Tainted

Is the upcoming Super Bowl on the first Sunday in February tainted?  If one were to ask a New Orleans Saints fan, the answer would be an unqualified "YES!" New Orleans lost, in overtime, to the Los Angeles Rams.  But, it was with less than two minutes remaining in regulation that a penalty non-call occurred--an interference call against a Ram defender was clear but not called.  One can understand and give benefit of the doubt that in real time it may have been difficult to make the judgement on interference, but what should not have been difficult was that there was also two other penalties: face-guarding, interference, and helmet-to-helmet contact.  Worse, photos show at least one referee looking directly at the play.  Is this simply another situation where the NFL makes sure it gets the teams it wants in a Super Bowl?

Missed call in New Orleans showing helmet-to-helmet and interference

The NFL likes large game and television audiences, and thus they generally like big-market teams. While the Rams are back to the LA market, after a long absence; the Patriots are once again present.  I watched the Saint-Ram match up and what struck me was that there was at least one other similar interference not called slightly earlier on the Ram defense; plus, a Ram linebacker had at least three helmet-to-helmet hits in the second half that were also not called.  New Orleans did have some bad play calling just before that last non-call play that may well have cost them the game (passes that went incomplete instead of taking more time off the clock with runs), so it is not all on the officiating crew.

No explanation necessary

I did not watch the Patriot-Chiefs game, because, well I already knew the outcome.  Last year the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots, and the NFL will wish to make all things great again in Belichick-Brady Boston by having the Patriots beat the Rams. (With this theory, Philly needed to win to avoid claims of the game being rigged.)  What Bob Kraft has on Roger Goddell, I do not know.  From what I understand there were bad calls in the Patriot-Chief contest too.  Let me point to one example:  Patriot apologist Bill Barnwell writes for ESPN, and on January 18, before the American Conference Championship game, he had an article on Patriot Myths verse Realities.  It has long been believed in the NFL that a defender cannot breathe on Tom Brady without getting called for a penalty.  Barnwell, in his estimation says that is a myth, by looking at roughing the passer calls on Brady compared to other quarterbacks.   The problem is, his metric is wrong.  One cannot tell player intent at holding back when they get close to breathe on Brady by not risking a breathe-on-Brady call.  No one can tell me that Clay Matthews, after getting a series of roughing the passer calls in the first few games of the season did not then hold back in his style of play.  I think the same happens to a large degree with defenders on Tom Brady.  After the AFC Championship game, even Patriot apologist Barnwell noted that a call against a Chief defender for roughing (which you can see here) was not at all a  personal foul or roughing call (no hit to the head as ruled), and even Barnwell noted this irony given his Jan 18 article.

Deflategate

But, this is not the first time the NFL has ruled to obtain the outcomes it desires.  The first time I came to realize the amount of control they exert was during the Green Bay-Denver Super Bowl match up 21 years ago on January 25, 1998.  With John Elway's career winding down the NFL wanted to get him a Super Bowl victory, but more important they wanted to break the small streak of wins by the NFC.  The week before the game the NFL announced that the week after the Super Bowl television bids would be due.  It was clear to me, at that time, that another win by the NFC would dilute the bids by a network that would predominantly carry the AFC contests.  During the game, it was made abundantly clear.  Of course, what made this all in the realm of possibility was that the owner of the Denver Broncos was in charge of the television network bids for the owners.  The NFC is predominantly made up of teams in the original NFL, which tend to be from larger markets, and where today's NFL realizes the fan bases are strong.  The AFC is not this way.  One example, although the smallest market team, the Packers have a strong fan base, and at an away game at San Diego (when the Chargers were in San Diego), there were more Packer fans at the game than Charger fans.  The Packer are, with the 2019 schedule now set, the only NFL team to not play in London.  One reason is they will not give up a home game, but second, no one wants to play them in London as an away team as the Packer fan base would make it a home game for the Packers.  The intricacies of the NFL.

