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A nearly 130-year-old shipwreck was discovered deep in Lake Huron, identified as the Ironton schooner that sank after a collision with a wooden freighter, killing five crew members. The ship was found in Lake Huron’s deadly “Shipwreck Alley” in 2019 but the findings were not revealed to the public until Wednesday to give researchers time to study the wreck, one of an estimated 6,000 ships that have sank in the Great Lakes. The Ironton was “magnificently preserved,” researchers noted, with a lifeboat still attached to the ship’s stern, confirming the story of the 1894 disaster’s two survivors who said the rope on the boat had not been untied. The Great Lakes have a long history of swallowing ships whole. The climate makes them prone to storms, and the resulting surging waves can be strong enough to sink vessels. Long a cargo passage, barges and shipping vessels have crossed the lakes since at least the seventeenth century. These ships are generally well-preserved, due to the cold conditions deep within the lakes. Because the lakes are bodies of freshwater, salinity does not eat away at the ships’ structure, meaning they decay more slowly than those that sink in the ocean. The Edmund Fitzgerald A fairly recent wreck, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975, the largest ship to ever sink in the Great Lakes. The entire 29-person crew was killed after a November storm caused gale-force winds, damaging integral parts of the freighter. The disaster inspired a Canadian folk song, released the following year: Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Lady Elgin The Lady Elgin sank in Lake Michigan in September 1860, killing an estimated 300 passengers, mostly members of an Irish militia. The wreck was caused by a collision between the Elgin and a Canadian schooner. The schooner’s captain didn’t realize how much damage was done to the Elgin, and left the area shortly after the crash. The Lady Elgin broke apart, sinking in about 20 minutes. “We have not only located a pristine shipwreck lost for over a century, we are also learning more about one of our nation’s most important natural resources — the Great Lakes,” said Jeff Gray, superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. “This research will help protect Lake Huron and its rich history.” - In the Ontario-based publication The Hamilton Spectator, contributing writer Craig Wallace details how his great-uncle was lost in a 1940 wreck on the Great Lakes. Like others, the Anna C. Minch was trapped in a storm, and all of the crew were killed.	<urn:uuid:7179727f-443c-4db9-a347-f34a7d81589c>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510462.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230928230810-20230929020810-00660.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9625102877616882, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.25, "token_count": 595, "url": "https://www.semafor.com/article/03/02/2023/what-the-discovery-of-a-130-year-old-shipwreck-tells-us-about-the-great-lakes" }	A nearly 130-year-old shipwreck was discovered deep in Lake Huron, identified as the Ironton schooner that sank after a collision with a wooden freighter, killing five crew members. The ship was found in Lake Huron’s deadly “Shipwreck Alley” in 2019 but the findings were not revealed to the public until Wednesday to give researchers time to study the wreck, one of an estimated 6,000 ships that have sank in the Great Lakes. The Ironton was “magnificently preserved,” researchers noted, with a lifeboat still attached to the ship’s	stern, confirming the story of the 1894 disaster’s two survivors who said the rope on the boat had not been untied. The Great Lakes have a long history of swallowing ships whole. The climate makes them prone to storms, and the resulting surging waves can be strong enough to sink vessels. Long a cargo passage, barges and shipping vessels have crossed the lakes since at least the seventeenth century. These ships are generally well-preserved, due to the cold conditions deep within the lakes. Because the lakes are bodies of freshwater, salinity does not eat away at the ships’ structure, meaning they decay more slowly than those that sink in the ocean. The Edmund Fitzgerald A fairly recent wreck, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975, the largest ship to ever sink in the Great Lakes. The entire 29-person crew was killed after a November storm caused gale-force winds, damaging integral parts of the freighter. The disaster inspired a Canadian folk song, released the following year: Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Lady Elgin The Lady Elgin sank in Lake Michigan in September 1860, killing an estimated 300 passengers, mostly members of an Irish militia. The wreck was caused by a collision between the Elgin and a Canadian schooner. The schooner’s captain didn’t realize how much damage was done to the Elgin, and left the area shortly after the crash. The Lady Elgin broke apart, sinking in about 20 minutes. “We have not only located a pristine shipwreck lost for over a century, we are also learning more about one of our nation’s most important natural resources — the Great Lakes,” said Jeff Gray, superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. “This research will help protect Lake Huron and its rich history.” - In the Ontario-based publication The Hamilton Spectator, contributing writer Craig Wallace details how his great-uncle was lost in a 1940 wreck on the Great Lakes. Like others, the Anna C. Minch was trapped in a storm, and all of the crew were killed.
UF's International Shark Attack File: Unprovoked bites down in 2022 The number of unprovoked shark attacks worldwide decreased last year, tying with 2020 for the fewest number of reported incidents in the last 10 years. According to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, there were a total of 57 unprovoked bites in 2022, most of which occurred in the United States and Australia. Of these, five attacks were fatal, down from nine deaths in 2021, and 10 the year prior. Since 2013, there has been an average of 74 unprovoked bites per year. The one notable exception was in 2020, as COVID-19-related travel restrictions and beach closures likely resulted in fewer encounters between humans and sharks. The overall reduction in the number of bites last year may reflect the documented global decline of shark populations. “Generally speaking, the number of sharks in the world’s oceans has decreased, which may have contributed to recent lulls,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Florida Program for Shark Research. “It’s likely that fatalities are down because some areas have recently implemented rigorous beach safety protocols, especially in Australia.” Science:University of Florida study shows human pee could play key role in seagrass restoration More:Animal rights group files complaint against UF research ending in dog deaths The International Shark Attack File places a strong emphasis on unprovoked bites in its annual report and does not highlight attacks that may have been prompted by mitigating circumstances, such as fishing lines cast in the direct vicinity of the incident or the presence of chum in the water. There were 32 additional bites in 2022 that fit the ISAF’s criteria for having been intentionally or unintentionally provoked. “Unprovoked bites give us significantly more insight into the biology and behavior of sharks,” Naylor said. “Changing the environment such that sharks are drawn to the area in search of their natural food source might prompt them to bite humans when they otherwise wouldn’t.” As in previous years, the U.S. had the highest number of bites, and Florida again had more reported bites than anywhere else on Earth. None of Florida’s 16 unprovoked bites were fatal, but two — likely from bull sharks — required medical treatment resulting in amputations. A woman snorkeling in the Dry Tortugas early in the year was notably bitten by a lemon shark, which rarely attacks humans. T he incident marked only the 11th known unprovoked attack from this species. The U.S. had only a single unprovoked fatality, which occurred late in the year when a snorkeler went missing along Keawakapu Beach in Maui, Hawaii. Australia had nine confirmed unprovoked bites, and single bites occurred in New Zealand, Thailand and Brazil. Two fatal attacks occurred on the same day in Egypt’s Red Sea, where shark encounters are considered rare. South Africa, which averages a few bites a year, had two unprovoked attacks in 2022, both of which were fatal and likely caused by white sharks. The chances of being bitten by a shark remain incredibly low. According to the World Health Organization, drowning is the third leading cause of accidental death worldwide, and coastal features like rip tides and strong currents pose a greater risk to beachgoers than sharks. The International Shark Attack File provides a curated list of recommendations for further reducing your risk of a shark bite, such as removing reflective jewelry before entering the water and avoiding areas where people are fishing. For more resources, including the full 2022 report, you can visit the International Shark Attack File’s website at floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/.	<urn:uuid:8b960140-cc4e-406d-a6ef-50ef31c2e52d>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945289.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20230324211121-20230325001121-00693.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9591068029403687, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 788, "url": "https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2023/02/14/university-of-florida-international-shark-attack-file-bites-down-2022/69902877007/" }	UF's International Shark Attack File: Unprovoked bites down in 2022 The number of unprovoked shark attacks worldwide decreased last year, tying with 2020 for the fewest number of reported incidents in the last 10 years. According to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, there were a total of 57 unprovoked bites in 2022, most of which occurred in the United States and Australia. Of these, five attacks were fatal, down from nine deaths in 2021, and 10 the year prior. Since	2013, there has been an average of 74 unprovoked bites per year. The one notable exception was in 2020, as COVID-19-related travel restrictions and beach closures likely resulted in fewer encounters between humans and sharks. The overall reduction in the number of bites last year may reflect the documented global decline of shark populations. “Generally speaking, the number of sharks in the world’s oceans has decreased, which may have contributed to recent lulls,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Florida Program for Shark Research. “It’s likely that fatalities are down because some areas have recently implemented rigorous beach safety protocols, especially in Australia.” Science:University of Florida study shows human pee could play key role in seagrass restoration More:Animal rights group files complaint against UF research ending in dog deaths The International Shark Attack File places a strong emphasis on unprovoked bites in its annual report and does not highlight attacks that may have been prompted by mitigating circumstances, such as fishing lines cast in the direct vicinity of the incident or the presence of chum in the water. There were 32 additional bites in 2022 that fit the ISAF’s criteria for having been intentionally or unintentionally provoked. “Unprovoked bites give us significantly more insight into the biology and behavior of sharks,” Naylor said. “Changing the environment such that sharks are drawn to the area in search of their natural food source might prompt them to bite humans when they otherwise wouldn’t.” As in previous years, the U.S. had the highest number of bites, and Florida again had more reported bites than anywhere else on Earth. None of Florida’s 16 unprovoked bites were fatal, but two — likely from bull sharks — required medical treatment resulting in amputations. A woman snorkeling in the Dry Tortugas early in the year was notably bitten by a lemon shark, which rarely attacks humans. T he incident marked only the 11th known unprovoked attack from this species. The U.S. had only a single unprovoked fatality, which occurred late in the year when a snorkeler went missing along Keawakapu Beach in Maui, Hawaii. Australia had nine confirmed unprovoked bites, and single bites occurred in New Zealand, Thailand and Brazil. Two fatal attacks occurred on the same day in Egypt’s Red Sea, where shark encounters are considered rare. South Africa, which averages a few bites a year, had two unprovoked attacks in 2022, both of which were fatal and likely caused by white sharks. The chances of being bitten by a shark remain incredibly low. According to the World Health Organization, drowning is the third leading cause of accidental death worldwide, and coastal features like rip tides and strong currents pose a greater risk to beachgoers than sharks. The International Shark Attack File provides a curated list of recommendations for further reducing your risk of a shark bite, such as removing reflective jewelry before entering the water and avoiding areas where people are fishing. For more resources, including the full 2022 report, you can visit the International Shark Attack File’s website at floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/.
Ann Uccello, former mayor of Hartford who was the first woman to be elected mayor of any municipality in Connecticut and the first woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. capital city, has died. She was 100 years old. “Ann Uccello was a trailblazer who was born and raised in Hartford and dedicated her career in public service to the city she loved,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “She fought to expand housing, ensure that children have access to essential services, and encouraged job growth and opportunities in Hartford.” A Republican, Uccello was elected in 1967 as the first female mayor of the city of Hartford. She was also the first female mayor of any U.S. capital, according to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. “Ann Uccello made history as the first woman to serve as mayor of a capitol city, shattering glass ceilings and commanding attention not just here, but across the globe,” Bysiewicz said in a statement. “A beloved mayor and trailblazer, she will be remembered for her energy, grace, and above all, her passion.” Support from women Women were key to her victory in the late 1960s, Uccello recalled in an interview for a tribute video from the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “The thing that impressed me the most about my election as mayor was the tremendous support that I had from women right across the board,” she said. She’s noted for the role she played in Hartford after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. On the night of the assassination, Uccello recalled getting a phone call from police officials that people were throwing bottles in Hartford’s North End. She drove to police headquarters and insisted to police and city leaders that she was going to go out to the neighborhood. “And they said, ‘Oh, no, you’re not,’” Uccello recalled in the Hall of Fame video. “I said, ‘What do you mean, I’m not going out there?’” She told them: “If I were a male mayor, you would never tell him that he could not go out there. I’m going out.” Uccello made her way to the neighborhood, visiting a large crowd of people upset about what happened to King. “They were saying: ‘They killed our leader; they killed our leader,’” she recalled. “’Why did they do that?’” Uccello told them: “It was some deranged person just as some deranged person killed John Kennedy. This does happen and it’s unfortunate.” Served with ’empathy, understanding, care’ Bysiewicz reflected on that night. “When the threat of riots overcame Hartford, Ann took to the neighborhoods to speak and mourn with residents, encouraging peace,” Bysiewicz said. “She served with a level of empathy, understanding, and care that is so needed in politics.” Uccello, who was elected mayor in 1967 and 1969, “ran as a Republican in a mainly Democratic city, and is Hartford’s last Republican mayor to date,” according to NBC Connecticut. In her interview for the tribute video, Uccello reflected on the 1967 election. “I spent the whole Election Day going from voting place to voting place meeting the voters, passing out my little cards,” she recalled. Uccello sat in her living room to listen to the election results. Once she had won, “there was pandemonium over the place,” she said. “And I said ‘I just don’t believe it,’” she recalled. A TV station wanted to interview her, so a police cruiser escorted her to the studios. As she approached the station, police officers saluted her. Hartford, then D.C. Following her time in Hartford, Uccello moved to Washington, D.C., for stints in federal service beginning with the administration of former President Richard Nixon. She eventually returned to Connecticut. In 2008, Hartford’s Ann Street was renamed Ann Uccello Street. Bysiewicz recalled celebrating with Uccello at her 100th birthday party last May. “Ann Uccello was a pioneer. I admired her ground-breaking work as mayor of Hartford, and one of the highest-ranking women in the Nixon administration, she leaves a legacy that has and will continue to inspire generations of women to pursue careers in politics and public service,” Bysiewicz said. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said Uccello did more than break glass ceilings. “She led Hartford through an enormously challenging [and] consequential time with courage, clarity, and compassion,” Bronin said on Facebook. “She was a lifelong champion for Hartford. “Grateful for her life of service.” Learn more: Tributes to Ann Uccello U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said Uccello dedicated her life to public service. “As the first woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. capital city and the first female mayor in Connecticut, she was a trailblazer who charted a new path for women in politics,” Murphy said in a statement. “Her legacy and lasting impact on the city of Hartford will far outlive her, and my thoughts are with her family and loved ones.” Uccello graduated from the University of Saint Joseph in 1944. She received a doctoral honorary degree in 1971 and received the Distinguished Alumna Award in 1978. “She was a strong, accomplished, and fearless woman who gave her talents to the community, university and city that she loved,” president Rhona Free said in a statement. “She inspired women to believe in and pursue their potential, and she inspired all those with whom she worked to believe that harnessing the talents of all citizens would advance the common good.” Connecticut Public’s Eric Aasen contributed to this report. This story was originally published March 14, 2023, by Connecticut Public.	<urn:uuid:48ebec2b-0ceb-4938-bdd2-e29bad776d85>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949598.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331082653-20230331112653-00764.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9798610210418701, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 1363, "url": "https://ctmirror.org/2023/03/18/hartford-ct-ann-uccello-first-woman-mayor-capital-city-dies-at-100/" }	Ann Uccello, former mayor of Hartford who was the first woman to be elected mayor of any municipality in Connecticut and the first woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. capital city, has died. She was 100 years old. “Ann Uccello was a trailblazer who was born and raised in Hartford and dedicated her career in public service to the city she loved,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “She fought to expand housing, ensure that children have access to essential services, and encouraged job growth and opportunities in Hartford.” A Republican, Uccello was elected in 1	967 as the first female mayor of the city of Hartford. She was also the first female mayor of any U.S. capital, according to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. “Ann Uccello made history as the first woman to serve as mayor of a capitol city, shattering glass ceilings and commanding attention not just here, but across the globe,” Bysiewicz said in a statement. “A beloved mayor and trailblazer, she will be remembered for her energy, grace, and above all, her passion.” Support from women Women were key to her victory in the late 1960s, Uccello recalled in an interview for a tribute video from the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “The thing that impressed me the most about my election as mayor was the tremendous support that I had from women right across the board,” she said. She’s noted for the role she played in Hartford after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. On the night of the assassination, Uccello recalled getting a phone call from police officials that people were throwing bottles in Hartford’s North End. She drove to police headquarters and insisted to police and city leaders that she was going to go out to the neighborhood. “And they said, ‘Oh, no, you’re not,’” Uccello recalled in the Hall of Fame video. “I said, ‘What do you mean, I’m not going out there?’” She told them: “If I were a male mayor, you would never tell him that he could not go out there. I’m going out.” Uccello made her way to the neighborhood, visiting a large crowd of people upset about what happened to King. “They were saying: ‘They killed our leader; they killed our leader,’” she recalled. “’Why did they do that?’” Uccello told them: “It was some deranged person just as some deranged person killed John Kennedy. This does happen and it’s unfortunate.” Served with ’empathy, understanding, care’ Bysiewicz reflected on that night. “When the threat of riots overcame Hartford, Ann took to the neighborhoods to speak and mourn with residents, encouraging peace,” Bysiewicz said. “She served with a level of empathy, understanding, and care that is so needed in politics.” Uccello, who was elected mayor in 1967 and 1969, “ran as a Republican in a mainly Democratic city, and is Hartford’s last Republican mayor to date,” according to NBC Connecticut. In her interview for the tribute video, Uccello reflected on the 1967 election. “I spent the whole Election Day going from voting place to voting place meeting the voters, passing out my little cards,” she recalled. Uccello sat in her living room to listen to the election results. Once she had won, “there was pandemonium over the place,” she said. “And I said ‘I just don’t believe it,’” she recalled. A TV station wanted to interview her, so a police cruiser escorted her to the studios. As she approached the station, police officers saluted her. Hartford, then D.C. Following her time in Hartford, Uccello moved to Washington, D.C., for stints in federal service beginning with the administration of former President Richard Nixon. She eventually returned to Connecticut. In 2008, Hartford’s Ann Street was renamed Ann Uccello Street. Bysiewicz recalled celebrating with Uccello at her 100th birthday party last May. “Ann Uccello was a pioneer. I admired her ground-breaking work as mayor of Hartford, and one of the highest-ranking women in the Nixon administration, she leaves a legacy that has and will continue to inspire generations of women to pursue careers in politics and public service,” Bysiewicz said. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said Uccello did more than break glass ceilings. “She led Hartford through an enormously challenging [and] consequential time with courage, clarity, and compassion,” Bronin said on Facebook. “She was a lifelong champion for Hartford. “Grateful for her life of service.” Learn more: Tributes to Ann Uccello U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said Uccello dedicated her life to public service. “As the first woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. capital city and the first female mayor in Connecticut, she was a trailblazer who charted a new path for women in politics,” Murphy said in a statement. “Her legacy and lasting impact on the city of Hartford will far outlive her, and my thoughts are with her family and loved ones.” Uccello graduated from the University of Saint Joseph in 1944. She received a doctoral honorary degree in 1971 and received the Distinguished Alumna Award in 1978. “She was a strong, accomplished, and fearless woman who gave her talents to the community, university and city that she loved,” president Rhona Free said in a statement. “She inspired women to believe in and pursue their potential, and she inspired all those with whom she worked to believe that harnessing the talents of all citizens would advance the common good.” Connecticut Public’s Eric Aasen contributed to this report. This story was originally published March 14, 2023, by Connecticut Public.
The word "heirloom" likely conjures an image of the past, and when it comes to growing food, the implication is mostly accurate. But while some try to define heirloom cultivars by age — at least 50 years old, for example, or predating World War II — there's another facet of the word "heirloom" that's much more important. "Heirloom seeds carry with them cultural distinctions," says Brian Ward, assistant professor and seed researcher at Clemson University's Coastal Research and Education Center. "Cultures have passed down the seed from generation to the next generation without any breeding going on," with the lineage stewarded by a family or community. These seeds will always grow "true to type," maintaining the same characteristics over time — "So your grandma's tomato is the same tomato her grandma had." For Melissa Nelson, a professor of Indigenous sustainability at Arizona State University, "Heirloom seeds are deeply tied to cultural heritage." Long before the supermarket existed, these cultivars were key to how we ate: "They produce seeds naturally that you can save and grow again for the next generation and also share with friends and family…You knew that your ancestors relied on them, so you want[ed] to keep them going." Safeguarding heirlooms may be more important now than ever, as the full scope of our current biodiversity emergency continues to come into focus. Studies have shown the crisis has been primarily driven by our food system, which puts species at risk through habitat destruction, inputs like fertilizers and pesticides and reliance on monoculture (growing one species at a time), in addition to carbon emissions that hasten climate change. But biodiversity is crucial for limiting climate change's impact. With 34 percent of the country's plants at risk of extinction, the time to protect them is now. Heirlooms vs. Hybrids vs. GMOs So what are the alternatives to heirlooms? Another common category is hybrid seeds, which are simply seeds from plants that have been cross-pollinated with a goal in mind. "Hybrids are carefully bred to produce specific characteristics," explains Ashleigh Smith, managing editor at the seed company True Leaf Market, "including color, size, taste, disease resistance and more." This can be useful in an agricultural context, especially in the face of increasing food insecurity and climate change. Hybrid seeds can be bred to create better yields, improved nutritional value or resilience to extreme temperatures or weather. Hybrids aren't a new concept, either. "People have been introducing different varieties within the same species for as long as we've been farming," says Owen Taylor, cofounder of Truelove Seeds. But hybrid seeds became widely available commercially in the 1930s with the introduction of hybrid corn seed. "This translated to the food industry," Taylor explains, "to breeding a new kind of vegetable that could be the same on any supermarket shelf in any part of the world." When specific traits are desired, such as taste or disease resistance, professional plant breeders carefully prepare two stable seed lines and cross-pollinate them to produce a predictable, reliable plant. But the genes that plant passes on to its own offspring are a variable mix of those of its parents; remixing those genes again doesn't produce the same results when they recombine in the next generation of seeds. This means you can't just save the seeds and get the same results next year — there's no guarantee of the outcome and some of the second-generation seeds may even be infertile. For farmers who grow hybrid crops, that means buying new seeds every year. For home gardeners, Taylor says that makes hybrid seed-saving "extremely undesirable, because people want a certain color or performance." The type of breeding required to create hybrid seeds is distinctly different from the creation of seeds for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), sometimes referred to as genetically engineered (GE) seeds. A genetically engineered seed is created in the lab, Ward explains, "by inserting, deleting, mutating or removing a gene or amplifying a gene." GE seeds aren't available for home gardeners, but are common in conventional agriculture, making up the majority of the U.S. corn and soybean crop. This widespread adoption has sped up consolidation of the seed industry and left farmers with even less control over their crops. "GMO seeds, like hybrid seeds, can't be saved," Nelson explains. "They're often literally owned as property," creating profit for large corporations. And while there aren't well documented health impacts associated with GMO crops themselves, engineered traits like herbicide resistance have enabled the proliferation of chemical-intensive monocultures that seriously harm biodiversity both on and off the farm. Indigenous communities have also expressed concern that genetically manipulating a seed is going too far. "From an Indigenous ethical standpoint," Nelson continues, "this is playing God with our plant relatives." Why Grow Heirlooms? When you bite into something like an heirloom tomato, it's clear that generations of farmers and gardeners saved those seeds for a reason: Many heirlooms are known for their intense or unique flavor. "Growers who produce our seeds are stewarding those old varieties that taste like home," says Taylor, who adds that immigrants and refugees in a new place often find the flavors of their culture in heirloom seeds. But the longevity of these plants also says something in itself: "They have withstood storms and floods and they're hardy, so they should be preserved for their genetic biodiversity and for agricultural diversity," Nelson explains. Every time someone grows an heirloom seed, they are preserving that diversity and ensuring these seeds continue on for future generations; groups like Seed Savers Exchange connect people growing the same varieties so they can work together to ensure the plants aren't lost forever. Heirloom seeds are also key to food sovereignty — which allows people to choose what food they consume and control how and where it is grown. "For generations, heirlooms have saved communities from food scarcity," says Smith. The last stage of a plant's life cycle, after it flowers, is to produce seeds, which anyone can save and grow as long as they have soil, water and sufficient sunlight. But seeds don't just provide nutritious food; they can also provide insight into our past. "We see our seeds as relatives, as ancestors that have deep stories embedded in them," Nelson explains, noting that seeds are sacred in many cultures. "They need to be restored and returned to their communities of origin and then shared." Taylor, for his part, prefers to call heirlooms "traditional seeds." With vegetables and fruits now available year-round, often produced elsewhere and then shipped across the world, "they tell a story about ten thousand years of human relationships with food and plants," he says, and "bring it back to a time when food was bred locally, super locally." Heirlooms are more commonly grown by small farmers and home gardeners: "I would say the majority [who order] from us are small scale farms," Taylor explains, "in particular CSA farms and urban farm community gardens, and some production farms, as well as distinct cultural communities." How to Grow Your Own Want to grow heirloom seeds? Make sure to pay attention to where certain heirlooms grow best, since it can vary by region. Small or specialty seed companies, especially ones like Truelove Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange that are devoted to maintaining plant diversity, will offer seeds online, via seed catalogs or at local nurseries. Though not all open-pollinated seeds are heirlooms, heirloom seeds are always open-pollinated — meaning the plant is pollinated naturally, by air, insects, birds or other animals — and will often be labeled as such. Another way to source seeds is by visiting farmers' markets and talking to the very people who grow your food. "When I really like a potato or a broccoli or a bean, I ask the farmers," says Nelson, who prefers to source seeds directly from them when she can. Nelson also recommends checking out the Alliance of Native Seed Keepers and the seed exchanges organized by the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. The crops known as the "Three Sisters" — corn, beans and squash — are important for many Indigenous communities, who often steward heirloom varieties. "One we grow is Seneca white corn, also known as Iroquois white corn or Tuscarora white corn," Nelson explains, along with Buffalo Creek squash, from the reservation of the same name. Heirloom bavi (tepary beans) have been grown for a millennium by the Indigenous communities of the Sonoran Desert, and the Tohono and Akimel O'odham continue to cultivate them today. There are many other culturally significant — and delicious — heirloom fruits and vegetables you can find at the farmers' market or grow at home, and many people and organizations looking after them. Some heirlooms are relatively famous, especially tomatoes (like Brandywines or Cherokee purples) but also favorites like lacinato kale, Jimmy Nardello peppers or delicata squash. Others you may not even realize are heirlooms. Take lemon cucumbers — yellow, spherical and around the size of a big lemon — which might seem nontraditional but have actually been grown in the U.S. since the 19th century. Many heirlooms have deep roots in certain regions of the country: The southeast has a number of cultivars of collard greens, for example, which are the focus of the Heirloom Collard Project, spearheaded by Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in collaboration with other farmers and researchers. Their goal is to preserve and promote these heirloom cultivars, from cabbage collards to Brickhouse old collards to old timey blues, so future generations can enjoy them.	<urn:uuid:76f943f6-8bc1-439b-af4c-a6e104b9f253>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510888.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001105617-20231001135617-00807.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9625874161720276, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.28125, "token_count": 2046, "url": "https://www.salon.com/2023/08/22/why-heirloom-seeds-matter_partner/" }	The word "heirloom" likely conjures an image of the past, and when it comes to growing food, the implication is mostly accurate. But while some try to define heirloom cultivars by age — at least 50 years old, for example, or predating World War II — there's another facet of the word "heirloom" that's much more important. "Heirloom seeds carry with them cultural distinctions," says Brian Ward, assistant professor and seed researcher at Clemson University's Coastal Research and Education Center. "Cultures have passed down the seed from generation to the next generation without any	breeding going on," with the lineage stewarded by a family or community. These seeds will always grow "true to type," maintaining the same characteristics over time — "So your grandma's tomato is the same tomato her grandma had." For Melissa Nelson, a professor of Indigenous sustainability at Arizona State University, "Heirloom seeds are deeply tied to cultural heritage." Long before the supermarket existed, these cultivars were key to how we ate: "They produce seeds naturally that you can save and grow again for the next generation and also share with friends and family…You knew that your ancestors relied on them, so you want[ed] to keep them going." Safeguarding heirlooms may be more important now than ever, as the full scope of our current biodiversity emergency continues to come into focus. Studies have shown the crisis has been primarily driven by our food system, which puts species at risk through habitat destruction, inputs like fertilizers and pesticides and reliance on monoculture (growing one species at a time), in addition to carbon emissions that hasten climate change. But biodiversity is crucial for limiting climate change's impact. With 34 percent of the country's plants at risk of extinction, the time to protect them is now. Heirlooms vs. Hybrids vs. GMOs So what are the alternatives to heirlooms? Another common category is hybrid seeds, which are simply seeds from plants that have been cross-pollinated with a goal in mind. "Hybrids are carefully bred to produce specific characteristics," explains Ashleigh Smith, managing editor at the seed company True Leaf Market, "including color, size, taste, disease resistance and more." This can be useful in an agricultural context, especially in the face of increasing food insecurity and climate change. Hybrid seeds can be bred to create better yields, improved nutritional value or resilience to extreme temperatures or weather. Hybrids aren't a new concept, either. "People have been introducing different varieties within the same species for as long as we've been farming," says Owen Taylor, cofounder of Truelove Seeds. But hybrid seeds became widely available commercially in the 1930s with the introduction of hybrid corn seed. "This translated to the food industry," Taylor explains, "to breeding a new kind of vegetable that could be the same on any supermarket shelf in any part of the world." When specific traits are desired, such as taste or disease resistance, professional plant breeders carefully prepare two stable seed lines and cross-pollinate them to produce a predictable, reliable plant. But the genes that plant passes on to its own offspring are a variable mix of those of its parents; remixing those genes again doesn't produce the same results when they recombine in the next generation of seeds. This means you can't just save the seeds and get the same results next year — there's no guarantee of the outcome and some of the second-generation seeds may even be infertile. For farmers who grow hybrid crops, that means buying new seeds every year. For home gardeners, Taylor says that makes hybrid seed-saving "extremely undesirable, because people want a certain color or performance." The type of breeding required to create hybrid seeds is distinctly different from the creation of seeds for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), sometimes referred to as genetically engineered (GE) seeds. A genetically engineered seed is created in the lab, Ward explains, "by inserting, deleting, mutating or removing a gene or amplifying a gene." GE seeds aren't available for home gardeners, but are common in conventional agriculture, making up the majority of the U.S. corn and soybean crop. This widespread adoption has sped up consolidation of the seed industry and left farmers with even less control over their crops. "GMO seeds, like hybrid seeds, can't be saved," Nelson explains. "They're often literally owned as property," creating profit for large corporations. And while there aren't well documented health impacts associated with GMO crops themselves, engineered traits like herbicide resistance have enabled the proliferation of chemical-intensive monocultures that seriously harm biodiversity both on and off the farm. Indigenous communities have also expressed concern that genetically manipulating a seed is going too far. "From an Indigenous ethical standpoint," Nelson continues, "this is playing God with our plant relatives." Why Grow Heirlooms? When you bite into something like an heirloom tomato, it's clear that generations of farmers and gardeners saved those seeds for a reason: Many heirlooms are known for their intense or unique flavor. "Growers who produce our seeds are stewarding those old varieties that taste like home," says Taylor, who adds that immigrants and refugees in a new place often find the flavors of their culture in heirloom seeds. But the longevity of these plants also says something in itself: "They have withstood storms and floods and they're hardy, so they should be preserved for their genetic biodiversity and for agricultural diversity," Nelson explains. Every time someone grows an heirloom seed, they are preserving that diversity and ensuring these seeds continue on for future generations; groups like Seed Savers Exchange connect people growing the same varieties so they can work together to ensure the plants aren't lost forever. Heirloom seeds are also key to food sovereignty — which allows people to choose what food they consume and control how and where it is grown. "For generations, heirlooms have saved communities from food scarcity," says Smith. The last stage of a plant's life cycle, after it flowers, is to produce seeds, which anyone can save and grow as long as they have soil, water and sufficient sunlight. But seeds don't just provide nutritious food; they can also provide insight into our past. "We see our seeds as relatives, as ancestors that have deep stories embedded in them," Nelson explains, noting that seeds are sacred in many cultures. "They need to be restored and returned to their communities of origin and then shared." Taylor, for his part, prefers to call heirlooms "traditional seeds." With vegetables and fruits now available year-round, often produced elsewhere and then shipped across the world, "they tell a story about ten thousand years of human relationships with food and plants," he says, and "bring it back to a time when food was bred locally, super locally." Heirlooms are more commonly grown by small farmers and home gardeners: "I would say the majority [who order] from us are small scale farms," Taylor explains, "in particular CSA farms and urban farm community gardens, and some production farms, as well as distinct cultural communities." How to Grow Your Own Want to grow heirloom seeds? Make sure to pay attention to where certain heirlooms grow best, since it can vary by region. Small or specialty seed companies, especially ones like Truelove Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange that are devoted to maintaining plant diversity, will offer seeds online, via seed catalogs or at local nurseries. Though not all open-pollinated seeds are heirlooms, heirloom seeds are always open-pollinated — meaning the plant is pollinated naturally, by air, insects, birds or other animals — and will often be labeled as such. Another way to source seeds is by visiting farmers' markets and talking to the very people who grow your food. "When I really like a potato or a broccoli or a bean, I ask the farmers," says Nelson, who prefers to source seeds directly from them when she can. Nelson also recommends checking out the Alliance of Native Seed Keepers and the seed exchanges organized by the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. The crops known as the "Three Sisters" — corn, beans and squash — are important for many Indigenous communities, who often steward heirloom varieties. "One we grow is Seneca white corn, also known as Iroquois white corn or Tuscarora white corn," Nelson explains, along with Buffalo Creek squash, from the reservation of the same name. Heirloom bavi (tepary beans) have been grown for a millennium by the Indigenous communities of the Sonoran Desert, and the Tohono and Akimel O'odham continue to cultivate them today. There are many other culturally significant — and delicious — heirloom fruits and vegetables you can find at the farmers' market or grow at home, and many people and organizations looking after them. Some heirlooms are relatively famous, especially tomatoes (like Brandywines or Cherokee purples) but also favorites like lacinato kale, Jimmy Nardello peppers or delicata squash. Others you may not even realize are heirlooms. Take lemon cucumbers — yellow, spherical and around the size of a big lemon — which might seem nontraditional but have actually been grown in the U.S. since the 19th century. Many heirlooms have deep roots in certain regions of the country: The southeast has a number of cultivars of collard greens, for example, which are the focus of the Heirloom Collard Project, spearheaded by Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in collaboration with other farmers and researchers. Their goal is to preserve and promote these heirloom cultivars, from cabbage collards to Brickhouse old collards to old timey blues, so future generations can enjoy them.
