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Property losses are expected to mount after an out-of-control bushfire claimed at least three homes and nearly a dozen outbuildings. or signup to continue reading Emergency crews will continue impact assessments to affected areas in the Grampians region in Victoria where a blaze with a perimeter of more than 380km and has so far scorched more than 75,000 hectares. Dry conditions and difficult, mountainous terrain mean the fire is likely to burn into the new year but cooler, settled conditions are providing fire crews the opportunity to try to contain the blaze. Three homes were confirmed lost in Moyston, a rural farming community on the edge of the Grampians National Park, as of early Saturday evening. Another 11 outbuildings were also destroyed by the fire across Moyston and Pomonal, which was devastated by fire earlier in 2024. State Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty said there was still a lot of work to be done to confirm the fire's damage. "These numbers will continue to evolve over the next couple of days," Mr Hegarty said. There have been significant livestock losses, particularly sheep. Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent said the week ahead would bring more favourable conditions for fire crews. "Weather over the next week looks relatively stable," he said in a statement late on Saturday afternoon. "This will allow us time to stabilise the fires and continue backburning operations, and look to support the community further." Three watch and act alerts remained in place in and around western Victoria's Grampians National Park as night fell on Saturday, with the area from Long Gully Road to College Road remaining safe. Residents from Halls Gap have also been allowed to return home. Conditions in western Victoria are expected to remain mild until Sunday before westerly winds give way to warmer northerlies on Monday. Hardship payments have become available for people with homes in evacuation areas or who have suffered property damage, via the state and federal-funded Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. Federal Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister said the assistance included a one-off payment of $680 per adult and $340 per child up to a maximum of $2380 per eligible family to help cover essentials such as food, clothing, medication and accommodation. As fire crews in Victoria enjoy the cool change, a total fire ban was issued for NSW's northern slopes region as dry conditions, gusty winds and temperatures into the high 30s descended on Tamworth, Inverell and the Liverpool Plains. No total fire bans are in place in NSW on Sunday but high fire danger remains for the Northern Slopes, North Western, Upper Central West Plains, Greater Hunter and Sydney regions. "We do have heatwave conditions continuing, and warnings current for northeastern parts of NSW and much of Queensland," weather bureau meteorologist Sarah Scully said. A number of fires are burning or have recently been contained in NSW. On the other side of the nation, residents were urged to leave their homes on Saturday as an out-of-control bushfire raged in Western Australia's Mid West region amid hot and windy conditions. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement Advertisement
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Tokyo Metropolitan University researchers employed long-term skin conductance measurements to distinguish between emotions . Volunteers were given videos representing frightening scenarios, family bonding, and humour while their skin conductance was measured. The team's investigation revealed that traces might be used to create accurate estimations about which emotions were being experienced. Advances like this assist in reducing an overreliance on facial data, bringing emotionally sensitive technologies closer to home. Can skin conductance predict emotions? A new frontier is being pioneered in consumer electronics: one day, digital devices might be able to offer services depending on your emotional state. While this sounds amazing, this depends on whether devices can correctly tell what people are feeling . The most common methods depend on facial expressions: while these have had some success, such data may not always be available. This has led to researchers looking for different biological signals which could be interpreted to access emotional states, like brain wave measurements or cardiograms. A team of scientists led by Professor Shogo Okamoto from Tokyo Metropolitan University have been using skin conductance as a doorway to human emotions. When people feel different things, the electrical properties of their skin change drastically due to perspiration, with signals showing up within one to three seconds of the original stimulus. Previous research has already shown that measurements of peak conductance, for example, can be correlated with certain emotions. In their most recent work, the team focused on the dynamics of the response i.e. how quickly the conductance trace following some stimulus reaches a peak, and how it decays back to normal. Emotion reading devices In their experiment, volunteers were asked to wear probes on the skin and watch videos which were either scary scenes from horror movies, emotional scenes of family bonding, or funny acts performed by comedians. Importantly, each of the scenes had well-defined points at which a certain emotional stimulus was sought. Analyzing the traces, the team found many interesting and significant trends. For example, they found that the response to fear lasted the longest. This may be a biologically evolved trait, since there are benefits to perceptions of danger lasting longer. Comparing responses to humor and emotional scenes of family bonding, they found responses to family bonding seemed to increase more slowly. The emotions that were evoked were most likely a mixture of sadness and happiness, so it may be that they interfere with each other, leading to a slower change. Importantly, the team's statistical analysis revealed that the different numbers extracted from the dynamics of the trace could be used to discriminate the emotional state of an individual. Though they can't yet tell the emotions apart perfectly, the data could, for example, be used to make statistically significant predictions of whether a subject was experiencing fear or feeling the warmth of a family bond. Combined with other signals, the team believe we are one step closer to devices knowing how we are feeling, with scope for a better understanding of human emotions.UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York
