause, or to equal treatment under the Equal Protection Clause. But we now have dozens of active cases around the country, and several of them target tangential issues.
Can we divorce? Can we sue for loss of consortium if our civil union partner died from malpractice before we had the right to marry? Even if we can't marry in our state, can our out of state marriage be recognized? Can it be recognized for the purposes of a death certificate? How about for a death benefit from a private employer?
Some of these indirect suits may turn out to be detours towards equality. But others may be shortcuts, and still others may serve to weaken marriage discrimination, even if they don't defeat it completely. I thought it significant that long before we triumphed over Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, federal bankruptcy laws were effectively allowed to recognize same-sex couples. Why? Because the process of disentangling joint estates was simply too cumbersome for bankruptcy court and not fair to the creditors either.
That change flew under the radar and it's possible that many instances of marriage recognition will fly under the radar as well. A divorce in Wyoming. A death certificate in Ohio. A death payment in Pennsylvania. A state tax form in Missouri. These things add up.
Can You Berra Nother Marriage Item?
Here's a confusing situation Down Under. The Australian Capital Territory, a jurisdiction that includes the Australian capital of Canberra, approved a same-sex marriage law a couple of months ago, a law that was promptly contested by the federal government in a challenge to the highest court.
The six justices heard the case December 3, but the government did not request an injunction against the weddings, and none was ordered. As such, weddings are scheduled to begin December 8 under terms of the new law. Since the justices will not rule on the underlying question of marriage equality until December 12, it sounds as if gay couples in the capital will be able to get married for at least four days. There are something like 377,000 people living in the Territory, so I'd guess there could be several thousand gay couples.
And what will happen if the Court re-bans marriage? It's not clear to me, ergo the use of the adjective "confusing" in the lead sentence.
Finally, I didn't tell you about Croatia's new anti-marriage law. Nor did I mention oral arguments on marriage in federal court in Utah, or a federal marriage case dismissed in Louisiana. And since my time is up, I will leave you with those intriguing bits of information. Croatia is particularly tantalizing, n'est-ce pas?
arostow@aol.com


text:
Cristóbal Colón is an underground metro station on the Line 4 of the Santiago Metro, in Santiago, Chile. This station is named for Cristóbal Colón Avenue, which in turn was named after Christopher Columbus. The station was opened on 30 November 2005 as part of the inaugural section of the line between Tobalaba and Grecia.

References

Santiago Metro stations
Santiago Metro Line 4

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Good Golly Astrology - The Contenders: Eric Swalwell Jr.
The conjunction of Uranus to Swalwell's Sun indicates that there is a rebellious, disruptive element in his nature. He is capable of fresh and original ideas and is not afraid to defy expectations. This could help him stand out in a crowded field. However, Swalwell's chart also featurse a conjunction of Mars to Neptune which forms a sextile to the conjunction of his Venus with Pluto in Libra. This indicates that there are complications in his personal life that could interfere with his candidacy.
However, the main problem I see in this chart is the absence of square and opposition aspects. The absence of hard aspects typically indicates a lack of drive and energy. The multiple conjunctions in Swalwell's chart provide power and there is,no doubt, an angular placement in his complete chart that gives him the initiative and activism that is evident in his career thus far, but these indicators only go so far. Hard aspect describe challenges that a person has to surmount. A person who is not challenged in life is more likely to take things for granted and often has trouble understanding what those of us who are going through severe challenges.
It is interesting that Swalwell is another contender whose horoscope will be impacted by the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in January 2020. In my article on Tim Ryan (click here to see that article) I mention that half the contenders I've covered so far are in this group. In Swalwell's case it is the conjunction of his Venus and Pluto that will be squared by transiting Pluto and Saturn. Typically this would relate to a personal issue but, since we don't know where Venus and Pluto are placed in Swalwell's real chart, it could also relate to his career and his campaign.


text:
Q: Is there an idiomatic way to structure a Lua project? I'm creating a Neovim plugin in Lua and am looking for a reasonable way to structure my projects for testing, loading modules from Luarocks for development, and distributing this to users.
For example, in a Javascript project it's common to see something like the following:
README.md
node_modules/
dist/
src/
test/

After reviewing a number of Github repos for Lua projects, I'm not seeing a common pattern, so suggestions or boilerplates are welcome. Many thanks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.
Erich Maria Remarque's objective in writing All Quiet on the Western Front was "to give an account of a generation that was destroyed by the war - even those of it who survived the shelling."
Paul Bäumer, the narrator, acts as our guide to the world of trench warfare. We walk alongside him as he visits his mortally wounded friend in the infirmary, crawls between shell-holes in the mud dodging death, returns home to his village on leave, and remembers life before the war. We are guided not just through the physical landscape of war, but he shares with us his most personal thoughts - thoughts that change, attitudes that adapt to his changing reality of life as a front-line soldier.
At the beginning of the story he is able to take comfort in the companionship of his comrades, and in the small, fleeting moments of beauty, such as the butterflies in the mud. He sees poetry in the movement of a column of men, and a battlefield "like a storm-tossed sea, with the flames from the impacts spurting up like fountains." Nature informs his experiences and links him to the world before the war. But the longer he serves on the front line, the more difficult it is for him to forge those links with the past. He becomes lost in the present, with no past to comfort and no future to inspire. He is one of the lost generation.
It is very easy to forget that this is a depiction of a German, and not a British soldier for there are so many similarities to other depictions of the same battles from the allied side, such as Generals Die in Bed by Canadian Charles Harrison Yale, Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse, the poetry of Owen and Sassoon et al. The power for me is in the depiction of Paul Bäumer not as a German, but as Everyman. His Germanness was not emphasised. He is a young boy just like thousands of English young boys who enlisted because his teacher gave a stirring speech, and because all his chums were signing up. Paul and his fellow soldiers are shocked to see the kaiser and recognise that he too is just a human, and not a force of mythic proportion. They cannot imagine that he "has to go to the lavatory." The army necessitates the surrender and negation of individual personalities amongst the soldiers. Paul has moments of clarity when he begins to see the enemy, and all humans, even the kaiser, as individuals.
One thing I do know: everything that is sinking into us like a stone now, while we are in the war, will rise up again when the war is over, and that's when the real life-and-death struggle will start.
Without dreams of the future, without wife or children, job or home, Paul thinks perhaps the elusive goal that he needs - the image of the future to which he can cling - might be the goal of one day being once again a whole human being: "Is this the task we must dedicate our lives to after the war, so that all the years of horror will have been worthwhile?" Each individual must come to terms with his/her own participation in the war and find peace within. But this moment of hope for Paul, the representative of his generation is in vain, for as Erich Maria Remarque has explained, his was "a generation that was destroyed by the war - even those of it who survived the shelling." There is no redemption, no hope, no future for the lost generation.
Lovely review. This is one of those must-read books that I still haven't picked up and I really should - despite the desperate sadness I think will be there.
I remember watching the 1930 movie in high school after reading "Generals Die in Bed" in history class and being very moved. I would definitely classify this as a Must Read Book.