Steeler Coach Mike Tomlin, a frequent Critic of Headphones in New England

Are NFL owners ready to finally fight back against the meddling, favoritism and downright fraud within the league?  The owner of the Saints want to put replay review of interference calls on the table.  The problem is that in the Saints-Rams game it was a no call.  Will referring be done by watching a television?  And yet, even with all the controversy surrounding the Saints-Rams game, NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell has yet make any comment in regard to the situation, although the player has since been fined over $26,000.  As one Saint player noted, the games is not played by people who are not perfect, or referred by people who are perfect, but what occurred "was outside of that expected and accepted norm."  Heck, even the Ram player admitted to the interference saying he was beaten on the play and figured doing the interference would at least not allow a touchdown.  He was perhaps surprised as anyone to have not been called.  Players and coaches, and even some fans will accept some calls, but this was really egregious.  If the referee missed the interference, there was no way to miss the helmet-to-helmet call.  Either way, it should have been fist down.

This Boston area boy, in a 2016 science project, says the cold temps
affected the balls.  But, why were the Colts footballs not similarly affected?

Many argue that the Patriots are a true dynasty, and the claims against them are all sour grapes. There exists, however, too many unexplained incidences related to the Patriots--how they have won every playoff overtime coin toss; how a call, or non-call, goes their way (think the fumble by Brady, which was ruled an incomplete pass years ago against the Raiders); Or, how opposing teams were called for interference and there was none (think AFC championship game in 2018 Patriots vs Jaguars).  Or,  how opposing teams happen to lose headset communications while playing the Patriots (just ask Steeler Coach Mike Tomlin), much more frequently than at other venues. Have they listened to other teams calls on the sidelines?   For how many years was deflategate actually in practice with the Patriots?  And quite frankly is it still going on?  Not to mention the Patriot videotaping St Louis Ram practices the week before they met in the Super Bowl. Any statistician would find the likelihood of these occurrences to be beyond the realm of the quantifiable as a statistical probability.

Ten year old Boy's science experiment which concluded
that under-inflated balls travel further

While the NFL had to gather experts to study the deflategate issue, a ten year old Kentucky boy won a school science fair, and moves on to district, by proving that less inflated balls when thrown, will actually travel further.  Whether deflategate, or some other issue, it seems the Patriots will have their way.  The Rams will face them as a team tainted by a non-penalty call and not the rightful team to be in the Super Bowl, but then again that is nothing new as the NFL has made sure the Patriots have made plenty of Super Bowls.  Are NFL conference championships and super bowls like the old quiz show "21" on NBC--rigged? Is the Super Bowl tainted?

Images from Google images

Thieves

Thieves is word that conjures images of wrong doing. with one example being:  "Some thieves took my wallet." This post is not about thieves who steal, but about Thieves oil, a combination of different essential oils.  Thieves oil is said to prevent the spread of some bacteria and perhaps viruses when used in a diluted liquid form and even when diffused into the air.  My science educated spouse, who worked for many years as a nurse, is a big user of essential oils. She wipes down our counters with Thieves oil and also diffuses it to the air in the kitchen area.  Her point is that the use of essential oils may help, but hey would not do any harm.

 Bubonic Plague Bacteria yersinia pestis

Lore has it that the name for the Thieves oil originated in the 14th century during the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe.  Some commentators indicate that the black death, as it was commonly known, killed 30% to 60% of the population of Europe, others say that is not the case.  Regardless of percent, a good number of dead people resulted from the plague during the mid 1300's (1347-1352).  Apparently thieves would rob persons who had died, or were dying from the plague, of their belongings, but the thieves did not contract the disease. When finally captured they were given leniency in sentencing in exchange for their secret.  The story goes that they said that their secret was a combination of essential oils on themselves and on a mask that covered their mouth and nose.  How the magistrate knew they were telling the truth of their combination of essential oils is one question. The Essential Oils Pocket Reference (2016, Life Science Publishing) notes the following essential oil combination to create Thieves:  clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus (radiata variety), and rosemary.

