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In Maryland, it’s easy to forget that the Chesapeake Bay is more than just the wide, glittering body of water that cleaves the state roughly in half.
The bay watershed is in fact a complicated network of land and waterways spread over six states and the District of Columbia, through a variety of topography, taking in different cultures, economies and political dynamics. Which is why some of Maryland’s top officials, including U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), found themselves along the banks of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, to discuss the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Welcome to Virginia. But a heavy Maryland presence,” observed Travis Voyles, the Old Dominion’s secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.
Van Hollen acknowledged the anomaly.
“It takes a lot to get this Marylander to this side of the Potomac River,” he said. “But this occasion is one of those moments.”
The occasion was the annual release of the report card on bay health from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences (UMCES).
The topline narrative for 2022 is that overall bay health remains at a C, which is where it has been for the last several years. But on a variety of fronts, UMCES scientists said, bay health is improving, and the report card helps reveal where the success stories and the challenges are.
Of the seven indicators the environmental center uses, there were improvements in water clarity, nitrogen, phosphorus, and aquatic grasses. Although conditions in the bay overall are improving, many bay tributaries still have poor scores, and scores are particularly bad in many Eastern Shore watersheds.
Watershed health was scored in three categories: ecological, societal, and economic health. In 2022, ecological earned a B-minus, societal scored a C, and economic scored a C. Overall, the ecological, social, and economic conditions on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia are worse than other regions across all three categories.
Increasingly, UMCES researchers aren’t looking just at scientific data, water quality and aquatic life to assess bay health. They’re also trying to measure how every category they study impacts the millions of people living in the bay watershed.
“We need healthy communities to achieve a healthy bay,” said Bill Dennison, UMCES vice president for Science Application.
Assigning letter grades to the health of the bay’s waterways, land use policies and economic conditions may seem like a gimmick. But it’s also a way to get a measure of accountability from federal, state and local leaders and the various industries that impact bay health.
“Report cards are critical for holding people accountable but they’re also important for communicating with people,” said Josh Kurtz, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.
It’s also aspirational for environmental leaders, said Serena McIlwain, Maryland’s secretary of the Environment.
“We’re A students,” she said. “We won’t be happy until we get all A’s.”
(The UMCES report card is one periodic assessment of Bay health. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s State of the Bay report card offered a D+ grade earlier this year.)
The big reveal from UMCES this year took place at the Washington Sailing Marina at Daingerfield Island in Alexandria, on property owned by the National Park Service. Planes flying in and out of Reagan National Airport threatened to drown out the speakers from time to time — and so did a few honking Canada geese.
The annual bay report card comes as states in the bay watershed, along with Washington, D.C., scramble to meet federally mandated pollution reduction goals by 2025 — and most jurisdictions are expected to fall short to one degree or another. But even so, UMCES leaders said, it’s still important for states to try to reach them, and to look beyond 2025 and to next steps for improving bay health.
“The nutrient diet is working,” Dennison said. “We just need to tighten our belts and keep improving.”
Statewide politics play a role in the health of the bay. While a new Democratic administration in Annapolis isn’t quite five months old, in Virginia, Republicans have been running state government for the past year and a half after eight years of Democratic rule. Voyles, Virginia’s secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, said Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin remains committed to bay health and conservation, and accused the administration’s predecessors of not being transparent about what it would take for Virginia to achieve its bay cleanup goals.
“On day one, Gov. Youngkin told me, he is a conservative, and conservation is a big part of being a conservative,” Voyles said.
He also noted that the absence of agricultural representatives at the event Tuesday, calling them “a key partner” in the push for better bay health.
Voyles said the Youngkin administration is pushing to allocate 20% of the state’s discretionary spending on natural resources and restoration. “He’s really showing that this is a bipartisan issue,” he said.
On the environmental justice front
For the first time, the 2022 report card also sought to track the environmental justice challenges in the bay watershed, which has some of the nation’s poorest areas, in cities like Baltimore, in Appalachia, and along the Delmarva Peninsula.
The index characterizes the cumulative impacts and patterns of environmental injustice across the watershed, considering such social factors such as poverty, race, ethnicity, and pre-existing health conditions, which can increase these impacts. Tracked by Census tract, the results were mixed.
But it will be a few years before UMCES is ready to assign letter grades on the environmental justice front, or use the index to help calculate the overall health of the bay.
“We’re not there yet,” Dennison said. “It’s new. We’re still digging into it, trying to figure out the complexity of what we’re finding.”
Van Hollen said the federal government can help pull together the cleanup goals and efforts of states and other shareholders.
“When you have a watershed that encompasses six states and the District of Columbia and knows no boundaries, it’s important that you have a federal presence,” he said.
The federal government’s Chesapeake Bay Program provides $92 million annually, and a new program within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a program that provides $8 million a year to sustain lands that surround the bay. Additionally, the big federal infrastructure spending bill has earmarked $238 million for bay cleanup over five years.
But Van Hollen and other speakers Tuesday said climate change is jeopardizing the progress the state and federal governments are making in combating bay pollution. He likened it to trying to run up an escalator.
“We’re running faster to stay in place with climate change,” said Martha Shimkin, deputy director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay office, picking up on the metaphor.
Editor’s note: Maryland Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz is no relation to Josh Kurtz of Maryland Matters.
|
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In Maryland, it’s easy to forget that the Chesapeake Bay is more than just the wide, glittering body of water that cleaves the state roughly in half.
The bay watershed is in fact a complicated network of land and waterways spread over six states and the District of Columbia, through a variety of topography, taking in different cultures, economies and political dynamics. Which is why some of Maryland’s top officials, including U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), found themselves along the banks of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, to discuss the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Welcome to Virginia. But a heavy Maryland presence,” observed Travis Voyles, the Old Dominion’s secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.
Van Hollen acknowledged the anomaly.
“It takes a lot to get this Marylander to this side of the Potomac River,” he said. “But this occasion is one of those moments.”
The occasion was the annual release of the report card on bay health from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences (UMCES).
The topline narrative for 2022 is that overall bay health remains at a C, which is where it has been for the last several years. But on a variety of
|
fronts, UMCES scientists said, bay health is improving, and the report card helps reveal where the success stories and the challenges are.
Of the seven indicators the environmental center uses, there were improvements in water clarity, nitrogen, phosphorus, and aquatic grasses. Although conditions in the bay overall are improving, many bay tributaries still have poor scores, and scores are particularly bad in many Eastern Shore watersheds.
Watershed health was scored in three categories: ecological, societal, and economic health. In 2022, ecological earned a B-minus, societal scored a C, and economic scored a C. Overall, the ecological, social, and economic conditions on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia are worse than other regions across all three categories.
Increasingly, UMCES researchers aren’t looking just at scientific data, water quality and aquatic life to assess bay health. They’re also trying to measure how every category they study impacts the millions of people living in the bay watershed.
“We need healthy communities to achieve a healthy bay,” said Bill Dennison, UMCES vice president for Science Application.
Assigning letter grades to the health of the bay’s waterways, land use policies and economic conditions may seem like a gimmick. But it’s also a way to get a measure of accountability from federal, state and local leaders and the various industries that impact bay health.
“Report cards are critical for holding people accountable but they’re also important for communicating with people,” said Josh Kurtz, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.
It’s also aspirational for environmental leaders, said Serena McIlwain, Maryland’s secretary of the Environment.
“We’re A students,” she said. “We won’t be happy until we get all A’s.”
(The UMCES report card is one periodic assessment of Bay health. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s State of the Bay report card offered a D+ grade earlier this year.)
The big reveal from UMCES this year took place at the Washington Sailing Marina at Daingerfield Island in Alexandria, on property owned by the National Park Service. Planes flying in and out of Reagan National Airport threatened to drown out the speakers from time to time — and so did a few honking Canada geese.
The annual bay report card comes as states in the bay watershed, along with Washington, D.C., scramble to meet federally mandated pollution reduction goals by 2025 — and most jurisdictions are expected to fall short to one degree or another. But even so, UMCES leaders said, it’s still important for states to try to reach them, and to look beyond 2025 and to next steps for improving bay health.
“The nutrient diet is working,” Dennison said. “We just need to tighten our belts and keep improving.”
Statewide politics play a role in the health of the bay. While a new Democratic administration in Annapolis isn’t quite five months old, in Virginia, Republicans have been running state government for the past year and a half after eight years of Democratic rule. Voyles, Virginia’s secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, said Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin remains committed to bay health and conservation, and accused the administration’s predecessors of not being transparent about what it would take for Virginia to achieve its bay cleanup goals.
“On day one, Gov. Youngkin told me, he is a conservative, and conservation is a big part of being a conservative,” Voyles said.
He also noted that the absence of agricultural representatives at the event Tuesday, calling them “a key partner” in the push for better bay health.
Voyles said the Youngkin administration is pushing to allocate 20% of the state’s discretionary spending on natural resources and restoration. “He’s really showing that this is a bipartisan issue,” he said.
On the environmental justice front
For the first time, the 2022 report card also sought to track the environmental justice challenges in the bay watershed, which has some of the nation’s poorest areas, in cities like Baltimore, in Appalachia, and along the Delmarva Peninsula.
The index characterizes the cumulative impacts and patterns of environmental injustice across the watershed, considering such social factors such as poverty, race, ethnicity, and pre-existing health conditions, which can increase these impacts. Tracked by Census tract, the results were mixed.
But it will be a few years before UMCES is ready to assign letter grades on the environmental justice front, or use the index to help calculate the overall health of the bay.
“We’re not there yet,” Dennison said. “It’s new. We’re still digging into it, trying to figure out the complexity of what we’re finding.”
Van Hollen said the federal government can help pull together the cleanup goals and efforts of states and other shareholders.
“When you have a watershed that encompasses six states and the District of Columbia and knows no boundaries, it’s important that you have a federal presence,” he said.
The federal government’s Chesapeake Bay Program provides $92 million annually, and a new program within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a program that provides $8 million a year to sustain lands that surround the bay. Additionally, the big federal infrastructure spending bill has earmarked $238 million for bay cleanup over five years.
But Van Hollen and other speakers Tuesday said climate change is jeopardizing the progress the state and federal governments are making in combating bay pollution. He likened it to trying to run up an escalator.
“We’re running faster to stay in place with climate change,” said Martha Shimkin, deputy director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay office, picking up on the metaphor.
Editor’s note: Maryland Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz is no relation to Josh Kurtz of Maryland Matters.
|
Explore reggae music’s place in Black history with Noel Cymone Walker
February is widely acknowledged as Black History Month, but did you know it is also Reggae Month?
Every year since 1926, Black History Month has been honored in February — but did you know that since 2008, February has also been officially designated Reggae Month in Jamaica? The history and evolution of interrelatedness between the musical genre and commemorative month have yet to be formally taught to the Black diaspora, likely because of a lack of knowledge about reggae’s history. This Black History Month, writer and host Noel Cymone Walker steps in to divulge the truth of just how deeply reggae directly relates to Black history in a new special for theGrio.
Taking place in Kingston, Jamaica, the reggae music capital of the world, this special explores reggae’s stomping grounds, the site of significant events that contribute to Black history at large. Reggae is known as the only revolutionary Black protest music with unity, peace, and love at its core, but its connection to Black historical events goes a bit deeper than most know. Reggae is a result of not only the Rastafari movement — a religious, political, and social movement — but is also a direct outgrowth of Garveyism — the body of thought and organizational activities associated with Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Marcus Garvey is the first Jamaican national hero and foremost Black radical figure of the 20th century. Garvey is credited with organizing the first successful Black American nationalist movement, known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, or UNIA. The UNIA accumulated an astonishing number of over two million members with several chapters in various parts of the world, making it the largest nationalist movement to promote racial pride, entrepreneurialism, and Pan-Africanism.
In this special, Noel explores Jamaica’s National Heroes Park, where Marcus Garvey’s monument resides at his burial site, accompanied by Senior Lecturer at Kingston’s Edna Manley College of Visual and Perfoming Arts and co-founder of Third World, musician, and educator Michael “Ibo” Cooper. She also visits downtown Kingston, where legends like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff all recorded major reggae hits promoting equality, peace, and love for oppressed groups, alongside the legendary queen of reggae, Marcia Griffiths. Noel also explores Dub Club, the most popular roots reggae and dub music club in all of the world, with its owner, Gabre Selassie, and speaks with reggae artist Protoje about the future of modern-day reggae.
“I’ve always been a champion of cultural anthropology, truly submerging myself in the cultural environments and homelands to better understand how we differ and how we are the same,” says Noel in the special. “Reggae and dancehall are a part of me, Black American culture, African American culture, Caribbean culture, and the entire Black diaspora … Everything is always connected, and so are we.”
Check out the special above, and on The Grio TV, The Grio Streaming app, or theGrio’s YouTube channel.
Noel Cymone Walker is an NYC-based writer specializing in beauty, fashion, music, travel, and cultural anthropology. She has written and produced visuals for several notable publications such as The Recording Academy/The Grammys, The Fader, Billboard, OkayPlayer, Marie Claire, Glamour, Allure, Essence, Ebony, and more.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrio’s Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to ‘Writing Black‘ with Maiysha Kai.
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Explore reggae music’s place in Black history with Noel Cymone Walker
February is widely acknowledged as Black History Month, but did you know it is also Reggae Month?
Every year since 1926, Black History Month has been honored in February — but did you know that since 2008, February has also been officially designated Reggae Month in Jamaica? The history and evolution of interrelatedness between the musical genre and commemorative month have yet to be formally taught to the Black diaspora, likely because of a lack of knowledge about reggae’s history. This Black History Month, writer and host Noel Cymone Walker steps in to divulge the truth of just how deeply reggae directly relates to Black history in a new special for theGrio.
Taking place in Kingston, Jamaica, the reggae music capital of the world, this special explores reggae’s stomping grounds, the site of significant events that contribute to Black history at large. Reggae is known as the only revolutionary Black protest music with unity, peace, and love at its core, but its connection to Black historical events goes a bit deeper than most know. Reggae is a result of not only the Rastafari movement — a religious, political, and social movement
|
— but is also a direct outgrowth of Garveyism — the body of thought and organizational activities associated with Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Marcus Garvey is the first Jamaican national hero and foremost Black radical figure of the 20th century. Garvey is credited with organizing the first successful Black American nationalist movement, known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, or UNIA. The UNIA accumulated an astonishing number of over two million members with several chapters in various parts of the world, making it the largest nationalist movement to promote racial pride, entrepreneurialism, and Pan-Africanism.
In this special, Noel explores Jamaica’s National Heroes Park, where Marcus Garvey’s monument resides at his burial site, accompanied by Senior Lecturer at Kingston’s Edna Manley College of Visual and Perfoming Arts and co-founder of Third World, musician, and educator Michael “Ibo” Cooper. She also visits downtown Kingston, where legends like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff all recorded major reggae hits promoting equality, peace, and love for oppressed groups, alongside the legendary queen of reggae, Marcia Griffiths. Noel also explores Dub Club, the most popular roots reggae and dub music club in all of the world, with its owner, Gabre Selassie, and speaks with reggae artist Protoje about the future of modern-day reggae.
“I’ve always been a champion of cultural anthropology, truly submerging myself in the cultural environments and homelands to better understand how we differ and how we are the same,” says Noel in the special. “Reggae and dancehall are a part of me, Black American culture, African American culture, Caribbean culture, and the entire Black diaspora … Everything is always connected, and so are we.”
Check out the special above, and on The Grio TV, The Grio Streaming app, or theGrio’s YouTube channel.
Noel Cymone Walker is an NYC-based writer specializing in beauty, fashion, music, travel, and cultural anthropology. She has written and produced visuals for several notable publications such as The Recording Academy/The Grammys, The Fader, Billboard, OkayPlayer, Marie Claire, Glamour, Allure, Essence, Ebony, and more.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrio’s Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to ‘Writing Black‘ with Maiysha Kai.
|
Stu Sjouwerman is the founder and CEO of KnowBe4 Inc., a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform.
Much has been said about ChatGPT, the new AI-based chatbot capable of mimicking human-like conversations and drafting all sorts of narratives. ChatGPT opens up a whole new world of possibilities across industries and businesses. Yet the excitement over ChatGPT comes with a number of caveats that concerns cybersecurity. Let’s explore a few of the implications ChatGPT presents to cybersecurity efforts.
Implications For Phishing And Social Engineering
One of the obvious tell-tale signs of phishing is poorly worded sentences and grammatical errors. This is likely due to crime organizations that operate from overseas and aren’t necessarily native speakers of the language in which they are phishing people. But everything changes with ChatGPT. Threat actors can now craft emails and messages that are not only grammatically correct but are credibly convincing. Blackberry shares examples of phishing hooks and business email compromise messages that can be created using ChatGPT.
Implications For Malware Obfuscation
Threat actors are known to use obfuscation techniques to evolve malware signatures that can bypass traditional signature-based security controls. Researchers at CyberArk demonstrated how ChatGPT can be easily abused to create polymorphic malware that is highly evasive as well as difficult to detect. Every time researchers queried ChatGPT, they received a unique piece of code that could be used to create numerous mutations of the same malware program.
Implications For Ransomware
Checkpoint Research recently revealed underground marketplaces buzzing with conversations on how ChatGPT can be used to write malware code. One threat actor used ChatGPT to create malware that hunted common file types, copied them onto a random folder, compressed them and then uploaded the files to a hardcoded FTP server. Another threat actor (who supposedly had limited developer skills) created an encryption algorithm that can encrypt all files in a specified directory. Both these examples illustrate that even those with limited technical experience can use advanced AI to build core elements of ransomware-type programs.
Implications For Vulnerable Code and Software
Uncovering hidden vulnerabilities is not easy. Hackers often spend a lot of time and energy going through each line of code, trying to understand what each flag, keyword or section does. With ChatGPT, hackers can now take a snippet of code and ask the chatbot to analyze it and provide a high-level summary of what each module does. Such technology has the potential to significantly empower seasoned attackers and reduce the barrier to entry for other potential adversaries. A smart contract auditing firm recently demonstrated how it was able to find weaknesses in smart contract code using ChatGPT.
Implications For Misinformation
Rogue actors, anti-Western governments and political opponents are often engaged in systematic campaigns to “astroturf”—repeatedly spreading false narratives across multiple accounts to attract consensus. For example, Twitter bots have been widely criticized for posting repeated content in suspicious patterns. An AI like ChatGPT designed to mimic humans can produce an infinite supply of content on a range of topics. Triggered by certain keywords or controversial topics, the chatbot can post to an indefinite number of social accounts. Such bots will be indistinguishable from human users, elevating disinformation to a whole new level.
How Can Businesses Ready Themselves For a New Wave Of AI-enabled Cybercrime?
Best practices that can help businesses protect themselves against such advanced threats include:
• Deploy ongoing security awareness training programs to include real-time coaching so that employees understand their responsibilities with cybersecurity and follow best practices (strong passwords, safe browsing, etc.).
• Run phishing simulations using in-the-wild phishes so that employees get into the habit of recognizing and reporting phishing attempts and other suspicious activity.
• Teach staff to verify the authenticity of financially related requests, especially if there is a sudden urgency or an unusual request that appeared out of the blue.
• Use tools like phishing-resistant MFA and zero-trust to reduce the risk of account takeover and identity fraud.
• Patch all internet-accessible devices, applications and software regularly so that attackers or AI cannot discover these loopholes.
• Only work with vendors and partners that take cybersecurity seriously and are transparent about their security policies. Ask if they practice secure development lifecycle programming (SDL).
• Use AI-based cybersecurity to counter AI-enabled threats. There are a number of endpoint security tools available on the market that use AI, machine learning and natural language processing to detect advanced threats and process, classify and co-relate large amounts of security signals. This is because AI doesn’t just produce or read alerts—it correlates different telemetry points or points of interest and then issues a verdict.
AI-enabled cybercrime is already here. The technology is in the public domain and there are lots of online tools and dark web services that can be leveraged by threat actors. The only way organizations can have a fighting chance against AI-enabled cybercrime is to advance a culture of security first and consider deploying AI-based technological defenses.
|
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Stu Sjouwerman is the founder and CEO of KnowBe4 Inc., a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform.
Much has been said about ChatGPT, the new AI-based chatbot capable of mimicking human-like conversations and drafting all sorts of narratives. ChatGPT opens up a whole new world of possibilities across industries and businesses. Yet the excitement over ChatGPT comes with a number of caveats that concerns cybersecurity. Let’s explore a few of the implications ChatGPT presents to cybersecurity efforts.
Implications For Phishing And Social Engineering
One of the obvious tell-tale signs of phishing is poorly worded sentences and grammatical errors. This is likely due to crime organizations that operate from overseas and aren’t necessarily native speakers of the language in which they are phishing people. But everything changes with ChatGPT. Threat actors can now craft emails and messages that are not only grammatically correct but are credibly convincing. Blackberry shares examples of phishing hooks and business email compromise messages that can be created using ChatGPT.
Implications For Malware Obfuscation
Threat actors are known to use obfuscation techniques to evolve malware signatures that can bypass traditional signature-based security controls. Researchers at CyberAr
|
k demonstrated how ChatGPT can be easily abused to create polymorphic malware that is highly evasive as well as difficult to detect. Every time researchers queried ChatGPT, they received a unique piece of code that could be used to create numerous mutations of the same malware program.
Implications For Ransomware
Checkpoint Research recently revealed underground marketplaces buzzing with conversations on how ChatGPT can be used to write malware code. One threat actor used ChatGPT to create malware that hunted common file types, copied them onto a random folder, compressed them and then uploaded the files to a hardcoded FTP server. Another threat actor (who supposedly had limited developer skills) created an encryption algorithm that can encrypt all files in a specified directory. Both these examples illustrate that even those with limited technical experience can use advanced AI to build core elements of ransomware-type programs.
Implications For Vulnerable Code and Software
Uncovering hidden vulnerabilities is not easy. Hackers often spend a lot of time and energy going through each line of code, trying to understand what each flag, keyword or section does. With ChatGPT, hackers can now take a snippet of code and ask the chatbot to analyze it and provide a high-level summary of what each module does. Such technology has the potential to significantly empower seasoned attackers and reduce the barrier to entry for other potential adversaries. A smart contract auditing firm recently demonstrated how it was able to find weaknesses in smart contract code using ChatGPT.
Implications For Misinformation
Rogue actors, anti-Western governments and political opponents are often engaged in systematic campaigns to “astroturf”—repeatedly spreading false narratives across multiple accounts to attract consensus. For example, Twitter bots have been widely criticized for posting repeated content in suspicious patterns. An AI like ChatGPT designed to mimic humans can produce an infinite supply of content on a range of topics. Triggered by certain keywords or controversial topics, the chatbot can post to an indefinite number of social accounts. Such bots will be indistinguishable from human users, elevating disinformation to a whole new level.
How Can Businesses Ready Themselves For a New Wave Of AI-enabled Cybercrime?
Best practices that can help businesses protect themselves against such advanced threats include:
• Deploy ongoing security awareness training programs to include real-time coaching so that employees understand their responsibilities with cybersecurity and follow best practices (strong passwords, safe browsing, etc.).
• Run phishing simulations using in-the-wild phishes so that employees get into the habit of recognizing and reporting phishing attempts and other suspicious activity.
• Teach staff to verify the authenticity of financially related requests, especially if there is a sudden urgency or an unusual request that appeared out of the blue.
• Use tools like phishing-resistant MFA and zero-trust to reduce the risk of account takeover and identity fraud.
• Patch all internet-accessible devices, applications and software regularly so that attackers or AI cannot discover these loopholes.
• Only work with vendors and partners that take cybersecurity seriously and are transparent about their security policies. Ask if they practice secure development lifecycle programming (SDL).
• Use AI-based cybersecurity to counter AI-enabled threats. There are a number of endpoint security tools available on the market that use AI, machine learning and natural language processing to detect advanced threats and process, classify and co-relate large amounts of security signals. This is because AI doesn’t just produce or read alerts—it correlates different telemetry points or points of interest and then issues a verdict.
AI-enabled cybercrime is already here. The technology is in the public domain and there are lots of online tools and dark web services that can be leveraged by threat actors. The only way organizations can have a fighting chance against AI-enabled cybercrime is to advance a culture of security first and consider deploying AI-based technological defenses.
|
Transcendental Meditation, or TM for short, is a simple yet powerful technique for accessing the deepest levels of the mind and body. Developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid-1950s, TM is now practiced by millions of people worldwide and has been the subject of over 600 scientific studies.
So what exactly is TM, and how does it work?
At its core, TM is a form of mantra meditation. During a typical TM session, the practitioner sits comfortably with eyes closed and silently repeats a mantra – a sound or word – to themselves. The mantra is chosen specifically for the individual by a trained TM teacher and is intended to help the practitioner effortlessly transcend (i.e., go beyond) their usual thinking and settle into a state of deep relaxation.
According to the TM organization, this state of deep relaxation is characterized by reduced activity in the sympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for the “fight or flight” response) and increased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for relaxation and healing). This, in turn, can lead to a range of physical and mental benefits, including reduced stress and anxiety, improved sleep, and increased energy and focus.
But the benefits of TM go beyond simply feeling more relaxed and focused. Proponents of the practice believe that regular TM practice can lead to a state of “transcendental consciousness” – a state of heightened awareness and creativity that is said to be characterized by feelings of bliss, inner peace, and oneness with the universe.
To understand this concept of transcendental consciousness, it’s helpful to look at the philosophy behind TM. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the mind has three levels of functioning: the surface level of waking consciousness (where we experience our everyday thoughts and perceptions), the deeper level of transcendental consciousness (where we experience pure awareness without thought), and the deepest level of unity consciousness (where we experience a sense of oneness with all of creation).
TM is said to help practitioners access the deeper levels of the mind and eventually reach the state of unity consciousness, which is seen as the ultimate goal of human existence. This state of consciousness is said to be characterized by a profound sense of inner peace and harmony, as well as an increased ability to tap into one’s innate creativity and intuition.
While the concept of unity consciousness may seem abstract or esoteric to some, it’s worth noting that many prominent figures throughout history have spoken about similar states of consciousness. The philosopher Alan Watts, for example, wrote extensively about the “cosmic consciousness” that he believed was accessible to all human beings, while the psychologist Abraham Maslow described the “peak experiences” that he observed in his patients as moments of transcendence and self-actualization.
Of course, not everyone who practices TM will necessarily reach the state of unity consciousness, nor is that necessarily the goal of everyone who practices. For many people, the primary benefit of TM is simply the feeling of relaxation and inner peace that it brings. And while the scientific evidence supporting the benefits of TM is still evolving, there is a growing body of research suggesting that regular TM practice can indeed have a positive impact on both mental and physical health.
So if you’re interested in trying TM for yourself, what should you expect? The first step is to find a certified TM teacher in your area – you can do so through the official TM website or by reaching out to a local TM center. Your teacher will give you a personalized mantra and guide you through the process of practicing TM, typically over the course of several sessions.
From there, it’s up to you to make TM a regular part of your routine. While the ideal frequency and duration of TM practice can vary from person to person, most practitioners aim to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes at a time. It’s important to find a quiet, comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed, and to approach the practice with an open mind and a willingness to let go of your thoughts and simply be present.
It’s also worth noting that while TM is generally considered safe for most people, it may not be appropriate for everyone. If you have a history of mental health issues or are currently experiencing significant stress or anxiety, it’s a good idea to speak with your healthcare provider before starting a meditation practice.
In conclusion, Transcendental Meditation is a simple yet powerful technique that can help you access deeper levels of consciousness and experience a range of physical and mental benefits. Whether you’re looking to reduce stress and anxiety, improve your focus and productivity, or simply deepen your sense of inner peace, TM may be worth exploring. And with the guidance of a certified teacher, you can learn to practice TM in a safe and effective way, unlocking the full potential of your mind and body.
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Transcendental Meditation, or TM for short, is a simple yet powerful technique for accessing the deepest levels of the mind and body. Developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid-1950s, TM is now practiced by millions of people worldwide and has been the subject of over 600 scientific studies.
So what exactly is TM, and how does it work?
At its core, TM is a form of mantra meditation. During a typical TM session, the practitioner sits comfortably with eyes closed and silently repeats a mantra – a sound or word – to themselves. The mantra is chosen specifically for the individual by a trained TM teacher and is intended to help the practitioner effortlessly transcend (i.e., go beyond) their usual thinking and settle into a state of deep relaxation.
According to the TM organization, this state of deep relaxation is characterized by reduced activity in the sympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for the “fight or flight” response) and increased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for relaxation and healing). This, in turn, can lead to a range of physical and mental benefits, including reduced stress and anxiety, improved sleep, and increased energy and focus.
But the benefits of
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TM go beyond simply feeling more relaxed and focused. Proponents of the practice believe that regular TM practice can lead to a state of “transcendental consciousness” – a state of heightened awareness and creativity that is said to be characterized by feelings of bliss, inner peace, and oneness with the universe.
To understand this concept of transcendental consciousness, it’s helpful to look at the philosophy behind TM. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the mind has three levels of functioning: the surface level of waking consciousness (where we experience our everyday thoughts and perceptions), the deeper level of transcendental consciousness (where we experience pure awareness without thought), and the deepest level of unity consciousness (where we experience a sense of oneness with all of creation).
TM is said to help practitioners access the deeper levels of the mind and eventually reach the state of unity consciousness, which is seen as the ultimate goal of human existence. This state of consciousness is said to be characterized by a profound sense of inner peace and harmony, as well as an increased ability to tap into one’s innate creativity and intuition.
While the concept of unity consciousness may seem abstract or esoteric to some, it’s worth noting that many prominent figures throughout history have spoken about similar states of consciousness. The philosopher Alan Watts, for example, wrote extensively about the “cosmic consciousness” that he believed was accessible to all human beings, while the psychologist Abraham Maslow described the “peak experiences” that he observed in his patients as moments of transcendence and self-actualization.
Of course, not everyone who practices TM will necessarily reach the state of unity consciousness, nor is that necessarily the goal of everyone who practices. For many people, the primary benefit of TM is simply the feeling of relaxation and inner peace that it brings. And while the scientific evidence supporting the benefits of TM is still evolving, there is a growing body of research suggesting that regular TM practice can indeed have a positive impact on both mental and physical health.
So if you’re interested in trying TM for yourself, what should you expect? The first step is to find a certified TM teacher in your area – you can do so through the official TM website or by reaching out to a local TM center. Your teacher will give you a personalized mantra and guide you through the process of practicing TM, typically over the course of several sessions.
From there, it’s up to you to make TM a regular part of your routine. While the ideal frequency and duration of TM practice can vary from person to person, most practitioners aim to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes at a time. It’s important to find a quiet, comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed, and to approach the practice with an open mind and a willingness to let go of your thoughts and simply be present.
It’s also worth noting that while TM is generally considered safe for most people, it may not be appropriate for everyone. If you have a history of mental health issues or are currently experiencing significant stress or anxiety, it’s a good idea to speak with your healthcare provider before starting a meditation practice.
In conclusion, Transcendental Meditation is a simple yet powerful technique that can help you access deeper levels of consciousness and experience a range of physical and mental benefits. Whether you’re looking to reduce stress and anxiety, improve your focus and productivity, or simply deepen your sense of inner peace, TM may be worth exploring. And with the guidance of a certified teacher, you can learn to practice TM in a safe and effective way, unlocking the full potential of your mind and body.
Leave a Reply
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Valentine’s Day has its roots in the rites of the Roman mother goddess Juno and the Lupercalia festival (15 February), an archaic pastoral rite which persevered into classical times and which commemorated the passage of young men into manhood to the god Lupercus. He was a fertility deity, often identified with Faunus or the Greek god Pan, especially worshiped by shepherds who invoked powers to promote fertility among sheep and protection from wolves. A special group of priests called Luperci were responsible for conducting the rituals.
The celebration began in the Lupercal cave on the Palatine Hill in Rome where Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, were said to have been nursed by a she-wolf. Two naked young priests, assisted by Vestal Virgins, made offerings of a sacred grain mixture called mola salsa and sacrificed a dog and a goat. Blood from the animals was spread on the two priests’ foreheads and wiped off with some wool dipped in milk. The priests then ran about the city, scourging women with strips of skin taken from the sacrificed goatcalled februa (‘purification’). The Romans believed that this flogging would purify them and assure their future fertility and easy childbirth. Being struck by these whips was considered especially lucky for women who wanted to become fertile. The rituals of February echo the interconnected themes of purity and fertility, with one being reliant on the other – in order to obtain fertility, abundance, blessing, or moreover, to be worthy of the mysteries, one must be purified, within and without.
The Lupercalia celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of young girls from a box. What happened afterwards varied from place to place; in some areas a girl was assigned to each young man and would be his sweetheart during the remaining year. In others it was the single women who drew the lot with the single man’s name on it. In an attempt to stamp out Lupercalia rites, the Church replaced them with the feast of St Valentine. Under the Church, instead of drawing out lovers’ names from the box as at the Lupercalia, young people could draw out saints’ names and sermons. They were then expected to meditate on their saints and emulate their qualities during the year. However (not surprisingly) this didn’t prove very popular. The practice of sending love letters on Valentine’s Day appeared in France and England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
St Valentine is an amalgamated figure with several conflicting and confused biographies. During the reformations of the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church, embarrassed by the nebulous nature of the saint and finding no evidence of his existence, dropped St Valentine’s Day from the official calendar.
The custom of choosing a lover on this day may relate to the commonly held European belief that birds select their mates for the year on 14 February. Chaucer, in Parlement of Foules wrote “For this was Seynt Valentine’s Day when every foul cometh ther to choose his mate“. In February, activity amongst birds increases, and they begin to nest this month. Perhaps stemming from this belief, a later superstition was that the type of bird a woman first saw on this day was an omen of the type of man she would marry:
Bluebird- a happy man
Crossbill- argumentative man
Dove- good hearted man
Goldfinch- rich man
Hawk- soldier or brave man
Owl- a man who would not live long
Woodpecker- the girl would remain single
© Anna Franklin, The Hearth Witch’s Compendium, Llewellyn, 2018
One thought on “Valentine’s Day & the Lupercalia”
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Valentine’s Day has its roots in the rites of the Roman mother goddess Juno and the Lupercalia festival (15 February), an archaic pastoral rite which persevered into classical times and which commemorated the passage of young men into manhood to the god Lupercus. He was a fertility deity, often identified with Faunus or the Greek god Pan, especially worshiped by shepherds who invoked powers to promote fertility among sheep and protection from wolves. A special group of priests called Luperci were responsible for conducting the rituals.
The celebration began in the Lupercal cave on the Palatine Hill in Rome where Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, were said to have been nursed by a she-wolf. Two naked young priests, assisted by Vestal Virgins, made offerings of a sacred grain mixture called mola salsa and sacrificed a dog and a goat. Blood from the animals was spread on the two priests’ foreheads and wiped off with some wool dipped in milk. The priests then ran about the city, scourging women with strips of skin taken from the sacrificed goatcalled februa (‘purification’). The Romans believed that this flogging would purify them and assure their future fertility and
|
easy childbirth. Being struck by these whips was considered especially lucky for women who wanted to become fertile. The rituals of February echo the interconnected themes of purity and fertility, with one being reliant on the other – in order to obtain fertility, abundance, blessing, or moreover, to be worthy of the mysteries, one must be purified, within and without.
The Lupercalia celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of young girls from a box. What happened afterwards varied from place to place; in some areas a girl was assigned to each young man and would be his sweetheart during the remaining year. In others it was the single women who drew the lot with the single man’s name on it. In an attempt to stamp out Lupercalia rites, the Church replaced them with the feast of St Valentine. Under the Church, instead of drawing out lovers’ names from the box as at the Lupercalia, young people could draw out saints’ names and sermons. They were then expected to meditate on their saints and emulate their qualities during the year. However (not surprisingly) this didn’t prove very popular. The practice of sending love letters on Valentine’s Day appeared in France and England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
St Valentine is an amalgamated figure with several conflicting and confused biographies. During the reformations of the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church, embarrassed by the nebulous nature of the saint and finding no evidence of his existence, dropped St Valentine’s Day from the official calendar.
The custom of choosing a lover on this day may relate to the commonly held European belief that birds select their mates for the year on 14 February. Chaucer, in Parlement of Foules wrote “For this was Seynt Valentine’s Day when every foul cometh ther to choose his mate“. In February, activity amongst birds increases, and they begin to nest this month. Perhaps stemming from this belief, a later superstition was that the type of bird a woman first saw on this day was an omen of the type of man she would marry:
Bluebird- a happy man
Crossbill- argumentative man
Dove- good hearted man
Goldfinch- rich man
Hawk- soldier or brave man
Owl- a man who would not live long
Woodpecker- the girl would remain single
© Anna Franklin, The Hearth Witch’s Compendium, Llewellyn, 2018
One thought on “Valentine’s Day & the Lupercalia”
|
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time record high last month, after growing at one of the fastest rates on record, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report published Monday—a dismal indication as scientists warn the devastating effects of climate change will continue to escalate and wreak havoc on the planet.
Carbon dioxide levels recorded at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii reached nearly 424 parts per million in May, up from 421 parts per million in May 2022—annual CO2 levels in the Northern Hemisphere peak in May.
The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is the fourth-biggest yearly increase on record, according to scientists from NOAA and the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography—marking an unwanted increase as scientists aim to plateau CO2 levels.
Levels as high as 420 to 425 parts per million are more than 50% higher than the pre-industrial era, and continue to rise even as countries work to reduce fossil fuel emissions in hopes of meeting the goal laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
“Every year we see carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere increase as a direct result of human activity, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement, adding: “Every year, we see the impacts of climate change in the heat waves, droughts, flooding, wildfires and storms happening all around us” and “we must expend every effort to slash carbon pollution and safeguard this planet and the life that calls it home.”
Scientists have warned for decades fossil fuel emissions need to be limited to stave off deadly impacts of climate change. That’s because rising carbon dioxide levels—which come from burning fossil fuels primarily for transportation and electricity—trap heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise escape, an Earth-warming effect that prolongs droughts and heat waves and causes more intense wildfires and storms. United Nations scientists warned in March the world is “on thin ice” as the global temperature approaches the critical 1.5 degree Celsius estimated to be the maximum temperature increase to avoid more deadly and catastrophic droughts, heat waves, storms and sea-level rise. U.N. scientists had also warned in October greenhouse gas emissions will rise 10% above 2010 levels by 2030 when they desperately need to drop.
State and federal lawmakers have sought to impose stricter limits on emissions and earmarked billions of dollars for climate change mitigation in recent years, but many companies and GOP lawmakers have slammed those measures, arguing they hurt coal, natural gas and oil production. A group of Republican lawmakers last summer heavily criticized a $370 billion measure in the federal Inflation Reduction Act to tackle climate change, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who accused Democrats of “sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change.”
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Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time record high last month, after growing at one of the fastest rates on record, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report published Monday—a dismal indication as scientists warn the devastating effects of climate change will continue to escalate and wreak havoc on the planet.
Carbon dioxide levels recorded at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii reached nearly 424 parts per million in May, up from 421 parts per million in May 2022—annual CO2 levels in the Northern Hemisphere peak in May.
The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is the fourth-biggest yearly increase on record, according to scientists from NOAA and the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography—marking an unwanted increase as scientists aim to plateau CO2 levels.
Levels as high as 420 to 425 parts per million are more than 50% higher than the pre-industrial era, and continue to rise even as countries work to reduce fossil fuel emissions in hopes of meeting the goal laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels
|
by the end of the century.
“Every year we see carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere increase as a direct result of human activity, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement, adding: “Every year, we see the impacts of climate change in the heat waves, droughts, flooding, wildfires and storms happening all around us” and “we must expend every effort to slash carbon pollution and safeguard this planet and the life that calls it home.”
Scientists have warned for decades fossil fuel emissions need to be limited to stave off deadly impacts of climate change. That’s because rising carbon dioxide levels—which come from burning fossil fuels primarily for transportation and electricity—trap heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise escape, an Earth-warming effect that prolongs droughts and heat waves and causes more intense wildfires and storms. United Nations scientists warned in March the world is “on thin ice” as the global temperature approaches the critical 1.5 degree Celsius estimated to be the maximum temperature increase to avoid more deadly and catastrophic droughts, heat waves, storms and sea-level rise. U.N. scientists had also warned in October greenhouse gas emissions will rise 10% above 2010 levels by 2030 when they desperately need to drop.
State and federal lawmakers have sought to impose stricter limits on emissions and earmarked billions of dollars for climate change mitigation in recent years, but many companies and GOP lawmakers have slammed those measures, arguing they hurt coal, natural gas and oil production. A group of Republican lawmakers last summer heavily criticized a $370 billion measure in the federal Inflation Reduction Act to tackle climate change, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who accused Democrats of “sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change.”
|
Arizona and Nevada will get more water from the Colorado River next year because of improved conditions at the country’s largest reservoir, federal officials said.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released new projections on Tuesday that detail how much water the agency expects will be stored in Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border over the next two years. The projections show that due to good winter snowfall and spring rain, combined with conservation efforts, there will be enough water in the reservoir for the federal government to roll back water cuts that affected the two states.
In 2021, the federal agency declared a Level 1 water shortage on the Colorado River for the very first time. That designation meant that water levels in Lake Mead were projected to drop low enough to trigger water cuts to Arizona and Nevada, which rely on the water in the reservoir.
Reclamation officials sounded a louder alarm in August 2022 as Lake Mead reached its lowest level on record. A Level 2 water shortage was declared, which meant even deeper water cuts to Nevada and Arizona, reductions that mostly affected desert farmers.
Now that Lake Mead has recovered slightly, the federal government is downgrading the river to a Level 1 shortage. The change means that Arizona and Nevada will have their water allocations from the Colorado River cut by 18 percent and 7 percent next year, which is a slight improvement from the 2023 cuts. Mexico will also have its normal allocation from the river reduced.
The federal cuts have not reduced water allocations to Colorado, Utah, New Mexico or Wyoming. These states make up the upper Colorado River basin and are upstream of the reservoir, which means they don’t use the water it stores. California, which does rely on Lake Mead, has been spared from cuts because of the state’s senior water rights. California would have to make cuts if a Level 3 shortage — the most severe — is ever declared.
Reclamation officials in 2021 ordered a release of water from Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado to shore up levels in Lake Powell, a move that frustrated local businesses and lake-goers because it meant an early end to the summer boating season. The prospect of additional cuts prompted the owners of the lake’s only marina to stay closed the following year, too.
The escalating tiers of water cuts come from rules states and the federal government agreed to in 2019 to manage the Colorado River based on water levels recorded at Lake Mead. Those rules are set to be replaced in 2027 after the Colorado River Basin states, tribal nations and Mexico negotiate a new drought management plan.
Negotiations on the new drought rules started earlier this year with the goal of reaching an updated agreement that includes new ways to keep water in the river and protect the country’s largest reservoirs from hitting critically low levels.
After more than 20 years of climate change-fueled drought across the Southwest, combined with overuse of the Colorado River, both Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropped to record-low levels in recent years, a stark reminder of the need for states to cut their water use as they negotiate new management rules.
In May, officials in California, Nevada and Arizona submitted a plan to the federal government they said would cut their Colorado River water use and keep 3 million acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026. That plan is currently being reviewed and will be published later this year for public review and comment.
“Lake Powell and Lake Mead — the two largest reservoirs in the United States and the two largest storage units in the Colorado River system — remain at historically low levels,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a statement. “As we experience a warmer, drier west due to a prolonged drought, accelerated by climate change, Reclamation is committed to leading inclusive and transparent efforts to develop the next-generation framework for managing the river system.”
- For the first time in nearly four years, there’s no drought anywhere in Colorado – for now
- Golf course operators are teaming up to survive Colorado River water cuts and a future that’s less green
- New state task force starts work on responding to worst-case Colorado River scenarios
- Parched: Explore the podcast series
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
|
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Arizona and Nevada will get more water from the Colorado River next year because of improved conditions at the country’s largest reservoir, federal officials said.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released new projections on Tuesday that detail how much water the agency expects will be stored in Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border over the next two years. The projections show that due to good winter snowfall and spring rain, combined with conservation efforts, there will be enough water in the reservoir for the federal government to roll back water cuts that affected the two states.
In 2021, the federal agency declared a Level 1 water shortage on the Colorado River for the very first time. That designation meant that water levels in Lake Mead were projected to drop low enough to trigger water cuts to Arizona and Nevada, which rely on the water in the reservoir.
Reclamation officials sounded a louder alarm in August 2022 as Lake Mead reached its lowest level on record. A Level 2 water shortage was declared, which meant even deeper water cuts to Nevada and Arizona, reductions that mostly affected desert farmers.
Now that Lake Mead has recovered slightly, the federal government is downgrading the river to a Level 1 shortage. The change means that Arizona and Nevada will have their water
|
allocations from the Colorado River cut by 18 percent and 7 percent next year, which is a slight improvement from the 2023 cuts. Mexico will also have its normal allocation from the river reduced.
The federal cuts have not reduced water allocations to Colorado, Utah, New Mexico or Wyoming. These states make up the upper Colorado River basin and are upstream of the reservoir, which means they don’t use the water it stores. California, which does rely on Lake Mead, has been spared from cuts because of the state’s senior water rights. California would have to make cuts if a Level 3 shortage — the most severe — is ever declared.
Reclamation officials in 2021 ordered a release of water from Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado to shore up levels in Lake Powell, a move that frustrated local businesses and lake-goers because it meant an early end to the summer boating season. The prospect of additional cuts prompted the owners of the lake’s only marina to stay closed the following year, too.
The escalating tiers of water cuts come from rules states and the federal government agreed to in 2019 to manage the Colorado River based on water levels recorded at Lake Mead. Those rules are set to be replaced in 2027 after the Colorado River Basin states, tribal nations and Mexico negotiate a new drought management plan.
Negotiations on the new drought rules started earlier this year with the goal of reaching an updated agreement that includes new ways to keep water in the river and protect the country’s largest reservoirs from hitting critically low levels.
After more than 20 years of climate change-fueled drought across the Southwest, combined with overuse of the Colorado River, both Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropped to record-low levels in recent years, a stark reminder of the need for states to cut their water use as they negotiate new management rules.
In May, officials in California, Nevada and Arizona submitted a plan to the federal government they said would cut their Colorado River water use and keep 3 million acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026. That plan is currently being reviewed and will be published later this year for public review and comment.
“Lake Powell and Lake Mead — the two largest reservoirs in the United States and the two largest storage units in the Colorado River system — remain at historically low levels,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a statement. “As we experience a warmer, drier west due to a prolonged drought, accelerated by climate change, Reclamation is committed to leading inclusive and transparent efforts to develop the next-generation framework for managing the river system.”
- For the first time in nearly four years, there’s no drought anywhere in Colorado – for now
- Golf course operators are teaming up to survive Colorado River water cuts and a future that’s less green
- New state task force starts work on responding to worst-case Colorado River scenarios
- Parched: Explore the podcast series
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
|
Hutchinson's speakers say much of Martin Luther King's work still needs to be done
Clara Crumble, a 15-year-old Buhler High School student and a member of the New Resurrection Church, highlighted that many of the great inventors such as Lewis Latimer (contributed to the invention of the light bulb and the telephone) and George Washington Carver (hundreds of uses for the peanut, including peanut butter) were black.
The great black inventors were integral to American history and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” philosophy.
“To be a part of the dream, you have to live the dream,” Crumble said. “If you know better, you can do better. We have not fulfilled the dream. Together we can fulfill the dream.”
King was celebrated Sunday during Hutchinson Community College’s annual commemoration of the Civil Rights icon’s birthday at the Stringer Fine Arts Center. King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, and was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The theme of the event at Hutchinson Community College was “Together We Can Be The Dream.”
Crumble cited the death of schoolteacher Keenan Anderson, cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who was tased by police in the Venice section of Los Angeles Jan. 3 and died from a cardiac arrest at a hospital, as an example of King’s dream not being fulfilled.
“We failed to deal with white supremacy,” said Crumble, whose grandfather is the pastor of the New Resurrection Church. “These are our failures. Our losses are great. I know kids are targeted because of the color of their skin. It’s another year, and it’s still happening.”
Presiding over the celebration Sunday at Stringer Fine Arts Center were Hence Parson, Ph.D., a professor at Hutchinson Community College, and Darrell Pope, former president of the Hutchinson chapter of the NAACP.
“We are at a contentious moment in our history,” Pope said. “We need more doing. Do what you mean and not what you say.”
Also speaking at the event were Carter File, Hutchinson Community College President; De’Kel Pope, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church; Esmerelda Tovar-Mora and Rebecca Yoder-Shetler, Hutch in Harmony; Calvin Wright, current president of the Hutchinson NAACP; and Dave Sotelo, City of Hutchinson Human Resources Commission.
“I’m always honored to be part of the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said File. “This is a day to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and his campaign for social justice. We remember because must. We have to continue the fight. In King’s ‘Letter From The Birmingham Jail,’ injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.”
The master of ceremonies was Carla Eckels of KMUW Radio, and a Hutchinson Community College alumna.
Eckels told the crowd King visited Wichita and Bethel College in 1960 and Kansas State University in 1968.
The Hutchinson Community College Badinage, Buhler High School Varsity Choir, Buhler Singers and Hutchinson High School Choir performed.
Yoder-Shetler, the president of Hutch in Humanity and secretary of the NAACP said she was raised in the Mennonite tradition. She spoke of both King and to Pope.
“Dr. King did not think individualistically,” she said. “I believe we have to practice humility. Mr. Pope has given so generously of his life experience. When I think of Dr. King, it was the same thing. It requires trust in God. It takes love. Love each other. Love where we live.”
Yoder-Shetler honored Tovar-Mora with an award for her dedication to the causes that King espoused.
Wright came to Hutchinson seven years ago to become the chief information officer at the Hutchinson Regional Medical Center and became the NAACP president. He said social economics affects everyone in terms of social justice issues.
“This community has made some strides,” Wright said “We have come together to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.”
Parson stressed the need to service to the community.
“We want justice for all and an inclusive community,” he said. “We want security for all. Together we can come out of the valley of darkness.”
Sotelo closed out the event by stressing the need for service.
“I’m inspired by Dr. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ and hope to see Dr. King’s words in action (in Hutchinson),” Sotelo said.
The Martin Luther King Jr. event will continue Monday on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a day of service, which will begin at 10 a.m. at the Stringer Fine Arts Center. Volunteers are asked to show up, ready to help non-profits in a day of community service.
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Hutchinson's speakers say much of Martin Luther King's work still needs to be done
Clara Crumble, a 15-year-old Buhler High School student and a member of the New Resurrection Church, highlighted that many of the great inventors such as Lewis Latimer (contributed to the invention of the light bulb and the telephone) and George Washington Carver (hundreds of uses for the peanut, including peanut butter) were black.
The great black inventors were integral to American history and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” philosophy.
“To be a part of the dream, you have to live the dream,” Crumble said. “If you know better, you can do better. We have not fulfilled the dream. Together we can fulfill the dream.”
King was celebrated Sunday during Hutchinson Community College’s annual commemoration of the Civil Rights icon’s birthday at the Stringer Fine Arts Center. King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, and was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The theme of the event at Hutchinson Community College was “Together We Can Be The Dream.”
Crumble cited the death of
|
schoolteacher Keenan Anderson, cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who was tased by police in the Venice section of Los Angeles Jan. 3 and died from a cardiac arrest at a hospital, as an example of King’s dream not being fulfilled.
“We failed to deal with white supremacy,” said Crumble, whose grandfather is the pastor of the New Resurrection Church. “These are our failures. Our losses are great. I know kids are targeted because of the color of their skin. It’s another year, and it’s still happening.”
Presiding over the celebration Sunday at Stringer Fine Arts Center were Hence Parson, Ph.D., a professor at Hutchinson Community College, and Darrell Pope, former president of the Hutchinson chapter of the NAACP.
“We are at a contentious moment in our history,” Pope said. “We need more doing. Do what you mean and not what you say.”
Also speaking at the event were Carter File, Hutchinson Community College President; De’Kel Pope, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church; Esmerelda Tovar-Mora and Rebecca Yoder-Shetler, Hutch in Harmony; Calvin Wright, current president of the Hutchinson NAACP; and Dave Sotelo, City of Hutchinson Human Resources Commission.
“I’m always honored to be part of the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said File. “This is a day to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and his campaign for social justice. We remember because must. We have to continue the fight. In King’s ‘Letter From The Birmingham Jail,’ injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.”
The master of ceremonies was Carla Eckels of KMUW Radio, and a Hutchinson Community College alumna.
Eckels told the crowd King visited Wichita and Bethel College in 1960 and Kansas State University in 1968.
The Hutchinson Community College Badinage, Buhler High School Varsity Choir, Buhler Singers and Hutchinson High School Choir performed.
Yoder-Shetler, the president of Hutch in Humanity and secretary of the NAACP said she was raised in the Mennonite tradition. She spoke of both King and to Pope.
“Dr. King did not think individualistically,” she said. “I believe we have to practice humility. Mr. Pope has given so generously of his life experience. When I think of Dr. King, it was the same thing. It requires trust in God. It takes love. Love each other. Love where we live.”
Yoder-Shetler honored Tovar-Mora with an award for her dedication to the causes that King espoused.
Wright came to Hutchinson seven years ago to become the chief information officer at the Hutchinson Regional Medical Center and became the NAACP president. He said social economics affects everyone in terms of social justice issues.
“This community has made some strides,” Wright said “We have come together to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.”
Parson stressed the need to service to the community.
“We want justice for all and an inclusive community,” he said. “We want security for all. Together we can come out of the valley of darkness.”
Sotelo closed out the event by stressing the need for service.
“I’m inspired by Dr. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ and hope to see Dr. King’s words in action (in Hutchinson),” Sotelo said.
The Martin Luther King Jr. event will continue Monday on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a day of service, which will begin at 10 a.m. at the Stringer Fine Arts Center. Volunteers are asked to show up, ready to help non-profits in a day of community service.
|
National Children’s Dental Health Month ended in February, but the focus on children’s oral health must remain a priority throughout the year. Many of Connecticut’s children are suffering from poor oral health, and the state is falling behind in its goals to meet national and state oral health improvement plans.
Oral health concerns are even more prevalent and severe among racial and ethnic minorities and lower-income households.
Recent data presented in the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s report, Every Smile Counts: The Oral Health Connecticut’s Children, with assistance from Connecticut Oral Health Initiative, Inc., highlights many of the areas Connecticut is failing. However, it also outlines opportunities and a path for significant improvement that is achievable through a partnership of providers, caregivers, and policymakers.
One out of every three (34%) children, according to the report, are currently being affected by tooth decay, which is the most common chronic infectious disease in children, despite being almost entirely preventable. The high rate of dental decay and cavities in Connecticut’s children is likely resulting in many suffering from agonizing pain and can negatively impact long-term oral health into adulthood. Dental decay, though, does not just stop in the mouth. An infection that starts in the mouth can influence other chronic diseases and has even led to death, as it did to 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, from Maryland, who died in 2007 as a result of an untreated dental infection.
Poor oral health has been shown to decrease children’s social, nutritional, and educational development. Children with infected and painful teeth miss more school days compared to children with healthy teeth, disrupting their educational and social experiences and increasing costs for school districts. There is also a cost to children’s mental health that can lead to shyness, unhappiness, feelings of worthlessness, avoiding smiling, and reduced friendliness.
Connecticut has an opportunity to make significant improvements by implementing targeted policies for populations that disproportionately experience dental decay. It starts with a recommendation from the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) for all families to establish a Dental Home within six months of the eruption of the first tooth and not later than 12 months of age. The purpose of early visits to the dentist is to conduct a caries risk assessment and provide parental education for the prevention of early childhood caries. Every family must establish this relationship with their dental provider like they currently do with a child’s pediatrician.
Furthermore, Connecticut must develop a better and more aggressive dental sealant program. Sealants are plastic coatings placed on top of teeth to help prevent dental decay. They are relativity relatively easy to apply, inexpensive, and usually covered by insurance. The report showed that only 28% of third-grade children have sealants which has declined over the last ten years, while race-based and ethnicity-based disparities have increased.
Other public health strategies should be pursued to include increasing oral health literacy and guidance for parents and caregivers to ensure proper oral hygiene starts right at home, further integrating oral health with medical health to establish a two-way partnership verse the current siloed system, and promoting the consumption of fluoride water over sugary drinks. Connecticut policymakers should consider increasing the capacity and funding of community health centers, improving access to HUSKY and private insurance programs, and providing additional resources to expand school-based dental health services.
The next Every Smile Counts report will be conducted in five years. If Connecticut does not start implementing the many proven methods for improving children’s oral health at a faster rate, the numbers will not only look worse, but a generation of children will continue to suffer physically, emotionally, and socially because of a disease that could have been prevented.
Let’s ensure every child in Connecticut has a smile they can count on.
T.J. Clarke II is the Executive Director of Connecticut Oral Health Initiative, Inc.
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National Children’s Dental Health Month ended in February, but the focus on children’s oral health must remain a priority throughout the year. Many of Connecticut’s children are suffering from poor oral health, and the state is falling behind in its goals to meet national and state oral health improvement plans.
Oral health concerns are even more prevalent and severe among racial and ethnic minorities and lower-income households.
Recent data presented in the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s report, Every Smile Counts: The Oral Health Connecticut’s Children, with assistance from Connecticut Oral Health Initiative, Inc., highlights many of the areas Connecticut is failing. However, it also outlines opportunities and a path for significant improvement that is achievable through a partnership of providers, caregivers, and policymakers.
One out of every three (34%) children, according to the report, are currently being affected by tooth decay, which is the most common chronic infectious disease in children, despite being almost entirely preventable. The high rate of dental decay and cavities in Connecticut’s children is likely resulting in many suffering from agonizing pain and can negatively impact long-term oral health into adulthood. Dental decay, though, does not just stop in the mouth. An infection that starts in the mouth can influence other chronic diseases and has even led to death,
|
as it did to 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, from Maryland, who died in 2007 as a result of an untreated dental infection.
Poor oral health has been shown to decrease children’s social, nutritional, and educational development. Children with infected and painful teeth miss more school days compared to children with healthy teeth, disrupting their educational and social experiences and increasing costs for school districts. There is also a cost to children’s mental health that can lead to shyness, unhappiness, feelings of worthlessness, avoiding smiling, and reduced friendliness.
Connecticut has an opportunity to make significant improvements by implementing targeted policies for populations that disproportionately experience dental decay. It starts with a recommendation from the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) for all families to establish a Dental Home within six months of the eruption of the first tooth and not later than 12 months of age. The purpose of early visits to the dentist is to conduct a caries risk assessment and provide parental education for the prevention of early childhood caries. Every family must establish this relationship with their dental provider like they currently do with a child’s pediatrician.
Furthermore, Connecticut must develop a better and more aggressive dental sealant program. Sealants are plastic coatings placed on top of teeth to help prevent dental decay. They are relativity relatively easy to apply, inexpensive, and usually covered by insurance. The report showed that only 28% of third-grade children have sealants which has declined over the last ten years, while race-based and ethnicity-based disparities have increased.
Other public health strategies should be pursued to include increasing oral health literacy and guidance for parents and caregivers to ensure proper oral hygiene starts right at home, further integrating oral health with medical health to establish a two-way partnership verse the current siloed system, and promoting the consumption of fluoride water over sugary drinks. Connecticut policymakers should consider increasing the capacity and funding of community health centers, improving access to HUSKY and private insurance programs, and providing additional resources to expand school-based dental health services.
The next Every Smile Counts report will be conducted in five years. If Connecticut does not start implementing the many proven methods for improving children’s oral health at a faster rate, the numbers will not only look worse, but a generation of children will continue to suffer physically, emotionally, and socially because of a disease that could have been prevented.
Let’s ensure every child in Connecticut has a smile they can count on.
T.J. Clarke II is the Executive Director of Connecticut Oral Health Initiative, Inc.
|
October annular solar eclipse: Where to see it in Nevada
The total solar eclipse in April 2024 may be getting all the buzz, but much of the West — including a wide band of northern and eastern Nevada — will have a prime vantage point for an annular eclipse this fall.
"Any time we get a chance to see an eclipse is a chance to be reminded that we're part of something bigger, that we're a part of this universe," said Paul McFarlane, director of the University of Nevada's Fleischmann Planetarium. "It's it's one of the most dramatic events in astronomy, and one that people can partake of without a lot of expensive equipment."
Want a front-row seat to the show? Here's what we know.
When is the 2023 annular eclipse?
The annular eclipse is set to occur on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, with the moon beginning to pass in front of the sun shortly after 8 a.m., about an hour after sunrise.
The ghost town of Vya in the northwest corner of the state will witness the annularity — the peak of the moon's coverage of the sun — starting at 9:19 a.m. Baker, near the Nevada-Utah state line, will begin seeing the annularity just before 9:25 a.m. The duration of the annularity will be anywhere between two and five minutes depending on the viewer's location.
What's the difference between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse?
Both types of eclipses occur when the moon appears to pass over the exact center of the sun. The difference is how much sunlight is blocked.
The solar eclipse that will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024 is called a "total eclipse" because the moon will be close enough to earth to block out the sun entirely.
But for this October's annular eclipse, the moon will be just far enough away from earth to allow the outer edge of the sun to shine through, creating a "ring of fire" effect in the sky.
Simulations at Fleischmann Planetarium suggest that the sky will be dark enough for skywatchers to see the planets Venus and Mercury as well as a handful of stars including Canis Major during the height of the eclipse.
Where can I watch the 2023 annular eclipse in Nevada?
Skywatchers will be able to witness the eclipse, at least partially, from anywhere in the state. The Reno-Sparks area will see the moon block 85% of the sun; all but the southernmost tip of the state will reach at least 80% coverage.
But several cities and towns in the northern and eastern parts of the state will be in the path of annularity — that is, where the center of the moon appears to pass directly over the center of the sun, from Denio on the Nevada state line to Baker near the Utah state line.
Communities including Ely, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko and Eureka also are in the path of annularity in Nevada. A few locations have announced their plans for the eclipse:
Reno: For those staying in northwestern Nevada, the Fleischmann Planetarium is inviting the public to participate in a viewing event on the morning of Oct. 14.
Ely: The eastern Nevada town will play host to the Ring of Fire Eclipse Festival from Oct. 11-16, which White Pine County tourism director Kyle Horvath says is perfect for "trail riders, mountain bikers, nature lovers, science nerds, you name it." Festivities include trail rides, a pub crawl, "punkin' chunkin'," a talk on Nevada's UFO history from UFO experts and an eclipse viewing event from a vintage excursion train.
Horvath says there's also an opportunity for people avoiding the commotion.
"If photographers want to come out with their $10,000 cameras that can photograph the sun, we can ensure a secure location where there's not going to be kids and dogs and Frisbees flying past them," he told the RGJ.
Lodging is available at various hotels and vacation rentals, and reservations are being accepted for trailers and RVs at the White Pine County Fairgrounds. More details are available at elynevada.net/ring-of-fire-eclipse-festival/.
Massacre Rim: The path of the annular eclipse will pass over Massacre Rim in northern Washoe County, one of just a handful of Dark Sky Sanctuaries on the planet. Because solar eclipses take place during the new moon phase, that means no bright moon overnight — an excellent opportunity to make a stargazing weekend out of it. But be forewarned: A visit to Massacre Rim is best left to the most experienced outdoorspeople for several reasons:
- Nevada Highway 34 runs along the west side of the sanctuary, and Nevada Highway 8a is along the south side. But don't let the word "highway" mislead you — these are both gravel roads.
- The sanctuary allows for primitive camping — pack it in, pack it out; and no off-roading.
- Six-ply tires or greater are recommended, as the roads within the sanctuary are rugged and rocky. Also recommended: vehicles with four-wheel drive and good clearance, along with a spare tire, extra food and water and a blanket.
- Cellphone service is practically nonexistent. Visitors should let someone know where they're going, and when they plan to be back.
- You might not get any bars, but you'll have plenty of cows — the area is open to livestock grazing, so be careful while driving at night.
"Surprise Valley/Cedarville, California, is one of the gateways to the sanctuary," said Jen Rovanpera, archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management. "The night skies are slightly less dark than the sanctuary, but most of the roads are paved. If the sanctuary seems too remote, then Surprise Valley is a splendid choice for night sky viewing."
Do I need eye protection to watch the annular eclipse?
It's never safe to view the sun with the naked eye. The sun’s surface is so bright that if you stare at any portion of it, no matter how small, it produces enough light to permanently damage your retina. Because the moon doesn't completely block out the sun during October's annular eclipse, there's no point at which it's safe to look directly at it with the naked eye.
Length of time doesn't matter either. Without proper eye protection, you can suffer “eclipse blindness” — a serious injury in which the eye’s retina is damaged by solar radiation — within seconds of staring at the sun, according to the American Optometric Association.
In other words, a pair of approved solar eclipse glasses are a must. The American Astronomical Society recommends looking for glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard. The Fleischmann Planetarium in Reno has been stocking up on glasses that meet the standard.
If you have compliant glasses from past eclipses and the filters aren't scratched or damaged, NASA says they can be reused indefinitely.
Can I use my cellphone camera to take a picture of the eclipse?
You can, but remember that pointing your cellphone camera directly at the sun can damage your device in the same way it could damage your eyes. Protect your device's lens by covering it with approved solar eclipse glasses before you aim it at the sun.
How will the weather be in Nevada for the eclipse?
For starters, dress in layers as fall conditions set in throughout Northern Nevada. The state generally has sunnier, clearer conditions than much of the United States, but clouds may be a concern. Towns along the path of annularity could expect at least partial cloud cover on the day of the eclipse. Below are the chances of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions on Oct. 14, according to WeatherSpark.com:
In Reno, the chance for overcast or mostly cloudy conditions on Oct. 14 is 29%. If overcast conditions persist throughout the eclipse, Fleischmann Planetarium will replicate the eclipse inside its full-dome theater.
"When the lunar eclipse was going to happen last time, it was cloudy," McFarlane told the RGJ. "We were here with a group of students on that day, and we watched it over and over again, forward and backward. We like to say the weather is always good inside the dome."
When will the next solar eclipse be visible in Nevada?
Not until Aug. 12, 2045. If it seems like we've been seeing a lot of eclipses recently, that's true — Northern Nevada was in the path of annularity for a 2012 annular eclipse, and it was just south of the path of totality for a total eclipse in 2017. But the next 47 total and annular eclipses will miss the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. altogether.
USA TODAY's Doyle Rice contributed to this article.
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October annular solar eclipse: Where to see it in Nevada
The total solar eclipse in April 2024 may be getting all the buzz, but much of the West — including a wide band of northern and eastern Nevada — will have a prime vantage point for an annular eclipse this fall.
"Any time we get a chance to see an eclipse is a chance to be reminded that we're part of something bigger, that we're a part of this universe," said Paul McFarlane, director of the University of Nevada's Fleischmann Planetarium. "It's it's one of the most dramatic events in astronomy, and one that people can partake of without a lot of expensive equipment."
Want a front-row seat to the show? Here's what we know.
When is the 2023 annular eclipse?
The annular eclipse is set to occur on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, with the moon beginning to pass in front of the sun shortly after 8 a.m., about an hour after sunrise.
The ghost town of Vya in the northwest corner of the state will witness the annularity — the peak of the moon's coverage of the sun — starting at 9:19 a.m. Baker
|
, near the Nevada-Utah state line, will begin seeing the annularity just before 9:25 a.m. The duration of the annularity will be anywhere between two and five minutes depending on the viewer's location.
What's the difference between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse?
Both types of eclipses occur when the moon appears to pass over the exact center of the sun. The difference is how much sunlight is blocked.
The solar eclipse that will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024 is called a "total eclipse" because the moon will be close enough to earth to block out the sun entirely.
But for this October's annular eclipse, the moon will be just far enough away from earth to allow the outer edge of the sun to shine through, creating a "ring of fire" effect in the sky.
Simulations at Fleischmann Planetarium suggest that the sky will be dark enough for skywatchers to see the planets Venus and Mercury as well as a handful of stars including Canis Major during the height of the eclipse.
Where can I watch the 2023 annular eclipse in Nevada?
Skywatchers will be able to witness the eclipse, at least partially, from anywhere in the state. The Reno-Sparks area will see the moon block 85% of the sun; all but the southernmost tip of the state will reach at least 80% coverage.
But several cities and towns in the northern and eastern parts of the state will be in the path of annularity — that is, where the center of the moon appears to pass directly over the center of the sun, from Denio on the Nevada state line to Baker near the Utah state line.
Communities including Ely, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko and Eureka also are in the path of annularity in Nevada. A few locations have announced their plans for the eclipse:
Reno: For those staying in northwestern Nevada, the Fleischmann Planetarium is inviting the public to participate in a viewing event on the morning of Oct. 14.
Ely: The eastern Nevada town will play host to the Ring of Fire Eclipse Festival from Oct. 11-16, which White Pine County tourism director Kyle Horvath says is perfect for "trail riders, mountain bikers, nature lovers, science nerds, you name it." Festivities include trail rides, a pub crawl, "punkin' chunkin'," a talk on Nevada's UFO history from UFO experts and an eclipse viewing event from a vintage excursion train.
Horvath says there's also an opportunity for people avoiding the commotion.
"If photographers want to come out with their $10,000 cameras that can photograph the sun, we can ensure a secure location where there's not going to be kids and dogs and Frisbees flying past them," he told the RGJ.
Lodging is available at various hotels and vacation rentals, and reservations are being accepted for trailers and RVs at the White Pine County Fairgrounds. More details are available at elynevada.net/ring-of-fire-eclipse-festival/.
Massacre Rim: The path of the annular eclipse will pass over Massacre Rim in northern Washoe County, one of just a handful of Dark Sky Sanctuaries on the planet. Because solar eclipses take place during the new moon phase, that means no bright moon overnight — an excellent opportunity to make a stargazing weekend out of it. But be forewarned: A visit to Massacre Rim is best left to the most experienced outdoorspeople for several reasons:
- Nevada Highway 34 runs along the west side of the sanctuary, and Nevada Highway 8a is along the south side. But don't let the word "highway" mislead you — these are both gravel roads.
- The sanctuary allows for primitive camping — pack it in, pack it out; and no off-roading.
- Six-ply tires or greater are recommended, as the roads within the sanctuary are rugged and rocky. Also recommended: vehicles with four-wheel drive and good clearance, along with a spare tire, extra food and water and a blanket.
- Cellphone service is practically nonexistent. Visitors should let someone know where they're going, and when they plan to be back.
- You might not get any bars, but you'll have plenty of cows — the area is open to livestock grazing, so be careful while driving at night.
"Surprise Valley/Cedarville, California, is one of the gateways to the sanctuary," said Jen Rovanpera, archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management. "The night skies are slightly less dark than the sanctuary, but most of the roads are paved. If the sanctuary seems too remote, then Surprise Valley is a splendid choice for night sky viewing."
Do I need eye protection to watch the annular eclipse?
It's never safe to view the sun with the naked eye. The sun’s surface is so bright that if you stare at any portion of it, no matter how small, it produces enough light to permanently damage your retina. Because the moon doesn't completely block out the sun during October's annular eclipse, there's no point at which it's safe to look directly at it with the naked eye.
Length of time doesn't matter either. Without proper eye protection, you can suffer “eclipse blindness” — a serious injury in which the eye’s retina is damaged by solar radiation — within seconds of staring at the sun, according to the American Optometric Association.
In other words, a pair of approved solar eclipse glasses are a must. The American Astronomical Society recommends looking for glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard. The Fleischmann Planetarium in Reno has been stocking up on glasses that meet the standard.
If you have compliant glasses from past eclipses and the filters aren't scratched or damaged, NASA says they can be reused indefinitely.
Can I use my cellphone camera to take a picture of the eclipse?
You can, but remember that pointing your cellphone camera directly at the sun can damage your device in the same way it could damage your eyes. Protect your device's lens by covering it with approved solar eclipse glasses before you aim it at the sun.
How will the weather be in Nevada for the eclipse?
For starters, dress in layers as fall conditions set in throughout Northern Nevada. The state generally has sunnier, clearer conditions than much of the United States, but clouds may be a concern. Towns along the path of annularity could expect at least partial cloud cover on the day of the eclipse. Below are the chances of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions on Oct. 14, according to WeatherSpark.com:
In Reno, the chance for overcast or mostly cloudy conditions on Oct. 14 is 29%. If overcast conditions persist throughout the eclipse, Fleischmann Planetarium will replicate the eclipse inside its full-dome theater.
"When the lunar eclipse was going to happen last time, it was cloudy," McFarlane told the RGJ. "We were here with a group of students on that day, and we watched it over and over again, forward and backward. We like to say the weather is always good inside the dome."
When will the next solar eclipse be visible in Nevada?
Not until Aug. 12, 2045. If it seems like we've been seeing a lot of eclipses recently, that's true — Northern Nevada was in the path of annularity for a 2012 annular eclipse, and it was just south of the path of totality for a total eclipse in 2017. But the next 47 total and annular eclipses will miss the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. altogether.
USA TODAY's Doyle Rice contributed to this article.
|
NIH launches clinical trials on long COVID treatments
The National Institutes of Health is launching clinical trials to test four possible treatments for long COVID, including administering the antiviral Paxlovid over a longer course than is used for treating new infections.
Why it matters: The efforts announced Monday are part of the $1.15 billion RECOVER research initiative that seeks to define and study the long-term effects of the virus.
- As many as 15% of all adults in the U.S. reported having had long COVID symptoms at some time, but researchers only this spring defined a dozen of the most distinct symptoms.
Details: The clinical trials will test the safety and effectiveness of treatments typically in groups of 100 to 300 patients.
- There's no conclusive evidence that Paxlovid can improve the symptoms of patients with long COVID. Some experts have noted that long COVID manifests itself in different ways in different patients, meaning not everyone would necessarily benefit from the same treatment.
- Researchers in a separate trial will examine whether a web-based brain training program called BrainHQ and other interventions can resolve some of the telltale cognitive issues that accompany the condition, like brain fog and memory problems.
- Other trials will test whether drugs can help regulate sleep patterns in adults with long COVID or treat problems with the autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate, breathing and the digestive system.
- The Department of Health and Human Services is establishing an Office of Long COVID Research and Practice to oversee the response and coordination across the federal government.
What they're saying: "We know that when patients are suffering, we can never move fast enough," said acting NIH director Lawrence Tabak. "NIH is committed to a highly coordinated and scientifically rigorous approach to find treatments that will provide relief for the millions of people living with long COVID."
What's next: A fifth trial focusing on exercise intolerance and fatigue is under development. Officials said trials will continue to launch and enroll participants on a rolling basis.
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NIH launches clinical trials on long COVID treatments
The National Institutes of Health is launching clinical trials to test four possible treatments for long COVID, including administering the antiviral Paxlovid over a longer course than is used for treating new infections.
Why it matters: The efforts announced Monday are part of the $1.15 billion RECOVER research initiative that seeks to define and study the long-term effects of the virus.
- As many as 15% of all adults in the U.S. reported having had long COVID symptoms at some time, but researchers only this spring defined a dozen of the most distinct symptoms.
Details: The clinical trials will test the safety and effectiveness of treatments typically in groups of 100 to 300 patients.
- There's no conclusive evidence that Paxlovid can improve the symptoms of patients with long COVID. Some experts have noted that long COVID manifests itself in different ways in different patients, meaning not everyone would necessarily benefit from the same treatment.
- Researchers in a separate trial will examine whether a web-based brain training program called BrainHQ and other interventions can resolve some of the telltale cognitive issues that accompany the condition, like brain fog and memory problems.
- Other trials will test whether drugs can help regulate sleep patterns in
|
adults with long COVID or treat problems with the autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate, breathing and the digestive system.
- The Department of Health and Human Services is establishing an Office of Long COVID Research and Practice to oversee the response and coordination across the federal government.
What they're saying: "We know that when patients are suffering, we can never move fast enough," said acting NIH director Lawrence Tabak. "NIH is committed to a highly coordinated and scientifically rigorous approach to find treatments that will provide relief for the millions of people living with long COVID."
What's next: A fifth trial focusing on exercise intolerance and fatigue is under development. Officials said trials will continue to launch and enroll participants on a rolling basis.
|
By Jerome Bouchard and David Kaplan
Jerome is a partner and aerospace expert in Oliver Wyman’s Transportation and Services practice, while David is a principal in the consultancy’s Energy and Natural Resources practice.
Aviation needs to address its greenhouse gas emissions problem, yet the conversation and investment around decarbonization too often focuses on the wrong technologies and the wrong date. The industry cannot wait until 2050 to get serious about cutting emissions, which is what will happen if it pins too many of its hopes on hydrogen-propelled and battery-powered aircraft. Neither will be approved for use on medium-haul and long-haul commercial airliners much before 2050 — and that delay matters because aircraft with 100 seats or more are responsible for 96% of aviation’s emissions. It will then take decades to replace the thousands of older conventional jets in the global fleet — an action constrained by production capacity as well as economics.
While these non-fossil fuel technologies will eventually play a substantial role in making aviation less carbon-intensive, they will do little until 2040 — the early stage of their incorporation into the global fleet of smaller aircraft and short-haul airliners. By then, assuming business as usual and using a trajectory projected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2021, aircraft would be responsible for roughly 1.4 gigatons of emissions per year — 40% more than the one gigaton it emits today.
The key to cutting emissions over the next two decades is investment in two existing technologies with the potential to shrink aviation’s carbon footprint by as early as 2040 — sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and conventional kerosene-powered jet engines. By investing in the production capacity for low-carbon SAF and rethinking current jet engines, the industry could cut 80% of its emissions by 2050, moving the needle in the right direction in a substantive way.
The problem: insufficient investment and a lack of urgency. Oliver Wyman calculates that for SAF production alone, the investment will need to be well over $1 trillion through 2050 to scale up. Currently, the SAF investment is a tiny percentage of that with airlines using less than 1% in their fuel consumption.
Solutions for the next decade
So what can the industry do? First, aviation must begin to take decisive actions today to increase SAF consumption and production. A gallon of SAF emits between 50% and 80% less carbon dioxide than conventional jet fuel. To hold emissions at their 2019 level, enough SAF production capacity needs to be built by 2030 to allow airlines to replace at least 15% of total jet fuel consumption with SAF. Yet by our calculations, production capacity will be only one-fifth to one-third of the 16 billion gallons necessary to reach 15%. That’s even factoring in the generous subsidies provided by the United States in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and other incentives from the European Union to build more SAF capacity.
But production capacity is only part of the dilemma. SAF is also expensive — about two to three times the cost of conventional Jet A-1 fuel — which is so far limiting airlines’ contractual commitments to SAF. Made predominantly from used cooking oils, waste animal fats, and other sustainable low-carbon feedstocks, SAF costs more to produce than kerosene-based jet fuel. The handful of SAF producers worldwide also must compete for feedstock with renewable diesel (RD) — a low-carbon fuel that can be used in trucks, ships, farm and construction equipment, and buses. RD is both slightly cheaper to produce and has a more mature global market.
Expansion of supply — perhaps in response to regulatory mandates or incentives like the IRA — would likely bring the price differential down, although it is not expected to reach parity with traditional jet fuel in the near term. While SAF adoption presents obstacles, they are surmountable with adequate investment — some of which will become necessary with the EU’s mandate requiring that all flights departing European airports use 2% SAF by 2025 and at least 5% by 2030. That percentage rises periodically until reaching 65% in 2050.
In June, the World Economic Forum, the Airports Council International World, and more than 50 chief executives from aviation-related companies kicked off the Airports of Tomorrow initiaive in which one of the key pillars is a call for the construction of 300 SAF plants by 2030.