The words steal and steel are homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings.
The verb steal means to take someone else's property without right or permission. Steal also means to come or go secretly, without being noticed.
As both a noun and an adjective, steel refers to a hard alloy of iron and carbon. Used figuratively, steel means hard, strong, and tough. As a verb, steel means to strengthen.
"He was too shiftless to go out and look for another job; he didn't have the initiative to steal, and after she had told him three or four times to do a thing, he did it; but he never told her about a sick cow until it was too late to call the veterinarian, and if her barn had caught on fire he would have called his wife to see the flames before he began to put them out."
"As I lay on my bed for hours, watching darkness steal into the room, I let my thoughts wander uninterrupted: the days ahead, places I had traveled, people I had known."
Blues singer Brownie McGhee played with a steel pick on a steel guitar.
"His hair fell down in black curls, and my head was covered with black steel wool."
"Curling his hands into fists, Luca tried to steel himself for a fight, but already he knew it was pointless. Rifle or not, Stang was a giant of a man and Luca wouldn't stand a chance in a fistfight."
The expression steal away means to move quietly and secretly.
"The prime minister of Bayern, the kingdom on the other side of the mountains, had been visiting at the time, and all wary-eyed parties were so busy entertaining road-weary dignitaries that Ani had been able to steal away to the stables a few times to bring to pass a childhood wish."
The expressions steal the show and steal the spotlight both mean to be the center of attention at an event.
"People in Hollywood always said, 'Never act with kids or animals. They're impossible to work with, and then they look so cute onscreen that they steal the show.'"
(a) "The gym was hung with orange and black crepe paper in honor of Halloween, and the pennants of all the competing schools were fastened to the walls, and a twelve-piece band pumped away blissfully on the year's sad tunes — 'Heartaches,' 'Near You,' 'That's My Desire.' A great cloud of balloons gathered in the _____ girders was released. There was pink punch, and a local girl sang."
(b) "She liked to drag her fingers along the chain-link fences we passed, and to stop at Maverick Market to buy Diet Cokes and _____ candy bars. I waited outside, worrying she'd get caught."
(a) "The gym was hung with orange and black crepe paper in honor of Halloween, and the pennants of all the competing schools were fastened to the walls, and a twelve-piece band pumped away blissfully on the year's sad tunes — 'Heartaches,' 'Near You,' 'That's My Desire.' A great cloud of balloons gathered in the steel girders was released. There was pink punch, and a local girl sang."
(b) "She liked to drag her fingers along the chain-link fences we passed, and to stop at Maverick Market to buy Diet Cokes and steal candy bars. I waited outside, worrying she'd get caught."


Hi everyone, today we are going to create a beautiful nativity cake, just in time for your Christmas gatherings. Because this cake carries such a significant meaning, I wanted to keep the design simple for any skill level, while creating a feeling of warmth and elegance. I love painted accents . . .


The Slender-billed Gull is a medium-sized species of Old World gull. Slender-billed Gulls breed along coastal areas of the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas, as well as the Persian Gull and inland lakes in parts of eastern Europe and central Asia.
Slender-billed Gulls feed on fish by diving into the water to catch suitable prey. They also feed on invertebrates sought via beak-probing into mud or sand. They may also feed on insects caught on the wing.


82% of global CIOs and senior IT decision-makers surveyed admit that they are unable to meet business needs for immediate, always-on access to IT services.
More than nine out of 10 surveyed leaders said their organization has increased requirements for minimizing app downtime, in addition to increasing requirements for guaranteeing access to data.
It takes an average of 2.86 hours to recover mission-critical apps, and 8.45 hours to recover non-critical ones.
The average cost of one hour of downtime for a mission-critical app is $82,864 and $43,886 for a non-mission critical app.
81% of those surveyed said their organizations are either modernizing or have already modernized their data centers, and 16% expect to do so within the next two years.
The majority of CIOs are failing to meet their organizations' needs when it comes to providing instant, uninterrupted access to business apps, according to a recent survey from Veeam Software. And the inability to provide these IT services is costing organizations money: Unplanned application downtime occurs more than once a month for organizations, and such failures result in lost revenue, productivity, opportunities and missing data, according to the survey's findings. To address availability issues, a majority of CIOs are turning to data center modernization, among other remedies. "Businesses globally are (led) to believe they have to accept downtime," said Ratmir Timashev, CEO at Veeam. "This isn't acceptable. Organizations can't afford to lose millions of dollars from IT failures, nor can they continue to gamble with data availability." The findings also shed light on the overall top tech investments for IT leaders. A total of 760 global CIOs and senior IT decision-makers took part in the research.


text:
'use strict';

const leetx = require('leetxapi');
const util = require('./util');

/**
 * @param  {String} query
 *
 * @return {Promise}
 */
module.exports = ( query ) => {

	return leetx.search(query)
		.then(( torrents ) => {
			return Promise.all(torrents.map(( torrent ) => {
				return leetx.info(torrent);
			}));
		})
		.then(( torrents ) => {
			return torrents.map(( torrent ) => {
				return {
					title: torrent.title,
					seeders: util.resolveNumber(torrent.seeds),
					leechers: util.resolveNumber(torrent.leechs),
					pubDate: util.resolveDate(torrent.pubDate),
					magnetLink: torrent.magnetLink
				};
			});
		})
		.catch(() => {
			return [];
		});