This article is part of a series on recent advances in the science and medicine of longevity. What if you could turn back the clock on biological age? What if, instead of growing older by the day, you grew younger by the day? New research by scientists at Harvard Medical School suggests this may be less science fiction than it seems. Published in Nature Aging, Bohan Zhang and colleagues discovered that old mice that have been connected to young mice for an extended period begin to “reverse age” and live up to 9% longer than their peers. Although still in its early stages, their work holds exciting implications for the future of aging and longevity. Two Peas in a Pod: Parabiosis To connect the old mice to the young mice, the researchers used a laboratory technique called parabiosis. Think of this as a very involved kind of blood transfusion. Whereas during a normal transfusion, blood is taken from one mouse and separately infused into another, during parabiosis the two animals are surgically joined; an ongoing, real-time transfusion. So instead of simply exchanging blood, animals connected via parabiosis develop a single, shared physiological system. In a sense, they merge together, exchanging everything from blood to hormones. Zhang et al. connected young mice to young mice, old mice to old mice, and young mice to old mice. The first two acted as control groups, providing the scientists with a reference point against which to compare the results of the young-to-old parabiosis. Throughout parabiosis, the mice had their liver and their blood analyzed for various age-related biomarkers. The mice were left joined together for three whole months, after which they were surgically separated —“detached.” They were then given one month to recover before having their physiological data recorded. A few of the mice were allowed to live freely until their natural death to help the researchers understand the effects of parabiosis on longevity. Biological Age vs Chronological Age We all age. Every rotation around the sun adds one additional year to our lives, there’s no way around that. But, it's becoming increasingly clear that we don’t all age at the same speed: although two people may share the same “chronological” age, they can be very different “biological” ages. The former simply refers to the number of birthdays they’ve celebrated, but the latter refers to markers of aging at the level of blood, organs, and genetics. Your biological age is your “true”, physical age. Your risk of developing age-related diseases, like heart disease or cancer, is based on your biological age — in some cases this may be lower than chronological age, in others, it may be higher. How do you measure biological age? There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the most accurate is through the use of “epigenetic clocks”. Discovered in 2011 by Steve Horvath, such epigenetic clocks are based on a process known as DNA methylation. Even though our genetic code itself —our DNA— does not change over the course of our lifetime, the way in which it is expressed does. This is called epigenetics. DNA methylation is a key mechanism of epigenetics; molecules called methyl groups are added along the length of DNA, turning certain genes “off” or “on”. Horvath’s prescient contribution was the recognition that the way DNA is methylated follows a pattern, one that can be traced over time and correlates with age. Knowing the pattern allows us to read DNA methylation like a clock. Long, Youthful Lives Bohan Zhang and his fellow researchers made use of epigenetic clocks to study the effects of parabiosis on the mice. They noticed that the old mice that had been joined to young mice displayed signs not only of slowed aging, but even reverse aging: their DNA methylation signatures were consistently “younger” than their chronological age. Indeed, the methylation clocks suggested a decrease in biological age by up to 30%. This was not true of the old mice that had been surgically joined to other old mice. Nor was it true of old mice that had been non-surgically joined to younger mice, ruling out the possibility that the reversal of epigenetic age was due to increased movement or exercise from being connected to a young mouse. Crucially, the changes to biological age persisted even after detachment from the younger mice. And they weren’t restricted to the blood alone, but to muscle tissue, the liver, and the nervous system too. Reversal of biological age also correlated to longer life spans, with the older mice that had been joined to younger mice living six to nine percent longer than those that had been joined to other older mice. Similarly, changes to gene expression mirrored those observed in longevity interventions and opposed changes usually seen during aging. In this exciting study, Zhang et al. have shown that old mice can have their lifespan extended and have their aging slowed by being joined to younger mice. The benefits of this procedure persist even after detachment. Indeed, along with increased lifespan, the old mice also displayed signs of improved organ health. Although chronological age is fixed, biological age is starting to look a lot more reversible.	<urn:uuid:90312402-1df3-4dc0-89b7-e029d64a07fd>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100535.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20231204214708-20231205004708-00723.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9736123085021973, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.609375, "token_count": 1102, "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2023/09/01/can-we-turn-back-the-clock-parabiosis-research-suggests-yes/?sh=606ec39c7f65" }	This article is part of a series on recent advances in the science and medicine of longevity. What if you could turn back the clock on biological age? What if, instead of growing older by the day, you grew younger by the day? New research by scientists at Harvard Medical School suggests this may be less science fiction than it seems. Published in Nature Aging, Bohan Zhang and colleagues discovered that old mice that have been connected to young mice for an extended period begin to “reverse age” and live up to 9% longer than their peers. Although still in its early stages, their work holds exciting implications for the future of aging	and longevity. Two Peas in a Pod: Parabiosis To connect the old mice to the young mice, the researchers used a laboratory technique called parabiosis. Think of this as a very involved kind of blood transfusion. Whereas during a normal transfusion, blood is taken from one mouse and separately infused into another, during parabiosis the two animals are surgically joined; an ongoing, real-time transfusion. So instead of simply exchanging blood, animals connected via parabiosis develop a single, shared physiological system. In a sense, they merge together, exchanging everything from blood to hormones. Zhang et al. connected young mice to young mice, old mice to old mice, and young mice to old mice. The first two acted as control groups, providing the scientists with a reference point against which to compare the results of the young-to-old parabiosis. Throughout parabiosis, the mice had their liver and their blood analyzed for various age-related biomarkers. The mice were left joined together for three whole months, after which they were surgically separated —“detached.” They were then given one month to recover before having their physiological data recorded. A few of the mice were allowed to live freely until their natural death to help the researchers understand the effects of parabiosis on longevity. Biological Age vs Chronological Age We all age. Every rotation around the sun adds one additional year to our lives, there’s no way around that. But, it's becoming increasingly clear that we don’t all age at the same speed: although two people may share the same “chronological” age, they can be very different “biological” ages. The former simply refers to the number of birthdays they’ve celebrated, but the latter refers to markers of aging at the level of blood, organs, and genetics. Your biological age is your “true”, physical age. Your risk of developing age-related diseases, like heart disease or cancer, is based on your biological age — in some cases this may be lower than chronological age, in others, it may be higher. How do you measure biological age? There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the most accurate is through the use of “epigenetic clocks”. Discovered in 2011 by Steve Horvath, such epigenetic clocks are based on a process known as DNA methylation. Even though our genetic code itself —our DNA— does not change over the course of our lifetime, the way in which it is expressed does. This is called epigenetics. DNA methylation is a key mechanism of epigenetics; molecules called methyl groups are added along the length of DNA, turning certain genes “off” or “on”. Horvath’s prescient contribution was the recognition that the way DNA is methylated follows a pattern, one that can be traced over time and correlates with age. Knowing the pattern allows us to read DNA methylation like a clock. Long, Youthful Lives Bohan Zhang and his fellow researchers made use of epigenetic clocks to study the effects of parabiosis on the mice. They noticed that the old mice that had been joined to young mice displayed signs not only of slowed aging, but even reverse aging: their DNA methylation signatures were consistently “younger” than their chronological age. Indeed, the methylation clocks suggested a decrease in biological age by up to 30%. This was not true of the old mice that had been surgically joined to other old mice. Nor was it true of old mice that had been non-surgically joined to younger mice, ruling out the possibility that the reversal of epigenetic age was due to increased movement or exercise from being connected to a young mouse. Crucially, the changes to biological age persisted even after detachment from the younger mice. And they weren’t restricted to the blood alone, but to muscle tissue, the liver, and the nervous system too. Reversal of biological age also correlated to longer life spans, with the older mice that had been joined to younger mice living six to nine percent longer than those that had been joined to other older mice. Similarly, changes to gene expression mirrored those observed in longevity interventions and opposed changes usually seen during aging. In this exciting study, Zhang et al. have shown that old mice can have their lifespan extended and have their aging slowed by being joined to younger mice. The benefits of this procedure persist even after detachment. Indeed, along with increased lifespan, the old mice also displayed signs of improved organ health. Although chronological age is fixed, biological age is starting to look a lot more reversible.
Why were E. coli levels in Addison County rivers so high? This summer has already set records for water contamination in Vermont. An increase in outflow from strong, persistent rains has caused unprecedented amounts of bacteria and debris to flow through the state’s waterways. On Aug. 8, the Addison County River Watch Collaborative found E. coli concentrations at Bartlett Falls in Bristol, DeMers Park in New Haven, and the Route 125 bridge at the bottom of the Middlebury Gorge in East Middlebury to not be in compliance with safety standards. The ACRWC takes water samples once a month to make sure the water contains under 235 colonies per 100 milliliters of surface water, which is the health-based safety standard from the Vermont Department of Public Health. Each sample site listed at least 1,500 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. This information shocked Matthew Witten, the director of the ACRWC. “Those readings that we got were exceedingly high, extremely abnormal,” Witten said. “You normally get like 10, 20 colonies per milliliter.” While there was reason for concern at those levels, Witten said it all has to do with when his group was taking the samples. At roughly 7 a.m. at each of the sample sites, it was raining. All of the fecal runoff that causes contamination was rushing into the water during the sampling period. Witten said the numbers were so high because the river was still filling with contaminants. “The flow of the river is still reacting to the rain, it's increasing, increasing, increasing,” Witten said. “Whereas if you get (the river) at its peak, or just after, the first big pulse of the pollution is most likely already downstream.” While it is not easy to rule out unsafe or high levels of E. coli at this point, Witten said the rivers are probably safe once the storms pass and the water lowers and looks clear. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.	<urn:uuid:496b35cc-b1fb-4d98-b5f1-ff193c443b4c>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510149.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926043538-20230926073538-00155.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9620107412338257, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.828125, "token_count": 431, "url": "https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2023-08-10/why-were-e-coli-levels-in-addison-county-rivers-so-high" }	Why were E. coli levels in Addison County rivers so high? This summer has already set records for water contamination in Vermont. An increase in outflow from strong, persistent rains has caused unprecedented amounts of bacteria and debris to flow through the state’s waterways. On Aug. 8, the Addison County River Watch Collaborative found E. coli concentrations at Bartlett Falls in Bristol, DeMers Park in New Haven, and the Route 125 bridge at the bottom of the Middlebury Gorge in East Middlebury to not be in compliance with safety standards. The ACRWC takes water samples once a month to make sure the water	contains under 235 colonies per 100 milliliters of surface water, which is the health-based safety standard from the Vermont Department of Public Health. Each sample site listed at least 1,500 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. This information shocked Matthew Witten, the director of the ACRWC. “Those readings that we got were exceedingly high, extremely abnormal,” Witten said. “You normally get like 10, 20 colonies per milliliter.” While there was reason for concern at those levels, Witten said it all has to do with when his group was taking the samples. At roughly 7 a.m. at each of the sample sites, it was raining. All of the fecal runoff that causes contamination was rushing into the water during the sampling period. Witten said the numbers were so high because the river was still filling with contaminants. “The flow of the river is still reacting to the rain, it's increasing, increasing, increasing,” Witten said. “Whereas if you get (the river) at its peak, or just after, the first big pulse of the pollution is most likely already downstream.” While it is not easy to rule out unsafe or high levels of E. coli at this point, Witten said the rivers are probably safe once the storms pass and the water lowers and looks clear. Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
Relevance of Deep Learning in Education; Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Although it is essentially a neural network with three or more layers. These neural networks attempt to simulate the behavior of the human brain—albeit far from matching its ability—allowing it to “learn” from large amounts of data. While a neural network with a single layer can still make approximate predictions. Also additional hidden layers can help to optimize and refine for accuracy. Deep learning drives many artificial intelligence (AI) applications and services that improve automation. Also performing analytical and physical tasks without human intervention. Deep learning technology lies behind everyday products and services (such as digital assistants, voice-enabled TV remotes, and credit card fraud detection) as well as emerging technologies (such as self-driving cars). If deep learning is a subset of machine learning, how do they differ? Deep learning distinguishes itself from classical machine learning by the type of data that it works with and the methods in which it learns. Machine learning algorithms leverage data to make predictions. This means that specific features are from the input data for the model and organized into tables. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t use unstructured data; it just means that if it does. However it generally goes through some pre-processing to organize it into a structured format. Deep learning eliminates some of data pre-processing that is typically involved with machine learning. Although These algorithms can ingest and process unstructured data, like text and images. Furthermore, it automates feature extraction, removing some of the dependency on human experts. For example, let’s say that we had a set of photos of different pets, and we wanted to categorize by “cat”, “dog”, “hamster”, et cetera. Deep learning algorithms can determine which features (e.g. ears) are most important to distinguish each animal from another. In machine learning, this hierarchy of features is established manually by a human expert. Then, through the processes of gradient descent and back propagations. Here the deep learning algorithm adjusts and fits itself for accuracy, allowing it to make predictions about a new photo of an animal with precision. Machine learning and deep learning models are capable of different types of learning as well. They are usually categorized as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. Moreover Supervised learning utilizes labeled datasets to categorize or make predictions; this requires some kind of human intervention to label input data correctly. In contrast, unsupervised learning doesn’t require labeled datasets, and instead, it detects patterns in the data, clustering them by any distinguishing characteristics. Reinforcement learning is a process in which a model learns to become more accurate for performing an action in an environment based on feedback in order to maximize the reward. In this article you will learn some of the relevance of deep learning in education; 1. It is accurate and precise: Deep learning as a subset of machine language is very accurate and precise. In addition if you want to make the best of your learning experience with little or no mistakes and errors then deep learning is a great approach. Also, It can help to complete any task within the shortest possible time. 2. It is cost effective: One of the main benefits and relevance of any technology driven tool is that it helps to cut cost. Any user either a teacher or student that employs the use of deep learning will be able to get their work done with little or no cost. Most users are also able to tailor down their work to only what is important to them. This helps to focus only on the necessary tasks. 3. It is versatile: Deep learning will continue to evolve and become more beneficial to people. It can be used for multiple purposes which makes it to be very versatile. Although it entails the use of numerous tools and resources, The deep learning algorithms can also be used to correct errors in any data that a user needs to use to carry out a task. Are you a school owner and you need a web solution to transform your school work. Click here to sign up for free. Author: Semira Ayeni.	<urn:uuid:60b4627a-85d4-4780-926a-eb2bde526830>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2024-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474445.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223185223-20240223215223-00886.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.946410059928894, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.75, "token_count": 870, "url": "http://ec2-52-214-81-77.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/2023/04/27/relevance-of-deep-learning-in-education/" }	Relevance of Deep Learning in Education; Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Although it is essentially a neural network with three or more layers. These neural networks attempt to simulate the behavior of the human brain—albeit far from matching its ability—allowing it to “learn” from large amounts of data. While a neural network with a single layer can still make approximate predictions. Also additional hidden layers can help to optimize and refine for accuracy. Deep learning drives many artificial intelligence (AI) applications and services that improve automation. Also performing analytical and physical tasks without human intervention. Deep learning technology lies behind everyday products and services (	such as digital assistants, voice-enabled TV remotes, and credit card fraud detection) as well as emerging technologies (such as self-driving cars). If deep learning is a subset of machine learning, how do they differ? Deep learning distinguishes itself from classical machine learning by the type of data that it works with and the methods in which it learns. Machine learning algorithms leverage data to make predictions. This means that specific features are from the input data for the model and organized into tables. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t use unstructured data; it just means that if it does. However it generally goes through some pre-processing to organize it into a structured format. Deep learning eliminates some of data pre-processing that is typically involved with machine learning. Although These algorithms can ingest and process unstructured data, like text and images. Furthermore, it automates feature extraction, removing some of the dependency on human experts. For example, let’s say that we had a set of photos of different pets, and we wanted to categorize by “cat”, “dog”, “hamster”, et cetera. Deep learning algorithms can determine which features (e.g. ears) are most important to distinguish each animal from another. In machine learning, this hierarchy of features is established manually by a human expert. Then, through the processes of gradient descent and back propagations. Here the deep learning algorithm adjusts and fits itself for accuracy, allowing it to make predictions about a new photo of an animal with precision. Machine learning and deep learning models are capable of different types of learning as well. They are usually categorized as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. Moreover Supervised learning utilizes labeled datasets to categorize or make predictions; this requires some kind of human intervention to label input data correctly. In contrast, unsupervised learning doesn’t require labeled datasets, and instead, it detects patterns in the data, clustering them by any distinguishing characteristics. Reinforcement learning is a process in which a model learns to become more accurate for performing an action in an environment based on feedback in order to maximize the reward. In this article you will learn some of the relevance of deep learning in education; 1. It is accurate and precise: Deep learning as a subset of machine language is very accurate and precise. In addition if you want to make the best of your learning experience with little or no mistakes and errors then deep learning is a great approach. Also, It can help to complete any task within the shortest possible time. 2. It is cost effective: One of the main benefits and relevance of any technology driven tool is that it helps to cut cost. Any user either a teacher or student that employs the use of deep learning will be able to get their work done with little or no cost. Most users are also able to tailor down their work to only what is important to them. This helps to focus only on the necessary tasks. 3. It is versatile: Deep learning will continue to evolve and become more beneficial to people. It can be used for multiple purposes which makes it to be very versatile. Although it entails the use of numerous tools and resources, The deep learning algorithms can also be used to correct errors in any data that a user needs to use to carry out a task. Are you a school owner and you need a web solution to transform your school work. Click here to sign up for free. Author: Semira Ayeni.
US students give their schools an overall B- grade on average, according to a new report released Wednesday that asked fifth through twelfth graders to assess their school’s quality in multiple categories, including teaching, effectiveness in preparing them for the future and mental health support. Two-thirds of students graded their school overall an A or a B, according to the report released by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Nearly a quarter, 24%, gave their school a C and one-tenth gave either a D or F. The average grades for each individual metric ranged from C+ to B. “Whether because of the challenges schools faced during three years of dire disruption to learning during the pandemic or longer-term issues, there is clearly room for improvement,” the researchers wrote in the report. The report is based on 2,062 responses from adolescents in fifth through twelfth grade at public, charter and private schools in the US. The students were surveyed between late April and early May. Schools received the worst grades on metrics about student engagement and preparedness, according to the report. Students gave an average grade of a C+ for how well their schools teach about potential careers, foster excitement about learning, and teach in ways that adapt to unique learning needs. Students gave a B- for the quality of teaching, with only 23% giving an A. Schools also earned an average grade of C+ for how well they support mental health, with less than a quarter, 22%, of students giving an A for the metric. Schools received the best grades for safety and respect, receiving an average grade of a B for each category. According to the report, 48% of students gave their school an A for respecting who they are and 43% gave an A for keeping them physically safe. However, the responses for these two metrics varied based on race, the report said. Only one-third of Black students gave their school an A for making them feel respected. That’s compared to half of White students and 53% of Hispanic students. Meanwhile, 37% of Black students gave their school an A for safety, while 41% of Hispanic and 46% of White students did. “These are the largest negative disparities observed among Black students across all metrics assessed,” the researchers wrote. Student responses vary based on academic performance, grade level Students’ ratings of their schools “closely align” with their academic performance, as higher-performing students are “much more likely” to give their schools higher grades than lower-performing students, the report said. Six in 10 students who earned excellent or good grades gave their school an A or B for teaching them based on their unique learning needs, compared to only three in 10 of those who received fair or poor grades. Among students at public schools, middle schoolers gave more positive grades across all metrics than high schoolers, according to the report. Nearly a quarter, 23%, of public middle school students gave their school an overall A grade, while only 17% of public high school students did. “At a crucial moment in defining future pathways, high school students are less excited about learning and feel less prepared for the future than middle school students,” the researchers wrote.	<urn:uuid:c851868d-dc96-4319-9eac-76de28063716>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100583.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206063543-20231206093543-00015.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9818770885467529, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.84375, "token_count": 676, "url": "https://us.cnn.com/2023/06/14/us/gallup-poll-students-grade-schools/index.html?utm_source=link_wwwv9&utm_campaign=item_510722&utm_medium=copy" }	US students give their schools an overall B- grade on average, according to a new report released Wednesday that asked fifth through twelfth graders to assess their school’s quality in multiple categories, including teaching, effectiveness in preparing them for the future and mental health support. Two-thirds of students graded their school overall an A or a B, according to the report released by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Nearly a quarter, 24%, gave their school a C and one-tenth gave either a D or F. The average grades for each individual metric ranged from C+ to B. “Whether because of the challenges schools faced during three	years of dire disruption to learning during the pandemic or longer-term issues, there is clearly room for improvement,” the researchers wrote in the report. The report is based on 2,062 responses from adolescents in fifth through twelfth grade at public, charter and private schools in the US. The students were surveyed between late April and early May. Schools received the worst grades on metrics about student engagement and preparedness, according to the report. Students gave an average grade of a C+ for how well their schools teach about potential careers, foster excitement about learning, and teach in ways that adapt to unique learning needs. Students gave a B- for the quality of teaching, with only 23% giving an A. Schools also earned an average grade of C+ for how well they support mental health, with less than a quarter, 22%, of students giving an A for the metric. Schools received the best grades for safety and respect, receiving an average grade of a B for each category. According to the report, 48% of students gave their school an A for respecting who they are and 43% gave an A for keeping them physically safe. However, the responses for these two metrics varied based on race, the report said. Only one-third of Black students gave their school an A for making them feel respected. That’s compared to half of White students and 53% of Hispanic students. Meanwhile, 37% of Black students gave their school an A for safety, while 41% of Hispanic and 46% of White students did. “These are the largest negative disparities observed among Black students across all metrics assessed,” the researchers wrote. Student responses vary based on academic performance, grade level Students’ ratings of their schools “closely align” with their academic performance, as higher-performing students are “much more likely” to give their schools higher grades than lower-performing students, the report said. Six in 10 students who earned excellent or good grades gave their school an A or B for teaching them based on their unique learning needs, compared to only three in 10 of those who received fair or poor grades. Among students at public schools, middle schoolers gave more positive grades across all metrics than high schoolers, according to the report. Nearly a quarter, 23%, of public middle school students gave their school an overall A grade, while only 17% of public high school students did. “At a crucial moment in defining future pathways, high school students are less excited about learning and feel less prepared for the future than middle school students,” the researchers wrote.
Far fewer monarch butterflies are migrating through Texas this spring It’s the time of year when monarch butterflies pass through Texas on their annual migration. But you might not see as many as last spring. One reason? The number of monarchs that spent the winter in Mexico dropped significantly. Migrating Eastern monarchs spend the winter months in forest colonies in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Mexico. Their population is tracked by the World Wildlife Fund, which measures it by surveying how much land is covered by thick masses of roosting insects. This winter’s survey found the butterflies concentrated on only about 5.5 acres of forest, a 22% decline from last winter. “This is part of a mostly downward trend over the past 25 years, when monarchs once covered more than 45 acres of forest,” the WWFsaid in a press release. That trend has many experts saying the Eastern monarch migration could eventually cease altogether. The reasons for its general decline are many. They include habitat loss in the U.S. from farming and development, insecticide use, destruction of the monarchs’ winter grounds in Mexico, extreme weather and climate change. But those challenges are no reason to give up hope that the population can’t rebound, says Monika Maeckle, who runs the website Texas Butterfly Ranch where she wrote about the spring migration. Insect populations are “famously volatile,” she says, pointing out that the Eastern monarch population was up by 35% last year. “The monarch butterfly population has been called bouncy,” she says. "[It goes] up and down, up and down. It just so often depends on conditions — climate, timing of the seasons, all that stuff.” One reason for the butterflies' lower numbers could be the devastating drought that began last year in Texas, depriving them of nectar and milkweed on which to lay their eggs and leading to fewer arriving in Mexico last fall. That drought continues in much of the state, including San Antonio, where Maeckle tracks monarchs. “I have not seen a lot of butterflies,” she says. “It's been very dry, and it just really depends so much on where you are.” Conservation, local and national One way to encourage the monarch migration is to plant the milkweed and flowers they rely on to eat and lay their eggs. Experts urge the use of native milkweed, though it can be more expensive and is difficult to grow. Maeckle says local efforts to create monarch habitats in California could be one reason the population there rebounded after nearly disappearing. The Western population of butterflies was estimated to be 330,000 strong this winter. Fewer than 2,000 were counted there in 2020. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also determining whether to list the species as threatened or endangered. In 2020, the agency determined listing the monarch was warranted, but did not proceed with a determination on how to regulate the species. It says the butterfly's potential listing will be up for review again in 2024. Listing monarchs as threatened or endangered would bring new regulatory protections to the species and its habitat. Depending on how the protections are written, however, listing could also complicate local monarch protection and propagation efforts. For example, a listing could potentially make it against the law for hobbyists to share monarch eggs or raise the species in their homes.	<urn:uuid:eac69e87-409a-4c59-854c-cde27217649e>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2024-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474482.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224012912-20240224042912-00779.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9653966426849365, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.28125, "token_count": 718, "url": "https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2023-04-10/far-fewer-monarch-butterflies-are-migrating-through-texas-this-spring" }	Far fewer monarch butterflies are migrating through Texas this spring It’s the time of year when monarch butterflies pass through Texas on their annual migration. But you might not see as many as last spring. One reason? The number of monarchs that spent the winter in Mexico dropped significantly. Migrating Eastern monarchs spend the winter months in forest colonies in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Mexico. Their population is tracked by the World Wildlife Fund, which measures it by surveying how much land is covered by thick masses of roosting insects. This winter’s survey found the butterflies concentrated on only about 5.5	acres of forest, a 22% decline from last winter. “This is part of a mostly downward trend over the past 25 years, when monarchs once covered more than 45 acres of forest,” the WWFsaid in a press release. That trend has many experts saying the Eastern monarch migration could eventually cease altogether. The reasons for its general decline are many. They include habitat loss in the U.S. from farming and development, insecticide use, destruction of the monarchs’ winter grounds in Mexico, extreme weather and climate change. But those challenges are no reason to give up hope that the population can’t rebound, says Monika Maeckle, who runs the website Texas Butterfly Ranch where she wrote about the spring migration. Insect populations are “famously volatile,” she says, pointing out that the Eastern monarch population was up by 35% last year. “The monarch butterfly population has been called bouncy,” she says. "[It goes] up and down, up and down. It just so often depends on conditions — climate, timing of the seasons, all that stuff.” One reason for the butterflies' lower numbers could be the devastating drought that began last year in Texas, depriving them of nectar and milkweed on which to lay their eggs and leading to fewer arriving in Mexico last fall. That drought continues in much of the state, including San Antonio, where Maeckle tracks monarchs. “I have not seen a lot of butterflies,” she says. “It's been very dry, and it just really depends so much on where you are.” Conservation, local and national One way to encourage the monarch migration is to plant the milkweed and flowers they rely on to eat and lay their eggs. Experts urge the use of native milkweed, though it can be more expensive and is difficult to grow. Maeckle says local efforts to create monarch habitats in California could be one reason the population there rebounded after nearly disappearing. The Western population of butterflies was estimated to be 330,000 strong this winter. Fewer than 2,000 were counted there in 2020. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also determining whether to list the species as threatened or endangered. In 2020, the agency determined listing the monarch was warranted, but did not proceed with a determination on how to regulate the species. It says the butterfly's potential listing will be up for review again in 2024. Listing monarchs as threatened or endangered would bring new regulatory protections to the species and its habitat. Depending on how the protections are written, however, listing could also complicate local monarch protection and propagation efforts. For example, a listing could potentially make it against the law for hobbyists to share monarch eggs or raise the species in their homes.
Here is the third text I have written for the CEEBC THE LEGACY OF COMMUNISM Marxism, the ideological basis of communism, attempts to turn the Christian gospel on its head. It presents a specific version of anthropology (the study of human experience), soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and eschatology (the study of the end things) and claims to provide salvation for a world in crisis. This utopian vision turned into a dystopian reality and made over one hundred million victims. When communism collapsed as a political system, the liberated people expected things to change overnight, just like the Israelites did after they left Egypt (Exodus 16:1-3). But they soon realised that even if they had been taken out of communism, communism had not been taken out of them. The Berlin Wall fell in the summer of 1989, but a wall remained in people’s minds and hearts. The ongoing legacy of communism is displayed in specific ways in Central and Eastern European societies and churches. Here are some of its basic traits. Under communism, authoritarianism was the dominant leadership style and it penetrated the churches too. It created a paradoxical combination of distrust and dependence on authority. To the surprise of many, this model continued unabated in the churches in the region even after the fall of the old system. Its proponents were often those who had been active in leading resistance against communism in earlier times. Communist regimes used secret police units to keep the churches under control, with the help of collaborators recruited among church members and leaders and through the use of threats or enticements. This created an atmosphere of suspicion, as it was impossible to discern who the agents of the regime were. The churches in our region have been largely unable to deal with the presence of former collaborators in their midst and have not known how to implement confession, forgiveness and restoration. Some have tried to play the phenomenon down, while others have engaged in harsh exposure campaigns. Neither approach has solved the problem. As a result, our churches still have to deal with a lack of trust between their members. People who had to live under communist politics and economics functioned on a daily basis according to the ethics of survival. They played by the rules in order to survive as best they could. The same was true of church leaders, who tried to keep their congregations going even if it meant accepting compromises. However, when freedom came and such dubious ethical games were no longer necessary, it seemed that old habits died hard. The ethics of freedom meant making conscious choices rather than reverting to the path of least resistance. External conditions changed but automatic mechanisms were harder to eliminate. When many Christians had their backs pushed to the wall by a regime which vowed to eradicate religion for good, the “Christ against culture” approach (to use Richard Niebuhr’s terminology) was widely adopted. When democratic pluralism arrived, Christians found themselves unprepared and incapable of mature responses. After decades of oppression, they were finally given the opportunity to engage prophetically and transform their cultures through the power of the gospel. In this watershed moment, many churches either prolonged their isolationist stance or opted for a sort of nostalgia, looking back to times long gone, when the church used to impose its principles on the world without opposition. The rules of the game proved to be quite different in post-communist societies and Christians needed to learn how to function in a Christ-like way in a new world full of competing voices and ideologies. Christians who have grown up under freedom have a desperate need for models to follow. Yet most of the previous generation’s leaders, who survived communism but became entrenched in their actions or mindsets, have been unable to teach the younger generation how to live as free human beings. This is where the experience and input of Christians in the West has been a lifeline for the churches in our region. In the early 1990s we needed a great deal of help and support to compensate for the decades lost under communism – years when we were unable to train pastors or theologians, write or publish Christian literature, distribute Bibles, evangelise our own people, develop Christian education for children and adults, or practise care and hospitality for the poorest, the marginalised and the excluded in our societies. The lives of Christians under communism were rather similar to lives of the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt. Their liberation under Moses did not automatically make them act like free, responsible people. The same is true of the church living in the post-communist era in our region. We too may need forty years in the desert of transition before we are able to live as people of freedom. It is for freedom that God has set us free (Gal 5:1) but we need to beware of the risk of falling back into old habits.	<urn:uuid:a2cd9b3a-41c6-4624-877e-76a47dae92a7>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-23", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649348.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603233121-20230604023121-00154.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9719222784042358, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 988, "url": "https://danutm.wordpress.com/2023/03/01/ceebc-legacy-of-communism/" }	Here is the third text I have written for the CEEBC THE LEGACY OF COMMUNISM Marxism, the ideological basis of communism, attempts to turn the Christian gospel on its head. It presents a specific version of anthropology (the study of human experience), soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and eschatology (the study of the end things) and claims to provide salvation for a world in crisis. This utopian vision turned into a dystopian reality and made over one hundred million victims. When communism collapsed as a political system, the liberated people expected things to change overnight	, just like the Israelites did after they left Egypt (Exodus 16:1-3). But they soon realised that even if they had been taken out of communism, communism had not been taken out of them. The Berlin Wall fell in the summer of 1989, but a wall remained in people’s minds and hearts. The ongoing legacy of communism is displayed in specific ways in Central and Eastern European societies and churches. Here are some of its basic traits. Under communism, authoritarianism was the dominant leadership style and it penetrated the churches too. It created a paradoxical combination of distrust and dependence on authority. To the surprise of many, this model continued unabated in the churches in the region even after the fall of the old system. Its proponents were often those who had been active in leading resistance against communism in earlier times. Communist regimes used secret police units to keep the churches under control, with the help of collaborators recruited among church members and leaders and through the use of threats or enticements. This created an atmosphere of suspicion, as it was impossible to discern who the agents of the regime were. The churches in our region have been largely unable to deal with the presence of former collaborators in their midst and have not known how to implement confession, forgiveness and restoration. Some have tried to play the phenomenon down, while others have engaged in harsh exposure campaigns. Neither approach has solved the problem. As a result, our churches still have to deal with a lack of trust between their members. People who had to live under communist politics and economics functioned on a daily basis according to the ethics of survival. They played by the rules in order to survive as best they could. The same was true of church leaders, who tried to keep their congregations going even if it meant accepting compromises. However, when freedom came and such dubious ethical games were no longer necessary, it seemed that old habits died hard. The ethics of freedom meant making conscious choices rather than reverting to the path of least resistance. External conditions changed but automatic mechanisms were harder to eliminate. When many Christians had their backs pushed to the wall by a regime which vowed to eradicate religion for good, the “Christ against culture” approach (to use Richard Niebuhr’s terminology) was widely adopted. When democratic pluralism arrived, Christians found themselves unprepared and incapable of mature responses. After decades of oppression, they were finally given the opportunity to engage prophetically and transform their cultures through the power of the gospel. In this watershed moment, many churches either prolonged their isolationist stance or opted for a sort of nostalgia, looking back to times long gone, when the church used to impose its principles on the world without opposition. The rules of the game proved to be quite different in post-communist societies and Christians needed to learn how to function in a Christ-like way in a new world full of competing voices and ideologies. Christians who have grown up under freedom have a desperate need for models to follow. Yet most of the previous generation’s leaders, who survived communism but became entrenched in their actions or mindsets, have been unable to teach the younger generation how to live as free human beings. This is where the experience and input of Christians in the West has been a lifeline for the churches in our region. In the early 1990s we needed a great deal of help and support to compensate for the decades lost under communism – years when we were unable to train pastors or theologians, write or publish Christian literature, distribute Bibles, evangelise our own people, develop Christian education for children and adults, or practise care and hospitality for the poorest, the marginalised and the excluded in our societies. The lives of Christians under communism were rather similar to lives of the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt. Their liberation under Moses did not automatically make them act like free, responsible people. The same is true of the church living in the post-communist era in our region. We too may need forty years in the desert of transition before we are able to live as people of freedom. It is for freedom that God has set us free (Gal 5:1) but we need to beware of the risk of falling back into old habits.