A new era of jet engines
The second option for aviation is to do what the industry has done best for the past century — innovate. Over the past century, aviation has moved from crude propeller planes to jets, to supersonic aircraft, to rockets that travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere—with consistent efforts to improve fuel efficiency. According to IATA, each new generation of plane has reduced emissions 15% to 20%, with the overall fuel efficiency 80% better than 50 years ago. Still, that’s not enough, given the growth of emissions. For instance, while aviation managed to cut the amount of fuel burned per passenger by 24% between 2005 and 2017, there was simultaneously a much bigger percentage increase in air travel.
To realize new efficiencies, aerospace manufacturers need more dramatic overhauls of current technology. For instance, General Electric
Although the industry often looks to 2050, it will likely be the actions over the next decade that will determine success or failure for aviation in its quest for net zero. If that future doesn’t include a substantial supply of SAF and more research into improving current engines, the industry may either see emissions rise or a restrictive regulatory solution.
|
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|
By Jerome Bouchard and David Kaplan
Jerome is a partner and aerospace expert in Oliver Wyman’s Transportation and Services practice, while David is a principal in the consultancy’s Energy and Natural Resources practice.
Aviation needs to address its greenhouse gas emissions problem, yet the conversation and investment around decarbonization too often focuses on the wrong technologies and the wrong date. The industry cannot wait until 2050 to get serious about cutting emissions, which is what will happen if it pins too many of its hopes on hydrogen-propelled and battery-powered aircraft. Neither will be approved for use on medium-haul and long-haul commercial airliners much before 2050 — and that delay matters because aircraft with 100 seats or more are responsible for 96% of aviation’s emissions. It will then take decades to replace the thousands of older conventional jets in the global fleet — an action constrained by production capacity as well as economics.
While these non-fossil fuel technologies will eventually play a substantial role in making aviation less carbon-intensive, they will do little until 2040 — the early stage of their incorporation into the global fleet of smaller aircraft and short-haul airliners. By then, assuming business as usual
|
and using a trajectory projected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2021, aircraft would be responsible for roughly 1.4 gigatons of emissions per year — 40% more than the one gigaton it emits today.
The key to cutting emissions over the next two decades is investment in two existing technologies with the potential to shrink aviation’s carbon footprint by as early as 2040 — sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and conventional kerosene-powered jet engines. By investing in the production capacity for low-carbon SAF and rethinking current jet engines, the industry could cut 80% of its emissions by 2050, moving the needle in the right direction in a substantive way.
The problem: insufficient investment and a lack of urgency. Oliver Wyman calculates that for SAF production alone, the investment will need to be well over $1 trillion through 2050 to scale up. Currently, the SAF investment is a tiny percentage of that with airlines using less than 1% in their fuel consumption.
Solutions for the next decade
So what can the industry do? First, aviation must begin to take decisive actions today to increase SAF consumption and production. A gallon of SAF emits between 50% and 80% less carbon dioxide than conventional jet fuel. To hold emissions at their 2019 level, enough SAF production capacity needs to be built by 2030 to allow airlines to replace at least 15% of total jet fuel consumption with SAF. Yet by our calculations, production capacity will be only one-fifth to one-third of the 16 billion gallons necessary to reach 15%. That’s even factoring in the generous subsidies provided by the United States in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and other incentives from the European Union to build more SAF capacity.
But production capacity is only part of the dilemma. SAF is also expensive — about two to three times the cost of conventional Jet A-1 fuel — which is so far limiting airlines’ contractual commitments to SAF. Made predominantly from used cooking oils, waste animal fats, and other sustainable low-carbon feedstocks, SAF costs more to produce than kerosene-based jet fuel. The handful of SAF producers worldwide also must compete for feedstock with renewable diesel (RD) — a low-carbon fuel that can be used in trucks, ships, farm and construction equipment, and buses. RD is both slightly cheaper to produce and has a more mature global market.
Expansion of supply — perhaps in response to regulatory mandates or incentives like the IRA — would likely bring the price differential down, although it is not expected to reach parity with traditional jet fuel in the near term. While SAF adoption presents obstacles, they are surmountable with adequate investment — some of which will become necessary with the EU’s mandate requiring that all flights departing European airports use 2% SAF by 2025 and at least 5% by 2030. That percentage rises periodically until reaching 65% in 2050.
In June, the World Economic Forum, the Airports Council International World, and more than 50 chief executives from aviation-related companies kicked off the Airports of Tomorrow initiaive in which one of the key pillars is a call for the construction of 300 SAF plants by 2030.
A new era of jet engines
The second option for aviation is to do what the industry has done best for the past century — innovate. Over the past century, aviation has moved from crude propeller planes to jets, to supersonic aircraft, to rockets that travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere—with consistent efforts to improve fuel efficiency. According to IATA, each new generation of plane has reduced emissions 15% to 20%, with the overall fuel efficiency 80% better than 50 years ago. Still, that’s not enough, given the growth of emissions. For instance, while aviation managed to cut the amount of fuel burned per passenger by 24% between 2005 and 2017, there was simultaneously a much bigger percentage increase in air travel.
To realize new efficiencies, aerospace manufacturers need more dramatic overhauls of current technology. For instance, General Electric
Although the industry often looks to 2050, it will likely be the actions over the next decade that will determine success or failure for aviation in its quest for net zero. If that future doesn’t include a substantial supply of SAF and more research into improving current engines, the industry may either see emissions rise or a restrictive regulatory solution.
|
We have been exploring properties of Penrose’s aperiodic tilings with kites and darts using Haskell.
Previously in Diagrams for Penrose tiles we implemented tools to draw finite tilings using Haskell diagrams. There we also noted that legal tilings are only correct tilings if they can be continued infinitely and are incorrect otherwise. In Graphs, Kites and Darts we introduced a graph representation for finite tilings (Tgraphs) which enabled us to implement operations that use neighbouring tile information. In particular we implemented a
force operation to extend a Tgraph on any boundary edge where there is a unique choice for adding a tile.
In this note we find a limitation of
force, show a way to improve on it (
superForce), and introduce boundary coverings which are used to implement
superForce and calculate empires.
Properties of Tgraphs
A Tgraph is a collection of half-tile faces representing a legal tiling and a half-tile face is either an
LD (left dart) ,
RD (right dart),
LK (left kite), or
RK (right kite) each with 3 vertices to form a triangle. Faces of the Tgraph which are not half-tile faces are considered external regions and those edges round the external regions are the boundary edges of the Tgraph. The half-tile faces in a Tgraph are required to be connected and locally tile-connected which means that there are exactly two boundary edges at any boundary vertex (no crossing boundaries).
As an example Tgraph we show
kingGraph (the three darts and two kites round a king vertex), where
kingGraph = makeTgraph [LD (1,2,3),RD (1,11,2),LD (1,4,5),RD (1,3,4),LD (1,10,11) ,RD (1,9,10),LK (9,1,7),RK (9,7,8),RK (5,7,1),LK (5,6,7) ]
This is drawn in figure 1 using
hsep 1 [dashJVGraph kingGraph, drawGraph kingGraph]
which shows vertex labels and dashed join edges (left) and without labels and join edges (right). (
hsep 1 provides a horizontal seperator of unit length.)
Properties of forcing
We know there are at most two legal possibilities for adding a half-tile on a boundary edge of a Tgraph. If there are zero legal possibilities for adding a half-tile to some boundary edge, we have a stuck tiling/incorrect Tgraph.
Forcing deals with all cases where there is exactly one legal possibility for extending on a boundary edge. That means forcing either fails at some stage with a stuck Tgraph (indicating the starting Tgraph was incorrect) or it enlarges the starting Tgraph until every boundary edge has exactly two legal possibilities for adding a half-tile so a choice would need to be made to grow the Tgraph any further.
Figure 2 shows
force kingGraph with
kingGraph shown red.
g is a correct Tgraph, then
force g succeeds and the resulting Tgraph will be common to all infinite tilings that extend the finite tiling represented by
g. However, we will see that
force g is not a greatest lower bound of (infinite) tilings that extend
g. Firstly, what is common to all extensions of
g may not be a connected collection of tiles. This leads to the concept of empires which we discuss later. Secondly, even if we only consider the connected common region containing g, we will see that we need to go beyond
force g to find this, leading to an operation we call
superForce operations are implemented using boundary coverings which we introduce next.
Boundary edge covering
Given a successfully forced Tgraph
fg, a boundary edge covering of
fg is a list of successfully forced extensions of
fg such that
- no boundary edge of
fgremains on the boundary in each extension, and
- the list takes into account all legal choices for extending on each boundary edge of
[Technically this is a covering of the choices round the boundary, but each extension is also a cover of the boundary edges.] Figure 3 shows a boundary edge covering for a forced
force kingGraph is shown red in each extension).
In practice, we do not need to explore both choices for every boundary edge of
fg. When one choice is made, it may force choices for other boundary edges, reducing the number of boundary edges we need to consider further.
The main function is
boundaryECovering working on a
BoundaryState (which is a Tgraph with extra boundary information). It uses
covers which works on a list of extensions each paired with the remaining set of the original boundary edges not yet covered. (Initially
covers is given a singleton list with the starting boundary state and the full set of boundary edges to be covered.) For each extension in the list, if its uncovered set is empty, that extension is a completed cover. Otherwise
covers replaces the extension with further extensions. It picks the (lowest numbered) boundary edge in the uncovered set, tries extending with a half-dart and with a half-kite on that edge, forcing in each case, then pairs each result with its set of remaining uncovered boundary edges before adding the resulting extensions back at the front of the list to be processed again. If one of the choices for a dart/kite leads to an incorrect tiling (a stuck tiling) when forced, that choice is dropped (provided the other choice succeeds). The final list returned consists of all the completed covers.
boundaryECovering:: BoundaryState -> [BoundaryState] boundaryECovering bs = covers [(bs, Set.fromList (boundary bs))] covers:: [(BoundaryState, Set.Set Dedge)] -> [BoundaryState] covers = covers ((bs,es):opens) | Set.null es = bs:covers opens -- bs is complete | otherwise = covers (newcases ++ opens) where (de,des) = Set.deleteFindMin es newcases = fmap (\b -> (b, commonBdry des b)) (atLeastOne $ tryDartAndKite bs de)
Here we have used
type Try a = Either String a tryDartAndKite:: BoundaryState -> Dedge -> [Try BoundaryState] atLeastOne :: [Try a] -> [a]
We frequently use
Try as a type for results of partial functions where we need to continue computation if there is a failure. For example we have a version of
tryForce) that returns a
Try Tgraph so it does not fail by raising an error, but returns a result indicating either an explicit failure situation or a successful result with a final forced Tgraph. The function
tryDartAndKite tries adding an appropriate half-dart and half-kite on a given boundary edge, then uses
tryForceBoundary (a variant of
tryForce which works with boundary states) on each result and returns a list of
Try results. The list of
Try results is converted with
atLeastOne which collects the successful results but will raise an error when there are no successful results.
Boundary vertex covering
You may notice in figure 3 that the top right cover still has boundary vertices of
kingGraph on the final boundary. We use a boundary vertex covering rather than a boundary edge covering if we want to exclude these cases. This involves picking a boundary edge that includes such a vertex and continuing the process of growing possible extensions until no boundary vertices of the original remain on the boundary.
A partial example of an empire was shown in a 1977 article by Martin Gardner 1. The full empire of a finite tiling would consist of the common faces of all the infinite extensions of the tiling. This will include at least the force of the tiling but it is not obviously finite. Here we confine ourselves to the empire in finite local regions.
For example, we can calculate a local empire for a given Tgraph
g by finding the common faces of all the extensions in a boundary vertex covering of
force g (which we call
This requires an efficient way to compare Tgraphs. We have implemented guided intersection and guided union operations which, when given a common edge starting point for two Tgraphs, proceed to compare the Tgraphs face by face and produce an appropriate relabelling of the second Tgraph to match the first Tgraph only in the overlap where they agree. These operations may also use geometric positioning information to deal with cases where the overlap is not just a single connected region. From these we can return a union as a single Tgraph when it exists, and an intersection as a list of common faces. Since the (guided) intersection of Tgraphs (the common faces) may not be connected, we do not have a resulting Tgraph. However we can arbitrarily pick one of the argument Tgraphs and emphasise which are the common faces in this example Tgraph.
Figure 4 (left) shows
empire1 kingGraph where the starting
kingGraph is shown in red. The grey-filled faces are the common faces from a boundary vertex covering. We can see that these are not all connected and that the
force kingGraph from figure 2 corresponds to the connected set of grey-filled faces around and including the
kingGraph in figure 4.
We call this a level 1 empire because we only explored out as far as the first boundary covering. We could instead, find further boundary coverings for each of the extensions in a boundary covering. This grows larger extensions in which to find common faces. On the right of figure 4 is a level 2 empire (
empire2 kingGraph) which finds the intersection of the combined boundary edge coverings of each extension in a boundary edge covering of
force kingGraph. Obviously this process could be continued further but, in practice, it is too inefficient to go much further.
We might hope that (when not discovering an incorrect tiling),
force g produces the maximal connected component containing
g of the common faces of all infinite extensions of
g. This is true for the
kingGraph as noted in figure 4. However, this is not the case in general.
The problem is that forcing will not discover if one of the two legal choices for extending a resulting boundary edge always leads to an incorrect Tgraph. In such a situation, the other choice would be common to all infinite extensions.
We can use a boundary edge covering to reveal such cases, leading us to a
superForce operation. For example, figure 5 shows a boundary edge covering for the forced Tgraph shown in red.
This example is particularly interesting because in every case, the leftmost end of the red forced Tgraph has a dart immediately extending it. Why is there no case extending one of the leftmost two red edges with a half-kite? The fact that such cases are missing from the boundary edge covering suggests they are not possible. Indeed we can check this by adding a half-kite to one of the edges and trying to force. This leads to a failure showing that we have an incorrect tiling. Figure 6 illustrates the Tgraph at the point that it is discovered to be stuck (at the bottom left) by forcing.
superForce operation starts by forcing a Tgraph. After a successful force, it creates a boundary edge covering for the forced Tgraph and checks to see if there is any boundary edge of the forced Tgraph for which each cover has the same choice. If so, that choice is made to extend the forced Tgraph and the process is repeated by applying
superForce to the result. Otherwise, just the result of forcing is returned.
Figure 7 shows a chain of examples (rockets) where
superForce has been used. In each case, the starting Tgraph is shown red, the additional faces added by forcing are shown black, and any further extension produced by
superForce is shown in blue.
We still do not know if forcing decides that a Tgraph is correct/incorrect. Can we conclude that if
force g succeeds then
force g) are correct? We found examples (rockets in figure 7) where force succeeds but one of the 2 legal choices for extending on a boundary edge leads to an incorrect Tgraph. If we find an example
force g succeeds but both legal choices on a boundary edge lead to incorrect Tgraphs we will have a counter-example. If such a
g exists then
superForce g will raise an error. [The calculation of a boundary edge covering will call
atLeastOne where both branches have led to failure for extending on an edge.]
This means that when
superForce succeeds every resulting boundary edge has two legal extensions, neither of which will get stuck when forced.
I would like to thank Stephen Huggett who suggested the idea of using graphs to represent tilings and who is working with me on proof problems relating to the kite and dart tilings.
Reference Martin Gardner (1977) MATHEMATICAL GAMES. Scientific American, 236(1), (pages 110 to 121). http://www.jstor.org/stable/24953856
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We have been exploring properties of Penrose’s aperiodic tilings with kites and darts using Haskell.
Previously in Diagrams for Penrose tiles we implemented tools to draw finite tilings using Haskell diagrams. There we also noted that legal tilings are only correct tilings if they can be continued infinitely and are incorrect otherwise. In Graphs, Kites and Darts we introduced a graph representation for finite tilings (Tgraphs) which enabled us to implement operations that use neighbouring tile information. In particular we implemented a
force operation to extend a Tgraph on any boundary edge where there is a unique choice for adding a tile.
In this note we find a limitation of
force, show a way to improve on it (
superForce), and introduce boundary coverings which are used to implement
superForce and calculate empires.
Properties of Tgraphs
A Tgraph is a collection of half-tile faces representing a legal tiling and a half-tile face is either an
LD (left dart) ,
RD (right dart),
LK (left kite), or
RK (right kite) each with 3 vertices to form a triangle. Faces of the Tgraph which are not half-tile faces are considered external regions and those
|
edges round the external regions are the boundary edges of the Tgraph. The half-tile faces in a Tgraph are required to be connected and locally tile-connected which means that there are exactly two boundary edges at any boundary vertex (no crossing boundaries).
As an example Tgraph we show
kingGraph (the three darts and two kites round a king vertex), where
kingGraph = makeTgraph [LD (1,2,3),RD (1,11,2),LD (1,4,5),RD (1,3,4),LD (1,10,11) ,RD (1,9,10),LK (9,1,7),RK (9,7,8),RK (5,7,1),LK (5,6,7) ]
This is drawn in figure 1 using
hsep 1 [dashJVGraph kingGraph, drawGraph kingGraph]
which shows vertex labels and dashed join edges (left) and without labels and join edges (right). (
hsep 1 provides a horizontal seperator of unit length.)
Properties of forcing
We know there are at most two legal possibilities for adding a half-tile on a boundary edge of a Tgraph. If there are zero legal possibilities for adding a half-tile to some boundary edge, we have a stuck tiling/incorrect Tgraph.
Forcing deals with all cases where there is exactly one legal possibility for extending on a boundary edge. That means forcing either fails at some stage with a stuck Tgraph (indicating the starting Tgraph was incorrect) or it enlarges the starting Tgraph until every boundary edge has exactly two legal possibilities for adding a half-tile so a choice would need to be made to grow the Tgraph any further.
Figure 2 shows
force kingGraph with
kingGraph shown red.
g is a correct Tgraph, then
force g succeeds and the resulting Tgraph will be common to all infinite tilings that extend the finite tiling represented by
g. However, we will see that
force g is not a greatest lower bound of (infinite) tilings that extend
g. Firstly, what is common to all extensions of
g may not be a connected collection of tiles. This leads to the concept of empires which we discuss later. Secondly, even if we only consider the connected common region containing g, we will see that we need to go beyond
force g to find this, leading to an operation we call
superForce operations are implemented using boundary coverings which we introduce next.
Boundary edge covering
Given a successfully forced Tgraph
fg, a boundary edge covering of
fg is a list of successfully forced extensions of
fg such that
- no boundary edge of
fgremains on the boundary in each extension, and
- the list takes into account all legal choices for extending on each boundary edge of
[Technically this is a covering of the choices round the boundary, but each extension is also a cover of the boundary edges.] Figure 3 shows a boundary edge covering for a forced
force kingGraph is shown red in each extension).
In practice, we do not need to explore both choices for every boundary edge of
fg. When one choice is made, it may force choices for other boundary edges, reducing the number of boundary edges we need to consider further.
The main function is
boundaryECovering working on a
BoundaryState (which is a Tgraph with extra boundary information). It uses
covers which works on a list of extensions each paired with the remaining set of the original boundary edges not yet covered. (Initially
covers is given a singleton list with the starting boundary state and the full set of boundary edges to be covered.) For each extension in the list, if its uncovered set is empty, that extension is a completed cover. Otherwise
covers replaces the extension with further extensions. It picks the (lowest numbered) boundary edge in the uncovered set, tries extending with a half-dart and with a half-kite on that edge, forcing in each case, then pairs each result with its set of remaining uncovered boundary edges before adding the resulting extensions back at the front of the list to be processed again. If one of the choices for a dart/kite leads to an incorrect tiling (a stuck tiling) when forced, that choice is dropped (provided the other choice succeeds). The final list returned consists of all the completed covers.
boundaryECovering:: BoundaryState -> [BoundaryState] boundaryECovering bs = covers [(bs, Set.fromList (boundary bs))] covers:: [(BoundaryState, Set.Set Dedge)] -> [BoundaryState] covers = covers ((bs,es):opens) | Set.null es = bs:covers opens -- bs is complete | otherwise = covers (newcases ++ opens) where (de,des) = Set.deleteFindMin es newcases = fmap (\b -> (b, commonBdry des b)) (atLeastOne $ tryDartAndKite bs de)
Here we have used
type Try a = Either String a tryDartAndKite:: BoundaryState -> Dedge -> [Try BoundaryState] atLeastOne :: [Try a] -> [a]
We frequently use
Try as a type for results of partial functions where we need to continue computation if there is a failure. For example we have a version of
tryForce) that returns a
Try Tgraph so it does not fail by raising an error, but returns a result indicating either an explicit failure situation or a successful result with a final forced Tgraph. The function
tryDartAndKite tries adding an appropriate half-dart and half-kite on a given boundary edge, then uses
tryForceBoundary (a variant of
tryForce which works with boundary states) on each result and returns a list of
Try results. The list of
Try results is converted with
atLeastOne which collects the successful results but will raise an error when there are no successful results.
Boundary vertex covering
You may notice in figure 3 that the top right cover still has boundary vertices of
kingGraph on the final boundary. We use a boundary vertex covering rather than a boundary edge covering if we want to exclude these cases. This involves picking a boundary edge that includes such a vertex and continuing the process of growing possible extensions until no boundary vertices of the original remain on the boundary.
A partial example of an empire was shown in a 1977 article by Martin Gardner 1. The full empire of a finite tiling would consist of the common faces of all the infinite extensions of the tiling. This will include at least the force of the tiling but it is not obviously finite. Here we confine ourselves to the empire in finite local regions.
For example, we can calculate a local empire for a given Tgraph
g by finding the common faces of all the extensions in a boundary vertex covering of
force g (which we call
This requires an efficient way to compare Tgraphs. We have implemented guided intersection and guided union operations which, when given a common edge starting point for two Tgraphs, proceed to compare the Tgraphs face by face and produce an appropriate relabelling of the second Tgraph to match the first Tgraph only in the overlap where they agree. These operations may also use geometric positioning information to deal with cases where the overlap is not just a single connected region. From these we can return a union as a single Tgraph when it exists, and an intersection as a list of common faces. Since the (guided) intersection of Tgraphs (the common faces) may not be connected, we do not have a resulting Tgraph. However we can arbitrarily pick one of the argument Tgraphs and emphasise which are the common faces in this example Tgraph.
Figure 4 (left) shows
empire1 kingGraph where the starting
kingGraph is shown in red. The grey-filled faces are the common faces from a boundary vertex covering. We can see that these are not all connected and that the
force kingGraph from figure 2 corresponds to the connected set of grey-filled faces around and including the
kingGraph in figure 4.
We call this a level 1 empire because we only explored out as far as the first boundary covering. We could instead, find further boundary coverings for each of the extensions in a boundary covering. This grows larger extensions in which to find common faces. On the right of figure 4 is a level 2 empire (
empire2 kingGraph) which finds the intersection of the combined boundary edge coverings of each extension in a boundary edge covering of
force kingGraph. Obviously this process could be continued further but, in practice, it is too inefficient to go much further.
We might hope that (when not discovering an incorrect tiling),
force g produces the maximal connected component containing
g of the common faces of all infinite extensions of
g. This is true for the
kingGraph as noted in figure 4. However, this is not the case in general.
The problem is that forcing will not discover if one of the two legal choices for extending a resulting boundary edge always leads to an incorrect Tgraph. In such a situation, the other choice would be common to all infinite extensions.
We can use a boundary edge covering to reveal such cases, leading us to a
superForce operation. For example, figure 5 shows a boundary edge covering for the forced Tgraph shown in red.
This example is particularly interesting because in every case, the leftmost end of the red forced Tgraph has a dart immediately extending it. Why is there no case extending one of the leftmost two red edges with a half-kite? The fact that such cases are missing from the boundary edge covering suggests they are not possible. Indeed we can check this by adding a half-kite to one of the edges and trying to force. This leads to a failure showing that we have an incorrect tiling. Figure 6 illustrates the Tgraph at the point that it is discovered to be stuck (at the bottom left) by forcing.
superForce operation starts by forcing a Tgraph. After a successful force, it creates a boundary edge covering for the forced Tgraph and checks to see if there is any boundary edge of the forced Tgraph for which each cover has the same choice. If so, that choice is made to extend the forced Tgraph and the process is repeated by applying
superForce to the result. Otherwise, just the result of forcing is returned.
Figure 7 shows a chain of examples (rockets) where
superForce has been used. In each case, the starting Tgraph is shown red, the additional faces added by forcing are shown black, and any further extension produced by
superForce is shown in blue.
We still do not know if forcing decides that a Tgraph is correct/incorrect. Can we conclude that if
force g succeeds then
force g) are correct? We found examples (rockets in figure 7) where force succeeds but one of the 2 legal choices for extending on a boundary edge leads to an incorrect Tgraph. If we find an example
force g succeeds but both legal choices on a boundary edge lead to incorrect Tgraphs we will have a counter-example. If such a
g exists then
superForce g will raise an error. [The calculation of a boundary edge covering will call
atLeastOne where both branches have led to failure for extending on an edge.]
This means that when
superForce succeeds every resulting boundary edge has two legal extensions, neither of which will get stuck when forced.
I would like to thank Stephen Huggett who suggested the idea of using graphs to represent tilings and who is working with me on proof problems relating to the kite and dart tilings.
Reference Martin Gardner (1977) MATHEMATICAL GAMES. Scientific American, 236(1), (pages 110 to 121). http://www.jstor.org/stable/24953856
|
AS A HIGH school senior, I have been swamped with overwhelming information about college admissions — figuring out majors, what to write for my essays, what extracurriculars to report, and more has been a struggle. However, what makes the already confusing college admissions process even harder is the ongoing debate on whether standardized admissions tests should be considered by colleges in admissions decisions.
Standardized testing and college admissions
The SAT and the ACT are the most common standardized admissions tests; according to US News, nearly 2.2 million students took the SAT, while 1.7 million students took the ACT. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students could not access testing centers. In the light of this crisis, many colleges that previously required SAT or ACT scores for admission switched to a new policy called “test-optional,” where test results would be considered, but not required for applications. Some schools — most notably the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems — took a step further and decided to go “test-blind,” meaning that they do not consider test scores at all.
As of the 2021-22 application cycle, about 1,700 schools were test optional and 1,000 of those schools were planning to keep that policy in the future. Test blind is significantly less common, but there are at least 44 schools — including the UCs and CSUs — that plan to be test blind for the upcoming admissions cycle.
Though I myself have taken the SAT and am submitting my scores to schools, I believe that standardized tests should not be required to apply for college.
Test blind admissions?
It took a pandemic — an event where everyone couldn’t reach testing centers — to convince schools to change their testing policies. However, barriers have been stopping some students from reaching the exam room long before COVID-19.
According to a 2019 study from the University of Southern California, there is a clear correlation with wealth and higher SAT scores. A 2015 Inside Higher Ed study found a similar conclusion — the lowest average scores on the SAT were from students who had a family income of less than $200,000 while higher average scores were from students who earned more than $200,000.
“Standardized tests test memory retention and reasoning. In the past, they have been a good measurement for college admissions, but now with the advent of test prep classes, they are not accurate anymore,” said Samika Mathada, a senior at Leland High School.
Wealthier have better access to prep materials
There’s a few clear reasons why this is the case. For one, students with more money can take the test more often. The tests are expensive.
Though lower income students can get fee waivers, they only cover two free SATs. Wealthier students can access expensive test prep classes, but lower income students may not have access to the same prep resources.
These gaps only get worse when race is factored in. In 2020, a Brookings study found that Black and Hispanic and Latino students score lower on the math section of the SAT — not because these racial groups are worse in math, or that they have a low potential to succeed in college. Rather, these groups may not get as many educational opportunities.
A biased metric
Correcting for socioeconomic inequities is challenging, and in many cases, these factors are out of reach of the college admissions process. But when a metric of admission just showcases racial and socioeconomic inequalities instead of accurately determining a student’s potential to succeed, it’s clear that it’s a biased metric.
Schools shouldn’t be using tests that are skewed by non-academic factors.
Of course, SATS and ACTs aside, other numeric measures of academic achievement are considered in the admissions process. Advanced Placement (AP) subject test scores and grade point averages (GPAs) are still used as a measure. However, these criteria are not straightforward either. A student’s score on an AP test, for example, is highly dependent on the quality of their class. But CollegeVine, a college-focused resource website, claims that AP scores are not highly weighted in college admissions. But SAT or ACT scores are widely required by schools to even apply and are heavily weighted — that means a low score or a lack of a score can disqualify a student from admission.
GPAs vs. test scores
A 2020 study from Educational Journal reports that GPAs predict college graduation rates five times more accurately than ACT scores and are not as affected by income and race as test scores. GPA has inherent differences across the grading spectrum across high schools.
Certain schools award higher grades for easier classes — a phenomenon called grade inflation. But colleges can and have taken numerous steps to correct for issues with GPAs. For example, the UCs recalculate GPAs to account for systematic changes and colleges also take note of exceptionally hard classes in high schools. Moreover, colleges try to look at GPAs in a holistic manner, by taking the rigor of courses into account as well as GPAs of students from the same high school. GPAs showcase four years’ worth of work and document the variety of courses a student takes — not performance on one test.
“Personally I do not have a good relationship with tests due to my ADD,” says Aamit Kancherlapalli, a senior at Leland High School.” I get more nervous the longer a test is. Even though I had time accommodations on the SAT, I still felt rushed. I think paying attention to student’s improvement in grades is a better way to see whether or not they are ready for college as it shows their ability to grow in an educational setting.”
Test-optional schools have more applicants
It’s not clear whether test-optional and test-blind policies will last. Some schools have only confirmed that their test-optional policies will continue through the 2022-23 cycle. The UC and CSU systems have a 2025 deadline to determine whether they should stay test-blind or switch to a new admissions test. Test-optional policies offer more choice for students, but as the UCs argue, the exams do not predict college grades accurately.
What is clear though is that removing the test requirement has increased application rates — the number of people applying to college increased by 21 percent in 2020, even though colleges have a limited number of places.
What’s clear is that removing this barrier has allowed for more people to consider schools they previously determined were out of reach. The Common App reported that the number of applications from students who qualified for a Common App fee waiver and first generation students have increased since the pandemic.
I submitted my standardized testing score to colleges. I made this decision with the knowledge that the colleges I am applying to are test-optional or test-blind. That means that they aren’t going to knock students without the privileges or the opportunities I had for not doing well on one test.
About the author
Pavana Upadhyaya is a student at Leland High School in San Jose. She likes to read nonfiction in her free time.
|
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AS A HIGH school senior, I have been swamped with overwhelming information about college admissions — figuring out majors, what to write for my essays, what extracurriculars to report, and more has been a struggle. However, what makes the already confusing college admissions process even harder is the ongoing debate on whether standardized admissions tests should be considered by colleges in admissions decisions.
Standardized testing and college admissions
The SAT and the ACT are the most common standardized admissions tests; according to US News, nearly 2.2 million students took the SAT, while 1.7 million students took the ACT. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students could not access testing centers. In the light of this crisis, many colleges that previously required SAT or ACT scores for admission switched to a new policy called “test-optional,” where test results would be considered, but not required for applications. Some schools — most notably the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems — took a step further and decided to go “test-blind,” meaning that they do not consider test scores at all.
As of the 2021-22 application cycle, about 1,700 schools were test optional and
|
1,000 of those schools were planning to keep that policy in the future. Test blind is significantly less common, but there are at least 44 schools — including the UCs and CSUs — that plan to be test blind for the upcoming admissions cycle.
Though I myself have taken the SAT and am submitting my scores to schools, I believe that standardized tests should not be required to apply for college.
Test blind admissions?
It took a pandemic — an event where everyone couldn’t reach testing centers — to convince schools to change their testing policies. However, barriers have been stopping some students from reaching the exam room long before COVID-19.
According to a 2019 study from the University of Southern California, there is a clear correlation with wealth and higher SAT scores. A 2015 Inside Higher Ed study found a similar conclusion — the lowest average scores on the SAT were from students who had a family income of less than $200,000 while higher average scores were from students who earned more than $200,000.
“Standardized tests test memory retention and reasoning. In the past, they have been a good measurement for college admissions, but now with the advent of test prep classes, they are not accurate anymore,” said Samika Mathada, a senior at Leland High School.
Wealthier have better access to prep materials
There’s a few clear reasons why this is the case. For one, students with more money can take the test more often. The tests are expensive.
Though lower income students can get fee waivers, they only cover two free SATs. Wealthier students can access expensive test prep classes, but lower income students may not have access to the same prep resources.
These gaps only get worse when race is factored in. In 2020, a Brookings study found that Black and Hispanic and Latino students score lower on the math section of the SAT — not because these racial groups are worse in math, or that they have a low potential to succeed in college. Rather, these groups may not get as many educational opportunities.
A biased metric
Correcting for socioeconomic inequities is challenging, and in many cases, these factors are out of reach of the college admissions process. But when a metric of admission just showcases racial and socioeconomic inequalities instead of accurately determining a student’s potential to succeed, it’s clear that it’s a biased metric.
Schools shouldn’t be using tests that are skewed by non-academic factors.
Of course, SATS and ACTs aside, other numeric measures of academic achievement are considered in the admissions process. Advanced Placement (AP) subject test scores and grade point averages (GPAs) are still used as a measure. However, these criteria are not straightforward either. A student’s score on an AP test, for example, is highly dependent on the quality of their class. But CollegeVine, a college-focused resource website, claims that AP scores are not highly weighted in college admissions. But SAT or ACT scores are widely required by schools to even apply and are heavily weighted — that means a low score or a lack of a score can disqualify a student from admission.
GPAs vs. test scores
A 2020 study from Educational Journal reports that GPAs predict college graduation rates five times more accurately than ACT scores and are not as affected by income and race as test scores. GPA has inherent differences across the grading spectrum across high schools.
Certain schools award higher grades for easier classes — a phenomenon called grade inflation. But colleges can and have taken numerous steps to correct for issues with GPAs. For example, the UCs recalculate GPAs to account for systematic changes and colleges also take note of exceptionally hard classes in high schools. Moreover, colleges try to look at GPAs in a holistic manner, by taking the rigor of courses into account as well as GPAs of students from the same high school. GPAs showcase four years’ worth of work and document the variety of courses a student takes — not performance on one test.
“Personally I do not have a good relationship with tests due to my ADD,” says Aamit Kancherlapalli, a senior at Leland High School.” I get more nervous the longer a test is. Even though I had time accommodations on the SAT, I still felt rushed. I think paying attention to student’s improvement in grades is a better way to see whether or not they are ready for college as it shows their ability to grow in an educational setting.”
Test-optional schools have more applicants
It’s not clear whether test-optional and test-blind policies will last. Some schools have only confirmed that their test-optional policies will continue through the 2022-23 cycle. The UC and CSU systems have a 2025 deadline to determine whether they should stay test-blind or switch to a new admissions test. Test-optional policies offer more choice for students, but as the UCs argue, the exams do not predict college grades accurately.
What is clear though is that removing the test requirement has increased application rates — the number of people applying to college increased by 21 percent in 2020, even though colleges have a limited number of places.
What’s clear is that removing this barrier has allowed for more people to consider schools they previously determined were out of reach. The Common App reported that the number of applications from students who qualified for a Common App fee waiver and first generation students have increased since the pandemic.
I submitted my standardized testing score to colleges. I made this decision with the knowledge that the colleges I am applying to are test-optional or test-blind. That means that they aren’t going to knock students without the privileges or the opportunities I had for not doing well on one test.
About the author
Pavana Upadhyaya is a student at Leland High School in San Jose. She likes to read nonfiction in her free time.
|
Globally, the cholera situation is the worst it’s been in 20 years. Currently at least 24 countries are dealing with cholera outbreaks, some for the first time in decades. African countries are particularly badly affected.
The cholera pandemic began in mid-2021 but continues to intensify. In the first two months of 2023 alone, as many cholera cases have been reported worldwide as for all of 2022. The global risk is very high, according to the latest cholera situation report issued by the World Health Organization on March 22.
Cases are not only increasing, they’re also getting deadlier, with mortality rates reaching 3% and higher. Conflict, displacement, floods, and other climate-related disasters have contributed in various places.
This has been exacerbated by an ongoing shortage of cholera vaccines that has led to rationing around the world, as health workers switch from giving the usual two doses to a single dose. The one-dose emergency regimen provides less immunity.
More generally, poverty, under-resourced health systems, and inadequate infrastructure are mainstays of cholera epidemics. Cholera, a waterborne bacterial disease that leads to diarrhoea, primarily affects low-income communities without reliable access to clean water and sanitation. Malnutrition also puts children more at risk of dying of cholera.
However, when treated swiftly, serious illness is preventable – and relatively simple. Oral rehydration solutions can prevent life-threatening dehydration.
In the long term, cholera can only be averted by ensuring that everyone can obtain clean water and sanitation. But in the short term, community power is keeping the crisis from being even worse than it already is.
For example, in Malawi – where many people can’t afford or otherwise can’t access piped water – Cyclone Freddy has contributed to the country’s worst-ever cholera outbreak, which has spread to all of Malawi’s districts. Among other activities, volunteers with the Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) are checking up on water supplies and sanitation facilities.
One of these volunteers is Rex Lemani, from the city of Blantyre. Lemani started volunteering all the way back in 1987, while still in elementary school. He reports,
“We are distributing chlorine to households to treat the water and provide oral rehydration therapy to people who have been contaminated with cholera. We also disseminate cholera prevention messages in communities. As volunteers, our main need now is transportation to villages that are far apart, booklets with cholera prevention messages and visibility materials.”
Meanwhile, volunteers at a different Red Cross society, the one in Lebanon, have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people, including through door-to-door visits.
Community mobilizers have been important in dealing with cholera in the past, explained Nadine Saba, director of the Akaa Network for Development, in a cholera webinar hosted by the World Health Organization Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Team on March 21. The community mobilizers in Lebanon, who received small stipends, were able to spread information, for instance on how to prepare oral rehydration solution. They also referred affected people to services, such as sites of clean water and points for medical assistance.
Such assistance has to take into account any existing obstacles to cholera prevention and treatment, such as a lack of basic hygiene supplies. “You cannot just tell the people you need to wash if you need to have access to soap,” Saba pointed out.
Thus, as important as transmitting information is listening to people about their needs, which extend beyond a single disease. “The good thing about having community mobilizers is that they are in the shops, they are in the public places, they are where the informal gatherings are done,” Saba said. They can acknowledge people’s concerns and explain that unaddressed cholera will add to such problems. And they can customize the message for different audiences, for instance by staging puppet shows for children.
This kind of community mobilization tamps down on conspiracy theories about outsiders, Saba reported. “It’s not somebody outside that was coming to tell them some new information, especially after Covid.” But sensitivity around this is needed in, for instance, Lebanese communities where Syrian refugees are living, to avoid further exclusion of a minority group.
Amuza Dankaine, of the Malaria and Childhood Illness NGO Network Secretariat, has also witnessed the power, as well as the challenges, of community volunteers responding to cholera. A relative of his, who was pregnant at the time, was among the five people who died in a cholera outbreak in the Budaka district of eastern Uganda in 2016. And Dankaine volunteered in the cholera relief effort himself.
Speaking at the same WHO RCCE webinar, Dankaine said of the village health teams (VHTs) selected by the Red Cross to support local communities, “They belong to the communities. They touch the ground.”
Dankaine elaborated, “Community members have a very key role in ensuring that they monitor to ensure that they report any other case that happens in the community, so information flows from the community members to their VHTs [village health teams] to the health facilities.”
Of course, community volunteers won’t be able to end the cholera emergency on their own. They can’t substitute for properly resourced health systems with adequately paid staff. And, again, there’s an urgent need for improvements in water and sanitation to stop the cycle of cholera outbreaks. But the good news is that with sustained effort, according to the Global Task Force for Cholera Control, “the cholera emergency is avoidable.”
Eva Turro, who’s currently deployed in Malawi as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegate for community case management of cholera, provides another reason for turning crisis into hope.
“Cholera is a very silent disease, and it is also associated with stigma. You really need to spend time in communities to understand how much suffering this disease can cause,” Turro acknowledges.
“But when you see a community recovering, as a volunteer, that’s when you realize why you are here and the impact of your mission. It’s an extreme moment of happiness.”
The IFRC is running an emergency appeal for donations to support the Malawi Red Cross Society’s cholera control and prevention work, which is aiming to reach over 2.1 million people in Malawi.
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Globally, the cholera situation is the worst it’s been in 20 years. Currently at least 24 countries are dealing with cholera outbreaks, some for the first time in decades. African countries are particularly badly affected.
The cholera pandemic began in mid-2021 but continues to intensify. In the first two months of 2023 alone, as many cholera cases have been reported worldwide as for all of 2022. The global risk is very high, according to the latest cholera situation report issued by the World Health Organization on March 22.
Cases are not only increasing, they’re also getting deadlier, with mortality rates reaching 3% and higher. Conflict, displacement, floods, and other climate-related disasters have contributed in various places.
This has been exacerbated by an ongoing shortage of cholera vaccines that has led to rationing around the world, as health workers switch from giving the usual two doses to a single dose. The one-dose emergency regimen provides less immunity.
More generally, poverty, under-resourced health systems, and inadequate infrastructure are mainstays of cholera epidemics. Cholera, a waterborne bacterial disease that leads to diarrhoea, primarily affects low-income communities without reliable access to clean water and
|
sanitation. Malnutrition also puts children more at risk of dying of cholera.
However, when treated swiftly, serious illness is preventable – and relatively simple. Oral rehydration solutions can prevent life-threatening dehydration.
In the long term, cholera can only be averted by ensuring that everyone can obtain clean water and sanitation. But in the short term, community power is keeping the crisis from being even worse than it already is.
For example, in Malawi – where many people can’t afford or otherwise can’t access piped water – Cyclone Freddy has contributed to the country’s worst-ever cholera outbreak, which has spread to all of Malawi’s districts. Among other activities, volunteers with the Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) are checking up on water supplies and sanitation facilities.
One of these volunteers is Rex Lemani, from the city of Blantyre. Lemani started volunteering all the way back in 1987, while still in elementary school. He reports,
“We are distributing chlorine to households to treat the water and provide oral rehydration therapy to people who have been contaminated with cholera. We also disseminate cholera prevention messages in communities. As volunteers, our main need now is transportation to villages that are far apart, booklets with cholera prevention messages and visibility materials.”
Meanwhile, volunteers at a different Red Cross society, the one in Lebanon, have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people, including through door-to-door visits.
Community mobilizers have been important in dealing with cholera in the past, explained Nadine Saba, director of the Akaa Network for Development, in a cholera webinar hosted by the World Health Organization Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Team on March 21. The community mobilizers in Lebanon, who received small stipends, were able to spread information, for instance on how to prepare oral rehydration solution. They also referred affected people to services, such as sites of clean water and points for medical assistance.
Such assistance has to take into account any existing obstacles to cholera prevention and treatment, such as a lack of basic hygiene supplies. “You cannot just tell the people you need to wash if you need to have access to soap,” Saba pointed out.
Thus, as important as transmitting information is listening to people about their needs, which extend beyond a single disease. “The good thing about having community mobilizers is that they are in the shops, they are in the public places, they are where the informal gatherings are done,” Saba said. They can acknowledge people’s concerns and explain that unaddressed cholera will add to such problems. And they can customize the message for different audiences, for instance by staging puppet shows for children.
This kind of community mobilization tamps down on conspiracy theories about outsiders, Saba reported. “It’s not somebody outside that was coming to tell them some new information, especially after Covid.” But sensitivity around this is needed in, for instance, Lebanese communities where Syrian refugees are living, to avoid further exclusion of a minority group.
Amuza Dankaine, of the Malaria and Childhood Illness NGO Network Secretariat, has also witnessed the power, as well as the challenges, of community volunteers responding to cholera. A relative of his, who was pregnant at the time, was among the five people who died in a cholera outbreak in the Budaka district of eastern Uganda in 2016. And Dankaine volunteered in the cholera relief effort himself.
Speaking at the same WHO RCCE webinar, Dankaine said of the village health teams (VHTs) selected by the Red Cross to support local communities, “They belong to the communities. They touch the ground.”
Dankaine elaborated, “Community members have a very key role in ensuring that they monitor to ensure that they report any other case that happens in the community, so information flows from the community members to their VHTs [village health teams] to the health facilities.”
Of course, community volunteers won’t be able to end the cholera emergency on their own. They can’t substitute for properly resourced health systems with adequately paid staff. And, again, there’s an urgent need for improvements in water and sanitation to stop the cycle of cholera outbreaks. But the good news is that with sustained effort, according to the Global Task Force for Cholera Control, “the cholera emergency is avoidable.”
Eva Turro, who’s currently deployed in Malawi as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegate for community case management of cholera, provides another reason for turning crisis into hope.
“Cholera is a very silent disease, and it is also associated with stigma. You really need to spend time in communities to understand how much suffering this disease can cause,” Turro acknowledges.
“But when you see a community recovering, as a volunteer, that’s when you realize why you are here and the impact of your mission. It’s an extreme moment of happiness.”
The IFRC is running an emergency appeal for donations to support the Malawi Red Cross Society’s cholera control and prevention work, which is aiming to reach over 2.1 million people in Malawi.
|
Christopher Savoie, PhD is the CEO & founder of Zapata Computing. He is a published scholar in medicine, biochemistry and computer science.
ChatGPT took the world by storm in November 2022, gaining 1 million users within five days of its release. When you see the text it can generate, its potential value needs little explanation. Generative AI tools have the potential to transform entire industries. Just ask venture capitalists, who invested $2.6 billion in generative AI startups in 2022.
But all that potential value comes at a steep cost. The more complex the generative model, the more expensive the required compute resources. ChatGPT itself costs $100,000 a day to run, while Google’s ChatGPT competitor, Bard, will reportedly cost the company 10 times more per query than a standard keyword search. The environmental costs of this excessive compute consumption will no doubt be just as steep, and this doesn’t include the high costs of training such a complex model, the learning curve to understand new mathematical formulations, or the need to develop specialized expertise in the tooling and infrastructure to make these solutions work.
The costs of generative AI could be a major roadblock to enterprise adoption. While use cases abound from writing code to generating marketing content, enterprises might balk at the costs required to train and run a model on their proprietary data and existing content. To truly start the generative AI revolution for enterprise applications, the costs need to come down significantly.
Techniques inspired by quantum physics could have the potential to reduce the computational costs for large language models (LLMs). What’s more, these quantum-inspired techniques could broaden the use cases of generative AI for enterprises—particularly in solving complex optimization problems.
How Quantum Techniques Could Potentially Bring Down The Costs Of Generative AI
The quantum-inspired techniques we’re concerned with here are tensor networks—essentially, efficient linear algebraic structures for representing complex correlations between variables. They initially became popular among quantum physicists who wanted to simulate quantum states on classical computers.
Tensor networks could potentially play a critical role in the development of quantum computing: They can simulate quantum circuits on classical hardware today and could be replaced with real quantum circuits in the future. Thus, tensor networks could allow users to start developing “quantum applications” on classical hardware that can run on the fault-tolerant quantum computers of the future. This would allow enterprises to develop capabilities that could be useful once we have fault-tolerant or strongly error-mitigated quantum computers.
But tensor networks could also have more near-term business value for generative AI. Tensor networks could be a useful tool for model compression, with the ability to deliver a speedup and size reduction for large neural networks (NNs). These capabilities apply to major NN architectures, including transformers, the NN type used in ChatGPT.
Thus, through “tensorization,” tensor networks could have the potential to reduce both the costs and the carbon footprint of generative AI, making generative models more accessible and accelerating their adoption in the enterprise. This cost reduction could also enable generative AI to be deployed on edge devices, such as phones and voice assistants. Generative AI aside, tensorization could also reduce the costs of other complex models, such as Monte Carlo simulations, which can take up a large portion of a finance enterprise’s entire compute budget.
Not only can tensor networks compress generative models, but the resulting tensorized generative models could also generate higher-quality samples. This could have major implications for enterprise applications of generative AI. Beyond the classic examples of text and image generation, tensorized generative models could generate novel solutions to complex optimization problems that abound in industrial settings.
Enhancing Optimization Through Generative Modeling
In general, optimization problems are those in which the goal is to find the best solution, according to some criteria, from a wide range of possible solutions. In an industrial setting, optimization problems can have thousands of conflicting goals that a solution must balance, for example maximizing production output while minimizing costs.
A generative model trained on the best existing solutions to an optimization problem could generate new solutions to such a problem. (At my company, we call this strategy generator-enhanced optimization (GEO), although it should be noted that this research has yet to be peer-reviewed.)
In theory, you could use any generative model for this strategy. But we’ve found that tensor networks tend to generalize from the training data better than other classical models. In other words, tensor networks could better understand the essential features that make good solutions good, and generate new solutions to optimization problems rather than simply repeating the solutions the model was trained on.
Apart from the general applications for generative AI, the structure of tensor networks could aid in solving optimization problems in particular.
For example, equality constraints can be encoded directly into tensor networks in a way that only outputs valid samples. While traditional methods often suffer when equality constraints are added, the tensorized approach could deliver better performance while using fewer computational resources, since the tensor network can be parameterized more sparsely with more equality constraints.
Limitations Of Tensor Networks For Generative AI
Of course, the devil is in the details. With both tensorization and generative modeling, the challenge will be to translate complex business problems into mathematical formulations. There will be a learning curve to understand the mathematical underpinnings of tensor networks as an alternative data structure to neural networks.
Second, teams will need to develop expertise in the tooling and infrastructure required to make these solutions work. This includes robust workflows that can integrate new data from across the enterprises. The outputs of these models will also need to be translated into insights that can inform business decisions, requiring multifunctional teams, specialized expertise and the right tech.
Gaining More Value From Generative AI
The impact of tensor networks could be magnified further when replaced with real quantum circuits running on fault-tolerant quantum devices. Tensor networks could enable enterprises to gain more value from generative AI today and pave the way for value in the era of quantum computing.
As quantum hardware matures, it’s worth exploring which hardware configurations could deliver the most value in building on tensor network-based generative models.
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Christopher Savoie, PhD is the CEO & founder of Zapata Computing. He is a published scholar in medicine, biochemistry and computer science.
ChatGPT took the world by storm in November 2022, gaining 1 million users within five days of its release. When you see the text it can generate, its potential value needs little explanation. Generative AI tools have the potential to transform entire industries. Just ask venture capitalists, who invested $2.6 billion in generative AI startups in 2022.
But all that potential value comes at a steep cost. The more complex the generative model, the more expensive the required compute resources. ChatGPT itself costs $100,000 a day to run, while Google’s ChatGPT competitor, Bard, will reportedly cost the company 10 times more per query than a standard keyword search. The environmental costs of this excessive compute consumption will no doubt be just as steep, and this doesn’t include the high costs of training such a complex model, the learning curve to understand new mathematical formulations, or the need to develop specialized expertise in the tooling and infrastructure to make these solutions work.
The costs of generative AI could be a major roadblock to
|
enterprise adoption. While use cases abound from writing code to generating marketing content, enterprises might balk at the costs required to train and run a model on their proprietary data and existing content. To truly start the generative AI revolution for enterprise applications, the costs need to come down significantly.
Techniques inspired by quantum physics could have the potential to reduce the computational costs for large language models (LLMs). What’s more, these quantum-inspired techniques could broaden the use cases of generative AI for enterprises—particularly in solving complex optimization problems.
How Quantum Techniques Could Potentially Bring Down The Costs Of Generative AI
The quantum-inspired techniques we’re concerned with here are tensor networks—essentially, efficient linear algebraic structures for representing complex correlations between variables. They initially became popular among quantum physicists who wanted to simulate quantum states on classical computers.
Tensor networks could potentially play a critical role in the development of quantum computing: They can simulate quantum circuits on classical hardware today and could be replaced with real quantum circuits in the future. Thus, tensor networks could allow users to start developing “quantum applications” on classical hardware that can run on the fault-tolerant quantum computers of the future. This would allow enterprises to develop capabilities that could be useful once we have fault-tolerant or strongly error-mitigated quantum computers.
But tensor networks could also have more near-term business value for generative AI. Tensor networks could be a useful tool for model compression, with the ability to deliver a speedup and size reduction for large neural networks (NNs). These capabilities apply to major NN architectures, including transformers, the NN type used in ChatGPT.
Thus, through “tensorization,” tensor networks could have the potential to reduce both the costs and the carbon footprint of generative AI, making generative models more accessible and accelerating their adoption in the enterprise. This cost reduction could also enable generative AI to be deployed on edge devices, such as phones and voice assistants. Generative AI aside, tensorization could also reduce the costs of other complex models, such as Monte Carlo simulations, which can take up a large portion of a finance enterprise’s entire compute budget.
Not only can tensor networks compress generative models, but the resulting tensorized generative models could also generate higher-quality samples. This could have major implications for enterprise applications of generative AI. Beyond the classic examples of text and image generation, tensorized generative models could generate novel solutions to complex optimization problems that abound in industrial settings.
Enhancing Optimization Through Generative Modeling
In general, optimization problems are those in which the goal is to find the best solution, according to some criteria, from a wide range of possible solutions. In an industrial setting, optimization problems can have thousands of conflicting goals that a solution must balance, for example maximizing production output while minimizing costs.
A generative model trained on the best existing solutions to an optimization problem could generate new solutions to such a problem. (At my company, we call this strategy generator-enhanced optimization (GEO), although it should be noted that this research has yet to be peer-reviewed.)
In theory, you could use any generative model for this strategy. But we’ve found that tensor networks tend to generalize from the training data better than other classical models. In other words, tensor networks could better understand the essential features that make good solutions good, and generate new solutions to optimization problems rather than simply repeating the solutions the model was trained on.
Apart from the general applications for generative AI, the structure of tensor networks could aid in solving optimization problems in particular.
For example, equality constraints can be encoded directly into tensor networks in a way that only outputs valid samples. While traditional methods often suffer when equality constraints are added, the tensorized approach could deliver better performance while using fewer computational resources, since the tensor network can be parameterized more sparsely with more equality constraints.
Limitations Of Tensor Networks For Generative AI
Of course, the devil is in the details. With both tensorization and generative modeling, the challenge will be to translate complex business problems into mathematical formulations. There will be a learning curve to understand the mathematical underpinnings of tensor networks as an alternative data structure to neural networks.
Second, teams will need to develop expertise in the tooling and infrastructure required to make these solutions work. This includes robust workflows that can integrate new data from across the enterprises. The outputs of these models will also need to be translated into insights that can inform business decisions, requiring multifunctional teams, specialized expertise and the right tech.
Gaining More Value From Generative AI
The impact of tensor networks could be magnified further when replaced with real quantum circuits running on fault-tolerant quantum devices. Tensor networks could enable enterprises to gain more value from generative AI today and pave the way for value in the era of quantum computing.
As quantum hardware matures, it’s worth exploring which hardware configurations could deliver the most value in building on tensor network-based generative models.
|
What is religious faith? The question never mattered to secular people, and even the religious people I’ve met never seemed to care all that much. Some of them tell me faith is all about hoping for a reward in the next life, or trusting in forces one cannot see. Others describe faith as a philosophy and a way of life. Both seem happy to put the question on the back burner.
But today the question matters. A big chunk of modern life is spent in activities that provide us with vivid sensations during our empty hours. Modern life has increased the number of these empty hours with its inventions and machines; at the same time, it has increased the number of inventions and machines to help us experience vivid sensations during our empty hours—video games, virtual reality (VR), and artificially intelligent (AI) apps. For these technologies to work they must inspire hope and trust in their customers.
A new science of hope and trust has emerged in their train. To the degree that faith is all about hope and trust, the new science gives religion and entertainment technology a common basis. This gives science a chance to control religion by presuming to explain its most fundamental principle.
The new science of hope
In 2001, Dr. John Hopson, a video-game expert who trained as a psychologist, employed behavioral psychology to explain the formula that video games use to please customers. To enjoy play, customers must hope for a reward.
Every video game, according to Hopson, has contingencies, or a set of rules, for when the reward is given, including “ratios” and “intervals.” A ratio schedule offers a reward upon completion of a certain number of actions. For a rat in a cage, that might mean getting food after pulling a lever five times. For a video-game player, it might mean earning an extra game after killing five monsters. In an interval schedule, the reward comes after a certain amount of time has passed. A rat might get food automatically every 30 minutes, while a video-game player might get an automatic power-up every 30 minutes. Whatever the setup, it is always the same formula: some hoped-for reward follows from some action or time interval and cements the desired behavior. For the video-game maker, that desired behavior is a customer playing hard and playing forever.
Hopson’s model can be applied to antidepressant therapy, as 80 percent of such therapy works through the placebo effect—in other words, through people’s hope and belief in their therapy. Video gaming promotes a reward system called an “avoidance schedule,” where video-game players spend their time trying to prevent bad things from happening, so that even during the game’s quiet moments they can achieve something positive by postponing any negative consequences. This keeps them engaged. Similarly, patients on antidepressants wait for the moment when they can take their pill. In the meantime they perform certain housekeeping functions advised by their doctor, such as going to bed on time, or taking regular breaks from their computer, thereby preventing bad habits from worsening their depression. This makes patients feel actively engaged in their therapy during the downtime. It keeps them on the therapeutic track. It keeps them “playing the game.”
Neuroscience has tightened the link between video-game play and antidepressants. Brain dopamine levels reportedly rise during video gaming, mimicking the action of certain antidepressants. This dopamine rise is informally referred to as the “dopamine loop.” In 2014, Stanford scientist Robert Sapolsky refined that loop. He observed that when monkeys hear the signal to perform an action to get food, their synaptic dopamine levels increase—not when getting the food, but when hearing the signal. “Dopamine isn’t about pleasure. It is about the anticipation of pleasure,” he said.
In other words, dopamine is about hope. Dr. Sapolsky observed that if a monkey gets a signal to perform an activity, but knows the food reward will only come half the time, the monkey’s dopamine levels increase even more dramatically than when the food reward is guaranteed. Going from certainty to mere probability excites the monkey. The monkey’s commitment to whatever activity is needed to get the reward goes up a gear.
Hope is pleasurable, whether in video gaming or antidepressant therapy. In video gaming, a player slays a monster, which raises dopamine levels, but dopamine levels rise even more when the monster is around only half the time and slaying it becomes uncertain. In antidepressant therapy, a patient who knows that antidepressants work in only 30 percent of patients might grow excited by the possibility that he or she could be one of the lucky ones, causing an even greater dopamine surge when taking the pill. As the new science of hope gives antidepressants and entertainment technology a common basis, video-game play has even been cited as a possible treatment for depression because of its neurotransmitter effects. Playing a game for 30 minutes a day for 30 days has been found to be effective therapy.
To the degree that religious faith is also about hope—hope for some reward, either in this life or the next—it is but a short step to explaining faith along similar lines. Faith-as-hope relies on dopamine loops and a reward system to make people happy. Anticipation of some miracle or glory to come cements the desired behavior. In religion’s case that desired behavior is people believing hard and believing forever.
The new science of hope has already begun to absorb religion. Several studies tie religious devotion to elevated dopamine levels. More precisely, they tie hope, or the religious “quest for unexpected rewards,” to dopamine surges. Relevant neuronal circuitry reportedly exists in the prefrontal lobes of the brain, where “religion and science actually meet,” according to one neuroscientist.
In the burgeoning field of “neurotheology,” meditating Buddhists and praying Catholic nuns reportedly exhibit increased activity in their frontal lobes. These same areas of the brain are linked to planning and the ability to project into the future—in other words, to hope. In another study, religious devotion has been shown to activate the same reward-processing brain circuits as sex, drugs, and other addictive activities. Video games and VR fall under the same category.
Some religious believers welcome science’s efforts to put religious faith on a more rational basis. But their efforts risk turning religion, entertainment technology, and antidepressants into something all of apiece. If faith is about hope—and dopamine—then video gaming, antidepressant therapy, and religion are all connected. A rat doesn’t hope for much. Depressed people hope for more. Religious people who equate faith with hope, and who seek a reward that lasts an eternity, hope for even more. The new science views all three as basically the same.
The new science of trust
The placebo effect works in antidepressant therapy because patients trust their pill and the doctor who prescribed it independent of whether the pill has any active drug effect.
Virtual Reality (VR) technology uses the placebo effect for its own purposes. In the 1990s, primitive VR animation helped to distract people from their pain during their burn dressing changes. But the thinking behind VR evolved. Instead of VR just distracting people, VR proved more effective if customers truly believed themselves to be in another reality—that is, if they trusted the other reality to be real. In one experiment, a scientist showed that a full 3D immersion in a truly lifelike virtual world blocked people’s pain more effectively than if they were merely distracted by a primitive 2D version. Immersion in a 3D virtual world that a person really wanted to be in brought even more pain relief.
A new science of trust emerged around these observations. In the first stage, as in the science of hope, neuroscience tied technology to antidepressants. Studies showed that immersion in VR increased dopamine levels in the brain’s mesolimbic pathway. It also increased levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in the thalamus, where pain signals are modulated, and where anti-anxiety drugs like Valium work. Other studies showed that endorphins, the body’s natural opioids, increased during immersive VR, and mimicked the effect of real opioids. Although VR itself is not pharmacologically active, scientists united it with antidepressants through a common neurotransmitter action.
In the next stage, neuroscience tied the placebo effect to neurotransmitters and brain electrical activity. The placebo effect reportedly led to measurable changes in the brain’s frontal lobe, where belief plays out. The effect was also associated with changes in the autonomic nervous and neuroendocrine systems. Brain scans, MRIs, and EEGs showed predictable changes when people trusted in placebos.
With VR tied to antidepressants through a common neurotransmitter action, and with both VR and antidepressants tied to the placebo effect, which itself was tied to brain activity, a new science of trust emerged. VR, antidepressants, and the placebo effect were explained through the common language of neuroscience, which allowed any of the three areas to be analyzed in terms of mutually understandable components. This language could also be extended to cover new areas—including religion.
And it was. The new science of trust began to incorporate religious faith. For instance, trust in the miracle of Lourdes, where Saint Bernadette had a vision of the Virgin Mary, reportedly correlated with an increase in gray matter volume in the temporoparietal junction, a brain region associated with belief. The miraculous water at Lourdes was tied to neuroscience through the placebo effect. When people were given tap water but told it was “Lourdes water,” their brains on imaging showed increased connectivity between the anterior insula and the posterior cerebellum, a brain region that processes belief. The study’s authors confidently extrapolated their findings to encompass all religions, observing that not just Christianity but also Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism promote the idea of blessed water.
Other studies have tied religious belief to changes in the brain’s medial prefrontal cortex. On a biochemical level, both the placebo effect and religious belief are associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Another study has tied both religious belief and the placebo effect to an increase in the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Some religious people welcome these studies as a way of putting religion on a firmer—meaning more scientific—footing. History suggests they are unwise to do so.
A mistake repeated
In the 1990s, religious Americans made a serious mistake when they embraced science’s re-definition of spirituality. Before then, spirituality was very much like faith, in the best sense of that term. It meant having a life philosophy connected to one of the major religions. Spirituality was rational and sensible. It consisted of a general truth so ingrained in people’s minds that it made their behavior almost unthinking and reflexive. Most importantly, spirituality was an idea. For example, it elucidated one’s obligation to others as well as one’s purpose in life. It was neither supernatural nor abnormally intense. It meant knowing something rather than feeling something.
During the 1990s, neuroscientists redefined spirituality as a kind of funny feeling. They saw it as similar to the sensation one has while half-asleep, looking at the world through a dreamy haze, and most susceptible to suggestion. It is why much of their work on spirituality would be performed on those who meditated or performed yoga. As with so many other feelings, including happiness and unhappiness, neuroscientists quickly tied this “feeling” of spirituality to neurotransmitters, demonstrating an increase in dopamine and serotonin during so-called “spiritual moments.” They also used neuroimaging to show increases in blood flow in certain areas of the brain during these moments, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes.
Much of organized religion went along with the change, as science had also shown that being spiritual might confer health benefits. Many religious leaders, barely concealing an inferiority complex, jumped at the chance to work with doctors and scientists, and show how religion could do something productive in the modern era. Yet this redefinition of spirituality cut spirituality off from religion and people began to imagine being “spiritual but not religious.” No longer an idea, spirituality ceased to be connected to any specific system of ideas; instead, it became a sensory experience filled with ecstasy and altered states of consciousness. In the early 2000s, more Americans began to call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” especially in casual conversation and on dating site profiles. Today, more than a quarter of Americans think of themselves this way, an increase of eight percentage points in just five years.
These people go through life with a distorted understanding of spirituality. They believe spirituality is the heady sensation one enjoys while hoping or searching for something, rather than the moment of repose that follows from simply knowing something. They search for awesome experiences, trances, and a feeling of oneness with the universe, ignoring the seemingly humdrum—but more essential—philosophy of life that religion provides.
This same mistake is now being repeated with faith. Faith is not simply hope and trust. Yet this is how science has defined it, at the very least because it makes it easier for science to study it. It is also how some religious people define it, thus sparing science the hard task of having to re-define faith on its own. The repercussions for religion are serious. To the degree that religious faith is about hope and trust, religion will increasingly become an object of study for science. Science will “explain” religious faith, just as it explained spirituality. As a mere research interest within science, religion as a guide to how to live one’s life—the alternative definition of faith—will be dismissed as mere eccentricity.
Years ago, at the Catholic hospital where I worked then, I overhead a student nurse ask an elderly Catholic sister what faith was. The student nurse expected to hear about visions or vivid personal encounters with God, but the sister, who was a nurse herself, said nothing and told the young woman to simply dress the patients’ wounds, give them their medicines, listen to their complaints, and clean their beds. A month later the student nurse asked the same question. This time, the sister told her that faith was nothing more than doing what she had been doing, with love and patience.
For the sister, faith was an idea, a system by which to live, a behavior that flowed naturally from her understanding of her position in the universe and that elucidated certain aspects of life for her, including how to act toward others. As religious faith turns more on hope and trust, some believers will seek an alternative means of demonstrating their faith, including surrendering their reason, and hoping and trusting in invisible things, as this young nurse hungered to do, just as some believers demand hypnosis, states of altered feeling, and out-of-body experiences as evidence of their spirituality.
If science succeeds in separating faith from religion, many Americans will imagine themselves being faithful without being religious, just as they imagine themselves being spiritual without being religious. Already science makes the distinction between “religiosity” and “religion.” Most of science’s measures of religiosity focus on intensity of belief, such as how often a person prays and how hard—in other words, how hard they hope and trust. Such intensity can easily be separated from religion altogether, applied to non-religious phenomena, and form the basis of its own category. In the future, more Americans will say, “I have religiosity but I’m not religious.” They will have faith tied to no particular religion.
When people equate faith with hope and trust, their faith moves between great anticipation, a pledge of loyalty beyond reason, and a desire to feel pleasure while believing that feeling is all. Such dramatic states of mind are grist for scientific study, no different from the excitement felt during video game play or the misery felt during depression. Science has already drawn religion into its fold through its aggressive study of spirituality. Drawing religion in further through science’s aggressive study of faith risks religion’s dignity, ethos, and purpose. Safer for religion—and more rewarding for its believers—if faith is defined not as hope or trust in the unseen, but in terms of banal everydayness, as a particular attitude toward carrying out life’s most humdrum tasks.
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What is religious faith? The question never mattered to secular people, and even the religious people I’ve met never seemed to care all that much. Some of them tell me faith is all about hoping for a reward in the next life, or trusting in forces one cannot see. Others describe faith as a philosophy and a way of life. Both seem happy to put the question on the back burner.
But today the question matters. A big chunk of modern life is spent in activities that provide us with vivid sensations during our empty hours. Modern life has increased the number of these empty hours with its inventions and machines; at the same time, it has increased the number of inventions and machines to help us experience vivid sensations during our empty hours—video games, virtual reality (VR), and artificially intelligent (AI) apps. For these technologies to work they must inspire hope and trust in their customers.
A new science of hope and trust has emerged in their train. To the degree that faith is all about hope and trust, the new science gives religion and entertainment technology a common basis. This gives science a chance to control religion by presuming to explain its most fundamental principle.
The new science of hope
In 2001, Dr. John Hopson, a video-game expert
|
who trained as a psychologist, employed behavioral psychology to explain the formula that video games use to please customers. To enjoy play, customers must hope for a reward.
Every video game, according to Hopson, has contingencies, or a set of rules, for when the reward is given, including “ratios” and “intervals.” A ratio schedule offers a reward upon completion of a certain number of actions. For a rat in a cage, that might mean getting food after pulling a lever five times. For a video-game player, it might mean earning an extra game after killing five monsters. In an interval schedule, the reward comes after a certain amount of time has passed. A rat might get food automatically every 30 minutes, while a video-game player might get an automatic power-up every 30 minutes. Whatever the setup, it is always the same formula: some hoped-for reward follows from some action or time interval and cements the desired behavior. For the video-game maker, that desired behavior is a customer playing hard and playing forever.
Hopson’s model can be applied to antidepressant therapy, as 80 percent of such therapy works through the placebo effect—in other words, through people’s hope and belief in their therapy. Video gaming promotes a reward system called an “avoidance schedule,” where video-game players spend their time trying to prevent bad things from happening, so that even during the game’s quiet moments they can achieve something positive by postponing any negative consequences. This keeps them engaged. Similarly, patients on antidepressants wait for the moment when they can take their pill. In the meantime they perform certain housekeeping functions advised by their doctor, such as going to bed on time, or taking regular breaks from their computer, thereby preventing bad habits from worsening their depression. This makes patients feel actively engaged in their therapy during the downtime. It keeps them on the therapeutic track. It keeps them “playing the game.”
Neuroscience has tightened the link between video-game play and antidepressants. Brain dopamine levels reportedly rise during video gaming, mimicking the action of certain antidepressants. This dopamine rise is informally referred to as the “dopamine loop.” In 2014, Stanford scientist Robert Sapolsky refined that loop. He observed that when monkeys hear the signal to perform an action to get food, their synaptic dopamine levels increase—not when getting the food, but when hearing the signal. “Dopamine isn’t about pleasure. It is about the anticipation of pleasure,” he said.
In other words, dopamine is about hope. Dr. Sapolsky observed that if a monkey gets a signal to perform an activity, but knows the food reward will only come half the time, the monkey’s dopamine levels increase even more dramatically than when the food reward is guaranteed. Going from certainty to mere probability excites the monkey. The monkey’s commitment to whatever activity is needed to get the reward goes up a gear.
Hope is pleasurable, whether in video gaming or antidepressant therapy. In video gaming, a player slays a monster, which raises dopamine levels, but dopamine levels rise even more when the monster is around only half the time and slaying it becomes uncertain. In antidepressant therapy, a patient who knows that antidepressants work in only 30 percent of patients might grow excited by the possibility that he or she could be one of the lucky ones, causing an even greater dopamine surge when taking the pill. As the new science of hope gives antidepressants and entertainment technology a common basis, video-game play has even been cited as a possible treatment for depression because of its neurotransmitter effects. Playing a game for 30 minutes a day for 30 days has been found to be effective therapy.
To the degree that religious faith is also about hope—hope for some reward, either in this life or the next—it is but a short step to explaining faith along similar lines. Faith-as-hope relies on dopamine loops and a reward system to make people happy. Anticipation of some miracle or glory to come cements the desired behavior. In religion’s case that desired behavior is people believing hard and believing forever.
The new science of hope has already begun to absorb religion. Several studies tie religious devotion to elevated dopamine levels. More precisely, they tie hope, or the religious “quest for unexpected rewards,” to dopamine surges. Relevant neuronal circuitry reportedly exists in the prefrontal lobes of the brain, where “religion and science actually meet,” according to one neuroscientist.
In the burgeoning field of “neurotheology,” meditating Buddhists and praying Catholic nuns reportedly exhibit increased activity in their frontal lobes. These same areas of the brain are linked to planning and the ability to project into the future—in other words, to hope. In another study, religious devotion has been shown to activate the same reward-processing brain circuits as sex, drugs, and other addictive activities. Video games and VR fall under the same category.
Some religious believers welcome science’s efforts to put religious faith on a more rational basis. But their efforts risk turning religion, entertainment technology, and antidepressants into something all of apiece. If faith is about hope—and dopamine—then video gaming, antidepressant therapy, and religion are all connected. A rat doesn’t hope for much. Depressed people hope for more. Religious people who equate faith with hope, and who seek a reward that lasts an eternity, hope for even more. The new science views all three as basically the same.
The new science of trust
The placebo effect works in antidepressant therapy because patients trust their pill and the doctor who prescribed it independent of whether the pill has any active drug effect.
Virtual Reality (VR) technology uses the placebo effect for its own purposes. In the 1990s, primitive VR animation helped to distract people from their pain during their burn dressing changes. But the thinking behind VR evolved. Instead of VR just distracting people, VR proved more effective if customers truly believed themselves to be in another reality—that is, if they trusted the other reality to be real. In one experiment, a scientist showed that a full 3D immersion in a truly lifelike virtual world blocked people’s pain more effectively than if they were merely distracted by a primitive 2D version. Immersion in a 3D virtual world that a person really wanted to be in brought even more pain relief.
A new science of trust emerged around these observations. In the first stage, as in the science of hope, neuroscience tied technology to antidepressants. Studies showed that immersion in VR increased dopamine levels in the brain’s mesolimbic pathway. It also increased levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in the thalamus, where pain signals are modulated, and where anti-anxiety drugs like Valium work. Other studies showed that endorphins, the body’s natural opioids, increased during immersive VR, and mimicked the effect of real opioids. Although VR itself is not pharmacologically active, scientists united it with antidepressants through a common neurotransmitter action.
In the next stage, neuroscience tied the placebo effect to neurotransmitters and brain electrical activity. The placebo effect reportedly led to measurable changes in the brain’s frontal lobe, where belief plays out. The effect was also associated with changes in the autonomic nervous and neuroendocrine systems. Brain scans, MRIs, and EEGs showed predictable changes when people trusted in placebos.
With VR tied to antidepressants through a common neurotransmitter action, and with both VR and antidepressants tied to the placebo effect, which itself was tied to brain activity, a new science of trust emerged. VR, antidepressants, and the placebo effect were explained through the common language of neuroscience, which allowed any of the three areas to be analyzed in terms of mutually understandable components. This language could also be extended to cover new areas—including religion.
And it was. The new science of trust began to incorporate religious faith. For instance, trust in the miracle of Lourdes, where Saint Bernadette had a vision of the Virgin Mary, reportedly correlated with an increase in gray matter volume in the temporoparietal junction, a brain region associated with belief. The miraculous water at Lourdes was tied to neuroscience through the placebo effect. When people were given tap water but told it was “Lourdes water,” their brains on imaging showed increased connectivity between the anterior insula and the posterior cerebellum, a brain region that processes belief. The study’s authors confidently extrapolated their findings to encompass all religions, observing that not just Christianity but also Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism promote the idea of blessed water.
Other studies have tied religious belief to changes in the brain’s medial prefrontal cortex. On a biochemical level, both the placebo effect and religious belief are associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Another study has tied both religious belief and the placebo effect to an increase in the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Some religious people welcome these studies as a way of putting religion on a firmer—meaning more scientific—footing. History suggests they are unwise to do so.
A mistake repeated
In the 1990s, religious Americans made a serious mistake when they embraced science’s re-definition of spirituality. Before then, spirituality was very much like faith, in the best sense of that term. It meant having a life philosophy connected to one of the major religions. Spirituality was rational and sensible. It consisted of a general truth so ingrained in people’s minds that it made their behavior almost unthinking and reflexive. Most importantly, spirituality was an idea. For example, it elucidated one’s obligation to others as well as one’s purpose in life. It was neither supernatural nor abnormally intense. It meant knowing something rather than feeling something.
During the 1990s, neuroscientists redefined spirituality as a kind of funny feeling. They saw it as similar to the sensation one has while half-asleep, looking at the world through a dreamy haze, and most susceptible to suggestion. It is why much of their work on spirituality would be performed on those who meditated or performed yoga. As with so many other feelings, including happiness and unhappiness, neuroscientists quickly tied this “feeling” of spirituality to neurotransmitters, demonstrating an increase in dopamine and serotonin during so-called “spiritual moments.” They also used neuroimaging to show increases in blood flow in certain areas of the brain during these moments, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes.
Much of organized religion went along with the change, as science had also shown that being spiritual might confer health benefits. Many religious leaders, barely concealing an inferiority complex, jumped at the chance to work with doctors and scientists, and show how religion could do something productive in the modern era. Yet this redefinition of spirituality cut spirituality off from religion and people began to imagine being “spiritual but not religious.” No longer an idea, spirituality ceased to be connected to any specific system of ideas; instead, it became a sensory experience filled with ecstasy and altered states of consciousness. In the early 2000s, more Americans began to call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” especially in casual conversation and on dating site profiles. Today, more than a quarter of Americans think of themselves this way, an increase of eight percentage points in just five years.
These people go through life with a distorted understanding of spirituality. They believe spirituality is the heady sensation one enjoys while hoping or searching for something, rather than the moment of repose that follows from simply knowing something. They search for awesome experiences, trances, and a feeling of oneness with the universe, ignoring the seemingly humdrum—but more essential—philosophy of life that religion provides.
This same mistake is now being repeated with faith. Faith is not simply hope and trust. Yet this is how science has defined it, at the very least because it makes it easier for science to study it. It is also how some religious people define it, thus sparing science the hard task of having to re-define faith on its own. The repercussions for religion are serious. To the degree that religious faith is about hope and trust, religion will increasingly become an object of study for science. Science will “explain” religious faith, just as it explained spirituality. As a mere research interest within science, religion as a guide to how to live one’s life—the alternative definition of faith—will be dismissed as mere eccentricity.
Years ago, at the Catholic hospital where I worked then, I overhead a student nurse ask an elderly Catholic sister what faith was. The student nurse expected to hear about visions or vivid personal encounters with God, but the sister, who was a nurse herself, said nothing and told the young woman to simply dress the patients’ wounds, give them their medicines, listen to their complaints, and clean their beds. A month later the student nurse asked the same question. This time, the sister told her that faith was nothing more than doing what she had been doing, with love and patience.
For the sister, faith was an idea, a system by which to live, a behavior that flowed naturally from her understanding of her position in the universe and that elucidated certain aspects of life for her, including how to act toward others. As religious faith turns more on hope and trust, some believers will seek an alternative means of demonstrating their faith, including surrendering their reason, and hoping and trusting in invisible things, as this young nurse hungered to do, just as some believers demand hypnosis, states of altered feeling, and out-of-body experiences as evidence of their spirituality.
If science succeeds in separating faith from religion, many Americans will imagine themselves being faithful without being religious, just as they imagine themselves being spiritual without being religious. Already science makes the distinction between “religiosity” and “religion.” Most of science’s measures of religiosity focus on intensity of belief, such as how often a person prays and how hard—in other words, how hard they hope and trust. Such intensity can easily be separated from religion altogether, applied to non-religious phenomena, and form the basis of its own category. In the future, more Americans will say, “I have religiosity but I’m not religious.” They will have faith tied to no particular religion.
When people equate faith with hope and trust, their faith moves between great anticipation, a pledge of loyalty beyond reason, and a desire to feel pleasure while believing that feeling is all. Such dramatic states of mind are grist for scientific study, no different from the excitement felt during video game play or the misery felt during depression. Science has already drawn religion into its fold through its aggressive study of spirituality. Drawing religion in further through science’s aggressive study of faith risks religion’s dignity, ethos, and purpose. Safer for religion—and more rewarding for its believers—if faith is defined not as hope or trust in the unseen, but in terms of banal everydayness, as a particular attitude toward carrying out life’s most humdrum tasks.
|
Companies to pay billions in "forever chemical" water pollution settlements
Major chemical producers have agreed to pay billions of dollars to settle claims from U.S. water providers over toxic "forever chemicals" pollution.
Why it matters: The settlements are a significant step forward in the effort to reduce potentially dangerous chemicals in water systems across the country.
- They also follow the Environmental Protection Agency tightening regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are a family of more than 12,000 chemicals.
- The chemicals have contaminated thousands of drinking water systems around the country, and most people living in the U.S. have some amount of PFAS in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The health effects of the chemicals are still being studied, but exposure to certain levels of PFAS has been linked to adverse health effects in humans and animals, including increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer.