};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Left 4 Dead – Mini Review!
https://youtu.be/dPdb52WXEHc Today I am showing you some Resident Evil 7 game play for the Playstation 4.
Zombie Army Trilogy – Mini Review!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZyN6N6uZOg We're playing through The Last Of Us. One of the best Playstation games ever made!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Lcs_AzRRQ We're playing through The Last Of Us. One of the best Playstation games ever made!


text:
What is the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on first or recurrent stroke risk factors? A scoping review
Paul Mackie ,
Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing
* E-mail: Paul.I.Mackie@uon.edu.au
Affiliations School of Health Sciences and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, Centre for Research Excellence in Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation, Florey Institute of Neuroscience, Melbourne, Australia
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5840-4348
Ishanka Weerasekara,
Roles Investigation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation School of Health Sciences and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
Gary Crowfoot,
Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – review & editing
Heidi Janssen,
Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – review & editing
Affiliations School of Health Sciences and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, Centre for Research Excellence in Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation, Florey Institute of Neuroscience, Melbourne, Australia, Hunter Stroke Service, Hunter New England Local Health District, Newcastle, Australia
Elizabeth Holliday,
Affiliation School of Medicine and Public Health University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
David Dunstan,
Affiliations Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
Coralie English
Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – review & editing
Paul Mackie,
Paul Mackie Ishanka Weerasekara ... Coralie English
The objective of this review was to ascertain the scope of the available literature on the effects of interrupting prolonged sitting time with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on stroke and recurrent stroke risk factors. Databases Medline, Embase, AMED, CINAHL and Cochrane library were comprehensively searched from inception until 21st February 2018. Experimental trials which interrupted sitting time with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing in adults (≥ 18 years) were included. Comparison to a bout of prolonged sitting and a measure of at least one first or recurrent stroke risk factor was required to be included. Overall, 30 trials (35 articles) were identified to meet the inclusion criteria. Fifteen trials were completed in participants at an increased risk of having a first stroke and one trial in participants at risk of a recurrent stroke. Outcomes of hypertension and dysglycemia were found to be more favourable following predominately light- to moderate-intensity bouts of physical activity or standing compared to sitting in the majority of trials in participants at risk of having a first stroke. In the one trial of stroke survivors, only outcomes of hypertension were significantly improved. These findings are of significant importance taking into consideration hypertension is the leading risk factor for first and recurrent stroke. However, trials primarily focused on measuring outcomes of dysglycemia and without assessing a dose-response effect. Additional research is required on the dose-response effect of interrupting sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on first and recurrent stroke risk factors, in those high risk population groups.
Citation: Mackie P, Weerasekara I, Crowfoot G, Janssen H, Holliday E, Dunstan D, et al. (2019) What is the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on first or recurrent stroke risk factors? A scoping review. PLoS ONE 14(6): e0217981. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217981
Editor: Deirdre Dawson, University of Toronto, CANADA
Received: November 19, 2018; Accepted: May 22, 2019; Published: June 13, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 Mackie et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme (Development and evaluation of strategies to reduce sedentary behaviour in patients after stroke and improve outcomes, Reference number RP-PG-0615-20019). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Engaging in high levels of sitting is associated with detrimental risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and diabetes [1–3]. Spending > 8 hours/day in sitting and engaging in < 2.5 metabolic equivalents (MET—defined by Jette et al. [4] as "the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest and is equal to 3.5 ml O2/kg/min") hours/week of physical activity accounts for a 59% increase in all-cause mortality relative to individuals who sit < 4 hours/day and engage in > 35.5 MET hours/week [5].
Stroke survivors, a population at high risk of having recurrent strokes, spend a large proportion of their day sitting [6, 7]. Pooled data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) found that American stroke survivors spend 8.5% (weighted prevalence) more time sitting than those from non-stroke populations [7]. Stroke survivors spend on average 22% more time sitting than healthy age-matched controls [6]. The high amount of time spent sitting likely augments the already compromised health and risk of stroke survivors.
Interventions that target specific modifiable risk factors associated with first and recurrent stroke risk could aid in improving the health of stroke survivors and reducing the risk of first and recurrent strokes. In a recent case-control study (n = 26,919) [8], 91% of the population attributable risk (PAR) for first stroke was associated with 10 modifiable factors (PAR: hypertension 48%, physical inactivity 36%, lipids 27%, poor diet 23%, waist to hip ratio 19%, psychosocial 17%, cardiac 9%, alcohol 6%, diabetes 4%). Risk of recurrent stroke was associated with six modifiable factors (hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), low physical activity and weight management) [9]. Interventions which incorporate physical activity have the potential to reduce these first and recurrent stroke risk factors [10, 11]. However, only 18% of stroke survivors meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity (150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity physical activity) [7]. With such context, combined with the known susceptibility of stroke survivors to sit for large periods of the day[6], new paradigms such as breaking up prolonged sitting time may be a promising strategy to reduce the risk of recurrent strokes.
Experimental studies have shown that frequently breaking up sitting time with physical activity or standing bouts has beneficial effects on cardio-metabolic health in non-stroke populations [12–14]. Frequent bouts of light- or moderate-intensity walking, simple resistance activities or cycling, have been shown to attenuate the exaggerated postprandial glucose and insulin, and blood pressure response to prolonged sitting [14, 15], in those with type 2 diabetes [16, 17], postmenopausal women [18], overweight/obese [12, 15] and healthy [19]. In the first ever study in-stroke survivors, 3-minute bouts of light-intensity exercises while standing (STAND-EX), performed every 30 minutes, resulted in significant reductions in systolic blood pressure (3.5 mmHg) when compared to 8 hours of prolonged sitting [20]. However, in order to inform research development and subsequently promote effective clinical interventions, evidence is required regarding the effect of breaking up sitting time on first or recurrent stroke risk factors.