Plague in Europe, mid 14th Century

Use of essential oils is centuries old, and after having been laid to the side for many years, particularly in the west, by modern medicine, they are making a comeback.  Skepticism, that is doubting, is seemingly part of my first name, so I wondered could the story, and capability of thieves oil be true?  I first looked how can one become infected by the black plague, or black death.  I think we can all agree that the US Centers for Disease Control, CDC, would be a recognized authority on disease transmission.  The CDC identifies three ways to become infected with bubonic plague:  flea bites, contact with contaminated blood or tissue (human or animal), and infectious droplets (such as droplets of a cough from an infected person can contain the bacteria).  If the thieves were only dealing with dead bodies, we may be able to rule out infectious airborne droplets, but if they were stealing from persons who were alive, they may well have been subjected to coughing.  Covering their noses, and mouths would help prevent the spread though air borne pathogen.  Since, I am not in the 1300's I don't know the condition of the victims or what the thieves wore for protection.

Physicians during the plague wore this mask and
filled it with herbs and oils.  I think the beak also kept
them a distance from the patient

Next, I decided to look at some research.  The CDC notes that the last urban outbreak of the bubonic  plague in the United States due to rats and fleas was in Los Angeles in 1924-1925.  The bubonic plaque is not a large threat today (although it is still present), but the problem is many of its symptoms can be confused with the flu.  A more immediate threat to the standard population can be other bacteria and viruses.  A 2012 article in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by Kavanaugh and Ribbick (see reference #1, below), examined certain essential oils in relation to Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The following is from their conclusion :

In summary, we demonstrate here that cassia, Peru balsam, and red thyme essential oils are more effective in eradicating Pseudomonas and S. aureus biofilms than selected important antibiotics, making them interesting candidates for the treatment of biofilms. Important future goals include identifying further active antimicrobial components within the oils, as well as the molecular mechanisms by which these components so effectively breach the biofilm barrier. In this study, we sampled only a small number of different oils, but a plethora of other oils is available in nature, bearing enormous potential for the discovery of alternatives to antibiotics.

Bubonic plague cases in the US 1970-2012

What is interesting, from this research, is that essential oils may hold the key to bacterial infestations and avoiding the antibacterial resistance that is so common among many antibiotics today. Now, the question would arise as if the bacteria would develop resistance to the essential oils as they do to pharmaceutical antibiotics. However, Danielle Dresden, writing in medicalnewstoday.com (see reference #8), and reviewed by Deborah Rose Wilson, Ph.D. (and she has many more post-nominal letters), notes that several essential oils are and have been studied to show effectiveness against the flu virus.

One critic of essential oils is the writer of a blog titled "Science Based Pharmacy" (see reference #2, below).  This blog notes that there is not scientific evidence to prove the claim of 99.96% efficacy to airborne bacteria from Thieves oil.  This blog states that that figure comes from a man who has a checkered past and sells the oil, Gary Young of Young Living.  Young Living, apparently, came under criticism from the Food and Drug Administration for claiming Thieves oil is effective against the Ebola virus.  I am not a scientist, but to me there is a difference between an airborne virus and an airborne bacteria.  Antibiotics, so I am told, work on bacterial infections, not on viral infections.  For example, the blog writer notes that their head shakes when reading Facebook posts by moms and the use of essential oils to prevent catching or the spread of the flu. However, the flu is a viral infection and his main comment was to question the efficacy of Thieves oil to a bacterial infection. His own argument does not compute.  The writer states that not one site which claimed a high rate of effectiveness for Thieves oil linked to a peer reviewed study.  The 2012 study noted above did not tend to the flu or other viruses, but it did note the efficacious nature of just two oils to two common bacteria.  Engineered antibiotics can also do havoc with ones digestive system.

Judith, writing at juicygreenmom, seems to address the concerns of the Pharmacy blog, although perhaps unintentionally.  She does not feel that Gary Young's claims should be simply discarded, and she found several studies (see her blog at references item #3) which claim some decent results for essential oils. She provides conclusions from several studies.  From her research it looks as if clove and cinnamon bark are two of the main oils that are the most effective.

There are more gruesome photos of the plague than this
and now you know why it is called the black death

Then, their is Dr Annie, at the time of the writing of her blog she was a stay-at-home Mom, who did her own home experiment, so it is not in a journal subject to peer review.  Dr. Annie self-reports that she has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from THE Ohio State University (see reference #4 for details).  Dr. Annie repeated her experiment a number of times and notes that she obtained the same results each time.  She noted that her experiment found that the Thieves oil petri dish did not contain one colony of bacteria.  However, when Thieves oil was combined with olive oil, the effectiveness decreased.  The Science Based Pharmacy blog post notes that use of petri dishes, such as used by Dr Annie, don't mean squat since that Science Based Pharmacy writer noted one could put salt or some other items on the plate to kill the growing culture.  I interpret this to mean that the blog writer claims that the essential oils kill the medium and hence the germ does not grow.