None‘Nebraska did a good job': Boston College's Bill O'Brien lauds NU’s red zone defenseMOORHEAD — When day breaks at Churches United for the Homeless, its CEO is busy helping lay out breakfast for guests at Micah’s Mission — a shelter for homeless men, women and families — and tidying up before the hustle and bustle of the day sweeps him away. For stepping up to save the 37-year-old nonprofit from crumbling this summer, and for all the long days since, Pastor Devlyn Brooks is The Forum's 2024 Area Person of the Year. “Up until now, I really hadn’t stopped to kind of look back and reflect” on the last few months, Brooks told The Forum. “It’s kind of the stuff of movies, to a certain degree, and to have been on the inside of that, it’s fairly indescribable.” Churches United’s plight was brought to light in August when newly hired Brooks told the public the organization needed to raise $200,000 by the end of the month to keep its doors open. The nonprofit saw unprecedented financial struggles in the last few years due to a drop in donations and a rise in costs following the COVID-19 pandemic. In October, Churches United laid off 20% of their staff to stay open, and by November, the nonprofit once again sought $200,000 to avoid closure. With their monthly budget sliced down to $125,000, Churches United continues raising money to make it through while holding out hope that longer-term salvation will arrive in the form of state funding in July 2025. From his first day, when he had to tell the nonprofit’s staff they might not get paid that week, to now, when a glimmer of hope is visible on the horizon, Brooks has been a champion for Churches United and staved off the tidal wave of harm its closing would cause. However, Brooks is quick to credit the hundreds who rallied around Churches United when they pleaded for help to keep the doors open and people in the metro fed, sheltered and cared for. “The community saved Churches United,” Brooks said. In the last five months, over 1,400 people gave what they could spare to keep Churches United afloat, he said, and volunteers flooded into their emergency shelter and food pantry. “It has been a miraculous outpouring of support saying that we believe the work that Churches United does is vital,” Brooks said. “And that’s done a whole lot to boost the morale of the folks here.” The most visible part of Churches United’s operation is the emergency shelter, community room and case management offices at 1901 First Ave. N. in Moorhead, but the nonprofit also helps feed people at emergency pantries and provides housing for people transitioning from shelters to independent living. Come July, the organization hopes to receive $900,000 annually from the state for two years, Brooks said, which means they would only have to raise half their operating budget from private donations instead of 80%, as they were when he started. “We need people to understand that, while we’re not in crisis, we’re not fixed,” Brooks said. Those looking to donate can visit churches-united.org/donate and readers wishing to volunteer can sign up at churches-united.org/volunteer. For Churches United Board President Jess Spieker Ferden, it’s fitting that Brooks is the Forum Area Person of the Year. “I can’t think of anybody that is more deserving of this,” Spieker Ferden said. “He is an absolutely amazing man. We are so grateful to have him as part of our team.” From the moment he started as interim CEO in August, Brooks had a plan and a magnetic confidence that drew the board, staff, guests and community together with a singular mission: save Churches United. "He is larger than life. He is just a really fantastic, upbeat, loud person. He is an incredible leader,” Spieker Ferden said. In early August, when Churches United teetered on the brink of closure, a guest approached Brooks and offered him all the money she had to help keep the doors open, Spieker Ferden said. “Here is somebody who needs the shelter and was willing to give up what little she had to ensure that it can still operate,” she said. That action was echoed by the community, which stepped up to keep Churches United open multiple times this year. Likewise, the staff at Churches United began shouldering more responsibility when the nonprofit was forced to make layoffs. “I can't show enough gratitude, love and respect for the Churches United staff," Spieker Ferden said. "They trusted Pastor Devlyn from the get-go.” Brooks was instrumental in saving Churches United, she said. “I don’t know that we would have ever found anybody who is as crazy as he is or as passionate about our mission as he is. Really, who is going to come aboard what everybody thought was a sinking ship?” Spieker Ferden said. Brooks’ life was shaped by the severe poverty and food scarcity he experienced growing up in Crookston, Minnesota. He was raised alongside his eight older siblings in a home that went years without running water. His mother drew them a bath in the yard each Saturday, and the family relied on an outhouse. There were limited resources for his hardworking and loving mother to draw on, he said, with no food pantry or homeless shelter around to turn to for help. Brooks studied hard and earned a grant for first-generation college students. He attended Bemidji State University, where he fell in love with writing and kicked off a prolific career in journalism that spanned 30 years: first as a reporter, then editor, manager and more. Brooks is currently a faith columnist for Forum Communications Company. He was drawn to pastoral work and began to serve at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minnesota, in 2017. All those experiences prepared him for his current calling