Reviews have previously investigated the benefits of interrupting sitting time with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on markers associated with cardio-metabolic health, obesity and all-cause mortality [21–24]. However, they did not focus on outcome measures associated with first and recurrent stroke risk or identify population groups primarily targeted. Therefore, the aim of this study was to review the evidence for the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on first or recurrent stroke risk factors. Specifically, our research questions were:
What are the characteristics of population groups assessed?
What are the characteristics of the physical activity or standing bouts used (type, duration, frequency, intensity)?
What first or recurrent stroke risk factors have been measured?
What are the effects of frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on first or recurrent stroke risk factors?
The methodological framework by Arksey and O'Malley [25] and further recommendations from Levac et al. [26] were utilised in this scoping review. The stages underpinning the review were: (I) identifying the research question, (II) identifying relevant studies, (III) study selection, (IV) charting the data, and (V) collating, summarising, and reporting the results. The quality of studies was not assessed in this review as per recommendations by Arksey and O'Malley [25].
Identification of the research question
The four stage PICO format (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome) was used to design and define the research question. The section below clarifies each aspect of the research question.
Population.
Trials had to be conducted in adult (aged ≥ 18 years) males and females. Adults included stroke and non-stroke population groups.
Intervention and comparison.
The intervention(s) in each trial had to involve frequent (≥ 2) bouts of physical activity or standing, and include a comparison of uninterrupted, prolonged sitting. Interventions had to be supervised to ensure protocol adherence. Supervision was defined as whereby participants were observed, monitored or supervised throughout conditions, or where interventions were conducted within a research facility (e.g. laboratory setting). There were no restrictions placed on the type (e.g. walking, standing, cycling), duration, frequency or intensity of physical activity bouts.
Trials were required to include a measure of at least one risk factor associated with first or recurrent stroke risk. First and recurrent stroke risk factors identified from the INTERSTROKE case control trial [8], the Global Burden of Disease Study (2013) [27] and the Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis [9] are reported in Table 1.
Table 1. Risk factors for first and recurrent stroke.
Identifying relevant studies for selection
Search strategy.
The search strategy developed was guided by a Hunter New England Health librarian and revised by the research team. It was developed in Medline (Ovid) and adapted to other relevant databases including Embase (Ovid), Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED; Ovid), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL; EBSCOhost) and the Cochran library (Wiley). Databases were searched comprehensively from the date of inception to 14th July 2017. A final search was completed on the 21st February 2018.
Relevant trial registries were also searched for unpublished trials and to assist in identifying the trials which had been published across several articles.
Search terms included Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and keywords related to, but not limited to, "sedentary behaviour" (e.g. sitting, sedentary lifestyle, uninterrupted) and "interventions" (e.g. bouts, walking, standing). The full Medline search strategy is included in S1 Appendix. Restrictions on searches were limited to English language and humans. The PRISMA checklist made relevant to this scoping review is included in S2 Appendix.
Eligibility criteria.
To be included, studies had to meet the following criteria: (I) include a supervised intervention of interrupting sitting time with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing (experimental studies), (II) involve human adult participants (age ≥ 18 years), (III) be written in English, and (IV) include at least one outcome measure related to a first or recurrent stroke risk factor. Exclusion criteria included: (I) non-experimental (e.g. observational, case-control, cross-sectional, longitudinal) studies investigating associations of sedentary behaviour and activity bouts (without implementation of an intervention). Relevant reviews (systematic and met-analysis) identified were excluded, but reference lists were hand-searched to identify additional eligible articles.
Title and abstract (PM and GC), and full text screening (PM and IW) were completed separately, with each article independently screened by the principal investigator (PM) and other members of the research team (IW and GC). Discrepancies during screening and reviewing were resolved by a third member of the research team (CE).
Charting the data for extraction
Data extraction was independently completed by two reviewers (PM and IW). The data extraction spreadsheet was designed to capture all relevant details required to answer the research questions and included: author, year published, sample size, population characteristics (e.g. age, comorbidities, anthropometrics), outcome measures associated with first and recurrent stroke risk factors (see Table 1), assessment times of outcomes (e.g. frequency of measures and on which assessment day), study length (e.g. number of days), physical activity bout type (e.g. walking, standing), frequency (how often bouts were completed), duration and intensity, and study setting (e.g. laboratory, workplace). The spreadsheet was refined via an iterative process in collaboration with the two reviewers.
Collating, summarising and reporting the results
Descriptive analysis of the data extracted was undertaken to describe the nature of the studies and to answer the research question.
A total of 29 trials (33 articles) were identified in our search as meeting all inclusion criteria (Fig 1). One (two articles [20, 30]) additional trial was included on the 13th June 2018. Therefore, a total of 30 trials (35 articles) were included in this review, of which 53% were not registered with a trial registry.
Fig 1. Flow chart of database search.
All trials used a randomised crossover design, expect for one which used a balanced crossover design [31]. In 20 trials, interventions occurred in a laboratory or research facility where participants were supervised during each condition [12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 30, 32–50]. One trial was completed under supervised conditions in an office setting [51] and nine trials were conducted in a laboratory or research facility [19, 31, 52–58] where participants where not reported to be observed during conditions.
Characteristics of population groups
Participants of included studies were categorised into five distinct groups: (I) healthy adults, (II) overweight/obese adults, (III) individuals with type 2 diabetes, (IV) postmenopausal women, and (V) people with stroke.
Of the 30 trials included, 14 trials [19, 31, 32, 39–41, 43, 47, 48, 51–53, 56, 57] specifically recruited healthy adults. The characteristics of the included participants is summarised in Table 2. Notably, eight trials [19, 31, 32, 39, 43, 47, 53, 57] included adults of normal weight (Body mass index: BMI < 25 kg.m-2) and three trials [41, 48, 51] included overweight participants (BMI ≥ 25 kg.m-2 and < 29.9 kg.m-2). The age groups ranged from 21 years to 52 ± 5 years, with the primary focus (79%) being in young adults aged ≥ 18 years and ≤ 35 years (11 trials [19, 31, 32, 40, 41, 43, 47, 52, 53, 56, 57]).
Table 2. Summary of included trials.