Artwork of the black death in mid 14th century Europe

Of course, some plant based products have been quite common--think menthol as one example.  What does this all mean? I think it is best to take normal precautions from colds and flu:  wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your eyes, ears, and nose.  If you like essential oils, they often do smell good, the only thing you may lose is some money if they do not work. Perhaps there would be a placebo effect.  But who would criticize the placebo effect, since not getting sick is better than getting sick.  More and more research is being undertaken relative to essential oils and their potential effectiveness against certain bacteria.  Thieves oil may not work against Ebola, but science may be going back to the future in promoting the use of essential oils and what they can do to avoid use of man made antibiotics, and to keep one well.  Maybe those legendary thieves in the middle ages of Europe were on to something.

References:
1.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3346404/
2.  https://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/thieves-essential-oil-crimes-against-public-health/
3.  http://juicygreenmom.ca/does-thieves-essential-oil-really-work-science-has-a-say/
4.  http://www.dranniesexperiments.com/essential-oil-testing
5.  https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/biohacking-articles/what-is-thieves-essential-oil/
6.  https://www.cdc.gov/plague/transmission/index.html
7.  Essential Oils Pocket Reference,2016, Life Science Publishing
8.  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321401.php

Images from Google images

Copycat

Many sports commentators have mentioned that the National Football League is a copycat league.  This actuality is not new to the league.  There is what is called, following a coaching tree, how the success of one coach propelled others.  The two main coaching trees are that of Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh.  Holmgren and McCarthy came from the Walsh coaching tree.  Back in 2014 Troy Vincent, an NFL executive, former NFL player and former Badger football player, announced he was proud of the NFL being a copycat league.  This season, eight head coaching positions became available in the NFL.  Of the eight, six positions have been filled as of Friday, January 11, 2018. Three of those six positions have been filled with Xennials with all three being born in 1979.  Sport commentators have said that there is a desire to copy the coaching style of Sean McVay of the LA Rams. Many of the NFL team powers that be see McVay, a true millennial, as having great success in just two seasons with the Rams, and they want the same.  What some teams, during this year's search was to find that copycat of Sean McVay, this is certainly true of the Packers.  There seems to be a desire for a younger, innovative, and offensive minded coach, preferably one with experience coaching quarterbacks.  Yet, I noticed other similarities that at least three of these Xennial head coaches, Shanahan, Kingsbury and LaFleur, present.   

Two years ago besides McVay the other big name was Kyle Shanahan who is now head coach of the San Francisco  49ers. Following this copycat mold, the Packers hired Matt LaFleur and will pay him about $5 million a year.  Kliff Kingsbury, who was fired at the end of this last season as head coach of Texas Tech, was hired by the Arizona Cardinals.  His recent firing was apparently not enough to keep them from engaging his services to be their next head coach.  Adam Gase, recently fired by the Dolphins, but hired by the New York Jets, is also said to fit this mold of coach, but also shows that innovation does not necessarily translate to sufficient W's.  Shanahan, Kingsbury, and LaFleur were all born in 1979, making them late generation X or early part of the Millennial generation, so let me refer to them as Xennials.*  Gase was born in 1978.  McVay is clearly a Millennial.    However, what struck me is not the similarity of being young, or innovative, or even all being offensive minded.  No, what struck me is, well, how alike Shanahan, Kingsbury and LaFleur look.  They share a similar hairstyle, similar beard, similar body build.  I think they call came off the same factory floor. A Japanese robot builder may have more variation in their robots than exists for these three.   Do they all have to follow the same expectations of what Xennials are to look?  Is there no variation allowed?