Driving the news: Chemours, DuPont and Corteva said Friday they reached a $1.19 billion settlement with water providers around the country.
- The water providers had alleged that the companies were responsible for environmental pollution from firefighting foams they manufactured that contained PFAS.
- Though the companies denied the allegations, the settlement would resolve hundreds of lawsuits against them that were consolidated in the federal district court for South Carolina, which must finalize the settlement for it to take effect.
What they're saying: John O'Connell, the board president of the National Rural Water Association, said in a statement that the settlement "is the beginning of helping our utility members in the fight against PFAS."
- The group works with 50 state associations representing more than 31,000 water and wastewater utility systems, and helped filed a lawsuit on behalf of its members.
Yes, but: Not included in the settlements are systems operated by states and the U.S. government, some smaller drinking water systems, and systems in the lower Cape Fear River Basin of North Carolina, which has been plagued by high levels of PFAS.
- Chemours, which produces products containing PFAS nearby, faces several lawsuits over PFAS exposure in the area.
How it works: The durable synthetic chemicals, which resist degradation by repelling oil and water and withstanding high temperatures, have been used in hundreds of nonstick, water- and oil-repellent, and fire-resistant products.
- If the chemicals enter the environment through production or waste streams, they can resist breaking down for hundreds of years while contaminating water sources and bioaccumulating in fish, wildlife, livestock, and people.
- Research has shown that reducing levels of PFAS in drinking water or switching to other water distributors will likely require municipalities to invest millions of dollars into new infrastructure and incur ongoing maintenance costs.
- For example, officials in Cape Fear allocated $46 million and a recurring annual operating cost of $2.9 million to upgrade a treatment plant designed to filter PFAS from drinking water.
- News of a potential settlement came just days before the company's first federal trial over PFAS pollution claims.
- Facing extensive PFAS litigation — including a lawsuit from the Dutch government — 3M announced in December 2022 that it would stop manufacturing and using the chemicals by the end of 2025.
- "The parties are making material and significant progress toward a resolution of this matter, and have jointly requested a continuance," a 3M spokesperson said in a statement to Axios on Monday.
- "As we have previously disclosed, we are in active, ongoing, and confidential mediation sessions."
|
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Companies to pay billions in "forever chemical" water pollution settlements
Major chemical producers have agreed to pay billions of dollars to settle claims from U.S. water providers over toxic "forever chemicals" pollution.
Why it matters: The settlements are a significant step forward in the effort to reduce potentially dangerous chemicals in water systems across the country.
- They also follow the Environmental Protection Agency tightening regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are a family of more than 12,000 chemicals.
- The chemicals have contaminated thousands of drinking water systems around the country, and most people living in the U.S. have some amount of PFAS in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The health effects of the chemicals are still being studied, but exposure to certain levels of PFAS has been linked to adverse health effects in humans and animals, including increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer.
Driving the news: Chemours, DuPont and Corteva said Friday they reached a $1.19 billion settlement with water providers around the country.
- The water providers had alleged that the companies were responsible for environmental pollution from firefighting foams they manufactured that contained PFAS.
- Though the companies denied the allegations
|
, the settlement would resolve hundreds of lawsuits against them that were consolidated in the federal district court for South Carolina, which must finalize the settlement for it to take effect.
What they're saying: John O'Connell, the board president of the National Rural Water Association, said in a statement that the settlement "is the beginning of helping our utility members in the fight against PFAS."
- The group works with 50 state associations representing more than 31,000 water and wastewater utility systems, and helped filed a lawsuit on behalf of its members.
Yes, but: Not included in the settlements are systems operated by states and the U.S. government, some smaller drinking water systems, and systems in the lower Cape Fear River Basin of North Carolina, which has been plagued by high levels of PFAS.
- Chemours, which produces products containing PFAS nearby, faces several lawsuits over PFAS exposure in the area.
How it works: The durable synthetic chemicals, which resist degradation by repelling oil and water and withstanding high temperatures, have been used in hundreds of nonstick, water- and oil-repellent, and fire-resistant products.
- If the chemicals enter the environment through production or waste streams, they can resist breaking down for hundreds of years while contaminating water sources and bioaccumulating in fish, wildlife, livestock, and people.
- Research has shown that reducing levels of PFAS in drinking water or switching to other water distributors will likely require municipalities to invest millions of dollars into new infrastructure and incur ongoing maintenance costs.
- For example, officials in Cape Fear allocated $46 million and a recurring annual operating cost of $2.9 million to upgrade a treatment plant designed to filter PFAS from drinking water.
- News of a potential settlement came just days before the company's first federal trial over PFAS pollution claims.
- Facing extensive PFAS litigation — including a lawsuit from the Dutch government — 3M announced in December 2022 that it would stop manufacturing and using the chemicals by the end of 2025.
- "The parties are making material and significant progress toward a resolution of this matter, and have jointly requested a continuance," a 3M spokesperson said in a statement to Axios on Monday.
- "As we have previously disclosed, we are in active, ongoing, and confidential mediation sessions."
|
TEHRAN, Iran >> Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say if any animals were in the capsule.
He told state TV that Iran plans to send astronauts into space by 2029 after further tests involving animals.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other spacecraft. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
Reports said the country’s Defense Ministry built and launched the Salman rocket while the capsule was built by the Iranian civil space agency. Media reports did not say where the launch took place. Iran usually makes launches from Imam Khomenei Space Center in northern Semnan province.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The U.S. and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.
In 2020, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it put the Islamic Republic’s first military satellite into orbit, unveiling what experts described as a secret space program.
|
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TEHRAN, Iran >> Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say if any animals were in the capsule.
He told state TV that Iran plans to send astronauts into space by 2029 after further tests involving animals.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other spacecraft. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
Reports said the country’s Defense Ministry built and launched the Salman rocket while the capsule was built by the Iranian civil space agency. Media reports did not say where the launch took place. Iran usually makes launches from Imam Khomenei Space Center in northern Semnan province.
It
|
says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The U.S. and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.
In 2020, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it put the Islamic Republic’s first military satellite into orbit, unveiling what experts described as a secret space program.
|
Gas stove bans explained: Are natural gas stoves actually a 'hazard'? Why are they suddenly controversial?
Gas stoves bans have made the news as cooktops join M&Ms in becoming another unlikely subject of politicized controversy in the United States.
In recent weeks, gas stoves have been branded by some as a danger – to both public health and the planet – that need to be phased out. To others, that notion is ridiculous.
In reality, the controversy may be new, but the facts surrounding it are mostly well known.
On the health side, studies going back to the 1980s show unvented natural gas stoves can cause indoor air pollution harmful to young lungs. And climate change concerns have prompted some places to try to stop new gas lines from being run to new construction.
How does climate change affect you? Subscribe to the weekly Climate Point newsletter
READ MORE: Latest climate change news from USA TODAY
Here's what to know about the gas stove controversy:
What kicked off this latest round of concern over gas stoves?
Cultural flare-ups around gas stoves have popped up in the news for the past several years. This latest round came on Jan. 9 when Richard Trumpka Jr., head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said natural gas stoves are "a hidden hazard" and suggested unsafe products might be banned, a statement he later walked back.
That came at the same time about 100 cities or counties, and three states, are putting new building codes in place that either ban the installation of natural gas hookups in newly constructed homes and buildings or offer incentives for not doing so.
FACT CHECK:False claim Biden administration wants to ban gas stoves
FACT CHECK:TV station tweet about gas stoves and cardiovascular events is fabricated
Note this doesn't affect the majority of Americans. Most surveys show 35% to 40% of stoves in the United States use natural gas. Overall, natural gas is much less used in the Southeast, and it's most common in the West, Midwest and Northeast.
Are gas stoves bad for your health?
They can be. Poorly ventilated gas stoves can cause health hazards inside the home. A Harvard study published in June found natural gas contained varying levels of volatile organic chemicals and was more likely than realized to leak. A study in December found using a gas stove was associated with an increased risk of asthma among children.
Natural gas is methane. When burned, it produces small but detectable amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants. Exposure indoors – when there isn’t enough ventilation – is associated with more severe asthma.
- The problem: Two-thirds to three-quarters of Americans seldom if ever turn on their stove's ventilation fans, said Rob Jackson, a professor of energy and the environment at Stanford University, who has been studying the topic for several years.
- Even worse: Many homes and apartments either don't have adequate stove ventilation or have fans that simply recirculate the air through a filter, which doesn't remove the nitrogen oxide.
How can I make my gas stove safer?
Turn on your fan or open a window every time you use your stove.
"If you ventilate, you can dramatically reduce the emission down to levels that are very unlikely to cause substantial harm," said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital.
Opinion:Biden wants to save us from our gas stoves. What will the nanny state think of next?
Satire:Are Joe Biden's 'stovetroopers' coming for my gas stove? I don't know, but I AM ANGRY!
Make sure the fan vents to the outside, not just a filter that blows back into the kitchen.
Children who lived in homes that always used ventilation when their gas stove was on were 36% less likely to be diagnosed with asthma, said Molly Kile, an environmental epidemiologist at Oregon State University.
If you don't have a fan, open a window or a door when cooking, Bernstein said.
More:What's the alternative? What to know about induction cook tops
Are gas stoves bad for climate change?
Yes. And that's a big reason there's an effort in some areas to phase out natural gas from new buildings.
Natural gas has been the fastest-rising fossil fuel over the past decade as it largely replaced coal. Though it produces less carbon dioxide than coal, burning methane is still nowhere near carbon-neutral.
"Burning natural gas contributed 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution a year," Jackson said.
- DEFINITIONS: Is climate change the same thing as global warming? Definitions explained.
- CAUSES: Why scientists say humans are to blame.
- EFFECTS: What are the effects of climate change? How they disrupt our daily life, fuel disasters.
Carbon dioxide and methane are the primary greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.
Jackson's research found that the 40 million gas stoves in the United States annually produce pollution equivalent to the tailpipe emissions of 500,000 cars.
Natural gas bans: Where and why
"Gas stove bans" primarily references the effort to stop new construction from being piped for natural gas, not removing existing stoves.
That is meant to help wean the country from fossil fuels. A new building piped for natural gas means decades more fossil fuel use, just when the country is trying to move away from such fuels and toward all-electric construction.
"No one is barging into homes and ripping gas stoves out of people's kitchens," Jackson said.
- California: 73 cities and counties have adopted building codes that require new residential and commercial buildings to be built all-electric. Some of them have carve-outs for commercial kitchens so they can continue to use methane-burning stoves.
- Elsewhere in the U.S.: Another 26 cities and three states – Maryland, Colorado and Washington – have building codes either in place or scheduled that will require new construction to be all-electric.
- Backlash – a ban on bans: There's an effort being led in part by the natural gas industry to preemptively ban these building codes. Twenty states have passed such legislation, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
More:No more fire in the kitchen: Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet
|
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Gas stove bans explained: Are natural gas stoves actually a 'hazard'? Why are they suddenly controversial?
Gas stoves bans have made the news as cooktops join M&Ms in becoming another unlikely subject of politicized controversy in the United States.
In recent weeks, gas stoves have been branded by some as a danger – to both public health and the planet – that need to be phased out. To others, that notion is ridiculous.
In reality, the controversy may be new, but the facts surrounding it are mostly well known.
On the health side, studies going back to the 1980s show unvented natural gas stoves can cause indoor air pollution harmful to young lungs. And climate change concerns have prompted some places to try to stop new gas lines from being run to new construction.
How does climate change affect you? Subscribe to the weekly Climate Point newsletter
READ MORE: Latest climate change news from USA TODAY
Here's what to know about the gas stove controversy:
What kicked off this latest round of concern over gas stoves?
Cultural flare-ups around gas stoves have popped up in the news for the past several years. This latest round came on Jan. 9 when Richard Trumpka
|
Jr., head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said natural gas stoves are "a hidden hazard" and suggested unsafe products might be banned, a statement he later walked back.
That came at the same time about 100 cities or counties, and three states, are putting new building codes in place that either ban the installation of natural gas hookups in newly constructed homes and buildings or offer incentives for not doing so.
FACT CHECK:False claim Biden administration wants to ban gas stoves
FACT CHECK:TV station tweet about gas stoves and cardiovascular events is fabricated
Note this doesn't affect the majority of Americans. Most surveys show 35% to 40% of stoves in the United States use natural gas. Overall, natural gas is much less used in the Southeast, and it's most common in the West, Midwest and Northeast.
Are gas stoves bad for your health?
They can be. Poorly ventilated gas stoves can cause health hazards inside the home. A Harvard study published in June found natural gas contained varying levels of volatile organic chemicals and was more likely than realized to leak. A study in December found using a gas stove was associated with an increased risk of asthma among children.
Natural gas is methane. When burned, it produces small but detectable amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants. Exposure indoors – when there isn’t enough ventilation – is associated with more severe asthma.
- The problem: Two-thirds to three-quarters of Americans seldom if ever turn on their stove's ventilation fans, said Rob Jackson, a professor of energy and the environment at Stanford University, who has been studying the topic for several years.
- Even worse: Many homes and apartments either don't have adequate stove ventilation or have fans that simply recirculate the air through a filter, which doesn't remove the nitrogen oxide.
How can I make my gas stove safer?
Turn on your fan or open a window every time you use your stove.
"If you ventilate, you can dramatically reduce the emission down to levels that are very unlikely to cause substantial harm," said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital.
Opinion:Biden wants to save us from our gas stoves. What will the nanny state think of next?
Satire:Are Joe Biden's 'stovetroopers' coming for my gas stove? I don't know, but I AM ANGRY!
Make sure the fan vents to the outside, not just a filter that blows back into the kitchen.
Children who lived in homes that always used ventilation when their gas stove was on were 36% less likely to be diagnosed with asthma, said Molly Kile, an environmental epidemiologist at Oregon State University.
If you don't have a fan, open a window or a door when cooking, Bernstein said.
More:What's the alternative? What to know about induction cook tops
Are gas stoves bad for climate change?
Yes. And that's a big reason there's an effort in some areas to phase out natural gas from new buildings.
Natural gas has been the fastest-rising fossil fuel over the past decade as it largely replaced coal. Though it produces less carbon dioxide than coal, burning methane is still nowhere near carbon-neutral.
"Burning natural gas contributed 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution a year," Jackson said.
- DEFINITIONS: Is climate change the same thing as global warming? Definitions explained.
- CAUSES: Why scientists say humans are to blame.
- EFFECTS: What are the effects of climate change? How they disrupt our daily life, fuel disasters.
Carbon dioxide and methane are the primary greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.
Jackson's research found that the 40 million gas stoves in the United States annually produce pollution equivalent to the tailpipe emissions of 500,000 cars.
Natural gas bans: Where and why
"Gas stove bans" primarily references the effort to stop new construction from being piped for natural gas, not removing existing stoves.
That is meant to help wean the country from fossil fuels. A new building piped for natural gas means decades more fossil fuel use, just when the country is trying to move away from such fuels and toward all-electric construction.
"No one is barging into homes and ripping gas stoves out of people's kitchens," Jackson said.
- California: 73 cities and counties have adopted building codes that require new residential and commercial buildings to be built all-electric. Some of them have carve-outs for commercial kitchens so they can continue to use methane-burning stoves.
- Elsewhere in the U.S.: Another 26 cities and three states – Maryland, Colorado and Washington – have building codes either in place or scheduled that will require new construction to be all-electric.
- Backlash – a ban on bans: There's an effort being led in part by the natural gas industry to preemptively ban these building codes. Twenty states have passed such legislation, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
More:No more fire in the kitchen: Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet
|
When a person loses someone close to him or faces any kind of loss, he goes through five stages of grief. One of the stages of grief is depression. No matter what kind of depression you have, whether it be because of mental illness or grief, it is something that should be taken seriously. If you already have depression due to mental illness grief can intensify it. When it is depression from grief, it can be handled differently than that caused by mental illness.
I have gone through a lot of grief in my life. I went through the five stages of grief, but when it came to depression, it was intensified for me. When I lost my uncle in an accident, I was already suffering with depression. The loss intensified my depression and sent me into a very dark place. I fell to pieces and was on the edge of my breaking point. My thinking was illogical and internally I blamed myself for his death because of a wish I made. I didn’t know the difference between depression because of grief and the depression I already was feeling. I didn’t even know what depression was at that time.
Each time I have lost people in my life, it intensified my mental illness. In therapy I learned different ways to cope with depression as a mental illness. Recently I learned that dealing with a person who is suffering with depression just caused by grief is different than handling a mental illness.
A dear friend of mine lost a very close family member. Her family member had been ill, and as she took care of him, she started dealing with stages of grief. When he passed, she sunk into a depression. I wanted to be supportive, and I thought I could help her by sharing some of my coping techniques I learned for depression. She didn’t respond to my suggestions. I decided to do some research.
Here is a list of things you can do to help your friend or family member suffering from depression due to grief:
- Don’t tell them about your grief or depression experiences. When a person is grieving, he can only focus on what he or she has lost. Grieving people don’t want to hear your experiences.
- Don’t give advice. Don’t tell people what they should do with their grief or what worked for you. Don’t tell them how you think they should deal with their depression. You could do more harm to them. Everyone grieves differently. Allow your friend or family member grieve in his or her own way.
- Be willing to listen and be supportive. This is when your friend or family member needs you the most. Be available to listen, to comfort, and to give support when they need it.
- Don’t get pushy. If your friend or family member pulls away and insists he needs time alone, let him have that time. Don’t insist on visiting, on getting him out of the house, or talking when he is not ready to. If your friend or family member is sleeping a lot and doesn’t have interest in everyday activities, don’t push him. Let the person come to you when he or she is ready.
- Do little things to remind the friend or family you are there for him or her. Offer to get the person’s mail, send a thinking of you card, or bring the person a meal.
- Check in on your friend or family member. If your friend is spending a lot of time isolated from everyone, check in with him. Give him a phone call or drop in just to make sure he is well. You don’t have to stay to visit or have a long conversation. Just make sure the person is okay and then let him or her be.
- Give your friend or family member plenty of time to grieve. Some get over grief in a short time and others may take longer. Never tell him or her to get over it. Let him take as long as he needs to grieve. Just support the person, no matter how long it takes.
- Don’t avoid talking about the loved one your friend or family member lost. He needs to be reminded of the good memories and to share his own memories. Talking about the person he lost helps him come to terms with his loss.
- Beware of signs your family member or friend needs extra help. If your family member or friend stops functioning, talks about suicide, gives up on taking care of himself, and the depression worsens, suggest grief counseling or therapy.
Grief is a hard thing to go though and sometimes we fear we’ll say or do the wrong thing when trying our best to help a loved one who is grieving. The best thing we can do for a person grieving is to be supportive and patient.
Because I researched grief I am working to be as supportive as I can be for my friend. Being there for others in their time of need and learning about depression from grief helps me stand in the light of recovery with a full heart and new knowledge.
2 thoughts on “DEPRESSION WITH GRIEF”
Thank you so much.
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When a person loses someone close to him or faces any kind of loss, he goes through five stages of grief. One of the stages of grief is depression. No matter what kind of depression you have, whether it be because of mental illness or grief, it is something that should be taken seriously. If you already have depression due to mental illness grief can intensify it. When it is depression from grief, it can be handled differently than that caused by mental illness.
I have gone through a lot of grief in my life. I went through the five stages of grief, but when it came to depression, it was intensified for me. When I lost my uncle in an accident, I was already suffering with depression. The loss intensified my depression and sent me into a very dark place. I fell to pieces and was on the edge of my breaking point. My thinking was illogical and internally I blamed myself for his death because of a wish I made. I didn’t know the difference between depression because of grief and the depression I already was feeling. I didn’t even know what depression was at that time.
Each time I have lost people in my life, it intensified my mental illness. In therapy I learned different ways to cope with depression as a mental illness. Recently
|
I learned that dealing with a person who is suffering with depression just caused by grief is different than handling a mental illness.
A dear friend of mine lost a very close family member. Her family member had been ill, and as she took care of him, she started dealing with stages of grief. When he passed, she sunk into a depression. I wanted to be supportive, and I thought I could help her by sharing some of my coping techniques I learned for depression. She didn’t respond to my suggestions. I decided to do some research.
Here is a list of things you can do to help your friend or family member suffering from depression due to grief:
- Don’t tell them about your grief or depression experiences. When a person is grieving, he can only focus on what he or she has lost. Grieving people don’t want to hear your experiences.
- Don’t give advice. Don’t tell people what they should do with their grief or what worked for you. Don’t tell them how you think they should deal with their depression. You could do more harm to them. Everyone grieves differently. Allow your friend or family member grieve in his or her own way.
- Be willing to listen and be supportive. This is when your friend or family member needs you the most. Be available to listen, to comfort, and to give support when they need it.
- Don’t get pushy. If your friend or family member pulls away and insists he needs time alone, let him have that time. Don’t insist on visiting, on getting him out of the house, or talking when he is not ready to. If your friend or family member is sleeping a lot and doesn’t have interest in everyday activities, don’t push him. Let the person come to you when he or she is ready.
- Do little things to remind the friend or family you are there for him or her. Offer to get the person’s mail, send a thinking of you card, or bring the person a meal.
- Check in on your friend or family member. If your friend is spending a lot of time isolated from everyone, check in with him. Give him a phone call or drop in just to make sure he is well. You don’t have to stay to visit or have a long conversation. Just make sure the person is okay and then let him or her be.
- Give your friend or family member plenty of time to grieve. Some get over grief in a short time and others may take longer. Never tell him or her to get over it. Let him take as long as he needs to grieve. Just support the person, no matter how long it takes.
- Don’t avoid talking about the loved one your friend or family member lost. He needs to be reminded of the good memories and to share his own memories. Talking about the person he lost helps him come to terms with his loss.
- Beware of signs your family member or friend needs extra help. If your family member or friend stops functioning, talks about suicide, gives up on taking care of himself, and the depression worsens, suggest grief counseling or therapy.
Grief is a hard thing to go though and sometimes we fear we’ll say or do the wrong thing when trying our best to help a loved one who is grieving. The best thing we can do for a person grieving is to be supportive and patient.
Because I researched grief I am working to be as supportive as I can be for my friend. Being there for others in their time of need and learning about depression from grief helps me stand in the light of recovery with a full heart and new knowledge.
2 thoughts on “DEPRESSION WITH GRIEF”
Thank you so much.
|
A bounty of 10 African penguin chicks has hatched in just over a year at a San Francisco science museum as part of an effort to conserve the endangered bird.
The penguins began hatching in November 2022, ending a four-year period without any new chicks, and continued through January of this year, the California Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday.
African penguins have dwindled to 9,000 breeding pairs in the wild, the academy said in a statement.
Threats such as overfishing, habitat degradation and oil spills have reduced colonies of the charismatic black-and-white birds, said Brenda Melton, director of animal care and well-being at the museum's Steinhart Aquarium.
“Every chick we welcome strengthens the genetics and overall population of the species in human care,” she said.
Gallery of 7 photos
Chicks spend their first three weeks with their penguin parents in a nest box. They then attend “fish school,” where they learn to swim on their own and eat fish provided by biologists. Once ready, they are introduced to the colony.
The 21 penguins at the museum in Golden Gate Park have distinct personalities and are identifiable by their arm bands, according to the academy's website.
Opal is the oldest and, at age 36, has perfected the ability to catch fish in mid-air. Her partner, Pete, is a messy eater and a flirt.
Partners Stanlee and Bernie, who both like to bray, produced four of the 10 chicks, including Fyn, named for a type of vegetation found on the southern tip of Africa. Fyn is the youngest on exhibit and older sister to Nelson and Alice, both hatched in November.
Fyn often runs up to biologists when they enter the habitat and shakes her head at them—typical courtship behavior that chicks and juveniles commonly display toward people who have cared for them since hatching.
The youngest chick hatched Jan. 12, and its sex has not yet been determined.
African penguins can live to be 27 years old in the wild and longer in captivity.
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A bounty of 10 African penguin chicks has hatched in just over a year at a San Francisco science museum as part of an effort to conserve the endangered bird.
The penguins began hatching in November 2022, ending a four-year period without any new chicks, and continued through January of this year, the California Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday.
African penguins have dwindled to 9,000 breeding pairs in the wild, the academy said in a statement.
Threats such as overfishing, habitat degradation and oil spills have reduced colonies of the charismatic black-and-white birds, said Brenda Melton, director of animal care and well-being at the museum's Steinhart Aquarium.
“Every chick we welcome strengthens the genetics and overall population of the species in human care,” she said.
Gallery of 7 photos
Chicks spend their first three weeks with their penguin parents in a nest box. They then attend “fish school,” where they learn to swim on their own and eat fish provided by biologists. Once ready, they are introduced to the colony.
The 21 penguins at the museum in Golden Gate Park have distinct personalities and are identifiable by their arm bands,
|
according to the academy's website.
Opal is the oldest and, at age 36, has perfected the ability to catch fish in mid-air. Her partner, Pete, is a messy eater and a flirt.
Partners Stanlee and Bernie, who both like to bray, produced four of the 10 chicks, including Fyn, named for a type of vegetation found on the southern tip of Africa. Fyn is the youngest on exhibit and older sister to Nelson and Alice, both hatched in November.
Fyn often runs up to biologists when they enter the habitat and shakes her head at them—typical courtship behavior that chicks and juveniles commonly display toward people who have cared for them since hatching.
The youngest chick hatched Jan. 12, and its sex has not yet been determined.
African penguins can live to be 27 years old in the wild and longer in captivity.
|
Gardening for You: Vegan gardening
Vegan diets are among the top food trends. Devotees of vegan diets eliminate animal-based foods from their food intake while the most serious followers carry this to household and hygiene products and clothing (<email-pii>). Those who grow their own food may extend this lifestyle to vegan, otherwise known as veganic, gardening.
Vegan gardening takes organic gardening to another level. Organic gardening is simply a method of gardening that does not use synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic gardening replenishes soil nutrition and improves soil structure by incorporating plant and animal-based organic matter. Common animal products used to amend soils are mammal manures, bone meal, blood meal, or fish emulsions.
While vegan gardening is an organic strategy, animal-based products are not used. Vegan gardening is organic gardening without the animal component.
Every garden success starts with the soil. Gardening the vegan way just requires a little more thought and ingenuity.
Improving soils with vegan organics is not difficult since plant amendments are already used by most organic gardeners: tilling into the soil shredded leaves, composted kitchen waste, coffee and tea grounds, straw or hay, and commercial bagged products.
Green manuring is an effective vegan gardening technique for improving the soil but one that takes a little more creativity and planning. Basically, green manure is a cover crop grown in the off season for its living organic matter. Benefits of cover crops are two-fold: erosion prevention and adding biomass and living organic matter to the soil with below ground roots and above ground foliage; when legumes are grown, a third benefit is the nitrogen added back to the soil.
Winter cover crops are grown following summer gardens and before spring planting. Crop management is critical as plant matter must be incorporated into the soil before seed set. Common winter legumes are crimson clover, hairy vetch, red clover, and white clover. Popular summer green manure crop is black-eyed peas.
Q. A good question about the vegan suet recipe in last week’s (Feb. 22) column came from Lubbock A-J reader Mary S. of Tijeras, New Mexico. Mary asked if peanut and other nut butters purchased at the grocery store are OK to use in the suet feeders.
A. The question likely arose because of the caution in not using salted or roasted nuts in the suet. Commercially prepared nut butter products are absolutely safe. In fact, below is a modified vegan suet recipe I use for our birds:
1 cup Crisco
½ cup Peter Pan Chunky peanut butter
1 ½ cups black oil sunflower seed
2 cups Coaches Steel cut oats
1 cup corn meal
Melt shortening and peanut butter in the microwave. Fold in combined dry ingredients. Ladle about ½ cup of the mixture into bottoms of reclaimed paper coffee cups. Freeze. Pop the bars out of cups, place in bird feeders and wait for the birds to tuck it away.
Ellen Peffley taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. You can email her at <email-pii>
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Gardening for You: Vegan gardening
Vegan diets are among the top food trends. Devotees of vegan diets eliminate animal-based foods from their food intake while the most serious followers carry this to household and hygiene products and clothing (<email-pii>). Those who grow their own food may extend this lifestyle to vegan, otherwise known as veganic, gardening.
Vegan gardening takes organic gardening to another level. Organic gardening is simply a method of gardening that does not use synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic gardening replenishes soil nutrition and improves soil structure by incorporating plant and animal-based organic matter. Common animal products used to amend soils are mammal manures, bone meal, blood meal, or fish emulsions.
While vegan gardening is an organic strategy, animal-based products are not used. Vegan gardening is organic gardening without the animal component.
Every garden success starts with the soil. Gardening the vegan way just requires a little more thought and ingenuity.
Improving soils with vegan organics is not difficult since plant amendments are already used by most organic gardeners: tilling into the soil shredded leaves, composted kitchen waste, coffee and tea grounds, straw or hay, and commercial bagged
|
products.
Green manuring is an effective vegan gardening technique for improving the soil but one that takes a little more creativity and planning. Basically, green manure is a cover crop grown in the off season for its living organic matter. Benefits of cover crops are two-fold: erosion prevention and adding biomass and living organic matter to the soil with below ground roots and above ground foliage; when legumes are grown, a third benefit is the nitrogen added back to the soil.
Winter cover crops are grown following summer gardens and before spring planting. Crop management is critical as plant matter must be incorporated into the soil before seed set. Common winter legumes are crimson clover, hairy vetch, red clover, and white clover. Popular summer green manure crop is black-eyed peas.
Q. A good question about the vegan suet recipe in last week’s (Feb. 22) column came from Lubbock A-J reader Mary S. of Tijeras, New Mexico. Mary asked if peanut and other nut butters purchased at the grocery store are OK to use in the suet feeders.
A. The question likely arose because of the caution in not using salted or roasted nuts in the suet. Commercially prepared nut butter products are absolutely safe. In fact, below is a modified vegan suet recipe I use for our birds:
1 cup Crisco
½ cup Peter Pan Chunky peanut butter
1 ½ cups black oil sunflower seed
2 cups Coaches Steel cut oats
1 cup corn meal
Melt shortening and peanut butter in the microwave. Fold in combined dry ingredients. Ladle about ½ cup of the mixture into bottoms of reclaimed paper coffee cups. Freeze. Pop the bars out of cups, place in bird feeders and wait for the birds to tuck it away.
Ellen Peffley taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. You can email her at <email-pii>
|
Our sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years.
Scientists around the world agreed on that in last week’s U.N. report about climate change, which found it is “unavoidable for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt, and sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years.”
One of the problems with sea level rise is that it happens slowly, a tiny bit each year, making it a threat that people have an easy time ignoring.
We do that at our own peril, according to Mark Merrifield, director of the Scripps Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation.
“Over time, it is just undeniable. The measurements all say the same thing. The glaciers are melting and the ice sheets,” Merrifield said while standing on the Scripps Pier, a hub of scientific activity on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
Thirty percent of Americans live in a community near a coastline. And while those people don’t have the power to unilaterally solve the underlying problem of climate change, some communities are now grappling with how to adapt to sea level rise by constructing new defenses, restoring natural defenses, or just moving out of the way.
There are a lot of ways to adapt to sea level rise. Daniel Zarrilli has an intimate understanding of how New York City is doing it. He is the special adviser on climate and sustainability at Columbia University and was recently the city’s chief climate policy adviser.
“Sea level rise is relentless. It’s not like a storm or, you know, an acute impact. It’s just going to keep coming,” he told me during a recent visit.
A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted by 2050, on the East Coast, there will 10-14 inches of sea level rise.
In New York City, with 520 miles of coastline, the projection for 2100 from Climate Central, a nonprofit that analyzes climate change data, shows how storm surge, which is an abnormal rise in sea level caused by a storm, compounded by expected sea level rise would impact much of the city’s coastline and be particularly bad on lower Manhattan’s eastern side.
To protect the city, New York is building the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. It’s a 2.5-mile long, 16.5-feet-tall sea wall. Zarrilli took us on a tour of the wall from a vantage point on a boat that navigated the East River.
“The right solution for every part of the city is going to be different. In this case, lower Manhattan, high density, 110,000 people live in the flood protected area of this project alone. There’s almost no other choice,” Zarrilli said.
Tom Foley, the construction commissioner for New York City, gave us a tour of the new sea wall construction that’s integrated into a tiny footprint inside a crowded neighborhood. Here, there will be 18 floodgates that will be open all the time for people to pass through, until there’s an emergency. The gates slide shut, and the wall is designed to keep out storm surge.
The East Side neighborhood where Foley is building, near Bellevue Hospital, was heavily flooded 10 years ago during Superstorm Sandy, a sign of things to come.
I asked him if he thinks it’s likely that New York will experience floodwaters that reach the top of the new 16.5-foot floodgates he’s building.
“Potentially, yes. And I think that with the wave propagation, with sea level rise, with climate change, that it could happen. But we will be prepared,” Foley says.
Zarrilli says New York is fortunate to have the resources, many of which flowed from federal recovery funds from Sandy, to afford this level of protection. He says most cities around the world do not.
“It’s really an existential risk to coastal cities all over the world to think about how to adapt and where we build, how we build it. It raises some fundamental questions of what our shorelines look like, what our coastlines look like,” he says.
Restoring natural defenses
Another way to adapt to sea level rise is by enhancing natural protections. That’s happening at the dunes and wetlands of Ormond Beach in Oxnard, California, on the Pacific Ocean.
“So, wetlands have a superpower: They’re able to buffer against rising seas. Dunes, wetlands can absorb floodwaters and protect the communities behind,” said Alyssa Mann from the Nature Conservancy, which is leading the project.
We traveled to Oxnard to see the wetlands for ourselves.
Standing on the windblown beach, Mann said much of Southern California’s coast used to look like this: an endless system of beaches, dunes and marshes protecting against the threats of the ocean. Today, Ormond Beach is one of the last remaining examples of that.
A coastal risk screening tool from Climate Central shows that by the end of the century, a major storm, compounded by sea level rise, would likely push storm surge into many Oxnard neighborhoods and swamp Naval Air Station Point Mugu to the south.
Over the years, Ormond Beach has been chopped up for farmland and industry. The plan now is to restore the size of the marsh and make it into a larger buffer space for floodwaters. That means buying up surrounding land, including an adjacent power plant, and returning the land to its natural state.
“When California was developing, we built right up and sometimes on top of dunes and lost that natural protection. And so, part of what we’re thinking about here in California is where could we make space for to restore nature’s protection?” Mann asked.
And this isn’t just about saving fancy beach houses. In Oxnard, expanding these natural defenses will also protect the working-class community that lives closest to the dunes.
Odette Moran is a community organizer in the Hispanic community in South Oxnard. She’s a strong supporter of rebuilding natural defenses against sea level rise.
“I strongly believe if we fortify that relationship between us and nature, instead of trying to fight it all the time and come up with different solutions, I think, that relationship that could really potentially save a lot of lives and protect health,” she says.
Down the coast in San Diego, 350 miles of train tracks are the only rail connection between here and Los Angeles. The iconic Pacific Surfliner train transports 8 million riders a year and carries $1 billion in freight.
As the train approaches the San Diego area, the ocean views from inside the train are amazing. But as we learned while visiting San Diego, some of the cliffs are eroding.
As sea levels rise, waves can push in farther, pounding the base of the cliff. Here they are considering another kind of adaptation called managed retreat, where a decision is made to relocate instead of fighting the sea. There is serious discussion about relocating the tracks, at cost of up to $4 billion.
As the erosion of sea cliffs grows because of sea level rise, the train tracks get closer to falling into the water.
“The cliffs are vulnerable to this, undercutting from the wave action,” said Merrifield of the Scripps Center.
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is a global leader in climate science. They’ve been measuring rising sea levels for decades.
“It’s pretty clear that something has to be done,” Merrifield says. “This is a good time to think about a solution for the train. I don’t think there is a whole lot of time left,” he added.
Scripps is trying to get ahead of the kind of cliff collapse that, in 2019, killed three people at a popular surfing beach nearby in Encinitas.
“We’re trying to understand the processes that are driving the erosion and how fast they’re acting on the cliffs,” says Adam Young, who studies coastal erosion for Scripps.
Once a week, Young’s team at Scripps uses a truck — with an image scanner on top — to map the face of the cliffs down to the millimeter. Week by week they can detect if rocks have fallen off. They’re hoping to use the data to create an early warning system for cliff collapse.
But ultimately, this country has a lot more than train tracks to worry about. Our coasts are lined with industry, roads and people’s homes. That’s why California’s Coastal Commission is requiring that communities prepare adaptation plans for encroaching sea level rise.
“For you and me, in our lifetime, we won’t see the kind of changes you’re talking about,” Merrifield said. “But for our children, our grandchildren, we’re leaving them with a very, very uncertain future that will no doubt be far more challenging than what we’re facing now,” he added.
Sea level rise, driven by climate change, is a slow-motion problem that’s easy to ignore.
But pay attention and it’s clear, from coast to coast we’ve got a lot of hard decisions to make about how we’re going to adapt.
The post Sea levels are rising. Here’s how some communities are adapting. appeared first on CBS News.
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Our sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years.
Scientists around the world agreed on that in last week’s U.N. report about climate change, which found it is “unavoidable for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt, and sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years.”
One of the problems with sea level rise is that it happens slowly, a tiny bit each year, making it a threat that people have an easy time ignoring.
We do that at our own peril, according to Mark Merrifield, director of the Scripps Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation.
“Over time, it is just undeniable. The measurements all say the same thing. The glaciers are melting and the ice sheets,” Merrifield said while standing on the Scripps Pier, a hub of scientific activity on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
Thirty percent of Americans live in a community near a coastline. And while those people don’t have the power to unilaterally solve the underlying problem of climate change, some communities are now grappling with how to adapt to sea level rise by constructing new defenses, restoring natural defenses, or just moving out of the way.
There are a
|
lot of ways to adapt to sea level rise. Daniel Zarrilli has an intimate understanding of how New York City is doing it. He is the special adviser on climate and sustainability at Columbia University and was recently the city’s chief climate policy adviser.
“Sea level rise is relentless. It’s not like a storm or, you know, an acute impact. It’s just going to keep coming,” he told me during a recent visit.
A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted by 2050, on the East Coast, there will 10-14 inches of sea level rise.
In New York City, with 520 miles of coastline, the projection for 2100 from Climate Central, a nonprofit that analyzes climate change data, shows how storm surge, which is an abnormal rise in sea level caused by a storm, compounded by expected sea level rise would impact much of the city’s coastline and be particularly bad on lower Manhattan’s eastern side.
To protect the city, New York is building the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. It’s a 2.5-mile long, 16.5-feet-tall sea wall. Zarrilli took us on a tour of the wall from a vantage point on a boat that navigated the East River.
“The right solution for every part of the city is going to be different. In this case, lower Manhattan, high density, 110,000 people live in the flood protected area of this project alone. There’s almost no other choice,” Zarrilli said.
Tom Foley, the construction commissioner for New York City, gave us a tour of the new sea wall construction that’s integrated into a tiny footprint inside a crowded neighborhood. Here, there will be 18 floodgates that will be open all the time for people to pass through, until there’s an emergency. The gates slide shut, and the wall is designed to keep out storm surge.
The East Side neighborhood where Foley is building, near Bellevue Hospital, was heavily flooded 10 years ago during Superstorm Sandy, a sign of things to come.
I asked him if he thinks it’s likely that New York will experience floodwaters that reach the top of the new 16.5-foot floodgates he’s building.
“Potentially, yes. And I think that with the wave propagation, with sea level rise, with climate change, that it could happen. But we will be prepared,” Foley says.
Zarrilli says New York is fortunate to have the resources, many of which flowed from federal recovery funds from Sandy, to afford this level of protection. He says most cities around the world do not.
“It’s really an existential risk to coastal cities all over the world to think about how to adapt and where we build, how we build it. It raises some fundamental questions of what our shorelines look like, what our coastlines look like,” he says.
Restoring natural defenses
Another way to adapt to sea level rise is by enhancing natural protections. That’s happening at the dunes and wetlands of Ormond Beach in Oxnard, California, on the Pacific Ocean.
“So, wetlands have a superpower: They’re able to buffer against rising seas. Dunes, wetlands can absorb floodwaters and protect the communities behind,” said Alyssa Mann from the Nature Conservancy, which is leading the project.
We traveled to Oxnard to see the wetlands for ourselves.
Standing on the windblown beach, Mann said much of Southern California’s coast used to look like this: an endless system of beaches, dunes and marshes protecting against the threats of the ocean. Today, Ormond Beach is one of the last remaining examples of that.
A coastal risk screening tool from Climate Central shows that by the end of the century, a major storm, compounded by sea level rise, would likely push storm surge into many Oxnard neighborhoods and swamp Naval Air Station Point Mugu to the south.
Over the years, Ormond Beach has been chopped up for farmland and industry. The plan now is to restore the size of the marsh and make it into a larger buffer space for floodwaters. That means buying up surrounding land, including an adjacent power plant, and returning the land to its natural state.
“When California was developing, we built right up and sometimes on top of dunes and lost that natural protection. And so, part of what we’re thinking about here in California is where could we make space for to restore nature’s protection?” Mann asked.
And this isn’t just about saving fancy beach houses. In Oxnard, expanding these natural defenses will also protect the working-class community that lives closest to the dunes.
Odette Moran is a community organizer in the Hispanic community in South Oxnard. She’s a strong supporter of rebuilding natural defenses against sea level rise.
“I strongly believe if we fortify that relationship between us and nature, instead of trying to fight it all the time and come up with different solutions, I think, that relationship that could really potentially save a lot of lives and protect health,” she says.
Down the coast in San Diego, 350 miles of train tracks are the only rail connection between here and Los Angeles. The iconic Pacific Surfliner train transports 8 million riders a year and carries $1 billion in freight.
As the train approaches the San Diego area, the ocean views from inside the train are amazing. But as we learned while visiting San Diego, some of the cliffs are eroding.
As sea levels rise, waves can push in farther, pounding the base of the cliff. Here they are considering another kind of adaptation called managed retreat, where a decision is made to relocate instead of fighting the sea. There is serious discussion about relocating the tracks, at cost of up to $4 billion.
As the erosion of sea cliffs grows because of sea level rise, the train tracks get closer to falling into the water.
“The cliffs are vulnerable to this, undercutting from the wave action,” said Merrifield of the Scripps Center.
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is a global leader in climate science. They’ve been measuring rising sea levels for decades.
“It’s pretty clear that something has to be done,” Merrifield says. “This is a good time to think about a solution for the train. I don’t think there is a whole lot of time left,” he added.
Scripps is trying to get ahead of the kind of cliff collapse that, in 2019, killed three people at a popular surfing beach nearby in Encinitas.
“We’re trying to understand the processes that are driving the erosion and how fast they’re acting on the cliffs,” says Adam Young, who studies coastal erosion for Scripps.
Once a week, Young’s team at Scripps uses a truck — with an image scanner on top — to map the face of the cliffs down to the millimeter. Week by week they can detect if rocks have fallen off. They’re hoping to use the data to create an early warning system for cliff collapse.
But ultimately, this country has a lot more than train tracks to worry about. Our coasts are lined with industry, roads and people’s homes. That’s why California’s Coastal Commission is requiring that communities prepare adaptation plans for encroaching sea level rise.
“For you and me, in our lifetime, we won’t see the kind of changes you’re talking about,” Merrifield said. “But for our children, our grandchildren, we’re leaving them with a very, very uncertain future that will no doubt be far more challenging than what we’re facing now,” he added.
Sea level rise, driven by climate change, is a slow-motion problem that’s easy to ignore.
But pay attention and it’s clear, from coast to coast we’ve got a lot of hard decisions to make about how we’re going to adapt.
The post Sea levels are rising. Here’s how some communities are adapting. appeared first on CBS News.
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Compassion is a state of feeling where an emotional reaction of sympathy or empathy is aroused in you by the state or situation of another person, group or community.
That’s my opening definition.
Compassion doesn’t only mean feeling “sad” for someone, though it often does. It can mean feeling happy for someone. But the “Com” part of compassion more suggests feeling sad or happy with someone. Even at a physical distance, compassion suggests a quality of closeness and connection. We when feel compassion for someone, we, at a certain level, join up with them. This can create a problem for professionals who define their professionalism as being necessarily “detached”. In these cases, professionals tend to see compassion as a potential underminer or diluter of professionalism. It involves connection, reducing the “professional distance”, possibly even down to the unacceptable distance of zero.
In personal, as well as working life, particularly strong compassion can overcome us, and that is when we reach forward into action and act on our compassionate feelings. That’s when we rush forward to respond, to “do something” about the situation awakening our compassion.
Compassion is about “caring”. Now, caring is an interesting word, because it can describe something you feel and something you do. I can care about something or someone as an inner experience but this may not arouse my will enough to do something. Or, at the other extreme, I can literally “care” for someone, by looking after them, 24-7.
Let’s look at a few other definitions of compassion and see how my definition stacks up against those!
“Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.” (The Free Dictionary. Source here.)
“Compassion is the feeling of empathy for others. Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help” (Wikipedia. Source here)
Some authors have described compassion as a process. For example, Compassion is seen as “a multidimensional developmental process through four stages:
(1) the awareness of suffering,
(2) an affective concern for others,
(3) a wish to relieve that suffering, and
(4) a readiness to relieve that suffering”
(Jinpa, T. (2010). Compassion cultivation training (CCT): Instructor’s manual. Unpublished, Stanford, CA.(Source found here))
Now, did you notice a word popping up in all of those definitions? It’s the word “suffering”. So, according to these definitions, compassion tends to focus on suffering. So, then we have to look at what suffering means. In healthcare, we can find various states of physical and psychological suffering, often labelled as “pain” and “distress”. In personal and working life, those labels can become more diverse. We can see different forms of “suffering”. We can suffer because we are being bullied, because we are stressed, unhappy with our self-image, depressed, bored, out of our depth, made redundant or in a state of job insecurity, and also because we feel we aren’t coping or on top of our work. Psychological suffering can take a myriad forms. Physical suffering tends to mostly manifest as pain, but can also include imprisonment, disability, clinical depression, tiredness and even exhaustion as examples of suffering. Suffering from the same condition is also experienced differently by different people. We ‘bear’ our suffering differently. Our needs for compassion vary with each unique person.
According to the definitions above, compassion is usually focused on the acknowledgement and alleviation of suffering. Some definitions also talk, not only about compassion for others, but also “self-compassion”. (Source here). This is where we focus compassion on our own suffering and “look after ourselves”.
In personal or working life, if a person’s or a community’s suffering arouses in us a feeling of compassion, and we are unwilling, unable or simply choose not to respond to that suffering with an attempt at alleviation (putting some money in a charity box or rushing across the road to help), we might find that we then develop a state of feeling “guilty” about our lack of response. Here conscience is closely related to compassion.
Conscience creates a new feeling of “guilt” when we hold back from acting externally on our compassionate inner state. We also seem to have a second inner process which opposes conscience. This is “detachment”. Here we cut off our compassionate inner reaction from outer action. We may even attempt to suppress it entirely by developing an early warning system inside ourselves. As soon as the first signs of a compassionate reaction show themselves, a call to care, we quickly detach and “cut off”.
This is certainly viewed by some people in high stress situations as necessary. Ongoing “Passionate compassion”, in their view, can inhibit the action we are taking. In healthcare, in famine and refugee zones, you can’t constantly be overwhelmed by compassion, as this consumes the very inner resources you need to stay focused on the urgent and vital external actions of helping. If you end up breaking down you aren’t helping anyone. So, in order to practice compassion-based help to alleviate the suffering of others, you have to also practice an equal or greater amount of self-compassion in order to prevent breaking down. Bernard Lievegoed calls this “selfless selfhood” – looking after yourself in order to be at your best for others. So, the doctor has to stay detached in the famine zone in order to do what needs to be done, and one thing that doesn’t need to be done is for the doctor to have an emotional meltdown. Switching off becomes a strange kind of self-compassion, or looking after yourself. When this is in the context of being able to do greater good, quickly, this is then justified to oneself and others.
This can create problems. I’ve found no evidence in my research that compassion is a pathological state. Compassion is a healthy emotional process. It can spur us into helpful action. In healthcare, it is often portrayed as an inhibitor of professional, “scientific”, detached service delivery. Compassion is emotional, subjective, can distort objectivity and needs to be minimised. So, here we have a situation where the motive of the institution – the hospital – is based fundamentally on compassion, namely, the alleviation of suffering, and yet, in its daily processes, it has described compassion as a sometimes dysfunctional and, at least, inefficient behaviour. Compassion is allowed in planned “places”, but not as a free, ongoing, state for the doctor or nurse. When the hospital was set up, it was born of a compassionate impulse and, occasionally, during reflective sessions and corridor conversations, “Offlne”, so to speak, compassion expresses itself. But “online”, it must never be allowed to get in the way of “delivery”. It may just be that we fear going into compassion meltdown because we simply don’t practice it enough in our lives. We then fear that, when it comes, it will drown us into breakdown, so we attempt to keep it at bay, especially when under pressure of limited resources. Certainly, in the National Health Service in the UK, during thirteen hour shifts, the grumpy, irritable ones are untouchable because their state has normed as the only viable way of coping with the crazy pressure. We become hardened because it is the only way to stay sane. Compassion becomes an expensive luxury we can’t afford. Carers become battle-hardened soldiers who are doing the best they can under impossible circumstances. Compassion is seen as naive and divorced from hard and harsh reality. It becomes almost impossible to suggest that gentler ways, warmer and calmer ways may just prove more effective along a wider range of measures in the long run.
Compassion isn’t banned in organisations. But it is variably applied. There are inner and outer skills involved, very much determined and influenced by the unique make up of each person and their ability to feel and demonstrate compassion in a way that never undermines the technical requirements of their work. Simply put – some people can do it, and some can’t. Some “switch off” in order to stay focused and objective, delivering to a hundred per cent quality. Others can juggle both balls in the air – quality delivery and human warmth and compassion.
This has a direct impact in personal, family and working life. We can experience others as “cold and uncaring”. In some cases it really is because there is no compassion being aroused in the other. They are “apathetic” – without feeling for us.In some cases they can even be (for various and complex reasons) antipathetic – glad of our suffering. In other cases it is because, in order to cope with the task of alleviating our pain and distress as well as possible, they are so focused on that task (and also possibly engaged in self-compassion which leads them to protect their own inner fears and worries with defensiveness and cold caution), they “switch off” the warmth and simply deliver as technically as possible. Here we have the cold, uncaring nurse by the bedside and the needle suddenly looks like a dangerous, sadistic weapon to the trembling patient. This might be because the nurse really doesn’t care, or because he isn’t able to show that care whilst being technically proficient. It can also be because, in the culture of the hospital ward, showing too much compassion is frowned upon as “unprofessional”.
In many organisations, because coldness is often reported in customer and patient surveys, reflecting negatively on the organisation’s performance, they attempt to control compassion, specifically, how it is allowed to manifest externally. Staff are trained in compassion, given “charters” and standards of behaviour and even scripts. Here we now have a more or less successful attempt to engineer compassion into service delivery. At a minimal level we have to use the patient’s name, and say “Have a nice day”. Even if we don’t feel it, we have to fake compassion as a kind of behavioural veneer. This is often welcomed by those who genuinely feel incapable of being authentically compassionate under the stresses of work, as it gives them more technique, and with horror from those who feel they are being “programmed”, patronised and clumsily controlled into behaviours that get in the way of their own natural responses.
Customers, patients, and service users simply experience service that isn’t joined up, inconsistent, bewildering, and sometimes even chilling,
We have dilemmas here. If a mother is about to receive bad news about her unborn child, she doesn’t want the doctor or the midwife breaking down in tears in front of them. Compassion, especially when we are roused inside to cry for or with another person, or when we even break down in the face of the suffering we are witnessing, is another form of suffering for the person feeling compassion. The compassion can become “unbearable”, which is why it is perfectly understandable that we “switch off” in order to simply “hold ourselves together”.
But here is where, in the field of service others, I want to offer a different definition of compassion. Compassion isn’t about the alleviation of suffering, but about resonance with the needs of those we wish to serve.
What does the other person or situation truly need? What does it need of ME?
My authentic response may be to break down and cry. But the other person needs me to be calm, warm and even a little humorous. The other person needs me to be a bit neutral and detached. The other person needs me to go closer, give a little eye contact, squeeze his hand.
Compassion is the ability to read another’s truest and deepest need and to respond to it in a way that creates resonance. Resonance is when the need and the offer are closely matched.
Compassion is about healthy and harmonious association.
This creates a new approach to compassion in services such as healthcare – an approach already intuitively practised by some employees, despite, and not because of, the wider organisation’s culture, resources and approach.
Compassionate doctors and nurses, who work resonantly, are able to tune into the needs of patients and also colleagues, to “listen with the heart”, able to quickly identify what needs to be done. Their compassion is then more nuanced and subtle. It is mindful and often focused on “How does this person or situation need me to be right now?” Often they have to edit this and engage in frustrating compromise as the “system” (loaded with formal threats from rules and procedures as well as cultural norms) tries to interfere and shape that authentic response to need. Frustration then goes into battle with authentically expressing compassion.
Often the compassion that does express, takes the form of a “minimal intervention”, (See James Wilk – some warm listening and acknowledgement, a hot cup of strong tea, a warm smile, attempting to really understand what the patient is trying to say, checking back with someone, responding immediately. Small interventions, yielding significant reductions in suffering. Sometimes the listening and attentiveness, the acknowledgement and empathy, in small, well-timed and placed doses, have major impacts. At other times, more dramatic forms of compassion may have to manifest including apologies, spending significant time with someone, or slowing right down and here the service provider often comes up against the imposed resource limitations of the organisation.
I’d like to suggest that compassion, when mindful, also is able to take into account the needs of the organisation, expressed through its resource models and systems. If the organisation is open to changing itself as authentic compassion yields its own results through a more energised, less stressed and more harmonised carer and patient population, then it might just find that compassion frees up resources in some places even as it uses them in others. Compassion may take more time, but those who suffer less psychologically tend to recover more quickly. Compassion may appear to be less “objective” and yet authenticity, combined with peer reflection, openness to feedback and well placed training, to help to create a more skilful and conscious, compassionate organisation.
Compassion is about resonance. And resonance occurs when we serve the needs of others. Those needs, when we suffering will be better met when compassion is owned, allowed, skilfully directed and self-managed, and shared through reflection and openness. This is health in practice. Compassion is often an eloquent response, eluding all attempt to embody it in standardised rules and codes of behaviour.
The paradox now is that leaders in many organisations believe that compassion is a controllable behaviour, and also that it can be governed, and also embodied in codes of practice and even training. Even if this is partly right, the authentic experience of compassion is something nearly always improvised, subtle, unique, situational, and, most of all, mysterious between human beings. It is damaged and undermined by imposed compassion behaviour codes and control processes in the same way that improvisation is damaged when the play structures are too complex or tight. This occurs in children when they play for hours with the cardboard box that the Singing, Dancing Doll came in. Compassion is something experienced by the one in a state of suffering (or some other state that evokes a compassionate response). It can be experienced more or less appropriately and more or less authentically. It tends to be experienced less authentically when it is practised in a scripted way. (Though, as I said – not always – for a script can be a useful tool to one lacking the ability to improvise compassionate response). The clumsiness and “blockage” to communication, the lowered motivation and resulting complaints that can arise from clumsily and poorly resourced compassion can do more harm than good, and even cost more in the long run, not just financially.
Compassion is a core process in meeting suffering, distress and different needs in health care, and also in life. It arises from within and this makes its originating impulse hard for “managers” to control. Compassion doesn’t always close immediately down to action; often it opens space for possibility and conversation. It is associated with subjectivity and that is associated with unpredictability. The irony is that when compassion is consistently absent or when it is imposed clumsily in an attempt to standardise process and maintain detached scientific objectivity, it tends to create a whole range of other uncertainties:
– it impacts the in-situation dynamic between carer and patient (as well as family members), often disruptively
– it generates uncertain responses in patients who attempt to get their needs met, often feeling unacknowledged (for compassion is a great acknowledger)
– it might even have measurable clinical impacts, worsening conditions, creating depression, raising stress levels and even slowing recover.
The costs may be greater than we all think. Compassion requires both inner and outer resources for it to have the space to express itself. But it may just pay for itself again and again and again.
Paul Levy is a writer, facilitator, and survivor of Testicular Cancer. He has worked with leaders in the health services of the UK, Ireland and Slovenia
4 Comments Add yours
Wonderful piece Paul – I think this should be circulated to all medical students in the UK. I think you have made sense of this and share your views:
Thanks for your comment, Alastair. I very much agree with the importance of seeking a tendency in new starters towards compassion. Also, I’m interested in how it can be awakened during those precious first days of induction. Also how can it be re-awakened in older troopers who have either grown cynical or have seen it as a luxury they can’t afford to indulge in under the sever pressures of resource-constrained workloads?
Your definition of compassion as resonance re-captures an important distinction lost sometime in the history of Christianity’s translation from the Greek world view to the Latin. Some scholar translating the New Testament chose to make a root for root translation of the Greek word “sympathes”: from “syn”- together and “pathos” -feeling; with the Latin “compassionem”: from “com”- together and “pati” -to suffer.
It’s an uplifting thought that our experience of compassion can include happiness, joy and pride, in sympathy with those we care for.
You’ve nailed it, Robin.
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Compassion is a state of feeling where an emotional reaction of sympathy or empathy is aroused in you by the state or situation of another person, group or community.
That’s my opening definition.
Compassion doesn’t only mean feeling “sad” for someone, though it often does. It can mean feeling happy for someone. But the “Com” part of compassion more suggests feeling sad or happy with someone. Even at a physical distance, compassion suggests a quality of closeness and connection. We when feel compassion for someone, we, at a certain level, join up with them. This can create a problem for professionals who define their professionalism as being necessarily “detached”. In these cases, professionals tend to see compassion as a potential underminer or diluter of professionalism. It involves connection, reducing the “professional distance”, possibly even down to the unacceptable distance of zero.
In personal, as well as working life, particularly strong compassion can overcome us, and that is when we reach forward into action and act on our compassionate feelings. That’s when we rush forward to respond, to “do something” about the situation awakening our compassion.
Compassion is about “caring”. Now, caring is an interesting word, because it can describe
|
something you feel and something you do. I can care about something or someone as an inner experience but this may not arouse my will enough to do something. Or, at the other extreme, I can literally “care” for someone, by looking after them, 24-7.
Let’s look at a few other definitions of compassion and see how my definition stacks up against those!
“Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.” (The Free Dictionary. Source here.)
“Compassion is the feeling of empathy for others. Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help” (Wikipedia. Source here)
Some authors have described compassion as a process. For example, Compassion is seen as “a multidimensional developmental process through four stages:
(1) the awareness of suffering,
(2) an affective concern for others,
(3) a wish to relieve that suffering, and
(4) a readiness to relieve that suffering”
(Jinpa, T. (2010). Compassion cultivation training (CCT): Instructor’s manual. Unpublished, Stanford, CA.(Source found here))
Now, did you notice a word popping up in all of those definitions? It’s the word “suffering”. So, according to these definitions, compassion tends to focus on suffering. So, then we have to look at what suffering means. In healthcare, we can find various states of physical and psychological suffering, often labelled as “pain” and “distress”. In personal and working life, those labels can become more diverse. We can see different forms of “suffering”. We can suffer because we are being bullied, because we are stressed, unhappy with our self-image, depressed, bored, out of our depth, made redundant or in a state of job insecurity, and also because we feel we aren’t coping or on top of our work. Psychological suffering can take a myriad forms. Physical suffering tends to mostly manifest as pain, but can also include imprisonment, disability, clinical depression, tiredness and even exhaustion as examples of suffering. Suffering from the same condition is also experienced differently by different people. We ‘bear’ our suffering differently. Our needs for compassion vary with each unique person.
According to the definitions above, compassion is usually focused on the acknowledgement and alleviation of suffering. Some definitions also talk, not only about compassion for others, but also “self-compassion”. (Source here). This is where we focus compassion on our own suffering and “look after ourselves”.
In personal or working life, if a person’s or a community’s suffering arouses in us a feeling of compassion, and we are unwilling, unable or simply choose not to respond to that suffering with an attempt at alleviation (putting some money in a charity box or rushing across the road to help), we might find that we then develop a state of feeling “guilty” about our lack of response. Here conscience is closely related to compassion.
Conscience creates a new feeling of “guilt” when we hold back from acting externally on our compassionate inner state. We also seem to have a second inner process which opposes conscience. This is “detachment”. Here we cut off our compassionate inner reaction from outer action. We may even attempt to suppress it entirely by developing an early warning system inside ourselves. As soon as the first signs of a compassionate reaction show themselves, a call to care, we quickly detach and “cut off”.
This is certainly viewed by some people in high stress situations as necessary. Ongoing “Passionate compassion”, in their view, can inhibit the action we are taking. In healthcare, in famine and refugee zones, you can’t constantly be overwhelmed by compassion, as this consumes the very inner resources you need to stay focused on the urgent and vital external actions of helping. If you end up breaking down you aren’t helping anyone. So, in order to practice compassion-based help to alleviate the suffering of others, you have to also practice an equal or greater amount of self-compassion in order to prevent breaking down. Bernard Lievegoed calls this “selfless selfhood” – looking after yourself in order to be at your best for others. So, the doctor has to stay detached in the famine zone in order to do what needs to be done, and one thing that doesn’t need to be done is for the doctor to have an emotional meltdown. Switching off becomes a strange kind of self-compassion, or looking after yourself. When this is in the context of being able to do greater good, quickly, this is then justified to oneself and others.
This can create problems. I’ve found no evidence in my research that compassion is a pathological state. Compassion is a healthy emotional process. It can spur us into helpful action. In healthcare, it is often portrayed as an inhibitor of professional, “scientific”, detached service delivery. Compassion is emotional, subjective, can distort objectivity and needs to be minimised. So, here we have a situation where the motive of the institution – the hospital – is based fundamentally on compassion, namely, the alleviation of suffering, and yet, in its daily processes, it has described compassion as a sometimes dysfunctional and, at least, inefficient behaviour. Compassion is allowed in planned “places”, but not as a free, ongoing, state for the doctor or nurse. When the hospital was set up, it was born of a compassionate impulse and, occasionally, during reflective sessions and corridor conversations, “Offlne”, so to speak, compassion expresses itself. But “online”, it must never be allowed to get in the way of “delivery”. It may just be that we fear going into compassion meltdown because we simply don’t practice it enough in our lives. We then fear that, when it comes, it will drown us into breakdown, so we attempt to keep it at bay, especially when under pressure of limited resources. Certainly, in the National Health Service in the UK, during thirteen hour shifts, the grumpy, irritable ones are untouchable because their state has normed as the only viable way of coping with the crazy pressure. We become hardened because it is the only way to stay sane. Compassion becomes an expensive luxury we can’t afford. Carers become battle-hardened soldiers who are doing the best they can under impossible circumstances. Compassion is seen as naive and divorced from hard and harsh reality. It becomes almost impossible to suggest that gentler ways, warmer and calmer ways may just prove more effective along a wider range of measures in the long run.
Compassion isn’t banned in organisations. But it is variably applied. There are inner and outer skills involved, very much determined and influenced by the unique make up of each person and their ability to feel and demonstrate compassion in a way that never undermines the technical requirements of their work. Simply put – some people can do it, and some can’t. Some “switch off” in order to stay focused and objective, delivering to a hundred per cent quality. Others can juggle both balls in the air – quality delivery and human warmth and compassion.
This has a direct impact in personal, family and working life. We can experience others as “cold and uncaring”. In some cases it really is because there is no compassion being aroused in the other. They are “apathetic” – without feeling for us.In some cases they can even be (for various and complex reasons) antipathetic – glad of our suffering. In other cases it is because, in order to cope with the task of alleviating our pain and distress as well as possible, they are so focused on that task (and also possibly engaged in self-compassion which leads them to protect their own inner fears and worries with defensiveness and cold caution), they “switch off” the warmth and simply deliver as technically as possible. Here we have the cold, uncaring nurse by the bedside and the needle suddenly looks like a dangerous, sadistic weapon to the trembling patient. This might be because the nurse really doesn’t care, or because he isn’t able to show that care whilst being technically proficient. It can also be because, in the culture of the hospital ward, showing too much compassion is frowned upon as “unprofessional”.
In many organisations, because coldness is often reported in customer and patient surveys, reflecting negatively on the organisation’s performance, they attempt to control compassion, specifically, how it is allowed to manifest externally. Staff are trained in compassion, given “charters” and standards of behaviour and even scripts. Here we now have a more or less successful attempt to engineer compassion into service delivery. At a minimal level we have to use the patient’s name, and say “Have a nice day”. Even if we don’t feel it, we have to fake compassion as a kind of behavioural veneer. This is often welcomed by those who genuinely feel incapable of being authentically compassionate under the stresses of work, as it gives them more technique, and with horror from those who feel they are being “programmed”, patronised and clumsily controlled into behaviours that get in the way of their own natural responses.
Customers, patients, and service users simply experience service that isn’t joined up, inconsistent, bewildering, and sometimes even chilling,
We have dilemmas here. If a mother is about to receive bad news about her unborn child, she doesn’t want the doctor or the midwife breaking down in tears in front of them. Compassion, especially when we are roused inside to cry for or with another person, or when we even break down in the face of the suffering we are witnessing, is another form of suffering for the person feeling compassion. The compassion can become “unbearable”, which is why it is perfectly understandable that we “switch off” in order to simply “hold ourselves together”.
But here is where, in the field of service others, I want to offer a different definition of compassion. Compassion isn’t about the alleviation of suffering, but about resonance with the needs of those we wish to serve.
What does the other person or situation truly need? What does it need of ME?
My authentic response may be to break down and cry. But the other person needs me to be calm, warm and even a little humorous. The other person needs me to be a bit neutral and detached. The other person needs me to go closer, give a little eye contact, squeeze his hand.
Compassion is the ability to read another’s truest and deepest need and to respond to it in a way that creates resonance. Resonance is when the need and the offer are closely matched.
Compassion is about healthy and harmonious association.
This creates a new approach to compassion in services such as healthcare – an approach already intuitively practised by some employees, despite, and not because of, the wider organisation’s culture, resources and approach.
Compassionate doctors and nurses, who work resonantly, are able to tune into the needs of patients and also colleagues, to “listen with the heart”, able to quickly identify what needs to be done. Their compassion is then more nuanced and subtle. It is mindful and often focused on “How does this person or situation need me to be right now?” Often they have to edit this and engage in frustrating compromise as the “system” (loaded with formal threats from rules and procedures as well as cultural norms) tries to interfere and shape that authentic response to need. Frustration then goes into battle with authentically expressing compassion.
Often the compassion that does express, takes the form of a “minimal intervention”, (See James Wilk – some warm listening and acknowledgement, a hot cup of strong tea, a warm smile, attempting to really understand what the patient is trying to say, checking back with someone, responding immediately. Small interventions, yielding significant reductions in suffering. Sometimes the listening and attentiveness, the acknowledgement and empathy, in small, well-timed and placed doses, have major impacts. At other times, more dramatic forms of compassion may have to manifest including apologies, spending significant time with someone, or slowing right down and here the service provider often comes up against the imposed resource limitations of the organisation.
I’d like to suggest that compassion, when mindful, also is able to take into account the needs of the organisation, expressed through its resource models and systems. If the organisation is open to changing itself as authentic compassion yields its own results through a more energised, less stressed and more harmonised carer and patient population, then it might just find that compassion frees up resources in some places even as it uses them in others. Compassion may take more time, but those who suffer less psychologically tend to recover more quickly. Compassion may appear to be less “objective” and yet authenticity, combined with peer reflection, openness to feedback and well placed training, to help to create a more skilful and conscious, compassionate organisation.
Compassion is about resonance. And resonance occurs when we serve the needs of others. Those needs, when we suffering will be better met when compassion is owned, allowed, skilfully directed and self-managed, and shared through reflection and openness. This is health in practice. Compassion is often an eloquent response, eluding all attempt to embody it in standardised rules and codes of behaviour.
The paradox now is that leaders in many organisations believe that compassion is a controllable behaviour, and also that it can be governed, and also embodied in codes of practice and even training. Even if this is partly right, the authentic experience of compassion is something nearly always improvised, subtle, unique, situational, and, most of all, mysterious between human beings. It is damaged and undermined by imposed compassion behaviour codes and control processes in the same way that improvisation is damaged when the play structures are too complex or tight. This occurs in children when they play for hours with the cardboard box that the Singing, Dancing Doll came in. Compassion is something experienced by the one in a state of suffering (or some other state that evokes a compassionate response). It can be experienced more or less appropriately and more or less authentically. It tends to be experienced less authentically when it is practised in a scripted way. (Though, as I said – not always – for a script can be a useful tool to one lacking the ability to improvise compassionate response). The clumsiness and “blockage” to communication, the lowered motivation and resulting complaints that can arise from clumsily and poorly resourced compassion can do more harm than good, and even cost more in the long run, not just financially.
Compassion is a core process in meeting suffering, distress and different needs in health care, and also in life. It arises from within and this makes its originating impulse hard for “managers” to control. Compassion doesn’t always close immediately down to action; often it opens space for possibility and conversation. It is associated with subjectivity and that is associated with unpredictability. The irony is that when compassion is consistently absent or when it is imposed clumsily in an attempt to standardise process and maintain detached scientific objectivity, it tends to create a whole range of other uncertainties:
– it impacts the in-situation dynamic between carer and patient (as well as family members), often disruptively
– it generates uncertain responses in patients who attempt to get their needs met, often feeling unacknowledged (for compassion is a great acknowledger)
– it might even have measurable clinical impacts, worsening conditions, creating depression, raising stress levels and even slowing recover.
The costs may be greater than we all think. Compassion requires both inner and outer resources for it to have the space to express itself. But it may just pay for itself again and again and again.
Paul Levy is a writer, facilitator, and survivor of Testicular Cancer. He has worked with leaders in the health services of the UK, Ireland and Slovenia
4 Comments Add yours
Wonderful piece Paul – I think this should be circulated to all medical students in the UK. I think you have made sense of this and share your views:
Thanks for your comment, Alastair. I very much agree with the importance of seeking a tendency in new starters towards compassion. Also, I’m interested in how it can be awakened during those precious first days of induction. Also how can it be re-awakened in older troopers who have either grown cynical or have seen it as a luxury they can’t afford to indulge in under the sever pressures of resource-constrained workloads?
Your definition of compassion as resonance re-captures an important distinction lost sometime in the history of Christianity’s translation from the Greek world view to the Latin. Some scholar translating the New Testament chose to make a root for root translation of the Greek word “sympathes”: from “syn”- together and “pathos” -feeling; with the Latin “compassionem”: from “com”- together and “pati” -to suffer.
It’s an uplifting thought that our experience of compassion can include happiness, joy and pride, in sympathy with those we care for.
You’ve nailed it, Robin.
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Scientists have said for years global warming will lead to more natural disasters. Now that it’s happening, some dark theorists on social media are spreading disbelief.
When images and video of the tragic blazes in Maui began to filter out across the internet, rumors also started to spread. Across Facebook, TikTok and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, commentators shared wild speculations that the fires, which have now taken the lives of more than 100 people, were the product of arson, a plot to clear the land for billionaires or, most bizarrely, space lasers.
It wasn’t the first natural disaster to trigger such unfounded origin stories. As extreme weather from floods to wildfires have become more frequent around the world, social media has become an increasingly active hub for false narratives about the events’ causes. In many cases the strange explanations avoid or try to disprove one of the most plausible links to these tragedies: climate change.
Read More: How Climate Change Makes Wildfires Much Worse
Researchers tracking social-media commentary are noticing a paradox. For some people, climate catastrophes are in fact evidence that climate change isn’t real, says Peter Knight, a professor and expert in conspiracy theories at the University of Manchester.
“There is indeed a strand of climate change conspiracism that takes extreme weather events as ‘evidence’ of secret geoengineering weather research programs,” he says. While experiments like cloud-seeding have been explored as part of research by countries including China, Australia and the US, “the conspiracy theories that current extreme weather events are the result of these programs are wide of the mark, and feed into the wider role of climate change denialism and ‘delayism,’” he says.
There are a range of motives for someone to publish climate denying theories, but the impact these messages can have on the minds of the public could be dangerous — especially if it slows action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In the US a poll from earlier this year showed about half of Americans believe climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Scientists say the world must drastically cut the amount of fossil fuels it burns, or else the planet will warm to levels that will not only ignite more extreme weather, but also make everyday life unbearable for billions of people.
Researchers from the international scientific project World Weather Attribution have already said this summer’s extreme heat in the US and southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
Read More: How the Maui Wildfires Became So Destructive, So Fast
While the spark that started the Maui fire is still under investigation, high winds and drought conditions are behind its spread and destructiveness.
Some of the posts about the Maui fires were definitely in “conspiratorial territory,” says Jennie King, head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank which focuses on disinformation. While the commentators admit the fires are happening, they also theorize the blazes were “engineered by the pro-climate lobby in order to convince you that climate change exists, so that they can then implement their whole scale agenda to change society.”
Read More: How Did the Maui Fire Start? Why Hawaii’s Power Lines Are Suspect
The ISD has tracked social-media commentary around three previous wildfires — in Australia in 2019, the US in 2021 and in Canada earlier this year — to monitor how the discussions relate to climate change. It found a shift from a focus on claims of arson during the Australian wildfires to a broader conspiratorial narrative during the Canadian fires, linking them to other theories like the Great Reset (which suggests Covid-19 was a coordinated plot to reform the world) and 15-minute cities (which argues that communities designed to have everything within easy walking distance are part of a sinister plot to limit people’s movements).
But what’s drawing people towards climate denial? The psychological reasons for this are multiple, says Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent. “Research suggests that people are attracted to these narratives when one or more psychological needs are threatened,” including the need to have clarity and certainty, the need to feel safe and in control, and the need to feel positive about groups you belong to, she says.
With climate change and its consequences, “people are facing a scenario that threatens these needs, and conspiracy theories offer a convenient alternative that might seem to address the threats,” she says. “If climate scientists are fabricating data and the whole thing is a hoax, then there is no threat to worry about and nobody has to take responsibility or make any changes to their behavior.”
In other words, denial is a form of self-preservation, says Stephan Lewandowsky, chair in cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol. “People who are confronted with something incredibly scary often deny it,” he says. “That is a protective mechanism that people engage in, probably unconsciously. Because it protects them from greater grief.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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Scientists have said for years global warming will lead to more natural disasters. Now that it’s happening, some dark theorists on social media are spreading disbelief.
When images and video of the tragic blazes in Maui began to filter out across the internet, rumors also started to spread. Across Facebook, TikTok and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, commentators shared wild speculations that the fires, which have now taken the lives of more than 100 people, were the product of arson, a plot to clear the land for billionaires or, most bizarrely, space lasers.
It wasn’t the first natural disaster to trigger such unfounded origin stories. As extreme weather from floods to wildfires have become more frequent around the world, social media has become an increasingly active hub for false narratives about the events’ causes. In many cases the strange explanations avoid or try to disprove one of the most plausible links to these tragedies: climate change.
Read More: How Climate Change Makes Wildfires Much Worse
Researchers tracking social-media commentary are noticing a paradox. For some people, climate catastrophes are in fact evidence that climate change isn’t real, says Peter Knight, a professor and expert in conspiracy theories at the University of Manchester
|
.
“There is indeed a strand of climate change conspiracism that takes extreme weather events as ‘evidence’ of secret geoengineering weather research programs,” he says. While experiments like cloud-seeding have been explored as part of research by countries including China, Australia and the US, “the conspiracy theories that current extreme weather events are the result of these programs are wide of the mark, and feed into the wider role of climate change denialism and ‘delayism,’” he says.
There are a range of motives for someone to publish climate denying theories, but the impact these messages can have on the minds of the public could be dangerous — especially if it slows action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In the US a poll from earlier this year showed about half of Americans believe climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Scientists say the world must drastically cut the amount of fossil fuels it burns, or else the planet will warm to levels that will not only ignite more extreme weather, but also make everyday life unbearable for billions of people.
Researchers from the international scientific project World Weather Attribution have already said this summer’s extreme heat in the US and southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
Read More: How the Maui Wildfires Became So Destructive, So Fast
While the spark that started the Maui fire is still under investigation, high winds and drought conditions are behind its spread and destructiveness.
Some of the posts about the Maui fires were definitely in “conspiratorial territory,” says Jennie King, head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank which focuses on disinformation. While the commentators admit the fires are happening, they also theorize the blazes were “engineered by the pro-climate lobby in order to convince you that climate change exists, so that they can then implement their whole scale agenda to change society.”
Read More: How Did the Maui Fire Start? Why Hawaii’s Power Lines Are Suspect
The ISD has tracked social-media commentary around three previous wildfires — in Australia in 2019, the US in 2021 and in Canada earlier this year — to monitor how the discussions relate to climate change. It found a shift from a focus on claims of arson during the Australian wildfires to a broader conspiratorial narrative during the Canadian fires, linking them to other theories like the Great Reset (which suggests Covid-19 was a coordinated plot to reform the world) and 15-minute cities (which argues that communities designed to have everything within easy walking distance are part of a sinister plot to limit people’s movements).
But what’s drawing people towards climate denial? The psychological reasons for this are multiple, says Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent. “Research suggests that people are attracted to these narratives when one or more psychological needs are threatened,” including the need to have clarity and certainty, the need to feel safe and in control, and the need to feel positive about groups you belong to, she says.
With climate change and its consequences, “people are facing a scenario that threatens these needs, and conspiracy theories offer a convenient alternative that might seem to address the threats,” she says. “If climate scientists are fabricating data and the whole thing is a hoax, then there is no threat to worry about and nobody has to take responsibility or make any changes to their behavior.”
In other words, denial is a form of self-preservation, says Stephan Lewandowsky, chair in cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol. “People who are confronted with something incredibly scary often deny it,” he says. “That is a protective mechanism that people engage in, probably unconsciously. Because it protects them from greater grief.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
|
With Australia in a mad rush to build renewable energy networks to cut emissions and slow climate change, where will the raw materials come from, why is Chinese investment so crucial and can Australia reduce its dependence on China?
There is a massive global shortage of critical minerals to build solar panels, wind towers and batteries.
Australia is the world's biggest supplier of lithium for batteries and a big exporter of iron ore, bauxite, gold, lead, diamonds, rare earth elements, uranium and zinc, which are all used in the production of renewables.
Globally, about 400 new mines will be needed just to supply the car industry with batteries, according to Benchmark Minerals, but attracting investment to Australia to get some of those projects up will be difficult.
Chinese investment needed
Investment in Australian mines from China has tanked in recent years.
That is because the Foreign Investment Review Board rejected Chinese bids for two lithium projects and that has made Australia a less attractive place to invest.
The federal government is concerned about the reliance on China, given the security threat the country poses, its use of sudden trade bans on key commodities, and our reliance on the country for key imports that became difficult to get during the pandemic.
Reuters Asian commodity analyst Clyde Russell has been watching the rise of China over the past 20 years and thinks the government is right to be worried.
"It's a legitimate concern. It's safe to say that the Chinese government has shown that it will act in its own interests, where its interests align with Western countries that's fine, but if they don't the Chinese will do what they want," Mr Russell said.
But he also said Chinese investment would be needed.
"It's massively expensive, you're talking trillions, and you're doing it at the same time as you're changing energy systems at the same time, also costing trillions."
He warned that investment is very hard to find for high-risk ventures like mining.
The federal government has just put $4 billion into a fund to help finance critical minerals projects and it wants to see Australia partner with the US to develop an alternative supply chain for renewable energy products.
Mr Russell said that was a drop in the ocean and much more money would be needed to make that work and to fund new Australian mines.
The answer, he says is China.
Chinese miners in Australia
So if we are relying on China to invest in new mines and potentially more downstream processing, what can we learn from the companies already operating in Australia?