Ten trials (12 articles [12, 14, 15, 33, 35, 37, 38, 42, 49, 50, 54, 55]) specifically recruited overweight/obese adults (Table 3). Seven trials (9 articles [12, 15, 33, 35, 37, 38, 42, 50, 55]) included obese adults (BMI of ≥ 30 kg.m-2 and < 34.9 kg.m-2) and three trials [14, 49, 54] included overweight adults. The age ranges of participants in these trials varied and included young adults (four trials [14, 33, 54, 55]), middle aged adults (> 35 and < 65 years) (five trials, [12, 15, 35, 37, 42, 49, 50]) and older adults (≥ 65 years) (one trial [38]).
Table 3. Outcomes associated with first and recurrent stroke risk factors (N = number of trials measuring this risk factor).
Only two trials (four articles) recruited individuals with type 2 diabetes [16, 44–46] (Table 2), where one included overweight adults with type 2 diabetes [46] and the other included obese adults with type 2 diabetes [16, 44, 45]. All trials were completed in middle age adults with a range of 62 ± 6 years to 64 ± 1 years.
Three trials [18, 34, 58] recruited postmenopausal women (aged > 65 years) (Table 2) who were normal weight [58] or overweight [18, 34]. Only one trial presented data for stroke survivors who were 0.25 to 10 years post-stroke, older adults (68 ± 2 years) and overweight [20, 30].
Characteristics of the physical activity bouts
The type, duration, frequency and intensity of activity bouts varied across trials, as did the length of the intervention periods (see Table 2). Assessments were completed either on a single day or over multiple days.
Stroke and recurrent stroke risk factors measured
Ten trials included measures of hypertension [14–16, 20, 30, 33, 34, 41, 42, 50, 52], 26 included measures of dysglycemia [12, 18–20, 30, 32–35, 37–41, 43–51, 53–58], one included measures of anthropometric risk factors [49], and four trials included measures of hypercholesterolemia [31, 32, 41, 43]. No trials presented behavioural, psychosocial or cardiac risk factors (Table 3).
Effects of physical activity bouts on stroke or recurrent stroke risk factors
Healthy participants.
Outcomes associated with hypertension (mean arterial pressure [52], systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure [41]) were examined in two trials involving healthy adults. Regular short bouts of standing, walking or calisthenics did not significantly change mean arterial pressure, systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure when compared to uninterrupted sitting.
Nine trials measured dysglycemia over a single day [19, 32, 39–41, 43, 48, 51, 53]. Three trials found no significant effects of physical activity bouts on postprandial glucose compared to uninterrupted sitting [32, 40, 53]. The remaining five trials [19, 39, 41, 48, 51] observed significant reductions in postprandial glucose with varying physical activity bout types (walking and standing), durations (1 minute 40 seconds to 5 minutes) and frequencies (every 20 to 30 minutes). Another trial, taking place over 27 hours, found sitting interrupted by regular standing bouts reduced postprandial glucose on the day of and the morning after the intervention [43].
Three trials measured dysglycemia over multiple days (two [47, 57] to four [56] days) using measures of fasting and/or postprandial plasma glucose. Fasting glucose was measured in all three trials and showed no significant between condition differences for physical activity bouts compared to prolonged sitting. With regards to postprandial glucose, one trial found no significant between condition differences [47], while two trials found significant reductions in postprandial glucose following a single bout of walking (30 minute) [57] and running (60 minute) [56] (completed the day before glucose assessments). Kim et al. [56] also found a significant reduction in postprandial glucose the day after intermittent bouts of walking.
Four trials measured outcomes associated with hypercholesterolemia and found no significant between condition differences in total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol [31] and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol [32, 41, 43], expect for one trial which found a reduction in HDL cholesterol [31]. Engeroff et al. [31] found frequent bouts of cycling (6 minutes every 40 minutes) had a negative impact on HDL cholesterol.
Overweight/obese participants.
A total of five trials [14, 15, 33, 42, 50] measured outcomes associated with hypertension in overweight/obese participants. Systolic blood pressure was measured in all five trials, while diastolic blood pressure was measured in four trials [14, 15, 42, 50] and mean arterial pressure in three trials [15, 33, 42]. In two of the five trials, systolic blood pressure did not significantly differ between conditions [42, 50]. The remaining three trials found significant reductions in systolic blood pressure following frequent bouts (2 to 30 minutes every 20 to 60 minutes) of physical activity (light to moderate intensity walking, standing and cycling) [14, 15] and a single bout of moderate-intensity walking (30 minutes) [33]. Diastolic blood pressure did not significantly reduce in one trial [50], but was reduced in the remaining three trials following different types (walking, cycling and standing), durations (2 minutes to 30 minutes), frequencies (every 20 to 60 minutes) and intensities (light to moderate) of physical activity bouts [14, 15, 42]. In two trials, mean arterial pressure was significantly reduced following frequent standing bouts (30 minutes every 30 minutes) [42] and a single bout of moderate-intensity walking (30 minutes) [33]. One trial found no significant condition differences compared to sitting for mean arterial pressure [15].
Dysglycemia over a single day (postprandial glucose) was measured in six trials [12, 33, 37, 38, 50, 54, 55]. Three trials found no significant reductions in postprandial glucose following activity bouts compared to prolonged sitting [50, 54, 55]. However, the trial by Homlstrup et al. [55] found a significant increase in postprandial glucose iAUC following a single bout of walking compared to uninterrupted sitting. The remaining three trials [12, 33, 37, 38] found significant between condition improvements in postprandial glucose with varying physical activity bout types (arm ergometry, walking, standing), durations (2 to 30 minutes), frequencies (20 to 60 minutes) and intensities (light, moderate and vigorous).
Dysglycemia (fasting and postprandial glucose) was also measured over multiple (three to five) days. Two trials found regular bouts of standing (30 minutes every 30 minutes) [49] and light-intensity walking (2 minutes every 20 minutes) [35] significantly reduced postprandial glucose compared to prolonged sitting. No significant differences were found for fasting glucose responses in both trials.
The only trial to assess anthropometric risk factors [49] found no significant effect of conditions on weight loss over a five day period.
Type 2 diabetes participants.
In the only trial investigating outcome measures related to hypertension in participants with type 2 diabetes [16], bouts of light-intensity walking and simple resistance activities (3 minutes every 30 minutes) significantly lowered systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure response in comparison to prolonged sitting.
Postprandial glucose was the only marker associated with dsyglycemia to be measured in this population, and was investigated in two trials [44–46]. One trial found that interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of activities of daily living (15 minutes completed after meal) and a 45 minute single bout of cycling, lowered postprandial glucose response compared to sitting [46]. The other trial by Dempsey et al. [44, 45] found a significant reduction in postprandial glucose following 3 minutes of walking and simple resistance activities every 20 minutes, when compared to uninterrupted sitting.
Postmenopausal participants.
One trial found no significant difference between conditions for systolic and diastolic blood pressure in postmenopausal women [34].