Xennial NFL Coaches

This struck me as rather interesting, so interesting that I mentioned it to my wife.  As usual, she had a quick comeback, and said that it is probably not unlike men of my age.  Given this comment, I had to set on a search of what NFL coaches are nearest my age, and do we share similarities in appearance. I came up with three of the to-date current head coaches that are closest to me in age.  Vic Fangio, just hired as head coach of the Denver Broncos who clearly did not follow the copycat rule as they hired a 60 years defensive mastermind as coach (previously Defensive coordinator of Da Bears). There is also Mike Zimmer, head coach of the Vikings and then Andy Reid, current head coach of the Chiefs.  Andy Reid would be familiar to Packer fans as he was position coach at varied positions with the Packers, lastly as quarterback coach,  from 1992 to 1998 before being hired as head coach of the Eagles.

Boomer NFL Coaches closest to me in Age

If one were to look at the three Xennial NFL coaches noted above that were born within a few months of each other in 1979 I think you see more similarities than between the three of the  baby boomers closest to my age.  The boomers have variety in hair on the head and only one has facial hair--and that is a mustache.  Clearly, boomer coaches of my age do not follow a prescribed appearance as common and similar as that of the prototype example embedded in the trendy Xennial coaches. 

LA Ram Coach Sean McVay

The NFL head coach closest to me in age is Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs.  We are less than three months apart in age, but perhaps we show the closest commonality of that referred to by my spouse.  Andy Reid, is the only one of the three NFL coaches closest to me in age, and he is the only one to have a walrus type mustache.  I would have to say, his mustache is even more walrus like than mine.  While Andy and I have differences in body size and proportion, we also have similarity in the thinning of hair on our heads.

Andy and I

The Boomer, Xennial, and all the other NFL coaches are all hoping to take their team to, and win, the Super Bowl.  Time will tell if the copycat idea works.  Of the seven NFL coaches hired three years ago only one is still a head coach with the team that had hired him.  With the Xennial coaches, the problem will be telling them apart.  Even if I were a NFL head coach, one would not have to worry about telling me apart from Andy Reid--I think I would be more engaged on the sideline.  Don't believe me?, just ask my wife about me watching a Packer game.  Is the NFL becoming a copycat league in appearance in addition to offensive, defensive philosophies?  I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

* There are different thoughts on when the Millennial generation started, so I used the term Xemmial as between Generation X and the Millennial Generation.  The term seems to, perhaps, begun with those on the older side of Millennial age group who did not wish, for some reason, to be associated with the Millennial age group.

Coach images from Google Images, Tom Hovel (author) image Carly Mac Photography

China Bull

We have all heard the old saying, "like a bull in a china shop."  This post is about the recent activity involving the country China, and its bullying methods to Western nations.  U see China as a hybrid type economy involving aspects of both communism and capitalism.  What is most unique is that is under the control of a totalitarian regime.  Many of its large companies are state owned.  China is also a bully  as it realizes the importance to markets of its population.  This allows the Chinese government to make demands on companies few other countries would even think about.

China President

First, what political website had this to say during the 2016 Presidential election:  "Our current trade policy with China is detrimental to American workers."  If you guessed then Candidate Donald Trump, you would be wrong.  It was U. S. Senator (Feel the Bern) Bernie Sanders.  Angst is present among many Republicans and Democrats, not to mention the stock market investors about the sanctions placed on China by the United States, and sanctions placed by China on the United States.  Some blame Apples poor performance on the sanctions, and that the sanctions led to the recent poor iPhone sales forecast in China. However, some financial experts blame Apple.  They note Apple reduced investment in Europe to concentrate on China; it also placed the price of its products out of reach to many consumers. Chinese wannabee phone makers become the phone of choice. China is great at being a copy cat, and Western manufacturers pay the price.  Apple also failed to properly secure the rights to names of its signature products in China.  Registration is probably purposefully made difficult in China due to their desire to copy.  

Apple Production Plant in China

For years China has dumped look alike products on the U.S. market, demeaning the value of the actual product.  For years, to do business in China, many U.S. companies have had to give up trade secrets.  For years, China has been stealing U.S. military technology and secrets. For years, China has been bullying to get its way.  Disconcerting, is that China is purchasing mines and mineral deposits, including rare earth mineral deposits, in far off lands to control the flow of these materials.  Even more disconcerting is that Chinese companies, such as Alibaba, are required to spy on the United States.  Alibaba's CEO is a member of the communist party in China, which he "failed" to mention in the paperwork  in applying to do business in the U.S.  