Yancoal is listed on the Australian and Hong Kong stock exchanges and has its head office in Australia, but its major shareholder is a Chinese state-owned company.
It initially bought a small coal mine in the Hunter Valley, but grew quickly when it took over Felix Resources and Coal and Allied assets from Rio Tinto.
Yancoal is now worth $5.6 billion.
Chief commercial officer Michael Ngo told last week's International Mining and Resources Conference in Sydney that the company did exchange knowledge and ideas with its Chinese connections, but it was not wedded to that culture.
"Having local management is critical, it helps you to manage the workforce, how you run the mine in terms of work safety, mine design, utilising different technology and different equipment, how you manage different stakeholders such as government and the community," Mr Ngo said.
But he also concedes they communicate with the Chinese counterparts.
"The Chinese underground mining community is very large and very sophisticated and provides a good source of knowledge for us."
Hanking Australia is a subsidiary of China Hanking Holdings, which is part of the state-owned ChemChina group.
It is listed on the Hong Kong exchange and has a history of mining iron ore in China, which is used in the production of wind towers.
It bought some WA gold mining companies more than 10 years ago and has been looking for new gold reserves.
Managing director Mark Qiu says there's a lot of potential for new mines here.
"In the last three years our team discovered more than 4 million ounces of gold," he said.
"Our reserve increased nine times to 1.64 million ounces, one of the largest in Australia."
Hanking gold is sold to the Perth Mint.
Chinese processing plants
Another huge Chinese company in Australia is MinMetals, which mines base metals like copper and zinc.
It is part of China Minmetals, which is a Chinese state-owned company but it has its mining headquarters in Melbourne and runs operations in Africa, Canada and Latin America.
It does export to China but a lot of its product goes to other countries as well, and Australian staff are working on its sites in Africa, Laos and Peru.
Chief executive Liangang Li said the company wanted to build processing facilities here, as it has done in Indonesia.
"In Australia, we're talking about building a hydroxide plant ... and we have a project offshore outside China."
Do we need even more Chinese investment?
Mr Russell thinks the Australian government has to stop blocking Chinese investment in mining projects to enable greater investment.
"They will be looking for assurances that when they want to do deals that they won't get knocked back," Mr Russell said.
He thinks the Australian government could use other measures to protect the country's interests.
Indonesia for example has used Chinese investment to get projects up, but after 10 years they must be more than 50 per cent locally owned.
Without some incentives and less obstacles, Mr Russell does not see China increasing its investment here and without it, he believes the task of finding the resources and turning them into renewables will be too big.
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With Australia in a mad rush to build renewable energy networks to cut emissions and slow climate change, where will the raw materials come from, why is Chinese investment so crucial and can Australia reduce its dependence on China?
There is a massive global shortage of critical minerals to build solar panels, wind towers and batteries.
Australia is the world's biggest supplier of lithium for batteries and a big exporter of iron ore, bauxite, gold, lead, diamonds, rare earth elements, uranium and zinc, which are all used in the production of renewables.
Globally, about 400 new mines will be needed just to supply the car industry with batteries, according to Benchmark Minerals, but attracting investment to Australia to get some of those projects up will be difficult.
Chinese investment needed
Investment in Australian mines from China has tanked in recent years.
That is because the Foreign Investment Review Board rejected Chinese bids for two lithium projects and that has made Australia a less attractive place to invest.
The federal government is concerned about the reliance on China, given the security threat the country poses, its use of sudden trade bans on key commodities, and our reliance on the country for key imports that became difficult to get during the pandemic.
Reuters Asian commodity analyst Clyde Russell has
|
been watching the rise of China over the past 20 years and thinks the government is right to be worried.
"It's a legitimate concern. It's safe to say that the Chinese government has shown that it will act in its own interests, where its interests align with Western countries that's fine, but if they don't the Chinese will do what they want," Mr Russell said.
But he also said Chinese investment would be needed.
"It's massively expensive, you're talking trillions, and you're doing it at the same time as you're changing energy systems at the same time, also costing trillions."
He warned that investment is very hard to find for high-risk ventures like mining.
The federal government has just put $4 billion into a fund to help finance critical minerals projects and it wants to see Australia partner with the US to develop an alternative supply chain for renewable energy products.
Mr Russell said that was a drop in the ocean and much more money would be needed to make that work and to fund new Australian mines.
The answer, he says is China.
Chinese miners in Australia
So if we are relying on China to invest in new mines and potentially more downstream processing, what can we learn from the companies already operating in Australia?
Yancoal is listed on the Australian and Hong Kong stock exchanges and has its head office in Australia, but its major shareholder is a Chinese state-owned company.
It initially bought a small coal mine in the Hunter Valley, but grew quickly when it took over Felix Resources and Coal and Allied assets from Rio Tinto.
Yancoal is now worth $5.6 billion.
Chief commercial officer Michael Ngo told last week's International Mining and Resources Conference in Sydney that the company did exchange knowledge and ideas with its Chinese connections, but it was not wedded to that culture.
"Having local management is critical, it helps you to manage the workforce, how you run the mine in terms of work safety, mine design, utilising different technology and different equipment, how you manage different stakeholders such as government and the community," Mr Ngo said.
But he also concedes they communicate with the Chinese counterparts.
"The Chinese underground mining community is very large and very sophisticated and provides a good source of knowledge for us."
Hanking Australia is a subsidiary of China Hanking Holdings, which is part of the state-owned ChemChina group.
It is listed on the Hong Kong exchange and has a history of mining iron ore in China, which is used in the production of wind towers.
It bought some WA gold mining companies more than 10 years ago and has been looking for new gold reserves.
Managing director Mark Qiu says there's a lot of potential for new mines here.
"In the last three years our team discovered more than 4 million ounces of gold," he said.
"Our reserve increased nine times to 1.64 million ounces, one of the largest in Australia."
Hanking gold is sold to the Perth Mint.
Chinese processing plants
Another huge Chinese company in Australia is MinMetals, which mines base metals like copper and zinc.
It is part of China Minmetals, which is a Chinese state-owned company but it has its mining headquarters in Melbourne and runs operations in Africa, Canada and Latin America.
It does export to China but a lot of its product goes to other countries as well, and Australian staff are working on its sites in Africa, Laos and Peru.
Chief executive Liangang Li said the company wanted to build processing facilities here, as it has done in Indonesia.
"In Australia, we're talking about building a hydroxide plant ... and we have a project offshore outside China."
Do we need even more Chinese investment?
Mr Russell thinks the Australian government has to stop blocking Chinese investment in mining projects to enable greater investment.
"They will be looking for assurances that when they want to do deals that they won't get knocked back," Mr Russell said.
He thinks the Australian government could use other measures to protect the country's interests.
Indonesia for example has used Chinese investment to get projects up, but after 10 years they must be more than 50 per cent locally owned.
Without some incentives and less obstacles, Mr Russell does not see China increasing its investment here and without it, he believes the task of finding the resources and turning them into renewables will be too big.
|
New data is showing that young men who use marijuana may have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
Researchers looked at about seven-million health records and found that about 30% of schizophrenic cases involved men between the ages of 21 and 30 years old.
They said the illness may be linked to a condition called Cannabis Use Disorder, which is the frequent use of marijuana despite negative consequences.
The condition affects about 3 in 10 people who use cannabis
As seasonal weather patterns change, more people are suffering from allergies and that can also increase the risk of mood disorders.
A growing body of research shows the immune system can release proteins that induce depression and anxiety.
The link is strongest among women.
Researchers said it’s important for doctors and patients to consider the possible connection since nearly 60 million Americans suffer from allergies.
If you notice your mood changes with the severity of your allergies, speak to your doctor about possible interventions
And with May designated Bike Safety Awareness Month, health experts are urging parents to take a simple step to keep their kids safe: wear a helmet.
It’s important to make sure your child’s helmet doesn’t have any cracks or dents and that the helmet is leveled on the head and fits snugly.
“They should fit one inch above your eyebrows. The most common wrong thing I see driving down the street is that the helmet rides on the back and you can see the forehead. That’s not protecting your child,” said Dr. Richard So, a pediatrician with Cleveland Clinic.
According to the National Institutes of Health, bicycle crashes account for an average of 247 traumatic brain injury deaths and 140,000 head injuries among children and adolescents under the age of 20, the majority of which might have been prevented if these riders had worn helmets.
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New data is showing that young men who use marijuana may have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
Researchers looked at about seven-million health records and found that about 30% of schizophrenic cases involved men between the ages of 21 and 30 years old.
They said the illness may be linked to a condition called Cannabis Use Disorder, which is the frequent use of marijuana despite negative consequences.
The condition affects about 3 in 10 people who use cannabis
As seasonal weather patterns change, more people are suffering from allergies and that can also increase the risk of mood disorders.
A growing body of research shows the immune system can release proteins that induce depression and anxiety.
The link is strongest among women.
Researchers said it’s important for doctors and patients to consider the possible connection since nearly 60 million Americans suffer from allergies.
If you notice your mood changes with the severity of your allergies, speak to your doctor about possible interventions
And with May designated Bike Safety Awareness Month, health experts are urging parents to take a simple step to keep their kids safe: wear a helmet.
It’s important to make sure your child’s helmet doesn’t have any cracks or dents and that the helmet is leveled on the head and
|
fits snugly.
“They should fit one inch above your eyebrows. The most common wrong thing I see driving down the street is that the helmet rides on the back and you can see the forehead. That’s not protecting your child,” said Dr. Richard So, a pediatrician with Cleveland Clinic.
According to the National Institutes of Health, bicycle crashes account for an average of 247 traumatic brain injury deaths and 140,000 head injuries among children and adolescents under the age of 20, the majority of which might have been prevented if these riders had worn helmets.
|
One of the fastest growing diet trends has less to do with what you eat or how much, but when you eat. Restricting meal times, a practice sometimes called intermittent fasting or time restricted eating, comes in many forms, but it generally involves limiting when you eat to certain windows.
Intriguingly, fasting isn't merely about weight loss. A great deal of research suggests that this behavior can spur a whole host of health benefits, from improved mental state to more restful sleep. Weight loss, of course, is the benefit often most hyped. The Reddit forum for intermittent fasting, for example, has over 860,000 members, many of which share before and after photos of massive weight loss.
Simply restricting eating to an 8 to 10 hour window can change the way our genes express themselves, which has broad implications for human health.
But while intermittent fasting has been linked to a myriad of health benefits, researchers still have many questions about it — such as how it compares to counting calories, how different populations respond, even some fundamental questions about safety and side effects. One of the biggest questions is how it works. On a molecular level, why does changing the times we eat seem to have such a dramatic effect on our bodies?
Dr. Satchidananda Panda, a biology professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has spent considerable time researching the underlying mechanisms of intermittent fasting. He says simply restricting eating to an 8 to 10 hour window can change the way our genes express themselves, which has broad implications for human health.
In a recent study in the journal Cell Metabolism, Panda and his colleagues gave two groups of young, male mice the same obesogenic diet, meaning it was high in sugar and fat. One group was permitted ad libitum feeding, which is eating whenever they wanted. The other group could only eat during restricted hours, a form of intermittent fasting called time restricted feeding.
The difference between time restricted feeding and intermittent fasting is that people who do intermittent fasting are also counting calories. With time restricted feeding, you can generally eat whatever and as much as you want, just sticking between those 8 to 10 hours. In the experiment, the mice on the ad libitum schedule gained weight and experienced metabolic dysfunction, whereas the mice on time restricted feeding did not. This is remarkable given they were both on the same diet.
Next, Panda and his colleagues analyzed the organs of the mice, looking for genetic changes in 22 different organ and brain regions, screening for more than 21,000 genes from over 1,000 samples. Importantly, they took samples at different periods throughout the day and night. Gene expression can change throughout the day, depending on their function.
"Our genes are not static. So you just can't look at one time one morning or evening and figure out what's going on," Panda told Salon. "To our surprise, we found that almost every organ that we looked at experienced a huge impact from time restricted eating."
Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.
More than 80 percent of the organs looked at had some level of change in the genes that code for proteins, which means time restricted feeding could alter metabolic efficiency. In simpler terms, constraining the time when you eat could make the entire way your body processes energy more flexible, which translates into other health benefits.
On the surface, this isn't an entirely surprising result. Intermittent fasting has previously been linked to improved liver function, insulin sensitivity and even hormone regulation. It seems to have a broad effect across many different systems in the body, but some of these organs, especially the brain, have been looked at a lot less than others.
"We are seeing a signature of gene expression changes that are indicating that people who have chronic kidney disease may benefit from this."
Of course, this research was in mice, and only male mice to boot. This may not translate directly to humans. But the research provides a "transcriptome map" which gives researchers a good idea of where to start looking next when researching intermittent fasting. Potential targets include metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
"I think this is a good blueprint for what diseases can be treated," Panda said. "This study is giving us clues, for example, in the kidney. We are seeing a signature of gene expression changes that are indicating that people who have chronic kidney disease may benefit from this."
Panda has studied the effects of intermittent fasting in humans as well, such as an experiment with 15 Australian men with obesity who were kept on a time restricted diet for eight weeks.
"We took their biopsy. A little bit of belly fat was taken out, almost like a mini liposuction," Panda explained. "What we found were good changes in gene expression in these individuals which now gives us some idea what to expect when people with obesity do time restricted eating."
"Our adipose tissue or fat is almost like a hormone-producing organ. It produces a lot of different hormones good and bad," Panda added. "Time restricting actually improves the production of good hormones."
Studying intermittent fasting could also open the door to new therapies, such as drugs designed to target these gene expressions, maybe no time restricting required. Already, drugs that target certain metabolic pathways and can reduce weight in some individuals are becoming all the rage on social media. Semaglutide, also known by the brand names Wegovy or Ozempic, is a diabetes drug sometimes used for weight loss. It's become so popular that it's caused shortages in some areas, encouraging some patients to seek out risky alternatives or attempt brewing it up at home using raw chemicals. It should go without saying you shouldn't try to make your own weight loss drug.
However, the long-term effects of semaglutide for weight aren't well known. Many folks seem to gain back lost weight once they stop taking the drug, which can come with its own set of side effects like indigestion and nausea.
New, more effective medications to meet the demand for treating obesity and diabetes are necessary and studying intermittent fasting could help produce them. This is somewhat how metformin, a commonly prescribed drug for diabetes, was discovered. Although initially synthesized in the 1920s, it wasn't until 1957 that metformin was first used to treat diabetes. The reason for this multi-decade gap is because scientists didn't fully understand the mechanisms it uses to lower blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, despite metformin's widespread usage today, it still comes with some side effects that can be serious, even life-threatening. Alternative drugs would certainly be useful for some people.
But there will be no silver bullet for any of this. Medications or intermittent fasting alone can't form the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, Panda said.
"We have to keep in mind that medication is not going to give us long-term benefits. It will help us to reverse our disease," Panda said. "But to stay healthy for very long term, we have to adopt at least two out of the three foundations of health: that's sleep, exercise and nutrition."
The full extent to which intermittent fasting can help people, or even backfire, is not entirely known. Few things are as complex as how human bodies turn food into energy. More detailed research into how time restricted eating works will help us better understand the ways to make it useful for promoting good health.
about nutrition and diet
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One of the fastest growing diet trends has less to do with what you eat or how much, but when you eat. Restricting meal times, a practice sometimes called intermittent fasting or time restricted eating, comes in many forms, but it generally involves limiting when you eat to certain windows.
Intriguingly, fasting isn't merely about weight loss. A great deal of research suggests that this behavior can spur a whole host of health benefits, from improved mental state to more restful sleep. Weight loss, of course, is the benefit often most hyped. The Reddit forum for intermittent fasting, for example, has over 860,000 members, many of which share before and after photos of massive weight loss.
Simply restricting eating to an 8 to 10 hour window can change the way our genes express themselves, which has broad implications for human health.
But while intermittent fasting has been linked to a myriad of health benefits, researchers still have many questions about it — such as how it compares to counting calories, how different populations respond, even some fundamental questions about safety and side effects. One of the biggest questions is how it works. On a molecular level, why does changing the times we eat seem to have such a dramatic effect on
|
our bodies?
Dr. Satchidananda Panda, a biology professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has spent considerable time researching the underlying mechanisms of intermittent fasting. He says simply restricting eating to an 8 to 10 hour window can change the way our genes express themselves, which has broad implications for human health.
In a recent study in the journal Cell Metabolism, Panda and his colleagues gave two groups of young, male mice the same obesogenic diet, meaning it was high in sugar and fat. One group was permitted ad libitum feeding, which is eating whenever they wanted. The other group could only eat during restricted hours, a form of intermittent fasting called time restricted feeding.
The difference between time restricted feeding and intermittent fasting is that people who do intermittent fasting are also counting calories. With time restricted feeding, you can generally eat whatever and as much as you want, just sticking between those 8 to 10 hours. In the experiment, the mice on the ad libitum schedule gained weight and experienced metabolic dysfunction, whereas the mice on time restricted feeding did not. This is remarkable given they were both on the same diet.
Next, Panda and his colleagues analyzed the organs of the mice, looking for genetic changes in 22 different organ and brain regions, screening for more than 21,000 genes from over 1,000 samples. Importantly, they took samples at different periods throughout the day and night. Gene expression can change throughout the day, depending on their function.
"Our genes are not static. So you just can't look at one time one morning or evening and figure out what's going on," Panda told Salon. "To our surprise, we found that almost every organ that we looked at experienced a huge impact from time restricted eating."
Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.
More than 80 percent of the organs looked at had some level of change in the genes that code for proteins, which means time restricted feeding could alter metabolic efficiency. In simpler terms, constraining the time when you eat could make the entire way your body processes energy more flexible, which translates into other health benefits.
On the surface, this isn't an entirely surprising result. Intermittent fasting has previously been linked to improved liver function, insulin sensitivity and even hormone regulation. It seems to have a broad effect across many different systems in the body, but some of these organs, especially the brain, have been looked at a lot less than others.
"We are seeing a signature of gene expression changes that are indicating that people who have chronic kidney disease may benefit from this."
Of course, this research was in mice, and only male mice to boot. This may not translate directly to humans. But the research provides a "transcriptome map" which gives researchers a good idea of where to start looking next when researching intermittent fasting. Potential targets include metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
"I think this is a good blueprint for what diseases can be treated," Panda said. "This study is giving us clues, for example, in the kidney. We are seeing a signature of gene expression changes that are indicating that people who have chronic kidney disease may benefit from this."
Panda has studied the effects of intermittent fasting in humans as well, such as an experiment with 15 Australian men with obesity who were kept on a time restricted diet for eight weeks.
"We took their biopsy. A little bit of belly fat was taken out, almost like a mini liposuction," Panda explained. "What we found were good changes in gene expression in these individuals which now gives us some idea what to expect when people with obesity do time restricted eating."
"Our adipose tissue or fat is almost like a hormone-producing organ. It produces a lot of different hormones good and bad," Panda added. "Time restricting actually improves the production of good hormones."
Studying intermittent fasting could also open the door to new therapies, such as drugs designed to target these gene expressions, maybe no time restricting required. Already, drugs that target certain metabolic pathways and can reduce weight in some individuals are becoming all the rage on social media. Semaglutide, also known by the brand names Wegovy or Ozempic, is a diabetes drug sometimes used for weight loss. It's become so popular that it's caused shortages in some areas, encouraging some patients to seek out risky alternatives or attempt brewing it up at home using raw chemicals. It should go without saying you shouldn't try to make your own weight loss drug.
However, the long-term effects of semaglutide for weight aren't well known. Many folks seem to gain back lost weight once they stop taking the drug, which can come with its own set of side effects like indigestion and nausea.
New, more effective medications to meet the demand for treating obesity and diabetes are necessary and studying intermittent fasting could help produce them. This is somewhat how metformin, a commonly prescribed drug for diabetes, was discovered. Although initially synthesized in the 1920s, it wasn't until 1957 that metformin was first used to treat diabetes. The reason for this multi-decade gap is because scientists didn't fully understand the mechanisms it uses to lower blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, despite metformin's widespread usage today, it still comes with some side effects that can be serious, even life-threatening. Alternative drugs would certainly be useful for some people.
But there will be no silver bullet for any of this. Medications or intermittent fasting alone can't form the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, Panda said.
"We have to keep in mind that medication is not going to give us long-term benefits. It will help us to reverse our disease," Panda said. "But to stay healthy for very long term, we have to adopt at least two out of the three foundations of health: that's sleep, exercise and nutrition."
The full extent to which intermittent fasting can help people, or even backfire, is not entirely known. Few things are as complex as how human bodies turn food into energy. More detailed research into how time restricted eating works will help us better understand the ways to make it useful for promoting good health.
about nutrition and diet
|
Oregon, California lawmakers introduce bill to teach kids, teachers, parents dangers of fentanyl
PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Oregon and California state leaders, including Representative Suzanne Bonamici, introduced a new bill called the Fentanyl Awareness For Children And Teens In School Act on Thursday.
The bill is designed protect students from fentanyl poisoning by educating kids, parents and teachers in schools across America.
“The bottom line is this legislation will save lives,” says Rep. Bonamici. “Awareness curriculum, like this should be available to students and families across the country.”
The bipartisan proposal would create a pilot grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to develop partnerships between local and state education, public health agencies and nonprofit organizations, helping them to to provide education, awareness and prevent the misuse of opioids.
The bill would also allow school health centers to use funding for naloxone.
Officials found that only 36% of teens across the country are aware of fentanyl is often used in fake pills.
The FACTS Act was inspired by the Beaverton School Districts Fake and Fentanyl Awareness Program which teaches kids about fentanyl in health class. The program was prompted after the district lost several students to fentanyl-related deaths in 2020 and 2021. BSD says they will be adding a lesson for high school students on how to recognize an overdose, and how to react to them.
Michele Stroh lost her son, 25-year-old Keaton Stroh, from a fentanyl overdose in 2020 and says she had no idea what fentanyl was and if she had better education on the matter, she would have had a better understanding. Stroh is also an Oregon City School District Board member and says in May, the district also implemented programs regarding fentanyl.
“With education comes understanding. What we found on the students surveys is that students aren’t understanding how deadly fentanyl actually is,” says Stroh. “We talked to them about how to administer Narcan, not to be afraid of it call for the help and make the effort.”
She says she is in favor of the bill, but the conversation starts at home.
“This is one of the hardest conversations to have and the severity of it, the more you have a candid conversation and not a parent coming down on you, conversation opens to them actually and asking more questions.”
Copyright 2023 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
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Oregon, California lawmakers introduce bill to teach kids, teachers, parents dangers of fentanyl
PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Oregon and California state leaders, including Representative Suzanne Bonamici, introduced a new bill called the Fentanyl Awareness For Children And Teens In School Act on Thursday.
The bill is designed protect students from fentanyl poisoning by educating kids, parents and teachers in schools across America.
“The bottom line is this legislation will save lives,” says Rep. Bonamici. “Awareness curriculum, like this should be available to students and families across the country.”
The bipartisan proposal would create a pilot grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to develop partnerships between local and state education, public health agencies and nonprofit organizations, helping them to to provide education, awareness and prevent the misuse of opioids.
The bill would also allow school health centers to use funding for naloxone.
Officials found that only 36% of teens across the country are aware of fentanyl is often used in fake pills.
The FACTS Act was inspired by the Beaverton School Districts Fake and Fentanyl Awareness Program which teaches kids about fentanyl in health class. The program was prompted after the district lost
|
several students to fentanyl-related deaths in 2020 and 2021. BSD says they will be adding a lesson for high school students on how to recognize an overdose, and how to react to them.
Michele Stroh lost her son, 25-year-old Keaton Stroh, from a fentanyl overdose in 2020 and says she had no idea what fentanyl was and if she had better education on the matter, she would have had a better understanding. Stroh is also an Oregon City School District Board member and says in May, the district also implemented programs regarding fentanyl.
“With education comes understanding. What we found on the students surveys is that students aren’t understanding how deadly fentanyl actually is,” says Stroh. “We talked to them about how to administer Narcan, not to be afraid of it call for the help and make the effort.”
She says she is in favor of the bill, but the conversation starts at home.
“This is one of the hardest conversations to have and the severity of it, the more you have a candid conversation and not a parent coming down on you, conversation opens to them actually and asking more questions.”
Copyright 2023 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
|
Something stinks – Eskom’s uncontrolled pollution emissions cost thousands of lives and billions of rands
A lack of implementation and monitoring of sulphur dioxide emissions at Eskom power plants have caused air pollution to climb to some of the most toxic levels in the world, further threatening the health of those who breathe the polluted air.
Communities in the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area have long felt the health effects of Eskom’s deadly air that has caused premature deaths and health complications for the surrounding communities; particularly so among children. A recent report shows that further air quality non-compliance by the ailing power utility could result in 79,500 air pollution-related deaths from 2025 until the power plants’ end of life.
The report, Health impacts of Eskom’s non-compliance with minimum emissions standards, by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) and authored by Crea lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta and air quality analyst Jamie Kelly, also points out that Eskom’s lack of compliance with South Africa’s Minimum Emission Standards (MES) not only costs lives, but affects the public purse too, as the lack of compliance by 2030 would be a R42-billion blow to the economy.
For Thomas Mnguni, a campaigner for groundWork living in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, the concern is not the cost to the economy, but the quality of life that he, his children and community have.
“I have two kids; a boy and a girl. Somewhere around 2010, I had to regularly take my boy to a doctor because of his asthma symptoms. I’ve just indicated to him that he must stop running 800m because he doesn’t have the breath to run 800m,” Mnguni told Our Burning Planet.
“His sister has been officially told by the school that she needs to go and check for asthma because she can’t run. So she’s only been involved in athletic events such as high jump because she can no longer run.”
Mnguni spoke to Our Burning Planet before heading out to watch his children participate in sport to witness for himself what his daughter’s teachers have told him. He is one of many parents in the region faced with the challenge of children with respiratory ailments.
Stretching across Gauteng and Mpumalanga, the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area is home to big polluters such as Sasol and Eskom. Despite South Africa having what is considered a world-class air quality control legislature, poor implementation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards has been a hindrance to health and the environment in the area.
Compliance by Eskom could avoid as many as 140,000 asthma emergency room visits, 5,900 new cases of asthma in children, 57,000 preterm births, 35 million days of work absence and 50,000 years lived with disability, the Crea report said.
The report shows that if Eskom fully complied with the MES at all plants meant to operate beyond 2030, that would avoid about 2,300 deaths per year that are caused by air pollution. However, a lack of compliance by some industries has been blamed on the unaffordable cost of compliance technology. Other reasons have included ageing technology and water and space constraints.
Mnguni said many children’s school attendance was negatively affected by the air pollution, adding that teachers were also often absent from school because of asthma-related illnesses.
“It’s a sad story because some of the community members work in the coal sector but they also see the impacts of coal as they see how their families are suffering,” said Mnguni. “When we were putting together the Broken Promises report, we spoke to healthcare workers who had been working in Middelburg and Witbank who told us there has been a trend of seeing an increase in health issues related to asthma.”
The Broken Promises report, by the Centre for Environmental Rights with groundWork and the Highveld Environmental Justice Network, highlights the failure of the South African government to prioritise cleaning up the air in the region as promised back in 2007.
Plants scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030 include the Camden, Hendrina, Arnot, Komati, Grootvlei, Kriel and Malta power stations, with newer plants such as Medupi and Kusile expected to be decommissioned by 2065 and 2069, respectively.
Decommissioning plants would help to reduce Eskom’s air pollution – a task the ailing utility has been struggling with for years, particularly with limiting the sulphur dioxide (SO2) limit.
A request by Eskom for an alternative SO2 limit was rejected, with the power plants forced to comply with the 3,500mg limit until March 2025.
Myllyvirta told Our Burning Planet: “Eskom is planning marginal improvements to fly ash emission controls, but is refusing to act on sulphur dioxide, the pollutant with by far the largest public health impacts.
“Our study aims to provide policymakers and the public [with] an appraisal of the health impacts and costs that can be avoided by requiring compliance with the standards.”
The single biggest source of SO2 is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Breathing in this chemical increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and premature death, according to Greenpeace.
Last year, another Crea report showed that Eskom’s SO2 levels made the power utility the top polluter in its field; more than any other energy company in the world – surpassing South Africa’s air quality safe limits.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Eskom emits more sulphur dioxide than any power company in the world — latest research”
Last year, in the landmark “Deadly Air” court case, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the air pollution in Mpumalanga’s Highveld Priority Area breached residents’ constitutional right to an environment not harmful to health or wellbeing; forcing the government’s hand to ensure stakeholders such as Eskom and Sasol are held accountable.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “ ‘Deadly Air’: A case about real lives and real people”
“The Deadly Air judgment held that the section 24 right to an environment that is not harmful to health and wellbeing is immediately realisable. There is limited flexibility in the recommendations that the Forum can make to the Minister as the law is quite clear that compliance with the air pollution standards is not negotiable,” said Centre for Environmental Rights’ attorney Ntombi Maphosa in a statement.
South Africa’s MES were issued in 2010 with room for flexibility in 2015, and stricter rules and regulations were meant to be issued in 2020 that would require coal-fired power stations to install sulphur dioxide limiters. A lack of implementation and monitoring of these stringent rules has, however, seen air pollution climb to some of the most toxic levels in the world.
Mnguni said: “Currently, they say that they can’t comply because then they’d have to shut down some of the power stations and that would cause load shedding to continue. To me, it’s nonsense. They knew a long time ago that they were supposed to comply and they never did. So they cannot use the energy crisis to advance their argument on non-compliance. It’s unacceptable.”
With air pollution standards not being met, lowering emission limits became what seemed to be the next plausible move in 2020 for air quality control. For residents of the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area and those living near and around coal-fired power stations, lowering standards when targets aren’t met is deadly, and smells of a worsening public health emergency.
Myllyvirta said: “The current deliberations on emissions limits for Eskom likely represent the last chance to put the company on course to clean up its highly polluting coal plants. If the company has its way, many of the highest-emitting plants in the country would continue to operate without any emissions controls for sulphur dioxide for decades. Literally tens of thousands of lives are at stake.” DM/OBP
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Something stinks – Eskom’s uncontrolled pollution emissions cost thousands of lives and billions of rands
A lack of implementation and monitoring of sulphur dioxide emissions at Eskom power plants have caused air pollution to climb to some of the most toxic levels in the world, further threatening the health of those who breathe the polluted air.
Communities in the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area have long felt the health effects of Eskom’s deadly air that has caused premature deaths and health complications for the surrounding communities; particularly so among children. A recent report shows that further air quality non-compliance by the ailing power utility could result in 79,500 air pollution-related deaths from 2025 until the power plants’ end of life.
The report, Health impacts of Eskom’s non-compliance with minimum emissions standards, by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) and authored by Crea lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta and air quality analyst Jamie Kelly, also points out that Eskom’s lack of compliance with South Africa’s Minimum Emission Standards (MES) not only costs lives, but affects the public purse too, as the lack of compliance by 2030 would be a R
|
42-billion blow to the economy.
For Thomas Mnguni, a campaigner for groundWork living in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, the concern is not the cost to the economy, but the quality of life that he, his children and community have.
“I have two kids; a boy and a girl. Somewhere around 2010, I had to regularly take my boy to a doctor because of his asthma symptoms. I’ve just indicated to him that he must stop running 800m because he doesn’t have the breath to run 800m,” Mnguni told Our Burning Planet.
“His sister has been officially told by the school that she needs to go and check for asthma because she can’t run. So she’s only been involved in athletic events such as high jump because she can no longer run.”
Mnguni spoke to Our Burning Planet before heading out to watch his children participate in sport to witness for himself what his daughter’s teachers have told him. He is one of many parents in the region faced with the challenge of children with respiratory ailments.
Stretching across Gauteng and Mpumalanga, the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area is home to big polluters such as Sasol and Eskom. Despite South Africa having what is considered a world-class air quality control legislature, poor implementation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards has been a hindrance to health and the environment in the area.
Compliance by Eskom could avoid as many as 140,000 asthma emergency room visits, 5,900 new cases of asthma in children, 57,000 preterm births, 35 million days of work absence and 50,000 years lived with disability, the Crea report said.
The report shows that if Eskom fully complied with the MES at all plants meant to operate beyond 2030, that would avoid about 2,300 deaths per year that are caused by air pollution. However, a lack of compliance by some industries has been blamed on the unaffordable cost of compliance technology. Other reasons have included ageing technology and water and space constraints.
Mnguni said many children’s school attendance was negatively affected by the air pollution, adding that teachers were also often absent from school because of asthma-related illnesses.
“It’s a sad story because some of the community members work in the coal sector but they also see the impacts of coal as they see how their families are suffering,” said Mnguni. “When we were putting together the Broken Promises report, we spoke to healthcare workers who had been working in Middelburg and Witbank who told us there has been a trend of seeing an increase in health issues related to asthma.”
The Broken Promises report, by the Centre for Environmental Rights with groundWork and the Highveld Environmental Justice Network, highlights the failure of the South African government to prioritise cleaning up the air in the region as promised back in 2007.
Plants scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030 include the Camden, Hendrina, Arnot, Komati, Grootvlei, Kriel and Malta power stations, with newer plants such as Medupi and Kusile expected to be decommissioned by 2065 and 2069, respectively.
Decommissioning plants would help to reduce Eskom’s air pollution – a task the ailing utility has been struggling with for years, particularly with limiting the sulphur dioxide (SO2) limit.
A request by Eskom for an alternative SO2 limit was rejected, with the power plants forced to comply with the 3,500mg limit until March 2025.
Myllyvirta told Our Burning Planet: “Eskom is planning marginal improvements to fly ash emission controls, but is refusing to act on sulphur dioxide, the pollutant with by far the largest public health impacts.
“Our study aims to provide policymakers and the public [with] an appraisal of the health impacts and costs that can be avoided by requiring compliance with the standards.”
The single biggest source of SO2 is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Breathing in this chemical increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and premature death, according to Greenpeace.
Last year, another Crea report showed that Eskom’s SO2 levels made the power utility the top polluter in its field; more than any other energy company in the world – surpassing South Africa’s air quality safe limits.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Eskom emits more sulphur dioxide than any power company in the world — latest research”
Last year, in the landmark “Deadly Air” court case, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the air pollution in Mpumalanga’s Highveld Priority Area breached residents’ constitutional right to an environment not harmful to health or wellbeing; forcing the government’s hand to ensure stakeholders such as Eskom and Sasol are held accountable.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “ ‘Deadly Air’: A case about real lives and real people”
“The Deadly Air judgment held that the section 24 right to an environment that is not harmful to health and wellbeing is immediately realisable. There is limited flexibility in the recommendations that the Forum can make to the Minister as the law is quite clear that compliance with the air pollution standards is not negotiable,” said Centre for Environmental Rights’ attorney Ntombi Maphosa in a statement.
South Africa’s MES were issued in 2010 with room for flexibility in 2015, and stricter rules and regulations were meant to be issued in 2020 that would require coal-fired power stations to install sulphur dioxide limiters. A lack of implementation and monitoring of these stringent rules has, however, seen air pollution climb to some of the most toxic levels in the world.
Mnguni said: “Currently, they say that they can’t comply because then they’d have to shut down some of the power stations and that would cause load shedding to continue. To me, it’s nonsense. They knew a long time ago that they were supposed to comply and they never did. So they cannot use the energy crisis to advance their argument on non-compliance. It’s unacceptable.”
With air pollution standards not being met, lowering emission limits became what seemed to be the next plausible move in 2020 for air quality control. For residents of the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area and those living near and around coal-fired power stations, lowering standards when targets aren’t met is deadly, and smells of a worsening public health emergency.
Myllyvirta said: “The current deliberations on emissions limits for Eskom likely represent the last chance to put the company on course to clean up its highly polluting coal plants. If the company has its way, many of the highest-emitting plants in the country would continue to operate without any emissions controls for sulphur dioxide for decades. Literally tens of thousands of lives are at stake.” DM/OBP
|
Children Lost One-Third of a Year of Learning During the Pandemic, Analysis Finds
"The COVID-19 learning deficit is likely to affect children's life chances through their education and labour market prospects," the analysis' authors argue.
According to a new analysis of over 40 studies from around the world, children lost an average of one-third of a year of school during the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers say the loss is largely due to the disruption and damage school closures—and the subsequent shift to distance learning—brought on children's physical and mental health. This latest assessment is further evidence that pandemic school closures contributed to historic learning loss among children—a loss that seems increasingly difficult to repair.
Published on Monday by the Nature Human Behaviour journal, the analysis compiled the results of 42 studies examining pandemic learning loss from 15 countries around the globe. It found that, globally, children lost 35 percent of a school year's worth of learning during the pandemic.
The studies also indicate that attempts to reverse the severe learning loss caused by COVID school closures have been far from successful. Upon returning to the classroom, the deficits created during the pandemic have remained "incredibly stable," indicating that pandemic-era learning losses are likely to follow children throughout the rest of their academic careers.
The deficits are particularly pronounced in mathematics, which may be because "learning progress in mathematics is more dependent on formal instruction than in reading." As the analysis notes, "This might be due to parents being better equipped to help their children with reading, and children advancing their reading skills (but not their maths skills) when reading for enjoyment outside of school."
Learning loss was more pronounced in the middle-income countries, like Mexico and South Africa, included in the analysis. Indeed, middle-income countries accounted for the three highest estimates of learning loss. Studies from low-income countries were excluded due to poor data quality, though researchers note that "learning deficits are likely to be even larger in low-income countries, considering that these countries already faced a learning crisis before the pandemic, generally implemented longer school closures, and were under-resourced and ill-equipped to facilitate remote learning."
Even in a high-income country like the United States, the magnitude of learning loss remained steep. One study included in the analysis found that the average public school student in third grade through eighth grade lost half a year of math learning and a quarter of a year in reading.
However, two countries studied, Sweden and Denmark, managed to experience no significant learning losses. Sweden famously managed to avoid most school closures during the pandemic and notably never closed primary schools. While Denmark did have school closures, one study theorized that the lack of learning loss could be due to the country's "reliable digital infrastructure with Denmark being one of the absolute top-scorers in digital skills, broad-band connectivity, and digital public services in Europe."
The COVID pandemic "led to one of the largest disruptions to learning in history. To a large extent, this is due to school closures, which are estimated to have affected 95% of the world's student population," the analysis' authors argue. "The effect of limited face-to-face instruction is compounded by the pandemic's consequences for children's out-of-school learning environment, as well as their mental and physical health… These negative consequences can be expected to be most pronounced for children from low socio-economic family backgrounds, exacerbating pre-existing educational inequalities."
Currently, the picture for American children is bleak. Without immediate intervention, "learning loss will be the longest-lasting and most inequitable legacy of the pandemic," Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist who reviewed the analysis, told the New York Times. According to the Hoover Institution, U.S. children attending school during the pandemic are likely to experience a 5 percent reduction in their lifetime earning potential—a number that rises to as high as 9 percent in some states.
"The COVID-19 learning deficit is likely to affect children's life chances through their education and labour market prospects," the analysis' authors write. "At the societal level, it can have important implications for growth, prosperity and social cohesion."
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Children Lost One-Third of a Year of Learning During the Pandemic, Analysis Finds
"The COVID-19 learning deficit is likely to affect children's life chances through their education and labour market prospects," the analysis' authors argue.
According to a new analysis of over 40 studies from around the world, children lost an average of one-third of a year of school during the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers say the loss is largely due to the disruption and damage school closures—and the subsequent shift to distance learning—brought on children's physical and mental health. This latest assessment is further evidence that pandemic school closures contributed to historic learning loss among children—a loss that seems increasingly difficult to repair.
Published on Monday by the Nature Human Behaviour journal, the analysis compiled the results of 42 studies examining pandemic learning loss from 15 countries around the globe. It found that, globally, children lost 35 percent of a school year's worth of learning during the pandemic.
The studies also indicate that attempts to reverse the severe learning loss caused by COVID school closures have been far from successful. Upon returning to the classroom, the deficits created during the pandemic have remained "incredibly stable," indicating that pandemic-era learning losses are likely to follow children throughout the
|
rest of their academic careers.
The deficits are particularly pronounced in mathematics, which may be because "learning progress in mathematics is more dependent on formal instruction than in reading." As the analysis notes, "This might be due to parents being better equipped to help their children with reading, and children advancing their reading skills (but not their maths skills) when reading for enjoyment outside of school."
Learning loss was more pronounced in the middle-income countries, like Mexico and South Africa, included in the analysis. Indeed, middle-income countries accounted for the three highest estimates of learning loss. Studies from low-income countries were excluded due to poor data quality, though researchers note that "learning deficits are likely to be even larger in low-income countries, considering that these countries already faced a learning crisis before the pandemic, generally implemented longer school closures, and were under-resourced and ill-equipped to facilitate remote learning."
Even in a high-income country like the United States, the magnitude of learning loss remained steep. One study included in the analysis found that the average public school student in third grade through eighth grade lost half a year of math learning and a quarter of a year in reading.
However, two countries studied, Sweden and Denmark, managed to experience no significant learning losses. Sweden famously managed to avoid most school closures during the pandemic and notably never closed primary schools. While Denmark did have school closures, one study theorized that the lack of learning loss could be due to the country's "reliable digital infrastructure with Denmark being one of the absolute top-scorers in digital skills, broad-band connectivity, and digital public services in Europe."
The COVID pandemic "led to one of the largest disruptions to learning in history. To a large extent, this is due to school closures, which are estimated to have affected 95% of the world's student population," the analysis' authors argue. "The effect of limited face-to-face instruction is compounded by the pandemic's consequences for children's out-of-school learning environment, as well as their mental and physical health… These negative consequences can be expected to be most pronounced for children from low socio-economic family backgrounds, exacerbating pre-existing educational inequalities."
Currently, the picture for American children is bleak. Without immediate intervention, "learning loss will be the longest-lasting and most inequitable legacy of the pandemic," Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist who reviewed the analysis, told the New York Times. According to the Hoover Institution, U.S. children attending school during the pandemic are likely to experience a 5 percent reduction in their lifetime earning potential—a number that rises to as high as 9 percent in some states.
"The COVID-19 learning deficit is likely to affect children's life chances through their education and labour market prospects," the analysis' authors write. "At the societal level, it can have important implications for growth, prosperity and social cohesion."
|
Story first appeared in:
Listen to the soothing sounds of pika calls while you enjoy this article:
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — As the sun rises, its rays slowly make their way down the snow-capped peaks and on to the craggy cliffs, not yet illuminating the basin. In the low light, my eyes are peeled for a brown-and-gray critter with large round ears dashing from boulder to boulder.
One of Colorado’s most resilient animals looks a lot like a furry russet potato.
Pikas, relatives of rabbits known for their piercing chirp, live in some of the state’s most inhospitable climates in boulder fields at elevations up to 14,000 feet along treeless slopes of the Southern Rockies. They work for hundreds of hours across the short summer months to gather grass and wildflowers to last as fuel through harsh Alpine winters. Snowpack on top of the rocky debris insulates them through spring and winter. Climate change is putting all that at risk.
It has taken me hours to get to the site I was assigned to search for signs of pikas. The first 3½ miles into Rocky Mountain National Park were dragged out with breaks beneath trees to wait out fat raindrops my rain jacket couldn’t handle, before setting up camp at Glacier Gorge, where I sought refuge yet again in my tent from pea-sized hail pelting from the sky. The next morning: 3 more miles across steep terrain and up snow patches still lingering in mid-July, and route-finding over rock slabs and through boggy ground with no cairns in sight.
But reaching the quiet basin in the shadows of Rocky’s imposing peaks was merely the first step.
After a day of training, volunteers go into the field at least once each summer on hikes ranging from easy to moderate to 16-mile expeditions to collect data on pikas. (Kristi Odom, Colorado Pika Project, Special to The Colorado Sun)
As a community scientist with the Colorado Pika Project, I joined a growing cohort of volunteers who have been trained on how to collect reliable data on pikas and their habitat that will not only help land managers and researchers understand how climate change is impacting the tiny animals, but also guide them to what can be done to protect the beloved mountain dwellers.
Since 2010, the partnership between nonprofit Rocky Mountain Wild and the Denver Zoo has enlisted “pika patrollers” to survey pika habitats — measuring boulders, looking for fresh scat and hay piles, recording temperatures and other data — across the Front Range. The project expanded to White River National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park in 2018.
This story first appeared in
Colorado Sunday, a premium magazine newsletter for members.
Experience the best in Colorado news at a slower pace, with thoughtful articles, unique adventures and a reading list that’s a perfect fit for a Sunday morning.
Last summer, 252 volunteers and staff members roamed Colorado’s mountains, collecting data at 145 sites. After a day of detailed training to learn complex data collection methods, volunteers go into the field at least once each summer on hikes ranging from easy to moderate to 16-mile expeditions. The project’s directors expect participation this season will top last season’s numbers.
The project’s mission to better understand Colorado’s pika population and how they are being affected by climate change became even more invaluable after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing pikas for federal endangered species protection in 2010, but declined — in part because researchers said they didn’t have enough data about them.
Latest data collected through the project suggests that climate change is driving pikas from areas where they’ve been spotted before.
“We’ve identified a number of locations where we know that pikas used to be, but we don’t see them there right now,” said Alex Wells, former co-director of Colorado Pika Project and community conservation director at the Denver Zoo.
“Why is that happening exactly? That is something that we’re trying to dig into.”
• Pikas are often mistaken for rodents. They have big round ears, lack a visible tail and scramble instead of hop. But they aren’t related to rodents at all — they are lagomorphs, a classification which includes rabbits and hares.
• Pikas have a high resting body temperature of roughly 104.2 degrees Fahrenheit, which helps them survive harsh alpine winters. But in the summer, extended exposures to 80 degrees can be lethal to pikas.
• A single pika, weighing about 4 ounces on average, collects roughly 65 pounds of food every summer
Climate modeling by the National Park Service suggests that by 2100, pikas may be effectively gone from Rocky Mountain National Park as temperatures rise in higher areas of the park, resulting in less snow to provide thermal protection from cold temperatures through the winter.
“So there’s reason to be concerned about pikas, and that’s why we’re keeping an eye on them,” Wells said. “It’s a lot easier to conserve a species at the start of its decline than toward the end of it, when there’s very few left of them.”
The good news, though: Collecting data on pikas is relatively easy, compared to other animals that are far more shy and less vocal than the charismatic mammals, which emit a high octave “eep!” to warn others in their colony about intruders or protect the haystacks they strategically place under large rocks to dry that will serve as food through the winter.
They also leave traces that are easy to find. Their poop lasts for decades, which wildlife biologists can analyze for its DNA. Scat contains hormones that can help researchers evaluate pikas’ stress levels at a particular site, giving insight to whether it’s a good habitat or not. Their hay piles, which grow bigger as the summer progresses, are also easy to spot.
(Videos by Kristi Odom, Colorado Pika Project, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Early findings from an ongoing study shows pika populations across the Southern Rockies are decreasing at lower elevations because it’s getting too hot. In more than 89% of the watersheds surveyed, pikas have retracted upslope by about 1,160 ft, said Peter Billman, a University of Connecticut Ph.D. student conducting the research.
“We already have pikas at the highest elevations across the region,” Billman said of the unpublished research. “It’s simply just pikas at lower elevations dying out and not recolonizing those low sites. So there used to be populations there but there no longer are.”
In the last two years, he’s studied pikas in about 214 sites in watersheds across Colorado from the West Elk mountains, to the San Juans, to Pikes Peak.
It’s not yet clear what’s causing the decrease, whether it be heat stress or pikas deciding not to mate at lower elevations where their traditional habitats are becoming less ideal.
“We’re not sure if it’s direct mortality or if they’re just not replacing themselves by breeding, or something else like that,” Billman said. “But yes, they’re simply not moving up like a typical animal would do.”
With more boots on the ground, with a mission to collect data, the closer scientists and land managers are to understanding what exactly is going on.
And that’s why it struck me as innovative when I first heard about the Colorado Pika Project’s efforts to engage avid hikers (who are in no short supply here in Colorado) to roam far-flung corners of the state in the name of science. So after signing up for a five-hour training last summer near Independence Pass, I secured an overnight permit in Rocky Mountain National Park this year to put my new skills to use and get a glimpse into the world of studying one of Colorado’s cutest — yet imperiled — species.
But if I am being completely honest: I also pursued this trip for the unbridled joy of seeing a pika with a mouthful of wildflowers in Colorado’s soothing high country. It can be rare to catch a glimpse of one collecting its summer bounty — its short limbs propelling its small round body from one large rock to another — before diving below the debris to return to their prized haystacks.
But when you do, it’s truly a sight to see.
Putting a (furry) face to climate change
Tucked high in the basin below giant granite slabs and near gushing waterfalls, the site I was assigned to collect data is far from the crowded trails in the nation’s fourth-busiest national park, its busy parking lots and monotonous whoosh of shuttle bus doors. Though it was Sunday, I passed only five hikers as I walked to my monitoring site.
At a wide field of chunks of granite broken off by erosion, I set up shop, using a yellow rope to measure a circle 24 meters in diameter from the plot center I found using GPS coordinates assigned to me by the Colorado Pika Project. This part of the park, at 11,340 feet elevation, was formed by receding glaciers as the ice age gave way to a more temperate climate.
On this brilliant midsummer morning, I’m convinced these pikas live in paradise.
But come winter, they will hunker down below the rocks, seeking shelter from brutal winds and surviving off the tall wildflowers, weeds and grasses they collected in the summer. What makes pikas capable of surviving in the Alpine could also be making them especially vulnerable to climate change as temperatures rise and snowpack melts earlier across the intermountain West.
The mountain dwellers are considered an “indicator species,” meaning that if climate change is starting to impact an Alpine ecosystem, pikas are one of the first species that will show that change and can alert scientists.
Pikas are abundant across Colorado, their habitats ranging from 8,000 feet to the summits of 14,000-foot peaks. But in some parts of the country, declines in pika populations have been tied to decreases in snowpack, said Johanna Varner, an associate professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University who has been studying pikas since 2010.
Unlike most Alpine mammals, pikas don’t hibernate during the winter. The snowpack provides insulation for pikas and helps keep temperatures below the rocks close to 32 degrees, she said. If temperatures rise causing an area to get less snow, it could expose pikas to colder air temperatures.
“When we’re out recreating on top of the snow in pika habitat, the temperatures are almost always below 32 degrees — it’s almost always below freezing, hence the snow,” she said. “But for the pikas, once there’s a thick layer of snowpack, that thick layer of snowpack actually insulates them against those really cold winter temperatures.”
That same microclimate protects pikas on hot summer days as shade from the rocky debris, known as talus, offers much cooler temperatures. Pikas will make up to 14,000 trips each summer to forage enough flowers and grass to last them through the winter, averaging about 200 forays a day between the talus and nearby meadows. A single pika, weighing about 4 ounces on average, collects roughly 65 pounds of food every summer, Varner said.
This is like a clue that there’s something really wrong here or maybe this is a landscape that needs some additional conservation and management actions or protections.
— Johanna Varner, an associate professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University
Pikas are, as the saying goes, making hay as the sun shines.
“If you scale that into human terms, it would be like 25,000 pounds of food and you’d have to make 5,000 trips to the grocery store on every trip carrying home four heads of lettuce in your mouth,” Varner said.
But if the temperature gets too high, it could restrict pikas’ activity and in some places, they might not be able to gather enough food to last through the winter. Some pikas could withstand the temperature change by shifting their prime foraging times to dawn and dusk when the weather is cooler. But that could also make them more susceptible to predators, Varner said.
Observations collected by volunteers serve as a compass for researchers. If the pika population seems to decline in one part of the state, it gives scientists like Varner a signal to investigate further.
“This is like a clue that there’s something really wrong here or maybe this is a landscape that needs some additional conservation and management actions or protections,” she said. “With the basic idea that managing a landscape that’s good for pikas is going to be good for a lot of other things, too.”
It’s a lot easier to conserve a species at the start of its decline than toward the end of it, when there’s very few left of them.
— Alex Wells, former co-director of Colorado Pika Project and community conservation director at the Denver Zoo
Aside from climate change, researchers are looking at other possible threats to pikas, like how livestock grazing near talus fields could affect them, Varner said. There’s also concern over a highly contagious and fatal rabbit disease, known as rabbit hemorrhagic disease, that was first found in Colorado in 2020.
While it’s still unknown if pikas are susceptible to the disease, pikas are closely related to rabbits and could be at risk. Rabbits living at lower elevations could shuttle the disease into the Alpine tundra, she said. Hikers could also unsuspectingly carry the disease on their boots.
The power of community science
It would be difficult for Jennifer Prusse, a district wildlife biologist with the White River National Forest, to collect comprehensive data on pikas across her sprawling district’s 700,000 acres.
Each summer, her small team (consisting of a technician and occasionally an intern) completes between five to six pika surveys, using the same collection methods as Colorado Pika Project.
“We could probably cover 10% of what volunteers cover on the White River,” Prusse said. “So the work they’re doing is fantastic.”
Back in 2017, she asked the directors of the Colorado Pika Project, formerly known as the Front Range Pika Project, to expand to fill data gaps on the species, which was named as a focal species in the forest’s monitoring plan. Prusse remembered seeing sporadic pika observations across the forest, but no concrete data to illustrate the livelihood of pika populations amid climate change.
Data collected from the first three years of monitoring in the forest show that pika populations throughout the National Forest are stable, but additional years of data are needed to confirm that, Prusse said.
“They’re basically like the canary in the coal mine for us in terms of climate change and its impacts to the Alpine zone,” she said.
“If the pika population starts to decline, then we actually need to investigate further — is this climate change? Or is there something else? … But without this information whatsoever, we would not be doing anything really. We would just be (relying on) scientific literature.”
Six pika signs to look for when hiking
1. Pika sighting: pikas are about the size of a russet potato, have short gray and light brown fur, big Mickey Mouse-like ears and no visible tail.
2. Pika call: a pika chirp sounds like a squeaky toy (eep!) Marmot calls, on the other hand, are higher pitched chirps or whistles.
3. Fresh hay pile: fresh, green vegetation (including flowers, grass and leaves) neatly tucked under or near a crevice in a boulder field. Vegetation that looks ripped or gnawed at was likely gathered by a marmot, not a pika.
4. Old hay pile: no green vegetation; plants are dry and brittle
5. Fresh scat: pika fecal pellets are about the size and shape of a peppercorn. Fresh scat appears moist, greenish and in a stack atop a fresh haypile or a rock (not in the dirt).
6. Old scat: Still in the shape of peppercorn, but old pika scat is dry and likely not in a little stack on a rock.
(Video from Kristi Odom)
But for those unable to attend training or looking for a simpler way to help scientists, Colorado Pika Patrol created an app for anyone to submit data if they see or hear a pika while roaming Colorado’s backcountry. The app collects GPS coordinates while on the trail and hikers can submit pika photos, recordings of their calls and other observations.
Sometimes experts can grow short-sighted in where they look, said Varner, who has also studied pika in Wyoming, Oregon and Utah. “But somebody who doesn’t necessarily have all that background is a little bit freer to make observations in places that we might not usually find pikas and those kinds of unusual observations can tell us a lot about the ability of the species to sort of move through the landscape, adapt to new landscapes and use different habitat resources that we might not otherwise know.”
In Wyoming, for example, volunteers saw pikas living in downed trees and slash piles, she said. “It sort of led to this really new inquiry into this behavior that would never have happened were it not for that volunteer observation.”
Beyond increasing biologists’ understanding of pikas, Prusse sees the project as a refreshing way to teach people about the Alpine ecosystem and climate change through a species that could be severely impacted.
“Climate change, for some people, can seem really nebulous and (this project) actually provides a really concrete example of this really charismatic microfauna that we care about,” she said.
Planning for this trip spanned far longer than the Alpine summer, which is measured in weeks not months. I needed to secure a scientific research permit at the national park within the short window we have with the highest chances of observing pikas and had to re-read data collection protocols, before preparing to navigate the backcountry by downloading maps and entering waypoints into my phone (and remembering to pack a backup map).
It’s amazing how much time (and sweat) it took for less than two hours of observation of one of Colorado’s cutest climate warriors.
While peering under boulders and focusing on scat, lichen and any other sign of food caches, I recorded six pika calls, a fresh haystack and a pile of dried-up grass stashed in the rocks.
I saw only a single pika as it scurried away, plunging below the talus before I could admire its chubby cheeks.
A side note about marmots
In case you were wondering, there’s not much concern about Colorado’s marmot population, or “lazy slugs” as Alex Wells calls them.
Though the chunky rodents often occupy similar habitats to pika in high-altitude stretches of the state, they are not temperature sensitive like pikas and hibernate through the winter. Their populations seem healthy, said Wells, a former community conservation director for the Denver Zoo.
“They just laze about hanging in the sun, meanwhile pikas are working crazy hard, running back and forth from talus to meadow gathering food. The marmots are just fat and happy lying about.”
Download the pika patrol app here
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Story first appeared in:
Listen to the soothing sounds of pika calls while you enjoy this article:
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — As the sun rises, its rays slowly make their way down the snow-capped peaks and on to the craggy cliffs, not yet illuminating the basin. In the low light, my eyes are peeled for a brown-and-gray critter with large round ears dashing from boulder to boulder.
One of Colorado’s most resilient animals looks a lot like a furry russet potato.
Pikas, relatives of rabbits known for their piercing chirp, live in some of the state’s most inhospitable climates in boulder fields at elevations up to 14,000 feet along treeless slopes of the Southern Rockies. They work for hundreds of hours across the short summer months to gather grass and wildflowers to last as fuel through harsh Alpine winters. Snowpack on top of the rocky debris insulates them through spring and winter. Climate change is putting all that at risk.
It has taken me hours to get to the site I was assigned to search for signs of pikas. The first 3½ miles into Rocky Mountain National Park were dragged out with breaks beneath trees to wait
|
out fat raindrops my rain jacket couldn’t handle, before setting up camp at Glacier Gorge, where I sought refuge yet again in my tent from pea-sized hail pelting from the sky. The next morning: 3 more miles across steep terrain and up snow patches still lingering in mid-July, and route-finding over rock slabs and through boggy ground with no cairns in sight.
But reaching the quiet basin in the shadows of Rocky’s imposing peaks was merely the first step.
After a day of training, volunteers go into the field at least once each summer on hikes ranging from easy to moderate to 16-mile expeditions to collect data on pikas. (Kristi Odom, Colorado Pika Project, Special to The Colorado Sun)
As a community scientist with the Colorado Pika Project, I joined a growing cohort of volunteers who have been trained on how to collect reliable data on pikas and their habitat that will not only help land managers and researchers understand how climate change is impacting the tiny animals, but also guide them to what can be done to protect the beloved mountain dwellers.
Since 2010, the partnership between nonprofit Rocky Mountain Wild and the Denver Zoo has enlisted “pika patrollers” to survey pika habitats — measuring boulders, looking for fresh scat and hay piles, recording temperatures and other data — across the Front Range. The project expanded to White River National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park in 2018.
This story first appeared in
Colorado Sunday, a premium magazine newsletter for members.
Experience the best in Colorado news at a slower pace, with thoughtful articles, unique adventures and a reading list that’s a perfect fit for a Sunday morning.
Last summer, 252 volunteers and staff members roamed Colorado’s mountains, collecting data at 145 sites. After a day of detailed training to learn complex data collection methods, volunteers go into the field at least once each summer on hikes ranging from easy to moderate to 16-mile expeditions. The project’s directors expect participation this season will top last season’s numbers.
The project’s mission to better understand Colorado’s pika population and how they are being affected by climate change became even more invaluable after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing pikas for federal endangered species protection in 2010, but declined — in part because researchers said they didn’t have enough data about them.
Latest data collected through the project suggests that climate change is driving pikas from areas where they’ve been spotted before.
“We’ve identified a number of locations where we know that pikas used to be, but we don’t see them there right now,” said Alex Wells, former co-director of Colorado Pika Project and community conservation director at the Denver Zoo.
“Why is that happening exactly? That is something that we’re trying to dig into.”
• Pikas are often mistaken for rodents. They have big round ears, lack a visible tail and scramble instead of hop. But they aren’t related to rodents at all — they are lagomorphs, a classification which includes rabbits and hares.
• Pikas have a high resting body temperature of roughly 104.2 degrees Fahrenheit, which helps them survive harsh alpine winters. But in the summer, extended exposures to 80 degrees can be lethal to pikas.
• A single pika, weighing about 4 ounces on average, collects roughly 65 pounds of food every summer
Climate modeling by the National Park Service suggests that by 2100, pikas may be effectively gone from Rocky Mountain National Park as temperatures rise in higher areas of the park, resulting in less snow to provide thermal protection from cold temperatures through the winter.
“So there’s reason to be concerned about pikas, and that’s why we’re keeping an eye on them,” Wells said. “It’s a lot easier to conserve a species at the start of its decline than toward the end of it, when there’s very few left of them.”
The good news, though: Collecting data on pikas is relatively easy, compared to other animals that are far more shy and less vocal than the charismatic mammals, which emit a high octave “eep!” to warn others in their colony about intruders or protect the haystacks they strategically place under large rocks to dry that will serve as food through the winter.
They also leave traces that are easy to find. Their poop lasts for decades, which wildlife biologists can analyze for its DNA. Scat contains hormones that can help researchers evaluate pikas’ stress levels at a particular site, giving insight to whether it’s a good habitat or not. Their hay piles, which grow bigger as the summer progresses, are also easy to spot.
(Videos by Kristi Odom, Colorado Pika Project, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Early findings from an ongoing study shows pika populations across the Southern Rockies are decreasing at lower elevations because it’s getting too hot. In more than 89% of the watersheds surveyed, pikas have retracted upslope by about 1,160 ft, said Peter Billman, a University of Connecticut Ph.D. student conducting the research.
“We already have pikas at the highest elevations across the region,” Billman said of the unpublished research. “It’s simply just pikas at lower elevations dying out and not recolonizing those low sites. So there used to be populations there but there no longer are.”
In the last two years, he’s studied pikas in about 214 sites in watersheds across Colorado from the West Elk mountains, to the San Juans, to Pikes Peak.
It’s not yet clear what’s causing the decrease, whether it be heat stress or pikas deciding not to mate at lower elevations where their traditional habitats are becoming less ideal.
“We’re not sure if it’s direct mortality or if they’re just not replacing themselves by breeding, or something else like that,” Billman said. “But yes, they’re simply not moving up like a typical animal would do.”
With more boots on the ground, with a mission to collect data, the closer scientists and land managers are to understanding what exactly is going on.
And that’s why it struck me as innovative when I first heard about the Colorado Pika Project’s efforts to engage avid hikers (who are in no short supply here in Colorado) to roam far-flung corners of the state in the name of science. So after signing up for a five-hour training last summer near Independence Pass, I secured an overnight permit in Rocky Mountain National Park this year to put my new skills to use and get a glimpse into the world of studying one of Colorado’s cutest — yet imperiled — species.
But if I am being completely honest: I also pursued this trip for the unbridled joy of seeing a pika with a mouthful of wildflowers in Colorado’s soothing high country. It can be rare to catch a glimpse of one collecting its summer bounty — its short limbs propelling its small round body from one large rock to another — before diving below the debris to return to their prized haystacks.
But when you do, it’s truly a sight to see.
Putting a (furry) face to climate change
Tucked high in the basin below giant granite slabs and near gushing waterfalls, the site I was assigned to collect data is far from the crowded trails in the nation’s fourth-busiest national park, its busy parking lots and monotonous whoosh of shuttle bus doors. Though it was Sunday, I passed only five hikers as I walked to my monitoring site.
At a wide field of chunks of granite broken off by erosion, I set up shop, using a yellow rope to measure a circle 24 meters in diameter from the plot center I found using GPS coordinates assigned to me by the Colorado Pika Project. This part of the park, at 11,340 feet elevation, was formed by receding glaciers as the ice age gave way to a more temperate climate.
On this brilliant midsummer morning, I’m convinced these pikas live in paradise.
But come winter, they will hunker down below the rocks, seeking shelter from brutal winds and surviving off the tall wildflowers, weeds and grasses they collected in the summer. What makes pikas capable of surviving in the Alpine could also be making them especially vulnerable to climate change as temperatures rise and snowpack melts earlier across the intermountain West.
The mountain dwellers are considered an “indicator species,” meaning that if climate change is starting to impact an Alpine ecosystem, pikas are one of the first species that will show that change and can alert scientists.
Pikas are abundant across Colorado, their habitats ranging from 8,000 feet to the summits of 14,000-foot peaks. But in some parts of the country, declines in pika populations have been tied to decreases in snowpack, said Johanna Varner, an associate professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University who has been studying pikas since 2010.
Unlike most Alpine mammals, pikas don’t hibernate during the winter. The snowpack provides insulation for pikas and helps keep temperatures below the rocks close to 32 degrees, she said. If temperatures rise causing an area to get less snow, it could expose pikas to colder air temperatures.
“When we’re out recreating on top of the snow in pika habitat, the temperatures are almost always below 32 degrees — it’s almost always below freezing, hence the snow,” she said. “But for the pikas, once there’s a thick layer of snowpack, that thick layer of snowpack actually insulates them against those really cold winter temperatures.”
That same microclimate protects pikas on hot summer days as shade from the rocky debris, known as talus, offers much cooler temperatures. Pikas will make up to 14,000 trips each summer to forage enough flowers and grass to last them through the winter, averaging about 200 forays a day between the talus and nearby meadows. A single pika, weighing about 4 ounces on average, collects roughly 65 pounds of food every summer, Varner said.
This is like a clue that there’s something really wrong here or maybe this is a landscape that needs some additional conservation and management actions or protections.
— Johanna Varner, an associate professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University
Pikas are, as the saying goes, making hay as the sun shines.
“If you scale that into human terms, it would be like 25,000 pounds of food and you’d have to make 5,000 trips to the grocery store on every trip carrying home four heads of lettuce in your mouth,” Varner said.
But if the temperature gets too high, it could restrict pikas’ activity and in some places, they might not be able to gather enough food to last through the winter. Some pikas could withstand the temperature change by shifting their prime foraging times to dawn and dusk when the weather is cooler. But that could also make them more susceptible to predators, Varner said.
Observations collected by volunteers serve as a compass for researchers. If the pika population seems to decline in one part of the state, it gives scientists like Varner a signal to investigate further.
“This is like a clue that there’s something really wrong here or maybe this is a landscape that needs some additional conservation and management actions or protections,” she said. “With the basic idea that managing a landscape that’s good for pikas is going to be good for a lot of other things, too.”
It’s a lot easier to conserve a species at the start of its decline than toward the end of it, when there’s very few left of them.
— Alex Wells, former co-director of Colorado Pika Project and community conservation director at the Denver Zoo
Aside from climate change, researchers are looking at other possible threats to pikas, like how livestock grazing near talus fields could affect them, Varner said. There’s also concern over a highly contagious and fatal rabbit disease, known as rabbit hemorrhagic disease, that was first found in Colorado in 2020.
While it’s still unknown if pikas are susceptible to the disease, pikas are closely related to rabbits and could be at risk. Rabbits living at lower elevations could shuttle the disease into the Alpine tundra, she said. Hikers could also unsuspectingly carry the disease on their boots.
The power of community science
It would be difficult for Jennifer Prusse, a district wildlife biologist with the White River National Forest, to collect comprehensive data on pikas across her sprawling district’s 700,000 acres.
Each summer, her small team (consisting of a technician and occasionally an intern) completes between five to six pika surveys, using the same collection methods as Colorado Pika Project.
“We could probably cover 10% of what volunteers cover on the White River,” Prusse said. “So the work they’re doing is fantastic.”
Back in 2017, she asked the directors of the Colorado Pika Project, formerly known as the Front Range Pika Project, to expand to fill data gaps on the species, which was named as a focal species in the forest’s monitoring plan. Prusse remembered seeing sporadic pika observations across the forest, but no concrete data to illustrate the livelihood of pika populations amid climate change.
Data collected from the first three years of monitoring in the forest show that pika populations throughout the National Forest are stable, but additional years of data are needed to confirm that, Prusse said.
“They’re basically like the canary in the coal mine for us in terms of climate change and its impacts to the Alpine zone,” she said.
“If the pika population starts to decline, then we actually need to investigate further — is this climate change? Or is there something else? … But without this information whatsoever, we would not be doing anything really. We would just be (relying on) scientific literature.”
Six pika signs to look for when hiking
1. Pika sighting: pikas are about the size of a russet potato, have short gray and light brown fur, big Mickey Mouse-like ears and no visible tail.
2. Pika call: a pika chirp sounds like a squeaky toy (eep!) Marmot calls, on the other hand, are higher pitched chirps or whistles.
3. Fresh hay pile: fresh, green vegetation (including flowers, grass and leaves) neatly tucked under or near a crevice in a boulder field. Vegetation that looks ripped or gnawed at was likely gathered by a marmot, not a pika.
4. Old hay pile: no green vegetation; plants are dry and brittle
5. Fresh scat: pika fecal pellets are about the size and shape of a peppercorn. Fresh scat appears moist, greenish and in a stack atop a fresh haypile or a rock (not in the dirt).
6. Old scat: Still in the shape of peppercorn, but old pika scat is dry and likely not in a little stack on a rock.
(Video from Kristi Odom)
But for those unable to attend training or looking for a simpler way to help scientists, Colorado Pika Patrol created an app for anyone to submit data if they see or hear a pika while roaming Colorado’s backcountry. The app collects GPS coordinates while on the trail and hikers can submit pika photos, recordings of their calls and other observations.
Sometimes experts can grow short-sighted in where they look, said Varner, who has also studied pika in Wyoming, Oregon and Utah. “But somebody who doesn’t necessarily have all that background is a little bit freer to make observations in places that we might not usually find pikas and those kinds of unusual observations can tell us a lot about the ability of the species to sort of move through the landscape, adapt to new landscapes and use different habitat resources that we might not otherwise know.”
In Wyoming, for example, volunteers saw pikas living in downed trees and slash piles, she said. “It sort of led to this really new inquiry into this behavior that would never have happened were it not for that volunteer observation.”
Beyond increasing biologists’ understanding of pikas, Prusse sees the project as a refreshing way to teach people about the Alpine ecosystem and climate change through a species that could be severely impacted.
“Climate change, for some people, can seem really nebulous and (this project) actually provides a really concrete example of this really charismatic microfauna that we care about,” she said.
Planning for this trip spanned far longer than the Alpine summer, which is measured in weeks not months. I needed to secure a scientific research permit at the national park within the short window we have with the highest chances of observing pikas and had to re-read data collection protocols, before preparing to navigate the backcountry by downloading maps and entering waypoints into my phone (and remembering to pack a backup map).
It’s amazing how much time (and sweat) it took for less than two hours of observation of one of Colorado’s cutest climate warriors.
While peering under boulders and focusing on scat, lichen and any other sign of food caches, I recorded six pika calls, a fresh haystack and a pile of dried-up grass stashed in the rocks.
I saw only a single pika as it scurried away, plunging below the talus before I could admire its chubby cheeks.
A side note about marmots
In case you were wondering, there’s not much concern about Colorado’s marmot population, or “lazy slugs” as Alex Wells calls them.
Though the chunky rodents often occupy similar habitats to pika in high-altitude stretches of the state, they are not temperature sensitive like pikas and hibernate through the winter. Their populations seem healthy, said Wells, a former community conservation director for the Denver Zoo.
“They just laze about hanging in the sun, meanwhile pikas are working crazy hard, running back and forth from talus to meadow gathering food. The marmots are just fat and happy lying about.”
Download the pika patrol app here
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The Water Resources Institute together with the Food and Agriculture Organization are hosting the fifth webinar on Water Energy and Food nexus and the implications to climate change security in Uganda.
Backdrop (the what & the why)
Water, energy and food are essential for human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Projections suggest that the demand for freshwater, energy and food will rise due to demographic changes, economic development and international trade, amongst others (World Economic Forum, 2011).
Climate change puts an additional stress on water availability and quality, and causes extreme events (floods /droughts) that have severe socioeconomic and environmental consequences. Actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and variability can have strong implications for the surface and ground water system and its users. Changes in energy usage and types of energy production (for example, fossil fuels replaced by hydropower or biofuels) affect water usage and impact agricultural production. The resulting conflicts in allocation of water and between the water, energy and food sectors, cause additional concerns for the sustainable management of surface and ground water bodies, especially the transboundary ones, where a very large proportion of the world’s population lives.
FAO & WRI Webinar Objective & expectations
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognizes Water, energy and food are essential for livelihoods, and through the long-standing collaboration with Water Resources Institute (WRI) of the Ministry of Water and Environment supports this Webinar.
This Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Climate Change Security webinar by FAO & WRI is intended to increase stakeholder awareness on the importance and relevance of nexus issues and implications to climate change security in Uganda. Water, Energy, and Food are important causal factors for climate change, and therefore we believe that security of climate change is heavily dependent on the nexus of these three dimensions of human livelihood.
The webinar targets participation of all stakeholder linked to the WRI, FAO and those largely involved in the sectoral linkages of Water, Energy, Food, and Climate Change.
The webinar is scheduled this Friday on 28th April 2023 starting 11:00 am
If you haven’t registered kindly register
As usual, participants will be able to put questions to the speakers during the plenary Q&A and will also be able to further engage with the speakers.
Leave a Reply
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The Water Resources Institute together with the Food and Agriculture Organization are hosting the fifth webinar on Water Energy and Food nexus and the implications to climate change security in Uganda.
Backdrop (the what & the why)
Water, energy and food are essential for human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Projections suggest that the demand for freshwater, energy and food will rise due to demographic changes, economic development and international trade, amongst others (World Economic Forum, 2011).
Climate change puts an additional stress on water availability and quality, and causes extreme events (floods /droughts) that have severe socioeconomic and environmental consequences. Actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and variability can have strong implications for the surface and ground water system and its users. Changes in energy usage and types of energy production (for example, fossil fuels replaced by hydropower or biofuels) affect water usage and impact agricultural production. The resulting conflicts in allocation of water and between the water, energy and food sectors, cause additional concerns for the sustainable management of surface and ground water bodies, especially the transboundary ones, where a very large proportion of the world’s population lives.
FAO & WRI Webinar Objective & expectations
The United Nations
|
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognizes Water, energy and food are essential for livelihoods, and through the long-standing collaboration with Water Resources Institute (WRI) of the Ministry of Water and Environment supports this Webinar.
This Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Climate Change Security webinar by FAO & WRI is intended to increase stakeholder awareness on the importance and relevance of nexus issues and implications to climate change security in Uganda. Water, Energy, and Food are important causal factors for climate change, and therefore we believe that security of climate change is heavily dependent on the nexus of these three dimensions of human livelihood.
The webinar targets participation of all stakeholder linked to the WRI, FAO and those largely involved in the sectoral linkages of Water, Energy, Food, and Climate Change.
The webinar is scheduled this Friday on 28th April 2023 starting 11:00 am
If you haven’t registered kindly register
As usual, participants will be able to put questions to the speakers during the plenary Q&A and will also be able to further engage with the speakers.
Leave a Reply
|
Climate change-attributed heat touched 81% of the world’s population in July, study finds
Four out of every five humans alive experienced at least one day of abnormally hot temperatures in July — a global onslaught of extreme heat that would not have been possible without climate change, according to new research.
The sweltering month appears to have been the hottest ever recorded on the planet, although official verification from federal meteorological agencies is pending.
But an analysis of daily temperatures in 4,700 cities found that climate change-attributed heat touched 6.5 billion people — or 81% of the world’s population — in July. The report, released Wednesday by the nonprofit news organization Climate Central, measured the impact using the Climate Shift Index, a tool that compares the current climate to one without excess heat-trapping emissions.
Global exposure peaked July 10, when 3.5 billion people experienced a Climate Shift Index level of 3 or higher, indicating that human-caused climate change made unusually hot temperatures at least three times more likely, the report said. At least 2 billion people felt a CSI level 3 or higher on each of the 31 days in July.
“There’s nothing about this that is normal,” said Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central, during a press briefing Tuesday. “These are conditions that are going to become more common, more severe, as we continue to put more and more CO2 in the atmosphere. Until there’s no more CO2 being added to the atmosphere, temperatures are going to continue to rise, and this year eventually will start to look like an average year, or a cool year.”
Huge swaths of the U.S., including California, are expected to see warmer-than-average temperatures in August, government forecasters say.
The findings build on a related analysis from World Weather Attribution — a research group that seeks to determine the role of climate change in extreme weather events. It recently found that the intense heat waves that simultaneously baked the southwestern U.S., Europe and China in July would not have been possible without climate change.
Global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels made the European heat wave 4.5 degrees hotter, the one in the United States and Mexico 3.6 degrees hotter and the one in China 1.8 degrees hotter, that study found.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have not yet verified that July was the hottest month ever recorded, daily data make it “pretty clear that we’re going to set that record,” Pershing said. From July 3 through 31, global daily average temperatures were continuously hotter than the previous record set in August 2016.
That 81% of the planet’s population experienced such abnormal temperatures is “unfortunately not a major surprise,” said David Neelin, a distinguished professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA who was not involved in the Climate Central study.
“There’s a lot of population in the tropical latitudes,” Neelin said. “And when you’re ranking the amplification factor of how much you’ve increased your probability due to climate change by population, you find out a lot of the world has experienced extremes they were very unlikely to have experienced without climate change.”
Indeed, though the planet simmered, the worst of the heat was not evenly distributed. In addition to the tropics, regional hot spots included parts of north and central Africa, the Mediterranean basin, south and southeast Asia and the southern United States, according to the report. Those areas saw especially high CSI levels of 4 and 5 — indicating that hot conditions were made at least four or five times more likely due to climate change.
Perhaps nowhere in the U.S. was that heat more relentless than Phoenix, which recorded its hottest month ever with 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees or higher, according to the National Weather Service. Climatologists at Arizona State University said it was the hottest month on record for any U.S. city.
Miami too saw its warmest month on record, with a mean average temperature of 86.5 degrees, according to the NWS.
In California, Death Valley soared to 128 degrees on July 16, “close to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth,” the report said. Fresno saw 20 days at a CSI level of 3 or higher, with an average temperature anomaly of 2.5 degrees.
Los Angeles fared much better, with an average temperature anomaly of just 0.8 degrees, and no days with a CSI level of 3 or higher, the report said.
That was largely because the ridge of high pressure that drove the southwestern heat wave was positioned to the east of L.A., according to Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the weather service in Oxnard.
“What that does for us is keep at least some marine layer influence — that natural air conditioning of cooler air coming off the Pacific,” he said.
Unusually strong heat waves are becoming more common due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, researchers say.
Still, the simmering heat brought significant danger to much of the country, according to John Balbus, acting director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
“Heat waves are not new,” Balbus told reporters in a separate briefing Tuesday. “We’ve had heat waves happening in different parts of the country at different times forever, but the size of the heat wave, the duration of the heat wave, and the fact that the heat wave across the United States is being matched by severe and equally unprecedented heat across the Mediterranean — these are all signs of a planetary heat wave.”
Balbus noted that heat kills more people every year than all other kinds of extreme weather. The estimated average of 700 heat deaths per year in the U.S. is “certainly an undercount,” he said, because heat can exacerbate other health issues such as heart and lung problems that won’t get coded as heat on a death certificate. Actual numbers could be as much as tenfold higher.
Additionally, many more people are affected by heat than those who die from it. During heat waves, emergency rooms see a surge of people suffering from heat stress or other issues that require medical care.
In July, the rate of emergency room visits related to heat in the Southwest skyrocketed to about 1,000 people per 100,000 — far more than the average of 20 to 50 people per 100,000, Balbus said.
The week of July 16 was the worst for the region, which saw the rate of heat-related illness soar to 1,248 people per 100,000, according to the Heat & Health Tracker from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Balbus noted that high nighttime temperatures are particularly dangerous because they don’t allow people time to cool down. Phoenix saw 19 days in July where low temperatures stayed above 90 degrees, breaking the previous record of 16 such days set in 2020.