at Churches United. “I’m very grateful for that, and I see very much of the Holy Spirit in that path,” Brooks said. Ultimately, it was the support of his family and church community this year that allowed him to step up for Churches United, he said. No matter where life takes him, Brooks can rely on his wife and children for support and encouragement, he said, even through hard times. His family lost several loved ones in the last five years, he said, and his work frequently demanded much of his time between full-time jobs, seminary studies, pastoral work and now Churches United. “For any profession where you’re called to serve, if you don’t have the people standing around you, you’re not successful,” Brooks said. “I know a lot of times the community sees me out in front of a television camera, or me at an event, but they don’t see (my wife) Shelley, who’s picking up the pieces in our family behind the scenes.” It takes a lot for a small congregation to share their pastor with an organization that needs as much time as Churches United, he said, but Faith Lutheran didn’t hesitate to send him where his help was most needed. “I still believe that was very courageous,” Brooks said. “That’s made all the world of difference. I couldn’t have been doing what I’ve been doing here if our church wouldn’t have done that. And I’m extremely grateful.” In addition to Sunday sermons, Brooks spends 12 to 18 hours a day laboring for the benefit of Churches United and the people it serves. “The staff here still tease me about having the longest first day ever because, to some degree, that first day hasn't ended yet,” Brooks said. “Honestly, it’s been a roller coaster. It’s been like standing inside of a tornado.” Churches United was in crisis when he arrived. As such, the shelter and guests hadn’t been cared for as well as they could be, the staff was burnt out and relationships were frayed. His team worked to rebuild relationships in the community, beat the bushes for funders and organized their internal structure to prevent the daily implosions that were all too common before. Hope now grows in every corner of the organization, he said, in response to the community’s swell of support and the renewed partnerships across the metro. The bills are getting paid again, and they are no longer being hounded by vendors for overdue payments. They have enough money to fully stock up on toilet paper again. "When you’re in crisis, you don’t start to talk about the future," Brooks said. "Now we’re talking about the future which is, I think, amazing. We have money in our operating account on a regular basis when the week ends. ... We haven’t used our credit line now in several weeks, and so we actually have cash on hand at the end of the week. And the last time that happened was more than two years ago.” Staff are once again proud to say they work at Churches United, he said, and guests are taking more pride in their stays and pitching in to help fix things and keep the place clean. This change in fortune is a testament to the power of saying yes, Brooks said. It’s become acceptable, even expected, in our culture to say no when called upon to help, he said. “It’s very easy to say no, I don’t want to give any more money. It’s very easy to say no, I don’t want to give more time. I don’t want to serve on a board. I don’t want to go serve a meal," Brooks said. “I think our communities suffer because of that. And so I’ve tried to live in this model of saying yes. "I think we’re a pretty good example of what happens when you say yes." When they hired Brooks, Churches United needed a leader who would go out and talk to “anyone who would listen” about their work and the urgency of their financial situation, Compliance Officer Ginny Stoe told The Forum. Brooks hit the ground running and has hardly stopped since. “His first couple of months, I'm not sure the man even slept,” Stoe said. She knew Brooks deeply understood the vital role of Churches United and the devastating impact its closure would have. “If we had to close our doors, that would have been a catastrophic loss to the people we serve," Stoe said. “It could have been really deadly, especially this time of year.” He hasn’t slowed down, Stoe said. Brooks rallied the leadership team, energized the staff and revitalized the volunteer base. “Devlyn is such a blessing to Churches United,” Stoe said. “He is a man that uplifts other people, especially our guests and our staff. He is quick to jump in and help or offer a friendly hello.” His infectious enthusiasm, paired with a smirk that “lights up a room,” has kept Churches United open, made the staff hopeful and supported a community that cares for neighbors going through hard times. “He is the man of the year. He could have easily come in and really assessed the situation and said, 'You know what? It's too dire.' But he didn’t, not once,” Stoe said. “The man is just really selfless. He walked into a situation that not many people would, but he came in and he said 'I'm all in.'” 2023: Jake Wallin, Zachary Robinson, Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes, Fargo police officers who faced and stopped a potential mass shooter 2022: Nyamal Dei, Fargo School Board member 2021: Dorothy "Dot" Henke, founder of national snack brand Dot's Homestyle Pretzels 2020: Essential workers 2019: Matt Cullen, retired NHL player and local philanthropist 2018: U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer 2017: Carson Wentz, an NFL quarterback 2016: Gov. Doug Burgum, tech mogul, real estate developer and millionaire philanthropist 2015: Jessica Thomasson, CEO of Lutheran Social Services 2014: Sherrie Skuza, widow of Fargo police Lt. Jeff Skuza 2013: Craig Bohl, former North Dakota State University football coach 2012: U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp 2011: David Berg, American Crystal Sugar CEO 2010: Denny Sanford, benefactor of Sanford Health 2009: Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker 2008: Fargo-Moorhead youth for their volunteer efforts 2007: Tracy Briggs, former WDAY radio personality, organizer of World War II Honor Flights 2006: Joseph Chapman, then president of North Dakota State University