US Travel Warning to China

A slow down in China may be starting to occur due to U.S. sanctions and other factors.  Did China realize too late that its one child policy would affect long-term growth?  One problem is that since so much is under state control they can easily play with their numbers, so one really does not know the truth about their economic growth and output.  It was probably about 30 years ago that much U.S. manufacturing started to move overseas to China due to its cheap labor pool. Let me tell the story of two Dane County companies, who both have their home base just south of Madison in the same community.

Company A, is a large manufacturer of plastic containers, such as, but not limited to the plastics containers used to for bolts and nuts at the hardware store.  This company had long-term plans for expansion in their home city, but many years ago put that on-hold to move some manufacturing to China.  Why?  The CEO said, "everybody needs a presence in China."  Company B, located right near company A, had a CEO who took a different tack.  This company manufactures bike racks, and exercise machinery.  A few years ago, all but one part was made in the United States.  The part not made here, was made in Europe, but they had then found a U.S. manufacturer for that part.  The CEO said of their lack of doing business in China was related to a few main items: 1. difficulty of quality control; 2. the distance, being on the other side of the world, meant too much time in travel and potential disruption to the supply chain.  He noted that if a problem arose it would take a day over and a day back and probably a day or more at the site.  A drive to Iowa would be much quicker and easier to sort out than a trip to China, he noted.  Company A no longer has a presence in China.  Last spring I took a part of a saw, where the weld had broken.  The welder looked at it for less than 2 seconds and said, "It was either welded in China or South Korea."  It was a poor initial welding job.  You get what you pay for.  

China Three Gorges Dam

China, apparently aims to make other nations pay for not doing what they want. For years Taiwan has been a separate nation, but Chinese President Xi Jinping, recently declared:  "that independence is not an option for Taiwan."  Just before Christmas the head of the Chinese military academy noted that they should destroy two U.S. Carriers, which he said would kill about 10,000 naval personnel. His justification was that the United States would not stand for the casualties and China would have free reign.  China has recently developed a portable land-based missile, the DF-21d, which they say, can strike and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. 

China DF-21d Missile to Attack US Aircraft Carriers

What China also likes to do is destroy lives.  It has been placing individuals under arrest for a long time, particularly human right supporters, and those who may disagree with their message.  They have a habit of incarcerating individuals on false charges. Human Rights Watch had this to say in 2017: 

The broad and sustained offensive on human rights that started after President Xi Jinping took power five years ago showed no sign of abating in 2017. The death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo in a hospital under heavy guard in July highlighted the Chinese government’s deepening contempt for rights. The near future for human rights appears grim, especially as Xi is expected to remain in power at least until 2022.

What Human Rights did not know in 2017 is that the Chinese Constitution was changed to allow Xi rule for life, so their expectation will extend beyond 2022.  Of course, some U.S. companies have no gumption about giving into China.  Facebook, as an example, created a censorship tool in order to let it do business in China. However, that must not have been enough for China as they were once again kicked out of the country.  Although censorship is apparently nothing new to Facebook, who, with Twitter, and others have became the thought police in the United States, but this has drawn little interest from groups such as the ACLU.

Rhino missing Horn.  China has recently allowed Rhino horns to be
used in traditional medicine.  Although the black market has long existed

China has been in an odd sort of symbiotic relationship with U.S. businesses and consumers for too long, and it has hurt the American economy.  Many complain about the current U. S. sanctions against China, but did not the U.S. bring this about themselves with trade agreements too friendly to China?  Let me once again quote from former 2016 U.S. Presidential Candidate Senator Bernie Sanders: “Let’s be clear: one of the major reasons that the middle class in America is disappearing, poverty is increasing and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider is due to our disastrous unfettered free trade policy.”  Chinese President Xi Jingping seems to believe the statement often attributed to Karl Marx and Lenin:  "the last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope."  China has reinvented Capitalism, not with the standard democracy to overlay the economy, but having economic control under that of a totalitarian regime.  It is a regime that controls not only mineral deposits in the world, but also thoughts of its citizens and beyond.