Bacteria are in virtually all parts of your body — your face, genitals, underarms, bowel, lungs . . . they make up the biomes of each organ system, your skin among them. My fascination with bacteria began as a high school student, when I spent weekends growing them at a local hospital and volunteering in the bacteriology laboratory. Viruses were dead, and most hospitals cannot grow them. Bacteria seemed to have lives of their own. They had character, color in some cases, odors, and growth characteristics which assisted in their recognition and identification. They could degrade plastics, oil, and flesh. They had survived in the coldest and hottest places on earth. They colonized human organs and delivered us energy, heat, foods, drinks, and much more. Billions of years ago, bacteria became part of each of our cells in the form of an organelle (little organ) called a mitochondrion. Life is impossible without these mitochondria, and I along with others believe that they are at the source of some of our diseases. They also inform our immune systems. Each mitochondrion is inherited solely from our mothers’ eggs and are a vestigial bacterium replete with its own DNA. (Vestigial in the sense that they are vestiges of a prehistoric infection.) Our bodies have billions of these mitochondria powerhouses. They generate energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical current of sorts, which is essential for every energy consuming activity that we have. The attributes these bacteria give us while growing in our biomes, skin, lung, bowel, and kidney provide our biological soul with continuing education of a sort and are probably the greatest single source of clues to the causes of our most devastating diseases. But beyond the mitochondria and friendly invaders lurk some nasty ones. Consider Lyme disease, a common tickborne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme results in flu-like symptoms, rash, fatigue, and joint pain and weakness and — as with all bacteria — the chance for cross-reaction with other diseases. Lyme relies on the immune system for clearance of its spirochete, the Borrelia. Spirochetes are a class of bacteria that include the bad (Lyme, syphilis) and harmless (those found every day in our mouths). After all, all criminals have families; some who are criminals themselves, some completely innocent. In the case of Lyme, the body is invaded by the spirochete, which is eliminated by the immune system but not before the immune system, seeing spirochetes in certain organs like the joints, keeps ravaging the body as though the bug was in the blood. Depending on the stage of the disease, Lyme can be eliminated from the body with adequate treatment over a few weeks, but the immune system can continue to provide symptoms, which are exceedingly difficult to treat. This difficulty has been compounded by a bit of controversy: With initial descriptions of Lyme disease, countless doctors and pharmacies spent months treating patients for the bacterium rather than realize that they were looking at what the immune system was doing to their patients. But they did it late, and the ongoing use of antibiotics for up to six months in some patients made no sense. The Lyme was gone. Huge, unnecessary antibiotic bills from medical practices with a total lack of understanding about Lyme disease is another reason why understanding the nature immunity is so important. © 2023 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.	<urn:uuid:a443c918-c317-4747-a965-bc02e4ef8ef9>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949093.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330004340-20230330034340-00053.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9644438624382019, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.1875, "token_count": 731, "url": "https://www.newsmax.com/Health/drrobertlahita/bacteria-lyme-disease-immunity/2023/01/27/id/1106241/" }	Bacteria are in virtually all parts of your body — your face, genitals, underarms, bowel, lungs . . . they make up the biomes of each organ system, your skin among them. My fascination with bacteria began as a high school student, when I spent weekends growing them at a local hospital and volunteering in the bacteriology laboratory. Viruses were dead, and most hospitals cannot grow them. Bacteria seemed to have lives of their own. They had character, color in some cases, odors, and growth characteristics which assisted in their recognition and identification. They could degrade plastics, oil, and flesh	. They had survived in the coldest and hottest places on earth. They colonized human organs and delivered us energy, heat, foods, drinks, and much more. Billions of years ago, bacteria became part of each of our cells in the form of an organelle (little organ) called a mitochondrion. Life is impossible without these mitochondria, and I along with others believe that they are at the source of some of our diseases. They also inform our immune systems. Each mitochondrion is inherited solely from our mothers’ eggs and are a vestigial bacterium replete with its own DNA. (Vestigial in the sense that they are vestiges of a prehistoric infection.) Our bodies have billions of these mitochondria powerhouses. They generate energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical current of sorts, which is essential for every energy consuming activity that we have. The attributes these bacteria give us while growing in our biomes, skin, lung, bowel, and kidney provide our biological soul with continuing education of a sort and are probably the greatest single source of clues to the causes of our most devastating diseases. But beyond the mitochondria and friendly invaders lurk some nasty ones. Consider Lyme disease, a common tickborne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme results in flu-like symptoms, rash, fatigue, and joint pain and weakness and — as with all bacteria — the chance for cross-reaction with other diseases. Lyme relies on the immune system for clearance of its spirochete, the Borrelia. Spirochetes are a class of bacteria that include the bad (Lyme, syphilis) and harmless (those found every day in our mouths). After all, all criminals have families; some who are criminals themselves, some completely innocent. In the case of Lyme, the body is invaded by the spirochete, which is eliminated by the immune system but not before the immune system, seeing spirochetes in certain organs like the joints, keeps ravaging the body as though the bug was in the blood. Depending on the stage of the disease, Lyme can be eliminated from the body with adequate treatment over a few weeks, but the immune system can continue to provide symptoms, which are exceedingly difficult to treat. This difficulty has been compounded by a bit of controversy: With initial descriptions of Lyme disease, countless doctors and pharmacies spent months treating patients for the bacterium rather than realize that they were looking at what the immune system was doing to their patients. But they did it late, and the ongoing use of antibiotics for up to six months in some patients made no sense. The Lyme was gone. Huge, unnecessary antibiotic bills from medical practices with a total lack of understanding about Lyme disease is another reason why understanding the nature immunity is so important. © 2023 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The new year kicks off with the Quadrantids, one of 12 annual meteor showers. The celestial event is typically among the strongest meteor showers and is expected to peak overnight January 3 and 4, according to the American Meteor Society. Sky-gazers in the Northern Hemisphere can best view the shower between the late-night hours of Tuesday and dawn on Wednesday. However, the shower is notoriously hard to observe due to its brief peak of six hours and January’s often inclement weather in the Northern Hemisphere. A bright, nearly full moon will make the Quadrantids even less visible this year. Moonset will occur just before dawn, providing a very small window to spot the shower against dark skies. Predictions for the shower’s peak range from 10:40 p.m. to 1:40 a.m. ET (3:40 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time). The later time favors those in the eastern part of North America and the earlier time is more favorable for observers across Europe. The Quadrantids won’t be visible in the Southern Hemisphere because the shower’s radiant point doesn’t rise that high in its sky before dawn. Check Time and Date’s site to see what your chances are like to view the event, or step outside to take a look for yourself. The Virtual Telescope Project will also have a live stream of the shower over Rome. What you’ll see Between 50 and 100 meteors are typically visible per hour, especially in rural areas, although the peak can include up to 120 visible meteors in an hour. Watch the northeastern sky, and look about halfway up. You may even glimpse some fireballs during the meteor shower. View the skies for at least an hour, the American Meteor Society advises. If you live in an urban area, you may want to drive to a place that isn’t full of bright city lights. If you’re able to find an area unaffected by light pollution, meteors could be visible every couple of minutes from late evening until dawn. Find an open area with a wide view of the sky. Make sure you have a chair or blanket so you can look straight up. And give your eyes about 20 to 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness — without looking at your phone — so the meteors will be easier to spot. If the meteor shower’s name sounds odd, it’s probably because it doesn’t sound like it’s related to a constellation, like other meteor showers. That’s because the Quadrantids’ namesake constellation no longer exists — at least, not as a recognized constellation. The constellation Quadrans Muralis, first observed and noted in 1795 between Boötes and Draco, is no longer included in the International Astronomical Union’s list of modern constellations because it’s considered obsolete and isn’t used as a landmark for celestial navigation anymore, according to EarthSky. Like the Geminid meteor shower, the Quadrantid comes from a mysterious asteroid or “rock comet,” rather than an icy comet, which is unusual. This particular asteroid is 2003 EH1, which takes 5.52 years to complete one orbit around the sun. The shower’s peak is short because only a small stream of particles interacts with our atmosphere, and the stream occurs at a perpendicular angle. Each year, Earth passes through this debris trail for a short time. Catch a comet, too In addition to the meteor shower, a recently discovered comet will soon make its appearance in January’s night sky. Discovered in March 2022, the comet will make its closest approach to the sun on January 12, according to NASA. The comet, spotted by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, is named C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and will make its closest pass of Earth on February 2. The comet should be visible through binoculars in the morning sky for sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere during most of January and those in the Southern Hemisphere in early February, according to NASA. Here are the rest of 2023’s top sky events, so you can have your binoculars and telescope ready. Mark your calendar with the peak dates of other showers to watch in 2023: - Lyrids: April 22-23 - Eta Aquariids: May 5-6 - Southern delta Aquariids: July 30-31 - Alpha Capricornids: July 30-31 - Perseids: August 12-13 - Orionids: October 20-21 - Southern Taurids: November 4-5 - Northern Taurids: November 11-12 - Leonids: November 17-18 - Geminids: December 13-14 - Ursids: December 21-22 Full moons and supermoons Most years, there are 12 full moons — one for each month. But in 2023, there will be 13 full moons, with two occurring in August. The second full moon in one month is known as a blue moon, like the phrase “once in a blue moon,” according to NASA. Typically, full moons occur every 29 days, while most months in our calendar last 30 or 31 days, so the months and moon phases don’t always align. This results in a blue moon about every 2.5 years. The two full moons in August can also be considered supermoons, according to EarthSky. Definitions of a supermoon vary, but the term generally denotes a full moon that is brighter and closer to Earth than normal and thus appears larger in the night sky. Some astronomers say the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90% of perigee — its closest approach to Earth in orbit. By that definition, the full moon for July will also be considered a supermoon event, according to EarthSky. Here is the list of full moons for 2023, according to the Farmer’s Almanac: - January 6: Wolf moon - February 5: Snow moon - March 7: Worm moon - April 6: Pink moon - May 5: Flower moon - June 3: Strawberry moon - July 3: Buck moon - August 1: Sturgeon moon - August 30: Blue moon - September 29: Harvest moon - October 28: Hunter’s moon - November 27: Beaver moon - December 26: Cold moon While these are the popularized names associated with the monthly full moon, each one carries its own significance across Native American tribes (with many also referred to by differing names). Solar and lunar eclipses There will be two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses in 2023. A total solar eclipse will occur on April 20, visible to those in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Antarctica. This kind of event occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking out the sun. And for some sky-watchers in Indonesia, parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea, it will actually be a hybrid solar eclipse. The curvature of Earth’s surface can cause some eclipses to shift between total and annular as the moon’s shadow moves across the globe, according to NASA. Like a total solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth during an annular eclipse — but it occurs when the moon is at or near its farthest point from Earth, according to NASA. This causes the moon to appear smaller than the sun, so it doesn’t completely block out our star and creates a glowing ring around the moon. A Western Hemisphere-sweeping annular solar eclipse will occur on October 14 and be visible across the Americas. Be sure to wear proper eclipse glasses to safely view solar eclipses, as the sun’s light can be damaging to the eye. Meanwhile, a lunar eclipse can occur only during a full moon when the sun, Earth and moon align and the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. When this occurs, Earth casts two shadows on the moon during the eclipse. The partial outer shadow is called the penumbra; the full, dark shadow is the umbra. When the full moon moves into Earth’s shadow, it darkens, but it won’t disappear. Instead, sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere lights the moon in a dramatic fashion, turning it red — which is why the event is often referred to as a “blood moon.” Depending on the weather conditions in your area, it may be a rusty or brick-colored red. This happens because blue light undergoes stronger atmospheric scattering, so red light will be the most dominant color highlighted as sunlight passes through the atmosphere and casts it on the moon. A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur on May 5 for those in Africa, Asia and Australia. This less dramatic version of a lunar eclipse happens when the moon moves through the penumbra, or the faint, outer part of Earth’s shadow. A partial lunar eclipse of the hunter’s moon on October 28 will be visible to those in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, parts of North America and much of South America. Partial eclipses occur when the sun, Earth and moon don’t completely align, so only part of the moon passes into shadow.	<urn:uuid:30788abe-a4d3-49a5-a839-10b82230b59a>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-06", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500719.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20230208060523-20230208090523-00016.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9295539259910583, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.65625, "token_count": 2010, "url": "https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/03/world/quadrantid-meteor-shower-2023-scn/index.html" }	Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The new year kicks off with the Quadrantids, one of 12 annual meteor showers. The celestial event is typically among the strongest meteor showers and is expected to peak overnight January 3 and 4, according to the American Meteor Society. Sky-gazers in the Northern Hemisphere can best view the shower between the late-night hours of Tuesday and dawn on Wednesday. However, the shower is notoriously hard to observe due to its brief peak of six hours and January’s often inc	lement weather in the Northern Hemisphere. A bright, nearly full moon will make the Quadrantids even less visible this year. Moonset will occur just before dawn, providing a very small window to spot the shower against dark skies. Predictions for the shower’s peak range from 10:40 p.m. to 1:40 a.m. ET (3:40 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time). The later time favors those in the eastern part of North America and the earlier time is more favorable for observers across Europe. The Quadrantids won’t be visible in the Southern Hemisphere because the shower’s radiant point doesn’t rise that high in its sky before dawn. Check Time and Date’s site to see what your chances are like to view the event, or step outside to take a look for yourself. The Virtual Telescope Project will also have a live stream of the shower over Rome. What you’ll see Between 50 and 100 meteors are typically visible per hour, especially in rural areas, although the peak can include up to 120 visible meteors in an hour. Watch the northeastern sky, and look about halfway up. You may even glimpse some fireballs during the meteor shower. View the skies for at least an hour, the American Meteor Society advises. If you live in an urban area, you may want to drive to a place that isn’t full of bright city lights. If you’re able to find an area unaffected by light pollution, meteors could be visible every couple of minutes from late evening until dawn. Find an open area with a wide view of the sky. Make sure you have a chair or blanket so you can look straight up. And give your eyes about 20 to 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness — without looking at your phone — so the meteors will be easier to spot. If the meteor shower’s name sounds odd, it’s probably because it doesn’t sound like it’s related to a constellation, like other meteor showers. That’s because the Quadrantids’ namesake constellation no longer exists — at least, not as a recognized constellation. The constellation Quadrans Muralis, first observed and noted in 1795 between Boötes and Draco, is no longer included in the International Astronomical Union’s list of modern constellations because it’s considered obsolete and isn’t used as a landmark for celestial navigation anymore, according to EarthSky. Like the Geminid meteor shower, the Quadrantid comes from a mysterious asteroid or “rock comet,” rather than an icy comet, which is unusual. This particular asteroid is 2003 EH1, which takes 5.52 years to complete one orbit around the sun. The shower’s peak is short because only a small stream of particles interacts with our atmosphere, and the stream occurs at a perpendicular angle. Each year, Earth passes through this debris trail for a short time. Catch a comet, too In addition to the meteor shower, a recently discovered comet will soon make its appearance in January’s night sky. Discovered in March 2022, the comet will make its closest approach to the sun on January 12, according to NASA. The comet, spotted by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, is named C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and will make its closest pass of Earth on February 2. The comet should be visible through binoculars in the morning sky for sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere during most of January and those in the Southern Hemisphere in early February, according to NASA. Here are the rest of 2023’s top sky events, so you can have your binoculars and telescope ready. Mark your calendar with the peak dates of other showers to watch in 2023: - Lyrids: April 22-23 - Eta Aquariids: May 5-6 - Southern delta Aquariids: July 30-31 - Alpha Capricornids: July 30-31 - Perseids: August 12-13 - Orionids: October 20-21 - Southern Taurids: November 4-5 - Northern Taurids: November 11-12 - Leonids: November 17-18 - Geminids: December 13-14 - Ursids: December 21-22 Full moons and supermoons Most years, there are 12 full moons — one for each month. But in 2023, there will be 13 full moons, with two occurring in August. The second full moon in one month is known as a blue moon, like the phrase “once in a blue moon,” according to NASA. Typically, full moons occur every 29 days, while most months in our calendar last 30 or 31 days, so the months and moon phases don’t always align. This results in a blue moon about every 2.5 years. The two full moons in August can also be considered supermoons, according to EarthSky. Definitions of a supermoon vary, but the term generally denotes a full moon that is brighter and closer to Earth than normal and thus appears larger in the night sky. Some astronomers say the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90% of perigee — its closest approach to Earth in orbit. By that definition, the full moon for July will also be considered a supermoon event, according to EarthSky. Here is the list of full moons for 2023, according to the Farmer’s Almanac: - January 6: Wolf moon - February 5: Snow moon - March 7: Worm moon - April 6: Pink moon - May 5: Flower moon - June 3: Strawberry moon - July 3: Buck moon - August 1: Sturgeon moon - August 30: Blue moon - September 29: Harvest moon - October 28: Hunter’s moon - November 27: Beaver moon - December 26: Cold moon While these are the popularized names associated with the monthly full moon, each one carries its own significance across Native American tribes (with many also referred to by differing names). Solar and lunar eclipses There will be two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses in 2023. A total solar eclipse will occur on April 20, visible to those in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Antarctica. This kind of event occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking out the sun. And for some sky-watchers in Indonesia, parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea, it will actually be a hybrid solar eclipse. The curvature of Earth’s surface can cause some eclipses to shift between total and annular as the moon’s shadow moves across the globe, according to NASA. Like a total solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth during an annular eclipse — but it occurs when the moon is at or near its farthest point from Earth, according to NASA. This causes the moon to appear smaller than the sun, so it doesn’t completely block out our star and creates a glowing ring around the moon. A Western Hemisphere-sweeping annular solar eclipse will occur on October 14 and be visible across the Americas. Be sure to wear proper eclipse glasses to safely view solar eclipses, as the sun’s light can be damaging to the eye. Meanwhile, a lunar eclipse can occur only during a full moon when the sun, Earth and moon align and the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. When this occurs, Earth casts two shadows on the moon during the eclipse. The partial outer shadow is called the penumbra; the full, dark shadow is the umbra. When the full moon moves into Earth’s shadow, it darkens, but it won’t disappear. Instead, sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere lights the moon in a dramatic fashion, turning it red — which is why the event is often referred to as a “blood moon.” Depending on the weather conditions in your area, it may be a rusty or brick-colored red. This happens because blue light undergoes stronger atmospheric scattering, so red light will be the most dominant color highlighted as sunlight passes through the atmosphere and casts it on the moon. A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur on May 5 for those in Africa, Asia and Australia. This less dramatic version of a lunar eclipse happens when the moon moves through the penumbra, or the faint, outer part of Earth’s shadow. A partial lunar eclipse of the hunter’s moon on October 28 will be visible to those in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, parts of North America and much of South America. Partial eclipses occur when the sun, Earth and moon don’t completely align, so only part of the moon passes into shadow.
It’s been more than two weeks since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling chemicals onto the ground and into waterways, and releasing them into the air as damaged cars burst into flames. A few days later, on Feb. 6, officials intentionally released vinyl chloride gas from five train cars and burned it in order to avoid an explosion. Many questions have since been raised about toxic exposures sustained by humans and wildlife — not just in East Palestine, with its 4,700 residents, but along the Ohio River and farther north. The New Republic reported that residents endured burning and itchy eyes, sore throat, rash, and migraines in the aftermath of the train derailment. Around 3,500 fish have reportedly died in local waterways, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced that chemicals had been found in the Ohio River in the northern panhandle of the state. Here’s a look at what we know so far about the potential hazards of air, soil, and water contamination stemming from the train derailment, and what experts say about the chemicals’ possible long-term risks to health. Are the air and water in East Palestine, Ohio, actually safe now? On Feb. 16, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan met with residents and reassured them that robust air quality testing and 24/7 monitoring found the air and water quality to be safe. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals,” Regan announced. “We’re testing for everything that was on that train.” That said, state officials have advised residents with private wells to keep drinking bottled water until those wells can be tested. Testing for volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in air and water should cover potential hazards, said Ted Schettler, science director at the environmental nonprofit Science and Environmental Health Network. “They should be testing for individual compounds, and if they are testing for total VOCs as a screen, they need to have very sensitive instruments because some VOCs are much more toxic than others,” he said. Schettler is concerned about news reports that people are smelling chemicals in their homes and being told that their air testing shows no elevated levels. That suggests that the EPA may not be using sufficiently sensitive instruments, he said. Some experts are raising additional concerns about that EPA statement. First of all, air monitoring of vinyl chloride may not be useful by now. “Vinyl chloride has a short half-life,” said chemist Matt Hartings of American University in Washington, D.C. “After a day and a half, it’s likely gone from the air anyway. I’m not surprised they’re not finding it now.” Air monitoring right now doesn’t answer questions about acute exposure that first night after the train derailment and the following day, Hartings said. On the first night, temperatures in the teens and very light winds would have kept airborne contaminants close to the ground over the town. Moreover, several experts commented that they were uncertain what equipment the EPA was using for testing, and what exactly it was testing for. “I am still unclear on the timeline of what was released when,” said Hartings. “A lot of people are. I think it’s really important to pin them down on what measurements they are actually making.” Chemist Nicole Karn of Ohio State University also said on Twitter that the EPA did not correctly preserve five of its six water samples before testing, adding: “These data cannot be trusted.” In the wake of these and other concerns, the New York Times reports that some locals are planning to pay for independent testing for chemicals. “Removal of impacted materials, including soils, continues to be the top priority, in order to limit the spread of contaminants,” an Ohio EPA spokesperson said in a statement. “A full delineation of impacts to soil and ground water will be required, but has not yet been completed.” What were the five chemicals the EPA found at the site? On Feb. 10, the EPA sent a letter to Norfolk Southern Railway Company reporting five toxic chemicals found in air, soil, or water surrounding the crash site. They are: vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol, isobutylene, and ethylhexyl acrylate. Here’s a quick rundown of each chemical’s toxicity — and their byproducts when burned, which can also be toxic. Vinyl chloride has gotten the most attention so far. It’s a colorless, flammable gas and known carcinogen. Most studies on vinyl chloride are related to occupational exposure or to residents who live near factories that produce it. Those longer-term, chronic exposures have been linked to certain liver, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma and leukemia. Short-term exposures, like those in East Palestine, can lead to irritation in eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. People can also suffer from headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, or tingling in the arms and legs. As vinyl chloride burns, the gas can form byproducts including hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and traces of phosgene. The EPA tested at least 480 homes around East Palestine and did not detect vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride in any of them. The EPA has not indicated whether it tested for phosgene, and has not yet returned STAT’s request for comment on the matter. Phosgene is hazardous at very low levels, noted Schettler, and has been used as a chemical weapon in war. “It’s highly corrosive to the lungs at really low levels, at fractions of a part per million.” Since vinyl chloride in the air breaks down and dissipates in a day or two, it would not be found in air now. However, it may persist in soil and water, according to soil and crop scientist Murray McBride of Cornell University, who advises farmers and residents near the derailment site to test their soil and water. “Vinyl chloride is highly mobile in soils and water and can persist for years in groundwater,” wrote McBride. Butyl acrylate was released in large amounts when a car full of the chemical derailed. It’s a colorless liquid used to manufacture paints, solvents, and sealants. Exposure can cause irritation to the nose and eyes, nausea, and vomiting, as well as allergic skin reactions, said Schettler. State EPA officials have found butyl acrylate at multiple sampling sites along the Ohio River, though they say the concentrations are low and the river large enough that it poses no risk — it has been found at levels below 3 parts per billion, while the CDC considers levels above 560 parts per billion hazardous. The Department of Environmental Protection tested groundwater near the derailment site and concluded that wells in town would be safe. As for contamination of the Ohio River, cities and towns on the river have been monitoring closely. Greater Cincinnati Water Works planned to shut off access to the water reserve once butyl acrylate reached the city, letting it pass through and using reserve water. Other cities also shut down their water plants while the plume of butyl acetate went by. Ethylene glycol is a solvent used in paints, inks, and cleaning products. It’s highly flammable and acutely toxic. “It irritates the skin and eyes, causing sore throat, coughing and skin rashes,” said Schettler. Isobutylene is a gas used as an antioxidant in packaging and plastics. “At moderate concentrations it can cause dizziness and drowsiness,” said Schettler, but the train’s cargo manifest, which has been widely shared, did not show this chemical leaking. “If that’s true,” said Schettler, “there are no exposures.” Ethylhexyl acrylate is a colorless liquid used to make paints and plastics that can cause skin and respiratory irritation, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea at levels starting at 5 ppm in air. Benzene, petroleum lubricating oil, and other substances likely burned as well. What other toxic chemicals were created or used in the fires? Dioxin. One big concern is the possibility of contamination by dioxin, a highly toxic, carcinogenic, and persistent compound released when polyvinyl chloride burns. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, was present in four of the cars originally on fire. PVC is widely used in plumbing and pipes, flooring, and health care settings. “Dioxins are persistent pollutants, highly toxic, and on the international dirty dozen list,” said environmental sociologist Rebecca Altman, author of the forthcoming “The Song of Styrene: An Intimate History of Plastics.” The EPA has not yet tested for dioxin contamination, but a similar train derailment in Germany in 2000 found high levels of dioxin in the area where fires had burned polyvinyl chloride. Elevated levels of dioxins have been found in other industrial accidents involving chlorinated chemicals, as well. “The EPA should be testing for dioxins in water and soil,” said Mike Schade, an environmental activist with Toxic-Free Future. Cornell’s McBride concurs, as does Schettler, who said: “We know when polyvinyl chloride burns it creates dioxins. I’m certain from the view of that black smoke plume that it was a witch’s brew of chemicals on fire, and I’m quite certain dioxins would be among them.” PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), which are typically found in firefighting foams, may also have been released. The U.S. government has said that high levels of exposure to these chemicals, called “forever” toxins because they don’t break down naturally, may be linked to a number of health conditions including increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, changes in liver enzymes, and increased cholesterol levels. EPA officials have not yet tested the water for PFAS, but have promised to start. As for other novel compounds released as a result of the derailment, we may never know their full extent. “Studies of wildfire smoke in California find that new and dangerous compounds form when fires burn into communities,” said Schettler. “The chemicals, plastics and paints in homes are much like the materials that were on this train.” Hartings agreed. “The EPA’s testing is not necessarily monitoring novel toxins and compounds.” Schettler said the EPA needs to continue to test soil and water away from the actual site. “They are carrying out extensive cleanup in the immediate area, but they need to continue monitoring further away. There is a lot of contaminated soil that could be a continued reservoir for hazardous chemicals that get into homes and food.” Experts highlight need for tighter regulations on trains carrying hazardous materials Because the Norfolk Southern train had some cars containing semolina wheat and vegetables as well as about 20 cars carrying hazardous chemicals, the entire train was not labeled hazardous, and officials were not notified the train would be passing through the state. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for this to change at a press conference last week: “We should know when we have trains carrying hazardous materials through Ohio,” he said. The train derailment has also reignited a conversation about trains’ braking systems. A 2014 Obama-era regulation required high-hazard freight trains to be equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic brakes by 2023. This allows the trains to brake faster. But in 2017, the Trump administration repealed this regulation. Thus far, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has not moved to reinstate the rule. The current, age-old technology of hydraulic brakes meant that in the Norfolk Southern train’s case, when one car derailed, the entire train contracted and expanded like an accordion, sending many more cars off the rails. Just as significant a problem is the way trains are scheduled, said Anne Junod, senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) is likely a key contributor,” she explained. “It’s an industry model that is meant to increase efficiency and on-time deliveries while reducing costs.” PSR encourages companies to expand the length of trains, because adding more cars means fewer train trips. But more cars can also increase the risk of a derailment. At the same time, she said, there has been a decline in staffing. “We used to see two engineers per train. Now we see increasing industry pressure for one engineer, for these long trains carrying incredibly hazardous materials.” The number of train inspectors has also been reduced, so that the regions they are responsible for are bigger. “The responsibility for the inspectors is so immense,” Junod said, “that it’s literally impossible for them to do their jobs well.” Junod points out that the U.S. has had dozens of derailments in the last 20 years, and that most of them are in small towns, simply because much of the 140,000 miles of train tracks in America traverse rural areas. “This is a real industry failure to self-regulate,” she said, “but then communities like East Palestine are left holding the bag.” Create a display name to comment This name will appear with your comment	<urn:uuid:cb61ef4e-6587-467d-bd53-e6220b4ba69e>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945287.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20230324144746-20230324174746-00479.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9628992676734924, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.921875, "token_count": 2864, "url": "https://www.statnews.com/2023/02/21/east-palestine-train-chemicals/?utm_campaign=rss" }	It’s been more than two weeks since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling chemicals onto the ground and into waterways, and releasing them into the air as damaged cars burst into flames. A few days later, on Feb. 6, officials intentionally released vinyl chloride gas from five train cars and burned it in order to avoid an explosion. Many questions have since been raised about toxic exposures sustained by humans and wildlife — not just in East Palestine, with its 4,700 residents, but along the Ohio River and farther north. The New Republic reported that residents endured burning and itchy eyes,	sore throat, rash, and migraines in the aftermath of the train derailment. Around 3,500 fish have reportedly died in local waterways, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced that chemicals had been found in the Ohio River in the northern panhandle of the state. Here’s a look at what we know so far about the potential hazards of air, soil, and water contamination stemming from the train derailment, and what experts say about the chemicals’ possible long-term risks to health. Are the air and water in East Palestine, Ohio, actually safe now? On Feb. 16, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan met with residents and reassured them that robust air quality testing and 24/7 monitoring found the air and water quality to be safe. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals,” Regan announced. “We’re testing for everything that was on that train.” That said, state officials have advised residents with private wells to keep drinking bottled water until those wells can be tested. Testing for volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in air and water should cover potential hazards, said Ted Schettler, science director at the environmental nonprofit Science and Environmental Health Network. “They should be testing for individual compounds, and if they are testing for total VOCs as a screen, they need to have very sensitive instruments because some VOCs are much more toxic than others,” he said. Schettler is concerned about news reports that people are smelling chemicals in their homes and being told that their air testing shows no elevated levels. That suggests that the EPA may not be using sufficiently sensitive instruments, he said. Some experts are raising additional concerns about that EPA statement. First of all, air monitoring of vinyl chloride may not be useful by now. “Vinyl chloride has a short half-life,” said chemist Matt Hartings of American University in Washington, D.C. “After a day and a half, it’s likely gone from the air anyway. I’m not surprised they’re not finding it now.” Air monitoring right now doesn’t answer questions about acute exposure that first night after the train derailment and the following day, Hartings said. On the first night, temperatures in the teens and very light winds would have kept airborne contaminants close to the ground over the town. Moreover, several experts commented that they were uncertain what equipment the EPA was using for testing, and what exactly it was testing for. “I am still unclear on the timeline of what was released when,” said Hartings. “A lot of people are. I think it’s really important to pin them down on what measurements they are actually making.” Chemist Nicole Karn of Ohio State University also said on Twitter that the EPA did not correctly preserve five of its six water samples before testing, adding: “These data cannot be trusted.” In the wake of these and other concerns, the New York Times reports that some locals are planning to pay for independent testing for chemicals. “Removal of impacted materials, including soils, continues to be the top priority, in order to limit the spread of contaminants,” an Ohio EPA spokesperson said in a statement. “A full delineation of impacts to soil and ground water will be required, but has not yet been completed.” What were the five chemicals the EPA found at the site? On Feb. 10, the EPA sent a letter to Norfolk Southern Railway Company reporting five toxic chemicals found in air, soil, or water surrounding the crash site. They are: vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol, isobutylene, and ethylhexyl acrylate. Here’s a quick rundown of each chemical’s toxicity — and their byproducts when burned, which can also be toxic. Vinyl chloride has gotten the most attention so far. It’s a colorless, flammable gas and known carcinogen. Most studies on vinyl chloride are related to occupational exposure or to residents who live near factories that produce it. Those longer-term, chronic exposures have been linked to certain liver, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma and leukemia. Short-term exposures, like those in East Palestine, can lead to irritation in eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. People can also suffer from headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, or tingling in the arms and legs. As vinyl chloride burns, the gas can form byproducts including hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and traces of phosgene. The EPA tested at least 480 homes around East Palestine and did not detect vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride in any of them. The EPA has not indicated whether it tested for phosgene, and has not yet returned STAT’s request for comment on the matter. Phosgene is hazardous at very low levels, noted Schettler, and has been used as a chemical weapon in war. “It’s highly corrosive to the lungs at really low levels, at fractions of a part per million.” Since vinyl chloride in the air breaks down and dissipates in a day or two, it would not be found in air now. However, it may persist in soil and water, according to soil and crop scientist Murray McBride of Cornell University, who advises farmers and residents near the derailment site to test their soil and water. “Vinyl chloride is highly mobile in soils and water and can persist for years in groundwater,” wrote McBride. Butyl acrylate was released in large amounts when a car full of the chemical derailed. It’s a colorless liquid used to manufacture paints, solvents, and sealants. Exposure can cause irritation to the nose and eyes, nausea, and vomiting, as well as allergic skin reactions, said Schettler. State EPA officials have found butyl acrylate at multiple sampling sites along the Ohio River, though they say the concentrations are low and the river large enough that it poses no risk — it has been found at levels below 3 parts per billion, while the CDC considers levels above 560 parts per billion hazardous. The Department of Environmental Protection tested groundwater near the derailment site and concluded that wells in town would be safe. As for contamination of the Ohio River, cities and towns on the river have been monitoring closely. Greater Cincinnati Water Works planned to shut off access to the water reserve once butyl acrylate reached the city, letting it pass through and using reserve water. Other cities also shut down their water plants while the plume of butyl acetate went by. Ethylene glycol is a solvent used in paints, inks, and cleaning products. It’s highly flammable and acutely toxic. “It irritates the skin and eyes, causing sore throat, coughing and skin rashes,” said Schettler. Isobutylene is a gas used as an antioxidant in packaging and plastics. “At moderate concentrations it can cause dizziness and drowsiness,” said Schettler, but the train’s cargo manifest, which has been widely shared, did not show this chemical leaking. “If that’s true,” said Schettler, “there are no exposures.” Ethylhexyl acrylate is a colorless liquid used to make paints and plastics that can cause skin and respiratory irritation, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea at levels starting at 5 ppm in air. Benzene, petroleum lubricating oil, and other substances likely burned as well. What other toxic chemicals were created or used in the fires? Dioxin. One big concern is the possibility of contamination by dioxin, a highly toxic, carcinogenic, and persistent compound released when polyvinyl chloride burns. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, was present in four of the cars originally on fire. PVC is widely used in plumbing and pipes, flooring, and health care settings. “Dioxins are persistent pollutants, highly toxic, and on the international dirty dozen list,” said environmental sociologist Rebecca Altman, author of the forthcoming “The Song of Styrene: An Intimate History of Plastics.” The EPA has not yet tested for dioxin contamination, but a similar train derailment in Germany in 2000 found high levels of dioxin in the area where fires had burned polyvinyl chloride. Elevated levels of dioxins have been found in other industrial accidents involving chlorinated chemicals, as well. “The EPA should be testing for dioxins in water and soil,” said Mike Schade, an environmental activist with Toxic-Free Future. Cornell’s McBride concurs, as does Schettler, who said: “We know when polyvinyl chloride burns it creates dioxins. I’m certain from the view of that black smoke plume that it was a witch’s brew of chemicals on fire, and I’m quite certain dioxins would be among them.” PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), which are typically found in firefighting foams, may also have been released. The U.S. government has said that high levels of exposure to these chemicals, called “forever” toxins because they don’t break down naturally, may be linked to a number of health conditions including increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, changes in liver enzymes, and increased cholesterol levels. EPA officials have not yet tested the water for PFAS, but have promised to start. As for other novel compounds released as a result of the derailment, we may never know their full extent. “Studies of wildfire smoke in California find that new and dangerous compounds form when fires burn into communities,” said Schettler. “The chemicals, plastics and paints in homes are much like the materials that were on this train.” Hartings agreed. “The EPA’s testing is not necessarily monitoring novel toxins and compounds.” Schettler said the EPA needs to continue to test soil and water away from the actual site. “They are carrying out extensive cleanup in the immediate area, but they need to continue monitoring further away. There is a lot of contaminated soil that could be a continued reservoir for hazardous chemicals that get into homes and food.” Experts highlight need for tighter regulations on trains carrying hazardous materials Because the Norfolk Southern train had some cars containing semolina wheat and vegetables as well as about 20 cars carrying hazardous chemicals, the entire train was not labeled hazardous, and officials were not notified the train would be passing through the state. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for this to change at a press conference last week: “We should know when we have trains carrying hazardous materials through Ohio,” he said. The train derailment has also reignited a conversation about trains’ braking systems. A 2014 Obama-era regulation required high-hazard freight trains to be equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic brakes by 2023. This allows the trains to brake faster. But in 2017, the Trump administration repealed this regulation. Thus far, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has not moved to reinstate the rule. The current, age-old technology of hydraulic brakes meant that in the Norfolk Southern train’s case, when one car derailed, the entire train contracted and expanded like an accordion, sending many more cars off the rails. Just as significant a problem is the way trains are scheduled, said Anne Junod, senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) is likely a key contributor,” she explained. “It’s an industry model that is meant to increase efficiency and on-time deliveries while reducing costs.” PSR encourages companies to expand the length of trains, because adding more cars means fewer train trips. But more cars can also increase the risk of a derailment. At the same time, she said, there has been a decline in staffing. “We used to see two engineers per train. Now we see increasing industry pressure for one engineer, for these long trains carrying incredibly hazardous materials.” The number of train inspectors has also been reduced, so that the regions they are responsible for are bigger. “The responsibility for the inspectors is so immense,” Junod said, “that it’s literally impossible for them to do their jobs well.” Junod points out that the U.S. has had dozens of derailments in the last 20 years, and that most of them are in small towns, simply because much of the 140,000 miles of train tracks in America traverse rural areas. “This is a real industry failure to self-regulate,” she said, “but then communities like East Palestine are left holding the bag.” Create a display name to comment This name will appear with your comment
Surgeon general: 13-year-olds too young to join social media platforms Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday he believes 13-year-olds are too young to join social media and that being on those platforms does a "disservice" to children. The big picture: Scientists have warned of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children, saying that the negatives outweigh the positives. - Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter all allow users ages 13 or older on their platforms. - TikTok users in the United States who are younger than 13 can use the platform, albeit with a safety setting for children that limits the information collected from them, as well as prevents them from messaging other users or allowing others to see their user profile. Why it matters: American teenagers are in the middle of a mental health crisis. - A major federal lawsuit filed in January accused social media platforms of being addictive by design, and lawyers compared the case to the fight against the tobacco and opioid industries. - Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and others earlier this month, alleging that the platforms have "exploited the vulnerable brains of youth." What he's saying: Murthy said 13 is an important time for children to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth. - "Their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” he added. - "If we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.” Yes, but: Murthy added that none of this is out of our control. - "When we had dangerous vehicles on the road, we passed laws to make those vehicles less dangerous. We should make decisions to make [social media] a healthier experience that would make kids feel better about themselves and less alone.”	<urn:uuid:5b6422bb-933f-49b7-8913-03600669b1d5>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100427.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202140407-20231202170407-00337.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9645075798034668, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.671875, "token_count": 434, "url": "https://www.axios.com/2023/01/29/us-surgeon-general-vivek-murthy-youth-social-media" }	Surgeon general: 13-year-olds too young to join social media platforms Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday he believes 13-year-olds are too young to join social media and that being on those platforms does a "disservice" to children. The big picture: Scientists have warned of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children, saying that the negatives outweigh the positives. - Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter all allow users ages 13 or older on their platforms. - TikTok users in the United States who are younger than	13 can use the platform, albeit with a safety setting for children that limits the information collected from them, as well as prevents them from messaging other users or allowing others to see their user profile. Why it matters: American teenagers are in the middle of a mental health crisis. - A major federal lawsuit filed in January accused social media platforms of being addictive by design, and lawyers compared the case to the fight against the tobacco and opioid industries. - Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and others earlier this month, alleging that the platforms have "exploited the vulnerable brains of youth." What he's saying: Murthy said 13 is an important time for children to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth. - "Their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” he added. - "If we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.” Yes, but: Murthy added that none of this is out of our control. - "When we had dangerous vehicles on the road, we passed laws to make those vehicles less dangerous. We should make decisions to make [social media] a healthier experience that would make kids feel better about themselves and less alone.”