“We have to acknowledge that we’re seeing manifestations of climate change, and the kind of heat we’re seeing is likely to get more intense before it gets better,” Balbus said. “Especially if we don’t take strong action to reduce the severity of climate change.”
Neelin, of UCLA, said there may be other factors contributing to the heat, including the recent arrival of El Niño. The climate pattern in the tropical Pacific is a major driver of weather across the world and is associated with warmer global temperatures.
But while El Niño is making global temperatures higher, the current degree of warming would not be possible without climate change pushing normals to new extremes.
“Remember, you’re taking your normal weather patterns and you’re adding them on top of widespread warming due to climate change,” Neelin said. “The thing that normally would have been warmer is now ‘extra-warmer’ thanks to climate change.”
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Climate change-attributed heat touched 81% of the world’s population in July, study finds
Four out of every five humans alive experienced at least one day of abnormally hot temperatures in July — a global onslaught of extreme heat that would not have been possible without climate change, according to new research.
The sweltering month appears to have been the hottest ever recorded on the planet, although official verification from federal meteorological agencies is pending.
But an analysis of daily temperatures in 4,700 cities found that climate change-attributed heat touched 6.5 billion people — or 81% of the world’s population — in July. The report, released Wednesday by the nonprofit news organization Climate Central, measured the impact using the Climate Shift Index, a tool that compares the current climate to one without excess heat-trapping emissions.
Global exposure peaked July 10, when 3.5 billion people experienced a Climate Shift Index level of 3 or higher, indicating that human-caused climate change made unusually hot temperatures at least three times more likely, the report said. At least 2 billion people felt a CSI level 3 or higher on each of the 31 days in July.
“There’s nothing about
|
this that is normal,” said Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central, during a press briefing Tuesday. “These are conditions that are going to become more common, more severe, as we continue to put more and more CO2 in the atmosphere. Until there’s no more CO2 being added to the atmosphere, temperatures are going to continue to rise, and this year eventually will start to look like an average year, or a cool year.”
Huge swaths of the U.S., including California, are expected to see warmer-than-average temperatures in August, government forecasters say.
The findings build on a related analysis from World Weather Attribution — a research group that seeks to determine the role of climate change in extreme weather events. It recently found that the intense heat waves that simultaneously baked the southwestern U.S., Europe and China in July would not have been possible without climate change.
Global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels made the European heat wave 4.5 degrees hotter, the one in the United States and Mexico 3.6 degrees hotter and the one in China 1.8 degrees hotter, that study found.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have not yet verified that July was the hottest month ever recorded, daily data make it “pretty clear that we’re going to set that record,” Pershing said. From July 3 through 31, global daily average temperatures were continuously hotter than the previous record set in August 2016.
That 81% of the planet’s population experienced such abnormal temperatures is “unfortunately not a major surprise,” said David Neelin, a distinguished professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA who was not involved in the Climate Central study.
“There’s a lot of population in the tropical latitudes,” Neelin said. “And when you’re ranking the amplification factor of how much you’ve increased your probability due to climate change by population, you find out a lot of the world has experienced extremes they were very unlikely to have experienced without climate change.”
Indeed, though the planet simmered, the worst of the heat was not evenly distributed. In addition to the tropics, regional hot spots included parts of north and central Africa, the Mediterranean basin, south and southeast Asia and the southern United States, according to the report. Those areas saw especially high CSI levels of 4 and 5 — indicating that hot conditions were made at least four or five times more likely due to climate change.
Perhaps nowhere in the U.S. was that heat more relentless than Phoenix, which recorded its hottest month ever with 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees or higher, according to the National Weather Service. Climatologists at Arizona State University said it was the hottest month on record for any U.S. city.
Miami too saw its warmest month on record, with a mean average temperature of 86.5 degrees, according to the NWS.
In California, Death Valley soared to 128 degrees on July 16, “close to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth,” the report said. Fresno saw 20 days at a CSI level of 3 or higher, with an average temperature anomaly of 2.5 degrees.
Los Angeles fared much better, with an average temperature anomaly of just 0.8 degrees, and no days with a CSI level of 3 or higher, the report said.
That was largely because the ridge of high pressure that drove the southwestern heat wave was positioned to the east of L.A., according to Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the weather service in Oxnard.
“What that does for us is keep at least some marine layer influence — that natural air conditioning of cooler air coming off the Pacific,” he said.
Unusually strong heat waves are becoming more common due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, researchers say.
Still, the simmering heat brought significant danger to much of the country, according to John Balbus, acting director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
“Heat waves are not new,” Balbus told reporters in a separate briefing Tuesday. “We’ve had heat waves happening in different parts of the country at different times forever, but the size of the heat wave, the duration of the heat wave, and the fact that the heat wave across the United States is being matched by severe and equally unprecedented heat across the Mediterranean — these are all signs of a planetary heat wave.”
Balbus noted that heat kills more people every year than all other kinds of extreme weather. The estimated average of 700 heat deaths per year in the U.S. is “certainly an undercount,” he said, because heat can exacerbate other health issues such as heart and lung problems that won’t get coded as heat on a death certificate. Actual numbers could be as much as tenfold higher.
Additionally, many more people are affected by heat than those who die from it. During heat waves, emergency rooms see a surge of people suffering from heat stress or other issues that require medical care.
In July, the rate of emergency room visits related to heat in the Southwest skyrocketed to about 1,000 people per 100,000 — far more than the average of 20 to 50 people per 100,000, Balbus said.
The week of July 16 was the worst for the region, which saw the rate of heat-related illness soar to 1,248 people per 100,000, according to the Heat & Health Tracker from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Balbus noted that high nighttime temperatures are particularly dangerous because they don’t allow people time to cool down. Phoenix saw 19 days in July where low temperatures stayed above 90 degrees, breaking the previous record of 16 such days set in 2020.
“We have to acknowledge that we’re seeing manifestations of climate change, and the kind of heat we’re seeing is likely to get more intense before it gets better,” Balbus said. “Especially if we don’t take strong action to reduce the severity of climate change.”
Neelin, of UCLA, said there may be other factors contributing to the heat, including the recent arrival of El Niño. The climate pattern in the tropical Pacific is a major driver of weather across the world and is associated with warmer global temperatures.
But while El Niño is making global temperatures higher, the current degree of warming would not be possible without climate change pushing normals to new extremes.
“Remember, you’re taking your normal weather patterns and you’re adding them on top of widespread warming due to climate change,” Neelin said. “The thing that normally would have been warmer is now ‘extra-warmer’ thanks to climate change.”
|
Total infant mortality rose in 2022, marking the first year-to-year increase in 20 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
In 2022, 20,538 U.S. infants died, up from 19,928 in 2021. Over the same period, the death rate rose from 5.44 infant deaths per 1,000 live births to 5.6 deaths. The findings were detailed in a report titled, “Infant Mortality in the United States: Provisional Data From the 2022 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death File.”
The CDC counted mortality rate by comparing the linked birth certificates and death certificates of infants in the year 2021 to that of the year 2022. In 2022, less than 1.4 percent of infant deaths were not linked to a birth certificate.
The study found the largest increases among American Indian and Alaska Native babies, with the rate rising from 7.46 deaths per 1,000 live births to 9.06. (RELATED: COVID Disproportionately Killed Men Despite Media Focus On Health Inequities)
“The reported increase in infant mortality rates is disturbing and disappointing,” Dr. Sandy L. Chung, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement. “We live in a country with abundant resources. Yet the infant mortality rate in the United States is shockingly high.”
“There are many different reasons for this,” she continued. “We do know that families in poverty face many challenges including access to nutritious food and affordable healthcare. Racial and ethnic disparities related to accessible healthcare – including prenatal health services – are just one of the many possible reasons for lower birth weights of babies and sometimes, infant deaths.”
Infant Deaths Have Risen for the First Time in 20 Years
Infant and maternal mortality, inextricably linked, are widely considered to be markers of a society’s overall health, and America’s rates are higher than those in other industrialized countries. https://t.co/xkKvxBB54L
— Katherine Champagne (@keccers) November 2, 2023
The report’s lead author, Danielle M. Ely, told The New York Times that statisticians were unsure whether the increase was a “one-year anomaly” or the beginning of a larger trend.
Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, an OB-GYN, noted that most of the babies were conceived toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were just coming out of Covid,” Dr. Cherot said, per the Times. “We were doing a lot of telemedicine. Did that shift something? Were protocols changing? Was access a bigger issue? We know mental health can also have an impact. A lot of things changed in the last three years.”
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Total infant mortality rose in 2022, marking the first year-to-year increase in 20 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
In 2022, 20,538 U.S. infants died, up from 19,928 in 2021. Over the same period, the death rate rose from 5.44 infant deaths per 1,000 live births to 5.6 deaths. The findings were detailed in a report titled, “Infant Mortality in the United States: Provisional Data From the 2022 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death File.”
The CDC counted mortality rate by comparing the linked birth certificates and death certificates of infants in the year 2021 to that of the year 2022. In 2022, less than 1.4 percent of infant deaths were not linked to a birth certificate.
The study found the largest increases among American Indian and Alaska Native babies, with the rate rising from 7.46 deaths per 1,000 live births to 9.06. (RELATED
|
: COVID Disproportionately Killed Men Despite Media Focus On Health Inequities)
“The reported increase in infant mortality rates is disturbing and disappointing,” Dr. Sandy L. Chung, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement. “We live in a country with abundant resources. Yet the infant mortality rate in the United States is shockingly high.”
“There are many different reasons for this,” she continued. “We do know that families in poverty face many challenges including access to nutritious food and affordable healthcare. Racial and ethnic disparities related to accessible healthcare – including prenatal health services – are just one of the many possible reasons for lower birth weights of babies and sometimes, infant deaths.”
Infant Deaths Have Risen for the First Time in 20 Years
Infant and maternal mortality, inextricably linked, are widely considered to be markers of a society’s overall health, and America’s rates are higher than those in other industrialized countries. https://t.co/xkKvxBB54L
— Katherine Champagne (@keccers) November 2, 2023
The report’s lead author, Danielle M. Ely, told The New York Times that statisticians were unsure whether the increase was a “one-year anomaly” or the beginning of a larger trend.
Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, an OB-GYN, noted that most of the babies were conceived toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were just coming out of Covid,” Dr. Cherot said, per the Times. “We were doing a lot of telemedicine. Did that shift something? Were protocols changing? Was access a bigger issue? We know mental health can also have an impact. A lot of things changed in the last three years.”
|
Drop your phone and the main worry will be a cracked screen and the prospect of reading your messages through a spider web of damage for the rest of its life.
But there’s also a small risk of damaging the battery, transforming what was a smartphone into a mini-fireball.
In 2016, Samsung recalled its flagship Galaxy Note 7 because of faulty batteries which could explode or catch fire.
Since then, strict quality control by brands keen to maintain their reputation means fires are remarkably rare.
But now consumers face a growing risk from unbranded cheap scooters made in China.
In the first three months of 2023 alone, fires started by battery-powered scooters and bikes killed four people in the UK, according to Electrical Safety First, a charity.
Damage to the batteries leads to rapid heating called thermal runaway, setting fire to the rest of the pack. Flammable gases can be released, hastening the spread of the fire in a home, where scooters are often kept.
The charity said the devices should be more strictly regulated and assessed by a safety authority before being put on sale in a move mimicking rules in New York.
Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, says: “The huge amount of energy that is released over time when a battery bursts into flames is unlike other fires – in a matter of minutes a room can be decimated. This unique type of fire requires special measures to tackle the increasing problem.
“We need to get on top of this issue now to prevent more lives being lost. There are too many reckless operators in this space, such as third-party sellers on online marketplaces, who are risking the lives of the public and giving responsible manufacturers of these products a bad name.”
Today, vehicles can be declared as conforming to safety standards by the manufacturer. Moving them into the same category as fireworks and heavy machinery would require a third party to agree that they are safe.
Rebecca Downes, 44, a mother of four, died last year after jumping out of a third-floor window to escape a house blaze caused by an e-scooter fire sparked by an e-scooter battery.
Andrew Beaton told Electrical Safety First that an e-scooter at his Lancaster home that was charging caught fire and caused £50,000 of damage. His son spotted the fire and raised the alarm.
“If it wasn’t for my son, we wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Fires from scooters are on the rise globally.
Research by EV Firesafe, a research firm funded by the Australian Department of Defence, suggests that around the world in the year to date, electric cars have suffered 44 battery fires causing four deaths. But e-bikes and scooters have caused 500 fires, 138 injuries and 36 deaths.
Last year, scooters and electric bikes had less than half the number of fires and 24 fatalities over the year, suggesting rapid growth around the world.
“With regards to lithium-ion battery fires, the primary risk to life and property safety is from light electric vehicles, encompassing electric bikes, scooters, skateboards, unicycles & hoverboards,” rather than cars, it said.
The London Fire Brigade describes battery fires as the capital’s fastest emerging fire risk. It has dealt with over 60 related fires this year. Some companies have reacted and electric scooters are now banned on most trains.
Advocates say that they are a cheap and green way to travel, so long as safe models are bought and not abused or modified.
But an influx of models from the Far East, mostly from China, bought cheaply on the internet, are setting on fire when the packs are damaged or they are overcharged.
The tell-tale signs of trouble are a hot or bulging battery pack, obvious signs of damage through a collision, water damage or a strange smell.
Paul Christensen, a professor at Newcastle University and lithium safety consultant, says a few simple rules need to be followed by buyers of e-bikes and scooters.
He says consumers should only buy from a reputable manufacturer, only use the charger that comes with it and always buy a scooter that comes with a charger that automatically turns off when fully charged.
Charging indoors should be avoided, and never near anything flammable.
Christensen says: “The problem you’ve got is that the time between the first sign of something happening, and an explosion or a major fire can be seconds.
“I’m not trying to demonise them. I’m a big fan – they’re essential for storing renewable energy. But they store a very large amount of energy in a very small space.”
As well as the quality of the battery pack, a big difference between a well-made device and a fire trap is the battery management system, which will stop a battery from charging when it is full. Overcharging is a big cause of fires.
Smartphones have sophisticated ones, as do electric cars. Cheap electric bikes may not have one at all.
Among the most dangerous fire risks are home-made battery packs constructed by couriers who use electric bikes for work and want better range, so make a spare pack themselves, says Christensen.
“A lot of the fires in accommodation are down to these homemade lithium ion batteries.”
A looming threat is battery packs designed to power the home, another area untouched by regulation. The batteries used are often second-hand and with an unknown history and stored in lofts and basements with little or no fire safety equipment.
“Commercial systems are produced by thoroughly reputable companies. But as this trade gets bigger and bigger and with the cost of electricity and gas nowadays, people are increasingly looking at battery energy storage,” says Christensen.
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
|
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|
Drop your phone and the main worry will be a cracked screen and the prospect of reading your messages through a spider web of damage for the rest of its life.
But there’s also a small risk of damaging the battery, transforming what was a smartphone into a mini-fireball.
In 2016, Samsung recalled its flagship Galaxy Note 7 because of faulty batteries which could explode or catch fire.
Since then, strict quality control by brands keen to maintain their reputation means fires are remarkably rare.
But now consumers face a growing risk from unbranded cheap scooters made in China.
In the first three months of 2023 alone, fires started by battery-powered scooters and bikes killed four people in the UK, according to Electrical Safety First, a charity.
Damage to the batteries leads to rapid heating called thermal runaway, setting fire to the rest of the pack. Flammable gases can be released, hastening the spread of the fire in a home, where scooters are often kept.
The charity said the devices should be more strictly regulated and assessed by a safety authority before being put on sale in a move mimicking rules in New York.
Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, says: “The huge
|
amount of energy that is released over time when a battery bursts into flames is unlike other fires – in a matter of minutes a room can be decimated. This unique type of fire requires special measures to tackle the increasing problem.
“We need to get on top of this issue now to prevent more lives being lost. There are too many reckless operators in this space, such as third-party sellers on online marketplaces, who are risking the lives of the public and giving responsible manufacturers of these products a bad name.”
Today, vehicles can be declared as conforming to safety standards by the manufacturer. Moving them into the same category as fireworks and heavy machinery would require a third party to agree that they are safe.
Rebecca Downes, 44, a mother of four, died last year after jumping out of a third-floor window to escape a house blaze caused by an e-scooter fire sparked by an e-scooter battery.
Andrew Beaton told Electrical Safety First that an e-scooter at his Lancaster home that was charging caught fire and caused £50,000 of damage. His son spotted the fire and raised the alarm.
“If it wasn’t for my son, we wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Fires from scooters are on the rise globally.
Research by EV Firesafe, a research firm funded by the Australian Department of Defence, suggests that around the world in the year to date, electric cars have suffered 44 battery fires causing four deaths. But e-bikes and scooters have caused 500 fires, 138 injuries and 36 deaths.
Last year, scooters and electric bikes had less than half the number of fires and 24 fatalities over the year, suggesting rapid growth around the world.
“With regards to lithium-ion battery fires, the primary risk to life and property safety is from light electric vehicles, encompassing electric bikes, scooters, skateboards, unicycles & hoverboards,” rather than cars, it said.
The London Fire Brigade describes battery fires as the capital’s fastest emerging fire risk. It has dealt with over 60 related fires this year. Some companies have reacted and electric scooters are now banned on most trains.
Advocates say that they are a cheap and green way to travel, so long as safe models are bought and not abused or modified.
But an influx of models from the Far East, mostly from China, bought cheaply on the internet, are setting on fire when the packs are damaged or they are overcharged.
The tell-tale signs of trouble are a hot or bulging battery pack, obvious signs of damage through a collision, water damage or a strange smell.
Paul Christensen, a professor at Newcastle University and lithium safety consultant, says a few simple rules need to be followed by buyers of e-bikes and scooters.
He says consumers should only buy from a reputable manufacturer, only use the charger that comes with it and always buy a scooter that comes with a charger that automatically turns off when fully charged.
Charging indoors should be avoided, and never near anything flammable.
Christensen says: “The problem you’ve got is that the time between the first sign of something happening, and an explosion or a major fire can be seconds.
“I’m not trying to demonise them. I’m a big fan – they’re essential for storing renewable energy. But they store a very large amount of energy in a very small space.”
As well as the quality of the battery pack, a big difference between a well-made device and a fire trap is the battery management system, which will stop a battery from charging when it is full. Overcharging is a big cause of fires.
Smartphones have sophisticated ones, as do electric cars. Cheap electric bikes may not have one at all.
Among the most dangerous fire risks are home-made battery packs constructed by couriers who use electric bikes for work and want better range, so make a spare pack themselves, says Christensen.
“A lot of the fires in accommodation are down to these homemade lithium ion batteries.”
A looming threat is battery packs designed to power the home, another area untouched by regulation. The batteries used are often second-hand and with an unknown history and stored in lofts and basements with little or no fire safety equipment.
“Commercial systems are produced by thoroughly reputable companies. But as this trade gets bigger and bigger and with the cost of electricity and gas nowadays, people are increasingly looking at battery energy storage,” says Christensen.
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
|
The first recorded death of a rare tickborne illness in Maryland is prompting state health officials to launch an informational campaign about how to avoid catching diseases carried by ticks.
An person who contracted the Powassan virus in Canada died from the rare disease after they returned to Maryland, according to Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman in a written statement Friday.
“We are very saddened to report the first death due to the Powassan virus in our state,” Kalyanaraman said in a press release from the Department of Health. “Powassan is very rare, and this is the first-ever case recorded in Maryland.”
Despite the recent fatality from the disease, Kalyanaraman said the Department of Health believes that the case does not indicate “any threat of local transmission in Maryland.”
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the virus is named after Powassan, Ontario, where it was first discovered in the late 1950’s. While rare, cases typically occur in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes area in the United States, and in Eastern Canadian provinces.
The CDC says that symptoms of the Powassan virus initially start with fever, headaches and weakness, though many people infected do not have symptoms.
Severe cases can include infections of the brain, membranes around the brain, or the spinal cord. Severe symptoms can include confusion, loss of coordination and seizures. According to the CDC, approximately one out of 10 people with severe cases of the virus die, and many who survive continue to have long-term health problems.
The CDC also notes that there are currently no medications to prevent or treat infections of the virus.
From 2004 to 2022, there were 288 human cases of Powassan, with 264 resulting in hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While Powassan is rare, cases have increased over recent years, according to the CDC. In addition, some ticks that carry Powassan can transmit other diseases to humans, such as Lyme disease.
The Maryland Department of Health recommends avoiding tick habitats, such as areas with high grass and leaf litter. If you do enter these areas, wear long sleeves and long pants.
People returning from outdoor activities in tick habitats should conduct a full body scan to ensure they did not pick up a tick along the way, specifically checking areas where ticks tend to hide: under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, back of the knees, in and around the hair, between the legs, and around the waist.
|
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|
The first recorded death of a rare tickborne illness in Maryland is prompting state health officials to launch an informational campaign about how to avoid catching diseases carried by ticks.
An person who contracted the Powassan virus in Canada died from the rare disease after they returned to Maryland, according to Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman in a written statement Friday.
“We are very saddened to report the first death due to the Powassan virus in our state,” Kalyanaraman said in a press release from the Department of Health. “Powassan is very rare, and this is the first-ever case recorded in Maryland.”
Despite the recent fatality from the disease, Kalyanaraman said the Department of Health believes that the case does not indicate “any threat of local transmission in Maryland.”
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the virus is named after Powassan, Ontario, where it was first discovered in the late 1950’s. While rare, cases typically occur in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes area in the United States, and in Eastern Canadian provinces.
The CDC says that symptoms of the Powassan virus initially start with fever, headaches and weakness, though many people infected do not have symptoms
|
.
Severe cases can include infections of the brain, membranes around the brain, or the spinal cord. Severe symptoms can include confusion, loss of coordination and seizures. According to the CDC, approximately one out of 10 people with severe cases of the virus die, and many who survive continue to have long-term health problems.
The CDC also notes that there are currently no medications to prevent or treat infections of the virus.
From 2004 to 2022, there were 288 human cases of Powassan, with 264 resulting in hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While Powassan is rare, cases have increased over recent years, according to the CDC. In addition, some ticks that carry Powassan can transmit other diseases to humans, such as Lyme disease.
The Maryland Department of Health recommends avoiding tick habitats, such as areas with high grass and leaf litter. If you do enter these areas, wear long sleeves and long pants.
People returning from outdoor activities in tick habitats should conduct a full body scan to ensure they did not pick up a tick along the way, specifically checking areas where ticks tend to hide: under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, back of the knees, in and around the hair, between the legs, and around the waist.
|
Connecticut Garden Journal: Sunflowers in their late-summer glory are glorious to eat, too
Late summer is sunflower time. With our cloudy, rainy summer, our sunflowers have taken their time to grow large and flower. But now they are in their glory.
Many gardeners think of the large headed, 10 foot tall 'Russian Mammoth' sunflowers when they think of this plant. But there are so many different selections now with smaller sized flowers, multi-stemmed plants and different flower petal colors. 'Italian White' has pure white petals, 'Velvet Queen' has red colored petals, 'Ruby Eclipse' has bicolored red and cream blooms, 'Limoncello' has light yellow petals and 'Autumn Beauty' is a mix of many of these colors. These selections grow 4- to 5-feet tall and produce tons of flowers. There are even 2 foot tall dwarfs, such as 'Teddy Bear', with double yellow petals that hardly look like a sunflower.
Sunflowers not only add color to the late summer garden, the seeds are edible. Cover heads with brown paper bags once the petals drop and you notice bird activity around your plants. When the seeds start dropping in the bag, cut the head and let it dry in a warm, airy location. Remove the seeds and roast for a snack. The large headed varieties are best for snacking, but leave some for the birds, too!
For another treat, harvest unopened sunflower heads, steam them and eat them whole like artichokes. You'll be amazed at the sunflower/artichoke flavor of the flower buds.
Grow sunflowers in spring in full sun on well drained soil. Grow in clumps so they support each other and don't flop and you can enjoy the color show even more.
|
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}
|
Connecticut Garden Journal: Sunflowers in their late-summer glory are glorious to eat, too
Late summer is sunflower time. With our cloudy, rainy summer, our sunflowers have taken their time to grow large and flower. But now they are in their glory.
Many gardeners think of the large headed, 10 foot tall 'Russian Mammoth' sunflowers when they think of this plant. But there are so many different selections now with smaller sized flowers, multi-stemmed plants and different flower petal colors. 'Italian White' has pure white petals, 'Velvet Queen' has red colored petals, 'Ruby Eclipse' has bicolored red and cream blooms, 'Limoncello' has light yellow petals and 'Autumn Beauty' is a mix of many of these colors. These selections grow 4- to 5-feet tall and produce tons of flowers. There are even 2 foot tall dwarfs, such as 'Teddy Bear', with double yellow petals that hardly look like a sunflower.
Sunflowers not only add color to the late summer garden, the seeds are edible. Cover heads with brown paper bags once the petals drop and you notice bird activity
|
around your plants. When the seeds start dropping in the bag, cut the head and let it dry in a warm, airy location. Remove the seeds and roast for a snack. The large headed varieties are best for snacking, but leave some for the birds, too!
For another treat, harvest unopened sunflower heads, steam them and eat them whole like artichokes. You'll be amazed at the sunflower/artichoke flavor of the flower buds.
Grow sunflowers in spring in full sun on well drained soil. Grow in clumps so they support each other and don't flop and you can enjoy the color show even more.
|
“Google rocked the computer world in 2011 with the introduction of the Chromebook because there was nothing on the market quite like it. It was and still is an affordable laptop that offers an internet-centric platform. Today, more than 50 million Chromebooks are used in classrooms by teachers and students in blended learning environments that allow students to have unlimited access to educational resources. Chromebooks are also increasingly being used by businesses, remote workers, and digital nomads that need an inexpensive laptop that allows them to work from the office, home, or the nearest coffee shop. The Chromebook has evolved far from its humble beginnings and will likely be the only laptop you need.”
The preceding is the opening paragraph in Chapter 1 of the upcoming book, Chromebook For Dummies, 3rd edition.
The core statement here: Chromebook is likely the only laptop you need, is due to the security, simplicity, and utility of the Chromebook. Secure, because it has the first OS built with Internet security in mind (Unix and Windows were designed before the Internet, in the dial-up era). Simple, because it’s pared down to modern essentials. Utility, because in today’s online Internet world, the Chromebook is exceedingly useful.
Windows and Unix (Linux, Mac, and others) systems are highly complex and packed with features that 99% of end users will never use. Yet, users pay a premium for more RAM and larger hard drives to store and run these complex operating systems when, 98% of the time, we only need to use a browser. Most of us use only a browser when we use a laptop, so why would we purchase expensive, feature-rich machines when a Chromebook, at a fraction of the cost, gets the same job done?
|
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“Google rocked the computer world in 2011 with the introduction of the Chromebook because there was nothing on the market quite like it. It was and still is an affordable laptop that offers an internet-centric platform. Today, more than 50 million Chromebooks are used in classrooms by teachers and students in blended learning environments that allow students to have unlimited access to educational resources. Chromebooks are also increasingly being used by businesses, remote workers, and digital nomads that need an inexpensive laptop that allows them to work from the office, home, or the nearest coffee shop. The Chromebook has evolved far from its humble beginnings and will likely be the only laptop you need.”
The preceding is the opening paragraph in Chapter 1 of the upcoming book, Chromebook For Dummies, 3rd edition.
The core statement here: Chromebook is likely the only laptop you need, is due to the security, simplicity, and utility of the Chromebook. Secure, because it has the first OS built with Internet security in mind (Unix and Windows were designed before the Internet, in the dial-up era). Simple, because it’s pared down to modern essentials. Utility, because in today’s online Internet world, the Chromebook is exceedingly
|
useful.
Windows and Unix (Linux, Mac, and others) systems are highly complex and packed with features that 99% of end users will never use. Yet, users pay a premium for more RAM and larger hard drives to store and run these complex operating systems when, 98% of the time, we only need to use a browser. Most of us use only a browser when we use a laptop, so why would we purchase expensive, feature-rich machines when a Chromebook, at a fraction of the cost, gets the same job done?
|
Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony used to convey the opposite of what is said. It involves saying something that is intentionally contrary to one’s actual beliefs or feelings, often in a mocking or humorous way. Sarcasm is often characterized by a tone of voice that is dry, cutting, or mocking, and is often used to express disdain, criticism, or contempt for someone or something. For example, if someone says “Great, I just got a parking ticket!” with a sarcastic tone, they likely mean the opposite and are unhappy about the situation. Sarcasm is a common form of communication in many cultures and can be used in a variety of contexts, including humor, criticism, and social commentary.
Sarcasm and irony are both forms of figurative language that involve saying something that is different from, or opposite to, what is meant. However, there are some key differences between the two.
Sarcasm is a form of speech that uses irony to mock or convey contempt. It is often used to criticize or make fun of someone or something. Sarcasm is characterized by a tone of voice that is often exaggerated and usually intended to be humorous or insulting.
Irony, on the other hand, is a broader concept that refers to a situation in which the opposite of what is expected or intended happens. Irony can be situational, dramatic, or verbal. Situational irony occurs when something happens that is the opposite of what is expected, such as a fire station burning down. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters do not, such as in a suspenseful movie. Verbal irony is similar to sarcasm in that it involves saying something different from what is meant, but it is not always intended to be humorous or insulting.
To summarize, sarcasm is a type of verbal irony that is intended to be humorous or insulting, while irony refers to situations where the opposite of what is expected happens.
|
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|
Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony used to convey the opposite of what is said. It involves saying something that is intentionally contrary to one’s actual beliefs or feelings, often in a mocking or humorous way. Sarcasm is often characterized by a tone of voice that is dry, cutting, or mocking, and is often used to express disdain, criticism, or contempt for someone or something. For example, if someone says “Great, I just got a parking ticket!” with a sarcastic tone, they likely mean the opposite and are unhappy about the situation. Sarcasm is a common form of communication in many cultures and can be used in a variety of contexts, including humor, criticism, and social commentary.
Sarcasm and irony are both forms of figurative language that involve saying something that is different from, or opposite to, what is meant. However, there are some key differences between the two.
Sarcasm is a form of speech that uses irony to mock or convey contempt. It is often used to criticize or make fun of someone or something. Sarcasm is characterized by a tone of voice that is often exaggerated and usually intended to be humorous or insulting.
Irony, on the other hand, is a broader
|
concept that refers to a situation in which the opposite of what is expected or intended happens. Irony can be situational, dramatic, or verbal. Situational irony occurs when something happens that is the opposite of what is expected, such as a fire station burning down. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters do not, such as in a suspenseful movie. Verbal irony is similar to sarcasm in that it involves saying something different from what is meant, but it is not always intended to be humorous or insulting.
To summarize, sarcasm is a type of verbal irony that is intended to be humorous or insulting, while irony refers to situations where the opposite of what is expected happens.
|
It was the summer of 1907 when Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist, was rushing to the patent office in New York. He had just perfected the first fully synthetic plastic by combining formaldehyde and phenol under heat and pressure that he'd christened 'bakelite'. What Leo could not have fathomed was that by spurring a revolution in plastic production, he was inadvertently getting his hands bloody.
Today, plastics are the objects of most environmentalists' most horrifying nightmares. But it was never intended to be that; if anything, scientists created it as a part of a solution. Yep, the irony is not lost on us.
In the mid-1800s, animal-derived products like turtle shell combs, ivory piano keys and billiard balls were becoming scarce, and so were the elephants and some species of turtles. To tackle this environmental issue, inventors began to look for new synthetic and semi-synthetic alternatives.
But history has a way of repeating itself, and the very plastic that was supposed to save the planet is now contributing to its destruction. And once again, researchers have been busy creating alternatives to replace this indispensable polymer.
However, some alternatives are just as bizarre as they are promising. Ahead of this World Environment Day — to be celebrated around the world on June 5 — we bring to you five plastic alternatives, and you can decide for yourself if they're genius or outlandish!
The mushroom's mycelia, which look a bit like fine, white hair, have become the basis of a new kind of fungus-based packaging material. The company Ecovative Design mixes natural ingredients such as oats or hemp with fungal mycelia, which grows and binds the mixture into a solid mat. They put these mats into moulds, and lo and behold, you've got an eco-friendly container, carton or canister!
Ecovative is marketing this innovation as a replacement for traditional styrofoam (which usually takes 500 years to decompose), as this mushroom material can break down in a landfill in roughly 180 days. Pretty neat, right?
If you thought seaweed was only meant to be wrapped around sushi or added to soups, you're in for a surprise. These nifty macroalgae can also be used to make the packaging they come in. That's not all; they can also replace conventional plastic cling wraps, bags, straws and cups!
Their advantages are endless. As one of the fastest-growing organisms on Earth, seaweed is a quick and sustainable material to use. It is estimated to have 85% less associated carbon emission than equivalent plastic packaging. Further, it doesn't even need any fertiliser to grow.
The only hitch is that seaweed plastic alternatives are still in the early stages, and it will take a while before they're widely available. However, there's no arguing that they are indeed a promising alternative to plastic.
Once again, the ocean has come to the rescue, and it turns out biodegradable bags made from shrimp shells could easily dethrone plastic bags.
An engineering professor at the University of Nottingham, UK, realised Egypt had an overabundance of crustacean shell waste. And to tackle the problem, the researcher and her team collected the waste and boiled it in acid to make the shells less brittle, eventually stripping it down to a plastic bag-like material.
Just two pounds of shells can produce 15 biodegradable shopping bags!
Millets, Rice, Wheat
Have you ever finished your meal and felt like you weren't quite full yet? Well, we might just have the perfect solution.
With edible cutlery, you can simply chow down on your cutlery right after your meal. And several start-ups, including Bakeys, have figured out ways to make cutlery edible.
So you can say goodbye to those terrible, flimsy plastic spoons. Edible cutlery has a combination of simple grains and a touch of salt to produce a nutritious alternative to landfill-bound plastic disposables.
These utensils can also last for up to three years in storage if you can resist eating them!
Of course, there's poo involved.
Cow dung houses a wealth of minerals, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and several others. It can be easily broken down into parts, making it an eco-friendlier alternative to plastic.
And while it has plenty of applications as is, it's also increasingly being used to make things like bangle boxes, utility trays, carry bags, gift boxes, and so on.
For weather, science, space, and COVID-19 updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!
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It was the summer of 1907 when Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist, was rushing to the patent office in New York. He had just perfected the first fully synthetic plastic by combining formaldehyde and phenol under heat and pressure that he'd christened 'bakelite'. What Leo could not have fathomed was that by spurring a revolution in plastic production, he was inadvertently getting his hands bloody.
Today, plastics are the objects of most environmentalists' most horrifying nightmares. But it was never intended to be that; if anything, scientists created it as a part of a solution. Yep, the irony is not lost on us.
In the mid-1800s, animal-derived products like turtle shell combs, ivory piano keys and billiard balls were becoming scarce, and so were the elephants and some species of turtles. To tackle this environmental issue, inventors began to look for new synthetic and semi-synthetic alternatives.
But history has a way of repeating itself, and the very plastic that was supposed to save the planet is now contributing to its destruction. And once again, researchers have been busy creating alternatives to replace this indispensable polymer.
However, some alternatives are just as bizarre as they are promising.
|
Ahead of this World Environment Day — to be celebrated around the world on June 5 — we bring to you five plastic alternatives, and you can decide for yourself if they're genius or outlandish!
The mushroom's mycelia, which look a bit like fine, white hair, have become the basis of a new kind of fungus-based packaging material. The company Ecovative Design mixes natural ingredients such as oats or hemp with fungal mycelia, which grows and binds the mixture into a solid mat. They put these mats into moulds, and lo and behold, you've got an eco-friendly container, carton or canister!
Ecovative is marketing this innovation as a replacement for traditional styrofoam (which usually takes 500 years to decompose), as this mushroom material can break down in a landfill in roughly 180 days. Pretty neat, right?
If you thought seaweed was only meant to be wrapped around sushi or added to soups, you're in for a surprise. These nifty macroalgae can also be used to make the packaging they come in. That's not all; they can also replace conventional plastic cling wraps, bags, straws and cups!
Their advantages are endless. As one of the fastest-growing organisms on Earth, seaweed is a quick and sustainable material to use. It is estimated to have 85% less associated carbon emission than equivalent plastic packaging. Further, it doesn't even need any fertiliser to grow.
The only hitch is that seaweed plastic alternatives are still in the early stages, and it will take a while before they're widely available. However, there's no arguing that they are indeed a promising alternative to plastic.
Once again, the ocean has come to the rescue, and it turns out biodegradable bags made from shrimp shells could easily dethrone plastic bags.
An engineering professor at the University of Nottingham, UK, realised Egypt had an overabundance of crustacean shell waste. And to tackle the problem, the researcher and her team collected the waste and boiled it in acid to make the shells less brittle, eventually stripping it down to a plastic bag-like material.
Just two pounds of shells can produce 15 biodegradable shopping bags!
Millets, Rice, Wheat
Have you ever finished your meal and felt like you weren't quite full yet? Well, we might just have the perfect solution.
With edible cutlery, you can simply chow down on your cutlery right after your meal. And several start-ups, including Bakeys, have figured out ways to make cutlery edible.
So you can say goodbye to those terrible, flimsy plastic spoons. Edible cutlery has a combination of simple grains and a touch of salt to produce a nutritious alternative to landfill-bound plastic disposables.
These utensils can also last for up to three years in storage if you can resist eating them!
Of course, there's poo involved.
Cow dung houses a wealth of minerals, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and several others. It can be easily broken down into parts, making it an eco-friendlier alternative to plastic.
And while it has plenty of applications as is, it's also increasingly being used to make things like bangle boxes, utility trays, carry bags, gift boxes, and so on.
For weather, science, space, and COVID-19 updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!
|
Editor’s note: Season 8 of the podcast Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets back to basics with an in-depth examination of the brain in different states. Each episode will focus on one of those states — the distracted brain, the frightened brain, the depressed brain and others — to spotlight what is going on in our heads and how it affects our bodies.
(CNN) — Are you really what you eat? Decades of research back up the saying that you are what you eat and support the important health effects of good nutrition.
The health effects of food don’t just stop at the body. They extend into the mind as well, affecting not only our risk of future brain-based conditions (such as stroke and dementia) but also our ability to think clearly in the moment as well as our mood and mental health.
But it’s not so easy to know what to eat for brain health, or even how to measure it. Many of us have been told that foods such as blueberries, salmon, nuts and leafy greens are so-called brain foods. But how do they work? Are they neuroprotective? Do they make us smarter? More alert? Less stressed? Happier?
Nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo has built a career around figuring out which foods improve brain function and positively influence the way we feel. She is the director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, an author and a personal chef.
Naidoo described the nascent and rapidly growing field as the “intersection between nutrition and mental health.”
“We’re not at the point where I can say, ‘Eat this number of blueberries in order to improve your mood.’ But we are definitely emerging and growing in the scientific evidence to be able to say, ‘You can construct a nutritional psychiatry plate for your mood,’” she told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently on his podcast Chasing Life.
The number of blueberries or ounces of salmon we have to eat in a day to improve our mood is unclear, Naidoo said, but the Standard American Diet, often referred to as SAD, that so many consume is not helping our mental health.
This way of eating is called SAD for a reason, she said. It’s calorie-dense and nutrient-poor, full of refined carbs, bad fats and added sugars while lacking in fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and clean protein.
“Any time that we can add those leafy greens, those actual whole foods onto our plate … and step away a little bit from those processed fast foods, the healthier we are going to become as a country,” she said, adding that ultraprocessed foods are engineered to trick our brain, so that we are almost unable to stop overeating.
What can you do to nourish your brain and boost your mood? Naidoo serves up these five tips. And to learn more about the brain benefits of eating a well-balanced diet and how what you eat affects your mood, listen to Naidoo go into detail on Chasing Life.
Eat whole foods to be whole
Eighty percent of your diet should focus on real, whole, fiber-rich foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and lower-glycemic whole grains, healthy fats and high-quality, well-sourced protein, Naidoo said. For the remaining 20%, there is leeway for “enjoying life as it comes.”
“Following an 80/20 rule allows for dietary discipline with some flexibility. … Adopting this mindset allows us to get all the mind-calming nutrients that we need while avoiding the guilt that sometimes comes along with being inflexible,” she said.
Enjoy a rainbow of food choices
It’s something that you hear often: Eat an assortment of vegetables and fruits in a wide variety of colors.
“To optimize the nutrient quality of your diet, be sure to eat the rainbow,” Naidoo said. “Different colored plant foods contain different brain-boosting nutrients, such as plant polyphenols.”
She tells people to lean into all the different vegetables, but she’s not leading with potatoes and sweet potatoes. “I’m leading with cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens and legumes and lentils and beans.”
Don’t forget fruit to “get those natural sugars into your body rather than reaching for the candy bar that we know is not the healthiest choice,” she said. “I want people to understand we need sugar for our bodies and our brain cells, so it’s where you get the sugar that’s important.”
Naidoo said that plant-rich eating also provides plenty of fiber “to support a healthy and thriving microbiome, which influences a healthier body and mind. Similarly, fiber helps to keep inflammation down and helps calm the mind.”
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Editor’s note: Season 8 of the podcast Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets back to basics with an in-depth examination of the brain in different states. Each episode will focus on one of those states — the distracted brain, the frightened brain, the depressed brain and others — to spotlight what is going on in our heads and how it affects our bodies.
(CNN) — Are you really what you eat? Decades of research back up the saying that you are what you eat and support the important health effects of good nutrition.
The health effects of food don’t just stop at the body. They extend into the mind as well, affecting not only our risk of future brain-based conditions (such as stroke and dementia) but also our ability to think clearly in the moment as well as our mood and mental health.
But it’s not so easy to know what to eat for brain health, or even how to measure it. Many of us have been told that foods such as blueberries, salmon, nuts and leafy greens are so-called brain foods. But how do they work? Are they neuroprotective? Do they make us smarter? More alert? Less stressed? Happier?
Nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo has
|
built a career around figuring out which foods improve brain function and positively influence the way we feel. She is the director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, an author and a personal chef.
Naidoo described the nascent and rapidly growing field as the “intersection between nutrition and mental health.”
“We’re not at the point where I can say, ‘Eat this number of blueberries in order to improve your mood.’ But we are definitely emerging and growing in the scientific evidence to be able to say, ‘You can construct a nutritional psychiatry plate for your mood,’” she told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently on his podcast Chasing Life.
The number of blueberries or ounces of salmon we have to eat in a day to improve our mood is unclear, Naidoo said, but the Standard American Diet, often referred to as SAD, that so many consume is not helping our mental health.
This way of eating is called SAD for a reason, she said. It’s calorie-dense and nutrient-poor, full of refined carbs, bad fats and added sugars while lacking in fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and clean protein.
“Any time that we can add those leafy greens, those actual whole foods onto our plate … and step away a little bit from those processed fast foods, the healthier we are going to become as a country,” she said, adding that ultraprocessed foods are engineered to trick our brain, so that we are almost unable to stop overeating.
What can you do to nourish your brain and boost your mood? Naidoo serves up these five tips. And to learn more about the brain benefits of eating a well-balanced diet and how what you eat affects your mood, listen to Naidoo go into detail on Chasing Life.
Eat whole foods to be whole
Eighty percent of your diet should focus on real, whole, fiber-rich foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and lower-glycemic whole grains, healthy fats and high-quality, well-sourced protein, Naidoo said. For the remaining 20%, there is leeway for “enjoying life as it comes.”
“Following an 80/20 rule allows for dietary discipline with some flexibility. … Adopting this mindset allows us to get all the mind-calming nutrients that we need while avoiding the guilt that sometimes comes along with being inflexible,” she said.
Enjoy a rainbow of food choices
It’s something that you hear often: Eat an assortment of vegetables and fruits in a wide variety of colors.
“To optimize the nutrient quality of your diet, be sure to eat the rainbow,” Naidoo said. “Different colored plant foods contain different brain-boosting nutrients, such as plant polyphenols.”
She tells people to lean into all the different vegetables, but she’s not leading with potatoes and sweet potatoes. “I’m leading with cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens and legumes and lentils and beans.”
Don’t forget fruit to “get those natural sugars into your body rather than reaching for the candy bar that we know is not the healthiest choice,” she said. “I want people to understand we need sugar for our bodies and our brain cells, so it’s where you get the sugar that’s important.”
Naidoo said that plant-rich eating also provides plenty of fiber “to support a healthy and thriving microbiome, which influences a healthier body and mind. Similarly, fiber helps to keep inflammation down and helps calm the mind.”
|
Judge blocks rules intended to protect nation's waterways, including Alabama
A federal judge temporarily blocked a federal rule in 24 states that is intended to protect thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways including those in Alabama. U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Wednesday halted the regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the 24 states. The regulations were finalized in December 2022, repealing a rule implemented during President Donald Trump's administration but thrown out by federal courts. The regulations define which "waters of the United States" are protected by the Clean Water Act. Opponents have called the rules an example of federal overreach and argued they unfairly burden farmers and ranchers.
The preliminary injunction affects Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. An injunction was previously issued that halted the rules in Texas and Idaho.
"Once again, the courts have affirmed that the Biden administration's WOTUS rule is overreaching and harmful to America's beef farmers and ranchers," said Todd Wilkinson, a South Dakota cattle producer and president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "Cattle producers in 26 states now have some additional certainty while this rule is being litigated and we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will provide nationwide clarity on the federal government's proper jurisdiction over water."
The EPA said in a statement that the agency and the Army Corps of Engineers were reviewing the decision but still believe the regulations were "the best" interpretation of the Clean Water Act. The agency says its rules would still stand in states not included in the injunction.
"The agencies remain committed to establishing and implementing a durable definition of 'waters of the United States' informed by diverse perspectives," the EPA said in the statement. "Our goal is to protect public health, the environment, and downstream communities while supporting economic opportunity, agriculture, and industries that depend on clean water."
The injunction comes less than a week after President Joe Biden vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned the rule. The House and Senate had used the Congressional Review Act to block the regulations, with several Democrats joining Republicans in opposing the regulations.
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Judge blocks rules intended to protect nation's waterways, including Alabama
A federal judge temporarily blocked a federal rule in 24 states that is intended to protect thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways including those in Alabama. U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Wednesday halted the regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the 24 states. The regulations were finalized in December 2022, repealing a rule implemented during President Donald Trump's administration but thrown out by federal courts. The regulations define which "waters of the United States" are protected by the Clean Water Act. Opponents have called the rules an example of federal overreach and argued they unfairly burden farmers and ranchers.
The preliminary injunction affects Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. An injunction was previously issued that halted the rules in Texas and Idaho.
"Once again, the courts have
|
affirmed that the Biden administration's WOTUS rule is overreaching and harmful to America's beef farmers and ranchers," said Todd Wilkinson, a South Dakota cattle producer and president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "Cattle producers in 26 states now have some additional certainty while this rule is being litigated and we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will provide nationwide clarity on the federal government's proper jurisdiction over water."
The EPA said in a statement that the agency and the Army Corps of Engineers were reviewing the decision but still believe the regulations were "the best" interpretation of the Clean Water Act. The agency says its rules would still stand in states not included in the injunction.
"The agencies remain committed to establishing and implementing a durable definition of 'waters of the United States' informed by diverse perspectives," the EPA said in the statement. "Our goal is to protect public health, the environment, and downstream communities while supporting economic opportunity, agriculture, and industries that depend on clean water."
The injunction comes less than a week after President Joe Biden vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned the rule. The House and Senate had used the Congressional Review Act to block the regulations, with several Democrats joining Republicans in opposing the regulations.
|
New Jersey women can teach us about gender equity as progress slows
As Women’s History Month ticks along, there are dire concerns about the pace of gender equality in the world.
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said this week that gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years given the recent trends.
At the opening of the Commission on the Status of Women's 2023 session, Guterres pointed to a rollback of reproductive rights in the U.S. and recent government-imposed limits on the level of education women can receive in Afghanistan among other changes.
"Progress, won over decades, is vanishing before our eyes," he said.
Setbacks can come quickly. And, as seen in New Jersey, they can stick around for decades.
The fight for equality
For women in the Garden State, the women's suffrage movement was a battle to restore a right lost.
New Jersey's first constitution in 1776 gave voting rights to “all inhabitants of this colony of full age, who are worth fifty pounds…and have resided within the county … (for) twelve months.” A 1790 amendment affirmed the voting law applied to both men and women.
And vote they did.
The Museum of the American Revolution unearthed old polling lists that named more than 200 women voters. In Chester's 1807 elections, 15 of the voters were women. That would soon be reduced to zero.
Accusations of fraud, voter intimidation, corruption, sexism and partisan politics led state legislators to restrict suffrage to taxpaying, white male citizens in 1807.
Some argued the state constitution had been misinterpreted from the start. Others were convinced the 50-pound requirement led to voter fraud. Others still claimed men were masquerading as women to vote more than once.
No school for girls:'Losing my words': Afghan girls meet virtually in secret to study with NJ teacher
A few New Jersey residents made famous protests until women's voting rights were made through the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. In 1857, Lucy Stone refused to pay property taxes in East Orange quoting the famous phrase "no taxation without representation."
Stone, the first woman from Massachusetts to receive a college degree, nonetheless saw some of her belongings seized and auctioned to cover her lien. A dozen years later, Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Tenafly defiantly attempted to vote but was blocked by the men guarding the ballot box.
110th anniversary of suffrage parade
The women's suffrage movement is being featured as part of National Women's Month commemorations by the National Constitution Center. Virtual programs are paying particular homage to the movement in honor of the 110th anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C.
Led by Alice Paul and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the March 3, 1913 parade featured women suffragists marching on horseback, nearly a dozen bands and two dozen parade floats.
It also drew massive attention to a movement that had been ongoing for more than half a century and not all for the best reasons. More than 300 were injured during the parade, as some spectators aggressively assaulted participants amid "rank mismanagement by police," The Morning Call of Paterson reported.
"Women marchers had their skirts torn off … by men who were drunk, or both mad and drunk," it reported. "Pennsylvania Avenue was cluttered with hair combs, bits or torn millinery, patches or women's clothing and other relics of the fight the suffragists had made to get through the crowd."
Beyond the National Constitution Center, organizations including The Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, and the Smithsonian Institution are all commemorating National Women's Month with programs and exhibitions.
In New Jersey, local groups including the Women’s History Month Committee in Bloomfield and the Glen Ridge Women's Club are hosting events.
The history of Women's History Month
The month of commemorations dates to 1987. Started as a Women's History Week created by the Education Task Force of Sonoma County, California, it became a month following a Congressional declaration. Since 1995, every president has made annual proclamations designating March as Women's History Month, according to the National Women's History Museum.
In a proclamation this month, President Joe Biden said more needs to be done to break down the systemic barriers to full and equal participation in our economy and society that women face.
Women's rights suffer setbacks
Back at the UN, the Commission on the Status of Women is holding a two-week session and looking specifically at disparities when it comes to gender equality in the digital age.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the UN, said Tuesday that the internet can empower women with educational and economic opportunities to help narrow those gender divides. Still, the internet has also made women susceptible to a raft of online threats and abuse.
Recent estimates are eight in 10 women have experienced some sort of online harassment, Thomas-Greenfield said. Offline, the scene isn't much better, she added.
"Since the pandemic started, gender-based violence has spiked," she said. "Meanwhile, too many women and girls are being killed - some even on public streets. Others are shunted away, banned from school and barred from public life."
According to UN estimates, roughly 1 in 3 women experienced physical or sexual violence even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since, there has been evidence of an uptick.
The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice reported an increase of more than 8% in domestic violence incidents following the imposition of pandemic-related lockdown orders in 2021. Globally, research by UN Women found an overall intensification of violence against women and girls following the outbreak, partially due to a concurrent reduction in support services as resources were shifted amid the pandemic.
Officials with the National Domestic Violence Hotline said record numbers of calls have spurred exceptionally long wait times. Some callers have been asked to call back when hold times exceed 15 minutes, as monthly calls, chats and texts seeking support for relationship abuse in 2022 reached nearly 80,000 a month on average, they said.
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New Jersey women can teach us about gender equity as progress slows
As Women’s History Month ticks along, there are dire concerns about the pace of gender equality in the world.
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said this week that gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years given the recent trends.
At the opening of the Commission on the Status of Women's 2023 session, Guterres pointed to a rollback of reproductive rights in the U.S. and recent government-imposed limits on the level of education women can receive in Afghanistan among other changes.
"Progress, won over decades, is vanishing before our eyes," he said.
Setbacks can come quickly. And, as seen in New Jersey, they can stick around for decades.
The fight for equality
For women in the Garden State, the women's suffrage movement was a battle to restore a right lost.
New Jersey's first constitution in 1776 gave voting rights to “all inhabitants of this colony of full age, who are worth fifty pounds…and have resided within the county … (for) twelve months.” A 1790 amendment affirmed the voting law applied to both men and women.
And vote they did.
The
|
Museum of the American Revolution unearthed old polling lists that named more than 200 women voters. In Chester's 1807 elections, 15 of the voters were women. That would soon be reduced to zero.
Accusations of fraud, voter intimidation, corruption, sexism and partisan politics led state legislators to restrict suffrage to taxpaying, white male citizens in 1807.
Some argued the state constitution had been misinterpreted from the start. Others were convinced the 50-pound requirement led to voter fraud. Others still claimed men were masquerading as women to vote more than once.
No school for girls:'Losing my words': Afghan girls meet virtually in secret to study with NJ teacher
A few New Jersey residents made famous protests until women's voting rights were made through the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. In 1857, Lucy Stone refused to pay property taxes in East Orange quoting the famous phrase "no taxation without representation."
Stone, the first woman from Massachusetts to receive a college degree, nonetheless saw some of her belongings seized and auctioned to cover her lien. A dozen years later, Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Tenafly defiantly attempted to vote but was blocked by the men guarding the ballot box.
110th anniversary of suffrage parade
The women's suffrage movement is being featured as part of National Women's Month commemorations by the National Constitution Center. Virtual programs are paying particular homage to the movement in honor of the 110th anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C.
Led by Alice Paul and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the March 3, 1913 parade featured women suffragists marching on horseback, nearly a dozen bands and two dozen parade floats.
It also drew massive attention to a movement that had been ongoing for more than half a century and not all for the best reasons. More than 300 were injured during the parade, as some spectators aggressively assaulted participants amid "rank mismanagement by police," The Morning Call of Paterson reported.
"Women marchers had their skirts torn off … by men who were drunk, or both mad and drunk," it reported. "Pennsylvania Avenue was cluttered with hair combs, bits or torn millinery, patches or women's clothing and other relics of the fight the suffragists had made to get through the crowd."
Beyond the National Constitution Center, organizations including The Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, and the Smithsonian Institution are all commemorating National Women's Month with programs and exhibitions.
In New Jersey, local groups including the Women’s History Month Committee in Bloomfield and the Glen Ridge Women's Club are hosting events.
The history of Women's History Month
The month of commemorations dates to 1987. Started as a Women's History Week created by the Education Task Force of Sonoma County, California, it became a month following a Congressional declaration. Since 1995, every president has made annual proclamations designating March as Women's History Month, according to the National Women's History Museum.
In a proclamation this month, President Joe Biden said more needs to be done to break down the systemic barriers to full and equal participation in our economy and society that women face.
Women's rights suffer setbacks
Back at the UN, the Commission on the Status of Women is holding a two-week session and looking specifically at disparities when it comes to gender equality in the digital age.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the UN, said Tuesday that the internet can empower women with educational and economic opportunities to help narrow those gender divides. Still, the internet has also made women susceptible to a raft of online threats and abuse.
Recent estimates are eight in 10 women have experienced some sort of online harassment, Thomas-Greenfield said. Offline, the scene isn't much better, she added.
"Since the pandemic started, gender-based violence has spiked," she said. "Meanwhile, too many women and girls are being killed - some even on public streets. Others are shunted away, banned from school and barred from public life."
According to UN estimates, roughly 1 in 3 women experienced physical or sexual violence even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since, there has been evidence of an uptick.
The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice reported an increase of more than 8% in domestic violence incidents following the imposition of pandemic-related lockdown orders in 2021. Globally, research by UN Women found an overall intensification of violence against women and girls following the outbreak, partially due to a concurrent reduction in support services as resources were shifted amid the pandemic.
Officials with the National Domestic Violence Hotline said record numbers of calls have spurred exceptionally long wait times. Some callers have been asked to call back when hold times exceed 15 minutes, as monthly calls, chats and texts seeking support for relationship abuse in 2022 reached nearly 80,000 a month on average, they said.
|
1 in 4 people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water, the U.N. says
UNITED NATIONS — A new report launched Tuesday on the eve of the first major U.N. conference on water in over 45 years says 26% of the world's population doesn't have access to safe drinking water and 46% lack access to basic sanitation.
The U.N. World Water Development Report 2023 painted a stark picture of the huge gap that needs to be filled to meet U.N. goals to ensure all people have access to clean water and sanitation by 2030.
Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the report, told a news conference that the estimated cost of meeting the goals is somewhere between $600 billion and $1 trillion a year.
But equally important, Connor said, is forging partnerships with investors, financiers, governments and climate change communities to ensure that money is invested in ways to sustain the environment and provide potable water to the 2 billion people who don't have it and sanitation to the 3.6 million in need.
According to the report, water use has been increasing globally by roughly 1% per year over the last 40 years "and is expected to grow at a similar rate through to 2050, driven by a combination of population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns."
Connor said that actual increase in demand is happening in developing countries and emerging economies where it is driven by industrial growth and especially the rapid increase in the population of cities. It is in these urban areas "that you're having a real big increase in demand," he said.
With agriculture using 70% of all water globally, Connor said, irrigation for crops has to be more efficient — as it is in some countries that now use drip irrigation, which saves water. "That allows water to be available to cities," he said.
As a result of climate change, the report said, "seasonal water scarcity will increase in regions where it is currently abundant — such as Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America — and worsen in regions where water is already in short supply, such as the Middle East and the Sahara in Africa."
On average, "10% of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress" — and up to 3.5 billion people live under conditions of water stress at least one month a year, said the report issued by UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Since 2000, floods in the tropics have quadrupled while floods in the north mid-latitudes have increased 2.5-fold, the report said. Trends in droughts are more difficult to establish, it said, "although an increase in intensity or frequency of droughts and 'heat extremes' can be expected in most regions as a direct result of climate change."
As for water pollution, Connor said, the biggest source of pollution is untreated wastewater.
"Globally, 80 percent of wastewater is released to the environment without any treatment," he said, "and in many developing countries it's pretty much 99%."
These and other issues including protecting aquatic ecosystems, improving management of water resources, increasing water reuse and promoting cooperation across borders on water use will be discussed during the three-day U.N. Water Conference co-chaired by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon opening Wednesday morning.
There are 171 countries, including over 100 ministers, on the speakers list along with more than 20 organizations. The meeting will also include five "interactive dialogues" and dozens of side events.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
|
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1 in 4 people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water, the U.N. says
UNITED NATIONS — A new report launched Tuesday on the eve of the first major U.N. conference on water in over 45 years says 26% of the world's population doesn't have access to safe drinking water and 46% lack access to basic sanitation.
The U.N. World Water Development Report 2023 painted a stark picture of the huge gap that needs to be filled to meet U.N. goals to ensure all people have access to clean water and sanitation by 2030.
Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the report, told a news conference that the estimated cost of meeting the goals is somewhere between $600 billion and $1 trillion a year.
But equally important, Connor said, is forging partnerships with investors, financiers, governments and climate change communities to ensure that money is invested in ways to sustain the environment and provide potable water to the 2 billion people who don't have it and sanitation to the 3.6 million in need.
According to the report, water use has been increasing globally by roughly 1% per year over the last 40 years "
|
and is expected to grow at a similar rate through to 2050, driven by a combination of population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns."
Connor said that actual increase in demand is happening in developing countries and emerging economies where it is driven by industrial growth and especially the rapid increase in the population of cities. It is in these urban areas "that you're having a real big increase in demand," he said.
With agriculture using 70% of all water globally, Connor said, irrigation for crops has to be more efficient — as it is in some countries that now use drip irrigation, which saves water. "That allows water to be available to cities," he said.
As a result of climate change, the report said, "seasonal water scarcity will increase in regions where it is currently abundant — such as Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America — and worsen in regions where water is already in short supply, such as the Middle East and the Sahara in Africa."
On average, "10% of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress" — and up to 3.5 billion people live under conditions of water stress at least one month a year, said the report issued by UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Since 2000, floods in the tropics have quadrupled while floods in the north mid-latitudes have increased 2.5-fold, the report said. Trends in droughts are more difficult to establish, it said, "although an increase in intensity or frequency of droughts and 'heat extremes' can be expected in most regions as a direct result of climate change."
As for water pollution, Connor said, the biggest source of pollution is untreated wastewater.
"Globally, 80 percent of wastewater is released to the environment without any treatment," he said, "and in many developing countries it's pretty much 99%."
These and other issues including protecting aquatic ecosystems, improving management of water resources, increasing water reuse and promoting cooperation across borders on water use will be discussed during the three-day U.N. Water Conference co-chaired by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon opening Wednesday morning.
There are 171 countries, including over 100 ministers, on the speakers list along with more than 20 organizations. The meeting will also include five "interactive dialogues" and dozens of side events.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
|
How the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action may change the future of college
If race-conscious admissions falls, some schools are expected to use household incomes and ZIP codes to enroll diverse classes.
The Supreme Court seems destined to end its term with a big rollback of the tool colleges employ to boost racial diversity on their campuses.
What’s unclear is how schools fashion race-neutral workarounds to fill that gap — or if the ruling pushes colleges to retreat on a goal that’s been a priority for decades.
Affirmative action in higher education has endured by relying on moderate justices like Sandra Day O’Connor, but the court remade by former President Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sounded prepared to end it during oral arguments in October.
If race-conscious admissions fall, some better-resourced schools are expected to use household incomes, ZIP codes, targeted recruiting programs and other indirect methods to prop up their commitment to diversity. But among the nine states that banned the practice at their colleges years ago, the schools don’t present many lessons on how to boost the number of Black and brown students without it.
“There is no substitute for race-based affirmative action,” said Liz King, senior education program director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which represents more than 230 national organizations. “Affirmative action is a critical part of ensuring racial justice and equity in higher education.”
The high court’s decision hinges on two cases where Students for Fair Admissions is challenging race-conscious practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — the nation’s oldest private and public universities.
At its core, the group, which says it represents about 20,000 students, has alleged that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian American applicants. It has also spent decades trying to get the court to overturn a ruling in the landmark Grutter v. Bollinger case, which has shaped college admissions policies since 2003. But education groups and civil rights advocates argue that banning the use of race altogether will exacerbate inequality for years to come. A race-blind admissions standard, they say, fails to account for barriers Black and brown students often face.
Here are four areas that will change or intensify if the Supreme Court ends affirmative action in college admissions:
A narrow ruling vs. an expansive takedown
After confirming that the justices officially put an end to affirmative action in higher education, the first thing lawyers, policymakers and the press will be speed-reading to find out is just how broad the majority decides to go: Will the opinion purely focus on colleges or will it suggest ending the practice in hiring as well?
Some civil rights groups and education advocates have also said they are worried that organizations seeking to restrict the use of race-based affirmative action might find an opening to limit gender-focused programs as well.
The Supreme Court sets its own rules, but David Hinojosa, who argued on behalf of a group of students opposed to the suit against UNC, said he expects the justices to hew narrowly to the issue brought to them.
“The question before the court is whether or not you can use race as a plus-factor in admissions,” said Hinojosa, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. It’s that particular “tool” for diversifying freshman classes that’s facing criticism, he said, not the goal.
A ruling in favor of SFFA isn’t likely to upend federal programs for historically Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, Hinojosa said. It won’t affect student affinity groups, anti-bias training for students and faculty, diversity and inclusion programs, employment or hiring. He also doubted that programs promoting women in the admissions process would be affected “because race is subject to higher scrutiny by the court.”
Civil rights groups also batted down speculation that students won’t be able to write about their experiences or racial identity in their college essays, something many justices are likely to see as a violation of free speech.
College admissions officers will grasp for workarounds
Affirmative action is already banned in California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Idaho — and none of them offer a clear path for schools like Harvard or UNC.
California became the first state to ban the consideration of race and gender in hiring and public school admissions with Proposition 209. But lawmakers in the deep blue state have been unable to rescind it as the state’s public university system has struggled with enrolling diverse classes. (Washington state banned the practice in 1998 but lifted the restriction in 2022.)
After the initiative was adopted, underrepresented student enrollment “dropped precipitously at [the University of California], and dropped by 50 percent or more at UC’s most selective campuses,” the university system wrote in an amicus brief siding with UNC and Harvard.
To stem their losses, the University of California implemented race-neutral measures, including outreach programs to low-income students and students from families with little or no college experience.
“Those programs have enabled UC to make significant gains in its system-wide diversity,” the president and chancellors wrote. “Yet despite its extensive efforts, UC struggles to enroll a student body that is sufficiently racially diverse to attain the educational benefits of diversity.”
College admissions counselors across the country are also brainstorming ways to preserve diversity on campus if they can’t use race.
Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, has said the future of diversity on campus could rely heavily on targeted recruitment and a student’s ZIP code.
“If the court said you can’t use race, what it means is that that box is probably going to go away,” he said in an interview last year. “But it doesn’t mean that colleges and universities will not be making some pretty educated guesses around the students’ backgrounds.”
The Supreme Court could tinker with admissions minutiae
The legal campaign against Harvard includes one highly specific target: the school’s use of a “personal rating.”
Lower courts have given the practice a pass but Students for Fair Admissions has pointed out that Asian American usually have lower personal rating scores than Black and Latino applicants, which are based in part on letters of recommendation and an essay.
And with some justices clearly skeptical of the rating system, it’s clear that schools have to be mindful of their seemingly race-neutral admissions techniques — and understand the Supreme Court’s interest in them.
“The record shows that Asian student applicants get the lowest personal scores of any other group,” Justice Samuel Alito said in October. “What accounts for that? It has to be one of two things: It has to be that they really do lack integrity, courage, kindness and empathy to the same degree as students of other races or there has to be something wrong with this personal score.”
Disparities among personal scores have been a key part of SFFA’s argument to ban race-conscious admissions, and it’s helped the group garner support from Asian Americans who believe elite schools are intentionally excluding them.
“Asian American children have suffered severely from this kind of discrimination,” said Mike Zhao, Asian American Coalition for Education president, in an interview. “Asian Americans have been regarded as the highest-income, best educated racial group in America. But under this discrimination, our children have to hide their racial identity when applying to schools. That’s a shame. That is social injustice.”
Zhao, whose group backs SFFA, said Asian American students face a higher admission standard than other minority students, and many carry overwhelming class loads. Some even experience depression or consider suicide, he said.
Congress may have a role to play post-decision
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said Congress may have to address admissions barriers for underrepresented students — including standardized tests or legacy admission policies — if the Supreme Court strikes down the use of race in college admissions.
“One of the problems is … there didn’t seem to be any consideration given to the discriminatory measures they now use, like performance on a standardized test,” Scott told POLITICO, adding that he expects more legal challenges to these barriers for students if race-conscious admissions policies are ruled illegal.
During oral arguments, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar also said the government’s view is that eliminating admissions preferences for children of alumni, donors, faculty and staff may enable a university to meet its diversity goals.
“If you’re using legacy, if you’re using developmental admits — where you’re going to reach parents to hit up for contributions — standardized tests, which are notoriously discriminatory, what kind of K-12 school you went to in terms of opportunity,” Scott said, “if you can use those and affirmative action, you can almost say no harm, no foul. If you get rid of affirmative action, all you’ve got is a series of discriminatory screens.”
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How the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action may change the future of college
If race-conscious admissions falls, some schools are expected to use household incomes and ZIP codes to enroll diverse classes.
The Supreme Court seems destined to end its term with a big rollback of the tool colleges employ to boost racial diversity on their campuses.
What’s unclear is how schools fashion race-neutral workarounds to fill that gap — or if the ruling pushes colleges to retreat on a goal that’s been a priority for decades.
Affirmative action in higher education has endured by relying on moderate justices like Sandra Day O’Connor, but the court remade by former President Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sounded prepared to end it during oral arguments in October.
If race-conscious admissions fall, some better-resourced schools are expected to use household incomes, ZIP codes, targeted recruiting programs and other indirect methods to prop up their commitment to diversity. But among the nine states that banned the practice at their colleges years ago, the schools don’t present many lessons on how to boost the number of Black and brown students without it.
“There is no substitute for race-based affirmative action,” said Liz King, senior education program director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and
|
Human Rights, which represents more than 230 national organizations. “Affirmative action is a critical part of ensuring racial justice and equity in higher education.”
The high court’s decision hinges on two cases where Students for Fair Admissions is challenging race-conscious practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — the nation’s oldest private and public universities.
At its core, the group, which says it represents about 20,000 students, has alleged that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian American applicants. It has also spent decades trying to get the court to overturn a ruling in the landmark Grutter v. Bollinger case, which has shaped college admissions policies since 2003. But education groups and civil rights advocates argue that banning the use of race altogether will exacerbate inequality for years to come. A race-blind admissions standard, they say, fails to account for barriers Black and brown students often face.
Here are four areas that will change or intensify if the Supreme Court ends affirmative action in college admissions:
A narrow ruling vs. an expansive takedown
After confirming that the justices officially put an end to affirmative action in higher education, the first thing lawyers, policymakers and the press will be speed-reading to find out is just how broad the majority decides to go: Will the opinion purely focus on colleges or will it suggest ending the practice in hiring as well?
Some civil rights groups and education advocates have also said they are worried that organizations seeking to restrict the use of race-based affirmative action might find an opening to limit gender-focused programs as well.
The Supreme Court sets its own rules, but David Hinojosa, who argued on behalf of a group of students opposed to the suit against UNC, said he expects the justices to hew narrowly to the issue brought to them.
“The question before the court is whether or not you can use race as a plus-factor in admissions,” said Hinojosa, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. It’s that particular “tool” for diversifying freshman classes that’s facing criticism, he said, not the goal.
A ruling in favor of SFFA isn’t likely to upend federal programs for historically Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, Hinojosa said. It won’t affect student affinity groups, anti-bias training for students and faculty, diversity and inclusion programs, employment or hiring. He also doubted that programs promoting women in the admissions process would be affected “because race is subject to higher scrutiny by the court.”
Civil rights groups also batted down speculation that students won’t be able to write about their experiences or racial identity in their college essays, something many justices are likely to see as a violation of free speech.
College admissions officers will grasp for workarounds
Affirmative action is already banned in California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Idaho — and none of them offer a clear path for schools like Harvard or UNC.
California became the first state to ban the consideration of race and gender in hiring and public school admissions with Proposition 209. But lawmakers in the deep blue state have been unable to rescind it as the state’s public university system has struggled with enrolling diverse classes. (Washington state banned the practice in 1998 but lifted the restriction in 2022.)
After the initiative was adopted, underrepresented student enrollment “dropped precipitously at [the University of California], and dropped by 50 percent or more at UC’s most selective campuses,” the university system wrote in an amicus brief siding with UNC and Harvard.
To stem their losses, the University of California implemented race-neutral measures, including outreach programs to low-income students and students from families with little or no college experience.
“Those programs have enabled UC to make significant gains in its system-wide diversity,” the president and chancellors wrote. “Yet despite its extensive efforts, UC struggles to enroll a student body that is sufficiently racially diverse to attain the educational benefits of diversity.”
College admissions counselors across the country are also brainstorming ways to preserve diversity on campus if they can’t use race.
Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, has said the future of diversity on campus could rely heavily on targeted recruitment and a student’s ZIP code.
“If the court said you can’t use race, what it means is that that box is probably going to go away,” he said in an interview last year. “But it doesn’t mean that colleges and universities will not be making some pretty educated guesses around the students’ backgrounds.”
The Supreme Court could tinker with admissions minutiae
The legal campaign against Harvard includes one highly specific target: the school’s use of a “personal rating.”
Lower courts have given the practice a pass but Students for Fair Admissions has pointed out that Asian American usually have lower personal rating scores than Black and Latino applicants, which are based in part on letters of recommendation and an essay.
And with some justices clearly skeptical of the rating system, it’s clear that schools have to be mindful of their seemingly race-neutral admissions techniques — and understand the Supreme Court’s interest in them.
“The record shows that Asian student applicants get the lowest personal scores of any other group,” Justice Samuel Alito said in October. “What accounts for that? It has to be one of two things: It has to be that they really do lack integrity, courage, kindness and empathy to the same degree as students of other races or there has to be something wrong with this personal score.”
Disparities among personal scores have been a key part of SFFA’s argument to ban race-conscious admissions, and it’s helped the group garner support from Asian Americans who believe elite schools are intentionally excluding them.
“Asian American children have suffered severely from this kind of discrimination,” said Mike Zhao, Asian American Coalition for Education president, in an interview. “Asian Americans have been regarded as the highest-income, best educated racial group in America. But under this discrimination, our children have to hide their racial identity when applying to schools. That’s a shame. That is social injustice.”
Zhao, whose group backs SFFA, said Asian American students face a higher admission standard than other minority students, and many carry overwhelming class loads. Some even experience depression or consider suicide, he said.
Congress may have a role to play post-decision
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said Congress may have to address admissions barriers for underrepresented students — including standardized tests or legacy admission policies — if the Supreme Court strikes down the use of race in college admissions.
“One of the problems is … there didn’t seem to be any consideration given to the discriminatory measures they now use, like performance on a standardized test,” Scott told POLITICO, adding that he expects more legal challenges to these barriers for students if race-conscious admissions policies are ruled illegal.
During oral arguments, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar also said the government’s view is that eliminating admissions preferences for children of alumni, donors, faculty and staff may enable a university to meet its diversity goals.
“If you’re using legacy, if you’re using developmental admits — where you’re going to reach parents to hit up for contributions — standardized tests, which are notoriously discriminatory, what kind of K-12 school you went to in terms of opportunity,” Scott said, “if you can use those and affirmative action, you can almost say no harm, no foul. If you get rid of affirmative action, all you’ve got is a series of discriminatory screens.”
|
China Can No Longer Deny Its Shrinking Population
An official acknowledgement of population decline may herald new measures to encourage families.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
The highlights this week: China records negative population growth for the first time in decades, the government’s new COVID-19 death toll remains a serious underestimate, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He speaks at the World Economic Forum.
If you would like to receive China Brief in your inbox every Wednesday, please sign up here.
Official Data Shows Population Decline
This week, China officially recorded a slight population decline for the first time since the Great Famine, between 1959 and 1961. The statistics have prompted concern and a sense of despair in a country already experiencing a looming economic crisis, a massive COVID-19 wave, and geopolitical isolation.
Population decline in China has been on the way for years; it’s likely that the actual decrease began a couple of years ago and could be sharper than the official figures let on. Chinese population data is unreliable in part because governments in rural areas have incentives to overreport numbers to get more aid. Those in urban areas tend to underreport since official policy is to control the size of the population in the big cities.
Still, as recently as 2019, China predicted that negative population growth wouldn’t begin until 2029. It looked as if the country might record a decline in 2021, when the 2020 figures were released, but official data showed a slight increase. Marriage rates have fallen for eight consecutive years, and birthrates have followed suit—although not yet to the same degree. In 2021, China recorded just 7.63 million marriage registrations, compared with 13.47 million in 2013.
What’s prompting Chinese to stay away from getting married and having children? In part, it’s simply cost. Raising kids in China is expensive, especially to the standards of the urban upper-middle class. It costs more than in countries that also have more per capita wealth, such as Japan or the United States.
Reduced hope for the future may also play a role, especially given the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2000s, there was a strong sense of economic growth and expanding political freedoms as tides that lifted all boats, but by the mid-2010s, Chinese society began to feel increasingly zero-sum. Younger generations felt their prospects dim. “We are the last generation” has become a popular slogan among young people and speaks powerfully to that insecurity.
Another key factor is also expanded choice and power for women in China, who increasingly have careers of their own and for whom marriage may seem like a bad bargain. That is a good thing. When given the opportunity, women around the world choose to have fewer children on average.
Furthermore, China’s one-child policy—involving forced sterilizations and financial penalties, which are still used as part of the campaign of genocide in Xinjiang—created a demographic gap earlier than the country could afford. There simply are not enough working-age people to support the number of old people. In the 2000s, demographers expressed a fear that China would get old before it got rich—and now it’s happening.
Other countries can supplement their workforce through immigration, but although China has significant internal migration, there is very little migration from outside the country. That’s because for immigrants in China, there is no meaningful path to permanent residency. For comparison, the U.S. foreign-born population is 48 million; in China, that figure in the 2020 census was around 1.4 million and included 585,000 people from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan living in China.
The Chinese government’s official acknowledgement of population decline will likely prompt a raft of measures to encourage childbearing. This had already begun both at the national level and the local level, such as the $2,800 subsidy for couples having a third child in Shenzhen. (That would cover roughly 3 percent of the cost of raising that child.) The 2021 ban on private tutoring largely aimed to bring down the cost of child-rearing, but it only created a black market for the well-connected and deepened educational inequality.
The Chinese public would welcome steps to alleviate the costs of education and health care, but it’s likely that some of these measures will be coercive. Government coverage of the birthrate has often taken a patriarchal tone, including articles calling for women to leave the workplace and “return to their families.” The police and security services have singled out feminists for persecution in recent years.
As the political scientist Chenchen Zhang pointed out, the top reasons young people give for not having children are economic and social burdens, but the answer from government officials is more propaganda and patriarchal indoctrination.
One possible consequence of the government recognizing the crisis may be the introduction of a guest worker program, possibly targeted at attracting cheap labor from Southeast Asia. Of course, that policy wouldn’t offer laborers any path to residency. Given the scale of China’s population and the numbers required to make up for diminishing birthrates, it’s also unlikely to be more than a Band-Aid.
What We’re Following
“New” COVID-19 data. China finally raised its death toll since ditching a strict zero-COVID policy early last month, from a handful of cases to just under 60,000. However, that is still a vast underestimate of the real toll. A London-based firm estimates that China’s total COVID-related death toll is around 390,000. Meanwhile, doctors in China say they are still being told not to list COVID-19 on death certificates.
The delay in releasing these statistics signals the confusion caused inside the government by the sudden shift in COVID-19 policy. Chinese media outlets have slyly hinted at the real death toll, such as this retrospective of major figures who died “in recent weeks” without any mention of the cause. Outlets have turned to groups that publish regular obituaries for their members to estimate numbers: For example, the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Beijing saw roughly 13 times the number of member deaths last month compared with an ordinary December.
Protesters detained, months later. As expected, China has quietly rounded up some of the protesters from the zero-COVID demonstrations last November, concentrating on those who attended events in prominent locations such as Beijing and Shanghai and which directly targeted Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership. Young women appear particular targets, perhaps highlighting the government’s fear of feminist movements. Shortly before her arrest, one detainee, , documented the harassment she had received since the protests.
Marvel back at the Chinese box office. After a three-year de facto ban on Marvel films in China, two movies—Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania—will be released in China in February. These openings are probably a sign of the slight softening of anti-U.S. policies both culturally and politically. Although neither film is getting a shot at the profitable Spring Festival box office during the week of Jan. 22, Avatar: The Way of Water got a very rare extension to run into a period reserved for domestic movies.
FP’s Most Read This Week
• Turkey Is Sending Cold War-Era Cluster Bombs to Ukraine by Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer
• Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow on the Moment He Realized Russia Would Launch a Full-Scale Invasion by Amy Mackinnon and Robbie Gramer
• Decoupling Wastes U.S. Leverage on China by Paul Scharre
Tech and Business
Liu He plays Davos Man. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He gave a speech to at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, designed to hit all the right notes: that China is reopening and will not go back and that foreign investment is welcome. One would have to be naive to take this message at face value after a decade of crackdowns on private business, xenophobic campaigns, and the CCP’s intrusion into arenas from technology to education.