Postprandial glucose was measured in a total of three trials [18, 34, 58]. Two trials found no significant effect of physical activity bouts compared to prolonged sitting on postprandial glucose over one day [34, 58]. One trial, completed over two days, found postprandial glucose to be significantly reduced on both days following 5 minutes of standing and walking every 30 minutes completed on Day 1 [18].
Stroke participants.
The only trial in stroke saw a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure following 3 minutes of standing activity, every 30 minutes, in comparison to uninterrupted sitting [20].
Frequent activity bouts (standing or walking) did not significantly alter postprandial glucose compared to uninterrupted sitting [30].
This review has synthesised available evidence regarding the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing on risk factors for first or recurrent stroke. A total of 15 trials recruited participants at risk of first stroke (overweight/obese, type 2 diabetes, postmenopausal women/older adults) and one trial in participants at risk of recurrent stroke (one trial; stroke survivors). Four key first or recurrent stroke risk factors (hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, dysglycemia and weight loss) were measured. In populations identified at high risk of first or recurrent stroke, interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing tended to show beneficial effects on outcomes associated with hypertension and dysglycemia, but not on hypercholesterolaemia and weight loss.
With regard to the relevance to stroke risk, a large proportion of trials were conducted in participants characterised as being at risk of first stroke. In the majority of these trials, participants were characterised as overweight (13 trials) or obese (4 trials). This is highly relevant given that an elevated BMI is recognised as a prominent risk factor for stroke [27]. The incidence of a first stroke is also greater with advancing age [59, 60] and in individuals with type 2 diabetes [29]. However, only four trials included participants characterised as older adults (3 trials in postmenopausal women and one trial in overweight/obese older adults) and only two trials included participants with type 2 diabetes, representing a limited number of trials in these high risk population groups. Furthermore, no trials focused on older adults in the healthy population group. Overall, the characteristics of participants in the 17 trials considered at risk of stroke were representative of the participant characteristics in the trial by English et al. [20, 30].
Outcomes associated with hypertension
Hypertension is the foremost risk factor associated with first and recurrent stroke, with elevated systolic blood pressure recognised as the primary measure of hypertension [8, 9, 27]. Interrupting prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity improved systolic blood pressure in the majority of participants at risk of a stroke (overweight/obese or those who have type 2 diabetes), following predominately short bouts of light- to moderate-intensity physical activity (walking, cycling, standing and simple body weight exercises) [14–16, 33]. More importantly, in the one trial completed in stroke survivors, systolic blood pressure was significantly reduced in response to frequent bouts of light-intensity exercise while standing [20]. The light- to moderate-intensity of physical activity bouts prescribed are comparable to the recommendations from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association for promoting physical activity after stroke [61]. Additional measures of hypertension, such as diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure [28, 29], were also positively influenced following frequent bouts of physical activity [14–16, 33, 42]. The overall improvements in blood pressure response in these high risk populations are encouraging, even allowing for the small number of trials measuring hypertension outcomes. Dempsey et al. [62] confirms the potential benefits of interrupting prolonged sitting in controlling blood pressure in population groups at risk. To build on the promising findings in this review, further work is needed to develop and test clinically meaningful interventions of frequent bouts of physical activity or standing to reduce outcomes of hypertension in populations at greater risk of first and recurrent stroke. The assessment of ambulatory blood pressure in future work would also add to the clinical importance of results.
Outcomes of dysglycemia
Outcomes of dysglycemia are similarly important risk factors related to first and recurrent stroke [8, 9]. Two recent reviews investigating risk factors for first stroke assessed dysglycemia by measuring either fasting plasma glucose or HbA1c [8, 27]. With a focus on fasting plasma glucose, frequent bouts of physical activity appeared to be ineffective at reducing fasting plasma glucose in participants at risk of stroke (overweight/obese) [35, 49]. This response is consistent with previous literature investigating the short-term effect of exercise on fasting glucose control [63, 64]. However, fasting plasma glucose does not provide an indication of the fluctuations in glucose concentrations over a day. Instead, postprandial glucose is used as an indicator for glycaemic control in the hours after a meal and is an associated risk factor for first and recurrent stroke risk [8, 29, 65]. Frequent bouts of physical activity or standing led to significant reductions in postprandial glucose response in the majority of trials involving overweight/obese participants and in those with type 2 diabetes [12, 33, 35, 37, 38, 44–46, 49]. In trials of postmenopausal women, only one of three trials found a significant improvement in postprandial glucose following frequent bouts of standing and walking [18]. The improvement found in the trial by Henson et al. [18] could be due to participants being dysglycemic. Likewise, in the community dwelling stroke survivors in the study by English et al. [30], postprandial glucose was not affected by frequent bouts of physical activity. Nevertheless, future trials are needed to further understand the effects of frequent bouts of physical activity on the postprandial glucose response in stroke survivors. Additional trials investigating fasting plasma glucose are further required in populations at risk of first and recurrent stroke.
Outcomes of anthropometric measures
The risk of first and recurrent stroke is also elevated in individuals with a high BMI [9, 27]. Only one trial involving overweight/obese participants investigated the effects of frequent bouts of standing on anthropometric risk factors (weight management) [49], with no beneficial improvements found. The absence of a response could be in part due to the short duration of the trial (5 days), in conjunction with an insufficient increase in energy expenditure to produce a sufficient energy deficit for weight loss [66]. Trials of greater duration and intensity would be required to explore the effects of frequent bouts of physical activity upon weight management.
Outcomes of hypercholesterolaemia