Earth's growing population: 'A direct affront to our own survival'Play Sign up for the On Point newsletter here. Listen: What Earth's growing population means for our planet's future. The population of planet Earth reached 8 billion people late last year. By the year 2100, we're headed for 2 billion more. What does that mean for us and our planet? Elizabeth Hadly is a professor of biology at Stanford University, and director of the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. For four decades, she's been an eyewitness to dramatic changes in the plant and animal kingdoms caused by human beings. ELIZABETH HADLY: Remember all those insects you used to have on your windshield when you drove across the West? Gosh, they're not there anymore. Why? So I did a lot of work in Yellowstone driving back and forth from either here or Berkeley, wherever I was living at the time. And sometimes I would have to stop more frequently to clean my windshield than I did to fill up with gas. And no more. I can drive across the country, which I just did, by the way, and not clean my windshield. And that's horrifying to me. So in my 40-some years of doing this, I have seen fewer large game animals like rhinos, like grizzly bears, like bighorn sheep, like whales. I have seen fewer fish in the sea. And the fish that I have caught, I like to fly fish, the fish that I have personally handled in some of these amazing streams in the American West are smaller and harder to find. Why do we have a loss of almost 70% of the wild animal populations in the world? Why is this happening? And the bottom line is that there are so many people and we are consuming so much of the biomass of the planet, we're kind of harboring it for ourselves and for our domesticated animals. I learned this from a farmer. If you look at a ranch where there's a lot of cow patties, you know, they're drugging their animals big time. And those cow patties are going to stay there for a long time because they're basically sterilizing their soil. If you look at another ranch where they're not applying so many of those pesticides, there's not as many cow patties. And it's because the dung beetles and the worms and everything that kind of helps decompose is working at it. So even if you don't care about the ethical considerations of eliminating species on the Tree of Life, it's important to realize that we're actually doing the culling. The great acceleration is a compilation of data that shows it's not just the increase in human population size, but it's the increase in our consumption. And it's not just per capita consumption that stays the same. And so therefore, you just add more people and you increase consumption that way. We're actually consuming more than we used to. There's only so much solar radiation that reaches the earth, and that solar radiation for millions of years is the only thing that's kind of governed biomass. And now, of course, you know, we're getting solar energy from fossil fuels and we're adding to that. And what we're doing is we are now replacing all wild biomass with the biomass we choose. And the problem is that's not sustainable. And there are all sorts of ways that it could unravel. But the one I'm the most concerned about is that as we lose biomass, as we lose biodiversity, the biomass of diversity, we're losing our potential solutions. And if we're losing populations of species, the way all of the data suggests, more than 60% of them in the last few decades, then what that means is it's a direct affront to our own survival. They are the canary in the coal mine, and we're living in the coal mine, too.	<urn:uuid:65d7415c-364c-4c2f-b358-a737b61dafed>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-23", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648695.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602140602-20230602170602-00232.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9697935581207275, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.984375, "token_count": 814, "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/01/11/earths-growing-population-a-direct-affront-to-our-own-survival?ref=drishtikone.com" }	Earth's growing population: 'A direct affront to our own survival'Play Sign up for the On Point newsletter here. Listen: What Earth's growing population means for our planet's future. The population of planet Earth reached 8 billion people late last year. By the year 2100, we're headed for 2 billion more. What does that mean for us and our planet? Elizabeth Hadly is a professor of biology at Stanford University, and director of the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. For four decades, she's been an eyewitness to dramatic changes in the plant and animal	kingdoms caused by human beings. ELIZABETH HADLY: Remember all those insects you used to have on your windshield when you drove across the West? Gosh, they're not there anymore. Why? So I did a lot of work in Yellowstone driving back and forth from either here or Berkeley, wherever I was living at the time. And sometimes I would have to stop more frequently to clean my windshield than I did to fill up with gas. And no more. I can drive across the country, which I just did, by the way, and not clean my windshield. And that's horrifying to me. So in my 40-some years of doing this, I have seen fewer large game animals like rhinos, like grizzly bears, like bighorn sheep, like whales. I have seen fewer fish in the sea. And the fish that I have caught, I like to fly fish, the fish that I have personally handled in some of these amazing streams in the American West are smaller and harder to find. Why do we have a loss of almost 70% of the wild animal populations in the world? Why is this happening? And the bottom line is that there are so many people and we are consuming so much of the biomass of the planet, we're kind of harboring it for ourselves and for our domesticated animals. I learned this from a farmer. If you look at a ranch where there's a lot of cow patties, you know, they're drugging their animals big time. And those cow patties are going to stay there for a long time because they're basically sterilizing their soil. If you look at another ranch where they're not applying so many of those pesticides, there's not as many cow patties. And it's because the dung beetles and the worms and everything that kind of helps decompose is working at it. So even if you don't care about the ethical considerations of eliminating species on the Tree of Life, it's important to realize that we're actually doing the culling. The great acceleration is a compilation of data that shows it's not just the increase in human population size, but it's the increase in our consumption. And it's not just per capita consumption that stays the same. And so therefore, you just add more people and you increase consumption that way. We're actually consuming more than we used to. There's only so much solar radiation that reaches the earth, and that solar radiation for millions of years is the only thing that's kind of governed biomass. And now, of course, you know, we're getting solar energy from fossil fuels and we're adding to that. And what we're doing is we are now replacing all wild biomass with the biomass we choose. And the problem is that's not sustainable. And there are all sorts of ways that it could unravel. But the one I'm the most concerned about is that as we lose biomass, as we lose biodiversity, the biomass of diversity, we're losing our potential solutions. And if we're losing populations of species, the way all of the data suggests, more than 60% of them in the last few decades, then what that means is it's a direct affront to our own survival. They are the canary in the coal mine, and we're living in the coal mine, too.
The Dallas Zoo issued a ‘code blue’ at 10:20 a.m. Friday for a clouded leopard that was unaccounted for when staff checked earlier in the morning. But what does ‘code blue’ mean? When animals are found missing from their enclosures, the zoo triggers different safety codes, depending on the situation’s level of concern: a code red and a code blue, said spokeswoman Kari Streiber. The zoo issues a code blue when non-dangerous animals are found missing from their habitat. “This is not an animal that would raise a ton of concern from us, in terms of injury,” Streiber said of the leopard, which at 12:40 p.m. was still at large. The missing clouded leopard, Nova, was introduced to the zoo in September 2021 along with her sister, Luna. They are considered small, but fierce cats, with protruding fangs that can grow more than 2 inches long, and are about the size of a medium-size dog. In a news conference held Friday, Harrison Edell, the zoo’s executive vice president for animal care and conservation, said Nova weighs about 20 to 25 pounds. “She does not pose a danger to humans,” Edell said, adding a leopard and a clouded leopard are “dramatically different animals.” A code red is the next-level emergency protocol the zoo can issue. It indicates when “a dangerous animal is found out of its habitat.” Zoo officials haven’t issued a code red in many years, she said. A code blue was once issued a few years ago when a bird flew off course during a bird show hosted at the zoo.	<urn:uuid:35dd3ba9-cd08-4204-a4ad-528300cc6d19>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-06", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500303.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20230206015710-20230206045710-00832.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9661880135536194, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.515625, "token_count": 373, "url": "https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2023/01/13/dallas-zoo-issues-code-blue-friday-what-do-the-zoos-emergency-protocols-mean/" }	The Dallas Zoo issued a ‘code blue’ at 10:20 a.m. Friday for a clouded leopard that was unaccounted for when staff checked earlier in the morning. But what does ‘code blue’ mean? When animals are found missing from their enclosures, the zoo triggers different safety codes, depending on the situation’s level of concern: a code red and a code blue, said spokeswoman Kari Streiber. The zoo issues a code blue when non-dangerous animals are found missing from their habitat. “This is not an animal that would raise a ton of concern from us, in terms of injury	,” Streiber said of the leopard, which at 12:40 p.m. was still at large. The missing clouded leopard, Nova, was introduced to the zoo in September 2021 along with her sister, Luna. They are considered small, but fierce cats, with protruding fangs that can grow more than 2 inches long, and are about the size of a medium-size dog. In a news conference held Friday, Harrison Edell, the zoo’s executive vice president for animal care and conservation, said Nova weighs about 20 to 25 pounds. “She does not pose a danger to humans,” Edell said, adding a leopard and a clouded leopard are “dramatically different animals.” A code red is the next-level emergency protocol the zoo can issue. It indicates when “a dangerous animal is found out of its habitat.” Zoo officials haven’t issued a code red in many years, she said. A code blue was once issued a few years ago when a bird flew off course during a bird show hosted at the zoo.
Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep. Are you waking up in a puddle of sweat — if you can sleep at all? That’s the grim reality for millions of people around the globe suffering through severe, unbearable heat waves. July is the hottest month on record for the planet and very likely the hottest period in 120,000 years, according to global climate authorities. “These are the hottest temperatures in human history,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, told CNN recently. It’s expected to get worse: A new study found the number of days of “dangerous heat” — defined as 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) — will more than double by 2050 in the midlatitude regions, which include Western Europe and countries such as China, Japan and the United States. Tropical areas could face those temperatures for the majority of the year. No relief at night It’s not just the unbearable sunshine — temperatures at night aren’t dropping as they should. Nights are warming faster than days on average in most of the US, the 2018 National Climate Assessment found. That’s dangerous for sleep — a vital period when the body and brain do housekeeping chores such as repairing and discarding old cells and generating new ones. Warm nighttime temperatures have robbed people around the world of an average of 44 hours of sleep annually during just the first two decades of the 21st century, according to a 2022 study. And unfortunately, daytime naps and longer sleep on cooler nights did not seem to make up for that lost sleep, researchers found. To get the best quality sleep, experts have long recommended sleeping in a cool room — between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) is best. What happens when you can’t achieve that during a heat wave? Studies have shown higher nighttime temperatures increase wakefulness and reduce deep wave and REM (rapid eye movement), both critical to how well the body repairs and refreshes itself at night. Exposure to heat waves during pregnancy may be associated with adverse outcomes such as preterm birth, according to a 2019 study. Older adults may have higher heart rates and more physiological stress when sleeping in warmer temperatures. A 2008 Australian study even found deaths due to mental and behavioral disorders rose during heat waves, especially for older adults. 10 tips for sleeping in the heat Learning how to better cope with sleep problems during heat waves might limit the negative impact on our health, according to a team of experts from the European Insomnia Network. Here are their top tips, along with some guidance from experts in the US. Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of water during the day can help your body better regulate your temperature at night. But don’t drink for the hour or two before bed, or you’ll end up waking yourself in the night to go to the bathroom, said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Instead, “try sucking on ice cubes before bed.” Eat light. Eating lighter, especially for the last meal of the day, can help set you up for better sleep, experts say. Avoid sugar and carb-laden foods, saturated fats and too much fiber as the day goes on, as that can disrupt sleep as well, according to a 2016 study. Dress lightly. Sleep in the buff or choose loose, cotton clothing — avoid synthetics, which can trap heat next to the skin. Look for chances to cool the bedroom. If you’re lucky enough to have a cooler period during the day, open windows and doors and start up fans to ventilate the bedroom, then close it off when the temperature rises. If there are no breaks from the heat, close blinds, pull window shades, and do what you can “to keep the house and bedroom as cool and dark as possible both during day and night,” the network experts suggested. Avoid alcohol. Drinking booze in the evening dehydrates the body and sets you up for nighttime sweats, said Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine and professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Set aside time to relax. For you and your child, set aside an hour or more before bedtime for calming activities, such as “reading a book, listening to a story or to music. This could help in cooling down and relaxing,” according to the network. Shower in tepid water. Before you hit that hot sack, take a lukewarm or cool (but not cold) shower or foot bath, which may help to reduce your heat stress and set you up for sleep. How does that happen? “Your body temperature lowers after you leave the shower or bath as your body adapts to the cooler environment,” Dasgupta said. “This drop in temperature prepares your body for sleep because our body temperature has a natural circadian rhythm — the body is primed to cool down when you lay down and warm up when you get up.” Find the coolest place to sleep. Try your best to keep your bedroom cooler than 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) if you can. To do so, try using ceiling fans or floor or bedside electric fans, which use “up to 50-times less electricity” than air conditioning,” the review noted. “There are also fairly inexpensive ice cooling fans that can be placed near the bed,” Zee told CNN. “If you’re unable to keep the bedroom cool, sleeping temporarily on lower floors like the basement (if there is one) will be cooler.” Keep a regular sleep schedule. If you sleep badly one night, don’t go to bed early the next, experts said. It’s important to stick to a regular bedtime to train the brain that it’s time to sleep, regardless of the temperature. If you do wake up early and can’t go back to sleep without 15 to 20 minutes, get up and do something soothing and mindless, such as folding laundry, until you’re sleepy. If that doesn’t work, start your day, the network experts suggest. Exercise safely. Don’t put aside exercise, even in the heat. Try to do some physical activity in the early morning, when it is still relatively cool outdoors, experts suggest, as a key way to keep a regular sleep and wake schedule.	<urn:uuid:93cd6cc1-ae60-443b-92e3-94a84960be44>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "/fsx/guilherme/cc2023-50/r2526/input/1700679100264.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20231201021234-20231201051234-00526.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9303669333457947, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.34375, "token_count": 1398, "url": "https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/31/health/sleep-cooler-heat-wave-wellness" }	Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep. Are you waking up in a puddle of sweat — if you can sleep at all? That’s the grim reality for millions of people around the globe suffering through severe, unbearable heat waves. July is the hottest month on record for the planet and very likely the hottest period in 120,000 years, according to global climate authorities. “These are the hottest temperatures in human history,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change	Service, told CNN recently. It’s expected to get worse: A new study found the number of days of “dangerous heat” — defined as 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) — will more than double by 2050 in the midlatitude regions, which include Western Europe and countries such as China, Japan and the United States. Tropical areas could face those temperatures for the majority of the year. No relief at night It’s not just the unbearable sunshine — temperatures at night aren’t dropping as they should. Nights are warming faster than days on average in most of the US, the 2018 National Climate Assessment found. That’s dangerous for sleep — a vital period when the body and brain do housekeeping chores such as repairing and discarding old cells and generating new ones. Warm nighttime temperatures have robbed people around the world of an average of 44 hours of sleep annually during just the first two decades of the 21st century, according to a 2022 study. And unfortunately, daytime naps and longer sleep on cooler nights did not seem to make up for that lost sleep, researchers found. To get the best quality sleep, experts have long recommended sleeping in a cool room — between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) is best. What happens when you can’t achieve that during a heat wave? Studies have shown higher nighttime temperatures increase wakefulness and reduce deep wave and REM (rapid eye movement), both critical to how well the body repairs and refreshes itself at night. Exposure to heat waves during pregnancy may be associated with adverse outcomes such as preterm birth, according to a 2019 study. Older adults may have higher heart rates and more physiological stress when sleeping in warmer temperatures. A 2008 Australian study even found deaths due to mental and behavioral disorders rose during heat waves, especially for older adults. 10 tips for sleeping in the heat Learning how to better cope with sleep problems during heat waves might limit the negative impact on our health, according to a team of experts from the European Insomnia Network. Here are their top tips, along with some guidance from experts in the US. Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of water during the day can help your body better regulate your temperature at night. But don’t drink for the hour or two before bed, or you’ll end up waking yourself in the night to go to the bathroom, said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Instead, “try sucking on ice cubes before bed.” Eat light. Eating lighter, especially for the last meal of the day, can help set you up for better sleep, experts say. Avoid sugar and carb-laden foods, saturated fats and too much fiber as the day goes on, as that can disrupt sleep as well, according to a 2016 study. Dress lightly. Sleep in the buff or choose loose, cotton clothing — avoid synthetics, which can trap heat next to the skin. Look for chances to cool the bedroom. If you’re lucky enough to have a cooler period during the day, open windows and doors and start up fans to ventilate the bedroom, then close it off when the temperature rises. If there are no breaks from the heat, close blinds, pull window shades, and do what you can “to keep the house and bedroom as cool and dark as possible both during day and night,” the network experts suggested. Avoid alcohol. Drinking booze in the evening dehydrates the body and sets you up for nighttime sweats, said Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine and professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Set aside time to relax. For you and your child, set aside an hour or more before bedtime for calming activities, such as “reading a book, listening to a story or to music. This could help in cooling down and relaxing,” according to the network. Shower in tepid water. Before you hit that hot sack, take a lukewarm or cool (but not cold) shower or foot bath, which may help to reduce your heat stress and set you up for sleep. How does that happen? “Your body temperature lowers after you leave the shower or bath as your body adapts to the cooler environment,” Dasgupta said. “This drop in temperature prepares your body for sleep because our body temperature has a natural circadian rhythm — the body is primed to cool down when you lay down and warm up when you get up.” Find the coolest place to sleep. Try your best to keep your bedroom cooler than 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) if you can. To do so, try using ceiling fans or floor or bedside electric fans, which use “up to 50-times less electricity” than air conditioning,” the review noted. “There are also fairly inexpensive ice cooling fans that can be placed near the bed,” Zee told CNN. “If you’re unable to keep the bedroom cool, sleeping temporarily on lower floors like the basement (if there is one) will be cooler.” Keep a regular sleep schedule. If you sleep badly one night, don’t go to bed early the next, experts said. It’s important to stick to a regular bedtime to train the brain that it’s time to sleep, regardless of the temperature. If you do wake up early and can’t go back to sleep without 15 to 20 minutes, get up and do something soothing and mindless, such as folding laundry, until you’re sleepy. If that doesn’t work, start your day, the network experts suggest. Exercise safely. Don’t put aside exercise, even in the heat. Try to do some physical activity in the early morning, when it is still relatively cool outdoors, experts suggest, as a key way to keep a regular sleep and wake schedule.
An area south of Boston, from Mattapan Square to Franklin Park, used to be home to a thriving Jewish community. But over the course of four years - between 1968 and 1971 - an area that was 90-percent Jewish became 90-percent Black and African American. The shift is a tale of what happens when good intentioned housing policies are left unchecked. We look at that history with two housing historians. Lew Finfer, director of the Massachusetts Action for Justice, and Jim Vrabel, author of A People's History of the New Boston joined WBUR's Simón Rios to discuss. On life in Mattapan in the mid 1960s: Finfer: "Well, it was very vibrant and people used to talk about the wall at Franklin Field — Franklin Field is a big park in Dorchester and that area and has a wall that you can sit on and how people of all ages would gather in groups — it was a huge park. There was a huge wall. So the teenagers of 13 to 15 were in this group. And the teenagers, you know, 15 to 20... And they went on to the elderly gatherings. It was all there. And there were settlement houses — the Lena Park Community Center was called the Hecht House and was a settlement house recreation area. There were lots and lots of temples and, you know, all kinds of shops, you know, like kosher butchers and all those kind of things that went with that kind of life. It wasn't 100-percent Jewish, but it was probably about two-thirds Jewish in those areas of Mattapan and what I would call western Dorchester, that's like Franklin Field, Franklin Park kinds of areas." On the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (BBURG): Vrabel: "It was part of a time when government decided that cities needed rebuilding and they wanted big ideas. The federal government was putting a lot of money into helping cities, and local politicians wanted to have something to run on and have big ideas and big programs. The assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 was what got BBURG restarted. It was actually conceived in 1961, but somehow got lost in the shuffle of urban renewal and was never enacted. But Kevin White, as mayor in '68, needed something to show the minority community that he was listening and that he was doing something, and dusted off BBURG and made a quick announcement and quickly implemented the program. And it turned out probably too quickly." "It should be noted that not only did the original homeowners leave Boston, but the new homers came in. Half of them within five years, had those mortgages foreclosed on and lost their homes. They weren't set up for success."Jim Vrabel On redlining and blockbusting in the Mattapan neighborhood: Finfer: "So this goes back to the Housing Act of 1968, a federal law that outlawed housing discrimination for the first time. Before that, the guidelines of the federal government in housing had phrases in it like 'maintain homogeneous neighborhoods.' And then with this change, African-Americans could get mortgages, but they were restricted by the redlining, by the banks, that they could only get the mortgages in parts of Dorchester and Mattapan. They couldn't go to Hyde Park. They couldn't go to Quincy. They couldn't go to Newton — just in those places. And then 12 real estate firms opened offices around the corner of Morton and Blue Hill, in that area, and they started soliciting." "Blockbusting means realtors solicit sales and use fear to increase the sales. So they sent letters, they dropped fliers, they knocked on doors — all those practices to encourage people to sell. And then it says in the article ['Confessions of a Blockbuster'] things that people had heard about. They sat there and brainstormed a story, the kinds of stories that would scare people. One of the stories they used was we're going to say to this homeowner, 'Oh, this family's moving across the street from you, and a Black family with six kids is going to move in and their oldest son raped a white woman and he's getting out of Walpole Prison in three months. Do you want to live across the street from him?' And it worked." On how the era of blockbusting in Mattapan delivers us into the period of bussing and beyond: Vrabel: "I'd like to give credit first to Hillel Levine and Lawrence Harmon for the book they wrote, The Death of a Jewish Community. It's a great book. And the subtitle is 'A Tragedy of Good Intentions.' And BBURG and bussing can be seen as very similar. This is a public policy. The city was involved in this. It wasn't just the banks. It wasn't just the realtors. It wasn't just the private sector. The city was involved. And because it was involved, it had a responsibility to make sure that the details of public policy were correct, that they paid attention to how people lived and could anticipate outcomes. The idea of dumping this much mortgage money into one small area for a certain group — first time African-American homeowners — had the effect of setting all this off: the panic selling, the blockbusting, the violence, the rage, and eventually driving one group out of the city, replacing it with another." "It should be noted that not only did the original homeowners leave Boston, but the new homers came in. Half of them within five years, had those mortgages foreclosed on and lost their homes. They weren't set up for success. They weren't screened very well. Just like the recent mortgage scandals we've had across the country. And they weren't given home repair loans because they weren't federally subsidized as the mortgages were. So the design of the program was wrong and it could have been foreseen to be wrong." "Similarly, with bussing, the idea of — for good intention — for integrating the schools and well, for desegregating the schools, a plan was drawn up, but the plan was not sold to the community, did not heed community wishes, did not try to preserve ways of life, and people responded en masse by leaving Boston — 30,000 of the children were taken out of the Boston Public Schools within five years, and most of them and their parents left the city. So the details of public policy really matter." This segment aired on June 14, 2023.	<urn:uuid:e3d7a25d-3d6d-4842-9be5-0be7dbc642d8>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506329.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20230922034112-20230922064112-00777.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9842578768730164, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.59375, "token_count": 1348, "url": "https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2023/06/14/hidden-history-housing-mattapan-jewish" }	An area south of Boston, from Mattapan Square to Franklin Park, used to be home to a thriving Jewish community. But over the course of four years - between 1968 and 1971 - an area that was 90-percent Jewish became 90-percent Black and African American. The shift is a tale of what happens when good intentioned housing policies are left unchecked. We look at that history with two housing historians. Lew Finfer, director of the Massachusetts Action for Justice, and Jim Vrabel, author of A People's History of the New Boston joined WBUR	's Simón Rios to discuss. On life in Mattapan in the mid 1960s: Finfer: "Well, it was very vibrant and people used to talk about the wall at Franklin Field — Franklin Field is a big park in Dorchester and that area and has a wall that you can sit on and how people of all ages would gather in groups — it was a huge park. There was a huge wall. So the teenagers of 13 to 15 were in this group. And the teenagers, you know, 15 to 20... And they went on to the elderly gatherings. It was all there. And there were settlement houses — the Lena Park Community Center was called the Hecht House and was a settlement house recreation area. There were lots and lots of temples and, you know, all kinds of shops, you know, like kosher butchers and all those kind of things that went with that kind of life. It wasn't 100-percent Jewish, but it was probably about two-thirds Jewish in those areas of Mattapan and what I would call western Dorchester, that's like Franklin Field, Franklin Park kinds of areas." On the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (BBURG): Vrabel: "It was part of a time when government decided that cities needed rebuilding and they wanted big ideas. The federal government was putting a lot of money into helping cities, and local politicians wanted to have something to run on and have big ideas and big programs. The assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 was what got BBURG restarted. It was actually conceived in 1961, but somehow got lost in the shuffle of urban renewal and was never enacted. But Kevin White, as mayor in '68, needed something to show the minority community that he was listening and that he was doing something, and dusted off BBURG and made a quick announcement and quickly implemented the program. And it turned out probably too quickly." "It should be noted that not only did the original homeowners leave Boston, but the new homers came in. Half of them within five years, had those mortgages foreclosed on and lost their homes. They weren't set up for success."Jim Vrabel On redlining and blockbusting in the Mattapan neighborhood: Finfer: "So this goes back to the Housing Act of 1968, a federal law that outlawed housing discrimination for the first time. Before that, the guidelines of the federal government in housing had phrases in it like 'maintain homogeneous neighborhoods.' And then with this change, African-Americans could get mortgages, but they were restricted by the redlining, by the banks, that they could only get the mortgages in parts of Dorchester and Mattapan. They couldn't go to Hyde Park. They couldn't go to Quincy. They couldn't go to Newton — just in those places. And then 12 real estate firms opened offices around the corner of Morton and Blue Hill, in that area, and they started soliciting." "Blockbusting means realtors solicit sales and use fear to increase the sales. So they sent letters, they dropped fliers, they knocked on doors — all those practices to encourage people to sell. And then it says in the article ['Confessions of a Blockbuster'] things that people had heard about. They sat there and brainstormed a story, the kinds of stories that would scare people. One of the stories they used was we're going to say to this homeowner, 'Oh, this family's moving across the street from you, and a Black family with six kids is going to move in and their oldest son raped a white woman and he's getting out of Walpole Prison in three months. Do you want to live across the street from him?' And it worked." On how the era of blockbusting in Mattapan delivers us into the period of bussing and beyond: Vrabel: "I'd like to give credit first to Hillel Levine and Lawrence Harmon for the book they wrote, The Death of a Jewish Community. It's a great book. And the subtitle is 'A Tragedy of Good Intentions.' And BBURG and bussing can be seen as very similar. This is a public policy. The city was involved in this. It wasn't just the banks. It wasn't just the realtors. It wasn't just the private sector. The city was involved. And because it was involved, it had a responsibility to make sure that the details of public policy were correct, that they paid attention to how people lived and could anticipate outcomes. The idea of dumping this much mortgage money into one small area for a certain group — first time African-American homeowners — had the effect of setting all this off: the panic selling, the blockbusting, the violence, the rage, and eventually driving one group out of the city, replacing it with another." "It should be noted that not only did the original homeowners leave Boston, but the new homers came in. Half of them within five years, had those mortgages foreclosed on and lost their homes. They weren't set up for success. They weren't screened very well. Just like the recent mortgage scandals we've had across the country. And they weren't given home repair loans because they weren't federally subsidized as the mortgages were. So the design of the program was wrong and it could have been foreseen to be wrong." "Similarly, with bussing, the idea of — for good intention — for integrating the schools and well, for desegregating the schools, a plan was drawn up, but the plan was not sold to the community, did not heed community wishes, did not try to preserve ways of life, and people responded en masse by leaving Boston — 30,000 of the children were taken out of the Boston Public Schools within five years, and most of them and their parents left the city. So the details of public policy really matter." This segment aired on June 14, 2023.
Sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts. Even if you’ve never been physically active, you can start moving now and see benefits. That’s according to a new study, which found that any amount of physical activity starting at any age is helpful for long-term cognitive health. Researchers already knew that people who participate in physical activity in their leisure time have a lower risk for dementia and higher cognitive function later in life than those who are inactive, said study author Dr. Sarah-Naomi James, a research fellow at MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London. What researchers didn’t know was whether there was a specific time in life by which a person needed to get active or if there was an activity threshold they needed to meet to see those benefits, James said. The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, tracked the physical activity patterns of nearly 1,500 people over the course of 30 years in adulthood. At age 69, the participants were tested on their cognitive state, verbal memory and processing speed, according to the study. While lifelong physical activity was associated with the best cognitive results later in life, being active at any time to any extent was associated with higher cognition, the study found. Even people who became active in their 50s or 60s achieved better cognitive scores when they reached 70 years old, James said. A surprisingly small amount of activity — as little as once a month — at any time across adulthood was helpful, she added. “It seems clear from this study and others that small doses of exercise across the lifespan and starting young is very beneficial to long term health,” said Dr. William Roberts, professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, via email. Roberts was not involved in the research. On a societal level, the findings show a need for more access to education that encourage skills and motivation for physical activity at any age, according to the study. How to get active For people who have been active regularly, the results should be encouraging and suggest that their investment can pay off, Roberts said. “For people who have never been physically active, or have gone through a period of inactivity, start!” James said via email. If you are not exactly an athlete who loves to break a sweat, there are still ways to work some activity into your life. To build a habit that sticks, it is important to set a goal, make a specific plan, find a way to make it fun, stay flexible and get social support, said behavioral scientist Katy Milkman, author of “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” in a 2021 interview with CNN. Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. You can start slow, said Dana Santas, CNN fitness contributor and mind-body coach for professional athletes. “Fitting in 10 minutes of exercise every day is so much easier than people think. Consider how fast 10 minutes goes by when you’re mindlessly scrolling social media or watching your favorite TV show,” Santas told CNN in a 2022 interview. “It’s not a big-time investment, but it can deliver big health benefits.” Yoga is a great way to be active while relieving stress — and is easily accessible for all levels online, she said. And walking outside or on a treadmill is one of the simplest ways to bring exercise in consistently, Santas said. “Walking is the most underrated, corrective, mind-body, fat-burning exercise available to humans,” she added. “I walk every single day.” Regular walks can be a great opportunity to multitask, if you use them to bond with family, friends and neighbors, Santas added. If you want to boost the intensity of you walk, Santas recommended adding in harder intervals, weights or a heavy backpack. “Walking for five minutes every hour goes a long way,” Evan Matthews, associate professor of exercise science and physical education at New Jersey’s Montclair State University, told CNN in 2021. “It doesn’t need to even be moderate intensity. Just move.”	<urn:uuid:e428ccce-984f-43a3-98a1-14200784b007>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-23", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224654871.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608103815-20230608133815-00774.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9559754729270935, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.03125, "token_count": 933, "url": "https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/21/health/exercise-any-age-wellness/index.html" }	Sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts. Even if you’ve never been physically active, you can start moving now and see benefits. That’s according to a new study, which found that any amount of physical activity starting at any age is helpful for long-term cognitive health. Researchers already knew that people who participate in physical activity in their leisure time have a lower risk for dementia and higher cognitive function later in life than those who are inactive, said study author Dr. Sarah-Naomi James, a research fellow at MRC Unit for	Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London. What researchers didn’t know was whether there was a specific time in life by which a person needed to get active or if there was an activity threshold they needed to meet to see those benefits, James said. The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, tracked the physical activity patterns of nearly 1,500 people over the course of 30 years in adulthood. At age 69, the participants were tested on their cognitive state, verbal memory and processing speed, according to the study. While lifelong physical activity was associated with the best cognitive results later in life, being active at any time to any extent was associated with higher cognition, the study found. Even people who became active in their 50s or 60s achieved better cognitive scores when they reached 70 years old, James said. A surprisingly small amount of activity — as little as once a month — at any time across adulthood was helpful, she added. “It seems clear from this study and others that small doses of exercise across the lifespan and starting young is very beneficial to long term health,” said Dr. William Roberts, professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, via email. Roberts was not involved in the research. On a societal level, the findings show a need for more access to education that encourage skills and motivation for physical activity at any age, according to the study. How to get active For people who have been active regularly, the results should be encouraging and suggest that their investment can pay off, Roberts said. “For people who have never been physically active, or have gone through a period of inactivity, start!” James said via email. If you are not exactly an athlete who loves to break a sweat, there are still ways to work some activity into your life. To build a habit that sticks, it is important to set a goal, make a specific plan, find a way to make it fun, stay flexible and get social support, said behavioral scientist Katy Milkman, author of “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” in a 2021 interview with CNN. Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. You can start slow, said Dana Santas, CNN fitness contributor and mind-body coach for professional athletes. “Fitting in 10 minutes of exercise every day is so much easier than people think. Consider how fast 10 minutes goes by when you’re mindlessly scrolling social media or watching your favorite TV show,” Santas told CNN in a 2022 interview. “It’s not a big-time investment, but it can deliver big health benefits.” Yoga is a great way to be active while relieving stress — and is easily accessible for all levels online, she said. And walking outside or on a treadmill is one of the simplest ways to bring exercise in consistently, Santas said. “Walking is the most underrated, corrective, mind-body, fat-burning exercise available to humans,” she added. “I walk every single day.” Regular walks can be a great opportunity to multitask, if you use them to bond with family, friends and neighbors, Santas added. If you want to boost the intensity of you walk, Santas recommended adding in harder intervals, weights or a heavy backpack. “Walking for five minutes every hour goes a long way,” Evan Matthews, associate professor of exercise science and physical education at New Jersey’s Montclair State University, told CNN in 2021. “It doesn’t need to even be moderate intensity. Just move.”