China’s economic situation is just dire enough to demand temporary easing and lure investment. But the overall agenda of CCP control won’t disappear until Chinese President Xi Jinping does—and perhaps not even then. Liu’s speech seemed to go down pretty well, although he didn’t receive the rapturous reception that greeted Chinese leaders at Davos for years: This time, around one-quarter of the crowd reportedly left before the end.
Didi back in the game. The Chinese ride-hailing app Didi is the latest company to benefit from an easing of previous government controls as authorities try to breathe life back into the economy. Didi was restricted from signing up new users for 18 months after making political mistakes, such as listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Firms such as Didi and Alibaba are being released from the doghouse only after effectively capitulating to the CCP, making political changes demanded by the authorities and allowing the party to take a critical share of control.
Property investment down. Chinese real estate investment dropped by 10 percent year over year in 2022, marking the first decline since record-keeping began—along with the Chinese property boom—in 1999. Even more than overall economic slowdown or the employment crisis, a crumbling property sector is a critical threat to stability in China. Most middle-class wealth is invested in property, and I would expect the government to take steps to make foreign investment easier for a sector that now desperately needs money to stay afloat.
James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @BeijingPalmer
More from Foreign Policy
Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America
The peace plan is a big deal—and it’s no accident that China brokered it.
The U.S.-Israel Relationship No Longer Makes Sense
If Israel and its supporters want the country to continue receiving U.S. largesse, they will need to come up with a new narrative.
Putin Is Trapped in the Sunk-Cost Fallacy of War
Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.
How China’s Saudi-Iran Deal Can Serve U.S. Interests
And why there’s less to Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough than meets the eye.
Join the Conversation
Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription.
Already a subscriber?.
Join the Conversation
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China Can No Longer Deny Its Shrinking Population
An official acknowledgement of population decline may herald new measures to encourage families.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
The highlights this week: China records negative population growth for the first time in decades, the government’s new COVID-19 death toll remains a serious underestimate, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He speaks at the World Economic Forum.
If you would like to receive China Brief in your inbox every Wednesday, please sign up here.
Official Data Shows Population Decline
This week, China officially recorded a slight population decline for the first time since the Great Famine, between 1959 and 1961. The statistics have prompted concern and a sense of despair in a country already experiencing a looming economic crisis, a massive COVID-19 wave, and geopolitical isolation.
Population decline in China has been on the way for years; it’s likely that the actual decrease began a couple of years ago and could be sharper than the official figures let on. Chinese population data is unreliable in part because governments in rural areas have incentives to overreport numbers to get more aid. Those in urban areas tend to underreport since official policy is to
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control the size of the population in the big cities.
Still, as recently as 2019, China predicted that negative population growth wouldn’t begin until 2029. It looked as if the country might record a decline in 2021, when the 2020 figures were released, but official data showed a slight increase. Marriage rates have fallen for eight consecutive years, and birthrates have followed suit—although not yet to the same degree. In 2021, China recorded just 7.63 million marriage registrations, compared with 13.47 million in 2013.
What’s prompting Chinese to stay away from getting married and having children? In part, it’s simply cost. Raising kids in China is expensive, especially to the standards of the urban upper-middle class. It costs more than in countries that also have more per capita wealth, such as Japan or the United States.
Reduced hope for the future may also play a role, especially given the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2000s, there was a strong sense of economic growth and expanding political freedoms as tides that lifted all boats, but by the mid-2010s, Chinese society began to feel increasingly zero-sum. Younger generations felt their prospects dim. “We are the last generation” has become a popular slogan among young people and speaks powerfully to that insecurity.
Another key factor is also expanded choice and power for women in China, who increasingly have careers of their own and for whom marriage may seem like a bad bargain. That is a good thing. When given the opportunity, women around the world choose to have fewer children on average.
Furthermore, China’s one-child policy—involving forced sterilizations and financial penalties, which are still used as part of the campaign of genocide in Xinjiang—created a demographic gap earlier than the country could afford. There simply are not enough working-age people to support the number of old people. In the 2000s, demographers expressed a fear that China would get old before it got rich—and now it’s happening.
Other countries can supplement their workforce through immigration, but although China has significant internal migration, there is very little migration from outside the country. That’s because for immigrants in China, there is no meaningful path to permanent residency. For comparison, the U.S. foreign-born population is 48 million; in China, that figure in the 2020 census was around 1.4 million and included 585,000 people from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan living in China.
The Chinese government’s official acknowledgement of population decline will likely prompt a raft of measures to encourage childbearing. This had already begun both at the national level and the local level, such as the $2,800 subsidy for couples having a third child in Shenzhen. (That would cover roughly 3 percent of the cost of raising that child.) The 2021 ban on private tutoring largely aimed to bring down the cost of child-rearing, but it only created a black market for the well-connected and deepened educational inequality.
The Chinese public would welcome steps to alleviate the costs of education and health care, but it’s likely that some of these measures will be coercive. Government coverage of the birthrate has often taken a patriarchal tone, including articles calling for women to leave the workplace and “return to their families.” The police and security services have singled out feminists for persecution in recent years.
As the political scientist Chenchen Zhang pointed out, the top reasons young people give for not having children are economic and social burdens, but the answer from government officials is more propaganda and patriarchal indoctrination.
One possible consequence of the government recognizing the crisis may be the introduction of a guest worker program, possibly targeted at attracting cheap labor from Southeast Asia. Of course, that policy wouldn’t offer laborers any path to residency. Given the scale of China’s population and the numbers required to make up for diminishing birthrates, it’s also unlikely to be more than a Band-Aid.
What We’re Following
“New” COVID-19 data. China finally raised its death toll since ditching a strict zero-COVID policy early last month, from a handful of cases to just under 60,000. However, that is still a vast underestimate of the real toll. A London-based firm estimates that China’s total COVID-related death toll is around 390,000. Meanwhile, doctors in China say they are still being told not to list COVID-19 on death certificates.
The delay in releasing these statistics signals the confusion caused inside the government by the sudden shift in COVID-19 policy. Chinese media outlets have slyly hinted at the real death toll, such as this retrospective of major figures who died “in recent weeks” without any mention of the cause. Outlets have turned to groups that publish regular obituaries for their members to estimate numbers: For example, the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Beijing saw roughly 13 times the number of member deaths last month compared with an ordinary December.
Protesters detained, months later. As expected, China has quietly rounded up some of the protesters from the zero-COVID demonstrations last November, concentrating on those who attended events in prominent locations such as Beijing and Shanghai and which directly targeted Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership. Young women appear particular targets, perhaps highlighting the government’s fear of feminist movements. Shortly before her arrest, one detainee, , documented the harassment she had received since the protests.
Marvel back at the Chinese box office. After a three-year de facto ban on Marvel films in China, two movies—Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania—will be released in China in February. These openings are probably a sign of the slight softening of anti-U.S. policies both culturally and politically. Although neither film is getting a shot at the profitable Spring Festival box office during the week of Jan. 22, Avatar: The Way of Water got a very rare extension to run into a period reserved for domestic movies.
FP’s Most Read This Week
• Turkey Is Sending Cold War-Era Cluster Bombs to Ukraine by Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer
• Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow on the Moment He Realized Russia Would Launch a Full-Scale Invasion by Amy Mackinnon and Robbie Gramer
• Decoupling Wastes U.S. Leverage on China by Paul Scharre
Tech and Business
Liu He plays Davos Man. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He gave a speech to at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, designed to hit all the right notes: that China is reopening and will not go back and that foreign investment is welcome. One would have to be naive to take this message at face value after a decade of crackdowns on private business, xenophobic campaigns, and the CCP’s intrusion into arenas from technology to education.
China’s economic situation is just dire enough to demand temporary easing and lure investment. But the overall agenda of CCP control won’t disappear until Chinese President Xi Jinping does—and perhaps not even then. Liu’s speech seemed to go down pretty well, although he didn’t receive the rapturous reception that greeted Chinese leaders at Davos for years: This time, around one-quarter of the crowd reportedly left before the end.
Didi back in the game. The Chinese ride-hailing app Didi is the latest company to benefit from an easing of previous government controls as authorities try to breathe life back into the economy. Didi was restricted from signing up new users for 18 months after making political mistakes, such as listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Firms such as Didi and Alibaba are being released from the doghouse only after effectively capitulating to the CCP, making political changes demanded by the authorities and allowing the party to take a critical share of control.
Property investment down. Chinese real estate investment dropped by 10 percent year over year in 2022, marking the first decline since record-keeping began—along with the Chinese property boom—in 1999. Even more than overall economic slowdown or the employment crisis, a crumbling property sector is a critical threat to stability in China. Most middle-class wealth is invested in property, and I would expect the government to take steps to make foreign investment easier for a sector that now desperately needs money to stay afloat.
James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @BeijingPalmer
More from Foreign Policy
Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America
The peace plan is a big deal—and it’s no accident that China brokered it.
The U.S.-Israel Relationship No Longer Makes Sense
If Israel and its supporters want the country to continue receiving U.S. largesse, they will need to come up with a new narrative.
Putin Is Trapped in the Sunk-Cost Fallacy of War
Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.
How China’s Saudi-Iran Deal Can Serve U.S. Interests
And why there’s less to Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough than meets the eye.
Join the Conversation
Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription.
Already a subscriber?.
Join the Conversation
Join the conversation on this and other recent Foreign Policy articles when you subscribe now.
Not your account?
Join the Conversation
Please follow our comment guidelines, stay on topic, and be civil, courteous, and respectful of others’ beliefs.
|
There’s a basic understanding that Native people who straddle life inside and outside the reservation share: We can carry our culture with us where ever we go, but also have perspective outside of it.
I never met Kimowan Metchewais, a multidisciplinary Cree artist, whose work explored the connection of Indigenous identity to home and language through contexts of community, environment and spiritual relationships. He died in 2011, a few years before I encountered his art. When I did, I immediately felt a kinship with him and his work.
Kimowan grew up on the Cold Lake First Nations Reserve in Alberta, Canada, and went on to Edmonton to obtain a bachelor of fine arts degree. Similarly, I grew up on the Crow (Apsáalooke) Indian Reservation in Montana and went to Bozeman, where I studied fine arts.
I first saw his work on Facebook. He had posted a photo album labeled “Old Indians with Eyewear, Etc.,” his compilation of 19th- to early-20th-century photographs of Native men wearing glasses or goggles. Maybe this was done with a touch of humor or a tinge of sarcasm, but I felt the detail of the eyewear — the grouping of the images — wasn’t just funny and interesting to look at. It also humanized the men in a way that ethnographers at the time had not.
In an essay that is included in an overview of his work, “A Kind of Prayer,” Kimowan wrote about “live relics” embedded in his artwork. Some of them point to knowledge and identity in his community, and others pull from the practice of making art. He unpacks the rich symbolism in the body of work he created in Cold Lake starting in 2004. He described one photograph as a visual poem. In it, you see “a body of water that spans back to a faraway horizon,” he wrote; the words “Cold Lake” appear faintly. Perhaps it reminds you of something you have seen before. But the lake, he explained, is a live relic, it’s significance known to those who live and have lived in his community. It’s one thing to look at an image and another to truly see it and spend time with it.
He described his studio as a laboratory — a place where he is working to “crack a crime.” In a sense, as Kimowan pointed out, North America is a crime scene for Indigenous people. He was constantly searching for “clues” through his experiences, his work and his art, to make sense of his world. I feel that we live in that space together. We have very similar practices, though I call mine research and he called his investigation.
In Plains culture, long hair symbolizes power, especially for men. A work I made titled “1880 Crow Peace Delegation” features historical delegation portraits of several Crow chiefs, some of whom wear hair extensions. In one photograph, a chief is seated, his hair pooled on the floor. We even had a chief named Long Hair, whose hair was so long, he could wrap it around the base of a tepee, or so legend goes.
At age 29, Kimowan was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. The surgery to remove the tumor and radiation treatment left him with a permanent bald spot on the back of his head. His self-portraits point to the importance of hair to Native identity. I wonder if he was confronting his identity in these works. Are you not Native if you don’t have long hair?
Kimowan’s Polaroids of hand gestures are poetic, simple and powerful. My father’s first language is Crow. He told me that when he was young, everyone would sign with hand gestures while they talked. Some signs were specific to the Apsáalooke, and some could be used to communicate with neighboring tribes. My father said that he could pick up conversations from across a room by seeing the hand signs. I don’t see people sign much these days. Seeing this work made me think about my connection to Native sign language.
Art gave me a way to understand or make sense of the world. But my teachers never presented the work of Native artists alongside artists like Cindy Sherman. While I appreciate her work, I don’t connect to it in the same way.
What was awesome about seeing Kimewon’s work was that I immediately understood it. It resonates with me because I can understand his “art language.” I see that he’s using experiences from his community and culture in his work. I do the same thing in my work as an Apsáalooke. That mattered to me because in grad school, I often felt that my professors were intimidated by my work or didn’t understand it. But I like to think that Kimowan and I would have had an understanding of each other’s practice.
Kimowan is a gift — an important voice for Native artists and the contemporary art world. He left us before he got the recognition he so deserved, but we can continue to learn and gain inspiration from the work he left behind. I hope that it will continue to inspire others, as he inspired me.
The post Seeing Myself in the Work of an Artist I Never Met appeared first on New York Times.
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There’s a basic understanding that Native people who straddle life inside and outside the reservation share: We can carry our culture with us where ever we go, but also have perspective outside of it.
I never met Kimowan Metchewais, a multidisciplinary Cree artist, whose work explored the connection of Indigenous identity to home and language through contexts of community, environment and spiritual relationships. He died in 2011, a few years before I encountered his art. When I did, I immediately felt a kinship with him and his work.
Kimowan grew up on the Cold Lake First Nations Reserve in Alberta, Canada, and went on to Edmonton to obtain a bachelor of fine arts degree. Similarly, I grew up on the Crow (Apsáalooke) Indian Reservation in Montana and went to Bozeman, where I studied fine arts.
I first saw his work on Facebook. He had posted a photo album labeled “Old Indians with Eyewear, Etc.,” his compilation of 19th- to early-20th-century photographs of Native men wearing glasses or goggles. Maybe this was done with a touch of humor or a tinge of sarcasm, but I felt the detail of the eyewear — the grouping of the
|
images — wasn’t just funny and interesting to look at. It also humanized the men in a way that ethnographers at the time had not.
In an essay that is included in an overview of his work, “A Kind of Prayer,” Kimowan wrote about “live relics” embedded in his artwork. Some of them point to knowledge and identity in his community, and others pull from the practice of making art. He unpacks the rich symbolism in the body of work he created in Cold Lake starting in 2004. He described one photograph as a visual poem. In it, you see “a body of water that spans back to a faraway horizon,” he wrote; the words “Cold Lake” appear faintly. Perhaps it reminds you of something you have seen before. But the lake, he explained, is a live relic, it’s significance known to those who live and have lived in his community. It’s one thing to look at an image and another to truly see it and spend time with it.
He described his studio as a laboratory — a place where he is working to “crack a crime.” In a sense, as Kimowan pointed out, North America is a crime scene for Indigenous people. He was constantly searching for “clues” through his experiences, his work and his art, to make sense of his world. I feel that we live in that space together. We have very similar practices, though I call mine research and he called his investigation.
In Plains culture, long hair symbolizes power, especially for men. A work I made titled “1880 Crow Peace Delegation” features historical delegation portraits of several Crow chiefs, some of whom wear hair extensions. In one photograph, a chief is seated, his hair pooled on the floor. We even had a chief named Long Hair, whose hair was so long, he could wrap it around the base of a tepee, or so legend goes.
At age 29, Kimowan was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. The surgery to remove the tumor and radiation treatment left him with a permanent bald spot on the back of his head. His self-portraits point to the importance of hair to Native identity. I wonder if he was confronting his identity in these works. Are you not Native if you don’t have long hair?
Kimowan’s Polaroids of hand gestures are poetic, simple and powerful. My father’s first language is Crow. He told me that when he was young, everyone would sign with hand gestures while they talked. Some signs were specific to the Apsáalooke, and some could be used to communicate with neighboring tribes. My father said that he could pick up conversations from across a room by seeing the hand signs. I don’t see people sign much these days. Seeing this work made me think about my connection to Native sign language.
Art gave me a way to understand or make sense of the world. But my teachers never presented the work of Native artists alongside artists like Cindy Sherman. While I appreciate her work, I don’t connect to it in the same way.
What was awesome about seeing Kimewon’s work was that I immediately understood it. It resonates with me because I can understand his “art language.” I see that he’s using experiences from his community and culture in his work. I do the same thing in my work as an Apsáalooke. That mattered to me because in grad school, I often felt that my professors were intimidated by my work or didn’t understand it. But I like to think that Kimowan and I would have had an understanding of each other’s practice.
Kimowan is a gift — an important voice for Native artists and the contemporary art world. He left us before he got the recognition he so deserved, but we can continue to learn and gain inspiration from the work he left behind. I hope that it will continue to inspire others, as he inspired me.
The post Seeing Myself in the Work of an Artist I Never Met appeared first on New York Times.
|
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists lowered the advisory levels for Kilauea volcano this morning, a day after the summit eruption resumed following a three-month pause.
”HVO is lowering Kilauea’s volcano alert level from warning to watch because the initial high effusion rates have declined, and no infrastructure is threatened,” scientists said in a news release today. “Associated hazards are confined to the closed area established by Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.”
In addition, HVO also lowered Kilauea’s aviation advisory code from red to orange “because there is currently no threat of significant volcanic ash emission into the atmosphere outside of the hazardous closed area within” the park.
”The eruption plume continues to rise to the base of the inversion level at about 8,000-10,000 feet above sea level as it did yesterday,” officials said in the advisory. “The plume is largely composed of sulfur dioxide gas and minor volcanic particles, but in lower concentrations due to the drop in effusion rate.”
A wind vortex or whirlwind appeared above the eruption site. Officials said the vortex is formed due to the extreme heat.
The eruption began at 4:44 a.m. Wednesday within Halemaumau crater and is attracting thousands of sight-seers to the park on the southeast side of the Big Island.
Scientists said today that the summit eruption is expected to continue and remain confined to crater. “HVO does not see any indication of activity migrating elsewhere on Kilauea volcano and expects the eruption to remain confined to the summit region,” they said.
Word of Kilauea’s lava fountains spread quickly, bringing crowds to the national park. “Expect major delays and limited parking due to high visitation,” said a warning on the park’s website today.
Several thousand viewers were watching the U.S. Geological Survey’s livestream showing red pockets of moving lava this morning.
“We were on social media, and we saw that it was actually going off while we’re here, so we made the drive from the Kona side” Andrew Choi, visiting with his family from Orange County, California, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. “This feels so ridiculously lucky. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Park officials suggested visiting at less-crowded times before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists lowered the advisory levels for Kilauea volcano this morning, a day after the summit eruption resumed following a three-month pause.
”HVO is lowering Kilauea’s volcano alert level from warning to watch because the initial high effusion rates have declined, and no infrastructure is threatened,” scientists said in a news release today. “Associated hazards are confined to the closed area established by Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.”
In addition, HVO also lowered Kilauea’s aviation advisory code from red to orange “because there is currently no threat of significant volcanic ash emission into the atmosphere outside of the hazardous closed area within” the park.
”The eruption plume continues to rise to the base of the inversion level at about 8,000-10,000 feet above sea level as it did yesterday,” officials said in the advisory. “The plume is largely composed of sulfur dioxide gas and minor volcanic particles, but in lower concentrations due to the drop in effusion rate.”
A wind vortex or whirlwind appeared above the eruption site. Officials said the vortex is formed due to the extreme heat.
The eruption began at 4:44 a.m. Wednesday within Halemaumau crater and is attracting
|
thousands of sight-seers to the park on the southeast side of the Big Island.
Scientists said today that the summit eruption is expected to continue and remain confined to crater. “HVO does not see any indication of activity migrating elsewhere on Kilauea volcano and expects the eruption to remain confined to the summit region,” they said.
Word of Kilauea’s lava fountains spread quickly, bringing crowds to the national park. “Expect major delays and limited parking due to high visitation,” said a warning on the park’s website today.
Several thousand viewers were watching the U.S. Geological Survey’s livestream showing red pockets of moving lava this morning.
“We were on social media, and we saw that it was actually going off while we’re here, so we made the drive from the Kona side” Andrew Choi, visiting with his family from Orange County, California, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. “This feels so ridiculously lucky. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Park officials suggested visiting at less-crowded times before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
Wednesday, November 1: Southern India experienced a sluggish start to the Northeast Monsoon this October, recording the sixth lowest rainfall in the core region since record-keeping began, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has confirmed.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, speaking at a press conference, said: “Northeast monsoon rainfall over the core region of South Peninsula (comprising five subdivisions of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, south interior Karnataka and Kerala) in October was the sixth lowest since 1901.”
The shortfall began with the delayed arrival of the northeast monsoon over the region this year. Normally expected around October 18, the seasonal winds made their appearance between October 23-25 this time around.
Several meteorological factors, including the disruption in wind flow due to twin cyclones on either side of the Indian Peninsula, a lack of strong easterly winds and moisture after the monsoon's onset, and the absence of a robust weather system, were all cited by S Balachandran, Deputy Director General at IMD, as influencing this outcome.
Furthermore, global patterns like El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole also played a significant role in causing reduced rainfall in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring regions last month.
El Niño conditions, characterised by warming waters in the Pacific Ocean near South America, tend to result in weaker monsoon winds and drier conditions in India.
Conversely, a positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole, signified by differences in sea-surface temperatures between the western Indian Ocean near Africa and the eastern part near Indonesia, is linked to increased monsoon activity across India.
A noteworthy observation is that these two climatic phenomena have coexisted during 16 northeast monsoon seasons thus far. Of these, only five seasons experienced above-normal rainfall, nine recorded normal rains, and two saw below-normal precipitation.
Despite this slow beginning, however, the India Meteorological Department remains optimistic. It has forecast a 'normal' performance for the rest of the northeast monsoon season, predicting actual precipitation levels to range between 88-112% of the long-period average (approximately 334 mm) for the three-month period from October to December.
In fact, some southernmost areas of Peninsular India could even witness above-normal rainfall during November, per the month-long forecast released by the IMD. Read more about these long-range predictions for this month here.
For weather and science updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!
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Wednesday, November 1: Southern India experienced a sluggish start to the Northeast Monsoon this October, recording the sixth lowest rainfall in the core region since record-keeping began, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has confirmed.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, speaking at a press conference, said: “Northeast monsoon rainfall over the core region of South Peninsula (comprising five subdivisions of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, south interior Karnataka and Kerala) in October was the sixth lowest since 1901.”
The shortfall began with the delayed arrival of the northeast monsoon over the region this year. Normally expected around October 18, the seasonal winds made their appearance between October 23-25 this time around.
Several meteorological factors, including the disruption in wind flow due to twin cyclones on either side of the Indian Peninsula, a lack of strong easterly winds and moisture after the monsoon's onset, and the absence of a robust weather system, were all cited by S Balachandran, Deputy Director General at IMD, as influencing this outcome.
Furthermore, global patterns like El Niño and the Indian Ocean
|
Dipole also played a significant role in causing reduced rainfall in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring regions last month.
El Niño conditions, characterised by warming waters in the Pacific Ocean near South America, tend to result in weaker monsoon winds and drier conditions in India.
Conversely, a positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole, signified by differences in sea-surface temperatures between the western Indian Ocean near Africa and the eastern part near Indonesia, is linked to increased monsoon activity across India.
A noteworthy observation is that these two climatic phenomena have coexisted during 16 northeast monsoon seasons thus far. Of these, only five seasons experienced above-normal rainfall, nine recorded normal rains, and two saw below-normal precipitation.
Despite this slow beginning, however, the India Meteorological Department remains optimistic. It has forecast a 'normal' performance for the rest of the northeast monsoon season, predicting actual precipitation levels to range between 88-112% of the long-period average (approximately 334 mm) for the three-month period from October to December.
In fact, some southernmost areas of Peninsular India could even witness above-normal rainfall during November, per the month-long forecast released by the IMD. Read more about these long-range predictions for this month here.
For weather and science updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!
|
By Sarah Hayford, The Ohio State University and Karen Benjamin Guzzo, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Birth rates are falling in the United States. After the highs of the Baby Boom in the mid-20th century and the lows of the Baby Bust in the 1970s, birth rates were relatively stable for nearly 50 years. But during the Great Recession, from 2007-2009, birth rates declined sharply – and they’ve kept falling. In 2007, average birth rates were right around 2 children per woman. By 2021, levels had dropped more than 20%, close to the lowest level in a century. Why?
Is this decline because, as some suggest, young people aren’t interested in having children? Or are people facing increasing barriers to becoming parents?
We are demographers who study how people make plans for having kids and whether they are able to carry out those intentions.
In a recent study, we analyzed how changes in childbearing goals may have contributed to recent declines in birth rates in the United States. Our analysis found that most young people still plan to become parents but are delaying childbearing.
Click here to read more.
Source: Study Finds
|
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By Sarah Hayford, The Ohio State University and Karen Benjamin Guzzo, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Birth rates are falling in the United States. After the highs of the Baby Boom in the mid-20th century and the lows of the Baby Bust in the 1970s, birth rates were relatively stable for nearly 50 years. But during the Great Recession, from 2007-2009, birth rates declined sharply – and they’ve kept falling. In 2007, average birth rates were right around 2 children per woman. By 2021, levels had dropped more than 20%, close to the lowest level in a century. Why?
Is this decline because, as some suggest, young people aren’t interested in having children? Or are people facing increasing barriers to becoming parents?
We are demographers who study how people make plans for having kids and whether they are able to carry out those intentions.
In a recent study, we analyzed how changes in childbearing goals may have contributed to recent declines in birth rates in the United States. Our analysis found that most young people still plan to become parents but are delaying childbearing.
Click here to
|
read more.
Source: Study Finds
|
It's peak bat season at the world’s largest bat colony, right in the Texas Hill Country
Bats in North America face a daunting list of challenges. Pesticides kill off the bugs they need for food, climate change disrupts their ecosystems and white nose syndrome — a deadly disease caused by an invasive fungus — threatens some species with near-extinction.
Despite all those challenges, you can still find active colonies all around Texas. And, for migrating species like the Mexican free-tailed bats, late summer and early fall is peak season for viewing.
By late August, bats born earlier in the year are big enough to fly. Their numbers swell the ranks of the colonies that pour out nightly from roosts all around the state.
Soon, the majority of these bats will depart to happier hunting grounds south of the border, returning next year in reduced numbers. But, for the time being, this new generation living and hunting along with their parents means the colonies are bigger than at any other time of year.
The world's biggest colony can be found right outside of San Antonio.
Bracken Cave Preserve is home to between 15 to 20 million bats. It's recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest bat colony in the world.
The creatures emerge nightly from the cave in a tornado of leathery wings that spins upwards and unwinds into a massive ribbon of bats streaming to the horizon in search of insects. The colony eats about 400,000 pounds of bugs a night.
While the bats come out to feast, others feast on them. On a recent night, hawks crashed into the swarm leaving the cave, flapping away with squeaky snacks. Barred owls swooped silently among the trees along the bats’ flightpath, while snakes slithered toward the bat cave entrance in search of unfortunate fallen flyers.
There are so many millions of bats that it takes hours for the cave to empty.
Bracken Cave, managed by the group Bat Conservation International, isn't a place visitors can stop by unannounced. But BCI does offer reservationsevery year. They're mostly for people who have paid a $45 membership fee, but the group saves some spots for the general public.
If you can’t make it to Bracken Cave, keep your eyes peeled. Mexican free-tailed bats roost all over Texas in caves, highway overpasses and bridges, like Austin’s Congress Avenue bridge, where the city's famous urban bat colony lives.
They may be closer than you think!
|
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|
It's peak bat season at the world’s largest bat colony, right in the Texas Hill Country
Bats in North America face a daunting list of challenges. Pesticides kill off the bugs they need for food, climate change disrupts their ecosystems and white nose syndrome — a deadly disease caused by an invasive fungus — threatens some species with near-extinction.
Despite all those challenges, you can still find active colonies all around Texas. And, for migrating species like the Mexican free-tailed bats, late summer and early fall is peak season for viewing.
By late August, bats born earlier in the year are big enough to fly. Their numbers swell the ranks of the colonies that pour out nightly from roosts all around the state.
Soon, the majority of these bats will depart to happier hunting grounds south of the border, returning next year in reduced numbers. But, for the time being, this new generation living and hunting along with their parents means the colonies are bigger than at any other time of year.
The world's biggest colony can be found right outside of San Antonio.
Bracken Cave Preserve is home to between 15 to 20 million bats. It's recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest bat colony in the world.
The creatures
|
emerge nightly from the cave in a tornado of leathery wings that spins upwards and unwinds into a massive ribbon of bats streaming to the horizon in search of insects. The colony eats about 400,000 pounds of bugs a night.
While the bats come out to feast, others feast on them. On a recent night, hawks crashed into the swarm leaving the cave, flapping away with squeaky snacks. Barred owls swooped silently among the trees along the bats’ flightpath, while snakes slithered toward the bat cave entrance in search of unfortunate fallen flyers.
There are so many millions of bats that it takes hours for the cave to empty.
Bracken Cave, managed by the group Bat Conservation International, isn't a place visitors can stop by unannounced. But BCI does offer reservationsevery year. They're mostly for people who have paid a $45 membership fee, but the group saves some spots for the general public.
If you can’t make it to Bracken Cave, keep your eyes peeled. Mexican free-tailed bats roost all over Texas in caves, highway overpasses and bridges, like Austin’s Congress Avenue bridge, where the city's famous urban bat colony lives.
They may be closer than you think!
|
Horn of Africa may see record sixth straight failed rainy season
The eastern Horn of Africa just saw an unprecedented fifth straight failed rainy season on record, making it the longest and most severe drought in 70 years of precipitation data.
- The region is likely headed for a sixth poor rainy season this spring, a new forecast warns.
Why it matters: The drought has tipped the region, which encompasses much of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, into widespread severe food insecurity. It has also driven Somalia to the brink of famine.
State of play: More than 1.3 million people in Somalia have been forced to leave their farms and migrate to seek food in displacement sites.
- About 8.3 million Somalis are at risk of famine if more humanitarian assistance is not delivered soon, according to the International Rescue Committee, an aid group.
The big picture: The ongoing drought has its roots in a combination of human-induced global warming and La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
- La Niña can temporarily reconfigure global weather patterns, bringing increased rainfall to Indonesia, whereas eastern Africa tends to see reduced rains.
- The warming climate worsens droughts by boosting air temperatures and enhancing evaporation from soils and vegetation.
- Globally, ocean temperatures are also increasing rapidly, which tilts the odds in favor of wet and dry precipitation extremes.
What they're saying: The Famine Early Warning Systems Network called the rainfall totals for the most recent October through December period "grim" in a statement issued Monday.
- "Five inches or so of rain, over three months, in a very hot region, is very close to no rainfall," Chris Funk, research director at the University of California at Santa Barbara's Climate Hazards Center, said in a statement.
Threat level: The Horn of Africa has two rainy seasons per year, one from March to May, and another from October to December.
- The Hazards Center predicts the sixth straight failed wet season from March to May of this year, as La Niña's effects are expected to linger.
- The drought is worsening a humanitarian crisis at a time when parts of the region are in conflict, a type of scenario national security planners expect the U.S. and other countries will encounter more frequently abroad due to global warming.
|
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|
Horn of Africa may see record sixth straight failed rainy season
The eastern Horn of Africa just saw an unprecedented fifth straight failed rainy season on record, making it the longest and most severe drought in 70 years of precipitation data.
- The region is likely headed for a sixth poor rainy season this spring, a new forecast warns.
Why it matters: The drought has tipped the region, which encompasses much of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, into widespread severe food insecurity. It has also driven Somalia to the brink of famine.
State of play: More than 1.3 million people in Somalia have been forced to leave their farms and migrate to seek food in displacement sites.
- About 8.3 million Somalis are at risk of famine if more humanitarian assistance is not delivered soon, according to the International Rescue Committee, an aid group.
The big picture: The ongoing drought has its roots in a combination of human-induced global warming and La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
- La Niña can temporarily reconfigure global weather patterns, bringing increased rainfall to Indonesia, whereas eastern Africa tends to see reduced rains.
- The warming climate worsens droughts by boosting air temperatures and enhancing evaporation from soils and vegetation.
- Globally, ocean temperatures are also increasing rapidly
|
, which tilts the odds in favor of wet and dry precipitation extremes.
What they're saying: The Famine Early Warning Systems Network called the rainfall totals for the most recent October through December period "grim" in a statement issued Monday.
- "Five inches or so of rain, over three months, in a very hot region, is very close to no rainfall," Chris Funk, research director at the University of California at Santa Barbara's Climate Hazards Center, said in a statement.
Threat level: The Horn of Africa has two rainy seasons per year, one from March to May, and another from October to December.
- The Hazards Center predicts the sixth straight failed wet season from March to May of this year, as La Niña's effects are expected to linger.
- The drought is worsening a humanitarian crisis at a time when parts of the region are in conflict, a type of scenario national security planners expect the U.S. and other countries will encounter more frequently abroad due to global warming.
|
Hazardous heat comes to the Pacific Northwest
Potentially hazardous heat that could break daily records, with high temperatures in the 90s or even triple digits, is expected in the Pacific Northwest starting Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Driving the news: An upper-level ridge of high pressure over western Washington and Oregon will likely continue to bring temperatures near or over 100 to the Portland and Vancouver area for the next several days, National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Reedy told Axios.
- Overnight temperatures that could remain near 65 in the Puget Sound region and as high as 72 in southwest Washington and western Oregon raise further health concerns, said Reedy.
- The heat in Seattle will persist through Wednesday or Thursday.
- In Oregon, the heat may last through Friday and forecasters are warning of major heat risk, Noah Alviz of NWS Portland told Axios.
The ridge should begin to break down by next weekend, said Reedy, with temperatures cooling slightly into the 80s throughout the region.
The big picture: The Pacific Northwest stood out this year for its relatively mild temperatures compared to the widespread heat waves blanketing the U.S. for much of this summer, and the world's record-breaking July temperatures.
- The worldwide extreme heat would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study.
- Last year, Seattle had multiple 90-degree days in a row and in June 2021 had an unprecedented heat wave.
- Meanwhile, Portland recorded its seventh warmest year ever last year and broke records in October for the longest stretch of 80-plus degree days. It recorded its all-time highest temperature of 116 degrees in June 2021.
What they're saying: "It's a little sad that 20 years ago, three to four days of 90 degree weather would be eye-popping," Justin Shaw of the Seattle Weather Blog told Axios. "Now it's almost commonplace."
- "This heat event will affect anyone without effective cooling or adequate hydration," Alviz said.
NWS Portland is urging people to drink plenty of water, spend time in air-conditioned spaces, wear light-colored clothing and stay out of the afternoon sun.
- Most importantly, Alviz said, check on each other, especially children and elderly people.
- "No one should be alone in a heat wave," he said.
More Seattle stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Seattle.
|
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Hazardous heat comes to the Pacific Northwest
Potentially hazardous heat that could break daily records, with high temperatures in the 90s or even triple digits, is expected in the Pacific Northwest starting Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Driving the news: An upper-level ridge of high pressure over western Washington and Oregon will likely continue to bring temperatures near or over 100 to the Portland and Vancouver area for the next several days, National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Reedy told Axios.
- Overnight temperatures that could remain near 65 in the Puget Sound region and as high as 72 in southwest Washington and western Oregon raise further health concerns, said Reedy.
- The heat in Seattle will persist through Wednesday or Thursday.
- In Oregon, the heat may last through Friday and forecasters are warning of major heat risk, Noah Alviz of NWS Portland told Axios.
The ridge should begin to break down by next weekend, said Reedy, with temperatures cooling slightly into the 80s throughout the region.
The big picture: The Pacific Northwest stood out this year for its relatively mild temperatures compared to the widespread heat waves blanketing the U.S. for much of this summer, and the world
|
's record-breaking July temperatures.
- The worldwide extreme heat would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study.
- Last year, Seattle had multiple 90-degree days in a row and in June 2021 had an unprecedented heat wave.
- Meanwhile, Portland recorded its seventh warmest year ever last year and broke records in October for the longest stretch of 80-plus degree days. It recorded its all-time highest temperature of 116 degrees in June 2021.
What they're saying: "It's a little sad that 20 years ago, three to four days of 90 degree weather would be eye-popping," Justin Shaw of the Seattle Weather Blog told Axios. "Now it's almost commonplace."
- "This heat event will affect anyone without effective cooling or adequate hydration," Alviz said.
NWS Portland is urging people to drink plenty of water, spend time in air-conditioned spaces, wear light-colored clothing and stay out of the afternoon sun.
- Most importantly, Alviz said, check on each other, especially children and elderly people.
- "No one should be alone in a heat wave," he said.
More Seattle stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Seattle.
|
Editor’s note: This story describes violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Nancy Stark and her husband retired to southern Colorado three years ago. They lived off the grid for two years before moving to an apartment in San Luis. During her short period of time in the San Luis Valley, Stark became fascinated with the “Bloody Espinosas” — the brothers who went on a killing spree throughout the Colorado territory in the 1860s.
The Espinosas’ path of terror ended when a famous tracker killed and then beheaded them. It was said their heads were put on display in Fort Garland. So, Stark emailed us and wondered what happened to their heads.
Who were the Espinosas?
The Bloody Espinosas were brothers Felipe and Vivian, and later nephew José. Their family grew up in what was once Mexican territory. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, their land was ceded to the United States.
Author Adam James Jones grew up in South Park. The story of Espinosas came up during his seventh-grade Colorado history class. Jones researched them since he was an undergrad at the University of Northern Colorado. His research led him to write an essay and the novel “The Vendetta of Felipe Espinosa.”
Jones said the Mexican-American War may have set off their killing spree.
“There's a lot of belief that his family suffered some abuse shortly before the killing spree started, and this could very well have been the cause,” Jones said. “It could be that the sisters and his mother and some other family members experienced some abuse by soldiers out of Fort Garland in the early 1860s.”
Former Rio Grande County Museum director Louis Coleville gives another reason in History Colorado’s podcast called Lost Highways: Dispatches of Shadows of the Rocky Mountains. The episode, “Beyond a Valley of a Doubt” tells the story of the Espinosas.
Coleville also said the Espinosas lived peacefully in the territory until they came home one day to find their family murdered and their house burned to the ground.
“Having your family destroyed while you were gone and your home, it would lead you to some violence and it was a period of time when there was violence,” Colville said. “You had just come through the Mexican War. You didn't cross the border, the border crossed you."
The Killing Spree is on
Felipe and Vivan engaged in petty crimes such as highway robberies. It is believed that their killing spree began shortly after they robbed a well-known priest who was traveling from Galisteo. Instead of killing him, they tied him upside down to a wagon tongue and then whipped the horse. The priest survived the dragging and reported it to the nearest military post in Fort Garland.
U.S Marshal George Austin and a group of soldiers attempted to get the brothers to come to Fort Garland from their cabin near San Rafael. Under the guise of a recruiting trip, the group tried to get them to go back to Fort Garland without confrontation. But a gunfight ensued. A corporal was killed. The Espinosas escaped. But their private war was on.
The Espinosas reportedly killed an estimated 32 people throughout their rampage. Felipe sent a letter to Colorado Territory Gov. John Evans threatening to continue the killing if he was not pardoned for his crimes. He said he would kill 600 white settlers, 100 for each family member lost at the end of the Mexican-American War.
The Espinonas were not easy to track down. Jones said the South Park region was very spread out during that time, which made it difficult to find them. He said people were living in mining camps that were dozens of miles away with no well-defined roads.
“They would sneak up on their victims and sometimes watch them for many hours during the day until they were alone,” Jones said. “And then, they would go and commit their murders. In some cases, the corpses weren't discovered for a long time after they had actually been shot. And by then, the Espinosas were many miles away.”
Matthew Metcalfe was the first victim to escape the Espinonsas during their rampage. The brothers tried to kill the lumberman while driving a team of horses through the California Gulch. Metcalfe was shot through the chest. He survived thanks to a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation stuffed in his front pocket.
Metcalfe identified the two men. A posse found the brothers outside of Cañon City. Vivan was killed, but Felipe survived. The next several months would be quiet. Then the killings resumed. This time Felipe recruited his 12-year-old nephew José.
Tobin finds the Espinosas
Col. Samuel Tappan called on well-known tracker Thomas Tate Tobin to find the Espinosas. Tobin was a close associate of Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Buffalo Bill Cody. He had worked as an Army scout and courier. Jones said he was the real deal.
“It was said of him that he could track a grasshopper through sagebrush,” Jones said. “Tobin also had a big role in the Taos Revolt that occurred in 1847. He is one, I believe, of just two people to survive the assault on Turley's Mill outside of Taos.”
The Espinosas had captured a woman named Dolores Sanchez and a man named Philbrook. Both were tied up but managed to escape. Sanchez was picked up by soldiers and taken to Fort Garland where she identified the Espinosas. Jones said Tobin was able to track down the Espinosas camp with the help of circling magpies.
“He knew that there had been a kill because these magpies were circling some sort of dead flesh. And when Tobin approached, got a little closer he saw that the Espinosas had butchered an ox and were eating the ox,” Jones said.
Tobin reportedly shot Felipe in the side and then a fleeing José. Tobin then beheaded both.
Jones said Tobin returned to Fort Garland with the heads.
Where are the Espinosas’ heads?
It was said that the severed heads of the Espinosas were on display in Fort Garland. But now, their location has become a mystery. Jones said no one knows for sure where they ended up.
“It was said that the heads were pickled in a big jar of whiskey and were kept on the desk of the editor of the Fairplay Flume,” Jones said. “For a while, it was said that the heads were also preserved and displayed in Fort Garland for a period of time. And then they kind of disappeared from history for a while.”
Jones said they could’ve ended up in the state Capitol. A few years ago, he was giving a presentation on the Espinosas for the Colorado Historical Society at the Byers-Evans House in Denver when two employees approached him.
They said, “It's so funny you mentioned this because a few years ago we were cleaning out the basement of the Capitol and we found two skulls that were unidentified. We didn't know who they were, and so they decided to incinerate it,” Jones recalled.
It was never confirmed if the skulls were those of the Espinosas. But artifacts can be found throughout museums in Colorado. The Espinosas’ pistols, a trunk, and spurs are on display at History Colorado Center in Denver. Another set of Vivian’s spurs are on display at the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs.
Editor's note: History Colorado is a financial supporter of CPR, but has no editorial influence.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nancy Stark.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
|
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Editor’s note: This story describes violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Nancy Stark and her husband retired to southern Colorado three years ago. They lived off the grid for two years before moving to an apartment in San Luis. During her short period of time in the San Luis Valley, Stark became fascinated with the “Bloody Espinosas” — the brothers who went on a killing spree throughout the Colorado territory in the 1860s.
The Espinosas’ path of terror ended when a famous tracker killed and then beheaded them. It was said their heads were put on display in Fort Garland. So, Stark emailed us and wondered what happened to their heads.
Who were the Espinosas?
The Bloody Espinosas were brothers Felipe and Vivian, and later nephew José. Their family grew up in what was once Mexican territory. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, their land was ceded to the United States.
Author Adam James Jones grew up in South Park. The story of Espinosas came up during his seventh-grade Colorado history class. Jones researched them since he was an undergrad at the University of Northern Colorado. His research led him to write an essay and the novel “The Vendetta of Felipe Esp
|
inosa.”
Jones said the Mexican-American War may have set off their killing spree.
“There's a lot of belief that his family suffered some abuse shortly before the killing spree started, and this could very well have been the cause,” Jones said. “It could be that the sisters and his mother and some other family members experienced some abuse by soldiers out of Fort Garland in the early 1860s.”
Former Rio Grande County Museum director Louis Coleville gives another reason in History Colorado’s podcast called Lost Highways: Dispatches of Shadows of the Rocky Mountains. The episode, “Beyond a Valley of a Doubt” tells the story of the Espinosas.
Coleville also said the Espinosas lived peacefully in the territory until they came home one day to find their family murdered and their house burned to the ground.
“Having your family destroyed while you were gone and your home, it would lead you to some violence and it was a period of time when there was violence,” Colville said. “You had just come through the Mexican War. You didn't cross the border, the border crossed you."
The Killing Spree is on
Felipe and Vivan engaged in petty crimes such as highway robberies. It is believed that their killing spree began shortly after they robbed a well-known priest who was traveling from Galisteo. Instead of killing him, they tied him upside down to a wagon tongue and then whipped the horse. The priest survived the dragging and reported it to the nearest military post in Fort Garland.
U.S Marshal George Austin and a group of soldiers attempted to get the brothers to come to Fort Garland from their cabin near San Rafael. Under the guise of a recruiting trip, the group tried to get them to go back to Fort Garland without confrontation. But a gunfight ensued. A corporal was killed. The Espinosas escaped. But their private war was on.
The Espinosas reportedly killed an estimated 32 people throughout their rampage. Felipe sent a letter to Colorado Territory Gov. John Evans threatening to continue the killing if he was not pardoned for his crimes. He said he would kill 600 white settlers, 100 for each family member lost at the end of the Mexican-American War.
The Espinonas were not easy to track down. Jones said the South Park region was very spread out during that time, which made it difficult to find them. He said people were living in mining camps that were dozens of miles away with no well-defined roads.
“They would sneak up on their victims and sometimes watch them for many hours during the day until they were alone,” Jones said. “And then, they would go and commit their murders. In some cases, the corpses weren't discovered for a long time after they had actually been shot. And by then, the Espinosas were many miles away.”
Matthew Metcalfe was the first victim to escape the Espinonsas during their rampage. The brothers tried to kill the lumberman while driving a team of horses through the California Gulch. Metcalfe was shot through the chest. He survived thanks to a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation stuffed in his front pocket.
Metcalfe identified the two men. A posse found the brothers outside of Cañon City. Vivan was killed, but Felipe survived. The next several months would be quiet. Then the killings resumed. This time Felipe recruited his 12-year-old nephew José.
Tobin finds the Espinosas
Col. Samuel Tappan called on well-known tracker Thomas Tate Tobin to find the Espinosas. Tobin was a close associate of Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Buffalo Bill Cody. He had worked as an Army scout and courier. Jones said he was the real deal.
“It was said of him that he could track a grasshopper through sagebrush,” Jones said. “Tobin also had a big role in the Taos Revolt that occurred in 1847. He is one, I believe, of just two people to survive the assault on Turley's Mill outside of Taos.”
The Espinosas had captured a woman named Dolores Sanchez and a man named Philbrook. Both were tied up but managed to escape. Sanchez was picked up by soldiers and taken to Fort Garland where she identified the Espinosas. Jones said Tobin was able to track down the Espinosas camp with the help of circling magpies.
“He knew that there had been a kill because these magpies were circling some sort of dead flesh. And when Tobin approached, got a little closer he saw that the Espinosas had butchered an ox and were eating the ox,” Jones said.
Tobin reportedly shot Felipe in the side and then a fleeing José. Tobin then beheaded both.
Jones said Tobin returned to Fort Garland with the heads.
Where are the Espinosas’ heads?
It was said that the severed heads of the Espinosas were on display in Fort Garland. But now, their location has become a mystery. Jones said no one knows for sure where they ended up.
“It was said that the heads were pickled in a big jar of whiskey and were kept on the desk of the editor of the Fairplay Flume,” Jones said. “For a while, it was said that the heads were also preserved and displayed in Fort Garland for a period of time. And then they kind of disappeared from history for a while.”
Jones said they could’ve ended up in the state Capitol. A few years ago, he was giving a presentation on the Espinosas for the Colorado Historical Society at the Byers-Evans House in Denver when two employees approached him.
They said, “It's so funny you mentioned this because a few years ago we were cleaning out the basement of the Capitol and we found two skulls that were unidentified. We didn't know who they were, and so they decided to incinerate it,” Jones recalled.
It was never confirmed if the skulls were those of the Espinosas. But artifacts can be found throughout museums in Colorado. The Espinosas’ pistols, a trunk, and spurs are on display at History Colorado Center in Denver. Another set of Vivian’s spurs are on display at the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs.
Editor's note: History Colorado is a financial supporter of CPR, but has no editorial influence.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nancy Stark.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
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Giant blobs of seaweed are hitting Florida. That's when the real problem begins
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Too much sarcasm can be annoying. Too much sargassum can cause headaches for local residents and wreck tourism economies. And by sargassum, I mean the smelly, brown algae. And record levels are starting to wash up on shores in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. So it makes sense to get rid of it, but that creates another challenge. What do you do with a massive pile of seaweed? NPR's Emily Olson has that story.
EMILY OLSON, BYLINE: It's pretty common to smell sargassum before you even see it.
ALYSON CREAN: Residents have, for years, complained about the smell 'cause when it washes ashore, it smells like sulfuric acid or something.
OLSON: It smells like rotten eggs, says Alyson Crean. She's a spokesperson for the city of Key West in Florida. The longest stretch of public beach in Key West is only about a half-mile long, so it's not hard to rake stinky piles of sargassum off the sand every morning. But it costs the city about a million dollars each year, she says. And that's a cost that could rise.
CREAN: Our Tourist Development Council is freaking out.
OLSON: Research shows that excessive sargassum levels may cause nausea and respiratory issues. And now scientists think it could contain some heavy metals like arsenic, and that makes leaving it all on the beach dangerous to local ecosystems. But taking it off the beach leaves you with giant piles of stinking seaweed. So researchers and private companies have tried turning it into fertilizer, biofuel or plastic. But it's not so easy.
PADDY ESTRIDGE: Because it's poisonous, you have to process it to make it usable to make things. And that can be too expensive for any large-scale use. I mean, there's millions and millions of tons of it.
OLSON: That's Paddy Estridge, CEO of Generation Seaweed. It's a U.K. startup that thinks it may have finally found a commercially viable solution.
ESTRIDGE: We are building an automated robot called the AlgaRay, which is designed to intercept and sink sargassum before it can reach the coast.
OLSON: This slow-moving robot could drag sargassum down to depths of about 200 meters. That pops the air pods that keep sargassum afloat, sending the seaweed to a watery grave. And more importantly, it traps all the carbon that it holds, which could be a scalable way to fight climate change.
ESTRIDGE: It's a bit like an ocean Roomba to try and clear up the seaweed blob.
OLSON: The AlgaRay is still in testing phases, but Estridge hopes it might be ready to work by next summer.
Emily Olson, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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Giant blobs of seaweed are hitting Florida. That's when the real problem begins
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Too much sarcasm can be annoying. Too much sargassum can cause headaches for local residents and wreck tourism economies. And by sargassum, I mean the smelly, brown algae. And record levels are starting to wash up on shores in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. So it makes sense to get rid of it, but that creates another challenge. What do you do with a massive pile of seaweed? NPR's Emily Olson has that story.
EMILY OLSON, BYLINE: It's pretty common to smell sargassum before you even see it.
ALYSON CREAN: Residents have, for years, complained about the smell 'cause when it washes ashore, it smells like sulfuric acid or something.
OLSON: It smells like rotten eggs, says Alyson Crean. She's a spokesperson for the city of Key West in Florida. The longest stretch of public beach in Key West is only about a half-mile long, so it's not hard to rake stinky piles of sargassum off the sand every morning. But
|
it costs the city about a million dollars each year, she says. And that's a cost that could rise.
CREAN: Our Tourist Development Council is freaking out.
OLSON: Research shows that excessive sargassum levels may cause nausea and respiratory issues. And now scientists think it could contain some heavy metals like arsenic, and that makes leaving it all on the beach dangerous to local ecosystems. But taking it off the beach leaves you with giant piles of stinking seaweed. So researchers and private companies have tried turning it into fertilizer, biofuel or plastic. But it's not so easy.
PADDY ESTRIDGE: Because it's poisonous, you have to process it to make it usable to make things. And that can be too expensive for any large-scale use. I mean, there's millions and millions of tons of it.
OLSON: That's Paddy Estridge, CEO of Generation Seaweed. It's a U.K. startup that thinks it may have finally found a commercially viable solution.
ESTRIDGE: We are building an automated robot called the AlgaRay, which is designed to intercept and sink sargassum before it can reach the coast.
OLSON: This slow-moving robot could drag sargassum down to depths of about 200 meters. That pops the air pods that keep sargassum afloat, sending the seaweed to a watery grave. And more importantly, it traps all the carbon that it holds, which could be a scalable way to fight climate change.
ESTRIDGE: It's a bit like an ocean Roomba to try and clear up the seaweed blob.
OLSON: The AlgaRay is still in testing phases, but Estridge hopes it might be ready to work by next summer.
Emily Olson, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
|
Oklahoma officials express concern about new EPA definition of Clean Water Act’s scope
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an updated Waters of the United States rule on Dec. 30, prompting criticism from some Oklahoma officials.
The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule is meant to protect the country’s streams, rivers and lakes from pollution. The rule doesn’t put forth any regulatory requirements itself; it defines which bodies of water are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act of 1972.
The original 2015 WOTUS rule put any wetlands or waterways that could feed into a river or lake under federal jurisdiction. That definition drew criticism for its potential to saddle farm ponds and pastures with regulations meant for drinking water sources.
The Trump administration repealed the 2015 WOTUS definition in 2019 and replaced it with a scaled-back version called the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which emphasized the states’ role in regulating water. In 2021, a federal court in Arizona threw out the Trump-era rule based on its disregard for climate change research, stating that leaving it in place “would risk serious environmental harm.”
Now the EPA has made good on the Biden administration’s promise to restore broader water protections. The updated rule is based on a pre-2015 “waters of the United States” definition but takes recent court cases into consideration. The EPA says this change is meant to provide clarity on Clean Water Act regulations that have been in flux over the past decade.
“EPA is working to deliver a durable definition of WOTUS that safeguards our nation’s waters, strengthens economic opportunity, and protects people’s health while providing greater certainty for farmers, ranchers, and landowners,” EPA administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement from the agency.
But Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas said in a statement he doesn’t believe clarity has been achieved.
“During this time when increased agriculture production and growth are critical, the rule fails to provide certainty for America’s farmers and ranchers,” Lucas said.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case that involves the regulatory scope of the Clean Water Act.
“EPA has chosen to make their own ruling ahead of the SCOTUS decision, which we may lead to yet another rule change in the near future,” Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur said in a statement. “We believe this illustrates a lack of regard for those that are doing the work to feed our nation and world.”
But according to the EPA, this rule change could further the Clean Water Act’s goal of waters that support agriculture, recreation and public health across the United States.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
|
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|
Oklahoma officials express concern about new EPA definition of Clean Water Act’s scope
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an updated Waters of the United States rule on Dec. 30, prompting criticism from some Oklahoma officials.
The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule is meant to protect the country’s streams, rivers and lakes from pollution. The rule doesn’t put forth any regulatory requirements itself; it defines which bodies of water are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act of 1972.
The original 2015 WOTUS rule put any wetlands or waterways that could feed into a river or lake under federal jurisdiction. That definition drew criticism for its potential to saddle farm ponds and pastures with regulations meant for drinking water sources.
The Trump administration repealed the 2015 WOTUS definition in 2019 and replaced it with a scaled-back version called the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which emphasized the states’ role in regulating water. In 2021, a federal court in Arizona threw out the Trump-era rule based on its disregard for climate change research, stating that leaving it in place “would risk serious environmental harm.”
Now the EPA has made
|
good on the Biden administration’s promise to restore broader water protections. The updated rule is based on a pre-2015 “waters of the United States” definition but takes recent court cases into consideration. The EPA says this change is meant to provide clarity on Clean Water Act regulations that have been in flux over the past decade.
“EPA is working to deliver a durable definition of WOTUS that safeguards our nation’s waters, strengthens economic opportunity, and protects people’s health while providing greater certainty for farmers, ranchers, and landowners,” EPA administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement from the agency.
But Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas said in a statement he doesn’t believe clarity has been achieved.
“During this time when increased agriculture production and growth are critical, the rule fails to provide certainty for America’s farmers and ranchers,” Lucas said.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case that involves the regulatory scope of the Clean Water Act.
“EPA has chosen to make their own ruling ahead of the SCOTUS decision, which we may lead to yet another rule change in the near future,” Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur said in a statement. “We believe this illustrates a lack of regard for those that are doing the work to feed our nation and world.”
But according to the EPA, this rule change could further the Clean Water Act’s goal of waters that support agriculture, recreation and public health across the United States.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
|
After her former love went missing, Athena the golden eagle has a new mate
It appears Athena the golden eagle has a new beau.
Researchers at Bernheim Arboretum have spent the better part of two decades studying golden eagles. For a while, they tracked a mating pair using solar-powered GPS trackers, that is, until the male, Harper, died on a hunting trip in the Canadian wilderness in April 2021.
Athena waited at the nest a few days before departing. The GPS coordinates show she began hunting on her own and roaming the wilds around Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada, for the summer before heading back to Bernheim alone.
“When she arrived back here this year in fall of 2022, we looked closely to see if she was hanging out with another eagle, and we discovered that she was,” said Conservation Director Andrew Berry.
Late last winter, researchers spotted Athena with another eagle at Bernheim. Berry says he spent four days in a blind observing the two eagles cooperating with each other in late January.
Here’s audio of the pair communicating with each other on a ridgeline in Bernheim’s interior as a bald eagle approached. The pair were seen chattering, taking turns flying off the perch and even hitting the bald eagle in an aerial attack.
Berry has also seen a third, juvenile golden eagle hanging out in the same territory. He believes it’s possible it could be Athena’s offspring with her new partner.
“He looks like he’s of the age he would have been hatched last year,” Berry said.
The latest findings raise new questions about golden eagle behavior. From Berry’s observations, he thinks it may be that female golden eagles have more control over territorial decisions than males.
“If this is a new mate, then she actually played an active role in bringing that bird into her new territory,” Berry said. “So it opens up new questions about cooperation and how much influence the females have.”
As of now, researchers have no plans to try and capture and track Athena’s partner, but will continue to observe the pair around Bernheim. They’ve got just a few more weeks however, before Athena starts her journey north to summer in the Canadian wilderness.
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After her former love went missing, Athena the golden eagle has a new mate
It appears Athena the golden eagle has a new beau.
Researchers at Bernheim Arboretum have spent the better part of two decades studying golden eagles. For a while, they tracked a mating pair using solar-powered GPS trackers, that is, until the male, Harper, died on a hunting trip in the Canadian wilderness in April 2021.
Athena waited at the nest a few days before departing. The GPS coordinates show she began hunting on her own and roaming the wilds around Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada, for the summer before heading back to Bernheim alone.
“When she arrived back here this year in fall of 2022, we looked closely to see if she was hanging out with another eagle, and we discovered that she was,” said Conservation Director Andrew Berry.
Late last winter, researchers spotted Athena with another eagle at Bernheim. Berry says he spent four days in a blind observing the two eagles cooperating with each other in late January.
Here’s audio of the pair communicating with each other on a ridgeline in Bernheim’s interior as a bald eagle approached. The pair were seen chattering, taking turns
|
flying off the perch and even hitting the bald eagle in an aerial attack.
Berry has also seen a third, juvenile golden eagle hanging out in the same territory. He believes it’s possible it could be Athena’s offspring with her new partner.
“He looks like he’s of the age he would have been hatched last year,” Berry said.
The latest findings raise new questions about golden eagle behavior. From Berry’s observations, he thinks it may be that female golden eagles have more control over territorial decisions than males.
“If this is a new mate, then she actually played an active role in bringing that bird into her new territory,” Berry said. “So it opens up new questions about cooperation and how much influence the females have.”
As of now, researchers have no plans to try and capture and track Athena’s partner, but will continue to observe the pair around Bernheim. They’ve got just a few more weeks however, before Athena starts her journey north to summer in the Canadian wilderness.
|
This week, delegates from across the country will gather for the NAACP national convention. Touted by its organizers as a celebration of the Black community's collective power, the annual event is taking place in Boston, a city with a racist reputation.
Long-time civil rights activist Ted Landsmark occupies a key spot in the story of how Boston earned that reputation. In 1976, amid the uproar in Boston over court-ordered school desegregation, the young Black lawyer inadvertently crossed paths with a group of white teenage protesters near City Hall.
“I was on my way to an affirmative action meeting with city officials to try to open more jobs for people of color and minority contractors in the city of Boston,” Landsmark says. “I was attacked by a group of anti-busing demonstrators. And that moment was captured in a famous photograph where a young person was trying to kill me with the American flag.”
Journalist Stanley Forman won the Pulitzer Prize for that image, titled “The Soiling of Old Glory.”
Landsmark is now a professor at the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. He spoke with WBUR’s Sharon Brody near City Hall, at the precise location of the violence that helped define an era.
On what the 1976 photo illuminated, and how things have — and have not —changed:
"Boston certainly has a history of racist policies and practices. In many respects, the city is a much more open and welcoming place than it was four or five decades ago.
"Boston is actually a very small city, where small groups of affiliated individuals have passed on privilege from one generation to the next, whether it's been within the fire department, the court system, commercial real estate development, high tech development or universities. The private sector has its own cultures — its own small ways of seeing to it that there's intergenerational passage of employment within families and within groups of people who've graduated from certain schools.
"And we have found over the years that despite a lot of pronouncements in favor of opening positions to women and people of color in the city, there has continued to be a somewhat tribal aspect in Boston that has perpetuated disparities between one group and another."
On ways that Boston has become more diverse and inclusive:
"A majority of Boston's residents are now people of color. A majority of our elected city council is made up of women of color. Within the wider region, population growth, particularly among new immigrants, has substantially changed who lives in the city, and the kinds of cultural and economic influences that people of color have within the city. Boston is beginning to live up to its reputation as a more progressive city for the people who actually live here. And as our communities of color come together and build economic strength within the region, this will continue to be a city of great opportunity."
On the hard work ahead and why he holds on to hope:
"There are people all across the United States who want to reverse the racial progress that we've made over the past half-century. And sometimes when one is an activist, one can feel a little frustrated that we haven't put an end to racial injustice by now. But the fact is that there are rising generations of activists who have continued the fight. There are areas where we've made progress: voting, public accommodations and public education. And if we keep in mind that it takes time to bring about fundamental cultural change, and we work with the young people who are now advancing the cause of social justice, one can continue to be optimistic.
"More of us who are people of color in Boston have to feel as though we are not only welcome, but that we're stakeholders here — that we are policymakers, that we have an ownership role in terms of the future of the city..."
This segment aired on July 23, 2023.
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This week, delegates from across the country will gather for the NAACP national convention. Touted by its organizers as a celebration of the Black community's collective power, the annual event is taking place in Boston, a city with a racist reputation.
Long-time civil rights activist Ted Landsmark occupies a key spot in the story of how Boston earned that reputation. In 1976, amid the uproar in Boston over court-ordered school desegregation, the young Black lawyer inadvertently crossed paths with a group of white teenage protesters near City Hall.
“I was on my way to an affirmative action meeting with city officials to try to open more jobs for people of color and minority contractors in the city of Boston,” Landsmark says. “I was attacked by a group of anti-busing demonstrators. And that moment was captured in a famous photograph where a young person was trying to kill me with the American flag.”
Journalist Stanley Forman won the Pulitzer Prize for that image, titled “The Soiling of Old Glory.”
Landsmark is now a professor at the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. He spoke with WBUR’s Sharon Brody near City Hall, at the precise location of the violence that helped define an era.
On what
|
the 1976 photo illuminated, and how things have — and have not —changed:
"Boston certainly has a history of racist policies and practices. In many respects, the city is a much more open and welcoming place than it was four or five decades ago.
"Boston is actually a very small city, where small groups of affiliated individuals have passed on privilege from one generation to the next, whether it's been within the fire department, the court system, commercial real estate development, high tech development or universities. The private sector has its own cultures — its own small ways of seeing to it that there's intergenerational passage of employment within families and within groups of people who've graduated from certain schools.
"And we have found over the years that despite a lot of pronouncements in favor of opening positions to women and people of color in the city, there has continued to be a somewhat tribal aspect in Boston that has perpetuated disparities between one group and another."
On ways that Boston has become more diverse and inclusive:
"A majority of Boston's residents are now people of color. A majority of our elected city council is made up of women of color. Within the wider region, population growth, particularly among new immigrants, has substantially changed who lives in the city, and the kinds of cultural and economic influences that people of color have within the city. Boston is beginning to live up to its reputation as a more progressive city for the people who actually live here. And as our communities of color come together and build economic strength within the region, this will continue to be a city of great opportunity."
On the hard work ahead and why he holds on to hope:
"There are people all across the United States who want to reverse the racial progress that we've made over the past half-century. And sometimes when one is an activist, one can feel a little frustrated that we haven't put an end to racial injustice by now. But the fact is that there are rising generations of activists who have continued the fight. There are areas where we've made progress: voting, public accommodations and public education. And if we keep in mind that it takes time to bring about fundamental cultural change, and we work with the young people who are now advancing the cause of social justice, one can continue to be optimistic.
"More of us who are people of color in Boston have to feel as though we are not only welcome, but that we're stakeholders here — that we are policymakers, that we have an ownership role in terms of the future of the city..."
This segment aired on July 23, 2023.
|
In what is believed to be the first mission of its kind in the world, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has successfully used a drone to map a vault that was built in the 1960s to store radioactive nuclear waste.
Under contract with DOE, the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Laboratory Site in eastern Idaho has been home to 4,400 cubic meters of nuclear waste called calcine for decades. Calcine is a highly radioactive, granular solid made from spent nuclear fuel.
In 2015, when the DOE’s contract came up for renewal, the state of Idaho decided it no longer wanted to harbor irradiated material. So, the Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) was tasked with planning the removal and movement of the calcine. But the nuclear waste was placed in huge, 20-foot-tall stainless-steel bins inside an underground storage vault with no plans for its removal, which meant that moving the calcine was not going to be easy.
After painstaking research, IEC came up with the plan to remove the waste by drilling into the vault, robotically welding pipes onto the tops of each bin, and then cutting into the bins using a plasma cutter. These pipes would pneumatically suck out the calcine, providing a comparatively safe way for it to be removed, significantly reducing the risk of radiation exposure for those doing the work.
Now, the problem was, the blueprints for the vaults were not detailed enough to let IEC know where to drill the holes. The agency tried lowering a LiDAR sensor into one of the vaults to 3D map the area, but since the sensor could not move around, there were significant gaps in the data. IEC then looked at several other methods including the use of an articulating arm, a helium-filled blimp, and drilling holes into the vault, but decided that sending in a high-endurance indoor drone to map the area was the safest and most reliable option.
Enter, Flyability Elios 3, the world’s first collision-tolerant drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor for indoor 3D mapping.
Read: New solution for DJI drones finds missing persons faster
IEC had identified the tool that could do the job, but before sending it on the mission, the agency needed to make sure it had all the bases covered. After all, if the drone was lost inside the vault, no one would be able to retrieve it.
Elios 3 was then tested in a high-radiation environment, getting exposed to up to 10,000 Roentgen per hour of radiation to ensure it would be able to operate inside the vault. The IEC also built a life-sized replica of the vault so that its pilots could be trained in an environment that simulated the real world in which they planned to fly.
And on the day of the flight, approximately 50 people were on hand to support the mission — helping to cover the top of the vault with a plastic tent to ensure the mission took place indoors as described by FAA regulations and DOE requirements, and using a crane to lift back the vault’s lid and underlying hatch.
Once the drone was lowered into the vault, it took only a single flight of seven minutes to get the data required to create a robust 3D map of the vault. And, as the principal electrical engineer at IEC, Kevin Young, put it, “The mission was a huge success.”
Watch historic drone flight inside nuclear waste storage vault
Read: Flyability bags $15M in new funding to improve Elios 3 drone
The IEC conducted two successful LiDAR data collection flights in total. But then, it decided to perform a third experimental flight with one of its own dosimeters attached to the drone, making the aircraft much heavier. For reasons not fully understood, after the drone entered the vault for this flight it was not able to produce enough lift to maintain altitude. It made a slow descent to the top of one of the storage bins and became snagged on a piece of angle iron.
All attempts to free the drone failed. Before the battery died, the drone was able to transmit a maximum radiation reading of 7 Gy/h at the top of the bin. ICP subject matter experts completed a comprehensive analysis and concluded that leaving the drone on top of the storage bin would present no hazards to worker safety or the integrity of the bin.
Now that the vault has been 3D mapped, the next step is to plan for the removal of the calcine this year.
Read: Autonomous drones to remotely monitor electric power station in Canada
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In what is believed to be the first mission of its kind in the world, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has successfully used a drone to map a vault that was built in the 1960s to store radioactive nuclear waste.
Under contract with DOE, the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Laboratory Site in eastern Idaho has been home to 4,400 cubic meters of nuclear waste called calcine for decades. Calcine is a highly radioactive, granular solid made from spent nuclear fuel.
In 2015, when the DOE’s contract came up for renewal, the state of Idaho decided it no longer wanted to harbor irradiated material. So, the Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) was tasked with planning the removal and movement of the calcine. But the nuclear waste was placed in huge, 20-foot-tall stainless-steel bins inside an underground storage vault with no plans for its removal, which meant that moving the calcine was not going to be easy.
After painstaking research, IEC came up with the plan to remove the waste by drilling into the vault, robotically welding pipes onto the tops of each bin, and then cutting into the bins using a plasma cutter. These pipes
|
would pneumatically suck out the calcine, providing a comparatively safe way for it to be removed, significantly reducing the risk of radiation exposure for those doing the work.
Now, the problem was, the blueprints for the vaults were not detailed enough to let IEC know where to drill the holes. The agency tried lowering a LiDAR sensor into one of the vaults to 3D map the area, but since the sensor could not move around, there were significant gaps in the data. IEC then looked at several other methods including the use of an articulating arm, a helium-filled blimp, and drilling holes into the vault, but decided that sending in a high-endurance indoor drone to map the area was the safest and most reliable option.
Enter, Flyability Elios 3, the world’s first collision-tolerant drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor for indoor 3D mapping.
Read: New solution for DJI drones finds missing persons faster
IEC had identified the tool that could do the job, but before sending it on the mission, the agency needed to make sure it had all the bases covered. After all, if the drone was lost inside the vault, no one would be able to retrieve it.
Elios 3 was then tested in a high-radiation environment, getting exposed to up to 10,000 Roentgen per hour of radiation to ensure it would be able to operate inside the vault. The IEC also built a life-sized replica of the vault so that its pilots could be trained in an environment that simulated the real world in which they planned to fly.
And on the day of the flight, approximately 50 people were on hand to support the mission — helping to cover the top of the vault with a plastic tent to ensure the mission took place indoors as described by FAA regulations and DOE requirements, and using a crane to lift back the vault’s lid and underlying hatch.
Once the drone was lowered into the vault, it took only a single flight of seven minutes to get the data required to create a robust 3D map of the vault. And, as the principal electrical engineer at IEC, Kevin Young, put it, “The mission was a huge success.”
Watch historic drone flight inside nuclear waste storage vault
Read: Flyability bags $15M in new funding to improve Elios 3 drone
The IEC conducted two successful LiDAR data collection flights in total. But then, it decided to perform a third experimental flight with one of its own dosimeters attached to the drone, making the aircraft much heavier. For reasons not fully understood, after the drone entered the vault for this flight it was not able to produce enough lift to maintain altitude. It made a slow descent to the top of one of the storage bins and became snagged on a piece of angle iron.
All attempts to free the drone failed. Before the battery died, the drone was able to transmit a maximum radiation reading of 7 Gy/h at the top of the bin. ICP subject matter experts completed a comprehensive analysis and concluded that leaving the drone on top of the storage bin would present no hazards to worker safety or the integrity of the bin.
Now that the vault has been 3D mapped, the next step is to plan for the removal of the calcine this year.
Read: Autonomous drones to remotely monitor electric power station in Canada
|
A federal panel is set to consider a new name for Mount Evans as soon as next week.
The renaming is now set for consideration at the March 9 meeting of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. A similar state board has already unanimously recommended the name “Mount Blue Sky.” However, the federal agenda says they will consider all the names presented to the Colorado board.
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado both endorsed the Mount Blue Sky name in a Friday press release, and said Gov. Jared Polis has endorsed it as well.
"The renaming of Mt. Evans to Mount Blue Sky is an important step in addressing the wrongs done to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Native people across the country,” Bennet said in the release. “This was a thoughtful process, led by local Colorado communities and tribes, and I’m grateful to everyone who contributed to this moment.”
The 14er, which looms above Denver, is currently named for Colorado territorial Gov. John Evans, who created the conditions that led to the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people on the plains southeast of Colorado Springs. Evans ordered friendly indigenous tribes to go to the area near Fort Lyon. That conflicted with a standing U.S. military order to shoot and kill indigenous people who approached U.S. forts.
On Nov. 29 that year, and in defiance of peace negotiations that were underway, Col. John Chivington led troops from Fort Lyon who shot and killed as many as 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, many of them women and children.
During the almost 159 years since the massacre, Evans’ role has come under increasing scrutiny. Evans founded both Northwestern University and the University of Denver. In 2014, both universities produced reports on Evans involvement in Sand Creek. Northwestern scholars determined that while Evans did not order the massacre, and had no advance knowledge of it, he “nonetheless was one of several individuals who, in serving a flawed and poorly implemented federal Indian policy, helped create a situation that made the Sand Creek Massacre possible.”
The University of Denver report reached a similar conclusion.
“John Evans’s pattern of neglect of his treaty-negotiating duties, his leadership failures, and his reckless decision-making in 1864 combine to clearly demonstrate a significant level of culpability for the Sand Creek Massacre,” the report said.
The other names considered in Colorado were Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho, Mount Rosalie, Mount Sisty, Mount Soule and a continuation of Mount Evans, in honor of Evans’ daughter, who played no role in tribal affairs.
But it was Mount Blue Sky that attracted unanimous support from Colorado’s 14-member geographic naming advisory board and from the tribes that sent representatives to the meeting.
“I think the best name is Mount Blue Sky because it means so much as a ceremony to the Cheyennes,” Southern Arapaho tribal representative Fred Mosqueda told the panel. “It’s the same name that some people still call my tribe.”
Blue Sky is also the name of an annual dance and ceremony celebrated by the Cheyenne, giving the name significance to both tribes attacked at Sand Creek.
“The names we give Colorado’s greatest landmarks should honor the entirety of our history,” Hickenlooper said. “Mount Blue Sky acknowledges the Native peoples who first called Colorado home. The act of renaming the mountain altogether helps directly face a very dark part of our history.”
The federal panel is also set to change the names of Negro Mesa and Negro Creek in Delta County to Clay Mesa and Clay Creek.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
|
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A federal panel is set to consider a new name for Mount Evans as soon as next week.
The renaming is now set for consideration at the March 9 meeting of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. A similar state board has already unanimously recommended the name “Mount Blue Sky.” However, the federal agenda says they will consider all the names presented to the Colorado board.
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado both endorsed the Mount Blue Sky name in a Friday press release, and said Gov. Jared Polis has endorsed it as well.
"The renaming of Mt. Evans to Mount Blue Sky is an important step in addressing the wrongs done to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Native people across the country,” Bennet said in the release. “This was a thoughtful process, led by local Colorado communities and tribes, and I’m grateful to everyone who contributed to this moment.”
The 14er, which looms above Denver, is currently named for Colorado territorial Gov. John Evans, who created the conditions that led to the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people on the plains southeast of Colorado Springs. Evans ordered friendly indigenous tribes to go to the area near Fort
|
Lyon. That conflicted with a standing U.S. military order to shoot and kill indigenous people who approached U.S. forts.
On Nov. 29 that year, and in defiance of peace negotiations that were underway, Col. John Chivington led troops from Fort Lyon who shot and killed as many as 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, many of them women and children.
During the almost 159 years since the massacre, Evans’ role has come under increasing scrutiny. Evans founded both Northwestern University and the University of Denver. In 2014, both universities produced reports on Evans involvement in Sand Creek. Northwestern scholars determined that while Evans did not order the massacre, and had no advance knowledge of it, he “nonetheless was one of several individuals who, in serving a flawed and poorly implemented federal Indian policy, helped create a situation that made the Sand Creek Massacre possible.”
The University of Denver report reached a similar conclusion.
“John Evans’s pattern of neglect of his treaty-negotiating duties, his leadership failures, and his reckless decision-making in 1864 combine to clearly demonstrate a significant level of culpability for the Sand Creek Massacre,” the report said.
The other names considered in Colorado were Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho, Mount Rosalie, Mount Sisty, Mount Soule and a continuation of Mount Evans, in honor of Evans’ daughter, who played no role in tribal affairs.
But it was Mount Blue Sky that attracted unanimous support from Colorado’s 14-member geographic naming advisory board and from the tribes that sent representatives to the meeting.
“I think the best name is Mount Blue Sky because it means so much as a ceremony to the Cheyennes,” Southern Arapaho tribal representative Fred Mosqueda told the panel. “It’s the same name that some people still call my tribe.”
Blue Sky is also the name of an annual dance and ceremony celebrated by the Cheyenne, giving the name significance to both tribes attacked at Sand Creek.
“The names we give Colorado’s greatest landmarks should honor the entirety of our history,” Hickenlooper said. “Mount Blue Sky acknowledges the Native peoples who first called Colorado home. The act of renaming the mountain altogether helps directly face a very dark part of our history.”
The federal panel is also set to change the names of Negro Mesa and Negro Creek in Delta County to Clay Mesa and Clay Creek.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
|
Hubris (Greek: hybris) is a term often found in literary criticism to denote some kind of tragic flaw that brings disastrous fortune to a character or group. The idea has a complex history in ancient Greek culture and crops up in the Old Testament Proverbs, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”¹
In recent times, the idea of hubris has been explained through the concept of the unconscious.
Most of us have probably heard of the idea that some criminals, at some level, actually want to get caught. They leave obvious clues or do things that appear hard to understand (like a wealthy celebrity shoplifting in a store with security cameras, or an important politician tweeting profanities).
However, they do this unconsciously, so the theory goes, because they actually want to face their unresolved issues and return to their true selves and feelings. And getting caught doing a silly, shameful act is a surefire way of being humbled and feeling the unconscious guilt and shame that is stifling their personal growth.
Freudians would probably emphasize the bad act as an attempt to resolve issues with a punitive parent, while Jungians would not overlook personal dimensions but would also point to the entire self wishing to evolve not just psychologically but spiritually.
Meanwhile, theological explanations for bad things happening to people, especially good people, do not always put the blame on the person or their parents. Instead, theology usually says God tests, strengthens or purifies us for everlasting life in heaven. Two stellar examples that come to mind here are the Old Testament Job and the New Testament Christ.
The other day when its servers were not overloaded I asked the now very popular ChatGPT to provide examples of hubris from Greek Mythology. The answers were impressive:
Hubris is excessive pride or self-confidence that can lead to a person or organization making reckless or irresponsible decisions. It is often considered a tragic flaw in literature and can lead to the downfall of the person or organization that exhibits it. In Greek mythology, hubris was considered one of the greatest sins a person could commit and was punished severely by the gods. In modern usage, the term is often used to describe individuals or organizations that overestimate their abilities and underestimate the risks of their actions.
- Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, was punished by Zeus with eternal torture for his hubris in challenging the gods’ power.
- Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was punished by being forced to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, for eternity. He had angered the gods through his deceit and hubristic ambition.
- King Tantalus, who invited the gods to dine with him, but served them with his own son as the main course, was punished in the underworld for his hubristic act of murder and sacrilege.
- Oedipus, the king of Thebes, was punished for his hubristic behavior of trying to escape his fate, which led to him unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother. He was blinded by his own father and exiled from the city.
- Helios, the sun god, was punished for his hubristic behavior of revealing the secrets of the gods to mortal men by being forced to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky every day.
- Arachne, a mortal woman who was skilled in weaving, challenged Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, to a contest of weaving. Arachne’s work was so good that Athena was jealous, and in her rage, she turned Arachne into a spider, as a punishment for her hubris.