Hypercholesterolaemia accounts for a small proportion of the stroke risk (5%) as estimated in the global burden of disease trial [27]. With regards to recurrent stroke risk, LDL and HDL cholesterol are important risk factors, with LDL cholesterol recognised as a more prominent risk factor [9]. However, outcomes of hypercholesterolaemia were only measured in the healthy population (four trials) [31, 32, 41, 43]. Although no significant beneficial effects of frequent bouts of physical activity or standing were found, the trial by Engeroff et al. [31] found significant trial x time interactions. The pre- to post-intervention changes in total cholesterol were significantly different between frequent bouts of physical activity (negative change) and a single bout of physical activity (positive change), but not uninterrupted sitting (positive change). HDL cholesterol during the frequent bouts of physical activity differed significantly (negative change) compared to a single bout of physical activity (positive change) and uninterrupted sitting (positive change). Reduced HDL cholesterol concentrations are linked to an increased risk of having a stroke [8, 67], although conversely, O'Donnell et al. [8] found a direct relationship between elevated HDL cholesterol and risk of an intracerebral haemorrhagic stroke. However, the trial by Engeroff et al. [31] was conducted in young, normal weight adults who are at a reduced risk of having a stroke. Given the importance of hypercholesterolaemia on stroke risk, more trials are required in populations at high risk of stroke to identify the effects of frequent bouts of physical activity on outcomes of hypercholesterolaemia.
Strengths of this review are that it focused on outcome measures associated with first and recurrent stroke risk. Our definition of supervised interventions may be considered a limitation of this review. A small proportion of trials did not use the terms 'supervised', 'monitored' or 'observed' and simply stated that trials were completed in a laboratory or research facility. However, protocol adherence was monitored in the majority of trials with activity monitors, giving an indication that bouts of physical activity were adhered to in the trials. Additionally, this review was designed to provide a broad overview of experimental trials on breaking up prolonged sitting time with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing and therefore did not report on the magnitude of effect of interventions. While we are confident that we identified all relevant literature at the time of searching, this is a rapidly expanding field and further papers may have been published since.
In conclusion, there is consistent evidence from a number of trials that breaking up prolonged sitting with frequent bouts of physical activity or standing has positive effects on some stroke risk factors (hypertension and dysglycemia) in population groups at risk of a stroke. In the only study of people with stroke, positive effects were seen for hypertension only. Given hypertension is the leading risk factor for stroke, this review provides a solid rationale for further work to determine the optimal frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity bouts to reduce blood pressure, and if effects are maintained.
S1 Appendix. MEDLINE search strategy.
S2 Appendix. PRISMA checklist.
(DOC)
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Is the Subject Area "Physical activity" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Stroke" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Glucose" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Blood pressure" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Hypertension" applicable to this article?
Medical risk factors
Is the Subject Area "Medical risk factors" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Walking" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Blood" applicable to this article?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
TOK Magazine
Read the future
A Sneak Preview of TOK!
by Helen Walsh
Welcome to a sneak preview of TOK Magazine.
TOK is a new platform for fiercely honest, freshly original writing, from our cities and around the world.
We officially launch in April 2018, but between now and then, you'll find stories, poems, interviews and podcasts in these pages that surprise, delight and challenge, with content updated biweekly.
Over the coming months, we'll also be kicking off experiments with an ambitious range of further pieces, such as reviews, opinion, analysis, interactive video, audio walking tours, TOK's "Three Questions from the Writers' Tent" (profiling writers at literary festivals across the globe) and more.
Why This, Now?
Our world is urbanizing at record speed, with populations and attitudes on the move. Michael Adams, president of the Environics Institute for Survey Research and author of Could It Happen Here? Canada in the Age of Trump and Brexit, offers the following startling statistics:
55% of Canadians live in the country's 10 largest cities (if you factor in the suburbs—it's 31%, if just the downtown core).
The greater Toronto region clocks in at 17% of Canada's population; New York, in comparison, is home to just 6% of the United States population. Montreal and Vancouver are the second densest cities.
Our cities are some of the most diverse on Earth: the populations of Toronto and Vancouver are almost half foreign-born, and more than two-thirds are first- or second-generation Canadian.
Our society and its literature bursts with this new energy, from a talented generation writing across backgrounds, styles or limiting definitions. A dance of voices, each with their own obsessions, observations, wit, experiences, longings.
That's the stuff great writing is made from. And a digital magazine is the perfect way to accessibly showcase such work: we want to introduce you to authors we love, who're writing our literary future.
Writing the Next Chapter
TOK is a new project of Diaspora Dialogues. For fourteen years, DD has helped writers tell their own stories, in their own voices. Catherine Hernandez. Lawrence Hill. Mayank Bhatt. Mia Herrera. Ins Choi. Alissa York. MG Vassanji. Jordan Tannahill. Vincent Lam. The list of those who have been involved with DD is long: more than 700 writers and artists have participated as mentors or mentees, emerging playwrights or dramaturges, commissioned artists or panelists, readers or performers.
More than 400 new literary works have been created through DD programs, 200 events produced and a live audience well exceeding 150,000 Canadians has attended those events. Alumni of our mentoring programs enjoy a success rate that's among the highest in the country in getting their stories, poems and books published, and/or plays produced—here in Canada, as well as in the US and UK. DD alumni have gone on to be nominated for or win prizes ranging from the City of Toronto Book Award to the Governor General's Literary Awards.
We see TOK as the logical extension of the work we've done over the past decade and a half. In a world whose reading habits have changed, the publishing landscape irrevocably altered, we've designed TOK to be a fluid, responsive network. A way to showcase and support writers across backgrounds and styles. And we're committed to collaborating with partners across literary, artistic and community realms, to do our bit in fostering a non-zero-sum culture.
Since we couldn't have done any of this without our supporters, I also want to take this opportunity to thank them. We're particularly grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, who invested in something transformative by providing targeted startup funding for TOK Magazine.
Dive In With Us
So, enjoy! Revisit favourite authors, and embrace the new.
For TOK updates and invitations to upcoming events in Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg—including our formal launch—sign up for our newsletter.
Your input during this public beta is very much welcome and desired: this soft launch period is meant to ensure we're able to share the magazine early with passionate readers and writers, and to hear what you think. So please contact me at helen.walsh@tokmagazine.ca with feedback and suggestions.
TOK is a collaborative effort, and we want to build in partnership, diversity and authenticity from the beginning. No retrofitting needed here!
View Helen Walsh's author profile.
Detail from Uno Prii Apartment Buildings, by Kinnon Elliott
TOK Magazine is a project of Diaspora Dialogues, which supports the creation and presentation of new writing that reflects the rich diversity of modern, urban life.
© 2020 Diaspora Dialogues Charitable Society