Sir, – Today is World Schizophrenia Awareness Day, dedicated to destigmatising and raising awareness of a mental illness that affects over 20 million people worldwide. While in recent years huge strides have been made in destigmatising schizophrenia and mental health issues, there is still a long road to go. One barrier is that society is still hesitant to use the phrase “mental illness” when talking about mental health issues. Using euphemisms or avoiding directly addressing mental illness inadvertently perpetuates the stigma surrounding it. A linguistic shift would help remove the veil of silence, and encourage open dialogue about mental illness, normalising the experience and fostering compassion. Recent research undertaken by Shine’s See Change Programme tells us that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of people say they would not want to live with someone with a severe and enduring mental illness. Yet the majority (75 per cent) say they don’t know what a severe and enduring mental illness is. People struggling to identify with the term “severe and enduring mental illness” shows us that more work needs to be done to find new ways of making the language around mental health more accessible. Using the term “mental illness” will challenge harmful stereotypes and misconceptions. A shift in language will challenge the damaging perception that individuals with mental illness are different, and will instead create parity with the way we discuss and describe physical health and illness. This will help pave the way for a more inclusive society. Our vision in Shine is of a more compassionate Ireland where those affected by mental illness and stigma are supported and included in all aspects of society. Our national conference in Cork today (May 24th), with the theme “Speak Up – Shine Conversations for Change”, aims to empower individuals and communities in the fight against mental health stigma. Together, let’s create a future where conversations around mental health are catalysts for positive and transformative change. – Yours, etc, Maynooth Business Campus,	<urn:uuid:94928a43-9391-45dd-9951-876ce29156e7>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510179.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926075508-20230926105508-00690.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.906262993812561, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.71875, "token_count": 437, "url": "https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2023/05/24/destigmatising-mental-illness/" }	Sir, – Today is World Schizophrenia Awareness Day, dedicated to destigmatising and raising awareness of a mental illness that affects over 20 million people worldwide. While in recent years huge strides have been made in destigmatising schizophrenia and mental health issues, there is still a long road to go. One barrier is that society is still hesitant to use the phrase “mental illness” when talking about mental health issues. Using euphemisms or avoiding directly addressing mental illness inadvertently perpetuates the stigma surrounding it. A linguistic shift would help remove the veil of silence, and encourage open dialogue about mental illness	, normalising the experience and fostering compassion. Recent research undertaken by Shine’s See Change Programme tells us that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of people say they would not want to live with someone with a severe and enduring mental illness. Yet the majority (75 per cent) say they don’t know what a severe and enduring mental illness is. People struggling to identify with the term “severe and enduring mental illness” shows us that more work needs to be done to find new ways of making the language around mental health more accessible. Using the term “mental illness” will challenge harmful stereotypes and misconceptions. A shift in language will challenge the damaging perception that individuals with mental illness are different, and will instead create parity with the way we discuss and describe physical health and illness. This will help pave the way for a more inclusive society. Our vision in Shine is of a more compassionate Ireland where those affected by mental illness and stigma are supported and included in all aspects of society. Our national conference in Cork today (May 24th), with the theme “Speak Up – Shine Conversations for Change”, aims to empower individuals and communities in the fight against mental health stigma. Together, let’s create a future where conversations around mental health are catalysts for positive and transformative change. – Yours, etc, Maynooth Business Campus,
America's electric grid needs an upgrade Why it matters: Access to air conditioning is not only an economic imperative, but increasingly a life or death issue. Case in point: Extreme heat delivers a triple whammy to the electric grid, Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a podcast interview. - The hotter it is outside, the less efficient power plants are and the less power they can actually make. - Same with the power lines. The hotter they get, the less electricity you're able to move through them. - Meanwhile, the heat drives up demand for electricity — right when the grid is making less power, and is less efficient about moving it around. The basics: It's helpful to know exactly what people mean when they refer to "the grid." Rhodes described it as "the biggest machine we've ever built." The grid consists of: - The power plants that make electricity. - The wires and poles that move the electricity out of the plants (called the transmission grid). - And the distribution grid, the smaller wires and poles that directly connect your home to power. "The grid is basically how electricity gets to you. It's how electricity is made. It's how electricity is moved around." - You could even argue that the electric devices we use are part of the grid, he said. "Whether that's electric cars or toasters or computers, are also part of that system because they're the ones that are consuming that electricity. And they can do that dumbly or they can do that smartly." What's needed: A lot of money. According to an estimate Rhodes did a few years ago, replacing the grid and adapting it to modern-day needs would cost something like $5 trillion. That would include: - Replacing the lines, and many of the power plants, and bringing everything up to modern standards. - Taking into account "the new reality of climate change," by weatherizing power systems in areas that experience extreme heat, cold, wildfires or hurricanes that their current system can't handle. (Think: Burying power lines in California, or getting Texas's grid in shape to handle snow and ice.) - Adapting to increasing electricity use, as things like electric vehicles or electric heat pumps become more common. - And, moving toward more sustainable sources of power, like wind and solar — and building more storage for that power so it can be used on days that aren't windy or sunny. What to watch: There are a host of renewable power projects in the works in the U.S., and more "demand response programs," which try to limit electric demand during surge times to keep the grid stable. - "There are going to be challenges, going forward and there are going to be other times when the grid goes down and because nothing's perfect, but I think we're moving in the right direction." 🎧 Go deeper: America's $5 Trillion Grid Problem (Slate)	<urn:uuid:3feab121-0f85-4035-9c17-78b69381dffd>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506623.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924055210-20230924085210-00363.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9616146087646484, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.984375, "token_count": 618, "url": "https://www.axios.com/2023/07/24/electric-grid-5-trillion-upgrade" }	America's electric grid needs an upgrade Why it matters: Access to air conditioning is not only an economic imperative, but increasingly a life or death issue. Case in point: Extreme heat delivers a triple whammy to the electric grid, Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a podcast interview. - The hotter it is outside, the less efficient power plants are and the less power they can actually make. - Same with the power lines. The hotter they get, the less electricity you're able to move through them. - Meanwhile, the heat drives up demand for electricity — right when	the grid is making less power, and is less efficient about moving it around. The basics: It's helpful to know exactly what people mean when they refer to "the grid." Rhodes described it as "the biggest machine we've ever built." The grid consists of: - The power plants that make electricity. - The wires and poles that move the electricity out of the plants (called the transmission grid). - And the distribution grid, the smaller wires and poles that directly connect your home to power. "The grid is basically how electricity gets to you. It's how electricity is made. It's how electricity is moved around." - You could even argue that the electric devices we use are part of the grid, he said. "Whether that's electric cars or toasters or computers, are also part of that system because they're the ones that are consuming that electricity. And they can do that dumbly or they can do that smartly." What's needed: A lot of money. According to an estimate Rhodes did a few years ago, replacing the grid and adapting it to modern-day needs would cost something like $5 trillion. That would include: - Replacing the lines, and many of the power plants, and bringing everything up to modern standards. - Taking into account "the new reality of climate change," by weatherizing power systems in areas that experience extreme heat, cold, wildfires or hurricanes that their current system can't handle. (Think: Burying power lines in California, or getting Texas's grid in shape to handle snow and ice.) - Adapting to increasing electricity use, as things like electric vehicles or electric heat pumps become more common. - And, moving toward more sustainable sources of power, like wind and solar — and building more storage for that power so it can be used on days that aren't windy or sunny. What to watch: There are a host of renewable power projects in the works in the U.S., and more "demand response programs," which try to limit electric demand during surge times to keep the grid stable. - "There are going to be challenges, going forward and there are going to be other times when the grid goes down and because nothing's perfect, but I think we're moving in the right direction." 🎧 Go deeper: America's $5 Trillion Grid Problem (Slate)
A new study found a moderately higher risk of autism spectrum disorder in children born to pregnant people exposed to tap water with higher levels of lithium, but experts caution that this association does not show a direct link between the two. About 1 in 36 children in the US is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) each year, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists still don’t know the exact cause of autism, a developmental disorder. Genetics may be a factor, but some have been looking at potential environmental causes, too. Cases may be on the rise, but that is also unclear. One study published this year on cases in the New York-New Jersey area found that autism diagnosis rates tripled among certain age groups between 2000 and 2016. A 2021 report found similar increases in cases, but the CDC says the increased number of cases is most likely linked to more doctors screening for the condition. Lithium is an alkali metal that can be found naturally in some food and ground water. It’s used in batteries, grease and air conditioners, as well as in the treatment of bipolar disorder and some blood disorders. Its levels in US drinking water are not regulated, according to the US Geological Survey. A new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found a small association between lithium and autism diagnosis in Denmark, where the researchers say the level of lithium in drinking water is similar to that in American water systems. The researchers checked a database of people with psychiatric disorders for children born between 2000 and 2013 to find information on 8,842 cases of ASD and 43,864 participants who did not have ASD. They then measured the concentration of lithium in 151 public waterworks that served more than half of the Danish population and mapped out where pregnant people lived in relation. As lithium levels in water increased, there was a modest increased risk of an ASD diagnosis. Specifically, compared with people at the lowest exposure level, those who had the second and third highest exposure during pregnancy had a 24% to 26% higher risk of ASD diagnosed in children. The group with the highest exposure had a 46% higher risk than those at the lowest level of exposure. The researchers could not tell how much water the pregnant people drank, but they picked Denmark in part because residents there consume some of the lowest amounts of bottled water in Europe. Experts say it’s important to note that the research can’t show that lithium exposure leads directly to an autism diagnosis. Further study is required, said study co-author Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor of neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Any drinking water contaminants that may affect the developing human brain deserve intense scrutiny,” Ritz said in a news release. She added that the research would need to be replicated in other countries to look for a similar connection. The implications of the findings are complex as far as public health policy is concerned, according to an editorial published alongside the study. Lithium levels in water, at concentrations that the study associated with a potential ASD risk, have also been linked with health benefits such as lower rates of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders and suicide. “If all these of associations are valid, the wisdom of Solomon will be required to develop guidelines for lithium in drinking water that are maximally protective of the entire population,” wrote Dr. David C. Bellinger, a professor of neurology and psychology at Harvard Medical School. “Until the basic biology of ASD is better understood, it will be difficult to distinguish causal from spurious associations.” Dr. Max Wiznitzer, director of the Rainbow Autism Center at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, points to other research on the effects of lithium on pregnant people who take it for mental health disorders. Those studies – which look at people exposed to much higher levels than are found in drinking water – do not show a connection with autism spectrum disorder. “It’s an interesting association, but causation is definitely not proven,” said Wiznitzer, who was not involved in the new research. “We have to see if there’s a viable and biologically plausible mechanism by which a small amount of lithium in the water supply can somehow do this, yet pharmacologic dosing of lithium in women with bipolar disorder has not been reported to be causing increased risk of ASD.” Other studies have also suggested connections between ASD and environmental exposures to things like pesticides, air pollution and phthalates. But none of them points to any of these factors as a direct cause of the disorder. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. A link between environmental exposure and ASD is hard to prove, Wiznitzer said. With research showing that increased exposure to air pollution raises the risk of giving birth to a child with ASD, for example, he often wonders whether pollution is the determining factor or if it’s just the populations who live in more polluted areas. “There’s a lot of speculation about about environmental factors, but how many of them are truly causally associated?” Wiznitzer said. “We are bombarded with a variety of environmental stressors in our everyday lives. We have to figure out how to basically safely navigate them, and this is probably not one that’s high on our list.”	<urn:uuid:ad7a0874-9fec-46e3-91af-98e381388fe2>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2024-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474641.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225171204-20240225201204-00705.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9610403776168823, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.984375, "token_count": 1155, "url": "https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/03/health/autism-lithium-study/index.html" }	A new study found a moderately higher risk of autism spectrum disorder in children born to pregnant people exposed to tap water with higher levels of lithium, but experts caution that this association does not show a direct link between the two. About 1 in 36 children in the US is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) each year, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists still don’t know the exact cause of autism, a developmental disorder. Genetics may be a factor, but some have been looking at potential environmental causes, too. Cases may be on the rise, but that is also unclear	. One study published this year on cases in the New York-New Jersey area found that autism diagnosis rates tripled among certain age groups between 2000 and 2016. A 2021 report found similar increases in cases, but the CDC says the increased number of cases is most likely linked to more doctors screening for the condition. Lithium is an alkali metal that can be found naturally in some food and ground water. It’s used in batteries, grease and air conditioners, as well as in the treatment of bipolar disorder and some blood disorders. Its levels in US drinking water are not regulated, according to the US Geological Survey. A new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found a small association between lithium and autism diagnosis in Denmark, where the researchers say the level of lithium in drinking water is similar to that in American water systems. The researchers checked a database of people with psychiatric disorders for children born between 2000 and 2013 to find information on 8,842 cases of ASD and 43,864 participants who did not have ASD. They then measured the concentration of lithium in 151 public waterworks that served more than half of the Danish population and mapped out where pregnant people lived in relation. As lithium levels in water increased, there was a modest increased risk of an ASD diagnosis. Specifically, compared with people at the lowest exposure level, those who had the second and third highest exposure during pregnancy had a 24% to 26% higher risk of ASD diagnosed in children. The group with the highest exposure had a 46% higher risk than those at the lowest level of exposure. The researchers could not tell how much water the pregnant people drank, but they picked Denmark in part because residents there consume some of the lowest amounts of bottled water in Europe. Experts say it’s important to note that the research can’t show that lithium exposure leads directly to an autism diagnosis. Further study is required, said study co-author Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor of neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Any drinking water contaminants that may affect the developing human brain deserve intense scrutiny,” Ritz said in a news release. She added that the research would need to be replicated in other countries to look for a similar connection. The implications of the findings are complex as far as public health policy is concerned, according to an editorial published alongside the study. Lithium levels in water, at concentrations that the study associated with a potential ASD risk, have also been linked with health benefits such as lower rates of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders and suicide. “If all these of associations are valid, the wisdom of Solomon will be required to develop guidelines for lithium in drinking water that are maximally protective of the entire population,” wrote Dr. David C. Bellinger, a professor of neurology and psychology at Harvard Medical School. “Until the basic biology of ASD is better understood, it will be difficult to distinguish causal from spurious associations.” Dr. Max Wiznitzer, director of the Rainbow Autism Center at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, points to other research on the effects of lithium on pregnant people who take it for mental health disorders. Those studies – which look at people exposed to much higher levels than are found in drinking water – do not show a connection with autism spectrum disorder. “It’s an interesting association, but causation is definitely not proven,” said Wiznitzer, who was not involved in the new research. “We have to see if there’s a viable and biologically plausible mechanism by which a small amount of lithium in the water supply can somehow do this, yet pharmacologic dosing of lithium in women with bipolar disorder has not been reported to be causing increased risk of ASD.” Other studies have also suggested connections between ASD and environmental exposures to things like pesticides, air pollution and phthalates. But none of them points to any of these factors as a direct cause of the disorder. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. A link between environmental exposure and ASD is hard to prove, Wiznitzer said. With research showing that increased exposure to air pollution raises the risk of giving birth to a child with ASD, for example, he often wonders whether pollution is the determining factor or if it’s just the populations who live in more polluted areas. “There’s a lot of speculation about about environmental factors, but how many of them are truly causally associated?” Wiznitzer said. “We are bombarded with a variety of environmental stressors in our everyday lives. We have to figure out how to basically safely navigate them, and this is probably not one that’s high on our list.”
Not every Michigan school has a machine that could save a student's life during a cardiac arrest If a child's heart stops beating in school, the right training — and equipment — can make all the difference. Some schools in Michigan are prepared, according to officials, but Michigan doesn’t require schools or school athletic facilities to have automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Twenty other states and the District of Columbia do, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, which conducted a 2022 review of state laws. Sudden cardiac arrest is relatively uncommon, but still a threat for young people, particularly those who play sports: Nationally, about 39% of all incidents of sudden cardiac arrest among those younger than 18 occurred in a sports-related setting in 2022, according to the American Heart Association. Among those ages 19-25, about 13% were sports-related. This week, a community in Detroit felt the shattering impact of a sudden cardiac arrest in a young person. Cartier Woods, an 18-year-old senior at Northwestern High School, died Tuesday, a week after suffering cardiac arrest during a Jan. 31 basketball game. Woods remained on life support for a week before his passing. A CLASSMATE MOURNED:Cartier Woods remembered as a talented sports player and a 'friendly giant' Coach George Tyson performed CPR. As others were preparing to use an AED on Woods, emergency medical workers arrived, said Chrystal Wilson, assistant superintendent of communications for DPSCD. All DPSCD schools have AEDs, Wilson said. “All athletic directors and coordinators are CPR-certified,” she said. “Nurses are also trained to use AEDs.” Dr. Peter Fattal, a cardiologist from Saginaw and past-advocacy chair of the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, said there’s little that’s more emotional than watching a young athlete succumb to sudden cardiac arrest. “We just saw it with Damar Hamlin on a national TV and think about the millions of people that witnessed that,” he said of Hamlin, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a January Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. “There’s a lot of messages kind of hidden in there. … When you see that, there is this overwhelming desire to think: ‘Well, what can I do about that? How can we prevent that from happening?’ There are things we can do now.” Why rapid intervention matters In March 2011, 16-year-old Wes Leonard shot a game-winning basket at Fennville High School, about 45 minutes southwest of Grand Rapids. His teammates hoisted him into the air. And Wes collapsed, prompting, at first, a wave of confusion from teammates. An AED previously affixed to a wall near the high school's gym had been removed at some point before the Thursday night game. A principal found the machine in a storage room, but the battery was dead. Minutes passed. And Wes died. His mother was later told that his heart could have been started again with assistance from an AED. Wes had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is found in about 1 in 500 people, said Dr. Justin Trivax, an interventional cardiologist at Corewell Health. It occurs when the bottom chamber of the heart gets abnormally thickened and electrical conduction does not move well through that thicker heart muscle. It can cause cardiac arrest during high levels of exercise. Wes' parents, crushed by their loss, started a nonprofit, Wes Leonard Heart Team, which helps get AEDs in schools. The organization has since donated 393 AEDs, primarily to schools, many in Michigan. Experts say that unless there’s immediate intervention, the chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest are low. According to the American College of Cardiology, the odds of survival fall 10% for every minute that passes between when a person collapses and when a shock is applied from an automated external defibrillator. “If there is any delay (in treatment), most cardiac arrests that occur outside of the hospital will die,” Trivax said. “About 90% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital do not survive." Cathy Farris, lead district nurse for the Novi Community School District and a nurse in the pediatric cardiothoracic intensive care unit at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, said teenagers in particular are more likely to have arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, than a younger child. Farris said chances are high that older students, from middle school on, would require AED intervention in the event of a cardiac emergency. CPR and AED requirements in Michigan Wes was on the mind of then-state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, when she introduced legislation that passed in 2016, requiring schools to offer instruction on CPR and AED operation. Schools can decide whether to offer a certification program, or provide hands-only CPR, a tactic for survival. The Michigan High School Athletic Association, however, requires head coaches of varsity, junior varsity, and ninth grade teams to have valid CPR certification. Schuitmaker, who is no longer in office, said her priority was training at the time. Requiring AEDs, which usually cost about $1,500 each, in every school would have come with a hefty price tag, especially for large districts. "We tried to do it with the least cost impact of school districts," she said. While state law does not require AEDs on campus, many schools have them. The MI HeartSAFE School Program — supported by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Department of Education, the American Heart Association, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young — developed criteria for schools to be designated HeartSAFE. Among the requirements: CPR/AED certification for at least 10% of staff and 50% of coaches, properly maintained AEDs on campus, and annual cardiac emergency drills. Currently several hundred schools, which can include private schools and universities, have the designation, according to MDHHS. However, the program is optional. Novi has 52 AEDs spread across nearly a dozen institutions in the district, Farris said. When Farris joined the district more than a decade ago, she said she found some AEDs needed better placement, and some buildings needed more. AEDs are located in Novi concession stands, too, in case doors to the inside of a school are locked. "For instance, some were in areas that were not accessible in the evenings, which wasn't helpful when you had Zumba going on in the gym," she said. The district has deployed the machines in a few instances, but on adults. If the cost of AEDs are restrictive, Farris recommends that other schools turn to nonprofits like Wes Leonard or Beaumont for sponsorship of the machines. AEDs also require maintenance, Farris said. Pads need to be changed every three years and batteries every four years. The Michigan law that mandated CPR training in schools after Wes' death was one step forward, said Fattal. Requiring AEDs in all schools and athletic facilities in Michigan would also be another leap toward saving lives. Michigan already requires health clubs, such as gyms, to have and maintain the devices. "There is no doubt that the more we can do to make AEDs available everywhere, but certainly within our schools, the better the chances are people will be able to survive these really devastating things," Fattal said. Fattal, who founded the Pulse3 Foundation, said his organization has supplied about 350 AEDs to schools and other athletic facilities in Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties over the last 15 years. “For the first seven years, we tracked the AEDs we put in, and we were able to identify 12 lives that were saved with the AEDs that we put in, which is very powerful,” he said. Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus at <email-pii> and Lily Altavena at <email-pii>.	<urn:uuid:6acb4d6f-b110-4648-93fe-65e75c176df6>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950383.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402043600-20230402073600-00232.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9726816415786743, "pii_count": 2, "score": 2.84375, "token_count": 1757, "url": "https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2023/02/09/cardiac-arrest-aed-defibrillators-michigan-schools/69885299007/" }	Not every Michigan school has a machine that could save a student's life during a cardiac arrest If a child's heart stops beating in school, the right training — and equipment — can make all the difference. Some schools in Michigan are prepared, according to officials, but Michigan doesn’t require schools or school athletic facilities to have automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Twenty other states and the District of Columbia do, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, which conducted a 2022 review of state laws. Sudden cardiac arrest is relatively uncommon, but still a threat for young people, particularly those who	play sports: Nationally, about 39% of all incidents of sudden cardiac arrest among those younger than 18 occurred in a sports-related setting in 2022, according to the American Heart Association. Among those ages 19-25, about 13% were sports-related. This week, a community in Detroit felt the shattering impact of a sudden cardiac arrest in a young person. Cartier Woods, an 18-year-old senior at Northwestern High School, died Tuesday, a week after suffering cardiac arrest during a Jan. 31 basketball game. Woods remained on life support for a week before his passing. A CLASSMATE MOURNED:Cartier Woods remembered as a talented sports player and a 'friendly giant' Coach George Tyson performed CPR. As others were preparing to use an AED on Woods, emergency medical workers arrived, said Chrystal Wilson, assistant superintendent of communications for DPSCD. All DPSCD schools have AEDs, Wilson said. “All athletic directors and coordinators are CPR-certified,” she said. “Nurses are also trained to use AEDs.” Dr. Peter Fattal, a cardiologist from Saginaw and past-advocacy chair of the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, said there’s little that’s more emotional than watching a young athlete succumb to sudden cardiac arrest. “We just saw it with Damar Hamlin on a national TV and think about the millions of people that witnessed that,” he said of Hamlin, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a January Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. “There’s a lot of messages kind of hidden in there. … When you see that, there is this overwhelming desire to think: ‘Well, what can I do about that? How can we prevent that from happening?’ There are things we can do now.” Why rapid intervention matters In March 2011, 16-year-old Wes Leonard shot a game-winning basket at Fennville High School, about 45 minutes southwest of Grand Rapids. His teammates hoisted him into the air. And Wes collapsed, prompting, at first, a wave of confusion from teammates. An AED previously affixed to a wall near the high school's gym had been removed at some point before the Thursday night game. A principal found the machine in a storage room, but the battery was dead. Minutes passed. And Wes died. His mother was later told that his heart could have been started again with assistance from an AED. Wes had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is found in about 1 in 500 people, said Dr. Justin Trivax, an interventional cardiologist at Corewell Health. It occurs when the bottom chamber of the heart gets abnormally thickened and electrical conduction does not move well through that thicker heart muscle. It can cause cardiac arrest during high levels of exercise. Wes' parents, crushed by their loss, started a nonprofit, Wes Leonard Heart Team, which helps get AEDs in schools. The organization has since donated 393 AEDs, primarily to schools, many in Michigan. Experts say that unless there’s immediate intervention, the chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest are low. According to the American College of Cardiology, the odds of survival fall 10% for every minute that passes between when a person collapses and when a shock is applied from an automated external defibrillator. “If there is any delay (in treatment), most cardiac arrests that occur outside of the hospital will die,” Trivax said. “About 90% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital do not survive." Cathy Farris, lead district nurse for the Novi Community School District and a nurse in the pediatric cardiothoracic intensive care unit at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, said teenagers in particular are more likely to have arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, than a younger child. Farris said chances are high that older students, from middle school on, would require AED intervention in the event of a cardiac emergency. CPR and AED requirements in Michigan Wes was on the mind of then-state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, when she introduced legislation that passed in 2016, requiring schools to offer instruction on CPR and AED operation. Schools can decide whether to offer a certification program, or provide hands-only CPR, a tactic for survival. The Michigan High School Athletic Association, however, requires head coaches of varsity, junior varsity, and ninth grade teams to have valid CPR certification. Schuitmaker, who is no longer in office, said her priority was training at the time. Requiring AEDs, which usually cost about $1,500 each, in every school would have come with a hefty price tag, especially for large districts. "We tried to do it with the least cost impact of school districts," she said. While state law does not require AEDs on campus, many schools have them. The MI HeartSAFE School Program — supported by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Department of Education, the American Heart Association, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young — developed criteria for schools to be designated HeartSAFE. Among the requirements: CPR/AED certification for at least 10% of staff and 50% of coaches, properly maintained AEDs on campus, and annual cardiac emergency drills. Currently several hundred schools, which can include private schools and universities, have the designation, according to MDHHS. However, the program is optional. Novi has 52 AEDs spread across nearly a dozen institutions in the district, Farris said. When Farris joined the district more than a decade ago, she said she found some AEDs needed better placement, and some buildings needed more. AEDs are located in Novi concession stands, too, in case doors to the inside of a school are locked. "For instance, some were in areas that were not accessible in the evenings, which wasn't helpful when you had Zumba going on in the gym," she said. The district has deployed the machines in a few instances, but on adults. If the cost of AEDs are restrictive, Farris recommends that other schools turn to nonprofits like Wes Leonard or Beaumont for sponsorship of the machines. AEDs also require maintenance, Farris said. Pads need to be changed every three years and batteries every four years. The Michigan law that mandated CPR training in schools after Wes' death was one step forward, said Fattal. Requiring AEDs in all schools and athletic facilities in Michigan would also be another leap toward saving lives. Michigan already requires health clubs, such as gyms, to have and maintain the devices. "There is no doubt that the more we can do to make AEDs available everywhere, but certainly within our schools, the better the chances are people will be able to survive these really devastating things," Fattal said. Fattal, who founded the Pulse3 Foundation, said his organization has supplied about 350 AEDs to schools and other athletic facilities in Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties over the last 15 years. “For the first seven years, we tracked the AEDs we put in, and we were able to identify 12 lives that were saved with the AEDs that we put in, which is very powerful,” he said. Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus at <email-pii> and Lily Altavena at <email-pii>.
As reported this past week in the New York Times and elsewhere, more than half the states in the U.S. now allow the sale of raw milk. In some states, you can only buy raw milk at a farm, but in 14 states you can buy it in stores. So why are some people excited about raw milk? Well, the implication is that if’ it’s less processed, it must be better, right? After all, we learned recently that ultra-processed foods are pretty bad for you. (There’s pretty good evidence for that.) And milk is one of those products that people associate with health. For the first few months of life, we humans live entirely on milk–but that’s milk from a woman’s breast. Cow milk is a different matter. It’s not nearly so, shall we say, clean. It only took a minute for me to find claims that raw milk has all kinds of benefits: supposedly it helps you digest food better, it has more vitamins and minerals, it boosts your immune system, and it’s better for people with lactose intolerance. (I won’t link to any of those claims because they’re all bogus, and I don’t want to give scammers any more web traffic.) Before listing some of the special properties of raw milk, let’s consider how it’s processed. The main thing we do to milk is pasteurization: a very simple process where the milk is heated just enough to kill any bacteria in it. It’s not boiled, and the mild heating doesn’t destroy any of milk’s nutrients. Pasteurization is named after the French scientist Louis Pasteur, who invented the process in the 1860s. Originally it was used to preserve wine, but people eventually discovered it worked just as well for milk and other foods. Back in the 1860s, people didn’t even know that bacteria caused disease, and Pasteur was one of the pioneers who figured that out. So what does raw milk have in it? Well, it can carry a long list of delightful bacteria, including the ones that cause tuberculosis, brucellosis, scarlet fever, salmonella. And of course there is E. coli, including strains that can cause terrible diarrhea. Bacteria just love milk, it turns out. Raw milk is teeming with them, and many of them are really not good for humans. Fortunately for most of us, pasteurization kills bacteria very effectively. And there’s one more special thing you get in raw milk that you won’t get in pasteurized milk: cow poop. Funny thing, though: on the advertisements I found for the benefits of raw milk, none of them mentioned this. So sure, get your raw milk and live like it’s 1850 again! Never mind that pasteurization has saved countless millions of lives. Seriously, folks: there’s no reason whatsoever to drink raw milk. And states that allow the sale of raw milk are endangering the health of their own people.	<urn:uuid:05f37a82-781a-4292-a1f2-1fd37e2530b9>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2024-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474523.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224044749-20240224074749-00844.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9618055820465088, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.734375, "token_count": 651, "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2023/07/17/the-benefits-of-raw-milk/" }	As reported this past week in the New York Times and elsewhere, more than half the states in the U.S. now allow the sale of raw milk. In some states, you can only buy raw milk at a farm, but in 14 states you can buy it in stores. So why are some people excited about raw milk? Well, the implication is that if’ it’s less processed, it must be better, right? After all, we learned recently that ultra-processed foods are pretty bad for you. (There’s pretty good evidence for that.) And milk is one of those products that people associate with health. For	the first few months of life, we humans live entirely on milk–but that’s milk from a woman’s breast. Cow milk is a different matter. It’s not nearly so, shall we say, clean. It only took a minute for me to find claims that raw milk has all kinds of benefits: supposedly it helps you digest food better, it has more vitamins and minerals, it boosts your immune system, and it’s better for people with lactose intolerance. (I won’t link to any of those claims because they’re all bogus, and I don’t want to give scammers any more web traffic.) Before listing some of the special properties of raw milk, let’s consider how it’s processed. The main thing we do to milk is pasteurization: a very simple process where the milk is heated just enough to kill any bacteria in it. It’s not boiled, and the mild heating doesn’t destroy any of milk’s nutrients. Pasteurization is named after the French scientist Louis Pasteur, who invented the process in the 1860s. Originally it was used to preserve wine, but people eventually discovered it worked just as well for milk and other foods. Back in the 1860s, people didn’t even know that bacteria caused disease, and Pasteur was one of the pioneers who figured that out. So what does raw milk have in it? Well, it can carry a long list of delightful bacteria, including the ones that cause tuberculosis, brucellosis, scarlet fever, salmonella. And of course there is E. coli, including strains that can cause terrible diarrhea. Bacteria just love milk, it turns out. Raw milk is teeming with them, and many of them are really not good for humans. Fortunately for most of us, pasteurization kills bacteria very effectively. And there’s one more special thing you get in raw milk that you won’t get in pasteurized milk: cow poop. Funny thing, though: on the advertisements I found for the benefits of raw milk, none of them mentioned this. So sure, get your raw milk and live like it’s 1850 again! Never mind that pasteurization has saved countless millions of lives. Seriously, folks: there’s no reason whatsoever to drink raw milk. And states that allow the sale of raw milk are endangering the health of their own people.