- Actaeon, a hunter, accidentally stumbled upon the goddess Artemis while she was bathing. He saw her unclothed and was punished by her by being turned into a stag, and then torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs for his hubristic act of seeing a goddess naked.
- Bellerophon, a mortal prince, was punished by the gods for his hubristic attempt to ride the winged horse Pegasus to Mount Olympus. He was thrown off the horse and suffered injuries that made him unable to walk.
- The Titans, giant gods who preceded the Olympians, were punished by Zeus for their hubristic attempt to overthrow him. They were cast into Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, and were eternally punished for their hubris.
- Medusa, once a beautiful woman, was punished by Athena for her hubristic act of having sexual relations in her temple. Athena turned Medusa’s hair into snakes and made her face so hideous that anyone who looked at her would turn to stone.
- Theseus, the prince of Athens, was punished for his hubristic act of not showing gratitude and respect to the god of the sea, Poseidon. He failed to make a sacrifice to Poseidon after the god helped him in his journey to Crete to capture the Minotaur. As a result, he was punished by being shipwrecked on his way back home.
- Calypso, a nymph, was punished for her hubristic act of keeping the hero Odysseus captive on her island for seven years. She refused to let him leave and go back to his wife and home. As punishment, the gods sent Hermes to command her to release Odysseus.
- The Nemean Lion, a monster that terrorized the countryside, was punished by Heracles (Hercules) for its hubristic act of being invincible. Heracles killed the lion using its own claws and skin, and used it as his first labor.
- Aegisthus, a mortal prince, was punished for his hubristic act of having an affair with the wife of Agamemnon and conspiring to kill him. He was eventually killed by Agamemnon’s son Orestes as a revenge for his father’s death.
- Orpheus, a mortal musician and poet, was punished for his hubristic act of trying to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead by traveling to the underworld. He was not able to resist looking back at her, which resulted in her being lost forever.
These examples from Greek mythology illustrate how hubris can lead to severe punishment from the gods, and serve as a warning to humans to be humble and not overestimate their abilities or place themselves above the gods.²
I could have kept going (ChatGPT gave five examples per query) but felt that was enough. Right now the server is overloaded so perhaps I’ll return and ask for more examples from literature in general. In the meantime, enjoy this story!
² OpenAI (2022). “Assistant.” [Online]. Available: https://openai.com/blog/openai-assistant/.
Related » Oedipus
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Hubris (Greek: hybris) is a term often found in literary criticism to denote some kind of tragic flaw that brings disastrous fortune to a character or group. The idea has a complex history in ancient Greek culture and crops up in the Old Testament Proverbs, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”¹
In recent times, the idea of hubris has been explained through the concept of the unconscious.
Most of us have probably heard of the idea that some criminals, at some level, actually want to get caught. They leave obvious clues or do things that appear hard to understand (like a wealthy celebrity shoplifting in a store with security cameras, or an important politician tweeting profanities).
However, they do this unconsciously, so the theory goes, because they actually want to face their unresolved issues and return to their true selves and feelings. And getting caught doing a silly, shameful act is a surefire way of being humbled and feeling the unconscious guilt and shame that is stifling their personal growth.
Freudians would probably emphasize the bad act as an attempt to resolve issues with a punitive parent, while Jungians would not overlook personal dimensions but would also point to
|
the entire self wishing to evolve not just psychologically but spiritually.
Meanwhile, theological explanations for bad things happening to people, especially good people, do not always put the blame on the person or their parents. Instead, theology usually says God tests, strengthens or purifies us for everlasting life in heaven. Two stellar examples that come to mind here are the Old Testament Job and the New Testament Christ.
The other day when its servers were not overloaded I asked the now very popular ChatGPT to provide examples of hubris from Greek Mythology. The answers were impressive:
Hubris is excessive pride or self-confidence that can lead to a person or organization making reckless or irresponsible decisions. It is often considered a tragic flaw in literature and can lead to the downfall of the person or organization that exhibits it. In Greek mythology, hubris was considered one of the greatest sins a person could commit and was punished severely by the gods. In modern usage, the term is often used to describe individuals or organizations that overestimate their abilities and underestimate the risks of their actions.
- Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, was punished by Zeus with eternal torture for his hubris in challenging the gods’ power.
- Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was punished by being forced to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, for eternity. He had angered the gods through his deceit and hubristic ambition.
- King Tantalus, who invited the gods to dine with him, but served them with his own son as the main course, was punished in the underworld for his hubristic act of murder and sacrilege.
- Oedipus, the king of Thebes, was punished for his hubristic behavior of trying to escape his fate, which led to him unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother. He was blinded by his own father and exiled from the city.
- Helios, the sun god, was punished for his hubristic behavior of revealing the secrets of the gods to mortal men by being forced to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky every day.
- Arachne, a mortal woman who was skilled in weaving, challenged Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, to a contest of weaving. Arachne’s work was so good that Athena was jealous, and in her rage, she turned Arachne into a spider, as a punishment for her hubris.
- Actaeon, a hunter, accidentally stumbled upon the goddess Artemis while she was bathing. He saw her unclothed and was punished by her by being turned into a stag, and then torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs for his hubristic act of seeing a goddess naked.
- Bellerophon, a mortal prince, was punished by the gods for his hubristic attempt to ride the winged horse Pegasus to Mount Olympus. He was thrown off the horse and suffered injuries that made him unable to walk.
- The Titans, giant gods who preceded the Olympians, were punished by Zeus for their hubristic attempt to overthrow him. They were cast into Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, and were eternally punished for their hubris.
- Medusa, once a beautiful woman, was punished by Athena for her hubristic act of having sexual relations in her temple. Athena turned Medusa’s hair into snakes and made her face so hideous that anyone who looked at her would turn to stone.
- Theseus, the prince of Athens, was punished for his hubristic act of not showing gratitude and respect to the god of the sea, Poseidon. He failed to make a sacrifice to Poseidon after the god helped him in his journey to Crete to capture the Minotaur. As a result, he was punished by being shipwrecked on his way back home.
- Calypso, a nymph, was punished for her hubristic act of keeping the hero Odysseus captive on her island for seven years. She refused to let him leave and go back to his wife and home. As punishment, the gods sent Hermes to command her to release Odysseus.
- The Nemean Lion, a monster that terrorized the countryside, was punished by Heracles (Hercules) for its hubristic act of being invincible. Heracles killed the lion using its own claws and skin, and used it as his first labor.
- Aegisthus, a mortal prince, was punished for his hubristic act of having an affair with the wife of Agamemnon and conspiring to kill him. He was eventually killed by Agamemnon’s son Orestes as a revenge for his father’s death.
- Orpheus, a mortal musician and poet, was punished for his hubristic act of trying to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead by traveling to the underworld. He was not able to resist looking back at her, which resulted in her being lost forever.
These examples from Greek mythology illustrate how hubris can lead to severe punishment from the gods, and serve as a warning to humans to be humble and not overestimate their abilities or place themselves above the gods.²
I could have kept going (ChatGPT gave five examples per query) but felt that was enough. Right now the server is overloaded so perhaps I’ll return and ask for more examples from literature in general. In the meantime, enjoy this story!
² OpenAI (2022). “Assistant.” [Online]. Available: https://openai.com/blog/openai-assistant/.
Related » Oedipus
|
Editor’s Note: Sian Beilock is president of Barnard College and president-elect of Dartmouth College. Christina Paxson is president of Brown University. Gilda A. Barabino is president of the Olin College of Engineering and chair of the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.
Women have a long history of rising in times of crisis. Take the Rosie the Riveter campaign, which recruited millions of women to fill critical vacant jobs during World War II while men fought overseas. At its peak, 18 million women answered the call to join the workforce, and thanks to their participation the US war effort and economy stayed afloat.
Today, we find ourselves at a similar juncture, except this time we need engineers, not riveters. Following the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act last summer, unprecedented levels of funding are now available to grow the domestic semiconductor industry and enable the United States to compete in the global tech race — something we cannot do without also expanding our semiconductor workforce, where women currently hold just three in 10 computer and electronic manufacturing jobs. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has pointed out that the country will suffer a shortfall of 90,000 skilled semiconductor workers by 2030 if we don’t act now. Leaving talent on the table is not an option.
To scale our engineering workforce and take full advantage of once-in-a-generation legislation, we must attract more women and people of color to semiconductor-related sectors. Higher education can help.
Our memory of Rosie the Riveter tends to forget that child care was central to making it possible for women to work — and it’s as critical today as it was in the 1940s. It’s no secret that women in the US do the majority of child care and domestic work, even when they earn the same salaries as their partners. The cognitive labor this dynamic creates takes a toll on women’s mental health and is already driving women out of the workforce at a time when we need them to participate. The CHIPS provision that requires companies receiving subsidies to provide affordable child care is one avenue to making it possible for caregivers to return to the workforce — but alone it’s not enough to generate the workforce growth CHIPS needs to succeed.
It starts with making STEM learning and careers interesting and attractive to groups that have historically been discouraged from entering those fields. This will include challenging current beliefs about science, technology, engineering and math. For example, a study sponsored by Microsoft Corp found that few girls and young women saw STEM careers as creative or having a positive effect on the world, but once provided with a brief description of the “real-world accomplishments” within such professions, those perceptions became far more positive.
More clearly connecting the dots between engineering jobs and social impact is essential. Beyond interest, we must also acknowledge and overcome the gender and racial barriers that have kept certain groups from pursuing STEM in high numbers.
As women leaders who have broken ground in STEM and higher education, we know well the isolating feeling of being the “only” in a room — whether as the only woman or the only person of color, or both. But more than just a feeling, the cognitive load of being an “only” can negatively affect performance. Although Gen Z students are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations, we need to do more to ensure women and people of color have access to STEM role models who demonstrate that being the “other” is not their only identity. When we have the opportunity to lean into multiple parts of ourselves, including our passions, interests, talents and experiences, we become more psychologically resilient in the face of the challenges we inevitably encounter.
Finally, we need to eliminate what may cause women STEM graduates to feel significantly less sure of their abilities than their male counterparts when they enter the workforce, such as internalized societal expectations and cultural archetypes. This means creating rich opportunities to build their confidence during their learning journey. One way to do this is through industry partnerships that allow students to work on real-world projects while also developing connections that can help them later in their careers.
Tapping into our full economic potential as a nation requires using every ounce of talent we have. Closing gender and racial equity gaps — in STEM and across the workforce — depends on those in higher education establishing pathways that truly empower people to break through the barriers that have long held them back.
We have proudly signed on with a powerful group of diverse women leaders in higher education who successfully overcame the obstacles that stood in their way, and we are committing to help the next generation of STEM talent do the same. It’s our responsibility to tear down those obstacles for good. We can do it!
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Editor’s Note: Sian Beilock is president of Barnard College and president-elect of Dartmouth College. Christina Paxson is president of Brown University. Gilda A. Barabino is president of the Olin College of Engineering and chair of the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.
Women have a long history of rising in times of crisis. Take the Rosie the Riveter campaign, which recruited millions of women to fill critical vacant jobs during World War II while men fought overseas. At its peak, 18 million women answered the call to join the workforce, and thanks to their participation the US war effort and economy stayed afloat.
Today, we find ourselves at a similar juncture, except this time we need engineers, not riveters. Following the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act last summer, unprecedented levels of funding are now available to grow the domestic semiconductor industry and enable the United States to compete in the global tech race — something we cannot do without also expanding our semiconductor workforce, where women currently hold just three in 10 computer and electronic manufacturing jobs. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has pointed out that the country will suffer
|
a shortfall of 90,000 skilled semiconductor workers by 2030 if we don’t act now. Leaving talent on the table is not an option.
To scale our engineering workforce and take full advantage of once-in-a-generation legislation, we must attract more women and people of color to semiconductor-related sectors. Higher education can help.
Our memory of Rosie the Riveter tends to forget that child care was central to making it possible for women to work — and it’s as critical today as it was in the 1940s. It’s no secret that women in the US do the majority of child care and domestic work, even when they earn the same salaries as their partners. The cognitive labor this dynamic creates takes a toll on women’s mental health and is already driving women out of the workforce at a time when we need them to participate. The CHIPS provision that requires companies receiving subsidies to provide affordable child care is one avenue to making it possible for caregivers to return to the workforce — but alone it’s not enough to generate the workforce growth CHIPS needs to succeed.
It starts with making STEM learning and careers interesting and attractive to groups that have historically been discouraged from entering those fields. This will include challenging current beliefs about science, technology, engineering and math. For example, a study sponsored by Microsoft Corp found that few girls and young women saw STEM careers as creative or having a positive effect on the world, but once provided with a brief description of the “real-world accomplishments” within such professions, those perceptions became far more positive.
More clearly connecting the dots between engineering jobs and social impact is essential. Beyond interest, we must also acknowledge and overcome the gender and racial barriers that have kept certain groups from pursuing STEM in high numbers.
As women leaders who have broken ground in STEM and higher education, we know well the isolating feeling of being the “only” in a room — whether as the only woman or the only person of color, or both. But more than just a feeling, the cognitive load of being an “only” can negatively affect performance. Although Gen Z students are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations, we need to do more to ensure women and people of color have access to STEM role models who demonstrate that being the “other” is not their only identity. When we have the opportunity to lean into multiple parts of ourselves, including our passions, interests, talents and experiences, we become more psychologically resilient in the face of the challenges we inevitably encounter.
Finally, we need to eliminate what may cause women STEM graduates to feel significantly less sure of their abilities than their male counterparts when they enter the workforce, such as internalized societal expectations and cultural archetypes. This means creating rich opportunities to build their confidence during their learning journey. One way to do this is through industry partnerships that allow students to work on real-world projects while also developing connections that can help them later in their careers.
Tapping into our full economic potential as a nation requires using every ounce of talent we have. Closing gender and racial equity gaps — in STEM and across the workforce — depends on those in higher education establishing pathways that truly empower people to break through the barriers that have long held them back.
We have proudly signed on with a powerful group of diverse women leaders in higher education who successfully overcame the obstacles that stood in their way, and we are committing to help the next generation of STEM talent do the same. It’s our responsibility to tear down those obstacles for good. We can do it!
|
Utah is having an astounding winter. In certain watersheds, it’s breaking records.
Statewide, the water equivalent of snowpack is at 195% of normal. That means snowfall is nearly double what Utah would see in average season this time of year. It also means that even if the storms suddenly stop, the state will still see an above-normal winter, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Utah Snow Survey reports.
As of Wednesday, the only years that saw more snow to date were 1984, 1997 and 2005.
“That makes this the best winter (so far) that we’ve seen in almost 20 years!” Snow Survey staff wrote in an update report.
Snowpack typically peaks in early April, so there are around 76 days for more snow to fall. It could potentially make 2023 Utah’s biggest winter since the SNOTEL network began beaming snowpack data from 137 automated stations across the state.
Four of Utah’s major basins have already set records for the amount of snow measured to date. They include the Provo-Utah Lake-Jordan basin, the Tooele Valley-Vernon Creek basin, the Lower Sevier basin and the Beaver basin.
Snowstorms have already given the Great Salt Lake a much-needed assist. The Department of Natural Resources reports the lake has risen by a foot since its elevation bottomed out in November.
The dramatic change might be due to state efforts to raise a railroad causeway berm bisecting the lake so it acts like a dam, preventing saltier water in the north arm from further spiking salinity levels in the more productive south arm. The north arm does not have any rivers flowing to it.
Even with a hearty snowpack and the above-average runoff that will follow, it will take years of good winters for the Great Salt Lake to reach a sustainable elevation. It currently sits about one foot lower than at this time last year.
Lake Powell, too, will need more winters of above-normal conditions across the Upper Colorado River Basin before it’s in the clear. It currently sits 10 feet lower than this time last year.
Come spring, the Utah Snow Survey forecasts a maximum average of 22 inches of water will melt out of the state’s snow, which is 154% of normal.
“It’s also possible that this could be our new record winter for [snow water equivalent] in Utah,” the report notes. “Time will tell!”
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Utah is having an astounding winter. In certain watersheds, it’s breaking records.
Statewide, the water equivalent of snowpack is at 195% of normal. That means snowfall is nearly double what Utah would see in average season this time of year. It also means that even if the storms suddenly stop, the state will still see an above-normal winter, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Utah Snow Survey reports.
As of Wednesday, the only years that saw more snow to date were 1984, 1997 and 2005.
“That makes this the best winter (so far) that we’ve seen in almost 20 years!” Snow Survey staff wrote in an update report.
Snowpack typically peaks in early April, so there are around 76 days for more snow to fall. It could potentially make 2023 Utah’s biggest winter since the SNOTEL network began beaming snowpack data from 137 automated stations across the state.
Four of Utah’s major basins have already set records for the amount of snow measured to date. They include the Provo-Utah Lake-Jordan basin, the Tooele Valley-Vernon Creek basin, the
|
Lower Sevier basin and the Beaver basin.
Snowstorms have already given the Great Salt Lake a much-needed assist. The Department of Natural Resources reports the lake has risen by a foot since its elevation bottomed out in November.
The dramatic change might be due to state efforts to raise a railroad causeway berm bisecting the lake so it acts like a dam, preventing saltier water in the north arm from further spiking salinity levels in the more productive south arm. The north arm does not have any rivers flowing to it.
Even with a hearty snowpack and the above-average runoff that will follow, it will take years of good winters for the Great Salt Lake to reach a sustainable elevation. It currently sits about one foot lower than at this time last year.
Lake Powell, too, will need more winters of above-normal conditions across the Upper Colorado River Basin before it’s in the clear. It currently sits 10 feet lower than this time last year.
Come spring, the Utah Snow Survey forecasts a maximum average of 22 inches of water will melt out of the state’s snow, which is 154% of normal.
“It’s also possible that this could be our new record winter for [snow water equivalent] in Utah,” the report notes. “Time will tell!”
|
Have you ever wondered why that moth that accidentally got into your house last night keeps buzzing around the ceiling light or why lighted mosquito traps work so well? While some have always said that the answer is because insects are somehow attracted to artificial lights. Now, though, new research says it doesn’t have anything to do with their attraction to light. Instead, it’s probably because they are being trapped by it.
Samuel Fabian, a researcher with Imperial College London and one of the authors of a new paper currently on the bioRxiv preprint server, says that the connection between insects and light is now believed to have something to do with their body’s control systems.
For starters, the researchers say they discovered three key things when studying insects’ attraction to light. First, if the insects flew above it, they would turn upside down and plummet as they tried to fly upside down. Secondly, after they pass under a light, they tend to start lopping around, climbing at a steep angle before they stall and eventually fall.
Finally, the researchers found that the insects fly at right angles to the light, circling them or “orbiting” the light instead of flying straight at it. While it might appear that the insects are flying directly at the light, it’s actually believed that the body’s control systems are being interfered with somehow, causing them to experience these effects.
The belief is that the insects are experiencing what is called the “dorsal light response” due to how they try to keep the light to their back anytime they approach it. This reflex is also seen in some fish and is essentially a way for animals to determine which way is up and keep their bodies upright. This experience often works without issue. However, at dusk and dawn, insects can experience problems with it.
The researchers believe that the way that insects rely on the dorsal light response can determine how they respond to light. So, the issue here isn’t why insects’ attraction to light drives them to it. Instead, the scientists believe the insects experience a loss of control when approaching the light. It’s an intriguing bit of research that could help explain some important things about the various types of insects found around the world.
The post Why are bugs attracted to light? We finally know the answer appeared first on BGR.
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Have you ever wondered why that moth that accidentally got into your house last night keeps buzzing around the ceiling light or why lighted mosquito traps work so well? While some have always said that the answer is because insects are somehow attracted to artificial lights. Now, though, new research says it doesn’t have anything to do with their attraction to light. Instead, it’s probably because they are being trapped by it.
Samuel Fabian, a researcher with Imperial College London and one of the authors of a new paper currently on the bioRxiv preprint server, says that the connection between insects and light is now believed to have something to do with their body’s control systems.
For starters, the researchers say they discovered three key things when studying insects’ attraction to light. First, if the insects flew above it, they would turn upside down and plummet as they tried to fly upside down. Secondly, after they pass under a light, they tend to start lopping around, climbing at a steep angle before they stall and eventually fall.
Finally, the researchers found that the insects fly at right angles to the light, circling them or “orbiting” the light instead of flying straight at it. While it might appear that the insects are flying directly at the light,
|
it’s actually believed that the body’s control systems are being interfered with somehow, causing them to experience these effects.
The belief is that the insects are experiencing what is called the “dorsal light response” due to how they try to keep the light to their back anytime they approach it. This reflex is also seen in some fish and is essentially a way for animals to determine which way is up and keep their bodies upright. This experience often works without issue. However, at dusk and dawn, insects can experience problems with it.
The researchers believe that the way that insects rely on the dorsal light response can determine how they respond to light. So, the issue here isn’t why insects’ attraction to light drives them to it. Instead, the scientists believe the insects experience a loss of control when approaching the light. It’s an intriguing bit of research that could help explain some important things about the various types of insects found around the world.
The post Why are bugs attracted to light? We finally know the answer appeared first on BGR.
|
The United States is facing what some experts are calling “a new era for bird flu.”
Since January 2022, the country has been battling the biggest outbreak yet of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wildlife. The virus is a major threat to commercial and backyard flocks, and it has started to show up in hundreds of mammals, including a handful of pet cats.
The risk to humans is low; there has been only one human case of this virus in the US since the outbreak began, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and nine cases globally, mostly among people who work with birds. The CDC says there are trials underway of vaccines that could be used to protect humans in case the virus changes and becomes more of a threat.
Separately, the US Department of Agriculture, the US National Poultry Research Center and labs at a handful of American universities have been experimenting with vaccine candidates to be used in birds.
The USDA’s Agriculture Research Service started trials of four vaccine candidates for animals in April and expects to have initial data on a single-dose vaccine available this month. A two-dose vaccine challenge study – in which animals are exposed to the virus to see how well the vaccine works – should produce results in June.
If the animal vaccines look to be protective, the USDA’s next step would be to work with manufacturers on whether it would be feasible to use them.
One manufacturer, Zoetis, announced April 5 the development of a vaccine geared toward currently circulating virus strains. The company says it would take about a year to get to the distribution stage in the US.
Vaccines are already available in other countries, including China, Egypt, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and Vietnam, and some nations are vaccinating their commercial flocks.
However, in the United States, not all poultry experts are ready to use a vaccine, even if one becomes available – at least, not yet. Instead, their focus remains on eradicating the virus.
Eradication and vaccination
As of April 26, the CDC says, nearly 58.8 million poultry have been affected by avian flu since January 2022. The virus has been detected in at least 6,737 wild birds, and the number is likely to be much higher. There have been poultry outbreaks in 47 states.
Although this is the worst outbreak in history, improved biosecurity measures have vastly reduced the number of cases in the commercial sector, according to the USDA. When the outbreak began in early 2022, there were 51 detections among commercial poultry. In March 2023, there were only seven.
The USDA says close surveillance work among its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and state and industry partners led to the reduction in cases.
Generally, there ares two ways of confronting this kind of highly infectious disease in poultry, according to Rodrigo Gallardo, a professor in poultry medicine and a specialist in avian virology at the University of California, Davis.
“One of them is through vaccination action. And then the other one is through eradication,” he said.
In the United States, the latter is the approach for now, Gallardo said.
If farmers detect even a single case in a flock, they will put down the birds right away.
“The virus keeps replicating and amplifying if the birds are alive, so the only way of stopping the replication and limiting the dissemination is by depopulation,” Gallardo said.
Tom Super, the senior vice president for communications for the National Chicken Council, the national trade association for the US broiler chicken industry, said in an email to CNN that although it supports the ongoing discussions about a vaccination program, “currently we support the eradication policy of APHIS and believe that right now this is the best approach at eliminating [bird flu] in the U.S.”
The US Poultry and Egg Association said it’s “certainly a topic of discussion,” but the organization doesn’t have a position on implementing a vaccination program.
Complications of vaccinations
A vaccination program comes with several complications, Gallardo said. Vaccinated birds would be protected, but with this highly infectious disease, they still could shed some virus that could infect unprotected birds.
“So vaccination, in that case, creates amplification if it is not done right,” Gallardo said.
Plus, it’s difficult to detect the disease in vaccinated birds. Birds that are vaccinated don’t always show signs if they’re sick, so it would be hard to know what birds to keep separate from the others. Tests also have a hard time telling the difference between antibodies generated by vaccination and antibodies from an infection.
“If you’re not able to diagnose it, it might spread more than what it would do if you are able to diagnose it and eradicate it,” Gallardo said.
Countries that have chosen the vaccination route see more endemic strains develop, meaning the virus is never really totally wiped out.
“This is a very variable virus, and if you don’t update the vaccine that you’re applying to meet the change in the virus, then you won’t be able to completely protect the birds. Partial protection means more birds will be spreading the virus,” Gallardo said.
A vaccine has never been used against highly pathogenic avian influenza in the US, according to the USDA. The agency created a vaccine after an outbreak in 2014 and 2015, but that involved a different strain, so it wouldn’t work on the latest version of the virus.
The logistics of a vaccine like this are difficult, said Dr. Yuko Sato, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.
“You have to make sure that the new vaccine will protect against this current virus and hope that it doesn’t mutate or change so that the vaccine will continue to be protective,” Sato said.
“The vaccine is not a silver bullet. This is not going to prevent infection of the birds, so in order to have an exit strategy as the country, you would have to make sure that if you vaccinate, if you still have positive birds, you have to be able to make sure that you could stamp out the virus. Otherwise, we’ll never be looking at eradicating the virus from the United States.”
Vaccines may threaten bird businesses
Another concern: Birds are a big business in the US.
The US has the largest poultry industry in the world, with 294,000 poultry farms. The market size for chicken and turkey meat production alone for 2023 is projected to generate $57.8 billion, according to market analysis firm IbisWorld.
Bird flu has hurt business in the US, but it could do so in a bigger way if the nation vaccinates poultry, according to the National Chicken Council.
“The National Chicken Council does not support the use of a vaccine for [bird flu] for a variety of reasons – the primary one being trade. Most countries, including the US, do not recognize countries that vaccinate as free of [bird flu] due to concerns that vaccines can mask the presence of the disease. Therefore, they do not accept exports from countries that do vaccinate,” Super wrote in his email.
The US broiler industry is the second largest exporter of chicken in the world. It exports about 18% of the chicken meat produced in the United States, valued at more than $5 billion annually.
“If we start vaccinating for [bird flu] in the U.S., the broiler industry will lose our ability to export which will have a significant impact on the industry – while costing billions and billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year,” Super said.
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.
With the way the disease is spreading, scientists would also probably have to vaccinate wildlife – which is nearly impossible.
Of the birds affected in this outbreak, about 76% are commercial egg-laying hens, 17% are turkeys, and only 5% are broilers, the chickens used for meat, Super said. The rest of the cases have been among ducks, backyard chickens and game birds.
“So the U.S. poultry sector that least needs a vaccine would have the most to risk from using one,” he said.
|
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The United States is facing what some experts are calling “a new era for bird flu.”
Since January 2022, the country has been battling the biggest outbreak yet of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wildlife. The virus is a major threat to commercial and backyard flocks, and it has started to show up in hundreds of mammals, including a handful of pet cats.
The risk to humans is low; there has been only one human case of this virus in the US since the outbreak began, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and nine cases globally, mostly among people who work with birds. The CDC says there are trials underway of vaccines that could be used to protect humans in case the virus changes and becomes more of a threat.
Separately, the US Department of Agriculture, the US National Poultry Research Center and labs at a handful of American universities have been experimenting with vaccine candidates to be used in birds.
The USDA’s Agriculture Research Service started trials of four vaccine candidates for animals in April and expects to have initial data on a single-dose vaccine available this month. A two-dose vaccine challenge study – in which animals are exposed to the virus to see how well the vaccine works – should produce results in June.
If the animal vaccines look to
|
be protective, the USDA’s next step would be to work with manufacturers on whether it would be feasible to use them.
One manufacturer, Zoetis, announced April 5 the development of a vaccine geared toward currently circulating virus strains. The company says it would take about a year to get to the distribution stage in the US.
Vaccines are already available in other countries, including China, Egypt, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and Vietnam, and some nations are vaccinating their commercial flocks.
However, in the United States, not all poultry experts are ready to use a vaccine, even if one becomes available – at least, not yet. Instead, their focus remains on eradicating the virus.
Eradication and vaccination
As of April 26, the CDC says, nearly 58.8 million poultry have been affected by avian flu since January 2022. The virus has been detected in at least 6,737 wild birds, and the number is likely to be much higher. There have been poultry outbreaks in 47 states.
Although this is the worst outbreak in history, improved biosecurity measures have vastly reduced the number of cases in the commercial sector, according to the USDA. When the outbreak began in early 2022, there were 51 detections among commercial poultry. In March 2023, there were only seven.
The USDA says close surveillance work among its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and state and industry partners led to the reduction in cases.
Generally, there ares two ways of confronting this kind of highly infectious disease in poultry, according to Rodrigo Gallardo, a professor in poultry medicine and a specialist in avian virology at the University of California, Davis.
“One of them is through vaccination action. And then the other one is through eradication,” he said.
In the United States, the latter is the approach for now, Gallardo said.
If farmers detect even a single case in a flock, they will put down the birds right away.
“The virus keeps replicating and amplifying if the birds are alive, so the only way of stopping the replication and limiting the dissemination is by depopulation,” Gallardo said.
Tom Super, the senior vice president for communications for the National Chicken Council, the national trade association for the US broiler chicken industry, said in an email to CNN that although it supports the ongoing discussions about a vaccination program, “currently we support the eradication policy of APHIS and believe that right now this is the best approach at eliminating [bird flu] in the U.S.”
The US Poultry and Egg Association said it’s “certainly a topic of discussion,” but the organization doesn’t have a position on implementing a vaccination program.
Complications of vaccinations
A vaccination program comes with several complications, Gallardo said. Vaccinated birds would be protected, but with this highly infectious disease, they still could shed some virus that could infect unprotected birds.
“So vaccination, in that case, creates amplification if it is not done right,” Gallardo said.
Plus, it’s difficult to detect the disease in vaccinated birds. Birds that are vaccinated don’t always show signs if they’re sick, so it would be hard to know what birds to keep separate from the others. Tests also have a hard time telling the difference between antibodies generated by vaccination and antibodies from an infection.
“If you’re not able to diagnose it, it might spread more than what it would do if you are able to diagnose it and eradicate it,” Gallardo said.
Countries that have chosen the vaccination route see more endemic strains develop, meaning the virus is never really totally wiped out.
“This is a very variable virus, and if you don’t update the vaccine that you’re applying to meet the change in the virus, then you won’t be able to completely protect the birds. Partial protection means more birds will be spreading the virus,” Gallardo said.
A vaccine has never been used against highly pathogenic avian influenza in the US, according to the USDA. The agency created a vaccine after an outbreak in 2014 and 2015, but that involved a different strain, so it wouldn’t work on the latest version of the virus.
The logistics of a vaccine like this are difficult, said Dr. Yuko Sato, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.
“You have to make sure that the new vaccine will protect against this current virus and hope that it doesn’t mutate or change so that the vaccine will continue to be protective,” Sato said.
“The vaccine is not a silver bullet. This is not going to prevent infection of the birds, so in order to have an exit strategy as the country, you would have to make sure that if you vaccinate, if you still have positive birds, you have to be able to make sure that you could stamp out the virus. Otherwise, we’ll never be looking at eradicating the virus from the United States.”
Vaccines may threaten bird businesses
Another concern: Birds are a big business in the US.
The US has the largest poultry industry in the world, with 294,000 poultry farms. The market size for chicken and turkey meat production alone for 2023 is projected to generate $57.8 billion, according to market analysis firm IbisWorld.
Bird flu has hurt business in the US, but it could do so in a bigger way if the nation vaccinates poultry, according to the National Chicken Council.
“The National Chicken Council does not support the use of a vaccine for [bird flu] for a variety of reasons – the primary one being trade. Most countries, including the US, do not recognize countries that vaccinate as free of [bird flu] due to concerns that vaccines can mask the presence of the disease. Therefore, they do not accept exports from countries that do vaccinate,” Super wrote in his email.
The US broiler industry is the second largest exporter of chicken in the world. It exports about 18% of the chicken meat produced in the United States, valued at more than $5 billion annually.
“If we start vaccinating for [bird flu] in the U.S., the broiler industry will lose our ability to export which will have a significant impact on the industry – while costing billions and billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year,” Super said.
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.
With the way the disease is spreading, scientists would also probably have to vaccinate wildlife – which is nearly impossible.
Of the birds affected in this outbreak, about 76% are commercial egg-laying hens, 17% are turkeys, and only 5% are broilers, the chickens used for meat, Super said. The rest of the cases have been among ducks, backyard chickens and game birds.
“So the U.S. poultry sector that least needs a vaccine would have the most to risk from using one,” he said.
|
The Purpose of Education
by Denise N. Fyffe
Today, we cannot survive without education. It is the catalyst that helps us to navigate the world and achieve our objectives in life. It helps to launch us through whatever social, economic, physical, or societal demands that we encounter.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Upon close inspection, one could surmise that my own beliefs about education are in line with those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
King, Jr (1947) had a strong opinion about the purpose of education.
He stated that “education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute, and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult.”
The Purpose of Education
Throughout the readings, I found a myriad of explanations given for the purpose of education. According to a Schools Minister in the UK, Nick Gibb, education is to be the “engine of our economy, it is the foundation of our culture, and it’s an essential preparation for adult life.” Along with these three purposes, he further surmises that “education is also about the practical business of ensuring that young people receive the preparation they need to secure a good job and a fulfilling career and have the resilience and moral character to overcome challenges and succeed.”
Gibb (2015) also adds that “equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need to secure a place at a good university, start an apprenticeship, or find their first job, is a fundamental responsibility of all of us working in education.”
Certainly, these statements highlight the expected path that young people ought to take, as they are educated at each level and then move on to contribute to the overall objectives of their society or country. However, one must understand that these goals for education were not always as they are now.
The Psychology Today article, written by Dr. Peter Gray provides a synopsis of education throughout the ages, not just as it relates to formal education, in the manner it is known today.
It also encapsulates how early people learned to contribute to any group or society they were a part of. Starting from hunter-gatherers and their play, leading to people in agricultural societies who had to learn how to farm, fashion, and use their tools. To those in the industrial age, who had to work in factories to provide for their families, even children as young as 10 years old – as the law permitted.
Later we see the beginnings of the first schools in America. They were in Massachusetts. There, religious groups like the Puritans used bible lessons, scriptures, and prayers to help children not only learn how to read but also how to become good, moral citizens.
Once the foundation was laid, education started to take on an ever-changing purpose. Initially, the goal was to have people matriculate from the education system as solid workers who were dependable, punctual, and fulfilled the requirements of their jobs as dictated to them. They worked long hours and were not required to have great skill in reading and writing.
Once there was a greater cohesiveness among the various American groups, education was fashioned to produce patriotic citizens who could later be called on to serve their country as soldiers. They would be eager to do so, especially when it comes to defending their ideals and the foundation laid down by the founding fathers.
Reform later came to education by people who put the needs of children first and shaping them into the best version of themselves. The purpose of education became more about “protecting children from the damaging forces of the outside world and for providing children with the moral and intellectual grounding needed to develop into upstanding, competent adults” according to Gray (2008). Of course, there is always a hidden agenda. Students were expected to cover subjects such as Mathematics and Latin, which required rigor, repetition and would develop within them morality and immense discipline. In the end, these students would become scholars.
Gray (2008) further highlighted that recently, conventional schools became more common. Students could study diverse subjects, beyond the regular reading, writing, mathematics, or Latin. There was less focus on corporal punishment and children spent relatively most of their time learning and little or no time doing manual labor.
Nonetheless, one could say that schooling is even more demanding now than working in a factory, with the many hours required to attend school, complete homework and take on extra lessons just to keep up with the demands of the school curriculum.
GOV.UK. (2015). The purpose of education. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-purpose-of-education
King, M. L., Jr . (1947). The purpose of education. Retrieved from http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/Vol01Scans/123_Jan-Feb1947_The%20Purpose%20of%20Education.pdf
Gray, P. (2008). A brief history of education. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education
“As discussed in the reading, the purpose and structure of the American education system have been changed throughout the years. Interpret the general purpose of education, the purpose of education in the country you are currently in, and how it has changed over time.
In your response to three of your peers’ posts, compare and contrast your interpretations.”
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|
The Purpose of Education
by Denise N. Fyffe
Today, we cannot survive without education. It is the catalyst that helps us to navigate the world and achieve our objectives in life. It helps to launch us through whatever social, economic, physical, or societal demands that we encounter.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Upon close inspection, one could surmise that my own beliefs about education are in line with those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
King, Jr (1947) had a strong opinion about the purpose of education.
He stated that “education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute, and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult.”
The Purpose of Education
Throughout the readings, I found a myriad of explanations given for the purpose of education. According to a Schools Minister in the UK, Nick Gibb, education is to be the “engine of our economy, it is the foundation of our culture, and it’s an essential
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preparation for adult life.” Along with these three purposes, he further surmises that “education is also about the practical business of ensuring that young people receive the preparation they need to secure a good job and a fulfilling career and have the resilience and moral character to overcome challenges and succeed.”
Gibb (2015) also adds that “equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need to secure a place at a good university, start an apprenticeship, or find their first job, is a fundamental responsibility of all of us working in education.”
Certainly, these statements highlight the expected path that young people ought to take, as they are educated at each level and then move on to contribute to the overall objectives of their society or country. However, one must understand that these goals for education were not always as they are now.
The Psychology Today article, written by Dr. Peter Gray provides a synopsis of education throughout the ages, not just as it relates to formal education, in the manner it is known today.
It also encapsulates how early people learned to contribute to any group or society they were a part of. Starting from hunter-gatherers and their play, leading to people in agricultural societies who had to learn how to farm, fashion, and use their tools. To those in the industrial age, who had to work in factories to provide for their families, even children as young as 10 years old – as the law permitted.
Later we see the beginnings of the first schools in America. They were in Massachusetts. There, religious groups like the Puritans used bible lessons, scriptures, and prayers to help children not only learn how to read but also how to become good, moral citizens.
Once the foundation was laid, education started to take on an ever-changing purpose. Initially, the goal was to have people matriculate from the education system as solid workers who were dependable, punctual, and fulfilled the requirements of their jobs as dictated to them. They worked long hours and were not required to have great skill in reading and writing.
Once there was a greater cohesiveness among the various American groups, education was fashioned to produce patriotic citizens who could later be called on to serve their country as soldiers. They would be eager to do so, especially when it comes to defending their ideals and the foundation laid down by the founding fathers.
Reform later came to education by people who put the needs of children first and shaping them into the best version of themselves. The purpose of education became more about “protecting children from the damaging forces of the outside world and for providing children with the moral and intellectual grounding needed to develop into upstanding, competent adults” according to Gray (2008). Of course, there is always a hidden agenda. Students were expected to cover subjects such as Mathematics and Latin, which required rigor, repetition and would develop within them morality and immense discipline. In the end, these students would become scholars.
Gray (2008) further highlighted that recently, conventional schools became more common. Students could study diverse subjects, beyond the regular reading, writing, mathematics, or Latin. There was less focus on corporal punishment and children spent relatively most of their time learning and little or no time doing manual labor.
Nonetheless, one could say that schooling is even more demanding now than working in a factory, with the many hours required to attend school, complete homework and take on extra lessons just to keep up with the demands of the school curriculum.
GOV.UK. (2015). The purpose of education. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-purpose-of-education
King, M. L., Jr . (1947). The purpose of education. Retrieved from http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/Vol01Scans/123_Jan-Feb1947_The%20Purpose%20of%20Education.pdf
Gray, P. (2008). A brief history of education. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education
“As discussed in the reading, the purpose and structure of the American education system have been changed throughout the years. Interpret the general purpose of education, the purpose of education in the country you are currently in, and how it has changed over time.
In your response to three of your peers’ posts, compare and contrast your interpretations.”
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What you need to know about the debt ceiling as the deadline looms
The federal government is perilously close to being unable to make payments on the country's debt. It is up to Congress to vote to increase the nation's borrowing cap, known as the debt limit. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is in a standoff with President Biden over Republican demands to tie the debt limit to spending caps and other policy demands.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the country could run out of borrowing authority by June 1, leaving negotiators little time to reach an agreement.
Biden recently met with McCarthy, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to discuss a path forward. The group failed to reach a deal, but staff level talks are ongoing in an effort to avoid default.
Here are nine questions you may be asking about the debt ceiling and the fight over it.
What is the debt ceiling?
The "debt ceiling" or "debt limit" is a cap on how much debt the federal government is allowed to accumulate. Congress is constitutionally required to authorize the issuance of debt. Doing so then allows the government borrow to meet its existing legal obligations like Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds and other payments.
"It used to be that every time you did a Treasury auction where you borrowed, Congress would pass a new law just for that one auction," said Jason Furman, a top economic adviser to former President Barack Obama and an economics professor at Harvard.
"In 1917, the United States needed to borrow a lot of money for World War I," he said. "So in order to simplify that process and make it easier, Congress shifted to a new system where they said, you can borrow up to this amount of money and then come back to us and we'll raise it."
Congress has increased or suspended the debt limit 78 times since 1960, according to the Treasury Department.
How do experts know when the government has really run out of funds?
Economists look at how much the government is expected to bring in through tax payments, when those payments are expected to arrive in Treasury accounts and scheduled debt payments to determine a timeframe, known as an X-Date for when the debt authority might run out.
However, the Treasury Department has access to a few tools, known as extraordinary measures, to avoid default. Those measures include moving investments and deploying accounting tools to shift funds around.
The federal government technically hit the debt limit in January and extraordinary measures have kept payments flowing since then. Experts cannot pinpoint the exact date when funds will run out but they can identify a general range which is expected to fall sometime in early June or possibly as late as July or August.
Why is there a fight over it?
Debt has generally been an unpopular concept in American politics.
Every vote a lawmaker casts is part of that person's political record and many lawmakers do not want to be seen as signing off on more federal borrowing or spending.
Lawmakers also like to tack extraneous priorities onto bills that are seen as must-pass legislation. That makes the debt limit a prime target for political fights.
"Everybody uses [bills to increase] the debt ceiling for their favorite policies," said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "The real problem here is that you now have people actually talking about defaulting."
In the past, votes to increase the debt limit were relatively quiet, non-controversial affairs. That changed in 2011 when the country came dangerously close to default.
Mark Zandi, an analyst at Moody's Analytics, said there have been political battles over the debt before but none were as dangerous or consequential as the 2011 fight.
"It wasn't clear up until the very end that lawmakers were going to figure out a way to sign on the dotted line and increase the limit," Zandi said. "The stock market at one point I think was down intraday almost 20%. That's a pretty large market swoon."
At the time, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was in a standoff with Obama over spending. Republicans wanted deep spending cuts and caps on how much federal spending could grow after the cuts were enacted.
Obama insisted Congress raise the debt limit without any extraneous policies --known as a clean increase.
Congress eventually reached a deal to increase the debt limit along with caps on future spending but not before the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the nation's debt for the first time ever.
Many economists say the situation today is strikingly similar to the political fight in 2011 and there are serious concerns that the country could default.
What could happen if it's not raised?
The Treasury Department would be unable to make payments when they are due. Missing a payment of any kind or size would be considered a default.
Some Republicans have suggested choosing which debts to pay, a system called payment prioritization. Congress would have to pass a law to make that possible, which is politically very unlikely. Most experts say it might also be impossible to execute from a practical standpoint and the idea is not being seriously considered as a solution at this time.
Has the U.S. ever failed to make these debt payments?
And that is part of why the federal government is able to easily sell share Treasury bonds to investors across the globe and why the U.S. dollar is one of the most trusted currencies.
"Treasuries are the debt vehicle that are most trusted in the entire world to the point where even if there is an economic crisis that originated in the U.S., people come and buy treasuries because they trust them," MacGuineas said. "They trust the U.S. they trust the fact that they will get paid if that is called into question, because we actually do start to default and we don't pay the interest that is due. We will never be able to regain that most trusted role in the same capacity we had before"
Would capping or cutting spending now resolve the problem?
No, the debt limit is related to money that has been spent as a result of laws Congress already passed.
"As a mathematical consequence of the laws Congress already passed, you have to borrow a certain amount," Furman said. "This borrowing isn't some unilateral thing that President Biden wants to do in order to do his favorite projects. It is in order to accomplish what Congress told him to accomplish."
In fact, some of the debt being accumulated is the result of laws passed under former presidents, including Donald Trump.
Spending caps and other changes included in a bill passed by House Republicans are separate policies intended to address future debt accumulation, not the current need to increase the debt limit.
What else could be affected by a default?
A U.S. default could cause a huge ripple of negative consequences throughout the global financial system. Any hit to the country's credit rating could do long-term harm to the value of U.S. treasuries and make the country a less appealing investment.
"I am truly concerned there is an actual chance of default and that is so dangerous and such a sign that the U.S. is not able to govern itself in a way that is functioning," MacGuineas said. "We should all be worried both about the debt ceiling itself, but also about what it says about our politics."
Zandi warned that the consequences could go beyond just investment and lending rates.
"Don't worry about your stock portfolio, worry about your job," he said. "Because a lot of jobs are going to be lost. Unemployment is going to be a lot higher. Is the economy struggling already trying to avoid recession because of high inflation, high interest rates? This will certainly push us and, you know, it's going to be about layoffs. Stock portfolios will be the least of people's worries."
Furman said it could be worse than the 2008 financial crisis when the fall of Lehman Brothers Bank triggered a global financial crisis.
"It could be worse than Lehman Brothers, where everyone basically demands their money back because they don't believe the collateral anymore," Furman said. "And you have the equivalent of a run on the global financial system."
Is default the same thing as a shutdown?
No. A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to authorize annual spending bills before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The two issues sometimes become linked because lawmakers have occasionally extended the debt limit to intentionally align with the end of the fiscal year in order to force broader spending discussions alongside the debt authorization.
Are there other ways this problem could be fixed, aside from just increasing the debt limit?
Most experts agree the current debt limit process isn't working. MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Congress should be reassessing debt and spending priorities but the debt limit mechanism does not actually force them to make choices.
"The debt ceiling is a terrible way to try to impose fiscal responsibility," she said. "It doesn't make sense. It says after you vote to borrow a lot of money then you will then vote whether to actually make good on those bills. That's a dumb approach."
Instead, she suggested a system where Congress agrees to increase the debt limit when they pass legislation.
Others economists have suggested abolishing the debt limit entirely.
Other less popular proposals include minting a $1 trillion platinum coin to cover the debt or raising it so high that the next debate will be stalled for years or decades.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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What you need to know about the debt ceiling as the deadline looms
The federal government is perilously close to being unable to make payments on the country's debt. It is up to Congress to vote to increase the nation's borrowing cap, known as the debt limit. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is in a standoff with President Biden over Republican demands to tie the debt limit to spending caps and other policy demands.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the country could run out of borrowing authority by June 1, leaving negotiators little time to reach an agreement.
Biden recently met with McCarthy, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to discuss a path forward. The group failed to reach a deal, but staff level talks are ongoing in an effort to avoid default.
Here are nine questions you may be asking about the debt ceiling and the fight over it.
What is the debt ceiling?
The "debt ceiling" or "debt limit" is a cap on how much debt the federal government is allowed to accumulate. Congress is constitutionally required to authorize
|
the issuance of debt. Doing so then allows the government borrow to meet its existing legal obligations like Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds and other payments.
"It used to be that every time you did a Treasury auction where you borrowed, Congress would pass a new law just for that one auction," said Jason Furman, a top economic adviser to former President Barack Obama and an economics professor at Harvard.
"In 1917, the United States needed to borrow a lot of money for World War I," he said. "So in order to simplify that process and make it easier, Congress shifted to a new system where they said, you can borrow up to this amount of money and then come back to us and we'll raise it."
Congress has increased or suspended the debt limit 78 times since 1960, according to the Treasury Department.
How do experts know when the government has really run out of funds?
Economists look at how much the government is expected to bring in through tax payments, when those payments are expected to arrive in Treasury accounts and scheduled debt payments to determine a timeframe, known as an X-Date for when the debt authority might run out.
However, the Treasury Department has access to a few tools, known as extraordinary measures, to avoid default. Those measures include moving investments and deploying accounting tools to shift funds around.
The federal government technically hit the debt limit in January and extraordinary measures have kept payments flowing since then. Experts cannot pinpoint the exact date when funds will run out but they can identify a general range which is expected to fall sometime in early June or possibly as late as July or August.
Why is there a fight over it?
Debt has generally been an unpopular concept in American politics.
Every vote a lawmaker casts is part of that person's political record and many lawmakers do not want to be seen as signing off on more federal borrowing or spending.
Lawmakers also like to tack extraneous priorities onto bills that are seen as must-pass legislation. That makes the debt limit a prime target for political fights.
"Everybody uses [bills to increase] the debt ceiling for their favorite policies," said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "The real problem here is that you now have people actually talking about defaulting."
In the past, votes to increase the debt limit were relatively quiet, non-controversial affairs. That changed in 2011 when the country came dangerously close to default.
Mark Zandi, an analyst at Moody's Analytics, said there have been political battles over the debt before but none were as dangerous or consequential as the 2011 fight.
"It wasn't clear up until the very end that lawmakers were going to figure out a way to sign on the dotted line and increase the limit," Zandi said. "The stock market at one point I think was down intraday almost 20%. That's a pretty large market swoon."
At the time, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was in a standoff with Obama over spending. Republicans wanted deep spending cuts and caps on how much federal spending could grow after the cuts were enacted.
Obama insisted Congress raise the debt limit without any extraneous policies --known as a clean increase.
Congress eventually reached a deal to increase the debt limit along with caps on future spending but not before the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the nation's debt for the first time ever.
Many economists say the situation today is strikingly similar to the political fight in 2011 and there are serious concerns that the country could default.
What could happen if it's not raised?
The Treasury Department would be unable to make payments when they are due. Missing a payment of any kind or size would be considered a default.
Some Republicans have suggested choosing which debts to pay, a system called payment prioritization. Congress would have to pass a law to make that possible, which is politically very unlikely. Most experts say it might also be impossible to execute from a practical standpoint and the idea is not being seriously considered as a solution at this time.
Has the U.S. ever failed to make these debt payments?
And that is part of why the federal government is able to easily sell share Treasury bonds to investors across the globe and why the U.S. dollar is one of the most trusted currencies.
"Treasuries are the debt vehicle that are most trusted in the entire world to the point where even if there is an economic crisis that originated in the U.S., people come and buy treasuries because they trust them," MacGuineas said. "They trust the U.S. they trust the fact that they will get paid if that is called into question, because we actually do start to default and we don't pay the interest that is due. We will never be able to regain that most trusted role in the same capacity we had before"
Would capping or cutting spending now resolve the problem?
No, the debt limit is related to money that has been spent as a result of laws Congress already passed.
"As a mathematical consequence of the laws Congress already passed, you have to borrow a certain amount," Furman said. "This borrowing isn't some unilateral thing that President Biden wants to do in order to do his favorite projects. It is in order to accomplish what Congress told him to accomplish."
In fact, some of the debt being accumulated is the result of laws passed under former presidents, including Donald Trump.
Spending caps and other changes included in a bill passed by House Republicans are separate policies intended to address future debt accumulation, not the current need to increase the debt limit.
What else could be affected by a default?
A U.S. default could cause a huge ripple of negative consequences throughout the global financial system. Any hit to the country's credit rating could do long-term harm to the value of U.S. treasuries and make the country a less appealing investment.
"I am truly concerned there is an actual chance of default and that is so dangerous and such a sign that the U.S. is not able to govern itself in a way that is functioning," MacGuineas said. "We should all be worried both about the debt ceiling itself, but also about what it says about our politics."
Zandi warned that the consequences could go beyond just investment and lending rates.
"Don't worry about your stock portfolio, worry about your job," he said. "Because a lot of jobs are going to be lost. Unemployment is going to be a lot higher. Is the economy struggling already trying to avoid recession because of high inflation, high interest rates? This will certainly push us and, you know, it's going to be about layoffs. Stock portfolios will be the least of people's worries."
Furman said it could be worse than the 2008 financial crisis when the fall of Lehman Brothers Bank triggered a global financial crisis.
"It could be worse than Lehman Brothers, where everyone basically demands their money back because they don't believe the collateral anymore," Furman said. "And you have the equivalent of a run on the global financial system."
Is default the same thing as a shutdown?
No. A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to authorize annual spending bills before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The two issues sometimes become linked because lawmakers have occasionally extended the debt limit to intentionally align with the end of the fiscal year in order to force broader spending discussions alongside the debt authorization.
Are there other ways this problem could be fixed, aside from just increasing the debt limit?
Most experts agree the current debt limit process isn't working. MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Congress should be reassessing debt and spending priorities but the debt limit mechanism does not actually force them to make choices.
"The debt ceiling is a terrible way to try to impose fiscal responsibility," she said. "It doesn't make sense. It says after you vote to borrow a lot of money then you will then vote whether to actually make good on those bills. That's a dumb approach."
Instead, she suggested a system where Congress agrees to increase the debt limit when they pass legislation.
Others economists have suggested abolishing the debt limit entirely.
Other less popular proposals include minting a $1 trillion platinum coin to cover the debt or raising it so high that the next debate will be stalled for years or decades.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
|
A team of doctors in Boston successfully performed a novel fetal surgery to treat a rare brain condition known as vein of Galen malformation.
Although in utero surgery – performed before a baby is born – has been used for other conditions, this ultrasound-guided procedure was among the first for this condition. Details of the procedure, which took place in March, were published in the journal Stroke on Thursday.
The condition occurs when the blood vessel that carries blood from the brain to the heart, also known as the vein of Galen, doesn’t develop correctly. The malformation, known as VOGM, results in an overwhelming amount of blood stressing the vein and heart and can lead to a cascade of health problems.
“Tremendous brain injuries and immediate heart failure after birth are the two big challenges,” Dr. Darren Orbach, a radiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and expert in treating VOGM, told CNN.
Typically, infants are treated after they’re born using a catheter to insert tiny coils to slow down blood flow. However, Orbach said, the treatment often happens too late.
Despite advancements in care, “50 to 60 percent of all babies with this condition will get very sick immediately. And for those, it looks like there’s about a 40 percent mortality,” Orbach said. About half of infants that survive experience severe neurological and cognitive issues, he said.
Facing a choice
When they learned of their fourth pregnancy, Derek and Kenyatta Coleman of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were surprised and excited. Kenyatta, 36, and Derek, 39, have been married for seven years and were ready to welcome a new addition to their family.
Kenyatta said nothing seemed particularly notable about the pregnancy. After having three children, Kenyatta thought of ultrasounds as routine appointments.
“Baby was doing well. The anatomy scan came back unremarkable. All of her biophysical profiles were all unremarkable,” said Kenyatta, who spoke to CNN exclusively.
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A team of doctors in Boston successfully performed a novel fetal surgery to treat a rare brain condition known as vein of Galen malformation.
Although in utero surgery – performed before a baby is born – has been used for other conditions, this ultrasound-guided procedure was among the first for this condition. Details of the procedure, which took place in March, were published in the journal Stroke on Thursday.
The condition occurs when the blood vessel that carries blood from the brain to the heart, also known as the vein of Galen, doesn’t develop correctly. The malformation, known as VOGM, results in an overwhelming amount of blood stressing the vein and heart and can lead to a cascade of health problems.
“Tremendous brain injuries and immediate heart failure after birth are the two big challenges,” Dr. Darren Orbach, a radiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and expert in treating VOGM, told CNN.
Typically, infants are treated after they’re born using a catheter to insert tiny coils to slow down blood flow. However, Orbach said, the treatment often happens too late.
Despite advancements in care, “50 to 60 percent of all babies with this condition will get very sick immediately. And for those, it looks like there’s
|
about a 40 percent mortality,” Orbach said. About half of infants that survive experience severe neurological and cognitive issues, he said.
Facing a choice
When they learned of their fourth pregnancy, Derek and Kenyatta Coleman of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were surprised and excited. Kenyatta, 36, and Derek, 39, have been married for seven years and were ready to welcome a new addition to their family.
Kenyatta said nothing seemed particularly notable about the pregnancy. After having three children, Kenyatta thought of ultrasounds as routine appointments.
“Baby was doing well. The anatomy scan came back unremarkable. All of her biophysical profiles were all unremarkable,” said Kenyatta, who spoke to CNN exclusively.
|
Under its original plans, Xcel Energy would have already started construction on a controversial project to mix hydrogen into natural gas supply for Box Elder Creek Ranch, a suburban subdivision near the town of Hudson.
That timeline has now been delayed to the relief of some residents of the neighborhood, which is about 30 miles northeast of Denver. In order to win approval from state utility regulators, the company now acknowledges the project would not kick off until next spring at the earliest.
"We continue to evaluate the project and have requested commission approval," said Michelle Aguayo, a spokesperson for the state's largest electric and gas utility. "If approved, we anticipate construction could begin around the middle of next year. "
Across the country, natural gas utilities like Xcel Energy say hydrogen blending could cut climate-warming emissions and preserve a role for extensive pipeline networks. That's because hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel that can be coaxed from water with renewable electricity.
Critics, however, warn the plan is a bad bet for the climate — and energy customers. As the smallest and lightest molecule in the universe, hydrogen can escape leak-prone pipeline networks far more easily than traditional methane used for heating and cooking, increasing the risk of explosions. Recent studies further suggest higher hydrogen blends — above 5 percent — can weaken and crack steel pipes.
All hydrogen also isn't created equal from a climate perspective. While the molecule can be drawn from water, most of the supply in the U.S. is stripped from natural gas, a process that releases carbon and can offset the benefits of burning it in homes.
Xcel Energy claims the Box Elder Creek Ranch project will prove the company can overcome those challenges. It now must convince state utility regulators to let it proceed despite widespread objections from residents, consumer advocates and environmental groups.
A wonky shift in approach
Colorado's largest natural gas provider didn't always think it needed state explicit approval to proceed with the hydrogen-blending project.
It originally included the ratepayer-funded project in a filing meant to inform regulators about the climate impact of its natural gas system. Unlike other dockets before regulators, the proceeding wouldn't have provided an opportunity for other parties to intervene and adjudicate the case, potentially allowing the company to proceed on a rapid timeline.
In weekly meetings, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission questioned whether the hydrogen project deserved greater scrutiny. In August, Xcel Energy elected to include the project as a part of a plan to comply with a state law requiring gas utilities to slash climate-warming emissions 22 percent by 2030.
Since the commission won't approve a final plan until next spring, Xcel Energy pushed back plans to begin construction.
The decision also gave critics an opportunity to object to the project. Joe Pereira, the deputy director for the Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate, said his office is still working on its formal position, but initial research suggests there's a risk that hydrogen blending could damage gas pipes in homes and appliances.
"We don't know what hydrogen does to residential furnaces and water heaters," Pereira said. "What if the use of hydrogen negates a warranty?"
Pereira added it's unclear if the company has conducted sufficient outreach in Box Elder Creek Ranch. While the company said it has sent mailers and held meetings with the local homeowners' association, CPR News found many residents were oblivious to the project as of last July.
Even with sufficient public awareness, there's a more fundamental question of whether customers even want to participate, Pereira said. "The company takes the position that customers don't need to consent. We might question that."
Meanwhile, environmental advocates argue hydrogen blending is far less cost-effective than their preferred approach: ditching natural gas in favor of electric stoves and heat pumps.
A coalition of groups — the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Western Resource Advocates — have filed official objections questioning the environmental benefit of the pilot project.
It points to a state report finding the maximum safe hydrogen blend for consumer appliances is as little as 5 percent by volume, which would only secure a 1.5 percent cut in climate warming gases compared to traditional methane.
The groups argue the commission shouldn't let Xcel Energy invest ratepayer dollars in such a limited climate solution, especially when it could provide an excuse to expand a natural gas network that's pushing the state's climate goals further out of reach.
Growing concern from residents
Meanwhile, Xcel Energy argues that other utility companies around the country have already demonstrated hydrogen blending is a safe and effective tool to cut climate emissions. As for concerns about hydrogen damaging steel, it notes the pipeline network in Box Elder Creek Ranch is made from polyethylene, which researchers agree is far more effective at containing the gas.
Those assurances have been little comfort to Alisson Soehner, a mother of two in the neighborhood who works as an environmental engineer focused on air quality issues.
Shoener often assesses Colorado’s climate efforts in her professional role. Rather than a realistic understanding of current technology, she said the policies are too often based on arbitrary emissions targets.
Shoener now worries Xcel Energy's plan could be another poorly thought-out climate solution. Since learning about the project, she has contacted multiple appliance installers and manufacturers to ask about the risks of hydrogen blending. She found most warned the idea wasn't safe and could void the warranties covering appliances like furnaces, stoves and water heaters.
“I have an old dryer,” she said. “Is it meant for hydrogen? No.”
To her frustration, she said the company hasn't addressed her concerns in detail, only offering standardized responses.
"Just show me the data. Not just a one-page flyer saying you’ll be safe," Shoener said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a figure from a state report on hydrogen blending. A newer version of the state report found a 5 percent hydrogen blend would lead to a 1.5 percent cut in climate-warming gases compared to methane, not a 3 percent cut.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
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Under its original plans, Xcel Energy would have already started construction on a controversial project to mix hydrogen into natural gas supply for Box Elder Creek Ranch, a suburban subdivision near the town of Hudson.
That timeline has now been delayed to the relief of some residents of the neighborhood, which is about 30 miles northeast of Denver. In order to win approval from state utility regulators, the company now acknowledges the project would not kick off until next spring at the earliest.
"We continue to evaluate the project and have requested commission approval," said Michelle Aguayo, a spokesperson for the state's largest electric and gas utility. "If approved, we anticipate construction could begin around the middle of next year. "
Across the country, natural gas utilities like Xcel Energy say hydrogen blending could cut climate-warming emissions and preserve a role for extensive pipeline networks. That's because hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel that can be coaxed from water with renewable electricity.
Critics, however, warn the plan is a bad bet for the climate — and energy customers. As the smallest and lightest molecule in the universe, hydrogen can escape leak-prone pipeline networks far more easily than traditional methane used for heating and cooking, increasing the risk of explosions. Recent studies further suggest higher hydrogen blends
|
— above 5 percent — can weaken and crack steel pipes.
All hydrogen also isn't created equal from a climate perspective. While the molecule can be drawn from water, most of the supply in the U.S. is stripped from natural gas, a process that releases carbon and can offset the benefits of burning it in homes.
Xcel Energy claims the Box Elder Creek Ranch project will prove the company can overcome those challenges. It now must convince state utility regulators to let it proceed despite widespread objections from residents, consumer advocates and environmental groups.
A wonky shift in approach
Colorado's largest natural gas provider didn't always think it needed state explicit approval to proceed with the hydrogen-blending project.
It originally included the ratepayer-funded project in a filing meant to inform regulators about the climate impact of its natural gas system. Unlike other dockets before regulators, the proceeding wouldn't have provided an opportunity for other parties to intervene and adjudicate the case, potentially allowing the company to proceed on a rapid timeline.
In weekly meetings, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission questioned whether the hydrogen project deserved greater scrutiny. In August, Xcel Energy elected to include the project as a part of a plan to comply with a state law requiring gas utilities to slash climate-warming emissions 22 percent by 2030.
Since the commission won't approve a final plan until next spring, Xcel Energy pushed back plans to begin construction.
The decision also gave critics an opportunity to object to the project. Joe Pereira, the deputy director for the Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate, said his office is still working on its formal position, but initial research suggests there's a risk that hydrogen blending could damage gas pipes in homes and appliances.
"We don't know what hydrogen does to residential furnaces and water heaters," Pereira said. "What if the use of hydrogen negates a warranty?"
Pereira added it's unclear if the company has conducted sufficient outreach in Box Elder Creek Ranch. While the company said it has sent mailers and held meetings with the local homeowners' association, CPR News found many residents were oblivious to the project as of last July.
Even with sufficient public awareness, there's a more fundamental question of whether customers even want to participate, Pereira said. "The company takes the position that customers don't need to consent. We might question that."
Meanwhile, environmental advocates argue hydrogen blending is far less cost-effective than their preferred approach: ditching natural gas in favor of electric stoves and heat pumps.
A coalition of groups — the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Western Resource Advocates — have filed official objections questioning the environmental benefit of the pilot project.
It points to a state report finding the maximum safe hydrogen blend for consumer appliances is as little as 5 percent by volume, which would only secure a 1.5 percent cut in climate warming gases compared to traditional methane.
The groups argue the commission shouldn't let Xcel Energy invest ratepayer dollars in such a limited climate solution, especially when it could provide an excuse to expand a natural gas network that's pushing the state's climate goals further out of reach.
Growing concern from residents
Meanwhile, Xcel Energy argues that other utility companies around the country have already demonstrated hydrogen blending is a safe and effective tool to cut climate emissions. As for concerns about hydrogen damaging steel, it notes the pipeline network in Box Elder Creek Ranch is made from polyethylene, which researchers agree is far more effective at containing the gas.
Those assurances have been little comfort to Alisson Soehner, a mother of two in the neighborhood who works as an environmental engineer focused on air quality issues.
Shoener often assesses Colorado’s climate efforts in her professional role. Rather than a realistic understanding of current technology, she said the policies are too often based on arbitrary emissions targets.
Shoener now worries Xcel Energy's plan could be another poorly thought-out climate solution. Since learning about the project, she has contacted multiple appliance installers and manufacturers to ask about the risks of hydrogen blending. She found most warned the idea wasn't safe and could void the warranties covering appliances like furnaces, stoves and water heaters.
“I have an old dryer,” she said. “Is it meant for hydrogen? No.”
To her frustration, she said the company hasn't addressed her concerns in detail, only offering standardized responses.
"Just show me the data. Not just a one-page flyer saying you’ll be safe," Shoener said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a figure from a state report on hydrogen blending. A newer version of the state report found a 5 percent hydrogen blend would lead to a 1.5 percent cut in climate-warming gases compared to methane, not a 3 percent cut.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
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Desert renewal: signs of spring in West Texas
Right now, spring is announcing itself across West Texas in diverse ways.
Spring is sweet everywhere — but it comes with a special wonder in West Texas. The harsh edges of this land are softened. The rugged plants and animals of the place emerge in color and song. It's a reminder that life is more than endurance, and that the promise of renewal is abiding.
Now, as the Earth awakens, spring is announcing itself in West Texas in diverse ways.
In his 1999 book “Heralds of Spring in Texas,” longtime Big Bend National Park naturalist Roland Wauer cataloged the very personal ways people across the state register the season's arrival. It's a common experience. As we connect with the natural world, we develop a “phenology” — a knowledge of cyclic natural phenomena — that's more “site-specific” than the official calendar.
For Linda Hedges, of Limpia Crossing, spring is revealed in her native-plant garden. It starts with one particular plant.
“I was out yesterday near the agarita that's starting to flower and noticed, audibly, I could hear pollinators buzzing around," Hedges said. "That's my personal harbinger of spring — agarita. When the first buds pop open, I know we're there.”
Its name comes from the Spanish verb “agarrar,” to grab, and it's a little prickly. But agarita embodies tough desert beauty. Its blue-gray leaves are lustrous. And in February and March, its tiny yellow flowers offer food for native bees and other insects. Later, its fruits will sustain birds.
Track the flowering of plants as spring deepens, and you'll notice that there's a succession, or progression. Among cacti, claret cups bloom before prickly pears, prickly pears before chollas. It means continuous sustenance for bugs and birds.
In her garden, Hedges tracks seasonal change via penstemons, beautiful native plants with tubular flowers. The magenta-hued Wright's penstemon blooms first. The Havard penstemon, orangish-red, flowers next. Beard-lip — “the Scarlet Bugler” — waits for monsoon rains. Hummingbirds are uniquely equipped to pollinate these plants.
“It's like, 'the March of the Penstemon,'” Hedges said. “One flowering cycle is going to replace the previous one, which is really great for hummingbirds that rely on that nectar source.”
Then, there are markers of spring that are hard to miss. David Larson is Fort Davis National Historic Site superintendent.
“I checked my notes the last couple weeks trying to figure out when was the earliest I've ever seen turkey vultures in Alpine,” Larson said. “The earliest was the third of March, and the latest was the seventh. So it was, like, wow, they are right on target for that first week of March to come back.”
Turkey vultures return, as Larson noted, on a reliable schedule. Some will summer here — others will continue north as far as Canada.
Indeed, seasonal signposts abound in the avian world, Larson said. From Midland to Big Bend, there are two birds whose songs are synonymous with springtime.
The curve-billed thrasher has been called the “default desert bird” — it's a humble dun in color. But the melody of its song is brightness itself. Then there are Cassin's sparrows. These birds too are modest in appearance. But they're unique in their “skylarking” — which means they sing while they fly. On lonesome prairies, their song is bittersweet and haunting.
But pollination is the main attraction, and Larson said the region's solitary native bees are his first harbinger.
“I'm standing at my house right now in Alpine, standing in front of a flowering plum," he said. "I'm looking at all the bees coming to it. One of my favorite bees is the orchid bee. I think that's a bug sign of spring for me. It's a metallic blue or metallic green bee, and it's really small. But when you see it, it's just like, 'That is a really beautiful bug.'”
Allowing your yard to grow out can attract and sustains native bees, and other pollinators on which the planet's life relies. Michael Nickell is the Sibley Nature Center's museum scientist.
“All my neighbors have these putting-green lawns and things like that,” Nickell said. “And then there's me — with a prairie on my lawn.”
In his Odessa neighborhood, his yard is an anomaly. And it's uniquely alive. That includes plants others dismiss as “weeds.”
“They're not weeds to me,” Nickell said. “They're wildflowers. And this is what's available to so many of our insects early in the spring, things like henbits, and storksbill, also some of the mustard plants. I saw some today, the spectaclepod mustard.”
Migrating hummingbirds will nectar in Nickell's yard. And in a cholla bramble on his property, a mated pair of curve-billed thrashers is already raising hatchlings.
To experience Chihuahuan Desert springtime, nothing compares with Big Bend National Park. But birds and blooms aren't all that surges in March, said Tom VandenBerg, the park's chief of interpretation.
“Spring Break has sprung,” he said. “It's in full force right now. We basically had about 2,000 people in the Panther Junction Visitor Center yesterday, which is significantly higher than any number we've ever recorded.”
Some visitors aren't prepared for the swings of spring weather — ranging from almost 100 degrees on the river, to near freezing in the high-country nights. But Supervisory Ranger Cathy Hoyt said there's a bounty for those who leave their cars behind, and explore the desert flats and canyons.
“We've got an outstanding display of Torrey yuccas right now,” Hoyt said. “I've never seen the yuccas bloom like they are right now — it's just beautiful. The creosote are blooming. The mountain laurels are blooming in the canyons. The Mexican buckeyes are in full bloom. There's a lot out of there, if you look for it.”
New birds are appearing daily in the park, either as a stopover on migrations or to summer here. Black-chinned and Lucifer's hummingbirds. Cliff swallows in the canyons. Common black hawks near Rio Grande Village. Elf owls — the world's smallest owl species — nesting in agave stalks. There are radiant birds, like summer tanagers, painted redstarts and vermillion flycatchers. And then, full-time residents are absorbed in the business of courtship and homemaking, VandenBerg said.
“And of course cactus wrens are all over the place,” he said. “They're always doing something worth watching. And they never stop vocalizing. This is without a doubt the most exciting time of year — plant-wise, bird-wise and people-wise.”
Mammals, too, are stirring to new life, Hoyt said.
“Another sound of the spring for me is the singing of the coyotes very early in the morning,” she said. “Almost every morning I wake up to the songs of the coyotes and cactus wrens.”
“Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring,” Henry David Thoreau wrote. “If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature... know that the morning and spring of your life are past.”
Spring in West Texas is an invitation to join in the Earth's renewal, and be quickened in spirit.
|
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Desert renewal: signs of spring in West Texas
Right now, spring is announcing itself across West Texas in diverse ways.
Spring is sweet everywhere — but it comes with a special wonder in West Texas. The harsh edges of this land are softened. The rugged plants and animals of the place emerge in color and song. It's a reminder that life is more than endurance, and that the promise of renewal is abiding.
Now, as the Earth awakens, spring is announcing itself in West Texas in diverse ways.
In his 1999 book “Heralds of Spring in Texas,” longtime Big Bend National Park naturalist Roland Wauer cataloged the very personal ways people across the state register the season's arrival. It's a common experience. As we connect with the natural world, we develop a “phenology” — a knowledge of cyclic natural phenomena — that's more “site-specific” than the official calendar.
For Linda Hedges, of Limpia Crossing, spring is revealed in her native-plant garden. It starts with one particular plant.
“I was out yesterday near the agarita that's starting to flower and noticed, audibly, I could hear pollinators buzzing around," Hedges said. "That's my personal harb
|
inger of spring — agarita. When the first buds pop open, I know we're there.”
Its name comes from the Spanish verb “agarrar,” to grab, and it's a little prickly. But agarita embodies tough desert beauty. Its blue-gray leaves are lustrous. And in February and March, its tiny yellow flowers offer food for native bees and other insects. Later, its fruits will sustain birds.
Track the flowering of plants as spring deepens, and you'll notice that there's a succession, or progression. Among cacti, claret cups bloom before prickly pears, prickly pears before chollas. It means continuous sustenance for bugs and birds.
In her garden, Hedges tracks seasonal change via penstemons, beautiful native plants with tubular flowers. The magenta-hued Wright's penstemon blooms first. The Havard penstemon, orangish-red, flowers next. Beard-lip — “the Scarlet Bugler” — waits for monsoon rains. Hummingbirds are uniquely equipped to pollinate these plants.
“It's like, 'the March of the Penstemon,'” Hedges said. “One flowering cycle is going to replace the previous one, which is really great for hummingbirds that rely on that nectar source.”
Then, there are markers of spring that are hard to miss. David Larson is Fort Davis National Historic Site superintendent.
“I checked my notes the last couple weeks trying to figure out when was the earliest I've ever seen turkey vultures in Alpine,” Larson said. “The earliest was the third of March, and the latest was the seventh. So it was, like, wow, they are right on target for that first week of March to come back.”
Turkey vultures return, as Larson noted, on a reliable schedule. Some will summer here — others will continue north as far as Canada.
Indeed, seasonal signposts abound in the avian world, Larson said. From Midland to Big Bend, there are two birds whose songs are synonymous with springtime.
The curve-billed thrasher has been called the “default desert bird” — it's a humble dun in color. But the melody of its song is brightness itself. Then there are Cassin's sparrows. These birds too are modest in appearance. But they're unique in their “skylarking” — which means they sing while they fly. On lonesome prairies, their song is bittersweet and haunting.
But pollination is the main attraction, and Larson said the region's solitary native bees are his first harbinger.
“I'm standing at my house right now in Alpine, standing in front of a flowering plum," he said. "I'm looking at all the bees coming to it. One of my favorite bees is the orchid bee. I think that's a bug sign of spring for me. It's a metallic blue or metallic green bee, and it's really small. But when you see it, it's just like, 'That is a really beautiful bug.'”
Allowing your yard to grow out can attract and sustains native bees, and other pollinators on which the planet's life relies. Michael Nickell is the Sibley Nature Center's museum scientist.
“All my neighbors have these putting-green lawns and things like that,” Nickell said. “And then there's me — with a prairie on my lawn.”
In his Odessa neighborhood, his yard is an anomaly. And it's uniquely alive. That includes plants others dismiss as “weeds.”
“They're not weeds to me,” Nickell said. “They're wildflowers. And this is what's available to so many of our insects early in the spring, things like henbits, and storksbill, also some of the mustard plants. I saw some today, the spectaclepod mustard.”
Migrating hummingbirds will nectar in Nickell's yard. And in a cholla bramble on his property, a mated pair of curve-billed thrashers is already raising hatchlings.
To experience Chihuahuan Desert springtime, nothing compares with Big Bend National Park. But birds and blooms aren't all that surges in March, said Tom VandenBerg, the park's chief of interpretation.
“Spring Break has sprung,” he said. “It's in full force right now. We basically had about 2,000 people in the Panther Junction Visitor Center yesterday, which is significantly higher than any number we've ever recorded.”
Some visitors aren't prepared for the swings of spring weather — ranging from almost 100 degrees on the river, to near freezing in the high-country nights. But Supervisory Ranger Cathy Hoyt said there's a bounty for those who leave their cars behind, and explore the desert flats and canyons.
“We've got an outstanding display of Torrey yuccas right now,” Hoyt said. “I've never seen the yuccas bloom like they are right now — it's just beautiful. The creosote are blooming. The mountain laurels are blooming in the canyons. The Mexican buckeyes are in full bloom. There's a lot out of there, if you look for it.”
New birds are appearing daily in the park, either as a stopover on migrations or to summer here. Black-chinned and Lucifer's hummingbirds. Cliff swallows in the canyons. Common black hawks near Rio Grande Village. Elf owls — the world's smallest owl species — nesting in agave stalks. There are radiant birds, like summer tanagers, painted redstarts and vermillion flycatchers. And then, full-time residents are absorbed in the business of courtship and homemaking, VandenBerg said.
“And of course cactus wrens are all over the place,” he said. “They're always doing something worth watching. And they never stop vocalizing. This is without a doubt the most exciting time of year — plant-wise, bird-wise and people-wise.”
Mammals, too, are stirring to new life, Hoyt said.
“Another sound of the spring for me is the singing of the coyotes very early in the morning,” she said. “Almost every morning I wake up to the songs of the coyotes and cactus wrens.”
“Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring,” Henry David Thoreau wrote. “If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature... know that the morning and spring of your life are past.”
Spring in West Texas is an invitation to join in the Earth's renewal, and be quickened in spirit.
|
Hurricane season begins today, and while the outlooks have called for an average season, forecasters are warning that even typical years have the potential to lash coastal states with devastating storms.
Here’s what to expect in the coming months.
How many hurricanes will there be?
CNN tracked two hurricane season outlooks this year: the forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which was released last week, and another from researchers at Colorado State University, who have been issuing seasonal forecasts for more than 37 years.
NOAA officials are predicting an average hurricane season, with 12 to 17 named tropical storms, five to nine of which could become hurricanes. They expect as many of four of those could strengthen into major hurricanes – category 3 or stronger.
Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State, said in April his group was predicting a slightly below-average season this year: 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
The key difference between tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes lies in their wind speeds and the level of organization within the system.
While a tropical depression represents the earliest stage of cyclone development, named tropical storms exhibit more structure and stronger winds. Hurricanes — the most powerful and dangerous of the three — possess the strongest winds and a well-defined eye, making them capable of causing extensive damage over large areas.
How many will make landfall?
None of the seasonal outlooks go as far as to predict how many storms could make landfall in the Caribbean or the US. But history has shown that even in years with average or below-average storms, deadly landfalls are still possible.
Last year, for instance, was an average season, but Hurricane Ian was a catastrophe for Florida. The storm killed more than 100 people when it made landfall in September, devastated the coast around Fort Myers and caused inland flooding that lasted weeks.
Florida was then struck by Hurricane Nicole in November, which tore the beach out from under homes in Volusia County, leaving them teetering on the brink of collapse.
There have been six category 4 or 5 hurricanes to hit the mainland since 2017, the most ever during a six-year period. Climate change, especially the buildup of heat increasing the ocean’s temperature, is leading to a larger percentage of hurricanes reaching the highest categories on the scale – a trend that is likely to continue as global temperatures climb.
What are the environmental factors at play this year?
El Niño is characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and tends to increase upper-level winds over the Atlantic, which disrupt and suppress hurricane formation.
El Niño’s influence on this season is still somewhat uncertain because it is only just beginning to develop. That it will eventually form this year is a “foregone conclusion,” Klotzbach told CNN last week.