text:
Virtual draft makes NFL teams potential targets for hackers
The NFL logo on the main stage during the second round of the NFL football draft, Friday, April 26, 2019, in Nashville.
Credit: Steve Luciano
Mike Check Blog | April 22, 2020
By Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A hacker could provide entertainment value by disrupting the virtual NFL draft that begins Thursday. Desperation for any sports entertainment shouldn't make us forget that these things are boring. The few moments of suspense as picks and trades are announced are drowned out by incessant chatter by talking heads and nonstop loops of player highlights.
This draft broadcast with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing picks from his home would be more fun if a hacker interrupted it to make mischief. Just please don't shut it down completely. It already takes too long.
Such an infiltration would embarrass the NFL but wouldn't compromise the integrity of the draft itself. There are other potential hacks outside the broadcast that wouldn't be so harmless for the league.
What if teams, or third parties working for them, remotely hack into the videoconference platforms used by rival teams or even the computers of their personnel? Team officials aren't allowed to congregate in one room, like usual, so they are scattered about and communicating virtually.
A team that digitally eavesdrops on what's being said in the virtual draft rooms of other teams obviously would gain an illicit advantage this week. Gaining access to the computers of rival teams would be an edge that keeps paying off. The history of espionage in sports shows that teams are willing to cheat if they think they can get away with it.
The virtual nature of the draft provides hackers an opportunity to cheat without detection. And the popular Zoom videoconference platform that's used by NFL teams and other businesses has been a target of such attacks.
Vice recently reported that brokers are offering for sell "exploits" that take advantage of vulnerabilities in the Zoom platform. The attack allows hackers to leverage what's known as "Zoombombing" to infiltrate meetings and possibly access the target's entire computer system. According to the report, the exploit requires the hacker to be on a call with the victim.
Quentin Rhoads, director of professional services for the cybersecurity firm CRITICALSTART, cautions that so far there's no proof that the Zoom exploit exists.
"But in security we are going on the perspective that it might be real, so we have to take it seriously," Rhoads said. "If somebody were to (use the exploit) they could potentially gain access to all these Zoom meetings without being invited if the meeting I.D. were leaked and Zoom security best practices weren't being followed. If victims are running Windows, (hackers) could gain local access to machines without the victim knowing it."
Vice, citing an anonymous source, said the asking price for the Zoom window application exploit is $500,000. The market isn't hackers looking to snoop on Zoom calls among friends and family. Hackers would be interested in intercepting sensitive conversations and information that businesses want to keep private.
NFL teams have a lot of that. For obvious reasons, the NFL isn't offering specifics about what security measures it will use for the virtual draft. However, the league said the Microsoft Teams platform, not Zoom, will be used for its communication with teams and vice versa. CRITICALSTART said there have been fewer issues with Teams, but that it's still possible to hack the platform.
Rhoads' firm posted tips for NFL teams to safeguard their communication and information. One of them is requiring strong passwords and multifactor authentication to gain access to meeting platforms. An example of the latter is the platform sending users a text message with a code that's required to gain entry.
"If an attacker decides they want to gain access to your password, they need to kidnap you or find your phone or steal it," Rhoads quipped.
No NFL team would resort to kidnapping. But we've seen how far sports teams will take espionage to gain an advantage and how much it can pay off.
The NFL punished the Patriots for violating NFL rules by taping the Jets' defensive signals from the sidelines during a 2007 game. ESPN reported that New England had a secure room at its facility that contained videotapes of opponents' signals going back seven seasons. The Patriots won half of their six Super Bowl titles during that time period.
MLB punished the Astros for breaking the rules by using a video camera sign to steal signs during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Red Sox were punished Thursday for running a similar scam during the 2018 season. The Astros won the World Series in 2017, and the Red Sox won it in 2018.
The cheating conspiracies by the Patriots, Astros and Red Sox required team personnel to be physically present at games. That made those plots relatively easier to detect compared with remote hacking.
NFL teams, like all sports franchises, are paranoid about rivals stealing their information. With the draft now going fully virtual, they have to look out for hackers doing it digitally.
Michael Cunningham has covered the Hawks and other beats for the AJC since 2010.


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In addition to Debbie's beautiful watercolors, she also makes fun sports related bangle bracelets for Ohio State, Cavs, and Indians fans!
Janine Jacobs-Beleski lives in Vermilion, Ohio and has been creating and selling her artwork for more than 20 years. She has exhibited her paintings in many galleries throughout the United States and Canada. Janine states, "When I am painting, I often lose track of time. I become completely involved with the work in progress. It dictates to me where I should go, the intensity of the colors and the overall mood of the picture." Her art has been described by others as portraying an overwhelming dramatic story of stormy landscapes, wild and emotional florals, intense, sometimes moody portraits, all with a wash of unrestricted color. For more information please email her at jjacobsart@gmail.com.


Play "The Reason" by Hoobastank on any electric guitar or bass. This song includes a new Authentic Tone.
Hoobastank discography and songs: Music profile for Hoobastank, formed 1994. . 2.12. 24. 3. If I Were You. 2006 . 2.00. 4. Born to Lead. 2006 . 2.53. 10. 1. My Turn .
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