For families who have a child with autism, traveling can sometimes be a challenge. According to the CDC, Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Kids with autism often have problems with social communication and interaction and may have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. Kids with autism often have sensitivity to smells and loud noises. Social situations can also be difficult and anxiety-provoking for them. The good news is that resorts are starting to create programs specifically for kids with autism. Beaches Resorts has innovative programming for kids with special needs. In fact, the properties have launched the Caribbean’s first autism-friendly kids camps. What does this mean? The staff is trained in several different areas, including sensory awareness (knowing that kids with autism can quickly feel overwhelmed by too much stimuli). The staff has also been instructed on how to work with kids with autism who have motor challenges, as well as social and communication challenges. The staff has gone through extensive training on what autism is and techniques to help those with ASD including how to make a soothing and fun environment. Additionally, all three Beaches resorts have low-sensory areas/zones for kids who need a minute to decompress. And what child could not benefit from that? Beaches has three different properties in the Caribbean: two in Jamaica—Beaches Negril and Beaches Ocho Rios—and one resort in Turks and Caicos. Beaches Turks and Caicos is the flagship property and the biggest and most expansive of the three. According to the CDC, kids with autism often have delayed language skills so it’s hard to know what they want or need. They may be hyperactive, impulsive or have inattentive behavior. They often have GI issues (like being constipated), unusually eating or sleeping habits and unusual mood or emotional reactions. Without trained professionals overseeing kids with autism, these kids are often misunderstood and labeled as misbehaving. Beaches is the first resort company in the world to complete the rigorous IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards) and Autism Certification, representing the gold standard in global cognitive disorder training and certification. In 2021, the brand became the only company in the world to recertify its credentials as an Advanced Certified Autism Center through the year 2023, with Beaches team members completing at least 40 hours of autism sensitivity training. So, how does it work? Parents can call a dedicated number to speak with Beaches’ Special Services Team, certified by IBCCES, during the planning stages of their vacation. The trained team can assist in recommending experiences and advise on specific suite locations to limit stimuli, request cleaning products to alleviate sensitivities to smells and even recommend the most convenient airport transportation to take. Through Beaches’ dedicated Culinary Concierge, families can pre-plan meals according to allergies and specific diets (many kids with autism are on specific diets including gluten-free). Parents can also request a One-on-One Beaches Buddy who has been accredited by IBCCES in advance autism training. This buddy can stay with the child for their entire stay or just for a few hours. Beaches Resorts have also incorporated autism awareness and training into their Sesame Street offerings. One of the Sesame Street characters is Julia a 4-year-old girl with autism. Julia interacts with the other characters and the children through the activity Amazing Art with Julia. Through this activity Julia, who loves to paint, highlights how people can express themselves through art. One of the most popular programs at Beaches is their PADI-certified scuba diving lessons. These instructors have also been certified through IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards), with Beaches team members completing at least 40 hours of autism sensitivity training. The certification makes scuba diving at Beaches accessible for everyone because of the autism-certified staff. Many individuals on the autism spectrum are drawn to water, and the Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation (ASDF) highlights that swimming can help children on the spectrum improve speech, coordination and balance, social skills, self-esteem, cognitive processing, communication skills and oral motor skills. Often vacations can be a challenging time for families with a child with autism. Siblings may feel like their needs are not being met and parents of kids with ASD are hypervigilant at all times—which is not relaxing. So knowing that a child is in good hands—either at a kid’s camp specially designed to meet their needs or with a one-on-one buddy trained in ASD—allows the whole family to enjoy their getaway.	<urn:uuid:8e593bd6-612f-4996-b6cf-c22c100bbaf1>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943809.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322082826-20230322112826-00415.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9601518511772156, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.5625, "token_count": 977, "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/judykoutsky/2023/01/31/autism-friendly-travel-for-families/" }	For families who have a child with autism, traveling can sometimes be a challenge. According to the CDC, Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Kids with autism often have problems with social communication and interaction and may have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. Kids with autism often have sensitivity to smells and loud noises. Social situations can also be difficult and anxiety-provoking for them. The good news is that resorts are starting to create programs specifically for kids with autism. Beaches Resorts has innovative programming for kids with special needs. In fact, the properties	have launched the Caribbean’s first autism-friendly kids camps. What does this mean? The staff is trained in several different areas, including sensory awareness (knowing that kids with autism can quickly feel overwhelmed by too much stimuli). The staff has also been instructed on how to work with kids with autism who have motor challenges, as well as social and communication challenges. The staff has gone through extensive training on what autism is and techniques to help those with ASD including how to make a soothing and fun environment. Additionally, all three Beaches resorts have low-sensory areas/zones for kids who need a minute to decompress. And what child could not benefit from that? Beaches has three different properties in the Caribbean: two in Jamaica—Beaches Negril and Beaches Ocho Rios—and one resort in Turks and Caicos. Beaches Turks and Caicos is the flagship property and the biggest and most expansive of the three. According to the CDC, kids with autism often have delayed language skills so it’s hard to know what they want or need. They may be hyperactive, impulsive or have inattentive behavior. They often have GI issues (like being constipated), unusually eating or sleeping habits and unusual mood or emotional reactions. Without trained professionals overseeing kids with autism, these kids are often misunderstood and labeled as misbehaving. Beaches is the first resort company in the world to complete the rigorous IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards) and Autism Certification, representing the gold standard in global cognitive disorder training and certification. In 2021, the brand became the only company in the world to recertify its credentials as an Advanced Certified Autism Center through the year 2023, with Beaches team members completing at least 40 hours of autism sensitivity training. So, how does it work? Parents can call a dedicated number to speak with Beaches’ Special Services Team, certified by IBCCES, during the planning stages of their vacation. The trained team can assist in recommending experiences and advise on specific suite locations to limit stimuli, request cleaning products to alleviate sensitivities to smells and even recommend the most convenient airport transportation to take. Through Beaches’ dedicated Culinary Concierge, families can pre-plan meals according to allergies and specific diets (many kids with autism are on specific diets including gluten-free). Parents can also request a One-on-One Beaches Buddy who has been accredited by IBCCES in advance autism training. This buddy can stay with the child for their entire stay or just for a few hours. Beaches Resorts have also incorporated autism awareness and training into their Sesame Street offerings. One of the Sesame Street characters is Julia a 4-year-old girl with autism. Julia interacts with the other characters and the children through the activity Amazing Art with Julia. Through this activity Julia, who loves to paint, highlights how people can express themselves through art. One of the most popular programs at Beaches is their PADI-certified scuba diving lessons. These instructors have also been certified through IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards), with Beaches team members completing at least 40 hours of autism sensitivity training. The certification makes scuba diving at Beaches accessible for everyone because of the autism-certified staff. Many individuals on the autism spectrum are drawn to water, and the Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation (ASDF) highlights that swimming can help children on the spectrum improve speech, coordination and balance, social skills, self-esteem, cognitive processing, communication skills and oral motor skills. Often vacations can be a challenging time for families with a child with autism. Siblings may feel like their needs are not being met and parents of kids with ASD are hypervigilant at all times—which is not relaxing. So knowing that a child is in good hands—either at a kid’s camp specially designed to meet their needs or with a one-on-one buddy trained in ASD—allows the whole family to enjoy their getaway.
In 2007, Linda Stone, a former Microsoft executive, realized that even though she did breathing exercises every morning, when she sat down at her laptop and opened up her inbox, it all went out the window. “I would be like, Huh, I was just breathing but I’m not breathing anymore,” she said. Her inhales and exhales became barely detectable and shallow, she noticed. Ms. Stone decided to conduct an informal study (“dining room table science,” she called it), inviting 200 people into her home — friends, neighbors, family members — and monitoring their heart rate and breathing while they checked their email. Roughly 80 percent of participants periodically held their breath or altered their breathing, she said. She named the phenomenon “email apnea” and described her findings in a widely read 2008 piece in The Huffington Post. Ms. Stone has since expanded the concept and renamed it “screen apnea,” referring to the disruption of breathing many of us experience doing all kinds of tasks in front of a screen. The issue has most likely worsened with our increased use of screens, said James Nestor, who examined the phenomenon in his 2020 book, “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.” “You have 10 different screens open. Someone’s texting you, someone’s calling you, someone’s emailing you,” he said, adding that we have not evolved to be “constantly stimulated.” Screen apnea is a manifestation of our body’s stress response, said Stephen Porges, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in the autonomic nervous system. When we’re faced with any kind of stimuli, our nervous system looks for signals to decipher whether or not it’s a threat, Dr. Porges said. That focus and attention requires mental effort, which kicks off a chain of physiological changes including shallower breathing and a slowing of heart rate to “quiet” your body and divert resources to help you focus, he said. He gave the example of cats stalking their prey; often right before they attack, they will freeze and their breathing will become shallow. That, he said, is essentially what is happening when you get an email, text or Slack message: You freeze, read and come up with a plan of action. The more unexpected a stimulus is — say, getting a text notification out of the blue — the more likely the body is to perceive it as a threat. While these reflexes aren’t harmful on occasion, they become an issue if they’re switched on all day, every day, because it shifts “the nervous system into a chronic state of threat,” Dr. Porges said. Hours of shallow breathing can make you feel exhausted after a day of work, he said, even if that work isn’t particularly stressful. The lack of movement that comes from sitting in front a screen might also be a contributor to screen apnea, said Dr. David Spiegel, director of the Center on Stress and Health at Stanford Medicine. Disrupted breathing is the result of “a combination of not just what you’re doing but what you’re not doing,” he said, adding that he noticed screen apnea among patients who worked high-stress jobs for long hours without getting much exercise or sleep. There are a few simple practices you can adopt for better breathing habits, even in our increasingly screen-bound lives. Set up breath reminders A few gentle-sounding alerts throughout the day can remind you to check in on your breathing, Mr. Nestor said. Ask yourself: Are you breathing through your mouth (often an indicator of shallow breath)? Are you breathing at all? The awareness helps you snap out of it, he said. If you catch yourself breathing shallowly or not at all, try sighing audibly, Dr. Spiegel said. Studies suggest that can be a quick and easy way to reset breathing patterns. In a study published in January, Dr. Spiegel and his team found that while many breathing techniques are valuable, cyclic sighing — in which the exhale lasts longer than the inhale — is particularly effective for improving mood. Try larger screens Dr. Porges hypothesizes that the larger your screen, the less mentally taxing it can be. “As you narrow the visual field, you’re increasing the demand on your nervous system to exclude everything outside of it,” he said. Responding to messages on a desktop monitor often feels easier than responding on a phone, which “is a more intensely focused constriction of movement,” Dr. Spiegel said. Make your breaks count People will often step away from their computers for a break only to end up responding to messages on their phones, Dr. Porges said. He suggested carving out a few moments to do things that don’t require too much mental effort — like listening to music — so that your nervous system can switch from a state of focus and vigilance to one of relaxation. Adding physical activity to your breaks — like walking in nature — is another way of restoring balance, Dr. Spiegel said. It’s a simple thing, he said, “that can help our bodies work better.”	<urn:uuid:7d96ab17-0a73-4845-8db8-89bcea3561d4>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2024-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474412.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223121413-20240223151413-00599.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9614279270172119, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.921875, "token_count": 1118, "url": "https://dnyuz.com/2023/08/21/checking-email-youre-probably-not-breathing/" }	In 2007, Linda Stone, a former Microsoft executive, realized that even though she did breathing exercises every morning, when she sat down at her laptop and opened up her inbox, it all went out the window. “I would be like, Huh, I was just breathing but I’m not breathing anymore,” she said. Her inhales and exhales became barely detectable and shallow, she noticed. Ms. Stone decided to conduct an informal study (“dining room table science,” she called it), inviting 200 people into her home — friends, neighbors, family members — and monitoring their heart rate and	breathing while they checked their email. Roughly 80 percent of participants periodically held their breath or altered their breathing, she said. She named the phenomenon “email apnea” and described her findings in a widely read 2008 piece in The Huffington Post. Ms. Stone has since expanded the concept and renamed it “screen apnea,” referring to the disruption of breathing many of us experience doing all kinds of tasks in front of a screen. The issue has most likely worsened with our increased use of screens, said James Nestor, who examined the phenomenon in his 2020 book, “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.” “You have 10 different screens open. Someone’s texting you, someone’s calling you, someone’s emailing you,” he said, adding that we have not evolved to be “constantly stimulated.” Screen apnea is a manifestation of our body’s stress response, said Stephen Porges, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in the autonomic nervous system. When we’re faced with any kind of stimuli, our nervous system looks for signals to decipher whether or not it’s a threat, Dr. Porges said. That focus and attention requires mental effort, which kicks off a chain of physiological changes including shallower breathing and a slowing of heart rate to “quiet” your body and divert resources to help you focus, he said. He gave the example of cats stalking their prey; often right before they attack, they will freeze and their breathing will become shallow. That, he said, is essentially what is happening when you get an email, text or Slack message: You freeze, read and come up with a plan of action. The more unexpected a stimulus is — say, getting a text notification out of the blue — the more likely the body is to perceive it as a threat. While these reflexes aren’t harmful on occasion, they become an issue if they’re switched on all day, every day, because it shifts “the nervous system into a chronic state of threat,” Dr. Porges said. Hours of shallow breathing can make you feel exhausted after a day of work, he said, even if that work isn’t particularly stressful. The lack of movement that comes from sitting in front a screen might also be a contributor to screen apnea, said Dr. David Spiegel, director of the Center on Stress and Health at Stanford Medicine. Disrupted breathing is the result of “a combination of not just what you’re doing but what you’re not doing,” he said, adding that he noticed screen apnea among patients who worked high-stress jobs for long hours without getting much exercise or sleep. There are a few simple practices you can adopt for better breathing habits, even in our increasingly screen-bound lives. Set up breath reminders A few gentle-sounding alerts throughout the day can remind you to check in on your breathing, Mr. Nestor said. Ask yourself: Are you breathing through your mouth (often an indicator of shallow breath)? Are you breathing at all? The awareness helps you snap out of it, he said. If you catch yourself breathing shallowly or not at all, try sighing audibly, Dr. Spiegel said. Studies suggest that can be a quick and easy way to reset breathing patterns. In a study published in January, Dr. Spiegel and his team found that while many breathing techniques are valuable, cyclic sighing — in which the exhale lasts longer than the inhale — is particularly effective for improving mood. Try larger screens Dr. Porges hypothesizes that the larger your screen, the less mentally taxing it can be. “As you narrow the visual field, you’re increasing the demand on your nervous system to exclude everything outside of it,” he said. Responding to messages on a desktop monitor often feels easier than responding on a phone, which “is a more intensely focused constriction of movement,” Dr. Spiegel said. Make your breaks count People will often step away from their computers for a break only to end up responding to messages on their phones, Dr. Porges said. He suggested carving out a few moments to do things that don’t require too much mental effort — like listening to music — so that your nervous system can switch from a state of focus and vigilance to one of relaxation. Adding physical activity to your breaks — like walking in nature — is another way of restoring balance, Dr. Spiegel said. It’s a simple thing, he said, “that can help our bodies work better.”
History Mystery: The mystery behind gravestone in the Marler Memorial Cemetery The gravestone of Edward M. Knapp is the second tallest gravestone in the Marler Memorial Cemetery. The only gravestone taller is that of Leonard Destin, the founder of Destin. Just who was Edward M. Knapp and why is he buried in the Marler Memorial Cemetery? That is our History Mystery for this month. Edward Knapp’s story is interesting and shows just what a tight-knit community Destin was in the early fish camp era, before roads, bridges, tourists, motels, and condos. It was a tight-knit community where a person could be buried in the local cemetery that actually never lived there. The Knapp Family – Edward’s father, John Sullivan Knapp was born in 1844 in Illinois, and Edward’s mother, Christina, was born in 1853 in Missouri. Edward Morris Knapp was their oldest child. He was born in Asley (Scott County), Illinois on Aug. 14, 1871, and grew up in Westchester (Scott County), Missouri, which is located just north of Asley. Searching historical records for Edward Morris Knapp found him living in Saint Louis, Missouri in the 1890s, likely attending school. On March 2, 1897, he married Cecily Flynn in Clayton (St. Louis County), Missouri. By the time of the 1900 federal census, Edward and his wife, Cecily, were living in Havana, Cuba at the Headquarters, Department of Matanzas, and Santa Clara Hospital Corps; Armed Forces-Foreign Company. Edward M. Knapp served in the Spanish-American War. After the war, Knapp stayed in Cuba and he served as clerk, Engineer Department at Large, from April 17, 1899, to July 31, 1902, at the Engineer Office, Territorial Department. Then the same day, July 31, 1902, Knapp was appointed clerk in the classified service (Civil Service) in Cuba. Edward Knapp continued working as a civil servant for the U.S. Army until Nov. 30, 1910, when he resigned. He and his family planned to join Edward’s parents in Northwest Florida, near Destin, when they returned to the United States. Edward’s parents had staked a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 on land in Shoals, Florida, (now called Miramar Beach) in 1909. They homesteaded Lots 1 & 2 in Section 29, Township 2-south, Range 21-west, containing 144 and 15/100 acres. One of these lots could have been where Edward Knapp planned to build his home. Edward Knapp’s Relocation to Shoals, Florida - Edward Knapp resigned on Nov. 30, 1910, from civil service with plans to relocate to Shoals (Washington County), Florida on land that his parents owned. It does seem that he was in the area before 1910 because he was well-known to the locals in Destin. In 1925 the population of Shoals was 32 and Destin was 32. They were the same size. Destin had a post office and a store run by William T. “Billy” Marler. Billy Marler also took care of the local cemetery, made caskets, and took care of local burials. On Dec. 26, 1910, four weeks after Edward retired from the government, he was in Florida moving his family to Shoals when he drowned in Choctawhatchee Bay between Santa Rosa and Shoals. From an affidavit from William T. “Billy” Marler, we know what happened to him. Edward fell off a motor boat while moving furniture to his home in Shoals and died. He was pulled from the water, but no one knew how to resuscitate him. There wasn’t a cemetery in Shoals, and everybody who came to Shoals came through Destin because the water around Shoals was so shallow. Billy built the coffin, helped conduct the funeral service, and ordered the Woodman of the World gravestone. According to an affidavit handwritten by Billy, he had been the postmaster of Destin since 1899 and had been the light keeper for East Pass for 34 years. Billy and his son, William E. Marler, both knew Edward and were friends of his, and both were at his funeral. The only thing that remains in the local area to remind us of the life of Edward M. Knapp, or the Knapp family, is that gravestone. The second tallest grave marker in the Marler Memorial Cemetery. That gravestone was ordered from the Woodman of the World fraternal insurance organization by William T. “Billy” Marler, and placed above Edward’s grave by his friend. H. C. “Hank” Klein is a Destin historian, author, and speaker on local history. He lives in Bob Hope Village in Shalimar with his wife (the former Muriel Marler of Destin). Klein recently published two Destin history books - DESTIN Pioneer Settlers...A Land History of Destin, Florida from 1819-1940 and DESTIN’S Founding Father…The Untold Story of Leonard Destin. Both can be obtained from Amazon.com, The Destin History & Fishing Museum in Destin, Henderson Beach Resort in Destin, The Indian Temple Mound in Fort Walton Beach, and Sundog Books in Seaside. Klein can be contacted directly <email-pii>.	<urn:uuid:26718da2-976f-4a35-baa2-371adc15873c>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945333.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325130029-20230325160029-00423.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9769588112831116, "pii_count": 1, "score": 2.859375, "token_count": 1140, "url": "https://www.thedestinlog.com/story/news/local/2023/01/28/history-mystery-behind-gravestone-at-marler-memorial-cemetery/69837588007/" }	History Mystery: The mystery behind gravestone in the Marler Memorial Cemetery The gravestone of Edward M. Knapp is the second tallest gravestone in the Marler Memorial Cemetery. The only gravestone taller is that of Leonard Destin, the founder of Destin. Just who was Edward M. Knapp and why is he buried in the Marler Memorial Cemetery? That is our History Mystery for this month. Edward Knapp’s story is interesting and shows just what a tight-knit community Destin was in the early fish camp era, before roads, bridges, tourists, motels, and cond	os. It was a tight-knit community where a person could be buried in the local cemetery that actually never lived there. The Knapp Family – Edward’s father, John Sullivan Knapp was born in 1844 in Illinois, and Edward’s mother, Christina, was born in 1853 in Missouri. Edward Morris Knapp was their oldest child. He was born in Asley (Scott County), Illinois on Aug. 14, 1871, and grew up in Westchester (Scott County), Missouri, which is located just north of Asley. Searching historical records for Edward Morris Knapp found him living in Saint Louis, Missouri in the 1890s, likely attending school. On March 2, 1897, he married Cecily Flynn in Clayton (St. Louis County), Missouri. By the time of the 1900 federal census, Edward and his wife, Cecily, were living in Havana, Cuba at the Headquarters, Department of Matanzas, and Santa Clara Hospital Corps; Armed Forces-Foreign Company. Edward M. Knapp served in the Spanish-American War. After the war, Knapp stayed in Cuba and he served as clerk, Engineer Department at Large, from April 17, 1899, to July 31, 1902, at the Engineer Office, Territorial Department. Then the same day, July 31, 1902, Knapp was appointed clerk in the classified service (Civil Service) in Cuba. Edward Knapp continued working as a civil servant for the U.S. Army until Nov. 30, 1910, when he resigned. He and his family planned to join Edward’s parents in Northwest Florida, near Destin, when they returned to the United States. Edward’s parents had staked a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 on land in Shoals, Florida, (now called Miramar Beach) in 1909. They homesteaded Lots 1 & 2 in Section 29, Township 2-south, Range 21-west, containing 144 and 15/100 acres. One of these lots could have been where Edward Knapp planned to build his home. Edward Knapp’s Relocation to Shoals, Florida - Edward Knapp resigned on Nov. 30, 1910, from civil service with plans to relocate to Shoals (Washington County), Florida on land that his parents owned. It does seem that he was in the area before 1910 because he was well-known to the locals in Destin. In 1925 the population of Shoals was 32 and Destin was 32. They were the same size. Destin had a post office and a store run by William T. “Billy” Marler. Billy Marler also took care of the local cemetery, made caskets, and took care of local burials. On Dec. 26, 1910, four weeks after Edward retired from the government, he was in Florida moving his family to Shoals when he drowned in Choctawhatchee Bay between Santa Rosa and Shoals. From an affidavit from William T. “Billy” Marler, we know what happened to him. Edward fell off a motor boat while moving furniture to his home in Shoals and died. He was pulled from the water, but no one knew how to resuscitate him. There wasn’t a cemetery in Shoals, and everybody who came to Shoals came through Destin because the water around Shoals was so shallow. Billy built the coffin, helped conduct the funeral service, and ordered the Woodman of the World gravestone. According to an affidavit handwritten by Billy, he had been the postmaster of Destin since 1899 and had been the light keeper for East Pass for 34 years. Billy and his son, William E. Marler, both knew Edward and were friends of his, and both were at his funeral. The only thing that remains in the local area to remind us of the life of Edward M. Knapp, or the Knapp family, is that gravestone. The second tallest grave marker in the Marler Memorial Cemetery. That gravestone was ordered from the Woodman of the World fraternal insurance organization by William T. “Billy” Marler, and placed above Edward’s grave by his friend. H. C. “Hank” Klein is a Destin historian, author, and speaker on local history. He lives in Bob Hope Village in Shalimar with his wife (the former Muriel Marler of Destin). Klein recently published two Destin history books - DESTIN Pioneer Settlers...A Land History of Destin, Florida from 1819-1940 and DESTIN’S Founding Father…The Untold Story of Leonard Destin. Both can be obtained from Amazon.com, The Destin History & Fishing Museum in Destin, Henderson Beach Resort in Destin, The Indian Temple Mound in Fort Walton Beach, and Sundog Books in Seaside. Klein can be contacted directly <email-pii>.
Inherited wealth, intergenerational gifts: these are touchy subjects. Many believe they drive a fundamental inequality in society that no amount of success in the workplace can match. And yet it is labour that gets taxed the most, that the State relies on financially, not taxes on wealth. The notion that trust fund kids are still richer than young go-getters because of the actions of a previous generation is provocative and undoubtedly true in many cases. But inherited wealth – its spread, its impact – is more complex and more nuanced than that. The Central Bank weighed into the debate last week with a new study, entitled “The Long and the Short of it: Inheritance and Wealth in Ireland”, which delivers some perhaps expected findings and one less obvious one. It reveals that over a third of households in Ireland (approximately 690,000) have received some kind of inheritance or gift in the last 20 years. The accumulated value of these intergenerational transfers was put at €97 billion. Money was the most common type of asset received (57 per cent) followed by dwellings (33 per cent) and land (19 per cent). According to the authors, the average value of such transfers in 2020 terms was €229,335, with the median value being €80,913. The study, conducted in the second half of 2020, found that households which had received inheritances or gifts were “substantially wealthier” than those that did not. Their median income was typically 17 per cent higher while their net wealth was 155 per cent higher. Households that received inheritances also tended to own more homes and more businesses than their non-inheriting counterparts. The study also noted that inherited wealth in Ireland as a proportion of overall wealth has been rising, with a greater proportion of households in 2020 inheriting wealth in the past 20 years than any time before this. These are perhaps the expected findings. The surprising one was that these transfers are not driving increased levels of inequality, which at first might seem counterintuitive. The study found that inherited wealth represented a greater share of total net wealth for households in the middle of the wealth distribution curve than for the wealthiest households. As a result, the study concluded, it contributed little to wealth inequality, “and may even have reduced it over time”. In other words, inheritances for the super wealthy make less of a meaningful difference because they are already wealthy while inheritances for those in the middle of the income distribution do have a meaningful impact, lifting those in the middle up. Another way of saying this would be that inheritances are important for acquiring wealth, but they don’t make much difference to the overall distribution of wealth here. If inheritances aren’t the primary driver of inequality here, what is? Housing. Several studies bear that out. A recent one by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) concluded that home-ownership was the primary delineator of wealth in Ireland and that falling rates of home ownership coincided with increased level of inequality. The wealth equation is a hard one to disentangle, however. We know that approximately 40 per cent of first-time buyers are being gifted money to help them build a deposit to buy a home. If housing is the chief driver of wealth, that would seem to link these gifts to inequality. Nonetheless, the Central Bank’s study concludes otherwise. French economist Thomas Piketty’s argument is that the wealth generated from a return on assets – financial, property – will always outstrip earned wealth. He argues therefore that inherited wealth will, on average, “dominate wealth amassed from a lifetime’s labour by a wide margin”. In Ireland, housing has generated high returns, much higher that what you could save out of your labour income to invest. Hence its central place in the equality debate here. The authors of the Central Bank’s study also note that their research does not capture transfers of human capital or intangibles as they call them. “There is evidence that human capital transfers across generations are persistent and that family environment is also important for these transfers,” they say. In other words, if your parents are better-educated, if they are well-connected, if they offer their children jobs in the family company, that unsurprisingly translates into better wealth outcomes for their offspring. We’ve no way of measuring this type of transfer. Shifting the burden of taxation away from labour to property has long been advocated on the grounds that labour is more productive and beneficial to society and property less so. There’s a strong argument for affording labour a better roll of the tax dice. The Commission on Taxation has advocated just such a shift in emphasis, noting in a recent report that taxes on wealth and property here were too low and should be increased to broaden the tax base and protect the tax system from future challenges. Most people tend to support increased levels of inheritance tax provided it falls on people richer than them. Wherever people are in the income distribution curve, those with wealthier parents will inherit more than those with poorer ones. How much this damages social mobility is an open question.	<urn:uuid:d12b6749-5314-4a45-8caa-ce49049cb345>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-06", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499819.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130133622-20230130163622-00325.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9770171642303467, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.625, "token_count": 1072, "url": "https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2023/01/22/inherited-wealth-is-it-driving-inequality-or-not/" }	Inherited wealth, intergenerational gifts: these are touchy subjects. Many believe they drive a fundamental inequality in society that no amount of success in the workplace can match. And yet it is labour that gets taxed the most, that the State relies on financially, not taxes on wealth. The notion that trust fund kids are still richer than young go-getters because of the actions of a previous generation is provocative and undoubtedly true in many cases. But inherited wealth – its spread, its impact – is more complex and more nuanced than that. The Central Bank weighed into the debate last week with a new study, entitled “	The Long and the Short of it: Inheritance and Wealth in Ireland”, which delivers some perhaps expected findings and one less obvious one. It reveals that over a third of households in Ireland (approximately 690,000) have received some kind of inheritance or gift in the last 20 years. The accumulated value of these intergenerational transfers was put at €97 billion. Money was the most common type of asset received (57 per cent) followed by dwellings (33 per cent) and land (19 per cent). According to the authors, the average value of such transfers in 2020 terms was €229,335, with the median value being €80,913. The study, conducted in the second half of 2020, found that households which had received inheritances or gifts were “substantially wealthier” than those that did not. Their median income was typically 17 per cent higher while their net wealth was 155 per cent higher. Households that received inheritances also tended to own more homes and more businesses than their non-inheriting counterparts. The study also noted that inherited wealth in Ireland as a proportion of overall wealth has been rising, with a greater proportion of households in 2020 inheriting wealth in the past 20 years than any time before this. These are perhaps the expected findings. The surprising one was that these transfers are not driving increased levels of inequality, which at first might seem counterintuitive. The study found that inherited wealth represented a greater share of total net wealth for households in the middle of the wealth distribution curve than for the wealthiest households. As a result, the study concluded, it contributed little to wealth inequality, “and may even have reduced it over time”. In other words, inheritances for the super wealthy make less of a meaningful difference because they are already wealthy while inheritances for those in the middle of the income distribution do have a meaningful impact, lifting those in the middle up. Another way of saying this would be that inheritances are important for acquiring wealth, but they don’t make much difference to the overall distribution of wealth here. If inheritances aren’t the primary driver of inequality here, what is? Housing. Several studies bear that out. A recent one by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) concluded that home-ownership was the primary delineator of wealth in Ireland and that falling rates of home ownership coincided with increased level of inequality. The wealth equation is a hard one to disentangle, however. We know that approximately 40 per cent of first-time buyers are being gifted money to help them build a deposit to buy a home. If housing is the chief driver of wealth, that would seem to link these gifts to inequality. Nonetheless, the Central Bank’s study concludes otherwise. French economist Thomas Piketty’s argument is that the wealth generated from a return on assets – financial, property – will always outstrip earned wealth. He argues therefore that inherited wealth will, on average, “dominate wealth amassed from a lifetime’s labour by a wide margin”. In Ireland, housing has generated high returns, much higher that what you could save out of your labour income to invest. Hence its central place in the equality debate here. The authors of the Central Bank’s study also note that their research does not capture transfers of human capital or intangibles as they call them. “There is evidence that human capital transfers across generations are persistent and that family environment is also important for these transfers,” they say. In other words, if your parents are better-educated, if they are well-connected, if they offer their children jobs in the family company, that unsurprisingly translates into better wealth outcomes for their offspring. We’ve no way of measuring this type of transfer. Shifting the burden of taxation away from labour to property has long been advocated on the grounds that labour is more productive and beneficial to society and property less so. There’s a strong argument for affording labour a better roll of the tax dice. The Commission on Taxation has advocated just such a shift in emphasis, noting in a recent report that taxes on wealth and property here were too low and should be increased to broaden the tax base and protect the tax system from future challenges. Most people tend to support increased levels of inheritance tax provided it falls on people richer than them. Wherever people are in the income distribution curve, those with wealthier parents will inherit more than those with poorer ones. How much this damages social mobility is an open question.
Horsehair worms are truly bizarre creatures \| ECOVIEWS My grandson Parker recently sent me an email and one of the strangest animal photos I have ever received. Most of my ecologist colleagues have never seen the critter that Parker found, but he knew what it was, and like anyone finding an unusual animal in its natural habitat, he wanted to let others know about his encounter. He knew it was safe to pick up this enigmatic creature, so sure enough, the attached photo was of him holding a 2-foot long, yellowish individual about the diameter of a toothpick. It looked like a tangled coil of thin copper wire. He found it at night in a wetland after excessive rains. The animal was a horsehair worm, which belongs to a poorly understood group, the hairworms, with more than 300 species. Hairworms’ biological relationship to other worms is ambiguous and they comprise their own separate phylum. The scientific name of one hairworm is Gordius, named after the Gordian knot, which, according to an oracle, could only be untied by the future ruler of Asia. (This was a difficulty Alexander the Great reportedly overcame by slicing the knot in half with his sword.) The name “horsehair” comes from a dark-colored species sometimes found floating in water troughs. These long, thin worms were sometimes mistaken for horsehairs that had fallen into the trough. No doubt the first cowboy to pick one up and see it move around had his own story to tell. After seeing the twisted knotty mess that a 2-foot-long worm could get itself in, I thought the name most appropriate. The sex of some species of hairworms can be determined because the males have a forked tail. Adults, which can reach a length of 3 feet, are in a free-living form, meaning they are not parasitic. But the larvae are. Paradoxically, hairworms are special because they are so unspecialized. They have no digestive system, no respiratory system and no circulatory system. Adult horsehair worms do not eat. After leaving the insect forms they grew up in, the males and females find each other in the water, mate and reproduce. How one horsehair worm locates another with no eyes, no ears and no nose is a remarkable feat of nature. The female lays eggs that float in the water. If an egg is eaten by an insect, the egg hatches and the tiny parasite larva drills its way out of the insect's intestine and takes up residence in the body cavity. It feeds on the inside of the insect until it grows into a long worm ready to start the cycle again. Invertebrates, including spiders and insects, serve as hosts for hairworm parasites. In what might appear to be the inspiration for the movie “Alien,” the larvae grow to the size of giant worms inside the unfortunate invertebrate host before they emerge. Imagine a 3-foot-long worm living inside a grasshopper! Hairworm parasites have little use for people, although rare infections of humans in China, Japan and Canada have been reported in medical and parasitological scientific journals. How does the worm know it will end up in water so it can mate? An impressive study by a team of French scientists on hairworms that infect crickets and grasshoppers may offer a partial explanation. In laboratory studies that examined the brain of insects, the investigators found that the hairworm parasite actually alters the behavior of the insect by producing molecules that enter the insect's central nervous system. The exact mechanisms are still unknown, but chemical alterations in the brain make the insect jump into the water and drown. Such abnormal behavior puts the now-developed worm where it wants to be. Brainwashing at its most effective. As Parker put it, “The worm takes control of the half-alive insect’s nervous system and controls the zombie, making it go to the water and drown itself.” He also noted that “horsehair worms have one of the craziest lifecycles in nature. They are real-life aliens.” Whit Gibbons is professor of zoology and senior biologist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. If you have an environmental question or comment, email <email-pii>.	<urn:uuid:143035b7-f992-4fa4-96c4-6d6b36fcedf2>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949533.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331020535-20230331050535-00703.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9575520157814026, "pii_count": 1, "score": 2.828125, "token_count": 900, "url": "https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/02/11/horsehair-worms-are-truly-bizarre-creatures-ecoviews/69863114007/" }	Horsehair worms are truly bizarre creatures \| ECOVIEWS My grandson Parker recently sent me an email and one of the strangest animal photos I have ever received. Most of my ecologist colleagues have never seen the critter that Parker found, but he knew what it was, and like anyone finding an unusual animal in its natural habitat, he wanted to let others know about his encounter. He knew it was safe to pick up this enigmatic creature, so sure enough, the attached photo was of him holding a 2-foot long, yellowish individual about the diameter of a toothpick. It looked like a tangled coil of	thin copper wire. He found it at night in a wetland after excessive rains. The animal was a horsehair worm, which belongs to a poorly understood group, the hairworms, with more than 300 species. Hairworms’ biological relationship to other worms is ambiguous and they comprise their own separate phylum. The scientific name of one hairworm is Gordius, named after the Gordian knot, which, according to an oracle, could only be untied by the future ruler of Asia. (This was a difficulty Alexander the Great reportedly overcame by slicing the knot in half with his sword.) The name “horsehair” comes from a dark-colored species sometimes found floating in water troughs. These long, thin worms were sometimes mistaken for horsehairs that had fallen into the trough. No doubt the first cowboy to pick one up and see it move around had his own story to tell. After seeing the twisted knotty mess that a 2-foot-long worm could get itself in, I thought the name most appropriate. The sex of some species of hairworms can be determined because the males have a forked tail. Adults, which can reach a length of 3 feet, are in a free-living form, meaning they are not parasitic. But the larvae are. Paradoxically, hairworms are special because they are so unspecialized. They have no digestive system, no respiratory system and no circulatory system. Adult horsehair worms do not eat. After leaving the insect forms they grew up in, the males and females find each other in the water, mate and reproduce. How one horsehair worm locates another with no eyes, no ears and no nose is a remarkable feat of nature. The female lays eggs that float in the water. If an egg is eaten by an insect, the egg hatches and the tiny parasite larva drills its way out of the insect's intestine and takes up residence in the body cavity. It feeds on the inside of the insect until it grows into a long worm ready to start the cycle again. Invertebrates, including spiders and insects, serve as hosts for hairworm parasites. In what might appear to be the inspiration for the movie “Alien,” the larvae grow to the size of giant worms inside the unfortunate invertebrate host before they emerge. Imagine a 3-foot-long worm living inside a grasshopper! Hairworm parasites have little use for people, although rare infections of humans in China, Japan and Canada have been reported in medical and parasitological scientific journals. How does the worm know it will end up in water so it can mate? An impressive study by a team of French scientists on hairworms that infect crickets and grasshoppers may offer a partial explanation. In laboratory studies that examined the brain of insects, the investigators found that the hairworm parasite actually alters the behavior of the insect by producing molecules that enter the insect's central nervous system. The exact mechanisms are still unknown, but chemical alterations in the brain make the insect jump into the water and drown. Such abnormal behavior puts the now-developed worm where it wants to be. Brainwashing at its most effective. As Parker put it, “The worm takes control of the half-alive insect’s nervous system and controls the zombie, making it go to the water and drown itself.” He also noted that “horsehair worms have one of the craziest lifecycles in nature. They are real-life aliens.” Whit Gibbons is professor of zoology and senior biologist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. If you have an environmental question or comment, email <email-pii>.
Historic site teaches of Woodrow Wilson’s history in Augusta AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Jimmy Carter may have been the only president born in Georgia, but he’s not the only president to have lived in the Peach State. Woodrow Wilson’s boyhood home is right here in Augusta. We went to take a look inside and learn how it impacted his presidency. “Right over here, is an etching done by Thomas Woodrow Wilson,” Stephanie Hertzberg says. It’s what she calls “an early signature of a future president,” growing up right here in Augusta. Stephanie Hertzberg, tour guide at the home, says, ”Woodrow Wilson, lived in this particular house from the time he was 3 till he was almost 14 years old.” It was when his father was the preacher of Augusta’s First Presbyterian church. “They lived here from 1860 until 1870, it was right here in Augusta where he spent his formative years,” Hertzberg says. Years he would carry with him. “The things that he witnessed why here on the Augusta were not important to him just as a child, but for the rest of his life,” Hertzberg says. Like seeing the church used as a hospital during the war. “He saw firsthand the horrors of the Civil War, he could have looked out of one of the front windows of his own home and witnessed everything that was happening right across the street,” Hertzberg says. That would impact the way he led the country. “We fast forward to Wilson’s presidency, talk had begun about the United States joining the first World war. Early on, Wilson was very hesitant to do so. Probably because the memories he had of war, right here in Augusta. And just like those years impacted him, the home is now impacting a new generation,” Hertzberg says. Hertzberg asked two museum visitors, if they knew about the significant amount of history right here in Augusta. Zeke and Zephaniah Ridgeway, said: ”No we had no idea. But we love history and we like learning about the presidents.” And on a day like today, when Hertzberg says people may dig up about our past leaders. ”Here in Augusta you don’t have to dig very far,” Hertzberg says. Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.	<urn:uuid:83960bd8-d77b-492e-b3bf-4ff01855d910>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100781.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20231209004202-20231209034202-00066.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9706640243530273, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.828125, "token_count": 550, "url": "https://www.wrdw.com/2023/02/21/historic-site-teaches-woodrow-wilsons-history-augusta/" }	Historic site teaches of Woodrow Wilson’s history in Augusta AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Jimmy Carter may have been the only president born in Georgia, but he’s not the only president to have lived in the Peach State. Woodrow Wilson’s boyhood home is right here in Augusta. We went to take a look inside and learn how it impacted his presidency. “Right over here, is an etching done by Thomas Woodrow Wilson,” Stephanie Hertzberg says. It’s what she calls “an early signature of a future president,” growing up right here in Augusta. Ste	phanie Hertzberg, tour guide at the home, says, ”Woodrow Wilson, lived in this particular house from the time he was 3 till he was almost 14 years old.” It was when his father was the preacher of Augusta’s First Presbyterian church. “They lived here from 1860 until 1870, it was right here in Augusta where he spent his formative years,” Hertzberg says. Years he would carry with him. “The things that he witnessed why here on the Augusta were not important to him just as a child, but for the rest of his life,” Hertzberg says. Like seeing the church used as a hospital during the war. “He saw firsthand the horrors of the Civil War, he could have looked out of one of the front windows of his own home and witnessed everything that was happening right across the street,” Hertzberg says. That would impact the way he led the country. “We fast forward to Wilson’s presidency, talk had begun about the United States joining the first World war. Early on, Wilson was very hesitant to do so. Probably because the memories he had of war, right here in Augusta. And just like those years impacted him, the home is now impacting a new generation,” Hertzberg says. Hertzberg asked two museum visitors, if they knew about the significant amount of history right here in Augusta. Zeke and Zephaniah Ridgeway, said: ”No we had no idea. But we love history and we like learning about the presidents.” And on a day like today, when Hertzberg says people may dig up about our past leaders. ”Here in Augusta you don’t have to dig very far,” Hertzberg says. Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
Nothing prepared Linda C. Johnson of Indianapolis for the fatigue that descended on her after a diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer in early 2020. But as she began to get her affairs in order, Johnson realized something else was going on. However long she slept the night before, she woke up exhausted. “People would tell me, ‘You know, you’re getting old.’ And that wasn’t helpful at all. Because then you feel there’s nothing you can do mentally or physically to deal with this,” she told me. Fatigue is a common companion of many illnesses that beset older adults, typically those 65 and older: heart disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, lung disease, kidney disease, and neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, among others. It’s one of the most common symptoms associated with chronic illness, affecting 40 to 74 percent of older people living with those conditions, according to a 2021 review by researchers at the University of Massachusetts. This is more than exhaustion after an extremely busy day or a night of poor sleep. It’s a persistent, whole-body feeling of having no energy, even with minimal or no exertion. “I feel like I have a drained battery pretty much all of the time,” wrote a user named Renee in a Facebook group for people with polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer. “It’s sort of like being a wrung-out dish rag.” Fatigue doesn’t represent “a day when you’re tired; it’s a couple of weeks or a couple of months when you’re tired,” said Kurt Kroenke, a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, which specializes in medical research, and a professor at Indiana University’s School of Medicine. When he and colleagues queried nearly 3,500 patients 60 and older at a large primary care clinic in Indianapolis about bothersome symptoms, 55 percent listed fatigue — second only to musculoskeletal pain (65 percent) and more than back pain (45 percent) and shortness of breath (41 percent). A ‘vicious cycle’ Separately, a 2010 study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimated that 31 percent of people 51 and older reported being fatigued in the previous week. The effect can be profound. Fatigue is the leading reason for restricted activity in people 70 and older, according to a 2001 study by researchers at Yale University. Other studies have linked fatigue with impaired mobility, limitations in people’s abilities to perform daily activities, the onset or worsening of disability and earlier death. Often, older adults with fatigue stop being active and become deconditioned, which leads to muscle loss and weakness, which heightens fatigue. “It becomes a vicious cycle that contributes to things like depression, which can make you more fatigued,” said Jean Kutner, a professor of medicine and chief medical officer at the University of Colorado Hospital. To prevent that, Johnson came up with a plan after learning her lung cancer had returned. Every morning, she set small goals for herself. One day, she’d get up and wash her face. The next, she’d take a shower. Another day, she’d go to the grocery store. After each activity, she’d rest. In the three years since her cancer came back, Johnson’s fatigue has been constant. But “I’m functioning better,” she told me, because she has learned how to pace herself and find things that motivate her, such as teaching a virtual class to students training to be teachers and getting exercise under the supervision of a personal trainer. When should older adults be concerned about fatigue? “If someone has been doing okay but is now feeling fatigued all the time, it’s important to get an evaluation,” said Holly Yang, a physician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego and board president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. “Fatigue is an alarm signal that something is wrong with the body, but it’s rarely one thing,” said Ardeshir Hashmi, section chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “Usually, several things need to be addressed.” Among the items physicians should check: Are your thyroid levels normal? Are you having trouble with sleep? If you have underlying medical conditions, are they well controlled? Do you have an underlying infection? Are you chronically dehydrated? Do you have anemia (a deficiency of red blood cells or hemoglobin), an electrolyte imbalance or low levels of testosterone? Are you eating enough protein? Have you been feeling more anxious or depressed recently? And might medications you’re taking be contributing to fatigue? “The medications and doses may be the same, but your body’s ability to metabolize those medications and clear them from your system may have changed,” said Hashmi, noting that such changes in the body’s metabolic activity are common as people become older. Many potential contributors to fatigue can be addressed. But much of the time, the cause of fatigue cannot be explained by an underlying medical condition. That happened to Teresa Goodell, 64, a retired nurse who lives just outside Portland, Ore. During a December visit to Arizona, she suddenly found herself exhausted and short of breath while on a hike, even though she was in good physical condition. At an urgent care facility, she was diagnosed with an asthma exacerbation and given steroids, but they didn’t help. Soon, Goodell was spending hours each day in bed, overcome by profound tiredness and weakness. Even small activities wore her out. But none of the medical tests she received in Arizona and subsequently in Portland — a chest X-ray and CT scan, bloodwork, a cardiac stress test — showed abnormalities. “There was no objective evidence of illness, and that makes it hard for anybody to believe you’re sick,” she told me. Goodell started visiting long covid websites and chatrooms for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Today, she is convinced she has post-viral syndrome from an infection. One of the most common symptoms of long covid is fatigue that interferes with daily life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several strategies can deal with persistent fatigue. In cancer patients, “the best evidence favors physical activity such as tai chi, yoga, walking or low-impact exercises,” said Christian Sinclair, an associate professor of palliative medicine at the University of Kansas Health System. The goal is to “gradually stretch patients’ stamina,” he said. With long covid, however, doing too much too soon can backfire by causing post-exertional malaise. Pacing one’s activities is often recommended: doing only what’s most important when one’s energy level is highest and resting afterward. “You learn how to set realistic goals,” said Andrew Esch, senior education adviser at the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help older adults with fatigue learn how to adjust expectations and address intrusive thoughts such as, “I should be able to do more.” At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, management plans for older patients with fatigue typically include strategies to address physical activity, sleep health, nutrition, emotional health, and support from family and friends. “So much of fatigue management is about forming new habits,” said Ishwaria Subbiah, a palliative care and integrative medicine physician at MD Anderson. “It’s important to recognize that this doesn’t happen right away: It takes time.” This article was produced by Kaiser Health News, a program of KFF, an endowed nonprofit organization that provides information on health issues to the nation.	<urn:uuid:87cf50fb-3489-4fee-99b5-c9fddab77bfa>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-23", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653930.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607143116-20230607173116-00467.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9558257460594177, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.53125, "token_count": 1697, "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/03/31/fatigue-older-adults-causes/?itid=co_wb-body_2" }	Nothing prepared Linda C. Johnson of Indianapolis for the fatigue that descended on her after a diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer in early 2020. But as she began to get her affairs in order, Johnson realized something else was going on. However long she slept the night before, she woke up exhausted. “People would tell me, ‘You know, you’re getting old.’ And that wasn’t helpful at all. Because then you feel there’s nothing you can do mentally or physically to deal with this,” she told me. Fatigue is a common companion of many illnesses that beset older adults, typically those 6	5 and older: heart disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, lung disease, kidney disease, and neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, among others. It’s one of the most common symptoms associated with chronic illness, affecting 40 to 74 percent of older people living with those conditions, according to a 2021 review by researchers at the University of Massachusetts. This is more than exhaustion after an extremely busy day or a night of poor sleep. It’s a persistent, whole-body feeling of having no energy, even with minimal or no exertion. “I feel like I have a drained battery pretty much all of the time,” wrote a user named Renee in a Facebook group for people with polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer. “It’s sort of like being a wrung-out dish rag.” Fatigue doesn’t represent “a day when you’re tired; it’s a couple of weeks or a couple of months when you’re tired,” said Kurt Kroenke, a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, which specializes in medical research, and a professor at Indiana University’s School of Medicine. When he and colleagues queried nearly 3,500 patients 60 and older at a large primary care clinic in Indianapolis about bothersome symptoms, 55 percent listed fatigue — second only to musculoskeletal pain (65 percent) and more than back pain (45 percent) and shortness of breath (41 percent). A ‘vicious cycle’ Separately, a 2010 study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimated that 31 percent of people 51 and older reported being fatigued in the previous week. The effect can be profound. Fatigue is the leading reason for restricted activity in people 70 and older, according to a 2001 study by researchers at Yale University. Other studies have linked fatigue with impaired mobility, limitations in people’s abilities to perform daily activities, the onset or worsening of disability and earlier death. Often, older adults with fatigue stop being active and become deconditioned, which leads to muscle loss and weakness, which heightens fatigue. “It becomes a vicious cycle that contributes to things like depression, which can make you more fatigued,” said Jean Kutner, a professor of medicine and chief medical officer at the University of Colorado Hospital. To prevent that, Johnson came up with a plan after learning her lung cancer had returned. Every morning, she set small goals for herself. One day, she’d get up and wash her face. The next, she’d take a shower. Another day, she’d go to the grocery store. After each activity, she’d rest. In the three years since her cancer came back, Johnson’s fatigue has been constant. But “I’m functioning better,” she told me, because she has learned how to pace herself and find things that motivate her, such as teaching a virtual class to students training to be teachers and getting exercise under the supervision of a personal trainer. When should older adults be concerned about fatigue? “If someone has been doing okay but is now feeling fatigued all the time, it’s important to get an evaluation,” said Holly Yang, a physician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego and board president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. “Fatigue is an alarm signal that something is wrong with the body, but it’s rarely one thing,” said Ardeshir Hashmi, section chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “Usually, several things need to be addressed.” Among the items physicians should check: Are your thyroid levels normal? Are you having trouble with sleep? If you have underlying medical conditions, are they well controlled? Do you have an underlying infection? Are you chronically dehydrated? Do you have anemia (a deficiency of red blood cells or hemoglobin), an electrolyte imbalance or low levels of testosterone? Are you eating enough protein? Have you been feeling more anxious or depressed recently? And might medications you’re taking be contributing to fatigue? “The medications and doses may be the same, but your body’s ability to metabolize those medications and clear them from your system may have changed,” said Hashmi, noting that such changes in the body’s metabolic activity are common as people become older. Many potential contributors to fatigue can be addressed. But much of the time, the cause of fatigue cannot be explained by an underlying medical condition. That happened to Teresa Goodell, 64, a retired nurse who lives just outside Portland, Ore. During a December visit to Arizona, she suddenly found herself exhausted and short of breath while on a hike, even though she was in good physical condition. At an urgent care facility, she was diagnosed with an asthma exacerbation and given steroids, but they didn’t help. Soon, Goodell was spending hours each day in bed, overcome by profound tiredness and weakness. Even small activities wore her out. But none of the medical tests she received in Arizona and subsequently in Portland — a chest X-ray and CT scan, bloodwork, a cardiac stress test — showed abnormalities. “There was no objective evidence of illness, and that makes it hard for anybody to believe you’re sick,” she told me. Goodell started visiting long covid websites and chatrooms for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Today, she is convinced she has post-viral syndrome from an infection. One of the most common symptoms of long covid is fatigue that interferes with daily life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several strategies can deal with persistent fatigue. In cancer patients, “the best evidence favors physical activity such as tai chi, yoga, walking or low-impact exercises,” said Christian Sinclair, an associate professor of palliative medicine at the University of Kansas Health System. The goal is to “gradually stretch patients’ stamina,” he said. With long covid, however, doing too much too soon can backfire by causing post-exertional malaise. Pacing one’s activities is often recommended: doing only what’s most important when one’s energy level is highest and resting afterward. “You learn how to set realistic goals,” said Andrew Esch, senior education adviser at the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help older adults with fatigue learn how to adjust expectations and address intrusive thoughts such as, “I should be able to do more.” At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, management plans for older patients with fatigue typically include strategies to address physical activity, sleep health, nutrition, emotional health, and support from family and friends. “So much of fatigue management is about forming new habits,” said Ishwaria Subbiah, a palliative care and integrative medicine physician at MD Anderson. “It’s important to recognize that this doesn’t happen right away: It takes time.” This article was produced by Kaiser Health News, a program of KFF, an endowed nonprofit organization that provides information on health issues to the nation.
The oxbow, a horseshoe curve of the river that has transformed over time into a marsh, as seen from the San Antonio Bluffs on Albuquerque’s Westside. Consecutive years of drought dried parts of the marshland that are crucial habitats for birds, beavers and other animals. (Photo by Diana Cervantes for Source NM) The Rio Grande is a silver thread ribboning its way through New Mexico, enhanced by a brocade of greenery. It roars to life through the tall pines, curves through the canyons carved by its steadfast course. The river vertically bisects the entire state and touches 14 sovereign pueblos, sluicing into canals and creeping across fields. In the lowlands, the bosque brush pops against beige grass and dun sand. It winds further still, its path a verdant mark against olive creosote and blue sage. It swells in the south in great catchments, stretching wide under skies, held back by the dams. It also dries. Not every year, but most. Not always catastrophically, but more often so — and in 2022, worse. “Drought and ever-increasing temperatures rob us of water at every stage,” said Dagmar Llewellyn, a hydrologist at the Bureau of Reclamation. Direct interventions — like dams — outweigh global warming in reshaping the Rio Grande, said U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist C. David Moeser, but the loss of snow melt means a “regime change” for how the river is fed. “We have climate change coming, and in order to reduce its impact, we need to think about how to reduce our footprints in this basin,” Moeser said. In the center of Albuquerque, there is a marsh, one of the last in the middle of the desert. Named for the U-curves of the river resembling a harness, oxbows are lakes and pools where a bend in the river is cut off. It’s a 40-acre wildlife refuge, the first owned and managed by the City of Albuquerque’s Open Space department. Usually created by the natural meandering of the river, this bastion of marsh in the center of the city was a man-made unintended consequence. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used X-shaped jetty jacks, now overgrown, to straighten the course of the Rio Grande, and support the banks. “The river used to run right here, eroding the bluff we’re standing on,” said Wes Noe, a graduate student in water resources at the University of New Mexico. Stands of grass below the overlook barely move in the still summer morning, cicadas already droning. The water isn’t blue. It’s shallow here, some of it murky brown and algae filled, other portions nearly a mustard yellow color in the shallows. Some of the still ponds are choked by invasive grasses and sediment plugs, creating hot, shallow ponds. A beaver dam sits in deeper water, surrounding trees bearing the telltale signs of the inhabitants. The oxbow is an important habitat for migratory birds, Noe said, who stop over to feed, rest and continue on miles-long journeys. Outside the oxbow, at a fork of signs for federal, state and city agencies — the banks are thick with invasive species — slate-blue Russian olives and the frothy leaves of salt cedar, all enwrapped in the emerald vines of virginia creeper. “We need some human input right here to cut back on some of this invasive species, or when you’re having sedimentation, and things are eroding,” Noe said, pointing out deep headcuts in the bluff left by runoff from the housing and roads. Watching the oxbow dry in 2021, watching blue waters shrink to smaller and smaller patches of brown ground, just muddy patches, cut deep, he said. “I’m so deeply connected to the oxbow,” Noe said. “I literally grew up in Albuquerque, and I worked in the Bosque in my undergrad, and never once did I hear about the oxbow.” This project was funded by a grant from the Water Desk and by States Newsroom, a network of nonprofit news organizations and home to Source NM. Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.	<urn:uuid:c177d5d6-d027-4559-9512-31936cec6f8c>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510941.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001205332-20231001235332-00437.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9284393191337585, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.25, "token_count": 989, "url": "https://sourcenm.com/2023/02/10/watching-the-oxbow-dry/" }	The oxbow, a horseshoe curve of the river that has transformed over time into a marsh, as seen from the San Antonio Bluffs on Albuquerque’s Westside. Consecutive years of drought dried parts of the marshland that are crucial habitats for birds, beavers and other animals. (Photo by Diana Cervantes for Source NM) The Rio Grande is a silver thread ribboning its way through New Mexico, enhanced by a brocade of greenery. It roars to life through the tall pines, curves through the canyons carved by its steadfast course. The river vertically bisects the entire state and touches	14 sovereign pueblos, sluicing into canals and creeping across fields. In the lowlands, the bosque brush pops against beige grass and dun sand. It winds further still, its path a verdant mark against olive creosote and blue sage. It swells in the south in great catchments, stretching wide under skies, held back by the dams. It also dries. Not every year, but most. Not always catastrophically, but more often so — and in 2022, worse. “Drought and ever-increasing temperatures rob us of water at every stage,” said Dagmar Llewellyn, a hydrologist at the Bureau of Reclamation. Direct interventions — like dams — outweigh global warming in reshaping the Rio Grande, said U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist C. David Moeser, but the loss of snow melt means a “regime change” for how the river is fed. “We have climate change coming, and in order to reduce its impact, we need to think about how to reduce our footprints in this basin,” Moeser said. In the center of Albuquerque, there is a marsh, one of the last in the middle of the desert. Named for the U-curves of the river resembling a harness, oxbows are lakes and pools where a bend in the river is cut off. It’s a 40-acre wildlife refuge, the first owned and managed by the City of Albuquerque’s Open Space department. Usually created by the natural meandering of the river, this bastion of marsh in the center of the city was a man-made unintended consequence. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used X-shaped jetty jacks, now overgrown, to straighten the course of the Rio Grande, and support the banks. “The river used to run right here, eroding the bluff we’re standing on,” said Wes Noe, a graduate student in water resources at the University of New Mexico. Stands of grass below the overlook barely move in the still summer morning, cicadas already droning. The water isn’t blue. It’s shallow here, some of it murky brown and algae filled, other portions nearly a mustard yellow color in the shallows. Some of the still ponds are choked by invasive grasses and sediment plugs, creating hot, shallow ponds. A beaver dam sits in deeper water, surrounding trees bearing the telltale signs of the inhabitants. The oxbow is an important habitat for migratory birds, Noe said, who stop over to feed, rest and continue on miles-long journeys. Outside the oxbow, at a fork of signs for federal, state and city agencies — the banks are thick with invasive species — slate-blue Russian olives and the frothy leaves of salt cedar, all enwrapped in the emerald vines of virginia creeper. “We need some human input right here to cut back on some of this invasive species, or when you’re having sedimentation, and things are eroding,” Noe said, pointing out deep headcuts in the bluff left by runoff from the housing and roads. Watching the oxbow dry in 2021, watching blue waters shrink to smaller and smaller patches of brown ground, just muddy patches, cut deep, he said. “I’m so deeply connected to the oxbow,” Noe said. “I literally grew up in Albuquerque, and I worked in the Bosque in my undergrad, and never once did I hear about the oxbow.” This project was funded by a grant from the Water Desk and by States Newsroom, a network of nonprofit news organizations and home to Source NM. Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.
Presented by Chevron Sixteen young people are about to make history. The first youth-led climate case to go to trial in the United States starts next week in Helena, Mont., where plaintiffs are accusing state officials of violating their right to a stable climate by rubber-stamping coal, oil and gas projects. Even if the case does little to stop Montana from using its huge coal reserves, the case could influence U.S. policy by bolstering climate fights elsewhere, writes Lesley Clark. “To have the ability to go to trial and submit evidence that the advancement of fossil fuels has an effect on the climate and warming … that’s a pretty tremendous thing,” Sandra Zellmer, a law professor at the University of Montana, told Lesley. “It’s monumental that this is getting to trial in a state like Montana.” Montana’s usable coal reserves, the largest in the nation, account for about 30 percent of the country’s total. The state also contributes about one in every 200 barrels of U.S. oil produced annually. Montana has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project, Lesley writes. A clean and healthful environment: The group of young people accuses Montana of violating the state’s 1972 Constitution, which provides a right to a “clean and healthful environment.” State officials have vigorously rejected the accusation. Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen unsuccessfully petitioned the Montana Supreme Court to dismiss the case. State Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, also a Republican, called the lawsuit a “waste of time.” “We support natural resources in this state,” Fitzpatrick said, “but the Legislature is certainly not going to adopt the ideology of the environmental movement.” Kid trendsetters: The 16 plaintiffs in Montana are seeing the inside of a courtroom well before another case, Juliana v. United States, which makes similar accusations against the federal government. That complaint by 21 young activists was dismissed in 2020, but a judge in Oregon ruled last week that the plaintiffs can amend their complaint to revive the case. The Montana suit builds on a global trend. In Colombia, for example, 25 young people won a lawsuit in 2018 against their government for failing to protect their rights to a safe environment. A German court ruled in favor of youth plaintiffs in 2021, finding that the country’s climate law did not go far enough. Thank goodness it’s Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]. Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zi-Ann Lum breaks down the health risks of this week’s wildfire smoke and the response from the U.S. and Canadian governments. A coal dilemma Pennsylvania isn’t part of a regional program to slash carbon emissions, but its coal plants are closing anyway — fueling a debate about the energy-producing state’s future, writes Miranda Willson. Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the state. But critics say it would harm electric reliability and raise energy costs. Debt ceiling fallout Agencies responsible for tackling climate change and building energy infrastructure may escape a lapse in funding this year, thanks to provisions tucked inside the recently passed bipartisan bill preventing a national default, writes Kevin Bogardus. At the same time, this week’s revolt by House Republican hard-liners that shut down floor action could complicate spending levels at agencies. Greta Thunberg went on a school strike for the climate for the last time Friday, nearly five years after first sitting down in front of Sweden’s parliament with a hand-drawn sign, writes Zia Weise. The Swedish activist wrote on Twitter that Friday was her graduation day, “which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate.” But the movement isn’t done, she added. Labor: 240 Black Tesla workers are seeking a class-action lawsuit over racism. Pollution: Smog is choking New York. But for these cities, it’s just another day. A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Growing damage to property and people from rising temperatures is expected to jack up federal spending, while economic activity is being eroded in sectors like agriculture and manufacturing. The Energy Department will provide an $850 million loan to KORE Power for the construction of an advanced battery cell manufacturing facility in Arizona to boost supply chains. General Motors has joined Ford in adopting Tesla’s electric vehicles charging standard, jeopardizing the fate of $7.5 billion in federal funding for EV infrastructure. That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!	<urn:uuid:0f9b210f-8fb2-48f4-83d3-01043ecf0898>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511075.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20231003092549-20231003122549-00873.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9370457530021667, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.640625, "token_count": 1049, "url": "https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/06/09/first-u-s-kids-climate-lawsuit-heads-to-trial-00082767" }	Presented by Chevron Sixteen young people are about to make history. The first youth-led climate case to go to trial in the United States starts next week in Helena, Mont., where plaintiffs are accusing state officials of violating their right to a stable climate by rubber-stamping coal, oil and gas projects. Even if the case does little to stop Montana from using its huge coal reserves, the case could influence U.S. policy by bolstering climate fights elsewhere, writes Lesley Clark. “To have the ability to go to trial and submit evidence that the advancement of fossil fuels has an effect on the climate and warming …	that’s a pretty tremendous thing,” Sandra Zellmer, a law professor at the University of Montana, told Lesley. “It’s monumental that this is getting to trial in a state like Montana.” Montana’s usable coal reserves, the largest in the nation, account for about 30 percent of the country’s total. The state also contributes about one in every 200 barrels of U.S. oil produced annually. Montana has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project, Lesley writes. A clean and healthful environment: The group of young people accuses Montana of violating the state’s 1972 Constitution, which provides a right to a “clean and healthful environment.” State officials have vigorously rejected the accusation. Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen unsuccessfully petitioned the Montana Supreme Court to dismiss the case. State Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, also a Republican, called the lawsuit a “waste of time.” “We support natural resources in this state,” Fitzpatrick said, “but the Legislature is certainly not going to adopt the ideology of the environmental movement.” Kid trendsetters: The 16 plaintiffs in Montana are seeing the inside of a courtroom well before another case, Juliana v. United States, which makes similar accusations against the federal government. That complaint by 21 young activists was dismissed in 2020, but a judge in Oregon ruled last week that the plaintiffs can amend their complaint to revive the case. The Montana suit builds on a global trend. In Colombia, for example, 25 young people won a lawsuit in 2018 against their government for failing to protect their rights to a safe environment. A German court ruled in favor of youth plaintiffs in 2021, finding that the country’s climate law did not go far enough. Thank goodness it’s Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]. Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zi-Ann Lum breaks down the health risks of this week’s wildfire smoke and the response from the U.S. and Canadian governments. A coal dilemma Pennsylvania isn’t part of a regional program to slash carbon emissions, but its coal plants are closing anyway — fueling a debate about the energy-producing state’s future, writes Miranda Willson. Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the state. But critics say it would harm electric reliability and raise energy costs. Debt ceiling fallout Agencies responsible for tackling climate change and building energy infrastructure may escape a lapse in funding this year, thanks to provisions tucked inside the recently passed bipartisan bill preventing a national default, writes Kevin Bogardus. At the same time, this week’s revolt by House Republican hard-liners that shut down floor action could complicate spending levels at agencies. Greta Thunberg went on a school strike for the climate for the last time Friday, nearly five years after first sitting down in front of Sweden’s parliament with a hand-drawn sign, writes Zia Weise. The Swedish activist wrote on Twitter that Friday was her graduation day, “which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate.” But the movement isn’t done, she added. Labor: 240 Black Tesla workers are seeking a class-action lawsuit over racism. Pollution: Smog is choking New York. But for these cities, it’s just another day. A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Growing damage to property and people from rising temperatures is expected to jack up federal spending, while economic activity is being eroded in sectors like agriculture and manufacturing. The Energy Department will provide an $850 million loan to KORE Power for the construction of an advanced battery cell manufacturing facility in Arizona to boost supply chains. General Motors has joined Ford in adopting Tesla’s electric vehicles charging standard, jeopardizing the fate of $7.5 billion in federal funding for EV infrastructure. That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
The question “Who do people say that I am?” is a significant moment in the gospel of Mark as it serves as a turning point in the narrative. It is not only a question Jesus asked to his disciples, but also a question that every person can ask themselves. It forces us to reflect on who we believe Jesus to be and what that means for our own beliefs and actions. The disciples respond by listing various opinions of Jesus, which are circulating in society at the time, such as John the Baptist or one of the prophets. This serves to highlight the different perspectives that people have of Jesus, and how these perspectives can vary greatly. The question “But who do you say that I am?” that Jesus asks his disciples directly, is a personal and profound question that goes beyond the public opinion. It is a question that challenges us to examine our own beliefs and relationship with Jesus, rather than relying solely on what others say about him. This question is significant because it highlights the growing understanding and belief of Jesus’ identity among his disciples, as well as the process of personal discovery and realization that happens when someone comes to know Jesus as the Christ. It also highlights the importance of personal relationship with Jesus and not just knowing about him. Ultimately, the question “Who do people say that I am?” is not just a historical question, but one that continues to be relevant today as we all seek to understand who Jesus is and what his teachings mean for us. It is a question that invites us to go deeper in our own faith journey and to build a personal relationship with Jesus. It is a question that can change our lives forever. I love that you’re back here. And your use of chatGPT On Sun, 15 Jan 2023 at 09:56, I can explain it… here are my 5 good	<urn:uuid:79291174-d216-46bb-b3c2-ba40d51f9d07>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943695.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321095704-20230321125704-00792.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9763133525848389, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.515625, "token_count": 391, "url": "https://5goodexcuses.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/who-do-people-say-that-i-am-mark-827/" }	The question “Who do people say that I am?” is a significant moment in the gospel of Mark as it serves as a turning point in the narrative. It is not only a question Jesus asked to his disciples, but also a question that every person can ask themselves. It forces us to reflect on who we believe Jesus to be and what that means for our own beliefs and actions. The disciples respond by listing various opinions of Jesus, which are circulating in society at the time, such as John the Baptist or one of the prophets. This serves to highlight the different perspectives that people have of Jesus, and how these perspectives can vary greatly.	The question “But who do you say that I am?” that Jesus asks his disciples directly, is a personal and profound question that goes beyond the public opinion. It is a question that challenges us to examine our own beliefs and relationship with Jesus, rather than relying solely on what others say about him. This question is significant because it highlights the growing understanding and belief of Jesus’ identity among his disciples, as well as the process of personal discovery and realization that happens when someone comes to know Jesus as the Christ. It also highlights the importance of personal relationship with Jesus and not just knowing about him. Ultimately, the question “Who do people say that I am?” is not just a historical question, but one that continues to be relevant today as we all seek to understand who Jesus is and what his teachings mean for us. It is a question that invites us to go deeper in our own faith journey and to build a personal relationship with Jesus. It is a question that can change our lives forever. I love that you’re back here. And your use of chatGPT On Sun, 15 Jan 2023 at 09:56, I can explain it… here are my 5 good
An extremely rare, bright orange American lobster caught earlier this month in Maine’s Casco Bay by a lobstering crew has found a home at the University of New England’s marine science center. The chances of catching an orange lobster are one-in-30 million, according to Markus Frederich, professor of marine science at the university, who said he bases the estimate on the total annual lobster landings and anecdotal reports of orange lobsters. The lobster was the first catch of the day on June 2 for the crew of the Deborah & Megan, a fishing vessel captained by Gregg Turner, Lindsay Forrette, the lab coordinator for the university’s Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center, told CNN. The bright orange lobster came up alone in the trap of crew member Mandy Cyr, Forrette said. “I knew right away I was going to contact UNE,” Cyr told CNN. “They took our last lobster ‘Sprinkles,’ a calico lobster, another one-in-30 million lobster that we caught this past winter.” Turner has been lobstering since he was a young boy and has only seen two orange lobsters in his life, according to Cyr, a lobsterwoman who has worked intermittently aboard Turner’s vessel for five years. After the lobster spent a brief overnight at Turner’s Lobsters in Scarborough, Maine, Cyr contacted Forrette. She is known throughout the fishing communities and is often contacted about interesting catches, said Tilburg, director of the marine science center. Forrette agreed to take the rare crustacean. The lobster is 5 to 7 years old The lobster’s coloration is from a genetic mutation which affects and prevents encoded proteins, Frederich said. The lack of one or several proteins can manifest as different colors, including blue, yellow and, in this case, orange. “Mutations in these genes are very rare,” Frederich said. “In addition to genetics, environment [and] diet also seems to play a role.” Orange American lobsters can be found from southern New England up through Nova Scotia in Canada, Frederich said. This particular orange lobster is anywhere between 5 and 7 years old, Forrette said, weighing in at 1.03 pounds and is 10.8-inches long, perhaps a little on the lighter side because it’s missing a claw. It’s unknown how the claw was lost, Frederich said, noting lobsters often lose claws in fights with other lobsters, when attacked by a predator, or when molting. Professor Charles Tilburg, a professor of marine sciences who directs the university’s Marine Science Center, said the claw should eventually grow back though it’s uncertain whether it will match her orange carapace. “This is the million-dollar question,” Tilburg said. “If the coloring is solely due to genetics, it should grow back orange. However, if some of the coloring was due to the environment or diet, it may grow back a different color due to the new environment of the lobster. “Our yellow lobster’s claws have grown back with a bluish tint to them,” he said. ‘Pampered for the rest of their lives’ The orange lobster isn’t the first to find its way to the university, Tilburg said. The crustaceans donated to the marine science center are primarily used for education and outreach, and they are “pampered for the rest of their lives,” Tilburg said. “Rare lobsters, like this bright orange one, are excellent ambassadors for education because they spark so much curiosity,” Forrette said. “Since our students and visitors have the opportunity to observe these animals up close, they often ask detailed questions, and we end up talking about everything from natural history, ecology, and marine ecosystems to aspects of genetics, cellular biology, and physiology.” “For this orange lobster in particular, we’re excited to observe and document the regrowth of her missing claw in real time,” Forrette said. So far, the orange lobster “seems to be settling into life at the [center] nicely,” Tilburg said. She dines on fresh soft shell clams, referred to colloquially as steamers, and Forrette has fashioned an artificial burrow to replicate the rocky crevices favored by wild lobster, Tilburg said. “While putting the finishing touches on her burrow, this lobster was ready to pinch anyone that came too close — so she’s quite feisty,” Tilburg said. Though she doesn’t yet have a name, the center currently has a running list of them — Tangerine, Creamsicle, Cayenne, Clementine, Saffron, Papaya, Carrot, Citrus, Pumpkin, and Lemon — and will let students select one that best fits her, Tilburg said. Cyr said she has yet to visit the coveted catch at its new home but plans to do so soon. “We are very excited to see the progress of her claw growing back and hear about all the research they’ve been doing,” Cyr said. Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed some quotes to different members of the university's marine science center.	<urn:uuid:2ecddc12-9930-41f0-ad2c-b30f7e0bdb64>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679101779.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20231210092457-20231210122457-00326.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9531077146530151, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.921875, "token_count": 1146, "url": "https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/10/us/maine-orange-lobster-rare-trnd/index.html" }	An extremely rare, bright orange American lobster caught earlier this month in Maine’s Casco Bay by a lobstering crew has found a home at the University of New England’s marine science center. The chances of catching an orange lobster are one-in-30 million, according to Markus Frederich, professor of marine science at the university, who said he bases the estimate on the total annual lobster landings and anecdotal reports of orange lobsters. The lobster was the first catch of the day on June 2 for the crew of the Deborah & Megan, a fishing vessel captained by Gregg Turner, Lindsay Forrette,	the lab coordinator for the university’s Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center, told CNN. The bright orange lobster came up alone in the trap of crew member Mandy Cyr, Forrette said. “I knew right away I was going to contact UNE,” Cyr told CNN. “They took our last lobster ‘Sprinkles,’ a calico lobster, another one-in-30 million lobster that we caught this past winter.” Turner has been lobstering since he was a young boy and has only seen two orange lobsters in his life, according to Cyr, a lobsterwoman who has worked intermittently aboard Turner’s vessel for five years. After the lobster spent a brief overnight at Turner’s Lobsters in Scarborough, Maine, Cyr contacted Forrette. She is known throughout the fishing communities and is often contacted about interesting catches, said Tilburg, director of the marine science center. Forrette agreed to take the rare crustacean. The lobster is 5 to 7 years old The lobster’s coloration is from a genetic mutation which affects and prevents encoded proteins, Frederich said. The lack of one or several proteins can manifest as different colors, including blue, yellow and, in this case, orange. “Mutations in these genes are very rare,” Frederich said. “In addition to genetics, environment [and] diet also seems to play a role.” Orange American lobsters can be found from southern New England up through Nova Scotia in Canada, Frederich said. This particular orange lobster is anywhere between 5 and 7 years old, Forrette said, weighing in at 1.03 pounds and is 10.8-inches long, perhaps a little on the lighter side because it’s missing a claw. It’s unknown how the claw was lost, Frederich said, noting lobsters often lose claws in fights with other lobsters, when attacked by a predator, or when molting. Professor Charles Tilburg, a professor of marine sciences who directs the university’s Marine Science Center, said the claw should eventually grow back though it’s uncertain whether it will match her orange carapace. “This is the million-dollar question,” Tilburg said. “If the coloring is solely due to genetics, it should grow back orange. However, if some of the coloring was due to the environment or diet, it may grow back a different color due to the new environment of the lobster. “Our yellow lobster’s claws have grown back with a bluish tint to them,” he said. ‘Pampered for the rest of their lives’ The orange lobster isn’t the first to find its way to the university, Tilburg said. The crustaceans donated to the marine science center are primarily used for education and outreach, and they are “pampered for the rest of their lives,” Tilburg said. “Rare lobsters, like this bright orange one, are excellent ambassadors for education because they spark so much curiosity,” Forrette said. “Since our students and visitors have the opportunity to observe these animals up close, they often ask detailed questions, and we end up talking about everything from natural history, ecology, and marine ecosystems to aspects of genetics, cellular biology, and physiology.” “For this orange lobster in particular, we’re excited to observe and document the regrowth of her missing claw in real time,” Forrette said. So far, the orange lobster “seems to be settling into life at the [center] nicely,” Tilburg said. She dines on fresh soft shell clams, referred to colloquially as steamers, and Forrette has fashioned an artificial burrow to replicate the rocky crevices favored by wild lobster, Tilburg said. “While putting the finishing touches on her burrow, this lobster was ready to pinch anyone that came too close — so she’s quite feisty,” Tilburg said. Though she doesn’t yet have a name, the center currently has a running list of them — Tangerine, Creamsicle, Cayenne, Clementine, Saffron, Papaya, Carrot, Citrus, Pumpkin, and Lemon — and will let students select one that best fits her, Tilburg said. Cyr said she has yet to visit the coveted catch at its new home but plans to do so soon. “We are very excited to see the progress of her claw growing back and hear about all the research they’ve been doing,” Cyr said. Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed some quotes to different members of the university's marine science center.
Water conservation model built on the Rio Grande may be a template for rest of US Sen. Heinrich hopes to add a nationwide groundwater conservation program to Farm Bill Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) listens during a tour at the South Valley Economic Development Center on Wednesday Aug. 23, 2023. Heinrich joined with Senators from Colorado and Kansas to push for a national groundwater conservation piloted in the San Luis Valley on the Rio Grande. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source New Mexico) A program built on the Rio Grande to preserve groundwater could become a national model. Last month, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) alongside Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a federal program to mirror local efforts in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado to reduce the strain on aquifers and the river. Nonprofit land trusts in the San Luis Valley banded together in 2022 to pay farmers to keep water in aquifers, through programs that maintain wetlands and tie water rights to lands. These voluntary legal agreements help landowners preserve natural characteristics on private lands. It is often used to preserve wetlands habitats for birds, fish and other wildlife. These deals often limit some types of future development on the land. Any restrictions on the property carry forward, even if the land is sold. Landowners are compensated if they are selling the property rights, and they also receive tax incentives for entering easements. Colorado Open Lands and other trusts went a step further in 2022, by paying farms to limit water usage by leaving some water in the ground, instead of pumping it for growing food. Sally Weir, a conservation manager, who worked with Colorado Open Lands described the unique deals. “The idea is that landowners are compensated for the value of the water that they’re not using, and essentially leaving in the aquifer for sustainability,” Weir said in a 2022 interview with Source NM. Keeping aquifers filled prevents the rivers from drying and lowers the draw on non-renewable resources. “It’s all connected, the rivers and the aquifers,” Weir said. Heinrich plans to wrap the measure into the Farm Bill – the massive legislation rewritten every five years which determines how billions of dollars are spent in agriculture, food aid, forestry, and other programs. In an interview with Source NM Heinrich said areas across the U.S. are facing dropping aquifers, and dwindling rivers. “There are a lot of places with similar challenges where it would be a benefit,” he said. He nodded at efforts to make a groundwater bank in eastern New Mexico, on the precipitously dropping Ogallala Aquifer. “[We’re] setting that up so that communities have that as one more tool in the toolkit, especially given the increasing scarcity that we’re seeing with freshwater,” Heinrich said. Heinrich chairs the Senate Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which oversees funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If the measure is included in a new Farm Bill, it would establish a new program through the USDA to encourage voluntary reductions in groundwater pumping by compensating less pumping on agricultural lands. A USDA program would pay farmers based on the market value for water rights, instead of (usually lower) per-acre lump sum, under the proposal. In addition, the bill allows farming on the land, and choices for reducing water use, as long as farmers meet the committed amount of water they agreed to conserve. Here’s a copy of the full bill:Groundwater Conservation Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.	<urn:uuid:0c2a7354-cf23-4f45-ad3a-e647fc8391f5>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510941.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001205332-20231001235332-00376.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9252801537513733, "pii_count": 0, "score": 2.71875, "token_count": 829, "url": "https://sourcenm.com/2023/08/24/groundwater-conservation-on-rio-grande-model-for-nation/" }	Water conservation model built on the Rio Grande may be a template for rest of US Sen. Heinrich hopes to add a nationwide groundwater conservation program to Farm Bill Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) listens during a tour at the South Valley Economic Development Center on Wednesday Aug. 23, 2023. Heinrich joined with Senators from Colorado and Kansas to push for a national groundwater conservation piloted in the San Luis Valley on the Rio Grande. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source New Mexico) A program built on the Rio Grande to preserve groundwater could become a national model. Last month, Sen. Martin Heinrich	(D-NM) alongside Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a federal program to mirror local efforts in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado to reduce the strain on aquifers and the river. Nonprofit land trusts in the San Luis Valley banded together in 2022 to pay farmers to keep water in aquifers, through programs that maintain wetlands and tie water rights to lands. These voluntary legal agreements help landowners preserve natural characteristics on private lands. It is often used to preserve wetlands habitats for birds, fish and other wildlife. These deals often limit some types of future development on the land. Any restrictions on the property carry forward, even if the land is sold. Landowners are compensated if they are selling the property rights, and they also receive tax incentives for entering easements. Colorado Open Lands and other trusts went a step further in 2022, by paying farms to limit water usage by leaving some water in the ground, instead of pumping it for growing food. Sally Weir, a conservation manager, who worked with Colorado Open Lands described the unique deals. “The idea is that landowners are compensated for the value of the water that they’re not using, and essentially leaving in the aquifer for sustainability,” Weir said in a 2022 interview with Source NM. Keeping aquifers filled prevents the rivers from drying and lowers the draw on non-renewable resources. “It’s all connected, the rivers and the aquifers,” Weir said. Heinrich plans to wrap the measure into the Farm Bill – the massive legislation rewritten every five years which determines how billions of dollars are spent in agriculture, food aid, forestry, and other programs. In an interview with Source NM Heinrich said areas across the U.S. are facing dropping aquifers, and dwindling rivers. “There are a lot of places with similar challenges where it would be a benefit,” he said. He nodded at efforts to make a groundwater bank in eastern New Mexico, on the precipitously dropping Ogallala Aquifer. “[We’re] setting that up so that communities have that as one more tool in the toolkit, especially given the increasing scarcity that we’re seeing with freshwater,” Heinrich said. Heinrich chairs the Senate Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which oversees funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If the measure is included in a new Farm Bill, it would establish a new program through the USDA to encourage voluntary reductions in groundwater pumping by compensating less pumping on agricultural lands. A USDA program would pay farmers based on the market value for water rights, instead of (usually lower) per-acre lump sum, under the proposal. In addition, the bill allows farming on the land, and choices for reducing water use, as long as farmers meet the committed amount of water they agreed to conserve. Here’s a copy of the full bill:Groundwater Conservation Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.
Why is it that some medical conditions persist for centuries without very much being said about them? An answer, I think, is that medical conditions affecting women, in particular, have always run the danger of being marginalised. Look at how much we are now hearing about endometriosis. It has caused so much pain to so many women over time, yet little enough was said about it in the media until the 21st century. What started me on this train of thought was reading that a condition called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders only in 2013. PMDD is like an extreme version of premenstrual tension. It can cause intense symptoms such as anger, mood swings, depression, anxiety and conflict in the weeks before bleeding begins, according to the American Psychological Association in its Monitor on Psychology. In some cases, symptoms are so bad that women with the condition have had hysterectomies or taken their own lives. It can be argued – and indeed is argued – that classifying PMDD as a mental disorder is inaccurate and stigmatises an extreme version of a normal condition. Still, its inclusion in the DSM means it is officially recognised in psychiatry. This painful, emotionally shattering condition can lead to conflict that harms relationships – so ‘werewolf week’ as some sufferers call it can have consequences that go on long after it is over. We all know that anger or irritation in a female colleague can be dismissed – usually not out loud – as ‘it’s the time of month’ but this is of a different order. Researchers say that what is behind it is an ‘abnormal sensitivity to the normal rise and fall of hormones during the menstrual cycle’. During that time, it can exacerbate other conditions such as post-traumatic stress, ADHD and borderline personality disorder. Some men also have an abnormal sensitivity to the rise and fall of hormones, and suffer mood swings, but the effect is under-studied. A Swedish study found that women not only with PMDD but with PMS are at a higher risk of falls, car accidents and suicidal behaviour About 6 per cent of women have this condition and for those who have it it’s a huge issue and also presumably for those around them, which multiplies the effect. Some of these symptoms occur at other points in the cycles of some of the women concerned and not only in the two weeks before their periods so it can be very disruptive. Researchers wonder if hormonal fluctuation around puberty is linked to a big increase in depression and suicidal thoughts or behaviour in girls that isn’t seen in boys. In one study of almost 600 females, aged 13 to 62 with a diagnosis of PMDD, 72 per cent reported suicidal thoughts throughout their lifetime. Half had planned suicide, a third had made an attempt and more than half had injured themselves. A Swedish study found that women not only with PMDD but with PMS are at a higher risk of falls, car accidents and suicidal behaviour. How many lives are lost or wrecked? According to the American Psychological Association article, oral contraceptives and Prozac or similar medicines can help. Cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness can also help by enabling the affected women to make good choices arising from their knowledge of where they are in the cycle. Techniques such as tracking one’s emotions can also help – possibly by enabling the person to take a step back from the emotional experience. One woman interviewed for the APA article said therapy, an antidepressant and good self care habits have helped her to minimise her symptoms. All of this I think should make us, especially men, less inclined to dismiss distressed behaviour by women as solely a ‘time of month’ thing. There’s a lot more to it than that. And it makes me wonder what else is out there that women have been suffering from for thousands of years but that has not been brought to light in the same way that endometriosis and PMDD are being. - Padraig O’Morain (Instagram, Twitter: @padraigomorain) is accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His books include Acceptance – Create Change and Move Forward; his daily mindfulness reminder is available free by email (<email-pii>).	<urn:uuid:7bd6e7d3-34e1-410f-adc2-3e919e18f31c>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100448.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202172159-20231202202159-00336.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9682949185371399, "pii_count": 1, "score": 3.109375, "token_count": 907, "url": "https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-wellness/2023/09/28/medical-conditions-affecting-women-have-always-run-the-danger-of-being-marginalised/" }	Why is it that some medical conditions persist for centuries without very much being said about them? An answer, I think, is that medical conditions affecting women, in particular, have always run the danger of being marginalised. Look at how much we are now hearing about endometriosis. It has caused so much pain to so many women over time, yet little enough was said about it in the media until the 21st century. What started me on this train of thought was reading that a condition called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders only in	2013. PMDD is like an extreme version of premenstrual tension. It can cause intense symptoms such as anger, mood swings, depression, anxiety and conflict in the weeks before bleeding begins, according to the American Psychological Association in its Monitor on Psychology. In some cases, symptoms are so bad that women with the condition have had hysterectomies or taken their own lives. It can be argued – and indeed is argued – that classifying PMDD as a mental disorder is inaccurate and stigmatises an extreme version of a normal condition. Still, its inclusion in the DSM means it is officially recognised in psychiatry. This painful, emotionally shattering condition can lead to conflict that harms relationships – so ‘werewolf week’ as some sufferers call it can have consequences that go on long after it is over. We all know that anger or irritation in a female colleague can be dismissed – usually not out loud – as ‘it’s the time of month’ but this is of a different order. Researchers say that what is behind it is an ‘abnormal sensitivity to the normal rise and fall of hormones during the menstrual cycle’. During that time, it can exacerbate other conditions such as post-traumatic stress, ADHD and borderline personality disorder. Some men also have an abnormal sensitivity to the rise and fall of hormones, and suffer mood swings, but the effect is under-studied. A Swedish study found that women not only with PMDD but with PMS are at a higher risk of falls, car accidents and suicidal behaviour About 6 per cent of women have this condition and for those who have it it’s a huge issue and also presumably for those around them, which multiplies the effect. Some of these symptoms occur at other points in the cycles of some of the women concerned and not only in the two weeks before their periods so it can be very disruptive. Researchers wonder if hormonal fluctuation around puberty is linked to a big increase in depression and suicidal thoughts or behaviour in girls that isn’t seen in boys. In one study of almost 600 females, aged 13 to 62 with a diagnosis of PMDD, 72 per cent reported suicidal thoughts throughout their lifetime. Half had planned suicide, a third had made an attempt and more than half had injured themselves. A Swedish study found that women not only with PMDD but with PMS are at a higher risk of falls, car accidents and suicidal behaviour. How many lives are lost or wrecked? According to the American Psychological Association article, oral contraceptives and Prozac or similar medicines can help. Cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness can also help by enabling the affected women to make good choices arising from their knowledge of where they are in the cycle. Techniques such as tracking one’s emotions can also help – possibly by enabling the person to take a step back from the emotional experience. One woman interviewed for the APA article said therapy, an antidepressant and good self care habits have helped her to minimise her symptoms. All of this I think should make us, especially men, less inclined to dismiss distressed behaviour by women as solely a ‘time of month’ thing. There’s a lot more to it than that. And it makes me wonder what else is out there that women have been suffering from for thousands of years but that has not been brought to light in the same way that endometriosis and PMDD are being. - Padraig O’Morain (Instagram, Twitter: @padraigomorain) is accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His books include Acceptance – Create Change and Move Forward; his daily mindfulness reminder is available free by email (<email-pii>).
When many people think of Aotearoa New Zealand, there are a few iconic things that usually come to mind: All Blacks, the Haka and a Hāngī. Today, Māori culture and language are celebrated and embraced by those living in Aotearoa and abroad. But it wasn't always this way. Almost 200 years ago, Aotearoa's renowned Te Tiriti O Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi was signed — a formal agreement between Māori chiefs and the British Crown that sought to bring together two cultures, two different worlds. When you look back through history from a Māori lens, many people like Kelvin Davis — Minister for Māori Crown Relations — say the agreement was abandoned for a long time. "The ink hadn't even dried on the treaty in 1840 and the government of the time and for probably 160 years after just ignored what it said," Mr Davis said. "Land was stolen, our language started to die, all our traditions, our customs, they started to disappear." Land was confiscated under the New Zealand Settlements Act, Te Reo Māori was forbidden to be spoken and bloodshed and protests continued. So how did these events happen when there was a treaty in place? Two texts, one stark difference In the fine print of the Treaty of Waitangi, there is a glaring difference between translations that is still debated today. Back in 1840, the treaty was drafted and translated in two languages: Te Reo Māori and English and discussed with a large crowd of Māori chiefs, settlers, traders, and missionaries. Many chiefs couldn't speak English, read, or write but they were there to assert their sovereignty over the land — echoing the same message of the chiefs who signed a statement five years earlier called the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand. For hours the agreement was debated, with many Māori chiefs raising concerns over their land and sceptical of how authority, land ownership and trade dealings would work. After much consideration and the influence of a few prominent Māori chiefs, the treaty was signed on February 6, 1840. Not everyone supported the agreement or had the opportunity to sign — and despite this, three months later Captain William Hobson, New Zealand's first governor, declared sovereignty over Aotearoa. Since that historic day, the origins and understanding of article one in the treaty remains a pain point for many New Zealanders today. In the English text, the treaty states: "The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty…" But the Te Reo Māori text says: "The Chiefs of the Confederation and all the Chiefs who have not joined that Confederation give absolutely to the Queen of England for ever the complete government over their land." Dr Carwyn Jones, lead academic at Māori university Te Wananga O Raukawa says Māori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown. "The English text talks about sovereignty being ceded to the British crown but in the Māori text, it talks about this idea of 'kawanatanga', so this function of government," he explains. "The treaty guarantees to Māori that their authority is going to be retained … the Crown didn't really recognise that authority was to be shared." For years, the Treaty of Waitangi wasn't taken seriously by government officials and judges. The abandonment of the treaty gave birth to what Minister Davis describes as a cultural "renaissance". "Māori started to say 'honour the treaty,'" he said. "Through the hard work of people who are labelled protesters and agitators, we started to see positive change for Māori." Honouring the Treaty Often described as a court, the Waitangi Tribunal has created principles to help assess alleged breaches of the treaty around current issues, like government legislations or policies. Dr Jones says the tribunal plays an important role in honouring the treaty today. "The Waitangi Tribunal is an independent body determining whether the Crown has lived up to its treaty obligations or not and I think that kind of monitoring body is really important," Dr Jones says. "It has acted as a truth-telling body, and so people often talk about it as having a truth and reconciliation function." Similar to a court hearing, the tribunal will hear evidence from both sides — Māori and the Crown — and makes recommendations to the New Zealand government through a report. But Dr Jones says the recommendations aren't usually legally binding. "Government can, for the most part, choose to either accept or to ignore them," he said. Despite this, the tribunal's advice has led to progress and reparations for many Māori people. "One good example is language," Dr Jones said. "The tribunal heard a claim in the 1980s about Māori language and the Crown's responsibility [to protect it]. They recommended it become an official language of New Zealand and a commission be established." "Both things happened and have had quite an impact in the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori," he said. Voice for Māori Inside a sacred Marae located in the southern suburb of Papakura in Auckland, a Waitangi Tribunal hearing is taking place. One of the key witnesses presenting evidence to the tribunal is lawyer and disability advocate Dr Huhana Hickey. She says the health system has failed Māori people living with a disability. "Thirty-three per cent of Māori are disabled but by the time they reach the age of 40, 69 per cent of Māori have a disability," she said. "Most of that comes from poverty, living low-wage jobs where the labouring work wears your body out earlier … that's 69 per cent higher than any other demographic in the country." Dr Hickey says the treaty and the Waitangi tribunal play an important role in ensuring Māori voices are guiding decisions and policies that affect them. "The treaty actually gives me my rights as a Māori woman to be able to exercise and live in my cultural world as much as being a part of Aotearoa in a larger sense," she says. "I should be an equal citizen in this country and that's what that's supposed to guarantee." In the lead-up to the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia, there has been a lot of discussion around treaty-making with First Nations people. When asked what his thoughts were if Australia were to embark on a treaty, Minister Kelvin Davis responded by saying: 'It's a unifying moment. "The amazing thing for Australia is that this is your moment … but I think you have to get it right because this is the foundation for your country, for years to come," he said.Loading... If you're unable to load the form, you can access it here.	<urn:uuid:c5d389e4-c082-4627-ba8b-224a27348d07>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100484.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20231203030948-20231203060948-00199.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9748700857162476, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.921875, "token_count": 1482, "url": "https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-29/what-is-the-treaty-of-waitangi-and-how-does-it-work/102902482" }	When many people think of Aotearoa New Zealand, there are a few iconic things that usually come to mind: All Blacks, the Haka and a Hāngī. Today, Māori culture and language are celebrated and embraced by those living in Aotearoa and abroad. But it wasn't always this way. Almost 200 years ago, Aotearoa's renowned Te Tiriti O Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi was signed — a formal agreement between Māori chiefs and the British Crown that sought to bring together two cultures, two different worlds. When you look back through history from a Māori lens,	many people like Kelvin Davis — Minister for Māori Crown Relations — say the agreement was abandoned for a long time. "The ink hadn't even dried on the treaty in 1840 and the government of the time and for probably 160 years after just ignored what it said," Mr Davis said. "Land was stolen, our language started to die, all our traditions, our customs, they started to disappear." Land was confiscated under the New Zealand Settlements Act, Te Reo Māori was forbidden to be spoken and bloodshed and protests continued. So how did these events happen when there was a treaty in place? Two texts, one stark difference In the fine print of the Treaty of Waitangi, there is a glaring difference between translations that is still debated today. Back in 1840, the treaty was drafted and translated in two languages: Te Reo Māori and English and discussed with a large crowd of Māori chiefs, settlers, traders, and missionaries. Many chiefs couldn't speak English, read, or write but they were there to assert their sovereignty over the land — echoing the same message of the chiefs who signed a statement five years earlier called the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand. For hours the agreement was debated, with many Māori chiefs raising concerns over their land and sceptical of how authority, land ownership and trade dealings would work. After much consideration and the influence of a few prominent Māori chiefs, the treaty was signed on February 6, 1840. Not everyone supported the agreement or had the opportunity to sign — and despite this, three months later Captain William Hobson, New Zealand's first governor, declared sovereignty over Aotearoa. Since that historic day, the origins and understanding of article one in the treaty remains a pain point for many New Zealanders today. In the English text, the treaty states: "The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty…" But the Te Reo Māori text says: "The Chiefs of the Confederation and all the Chiefs who have not joined that Confederation give absolutely to the Queen of England for ever the complete government over their land." Dr Carwyn Jones, lead academic at Māori university Te Wananga O Raukawa says Māori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown. "The English text talks about sovereignty being ceded to the British crown but in the Māori text, it talks about this idea of 'kawanatanga', so this function of government," he explains. "The treaty guarantees to Māori that their authority is going to be retained … the Crown didn't really recognise that authority was to be shared." For years, the Treaty of Waitangi wasn't taken seriously by government officials and judges. The abandonment of the treaty gave birth to what Minister Davis describes as a cultural "renaissance". "Māori started to say 'honour the treaty,'" he said. "Through the hard work of people who are labelled protesters and agitators, we started to see positive change for Māori." Honouring the Treaty Often described as a court, the Waitangi Tribunal has created principles to help assess alleged breaches of the treaty around current issues, like government legislations or policies. Dr Jones says the tribunal plays an important role in honouring the treaty today. "The Waitangi Tribunal is an independent body determining whether the Crown has lived up to its treaty obligations or not and I think that kind of monitoring body is really important," Dr Jones says. "It has acted as a truth-telling body, and so people often talk about it as having a truth and reconciliation function." Similar to a court hearing, the tribunal will hear evidence from both sides — Māori and the Crown — and makes recommendations to the New Zealand government through a report. But Dr Jones says the recommendations aren't usually legally binding. "Government can, for the most part, choose to either accept or to ignore them," he said. Despite this, the tribunal's advice has led to progress and reparations for many Māori people. "One good example is language," Dr Jones said. "The tribunal heard a claim in the 1980s about Māori language and the Crown's responsibility [to protect it]. They recommended it become an official language of New Zealand and a commission be established." "Both things happened and have had quite an impact in the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori," he said. Voice for Māori Inside a sacred Marae located in the southern suburb of Papakura in Auckland, a Waitangi Tribunal hearing is taking place. One of the key witnesses presenting evidence to the tribunal is lawyer and disability advocate Dr Huhana Hickey. She says the health system has failed Māori people living with a disability. "Thirty-three per cent of Māori are disabled but by the time they reach the age of 40, 69 per cent of Māori have a disability," she said. "Most of that comes from poverty, living low-wage jobs where the labouring work wears your body out earlier … that's 69 per cent higher than any other demographic in the country." Dr Hickey says the treaty and the Waitangi tribunal play an important role in ensuring Māori voices are guiding decisions and policies that affect them. "The treaty actually gives me my rights as a Māori woman to be able to exercise and live in my cultural world as much as being a part of Aotearoa in a larger sense," she says. "I should be an equal citizen in this country and that's what that's supposed to guarantee." In the lead-up to the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia, there has been a lot of discussion around treaty-making with First Nations people. When asked what his thoughts were if Australia were to embark on a treaty, Minister Kelvin Davis responded by saying: 'It's a unifying moment. "The amazing thing for Australia is that this is your moment … but I think you have to get it right because this is the foundation for your country, for years to come," he said.Loading... If you're unable to load the form, you can access it here.
February 2, 2023 The Japanese government has decided to revise its basic policy for the first time in eight years toward the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste (so-called “nuclear waste”) generated by nuclear power generation. The government has decided to implement “geological disposal,” in which a final disposal site will be established and buried deeper than 300 meters below the ground. However, the number of target areas has not increased since then, and there are calls from local residents to expand their interest nationwide. Against this backdrop, the government has decided to revise for the first time in eight years its basic policy outlining the details of its efforts to realize final disposal, and has compiled a new draft basic policy. The draft clearly states that “the government will work together and under its own responsibility toward the final disposal of the waste,” and it also states that the government will take a front-loaded approach to the issue. The proposal also includes a new initiative to hold discussions with the heads of local governments where nuclear power plants are located, among other things. Through these efforts, the government hopes to increase the number of regions that will accept surveys and move forward with the selection of a final disposal site.	<urn:uuid:4dbe86ce-3027-4eaa-b74f-04d50a4154f6>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949533.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331020535-20230331050535-00442.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9490196108818054, "pii_count": 0, "score": 3.09375, "token_count": 337, "url": "https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2023/02/04/government-to-revise-basic-policy-on-final-disposal-of-nuclear-waste-for-first-time-in-eight-years/" }	February 2, 2023 The Japanese government has decided to revise its basic policy for the first time in eight years toward the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste (so-called “nuclear waste”) generated by nuclear power generation. The government has decided to implement “geological disposal,” in which a final disposal site will be established and buried deeper than 300 meters below the ground. However, the number of target areas has not increased since then, and there are calls from local residents to expand their interest nationwide. Against this backdrop, the government has decided to revise for the first time in eight	years its basic policy outlining the details of its efforts to realize final disposal, and has compiled a new draft basic policy. The draft clearly states that “the government will work together and under its own responsibility toward the final disposal of the waste,” and it also states that the government will take a front-loaded approach to the issue. The proposal also includes a new initiative to hold discussions with the heads of local governments where nuclear power plants are located, among other things. Through these efforts, the government hopes to increase the number of regions that will accept surveys and move forward with the selection of a final disposal site.
Hundreds of school districts have adopted four-day weeks and later start times in an effort to improve students’ mental health and combat teacher shortages, according to Axios. Throughout the nation 850 school districts have moved to four-day weeks, closing school either Monday or Friday, an increase of 200 school systems since 2019, according to Axios. Though research shows cutting down on class time leads to learning loss, school districts are making the move to improve student’s mental health, cut spending and combat teacher shortages. (RELATED: Hundreds Of Students’ Mental Health Records Leaked Online After Dark Web Hack) Starting later has given students more time to sleep, an improvement that aims to better mental health, The Associated Press reported. “These mental health challenges are already going to happen and then, with the absence of sleep, are much worse,” Orfeu Buxton, director of the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State University, told the AP. “The same with decision making, suicidal ideation, those kinds of things.” Adopting four-day weeks has led to less burnout and given kids more time with their families, though students are showing “reductions in both math and English/language arts achievement” as well as lower on-time graduation rates, Axios reported. Rural school districts most commonly have been adopting the change in their schedules, though districts in Denver, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas, are making the adaptation. “What the research generally shows is that this is a net negative for student achievement, mostly in scho0ls that see a big drop in instructional time as a result,” Paul Thompson, a leading scholar in four-day school week policies, told Axios. Currently, at least nine states are considering legislation that would mandate later school start times, the AP reported. California remains the lone state that mandates which time school districts are to begin their day as school systems in Philadelphia and Anchorage, Alaska, consider changing student report time. “I think getting more sleep is definitely helping,” Elise Olmstead, a junior at Upper Darby High School in Pennsylvania, told the AP. “I would be more irritable throughout the day, especially later, because I have a lot of after-school things. I would just have a harder time getting through the day.” As school districts make moves to cut down on time spent in the classroom, the nation’s students are suffering massive learning loss; in 2022, civics test scores saw their first ever drop in the subject area while just 13% of eighth graders’ tested proficiently in U.S. history. Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the country also saw its first ever decline in math scores. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact <email-pii>.	<urn:uuid:2dde68b0-488a-42f9-9178-8e9f299616bb>	{ "dump": "CC-MAIN-2023-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100575.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206000253-20231206030253-00803.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9597647786140442, "pii_count": 1, "score": 2.59375, "token_count": 663, "url": "https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/08/school-districts-four-day-weeks-later-starts/" }	Hundreds of school districts have adopted four-day weeks and later start times in an effort to improve students’ mental health and combat teacher shortages, according to Axios. Throughout the nation 850 school districts have moved to four-day weeks, closing school either Monday or Friday, an increase of 200 school systems since 2019, according to Axios. Though research shows cutting down on class time leads to learning loss, school districts are making the move to improve student’s mental health, cut spending and combat teacher shortages. (RELATED: Hundreds Of Students’ Mental Health Records Leaked Online	After Dark Web Hack) Starting later has given students more time to sleep, an improvement that aims to better mental health, The Associated Press reported. “These mental health challenges are already going to happen and then, with the absence of sleep, are much worse,” Orfeu Buxton, director of the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State University, told the AP. “The same with decision making, suicidal ideation, those kinds of things.” Adopting four-day weeks has led to less burnout and given kids more time with their families, though students are showing “reductions in both math and English/language arts achievement” as well as lower on-time graduation rates, Axios reported. Rural school districts most commonly have been adopting the change in their schedules, though districts in Denver, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas, are making the adaptation. “What the research generally shows is that this is a net negative for student achievement, mostly in scho0ls that see a big drop in instructional time as a result,” Paul Thompson, a leading scholar in four-day school week policies, told Axios. Currently, at least nine states are considering legislation that would mandate later school start times, the AP reported. California remains the lone state that mandates which time school districts are to begin their day as school systems in Philadelphia and Anchorage, Alaska, consider changing student report time. “I think getting more sleep is definitely helping,” Elise Olmstead, a junior at Upper Darby High School in Pennsylvania, told the AP. “I would be more irritable throughout the day, especially later, because I have a lot of after-school things. I would just have a harder time getting through the day.” As school districts make moves to cut down on time spent in the classroom, the nation’s students are suffering massive learning loss; in 2022, civics test scores saw their first ever drop in the subject area while just 13% of eighth graders’ tested proficiently in U.S. history. Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the country also saw its first ever decline in math scores. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact <email-pii>.