But there’s another factor that could negate or even outweigh El Niño’s influence this year: Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are already at or near record-high levels, and in a way that “matches up quite well with what we associate with active Atlantic hurricane seasons,” Klotzbach said.
“If these warm anomalies in the North Atlantic persist through the hurricane season, it has the potential to cause less of an El Niño (wind) shear impact than we normally see,” he said, and that possibility is even showing up in “several climate model forecasts” for the summer and fall.
How is climate change affecting hurricanes?
Hurricanes are natural phenomena shaped by complex atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. But they are now increasingly influenced by human-caused climate change.
As our planet continues to warm due to fossil fuel pollution, the impacts are manifesting in the intensification and altered behavior of these destructive storms. Through a combination of warmer waters, increased atmospheric moisture and rising sea levels, the climate crisis has set the stage for hurricanes to pose unprecedented risks to coastal communities.
What names will the hurricanes have?
The World Meteorological Organization chooses hurricane names and the list rotates every six years. Names are gendered alternately through the season, and the list excludes names starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z. If there are more than 21 storms in a season, the names transition to the Greek alphabet.
Some names are retired after particularly devastating storms. “Ian” and “Fiona” were retired last year, for example, and 96 names have been retired from the list since 1953.
When does hurricane season really get going?
Hurricanes can form at any time during the warm season and late into fall, but on average they peak in the Atlantic in the early fall – which is also around the time that the strongest storms tend to make landfall in the US.
Hurricane season ends on November 30, though there have been several instances where storms continued to form well after that date. In 2005 – the same year Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans – Hurricane Epsilon formed on November 29 and dissipated December 10. It was followed by an extremely late-season storm, Tropical Storm Zeta, that formed December 30 and lasted into January.
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Hurricane season begins today, and while the outlooks have called for an average season, forecasters are warning that even typical years have the potential to lash coastal states with devastating storms.
Here’s what to expect in the coming months.
How many hurricanes will there be?
CNN tracked two hurricane season outlooks this year: the forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which was released last week, and another from researchers at Colorado State University, who have been issuing seasonal forecasts for more than 37 years.
NOAA officials are predicting an average hurricane season, with 12 to 17 named tropical storms, five to nine of which could become hurricanes. They expect as many of four of those could strengthen into major hurricanes – category 3 or stronger.
Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State, said in April his group was predicting a slightly below-average season this year: 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
The key difference between tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes lies in their wind speeds and the level of organization within the system.
While a tropical depression represents the earliest stage of cyclone development, named tropical storms exhibit more structure and stronger winds.
|
Hurricanes — the most powerful and dangerous of the three — possess the strongest winds and a well-defined eye, making them capable of causing extensive damage over large areas.
How many will make landfall?
None of the seasonal outlooks go as far as to predict how many storms could make landfall in the Caribbean or the US. But history has shown that even in years with average or below-average storms, deadly landfalls are still possible.
Last year, for instance, was an average season, but Hurricane Ian was a catastrophe for Florida. The storm killed more than 100 people when it made landfall in September, devastated the coast around Fort Myers and caused inland flooding that lasted weeks.
Florida was then struck by Hurricane Nicole in November, which tore the beach out from under homes in Volusia County, leaving them teetering on the brink of collapse.
There have been six category 4 or 5 hurricanes to hit the mainland since 2017, the most ever during a six-year period. Climate change, especially the buildup of heat increasing the ocean’s temperature, is leading to a larger percentage of hurricanes reaching the highest categories on the scale – a trend that is likely to continue as global temperatures climb.
What are the environmental factors at play this year?
El Niño is characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and tends to increase upper-level winds over the Atlantic, which disrupt and suppress hurricane formation.
El Niño’s influence on this season is still somewhat uncertain because it is only just beginning to develop. That it will eventually form this year is a “foregone conclusion,” Klotzbach told CNN last week.
But there’s another factor that could negate or even outweigh El Niño’s influence this year: Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are already at or near record-high levels, and in a way that “matches up quite well with what we associate with active Atlantic hurricane seasons,” Klotzbach said.
“If these warm anomalies in the North Atlantic persist through the hurricane season, it has the potential to cause less of an El Niño (wind) shear impact than we normally see,” he said, and that possibility is even showing up in “several climate model forecasts” for the summer and fall.
How is climate change affecting hurricanes?
Hurricanes are natural phenomena shaped by complex atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. But they are now increasingly influenced by human-caused climate change.
As our planet continues to warm due to fossil fuel pollution, the impacts are manifesting in the intensification and altered behavior of these destructive storms. Through a combination of warmer waters, increased atmospheric moisture and rising sea levels, the climate crisis has set the stage for hurricanes to pose unprecedented risks to coastal communities.
What names will the hurricanes have?
The World Meteorological Organization chooses hurricane names and the list rotates every six years. Names are gendered alternately through the season, and the list excludes names starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z. If there are more than 21 storms in a season, the names transition to the Greek alphabet.
Some names are retired after particularly devastating storms. “Ian” and “Fiona” were retired last year, for example, and 96 names have been retired from the list since 1953.
When does hurricane season really get going?
Hurricanes can form at any time during the warm season and late into fall, but on average they peak in the Atlantic in the early fall – which is also around the time that the strongest storms tend to make landfall in the US.
Hurricane season ends on November 30, though there have been several instances where storms continued to form well after that date. In 2005 – the same year Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans – Hurricane Epsilon formed on November 29 and dissipated December 10. It was followed by an extremely late-season storm, Tropical Storm Zeta, that formed December 30 and lasted into January.
|
Using manure in the home garden
Gardening experts often encourage the use of fertilizer. It’s the golden trowel of gardening and an essential source of nutrients for plants. And while there are several types of fertilizers available today, many gardeners like to stick to old faithful: manure.
Manure is packed with nutrients and has had a variety of uses throughout history. Not only is it the oldest fertilizer, it can also be used to generate biofuels and can be turned into fiber to create a number of materials.
Many gardeners tout manure’s superiority to synthetic products available today. And if done right, it’ll be a fantastic supply of necessary nutrients to grow a large healthy garden.
But if you’re a ma-newbie (manure newbie), there are a few things you’ll want to watch out for to avoid contamination risks. Or, put another way: you don’t want poop to get in your food.
Don’t eat sh*t
It’s important to avoid the risk of contamination of your edible crops. Otherwise, you put yourself and others at risk of contracting a food-borne illness. To best avoid unintended contamination, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Timing is key
Manure should be applied at least 120 days before your target harvest date for any vegetables for which the edible part comes in direct contact with the soil, such as root crops or lettuces, and at least 90 days ahead for vegetables that don’t contact the soil, like corn.
The time constraint means spring application likely won’t fit on your garden’s timeline in Iowa. Instead, aim to apply manure after you’ve harvested the last of your vegetables this fall.
Not willing to wait? Alternatively, you could spread manure about a foot away from the base of your plants, giving your greens some breathing room while still being able to incorporate last-minute manure.
If you do apply manure in the fall, cover your targeted area with a tarp or leaves to help the manure break down further and avoid nutrient leaching (when the nutrients go below root level).
Either way, you also - always - need to clean your crops. Washing, peeling and cooking all help to remove potential pathogens.
How to apply manure to your home garden
Alright - health considerations out of the way. Let’s say you’re committed to fertilizing with poop. To begin, get a well-composted manure. It’ll smell less, weigh less and be safer to use.
From there, spread your manure in your target area and incorporate it into the top 6 - 8 inches of soil.
Avoid fertilizer plant burn
You can have too much of a good thing. In this case, that’s too much animal byproduct.
Nutrient excess can damage or kill your plants. Using too much manure - or also manure that’s too fresh - can throw off phosphorus levels and lead to nitrate leaching, nutrient runoff and other issues.
This is another reason to hold the manure to the fall. Planting in the off season helps avoid burning, as it allows ammonia (byproduct) to be released into the atmosphere instead of coming in direct contact with your growing plants.
Additionally, different types of manure will have different levels of nutrients and variable effects on your garden. If you’re going to go all in on manure, see what your space needs by doing a general soil test.
A few more things to keep in mind
- Avoid manure from dogs, cats and pigs in vegetable gardens or compost piles.
- Top off your application area with mulch or some cover crop to avoid it washing away or leaching into non-targeted areas.
- If you use very fresh manure, remember, you’re bringing the farm - and its extra stink - to you and your neighbors. Maybe give them some of your produce next season to make up for the extra smell.
|
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Using manure in the home garden
Gardening experts often encourage the use of fertilizer. It’s the golden trowel of gardening and an essential source of nutrients for plants. And while there are several types of fertilizers available today, many gardeners like to stick to old faithful: manure.
Manure is packed with nutrients and has had a variety of uses throughout history. Not only is it the oldest fertilizer, it can also be used to generate biofuels and can be turned into fiber to create a number of materials.
Many gardeners tout manure’s superiority to synthetic products available today. And if done right, it’ll be a fantastic supply of necessary nutrients to grow a large healthy garden.
But if you’re a ma-newbie (manure newbie), there are a few things you’ll want to watch out for to avoid contamination risks. Or, put another way: you don’t want poop to get in your food.
Don’t eat sh*t
It’s important to avoid the risk of contamination of your edible crops. Otherwise, you put yourself and others at risk of contracting a food-borne illness. To best avoid unintended contamination, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Timing is key
Manure should be
|
applied at least 120 days before your target harvest date for any vegetables for which the edible part comes in direct contact with the soil, such as root crops or lettuces, and at least 90 days ahead for vegetables that don’t contact the soil, like corn.
The time constraint means spring application likely won’t fit on your garden’s timeline in Iowa. Instead, aim to apply manure after you’ve harvested the last of your vegetables this fall.
Not willing to wait? Alternatively, you could spread manure about a foot away from the base of your plants, giving your greens some breathing room while still being able to incorporate last-minute manure.
If you do apply manure in the fall, cover your targeted area with a tarp or leaves to help the manure break down further and avoid nutrient leaching (when the nutrients go below root level).
Either way, you also - always - need to clean your crops. Washing, peeling and cooking all help to remove potential pathogens.
How to apply manure to your home garden
Alright - health considerations out of the way. Let’s say you’re committed to fertilizing with poop. To begin, get a well-composted manure. It’ll smell less, weigh less and be safer to use.
From there, spread your manure in your target area and incorporate it into the top 6 - 8 inches of soil.
Avoid fertilizer plant burn
You can have too much of a good thing. In this case, that’s too much animal byproduct.
Nutrient excess can damage or kill your plants. Using too much manure - or also manure that’s too fresh - can throw off phosphorus levels and lead to nitrate leaching, nutrient runoff and other issues.
This is another reason to hold the manure to the fall. Planting in the off season helps avoid burning, as it allows ammonia (byproduct) to be released into the atmosphere instead of coming in direct contact with your growing plants.
Additionally, different types of manure will have different levels of nutrients and variable effects on your garden. If you’re going to go all in on manure, see what your space needs by doing a general soil test.
A few more things to keep in mind
- Avoid manure from dogs, cats and pigs in vegetable gardens or compost piles.
- Top off your application area with mulch or some cover crop to avoid it washing away or leaching into non-targeted areas.
- If you use very fresh manure, remember, you’re bringing the farm - and its extra stink - to you and your neighbors. Maybe give them some of your produce next season to make up for the extra smell.
|
By Gloria Dickie
DUBAI – When temperatures climbed north of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Seville during this summer’s crushing heatwave in Europe, air conditioning use jumped 23% in the southern Spanish city compared to how many hours ACs ran during the same period in 2022.
Lisbon’s average AC use, too, went up by about 41% in mid-June to mid-July, compared with the same period the previous year, according to data analysis from Sensibo, a company which specializes in smart devices that can control ACs remotely to cut energy use.
While cooling technologies can save lives during deadly heat, they also threaten to worsen the climate crisis.
The energy used in cooling and refrigerants accounts for about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and demand could more than triple by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.
“We’ve got a big problem,” said Lily Riahi, head of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Cool Coalition. “Without strong policy actions, emissions will skyrocket.”
At this year’s U.N. climate summit, governments and companies are grappling with the problem by discussing energy efficiency and reining in high-polluting refrigerants.
Dozens of countries are backing a COP28 pledge to reduce cooling-related emissions by at least 68% by 2050 from 2022 levels.
But industry experts say governments need to offer incentives for companies to bring sustainable AC technologies to market and scale up.
Even making today’s most efficient units more affordable could help, she said.
“There is super efficient equipment available today that is not being tapped into,” Riahi said. “We need to create demand with policy.”
AC companies have been developing better products for years, with units using less power and releasing fewer hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases.
One way conventional ACs are so energy intensive is through processes for eliminating humidity.
Conventional ACs transfer heat outside by converting gas refrigerants to liquid and back again, which generates cooling.
Removing humidity requires cooling air to the point at which water vapour becomes a liquid to be drained. This inability to get rid of humidity without first cooling the air makes conventional ACs less efficient.
“Humidity is what drives comfort, even more than temperature,” said Sorin Grama, CEO of the U.S. startup Transaera. “Current air conditioners suck when it comes to removing humidity.”
Grama co-founded Transaera in 2018 based on novel cooling materials discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The company’s AC prototype uses these materials to dry out air, aiming to produce fewer emissions than traditional ACs.
Two major AC companies, Gree Electric and Daikin, won a 2021 competition supported by the Indian government and nonprofits to build a better air conditioner.
Like Transaera, the winning prototypes focused on removing humidity and achieving a climate impact five times lower than available ACs.
Two years later, there are no plans to bring those winning prototypes to market. While Gree hopes soon to offer a scaled-back model, Daikin said material costs and supply chain issues were still obstacles.
“It’s not economically feasible,” said Miki Yamanaka, department manager of Daikin’s Global Environment Center.
MARKETS OF SCALE
Industry experts say policies and incentives are needed to lower consumer costs. More than 1 billion people living in warm climates still lack access to cooling, according to nonprofit Sustainable Energy for All.
“Cooling is more like a right than a luxury,” said Larissa Gross of climate think tank E3G.
UNEP’s Riahi said governments can consider implementing stricter energy performance standards, clearer efficiency labelling, subsidies or bulk procurement to stimulate demand and lower costs.
Meanwhile, import tariffs can help prevent inefficient, second-hand models being resold in developing countries.
Gree is not yet releasing commercial models that replicate its super-efficient prototype. Market research suggested people were not willing to pay as much as 150% more, said thermal engineer Baolong Wang of Tsinghua University in Beijing who worked with Gree on its prototype.
“Some countries like Indonesia, the economics are not so developed, but they need this kind of cooling,” Wang said. “You have to focus on affordable cooling”.
The company instead plans to soon market a similar model but for drier conditions in the Middle East. This model uses the prototype’s high-efficiency air compressor, but switches to a cheaper refrigerant with higher emissions potential than the prototype’s R152a refrigerant, he said.
Wang said Gree was also working on a model for the more humid Indian market.
Another startup from Britain called Barocal is also working on improving AC technology, with its initial prototype using solid refrigerants instead of climate-polluting gases.
“We’ve been working hard on a second generation of prototypes that are performing well in all metrics — good cooling power and efficiency,” said Barocal founder Xavier Moya, a material physics researcher at the University of Cambridge.
The startup Transaera, which last year received $4.5 million in seed funding from U.S. company Carrier’s venture capital group, aims to get a product to market by 2025.
“This industry goes slow,” Grama said. “You have to generate supply chains and partnerships … We have to work within the confines of a 100-year-old industry changing its direction.”
For daily comprehensive coverage on COP28 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.
(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Katy Daigle, Simon Jessop and Josie Kao)
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By Gloria Dickie
DUBAI – When temperatures climbed north of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Seville during this summer’s crushing heatwave in Europe, air conditioning use jumped 23% in the southern Spanish city compared to how many hours ACs ran during the same period in 2022.
Lisbon’s average AC use, too, went up by about 41% in mid-June to mid-July, compared with the same period the previous year, according to data analysis from Sensibo, a company which specializes in smart devices that can control ACs remotely to cut energy use.
While cooling technologies can save lives during deadly heat, they also threaten to worsen the climate crisis.
The energy used in cooling and refrigerants accounts for about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and demand could more than triple by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.
“We’ve got a big problem,” said Lily Riahi, head of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Cool Coalition. “Without strong policy actions, emissions will skyrocket.”
At this year’s U.N. climate summit, governments and companies are grappling with the problem
|
by discussing energy efficiency and reining in high-polluting refrigerants.
Dozens of countries are backing a COP28 pledge to reduce cooling-related emissions by at least 68% by 2050 from 2022 levels.
But industry experts say governments need to offer incentives for companies to bring sustainable AC technologies to market and scale up.
Even making today’s most efficient units more affordable could help, she said.
“There is super efficient equipment available today that is not being tapped into,” Riahi said. “We need to create demand with policy.”
AC companies have been developing better products for years, with units using less power and releasing fewer hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases.
One way conventional ACs are so energy intensive is through processes for eliminating humidity.
Conventional ACs transfer heat outside by converting gas refrigerants to liquid and back again, which generates cooling.
Removing humidity requires cooling air to the point at which water vapour becomes a liquid to be drained. This inability to get rid of humidity without first cooling the air makes conventional ACs less efficient.
“Humidity is what drives comfort, even more than temperature,” said Sorin Grama, CEO of the U.S. startup Transaera. “Current air conditioners suck when it comes to removing humidity.”
Grama co-founded Transaera in 2018 based on novel cooling materials discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The company’s AC prototype uses these materials to dry out air, aiming to produce fewer emissions than traditional ACs.
Two major AC companies, Gree Electric and Daikin, won a 2021 competition supported by the Indian government and nonprofits to build a better air conditioner.
Like Transaera, the winning prototypes focused on removing humidity and achieving a climate impact five times lower than available ACs.
Two years later, there are no plans to bring those winning prototypes to market. While Gree hopes soon to offer a scaled-back model, Daikin said material costs and supply chain issues were still obstacles.
“It’s not economically feasible,” said Miki Yamanaka, department manager of Daikin’s Global Environment Center.
MARKETS OF SCALE
Industry experts say policies and incentives are needed to lower consumer costs. More than 1 billion people living in warm climates still lack access to cooling, according to nonprofit Sustainable Energy for All.
“Cooling is more like a right than a luxury,” said Larissa Gross of climate think tank E3G.
UNEP’s Riahi said governments can consider implementing stricter energy performance standards, clearer efficiency labelling, subsidies or bulk procurement to stimulate demand and lower costs.
Meanwhile, import tariffs can help prevent inefficient, second-hand models being resold in developing countries.
Gree is not yet releasing commercial models that replicate its super-efficient prototype. Market research suggested people were not willing to pay as much as 150% more, said thermal engineer Baolong Wang of Tsinghua University in Beijing who worked with Gree on its prototype.
“Some countries like Indonesia, the economics are not so developed, but they need this kind of cooling,” Wang said. “You have to focus on affordable cooling”.
The company instead plans to soon market a similar model but for drier conditions in the Middle East. This model uses the prototype’s high-efficiency air compressor, but switches to a cheaper refrigerant with higher emissions potential than the prototype’s R152a refrigerant, he said.
Wang said Gree was also working on a model for the more humid Indian market.
Another startup from Britain called Barocal is also working on improving AC technology, with its initial prototype using solid refrigerants instead of climate-polluting gases.
“We’ve been working hard on a second generation of prototypes that are performing well in all metrics — good cooling power and efficiency,” said Barocal founder Xavier Moya, a material physics researcher at the University of Cambridge.
The startup Transaera, which last year received $4.5 million in seed funding from U.S. company Carrier’s venture capital group, aims to get a product to market by 2025.
“This industry goes slow,” Grama said. “You have to generate supply chains and partnerships … We have to work within the confines of a 100-year-old industry changing its direction.”
For daily comprehensive coverage on COP28 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.
(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Katy Daigle, Simon Jessop and Josie Kao)
|
In Prehistoric Idaho, Idaho Public Television’s original series Outdoor Idaho looks back at what the Gem State was like hundreds of millions of years ago by turning to its fossil record. Whether it’s the ever-changing landscape and climate or the now-extinct animals that once roamed the area, Prehistoric Idaho has something for everyone.
We look at dinosaurs found in the state and what makes Idaho’s soil and caves unique for fossil preservation. Once much more humid, and even under water at one point, Idaho was home to creatures such as unique buzzsaw sharks and dire wolves.
This show takes you on a journey, demonstrating an Idaho that once had a giant, 11-foot-tall gigantoraptor dinosaur and a 13-foot Columbian mammoth. These creatures lived in Idaho throughout various periods of time and the fossils left behind serve as the evidence.
Idaho’s fossil record can teach us about what these animals ate, how they lived and how they died.
The fossils found in Idaho teach us about what the Earth used to look like and offer insight into why these prehistoric animals are now extinct. The fossils teach us about the past ecology of the state and how we got to where we are today.
Fossils in Idaho help humans study the trajectory of the Earth and what we can expect in the future. That’s vital for scientists to understand as environmentalists plan moving forward.
“Producing this episode was a wild lesson in the Earth’s history,” says producer Ruth Brown. “We humans sometimes forget we’ve only been around for a short amount of time. The show demonstrates some of the amazing creatures that once roamed what is now Idaho and the vast changes to the area’s environment and landscape over hundreds of millions of years.”
Prehistoric Idaho airs May 11 at 8 PM and again May 14 at 7 PM on Idaho Public Television. It will be available for streaming online and through the PBS app.
|
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|
In Prehistoric Idaho, Idaho Public Television’s original series Outdoor Idaho looks back at what the Gem State was like hundreds of millions of years ago by turning to its fossil record. Whether it’s the ever-changing landscape and climate or the now-extinct animals that once roamed the area, Prehistoric Idaho has something for everyone.
We look at dinosaurs found in the state and what makes Idaho’s soil and caves unique for fossil preservation. Once much more humid, and even under water at one point, Idaho was home to creatures such as unique buzzsaw sharks and dire wolves.
This show takes you on a journey, demonstrating an Idaho that once had a giant, 11-foot-tall gigantoraptor dinosaur and a 13-foot Columbian mammoth. These creatures lived in Idaho throughout various periods of time and the fossils left behind serve as the evidence.
Idaho’s fossil record can teach us about what these animals ate, how they lived and how they died.
The fossils found in Idaho teach us about what the Earth used to look like and offer insight into why these prehistoric animals are now extinct. The fossils teach us about the past ecology of the state and how we got to where we are today.
Fossils in Idaho
|
help humans study the trajectory of the Earth and what we can expect in the future. That’s vital for scientists to understand as environmentalists plan moving forward.
“Producing this episode was a wild lesson in the Earth’s history,” says producer Ruth Brown. “We humans sometimes forget we’ve only been around for a short amount of time. The show demonstrates some of the amazing creatures that once roamed what is now Idaho and the vast changes to the area’s environment and landscape over hundreds of millions of years.”
Prehistoric Idaho airs May 11 at 8 PM and again May 14 at 7 PM on Idaho Public Television. It will be available for streaming online and through the PBS app.
|
Black history is American history, Urban League leader says
With the turn of the calendar to February, Black History Month is officially underway. It comes this year amid nationwide efforts by the far right to suppress the teaching of Black history in schools.
David Hopkins, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Hartford, gave an example of why American history without Black history is incomplete.
"Frederick Douglass being the first Black nominee for the seat of presidency of the United States," Hopkins said. "If you don't know that, then you never account for the place that Black people had at the highest level of politics. And then, you replace that with someone else who was white. And then you presume that white people have been at the core and source of legislation."
On Thursday, Feb. 9, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the Urban League of Greater Hartford will host its free, annual Black History Month Celebration at the Mark Twain House. "It really celebrates African American and Afro Caribbean culture," Hopkins said. "In Greater Hartford there's a strong Afro Caribbean population, so we recognize that and their contributions as well."
The National Urban League has been in existence since 1910 with a self-described mission of advocating on behalf of economic and social justice for African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. The Greater Hartford Urban League chapter is approaching its 60th anniversary — it was founded in 1964.
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|
Black history is American history, Urban League leader says
With the turn of the calendar to February, Black History Month is officially underway. It comes this year amid nationwide efforts by the far right to suppress the teaching of Black history in schools.
David Hopkins, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Hartford, gave an example of why American history without Black history is incomplete.
"Frederick Douglass being the first Black nominee for the seat of presidency of the United States," Hopkins said. "If you don't know that, then you never account for the place that Black people had at the highest level of politics. And then, you replace that with someone else who was white. And then you presume that white people have been at the core and source of legislation."
On Thursday, Feb. 9, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the Urban League of Greater Hartford will host its free, annual Black History Month Celebration at the Mark Twain House. "It really celebrates African American and Afro Caribbean culture," Hopkins said. "In Greater Hartford there's a strong Afro Caribbean population, so we recognize that and their contributions as well."
The National Urban League has been in existence since 1910 with a self-described mission of advocating
|
on behalf of economic and social justice for African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. The Greater Hartford Urban League chapter is approaching its 60th anniversary — it was founded in 1964.
|
What are Oklahoma and other states doing about all these hogs gone wild?
Rather than going it alone, Oklahoma is working with other states in the fight against wild hogs and the $1.5 billion in annual damage they do nationally to crops and property.
Scientists at Oklahoma State University and other land-grant institutions are collaborating, according to the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, which recently highlighted the work as one of its multistate research efforts.
Some 9 million feral hogs have been reported in 35 states, according to OSU Ag Research, citing information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"They eat crops, dig up trees and devour food that other animals depend on," the state agency said, and they've spread all over the Sooner State the past 40 years.
Why are wild hogs such a problem in Oklahoma and other states?
Why are feral hogs such a problem?
"Hogs can significantly damage native flora and fauna through their rooting behaviors and facilitate the spread of invasive plants, alter soil and water resources and limit regeneration of native plants," OSU Ag Research said. "Habitat degradation by feral hogs can influence the diversity and occurrence of native wildlife communities.
"Feral hogs also carry and transmit diseases that pose significant risks to the health of many wild and domestic animals.
They cause "a staggering amount of damage," said Scott Senseman, associate vice president of OSU Ag Research, which provides fact sheets on wild hogs and other wildlife that can cause damage and disease. “A collaborative, multistate effort is likely the only way to mitigate the problem.”
Here are highlights of the research in several states:
What is Oklahoma State University's goal in feral hog research?
OSU's research focuses on wild hogs on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Feral hogs were documented on the refuge 30 years ago, but "despite considerable control efforts and costs, feral hogs have persisted, and the ecosystem impacts have not been assessed," OSU Ag Research said.
OSU, using remote game cameras at 99 sites, aims to estimate the hogs’ "space use patterns" and evaluate their effects on bison and the diversity of other animals on the refuge. Analysis of early results is under way. Sampling will be repeated this year from May through August and shared with natural resources managers and scientists.
Drones on the farm:Why most farmers could be flying drones in a decade, and how it'll affect Oklahoma crops
What are scientists in Arkansas doing in research into wild hogs?
According to OSU Ag Research:
- The Arkansas Forest Resources Center in Monticello, Arkansas, led a multistate survey of 4,500 landowners to gauge economic damage feral hogs cause to croplands, forestlands, pasturelands and livestock.
- The study estimated feral hog damages over five years across all of Arkansas and Louisiana as well as 38 counties in east Texas. According to the survey, private landowners’ average agricultural cropland damage in the past five years was $28 per acre in both Arkansas and Louisiana and approximately $25 per acre in east Texas.
- The most reported feral hog damage to crops involved corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, hay, silage and forage crops.
SAVE TREES:Nonprofit is working with the state to save trees and create Oklahoma's first state forest
What Louisiana is doing about the 900,000-plus wild hogs in the state?
According to OSU Ag Research:
- The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates the feral hog population in the state to be more than 900,000. A Louisiana State University AgCenter survey estimated damages to commodity production at $66 million and other non-production losses at almost $25 million.
- The LSU AgCenter and Department of Chemistry are working on a bait-and-delivery system to help reduce the feral hog population. The soft baits, which are swallowed by the hogs, contain sodium nitrite, a common food additive in products like bacon, that is lethal to hogs.
- The ag center team plans to commercialize the bait system once they are satisfied with its performance. The product will then go through federal and state approval processes.
OKC HOUSING PERSPECTIVES:Insights Realtors see in the OKC-area housing market right now, and what you need to know
South Carolina has a Wild Hog Task Force led by Clemson University
- The South Carolina Wild Hog Task Force was created to coordinate education, research and management efforts to reduce problems associated with wild hogs in the Palmetto state.
- The task force is comprised of 21 different state and federal agencies, agriculture and natural resources associations, and conservation groups led by Clemson University and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services.
- Clemson University supports the South Carolina Wild Hog Task Force to coordinate education, research and management programs to reduce damage caused by wild hogs in South Carolina. Future research will focus on effective methods to reduce wild hog damage and track damage in the state.
WILD RIDE:Your next Amazon package could be delivered in OKC by this wild-looking electric truck
Texas copes with wild hogs with research, teaching, and outreach
The Lone Star State has numerous agencies involved with feral hog research, including:
- AgriLife Extension provides information on current projects.
- Wildlife Services – Resolves conflicts between wildlife and human interests requiring wildlife damage management expertise.
- Texas AgriLife Extension Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences provides publications, activities, programs, and events related to wildlife and fisheries management in Texas.
SIGN UP:Weekly e-newsletter, Real Estate With Richard Mize
Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at <email-pii>. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize.
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What are Oklahoma and other states doing about all these hogs gone wild?
Rather than going it alone, Oklahoma is working with other states in the fight against wild hogs and the $1.5 billion in annual damage they do nationally to crops and property.
Scientists at Oklahoma State University and other land-grant institutions are collaborating, according to the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, which recently highlighted the work as one of its multistate research efforts.
Some 9 million feral hogs have been reported in 35 states, according to OSU Ag Research, citing information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"They eat crops, dig up trees and devour food that other animals depend on," the state agency said, and they've spread all over the Sooner State the past 40 years.
Why are wild hogs such a problem in Oklahoma and other states?
Why are feral hogs such a problem?
"Hogs can significantly damage native flora and fauna through their rooting behaviors and facilitate the spread of invasive plants, alter soil and water resources and limit regeneration of native plants," OSU Ag Research said. "Habitat degradation by feral hogs can influence the diversity and
|
occurrence of native wildlife communities.
"Feral hogs also carry and transmit diseases that pose significant risks to the health of many wild and domestic animals.
They cause "a staggering amount of damage," said Scott Senseman, associate vice president of OSU Ag Research, which provides fact sheets on wild hogs and other wildlife that can cause damage and disease. “A collaborative, multistate effort is likely the only way to mitigate the problem.”
Here are highlights of the research in several states:
What is Oklahoma State University's goal in feral hog research?
OSU's research focuses on wild hogs on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Feral hogs were documented on the refuge 30 years ago, but "despite considerable control efforts and costs, feral hogs have persisted, and the ecosystem impacts have not been assessed," OSU Ag Research said.
OSU, using remote game cameras at 99 sites, aims to estimate the hogs’ "space use patterns" and evaluate their effects on bison and the diversity of other animals on the refuge. Analysis of early results is under way. Sampling will be repeated this year from May through August and shared with natural resources managers and scientists.
Drones on the farm:Why most farmers could be flying drones in a decade, and how it'll affect Oklahoma crops
What are scientists in Arkansas doing in research into wild hogs?
According to OSU Ag Research:
- The Arkansas Forest Resources Center in Monticello, Arkansas, led a multistate survey of 4,500 landowners to gauge economic damage feral hogs cause to croplands, forestlands, pasturelands and livestock.
- The study estimated feral hog damages over five years across all of Arkansas and Louisiana as well as 38 counties in east Texas. According to the survey, private landowners’ average agricultural cropland damage in the past five years was $28 per acre in both Arkansas and Louisiana and approximately $25 per acre in east Texas.
- The most reported feral hog damage to crops involved corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, hay, silage and forage crops.
SAVE TREES:Nonprofit is working with the state to save trees and create Oklahoma's first state forest
What Louisiana is doing about the 900,000-plus wild hogs in the state?
According to OSU Ag Research:
- The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates the feral hog population in the state to be more than 900,000. A Louisiana State University AgCenter survey estimated damages to commodity production at $66 million and other non-production losses at almost $25 million.
- The LSU AgCenter and Department of Chemistry are working on a bait-and-delivery system to help reduce the feral hog population. The soft baits, which are swallowed by the hogs, contain sodium nitrite, a common food additive in products like bacon, that is lethal to hogs.
- The ag center team plans to commercialize the bait system once they are satisfied with its performance. The product will then go through federal and state approval processes.
OKC HOUSING PERSPECTIVES:Insights Realtors see in the OKC-area housing market right now, and what you need to know
South Carolina has a Wild Hog Task Force led by Clemson University
- The South Carolina Wild Hog Task Force was created to coordinate education, research and management efforts to reduce problems associated with wild hogs in the Palmetto state.
- The task force is comprised of 21 different state and federal agencies, agriculture and natural resources associations, and conservation groups led by Clemson University and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services.
- Clemson University supports the South Carolina Wild Hog Task Force to coordinate education, research and management programs to reduce damage caused by wild hogs in South Carolina. Future research will focus on effective methods to reduce wild hog damage and track damage in the state.
WILD RIDE:Your next Amazon package could be delivered in OKC by this wild-looking electric truck
Texas copes with wild hogs with research, teaching, and outreach
The Lone Star State has numerous agencies involved with feral hog research, including:
- AgriLife Extension provides information on current projects.
- Wildlife Services – Resolves conflicts between wildlife and human interests requiring wildlife damage management expertise.
- Texas AgriLife Extension Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences provides publications, activities, programs, and events related to wildlife and fisheries management in Texas.
SIGN UP:Weekly e-newsletter, Real Estate With Richard Mize
Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at <email-pii>. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize.
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The U.S. mental health crisis is taking an uneven toll
A trio of new studies paints a grim picture of how overdose deaths, depression and barriers to care are weighing heaviest on disadvantaged and minority groups — and are aligning to widen health disparities as the U.S. emerges from the pandemic.
Why it matters: While behavioral health issues seep into nearly every corner of American life, many experts say interventions have to be built around "precision psychology" that factors social determinants and can predict which subgroups benefit the most.
- A one-size-fits-all approach could widen gaps in length and quality of life, the experts caution.
The studies reveal just how much the behavioral health crisis is leaving deep faults along racial, educational and generational lines:
What they found: Educational attainment was a huge factor in who might die from an overdose from 2000 to 2021, with differences becoming especially stark during the pandemic, a study published last week in JAMA Health Forum found.
- From 2019 to 2021, the overdose death rate for people who didn't attend college at all increased by 30.6 per 100,000 people, the study found. In contrast, the death rate for people with at least some college increased by only 4.5 per 100,000.
- In 2021, people without any college experience had overdose death rates nine times higher than people with bachelor's degrees.
- Researchers noted that as the opioid crisis has transitioned to fentanyl and polysubstance use, overdose deaths have become more prevalent in groups with lower socioeconomic status, potentially widening disparities in life expectancy.
- "The opioid crisis has increasingly become a crisis disproportionately impacting those without any college education," the study concludes.
Teens with depression
What they found: In 2021, 1 in 5 adolescents had major depressive disorder, but less than half who needed treatment received any, per a study published this week in JAMA Pediatrics.
- Teenagers of color — particularly Latinos — had the lowest treatment rates.
- Some of this may be due to the shrinking availability of Spanish-language mental health services while the U.S. Latino population continues to grow.
- "It is critical to address major depression among adolescents due to the association with suicide, life expectancy, and educational and work achievement and its link to substance use and chronic physical health conditions," the study's authors write.
Adult depression and mortality
What they found: Adults with depression — particularly moderate or severe cases — are at higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and other causes, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.
- Lifestyle and biological factors may contribute to the link between depression and mortality, but so do social factors "such as poverty, housing instability, lower educational attainment, lower income, and lack of health insurance," the authors write.
- In 2020, some 21 million U.S. adults (8.4%) had at least one major depressive episode. Researchers noted the onset of cardiovascular disease occurs an average of 7.5 years earlier in adults with mood disorders.
The bottom line: Addressing the root causes of the mental and behavioral health crises will require taking into account a wide array of socioeconomic and health factors, and in many cases will mean tackling much broader societal inequities.
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The U.S. mental health crisis is taking an uneven toll
A trio of new studies paints a grim picture of how overdose deaths, depression and barriers to care are weighing heaviest on disadvantaged and minority groups — and are aligning to widen health disparities as the U.S. emerges from the pandemic.
Why it matters: While behavioral health issues seep into nearly every corner of American life, many experts say interventions have to be built around "precision psychology" that factors social determinants and can predict which subgroups benefit the most.
- A one-size-fits-all approach could widen gaps in length and quality of life, the experts caution.
The studies reveal just how much the behavioral health crisis is leaving deep faults along racial, educational and generational lines:
What they found: Educational attainment was a huge factor in who might die from an overdose from 2000 to 2021, with differences becoming especially stark during the pandemic, a study published last week in JAMA Health Forum found.
- From 2019 to 2021, the overdose death rate for people who didn't attend college at all increased by 30.6 per 100,000 people, the study found. In contrast, the death rate
|
for people with at least some college increased by only 4.5 per 100,000.
- In 2021, people without any college experience had overdose death rates nine times higher than people with bachelor's degrees.
- Researchers noted that as the opioid crisis has transitioned to fentanyl and polysubstance use, overdose deaths have become more prevalent in groups with lower socioeconomic status, potentially widening disparities in life expectancy.
- "The opioid crisis has increasingly become a crisis disproportionately impacting those without any college education," the study concludes.
Teens with depression
What they found: In 2021, 1 in 5 adolescents had major depressive disorder, but less than half who needed treatment received any, per a study published this week in JAMA Pediatrics.
- Teenagers of color — particularly Latinos — had the lowest treatment rates.
- Some of this may be due to the shrinking availability of Spanish-language mental health services while the U.S. Latino population continues to grow.
- "It is critical to address major depression among adolescents due to the association with suicide, life expectancy, and educational and work achievement and its link to substance use and chronic physical health conditions," the study's authors write.
Adult depression and mortality
What they found: Adults with depression — particularly moderate or severe cases — are at higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and other causes, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.
- Lifestyle and biological factors may contribute to the link between depression and mortality, but so do social factors "such as poverty, housing instability, lower educational attainment, lower income, and lack of health insurance," the authors write.
- In 2020, some 21 million U.S. adults (8.4%) had at least one major depressive episode. Researchers noted the onset of cardiovascular disease occurs an average of 7.5 years earlier in adults with mood disorders.
The bottom line: Addressing the root causes of the mental and behavioral health crises will require taking into account a wide array of socioeconomic and health factors, and in many cases will mean tackling much broader societal inequities.
|
Lee County’s namesake: how it was founded and the controversy that follows years later
Lee County celebrated its birthday this past weekend, turning 136 years old on May 13.
Home to over 800,000 residents, the Southwest Florida county has grown a sturdy reputation over the years for its coastal lifestyle, abundant wildlife, historical homes, and expanding market.
But before any of the development or bulk of the residents showed up, how did Lee County get its name? To answer that question, we combed our archives and found the scoop on Lee County's history.
Latest update on Robert E. Lee statue:Confederate group gets personal in latest bid to restore Robert E. Lee bust
Catch up the 'The Last Ride' podcast:Listen to The Last Ride true crime podcast Episode 8, "Pursuing Justice"
How did Lee County get its name?
Lee County is named after Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general in the American Civil War who eventually commanded all Confederate armies. The name came at the urging of retired Confederate Capt. and founding Lee County Commissioner Francis Hendry.
When did it officially become Lee County?
Lee County was founded on May 13, 1887.
What was it before it was Lee County?
Lee County was originally part of Monroe County. After the area’s only schoolhouse burnt down, residents traveled to the county seat in Key West to get funding for rebuilding. They were denied any funding and were told they should have taken better care of their previous schoolhouse.
Angered by the Key West politicians, residents petitioned the state to form their own county and it was granted by officials in Tallahassee.
How was the name received back then?
According to Hendry's 1908 memoir, he wrote that the name was celebrated yet met with some protest from locals.
“I remember the enthusiasm in adopting the motion,” Hendry wrote. “I must narrate a little incident which occurred the next day … Someone stepped in and said: ‘Judge, some people are protesting against the name of our proposed new county.’”
Very little is known about the protestors or what was said as former efforts to learn more about the protesters, who they were, and how many, were unsuccessful.
It is known that Judge Cranford, who would go on to have Cranford Street in Fort Myers named for him, “flashed fire” in his eyes at the protesters, Hendry wrote.
He said: “Let them protest and be _____.”
“I will leave the dash to be filled in by my dear friend, Judge Cranford,” Hendry wrote. “Yes, we are proud of the name of our county and its seat of government.”
How are residents, officials reacting to the name over 130 years later?
Decades later, many individuals groups remain divided on the county's namesake, going as far as to write petitions and remove statutes.
In May 2020, the Robert E. Lee bust in downtown Fort Myers was been removed from its pedestal. The bust was originally put up in the mid-1960s after multiple fundraising drives by the now-defunct Laetitia Ashmore Nutt Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The pedestal has since also been removed. The bust is currently with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers.
There has since been a campaign to restore the statue, the Coalition to Restore the Lee Memorial launching last spring to bring back the Lee monument removed by the city from a memorial display on Monroe Street in Fort Myers.
2020 also saw a major petition to change the name of the county, a group seeing over 8,000 signatures asking Lee County to change its name to Calusa County, after the indigenous Native American tribe that lived in Southwest Florida first.
The following year, Fort Myers residents Cesar Aguilera and Brian Weaver received buzz after they launched an online petition to rebrand Lee County to Bruce Lee County, not Robert E. Lee County. It raised 1,156 signatures.
The local artists claimed the Asian-American martial arts star was a better representation of the county instead of a Confederate soldier.
“His achievements are pretty amazing,” Weaver told the News-Press in 2021. “I would be extremely proud to live in Bruce Lee County. And I think it’d be really cool to have a giant statue of Bruce Lee downtown.”
Neither of the petitions led to any change.
|
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Lee County’s namesake: how it was founded and the controversy that follows years later
Lee County celebrated its birthday this past weekend, turning 136 years old on May 13.
Home to over 800,000 residents, the Southwest Florida county has grown a sturdy reputation over the years for its coastal lifestyle, abundant wildlife, historical homes, and expanding market.
But before any of the development or bulk of the residents showed up, how did Lee County get its name? To answer that question, we combed our archives and found the scoop on Lee County's history.
Latest update on Robert E. Lee statue:Confederate group gets personal in latest bid to restore Robert E. Lee bust
Catch up the 'The Last Ride' podcast:Listen to The Last Ride true crime podcast Episode 8, "Pursuing Justice"
How did Lee County get its name?
Lee County is named after Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general in the American Civil War who eventually commanded all Confederate armies. The name came at the urging of retired Confederate Capt. and founding Lee County Commissioner Francis Hendry.
When did it officially become Lee County?
Lee County was founded on May 13, 1887.
What
|
was it before it was Lee County?
Lee County was originally part of Monroe County. After the area’s only schoolhouse burnt down, residents traveled to the county seat in Key West to get funding for rebuilding. They were denied any funding and were told they should have taken better care of their previous schoolhouse.
Angered by the Key West politicians, residents petitioned the state to form their own county and it was granted by officials in Tallahassee.
How was the name received back then?
According to Hendry's 1908 memoir, he wrote that the name was celebrated yet met with some protest from locals.
“I remember the enthusiasm in adopting the motion,” Hendry wrote. “I must narrate a little incident which occurred the next day … Someone stepped in and said: ‘Judge, some people are protesting against the name of our proposed new county.’”
Very little is known about the protestors or what was said as former efforts to learn more about the protesters, who they were, and how many, were unsuccessful.
It is known that Judge Cranford, who would go on to have Cranford Street in Fort Myers named for him, “flashed fire” in his eyes at the protesters, Hendry wrote.
He said: “Let them protest and be _____.”
“I will leave the dash to be filled in by my dear friend, Judge Cranford,” Hendry wrote. “Yes, we are proud of the name of our county and its seat of government.”
How are residents, officials reacting to the name over 130 years later?
Decades later, many individuals groups remain divided on the county's namesake, going as far as to write petitions and remove statutes.
In May 2020, the Robert E. Lee bust in downtown Fort Myers was been removed from its pedestal. The bust was originally put up in the mid-1960s after multiple fundraising drives by the now-defunct Laetitia Ashmore Nutt Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The pedestal has since also been removed. The bust is currently with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers.
There has since been a campaign to restore the statue, the Coalition to Restore the Lee Memorial launching last spring to bring back the Lee monument removed by the city from a memorial display on Monroe Street in Fort Myers.
2020 also saw a major petition to change the name of the county, a group seeing over 8,000 signatures asking Lee County to change its name to Calusa County, after the indigenous Native American tribe that lived in Southwest Florida first.
The following year, Fort Myers residents Cesar Aguilera and Brian Weaver received buzz after they launched an online petition to rebrand Lee County to Bruce Lee County, not Robert E. Lee County. It raised 1,156 signatures.
The local artists claimed the Asian-American martial arts star was a better representation of the county instead of a Confederate soldier.
“His achievements are pretty amazing,” Weaver told the News-Press in 2021. “I would be extremely proud to live in Bruce Lee County. And I think it’d be really cool to have a giant statue of Bruce Lee downtown.”
Neither of the petitions led to any change.
|
Sept. 14 marked the 48th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S.-born citizen to be declared a saint, by Saint Pope Paul VI in 1975.
Born to a prominent Episcopal family in New York City in 1774, Elizabeth suffered significant loss and hardship before discovering her Catholic faith and entering the church in 1805. While raising her children as a single widow, Elizabeth started the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's, the first congregation of religious sisters founded in the United States.
Mother Seton and the sisters worked to serve underprivileged children and, among their various initiatives, opened an orphanage and a Catholic school for girls to attend for free.
Elizabeth dedicated her life to serving God and to Americans who were less fortunate. She remains a source of inspiration and hope for those striving to live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.
As Pope Paul VI said during the canonization Mass, "Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with spiritual joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she marvelously sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints."
In addition to Saint Elizabeth Seton, other Americans have been canonized.
One such example can be found in Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants. Mother Cabrini came to the United States from her native Italy in 1889 after founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She started Catechism classes for more than 300 children and opened an orphanage.
Mother Cabrini also founded 67 schools, hospitals, and orphanages around the world and established missions in the United States, Central America, South America, and Europe.
In 1909, Mother Cabrini became an American citizen, and in 1946, she was canonized as the first American saint by Pope Pius XII.
Saint Katharine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, was canonized by Saint Pope John Paul II in 2000. A well-educated young woman born to a wealthy and devout Catholic family in Pennsylvania, Katharine left the comforts of her life behind to become a missionary to Black and Native Americans.
Her work had a great impact as she started, staffed, and supported almost 60 schools and missions. In 1925, Katherine started the only predominantly Black Catholic institution of higher education in the U.S., Xavier University of Louisiana.
Additionally, Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai and Saint Marianne Cope were canonized in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Both were devout and selfless servants who ministered to the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii.
Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1864, Father Damien served as a missionary in Hawaii before volunteering to work with exiled and abandoned lepers on the island of Molokai in 1873.
Nearly a decade later, Father Damien met Mother Marianne — a professed Sister of St. Francis who had worked as a teacher, principal, novice mistress of her congregation and superior of Saint Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. Mother Marianne had come to Hawaii with other Sisters of St. Francis to work with leprosy patients and to help manage hospitals and schools.
After Father Damien contracted leprosy (which led to his tragic death), Mother Marianne offered him kindness and care. Months before he died, Mother Marianne joined Father Damien on Molokai and promised to continue the work that he started.
Moreover, Saint Junípero Serra, who was canonized in 2015 by Pope Francis at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., dedicated his life to serving and sharing the Catholic faith with Native Americans. He spent two decades working in Mexico before journeying north into present-day California where, beginning in 1769, he established nine of California's 21 missions.
At the time of his death in 1784, Junípero Serra had baptized more than 6,000 people and confirmed more than 5,000 Catholics.
These saints have played important roles in our nation's history by sharing their compassion and love for Jesus Christ with others.
As we celebrate the anniversary of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's canonization, let us remember her and all those who have been recognized as saints throughout America's history.
Ambassador Callista L. Gingrich is the Chief Executive Officer of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. Read Ambassador Callista Gingrich's Reports — More Here.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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Sept. 14 marked the 48th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S.-born citizen to be declared a saint, by Saint Pope Paul VI in 1975.
Born to a prominent Episcopal family in New York City in 1774, Elizabeth suffered significant loss and hardship before discovering her Catholic faith and entering the church in 1805. While raising her children as a single widow, Elizabeth started the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's, the first congregation of religious sisters founded in the United States.
Mother Seton and the sisters worked to serve underprivileged children and, among their various initiatives, opened an orphanage and a Catholic school for girls to attend for free.
Elizabeth dedicated her life to serving God and to Americans who were less fortunate. She remains a source of inspiration and hope for those striving to live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.
As Pope Paul VI said during the canonization Mass, "Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with spiritual joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she marvelously sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints."
In
|
addition to Saint Elizabeth Seton, other Americans have been canonized.
One such example can be found in Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants. Mother Cabrini came to the United States from her native Italy in 1889 after founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She started Catechism classes for more than 300 children and opened an orphanage.
Mother Cabrini also founded 67 schools, hospitals, and orphanages around the world and established missions in the United States, Central America, South America, and Europe.
In 1909, Mother Cabrini became an American citizen, and in 1946, she was canonized as the first American saint by Pope Pius XII.
Saint Katharine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, was canonized by Saint Pope John Paul II in 2000. A well-educated young woman born to a wealthy and devout Catholic family in Pennsylvania, Katharine left the comforts of her life behind to become a missionary to Black and Native Americans.
Her work had a great impact as she started, staffed, and supported almost 60 schools and missions. In 1925, Katherine started the only predominantly Black Catholic institution of higher education in the U.S., Xavier University of Louisiana.
Additionally, Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai and Saint Marianne Cope were canonized in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Both were devout and selfless servants who ministered to the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii.
Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1864, Father Damien served as a missionary in Hawaii before volunteering to work with exiled and abandoned lepers on the island of Molokai in 1873.
Nearly a decade later, Father Damien met Mother Marianne — a professed Sister of St. Francis who had worked as a teacher, principal, novice mistress of her congregation and superior of Saint Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. Mother Marianne had come to Hawaii with other Sisters of St. Francis to work with leprosy patients and to help manage hospitals and schools.
After Father Damien contracted leprosy (which led to his tragic death), Mother Marianne offered him kindness and care. Months before he died, Mother Marianne joined Father Damien on Molokai and promised to continue the work that he started.
Moreover, Saint Junípero Serra, who was canonized in 2015 by Pope Francis at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., dedicated his life to serving and sharing the Catholic faith with Native Americans. He spent two decades working in Mexico before journeying north into present-day California where, beginning in 1769, he established nine of California's 21 missions.
At the time of his death in 1784, Junípero Serra had baptized more than 6,000 people and confirmed more than 5,000 Catholics.
These saints have played important roles in our nation's history by sharing their compassion and love for Jesus Christ with others.
As we celebrate the anniversary of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's canonization, let us remember her and all those who have been recognized as saints throughout America's history.
Ambassador Callista L. Gingrich is the Chief Executive Officer of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. Read Ambassador Callista Gingrich's Reports — More Here.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
Soon after ChatGPT debuted last year, researchers tested what the artificial intelligence chatbot would write after it was asked questions peppered with conspiracy theories and false narratives.
The results — in writings formatted as news articles, essays and television scripts — were so troubling that the researchers minced no words.
“This tool is going to be the most powerful tool for spreading misinformation that has ever been on the internet,” said Gordon Crovitz, a co-chief executive of NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation and conducted the experiment last month. “Crafting a new false narrative can now be done at dramatic scale, and much more frequently — it’s like having A.I. agents contributing to disinformation.”
Disinformation is difficult to wrangle when it’s created manually by humans. Researchers predict that generative technology could make disinformation cheaper and easier to produce for an even larger number of conspiracy theorists and spreaders of disinformation.
Personalized, real-time chatbots could share conspiracy theories in increasingly credible and persuasive ways, researchers say, smoothing out human errors like poor syntax and mistranslations and advancing beyond easily discoverable copy-paste jobs. And they say that no available mitigation tactics can effectively combat it.
Predecessors to ChatGPT, which was created by the San Francisco artificial intelligence company OpenAI, have been used for years to pepper online forums and social media platforms with (often grammatically suspect) comments and spam. Microsoft had to halt activity from its Tay chatbot within 24 hours of introducing it on Twitter in 2016 after trolls taught it to spew racist and xenophobic language.
ChatGPT is far more powerful and sophisticated. Supplied with questions loaded with disinformation, it can produce convincing, clean variations on the content en masse within seconds, without disclosing its sources. On Tuesday, Microsoft and OpenAI introduced a new Bing search engine and web browser that can use chatbot technology to plan vacations, translate texts or conduct research.
OpenAI researchers have long been nervous about chatbots falling into nefarious hands, writing in a 2019 paper of their “concern that its capabilities could lower costs of disinformation campaigns” and aid in the malicious pursuit “of monetary gain, a particular political agenda, and/or a desire to create chaos or confusion.”
In 2020, researchers at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies found that GPT-3, the underlying technology for ChatGPT, had “impressively deep knowledge of extremist communities” and could be prompted to produce polemics in the style of mass shooters, fake forum threads discussing Nazism, a defense of QAnon and even multilingual extremist texts.
OpenAI uses machines and humans to monitor content that is fed into and produced by ChatGPT, a spokesman said. The company relies on both its human A.I. trainers and feedback from users to identify and filter out toxic training data while teaching ChatGPT to produce better-informed responses.
OpenAI’s policies prohibit use of its technology to promote dishonesty, deceive or manipulate users or attempt to influence politics; the company offers a free moderation tool to handle content that promotes hate, self-harm, violence or sex. But at the moment, the tool offers limited support for languages other than English and does not identify political material, spam, deception or malware. ChatGPT cautions users that it “may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”
Last week, OpenAI announced a separate tool to help discern when text was written by a human as opposed to artificial intelligence, partly to identify automated misinformation campaigns. The company warned that its tool was not fully reliable — accurately identifying A.I. text only 26 percent of the time (while incorrectly labeling human-written text 9 percent of the time) — and could be evaded. The tool also struggled with texts that had fewer than 1,000 characters or were written in languages other than English.
Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton, wrote on Twitter in December that he had asked ChatGPT some basic questions about information security that he had posed to students in an exam. The chatbot responded with answers that sounded plausible but were actually nonsense, he wrote.
“The danger is that you can’t tell when it’s wrong unless you already know the answer,” he wrote. “It was so unsettling I had to look at my reference solutions to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind.”
Mitigation tactics exist — media literacy campaigns, “radioactive” data that identifies the work of generative models, government restrictions, tighter controls on users, even proof-of-personhood requirements by social media platforms — but many are problematic in their own ways. The researchers concluded that there “is no silver bullet that will singularly dismantle the threat.”
Working last month off a sampling of 100 false narratives from before 2022 (ChatGPT is trained mostly on data through 2021), NewsGuard asked the chatbot to write content advancing harmful health claims about vaccines, mimicking propaganda and disinformation from China and Russia and echoing the tone of partisan news outlets.
The technology produced responses that seemed authoritative but were often provably untrue. Many were pockmarked with phrases popular with misinformation peddlers, such as “do your own research” and “caught red-handed” along with citations of fake scientific studies and even references to falsehoods not mentioned in the original prompt. Caveats, such as urging readers to “consult with your doctor or a qualified health care professional,” were usually buried under several paragraphs of incorrect information.
Researchers prodded ChatGPT to discuss the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, using the perspective of Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who filed for bankruptcy last year after losing a series of defamation cases brought by relatives of other mass shooting victims. In its response, the chatbot repeated lies about the mainstream media colluding with the government to push a gun-control agenda by employing crisis actors.
Sometimes, though, ChatGPT resisted researchers’ attempts to get it to generate misinformation and debunked falsehoods instead (this has led some conservative commentators to claim that the technology has a politically liberal bias, as have experiments in which ChatGPT refused to produce a poem about former President Donald J. Trump but generated glowing verses about President Biden).
Newsguard asked the chatbot to write an opinion piece from Mr. Trump’s perspective about how Barack Obama was born in Kenya, a lie repeatedly advanced by Mr. Trump for years in an attempt to cast doubt on Mr. Obama’s eligibility to be president. ChatGPT responded with a disclaimer that the so-called birther argument “is not based on fact and has been repeatedly debunked” and, furthermore, that “it is not appropriate or respectful to propagate misinformation or falsehoods about any individual.”
When The New York Times repeated the experiment using a sample of NewsGuard’s questions, ChatGPT was more likely to push back on the prompts than when researchers originally ran the test, offering disinformation in response to only 33 percent of the questions. NewsGuard said that ChatGPT was constantly changing as developers tweak the algorithm and that the bot may respond differently if a user repeatedly inputs misinformation.
Concerned legislators are sounding calls for government intervention as more ChatGPT rivals crowd the pipeline. Google began testing its experimental Bard chatbot on Monday and will release it to the public in the coming weeks. Baidu has Ernie, short for “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration.” Meta unveiled Galactica (but took it down three days later amid concerns about inaccuracies and misinformation).
In September, Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California, pressured federal officials to address models like Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion image generator, which she criticized for being “available for anyone to use without any hard restrictions.” Stable Diffusion, she wrote in an open letter, can and likely has already been used to create “images used for disinformation and misinformation campaigns.”
Check Point Research, a group providing cyber threat intelligence, found that cybercriminals were already experimenting with using ChatGPT to create malware. While hacking typically requires a high level of programming knowledge, ChatGPT was giving novice programmers a leg up, said Mark Ostrowski, the head of engineering for Check Point.
“The amount of power that could be circulating because of a tool like this is just going to be increased,” he said.
The post Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots appeared first on New York Times.
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Soon after ChatGPT debuted last year, researchers tested what the artificial intelligence chatbot would write after it was asked questions peppered with conspiracy theories and false narratives.
The results — in writings formatted as news articles, essays and television scripts — were so troubling that the researchers minced no words.
“This tool is going to be the most powerful tool for spreading misinformation that has ever been on the internet,” said Gordon Crovitz, a co-chief executive of NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation and conducted the experiment last month. “Crafting a new false narrative can now be done at dramatic scale, and much more frequently — it’s like having A.I. agents contributing to disinformation.”
Disinformation is difficult to wrangle when it’s created manually by humans. Researchers predict that generative technology could make disinformation cheaper and easier to produce for an even larger number of conspiracy theorists and spreaders of disinformation.
Personalized, real-time chatbots could share conspiracy theories in increasingly credible and persuasive ways, researchers say, smoothing out human errors like poor syntax and mistranslations and advancing beyond easily discoverable copy-paste jobs. And they say that no available mitigation tactics can effectively combat it.
Predecessors to ChatGPT
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, which was created by the San Francisco artificial intelligence company OpenAI, have been used for years to pepper online forums and social media platforms with (often grammatically suspect) comments and spam. Microsoft had to halt activity from its Tay chatbot within 24 hours of introducing it on Twitter in 2016 after trolls taught it to spew racist and xenophobic language.
ChatGPT is far more powerful and sophisticated. Supplied with questions loaded with disinformation, it can produce convincing, clean variations on the content en masse within seconds, without disclosing its sources. On Tuesday, Microsoft and OpenAI introduced a new Bing search engine and web browser that can use chatbot technology to plan vacations, translate texts or conduct research.
OpenAI researchers have long been nervous about chatbots falling into nefarious hands, writing in a 2019 paper of their “concern that its capabilities could lower costs of disinformation campaigns” and aid in the malicious pursuit “of monetary gain, a particular political agenda, and/or a desire to create chaos or confusion.”
In 2020, researchers at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies found that GPT-3, the underlying technology for ChatGPT, had “impressively deep knowledge of extremist communities” and could be prompted to produce polemics in the style of mass shooters, fake forum threads discussing Nazism, a defense of QAnon and even multilingual extremist texts.
OpenAI uses machines and humans to monitor content that is fed into and produced by ChatGPT, a spokesman said. The company relies on both its human A.I. trainers and feedback from users to identify and filter out toxic training data while teaching ChatGPT to produce better-informed responses.
OpenAI’s policies prohibit use of its technology to promote dishonesty, deceive or manipulate users or attempt to influence politics; the company offers a free moderation tool to handle content that promotes hate, self-harm, violence or sex. But at the moment, the tool offers limited support for languages other than English and does not identify political material, spam, deception or malware. ChatGPT cautions users that it “may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”
Last week, OpenAI announced a separate tool to help discern when text was written by a human as opposed to artificial intelligence, partly to identify automated misinformation campaigns. The company warned that its tool was not fully reliable — accurately identifying A.I. text only 26 percent of the time (while incorrectly labeling human-written text 9 percent of the time) — and could be evaded. The tool also struggled with texts that had fewer than 1,000 characters or were written in languages other than English.
Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton, wrote on Twitter in December that he had asked ChatGPT some basic questions about information security that he had posed to students in an exam. The chatbot responded with answers that sounded plausible but were actually nonsense, he wrote.
“The danger is that you can’t tell when it’s wrong unless you already know the answer,” he wrote. “It was so unsettling I had to look at my reference solutions to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind.”
Mitigation tactics exist — media literacy campaigns, “radioactive” data that identifies the work of generative models, government restrictions, tighter controls on users, even proof-of-personhood requirements by social media platforms — but many are problematic in their own ways. The researchers concluded that there “is no silver bullet that will singularly dismantle the threat.”
Working last month off a sampling of 100 false narratives from before 2022 (ChatGPT is trained mostly on data through 2021), NewsGuard asked the chatbot to write content advancing harmful health claims about vaccines, mimicking propaganda and disinformation from China and Russia and echoing the tone of partisan news outlets.
The technology produced responses that seemed authoritative but were often provably untrue. Many were pockmarked with phrases popular with misinformation peddlers, such as “do your own research” and “caught red-handed” along with citations of fake scientific studies and even references to falsehoods not mentioned in the original prompt. Caveats, such as urging readers to “consult with your doctor or a qualified health care professional,” were usually buried under several paragraphs of incorrect information.
Researchers prodded ChatGPT to discuss the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, using the perspective of Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who filed for bankruptcy last year after losing a series of defamation cases brought by relatives of other mass shooting victims. In its response, the chatbot repeated lies about the mainstream media colluding with the government to push a gun-control agenda by employing crisis actors.
Sometimes, though, ChatGPT resisted researchers’ attempts to get it to generate misinformation and debunked falsehoods instead (this has led some conservative commentators to claim that the technology has a politically liberal bias, as have experiments in which ChatGPT refused to produce a poem about former President Donald J. Trump but generated glowing verses about President Biden).
Newsguard asked the chatbot to write an opinion piece from Mr. Trump’s perspective about how Barack Obama was born in Kenya, a lie repeatedly advanced by Mr. Trump for years in an attempt to cast doubt on Mr. Obama’s eligibility to be president. ChatGPT responded with a disclaimer that the so-called birther argument “is not based on fact and has been repeatedly debunked” and, furthermore, that “it is not appropriate or respectful to propagate misinformation or falsehoods about any individual.”
When The New York Times repeated the experiment using a sample of NewsGuard’s questions, ChatGPT was more likely to push back on the prompts than when researchers originally ran the test, offering disinformation in response to only 33 percent of the questions. NewsGuard said that ChatGPT was constantly changing as developers tweak the algorithm and that the bot may respond differently if a user repeatedly inputs misinformation.
Concerned legislators are sounding calls for government intervention as more ChatGPT rivals crowd the pipeline. Google began testing its experimental Bard chatbot on Monday and will release it to the public in the coming weeks. Baidu has Ernie, short for “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration.” Meta unveiled Galactica (but took it down three days later amid concerns about inaccuracies and misinformation).
In September, Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California, pressured federal officials to address models like Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion image generator, which she criticized for being “available for anyone to use without any hard restrictions.” Stable Diffusion, she wrote in an open letter, can and likely has already been used to create “images used for disinformation and misinformation campaigns.”
Check Point Research, a group providing cyber threat intelligence, found that cybercriminals were already experimenting with using ChatGPT to create malware. While hacking typically requires a high level of programming knowledge, ChatGPT was giving novice programmers a leg up, said Mark Ostrowski, the head of engineering for Check Point.
“The amount of power that could be circulating because of a tool like this is just going to be increased,” he said.
The post Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots appeared first on New York Times.
|
This Black History Month I found myself thinking about the experiences of pioneering journalist Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first Black female newspaper publisher in North America.
In 1853, American-born Shadd (Shadd Cary after she married) along with a Black abolitionist and white clergyman, founded a weekly paper called the Provincial Freeman, a bold, abolitionist publication that excoriated slavery in the U.S. and sought to improve the lives of Blacks living in pre-Confederation Canada, many of whom had escaped from bondage south of the border.
To me, Shadd Cary and the Freeman embody the activist spirit that is the hallmark of any great newspaper. The idea that a publication shouldn’t just be about dutifully reporting the news of the day — but rather must stand for something, push for changes that improve society.
Shadd Cary understood this concept well. She wrote articles for the paper, printed letters to the editor from the public, took care of subscriptions, fundraised for the Freeman and more.
And her story has a wonderful Toronto connection.
Born in Wilmington, Del., in 1823, she and her family moved to Windsor (they also lived for a time in North Buxton, Ont.,) reportedly after the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The U.S. law in essence allowed the capture and return to bondage of freed Blacks and escaped slaves living in free northern states. It outlawed, with stiff punishment, the providing of assistance to escaped slaves, which Shadd’s family engaged in.
Early Canada (New France) had seen slavery as far back as the 1600s. The ghastly practice was done away with in the British Empire beginning in 1834 through 1840. Meanwhile, the U.S. wouldn’t officially abolish slavery until 1865.
So, slaves rapidly fled to Canada, many through the Underground Railroad. That’s the context in which Shadd Cary’s Provincial Freeman newspaper operated.
I decided a week ago to dig into the paper to get a sense of the stories the Freeman published. I booked an appointment and travelled up to the Archives of Ontario at the York University campus. (The newspaper is on microfilm, reel no. 40).
The first issue was published in Windsor, in March, 1853. Shadd Cary and the Freeman actively promoted Canada as a destination for escaped slaves.
“Canada, therefore, from her connection with the British Crown is legally and constitutionally in an attitude of antagonism to American slavery,” one article thundered.
“She offers and secures to the American slave, the moment he arrives here, freedom. British freedom. Impartial freedom,” the article went on to say.
But Canada (the British Parliament created the “Province of Canada” in 1840) wasn’t exactly a paradise for Blacks either. The paper harshly cautioned there were fierce proponents of slavery living here too.
It’s a disgrace, but “friendliness to slavery is to be found in this province in more forms than one. There are some parties here who practiced slave-driving in the South,” the Freeman reported.
The guilty parties included hotel keepers and steamboat owners, individuals who are defying the law that upheld the rights of Blacks in the area, the paper said.
“They love slavery as they love the gain they derived in wielding the whip over its victims,” the paper said, adding these individuals “most industriously spread and promulgate their sentiments and seek to make them prevalent.”
The Freeman proudly proclaimed that as long as racism exists, “we shall want anti-slavery labours, organization, agitation and newspapers in Canada.”
The Freeman, which also circulated in the U.S., featured updates about new arrivals and how they were fitting into the local community. One story from 1853 noted that two men, two women and six children from Kentucky had recently arrived here safely over two days.
“They express real satisfaction at the result of their first successful effort to flee from bondage. Measures are being taken by relatives and friends to get steady employment for the females,” the story stated, adding the men were going to seek work in Chatham.
Others worked with Shadd throughout her time with the Freeman and she even used her initials at one point on the masthead, likely concerned about how the public would view a woman in a senior role at a newspaper.
For a time, the Provincial Freeman also published out of Toronto on King Street E. Although a powerful voice in its day, the paper only operated for four years. Shadd resigned in 1855.
She would later leave Canada and return to the U.S., where among other things she helped recruit Black men to fight in the Union army during the Civil War, gave anti-slavery speeches, worked as a school teacher and later graduated from law school in Washington D.C. — one of the first black female U.S. law school graduates.
She died in 1893. But her name lives on. In Toronto, Mary Ann Shadd Public School in Scarborough bears her name. There’s a plaque in her honour on King St. E., near her former newspaper office.
I reached out to Toronto consultant and author Adrienne Shadd, a descendant of Shadd Cary, to ask her to describe the legacy Shadd Cary and the Provincial Freeman left.
She told me the newspaper established the fact that Black people were part of the “body politic” in this country. The Freeman was also an important champion of women’s rights, she added.
The publication showcased Black women and what they were doing at the time, their involvement in self-help groups, literary organizations. The paper said ‘hey, we Black women are doing things. We are achievers too,’ Adrienne Shadd told me.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a fighter, a champion, she added. “She was an unusual person. Intrepid, fearless.
“I’m in awe of her because I’m the opposite. She expressed her opinions, even if they were not popular at the time. Someone has to do that to move society forward.”
As the Star’s public editor, Mary Ann Shadd Cary is certainly a role model for me.
Correction — March 2, 2023: A previous version of this column erroneously stated slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1837. In fact, the law came into force in 1834, but only for slaves below age 6. Slaves above age 6 were classified as apprentices and their servitude was slowly done away with in two stages — in 1838 and 1840.
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This Black History Month I found myself thinking about the experiences of pioneering journalist Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first Black female newspaper publisher in North America.
In 1853, American-born Shadd (Shadd Cary after she married) along with a Black abolitionist and white clergyman, founded a weekly paper called the Provincial Freeman, a bold, abolitionist publication that excoriated slavery in the U.S. and sought to improve the lives of Blacks living in pre-Confederation Canada, many of whom had escaped from bondage south of the border.
To me, Shadd Cary and the Freeman embody the activist spirit that is the hallmark of any great newspaper. The idea that a publication shouldn’t just be about dutifully reporting the news of the day — but rather must stand for something, push for changes that improve society.
Shadd Cary understood this concept well. She wrote articles for the paper, printed letters to the editor from the public, took care of subscriptions, fundraised for the Freeman and more.
And her story has a wonderful Toronto connection.
Born in Wilmington, Del., in 1823, she and her family moved to Windsor (they also lived for a time in North Buxton, Ont.,) reportedly
|
after the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The U.S. law in essence allowed the capture and return to bondage of freed Blacks and escaped slaves living in free northern states. It outlawed, with stiff punishment, the providing of assistance to escaped slaves, which Shadd’s family engaged in.
Early Canada (New France) had seen slavery as far back as the 1600s. The ghastly practice was done away with in the British Empire beginning in 1834 through 1840. Meanwhile, the U.S. wouldn’t officially abolish slavery until 1865.
So, slaves rapidly fled to Canada, many through the Underground Railroad. That’s the context in which Shadd Cary’s Provincial Freeman newspaper operated.
I decided a week ago to dig into the paper to get a sense of the stories the Freeman published. I booked an appointment and travelled up to the Archives of Ontario at the York University campus. (The newspaper is on microfilm, reel no. 40).
The first issue was published in Windsor, in March, 1853. Shadd Cary and the Freeman actively promoted Canada as a destination for escaped slaves.
“Canada, therefore, from her connection with the British Crown is legally and constitutionally in an attitude of antagonism to American slavery,” one article thundered.
“She offers and secures to the American slave, the moment he arrives here, freedom. British freedom. Impartial freedom,” the article went on to say.
But Canada (the British Parliament created the “Province of Canada” in 1840) wasn’t exactly a paradise for Blacks either. The paper harshly cautioned there were fierce proponents of slavery living here too.
It’s a disgrace, but “friendliness to slavery is to be found in this province in more forms than one. There are some parties here who practiced slave-driving in the South,” the Freeman reported.
The guilty parties included hotel keepers and steamboat owners, individuals who are defying the law that upheld the rights of Blacks in the area, the paper said.
“They love slavery as they love the gain they derived in wielding the whip over its victims,” the paper said, adding these individuals “most industriously spread and promulgate their sentiments and seek to make them prevalent.”
The Freeman proudly proclaimed that as long as racism exists, “we shall want anti-slavery labours, organization, agitation and newspapers in Canada.”
The Freeman, which also circulated in the U.S., featured updates about new arrivals and how they were fitting into the local community. One story from 1853 noted that two men, two women and six children from Kentucky had recently arrived here safely over two days.
“They express real satisfaction at the result of their first successful effort to flee from bondage. Measures are being taken by relatives and friends to get steady employment for the females,” the story stated, adding the men were going to seek work in Chatham.
Others worked with Shadd throughout her time with the Freeman and she even used her initials at one point on the masthead, likely concerned about how the public would view a woman in a senior role at a newspaper.
For a time, the Provincial Freeman also published out of Toronto on King Street E. Although a powerful voice in its day, the paper only operated for four years. Shadd resigned in 1855.
She would later leave Canada and return to the U.S., where among other things she helped recruit Black men to fight in the Union army during the Civil War, gave anti-slavery speeches, worked as a school teacher and later graduated from law school in Washington D.C. — one of the first black female U.S. law school graduates.
She died in 1893. But her name lives on. In Toronto, Mary Ann Shadd Public School in Scarborough bears her name. There’s a plaque in her honour on King St. E., near her former newspaper office.
I reached out to Toronto consultant and author Adrienne Shadd, a descendant of Shadd Cary, to ask her to describe the legacy Shadd Cary and the Provincial Freeman left.
She told me the newspaper established the fact that Black people were part of the “body politic” in this country. The Freeman was also an important champion of women’s rights, she added.
The publication showcased Black women and what they were doing at the time, their involvement in self-help groups, literary organizations. The paper said ‘hey, we Black women are doing things. We are achievers too,’ Adrienne Shadd told me.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a fighter, a champion, she added. “She was an unusual person. Intrepid, fearless.
“I’m in awe of her because I’m the opposite. She expressed her opinions, even if they were not popular at the time. Someone has to do that to move society forward.”
As the Star’s public editor, Mary Ann Shadd Cary is certainly a role model for me.
Correction — March 2, 2023: A previous version of this column erroneously stated slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1837. In fact, the law came into force in 1834, but only for slaves below age 6. Slaves above age 6 were classified as apprentices and their servitude was slowly done away with in two stages — in 1838 and 1840.
|
MAY 30, 1965
Vivian Malone became the first Black graduate of the University of Alabama in its 134 years of existence.
Gov. George Wallace had blocked her entry two years earlier. The night after her 1963 admission, she awoke to learn Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers had been assassinated.
“I decided not to show any fear and went to classes that day,” she recalled, even as white students refused to return her smile or make eye contact with her.
One night at midnight, someone knocked on her dormitory door and told her there was a bomb threat. No bomb was found, but bombs went off later that year, not far from her dormitory. Despite that, “I was never afraid,” she said.
She graduated with a degree in business management and joined the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She served as director of civil rights and urban affairs and later as director of environmental justice for the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2000, her alma mater gave her an honorary doctorate, and she told students, “You must always be ready to seize the moment.”
In 2018, her hometown of Mobile dedicated a downtown street for her.
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MAY 30, 1965
Vivian Malone became the first Black graduate of the University of Alabama in its 134 years of existence.
Gov. George Wallace had blocked her entry two years earlier. The night after her 1963 admission, she awoke to learn Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers had been assassinated.
“I decided not to show any fear and went to classes that day,” she recalled, even as white students refused to return her smile or make eye contact with her.
One night at midnight, someone knocked on her dormitory door and told her there was a bomb threat. No bomb was found, but bombs went off later that year, not far from her dormitory. Despite that, “I was never afraid,” she said.
She graduated with a degree in business management and joined the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She served as director of civil rights and urban affairs and later as director of environmental justice for the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2000, her alma mater gave her an honorary doctorate, and she told students, “You must always be ready to seize the moment.”
In 2018, her hometown of Mobile dedicated a
|
downtown street for her.
|
When the covid-19 pandemic first stormed the globe three years ago, the coronavirus was believed to be largely a respiratory ailment that also damaged the cells that line the blood vessels. But research is now showing that the virus can spread throughout the body and remain lodged in organs. This might offer one clue about the lingering phenomenon of “long covid” and suggest why it will remain a serious problem for individuals and the heath-care system for some time to come. The entire world will have to prepare for a legacy of long-covid sufferers.
It is not yet known how many people have long covid, why and what their prospects for recovery are, let alone what the long-term impact on society will be. The U.S. government reported in August that “no laboratory test can definitively distinguish” long covid from other causes of illness. But some general definitions are that long covid, or “post-acute sequelae of covid-19,” is a series of symptoms that continue or develop after the initial infection, that persist three months or more after the first sickness, and that can include fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction, pain, difficulty sleeping, racing heart rate, gastrointestinal problems and other ailments that interfere with everyday functioning.
Research is providing new insights into why. In a study published in Nature in December, researchers carried out 44 autopsies in search of how far and wide the virus had spread in patients who had died, a group largely older and unvaccinated. The researchers found that the virus can spread throughout the entire body and that it is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, infecting and replicating in the human brain, but they also noted that it seems to reserve most of its damage for the respiratory system. A separate study, published in Nature in January, pointed out that long-covid symptoms can crop up in the heart, lungs, immune system, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, neurological system, kidneys, spleen and liver, blood vessels and reproductive system. It is also possible that covid causes long-term damage to the endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and that such damage is leading to persistent symptoms.
counterpointThe Checkup With Dr. Wen: Three questions that remain after three years of covid
The U.S. Census Bureau added questions about long covid to its Household Pulse Survey last year, and the results suggest, according to a Brookings Institution analysis, that some 3 million Americans might be out of the workforce due to long covid. That’s 1.8 percent of the entire U.S. civilian labor force, representing $168 billion in lost annual earnings. The National Bureau of Economic Research found in a September study that in a typical week of the pandemic, 10 workers per 1,000 missed an entire week of work due to their own health problems, compared with six in an average week in the years before. That study estimated covid reduced the U.S. labor force by 500,000 people at an annual cost of $62 billion. Worldwide, a conservative estimate is that 10 percent of the documented 651 million covid cases might have long covid — that’s 65 million people.
This could portend enormous changes in workplaces, economies and health care. President Biden last spring took initial steps to begin research into how the government and health-care system should respond. But much is still unknown, such as whether long covid will unleash a tidal wave of disability claims from workers who find they no longer have the stamina or good heath they enjoyed before the pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that long covid can be a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act, but to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, people must be unable to work and have health conditions lasting for at least a year, and it is unknown how many will meet this criteria. Another worrisome prospect is that those suffering long covid will lose not only jobs and income but also health insurance to support their treatment.
Also on the Editorial Board’s agenda
- The misery of Belarus’s political prisoners should not be ignored.
- Biden has a new border plan.
- The United States should keep the pressure on Nicaragua.
- America’s fight against inflation isn’t over.
- The Taliban has doubled down on the repression of women.
- The world’s ice is melting quickly.
What’s needed now is to recognize the seriousness of the coming crisis — and to devise plans for dealing with it. The COVID-19 Patient Recovery Alliance, a collaboration of health-care organizations, came up with a promising list of recommendations in 2021-2022 for Congress and the administration, centered on acquiring more data about who suffers long covid, and creating tools and strategies to help health-care systems, clinicians and caregivers respond. It’s time for all hands to be engaged. The National Institutes of Health should take leadership by appointing a senior official to drive the science about long covid forward, across all fields. The nation and the world should not hesitate to prepare for what is shaping up to be the pandemic after the pandemic.
The Post’s View | About the Editorial Board
Editorials represent the views of The Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.
Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Opinion Editor David Shipley; Deputy Opinion Editor Karen Tumulty; Associate Opinion Editor Stephen Stromberg (national politics and policy, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care); Lee Hockstader (European affairs, based in Paris); David E. Hoffman (global public health); James Hohmann (domestic policy and electoral politics, including the White House, Congress and governors); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Associate Editor Ruth Marcus; and Molly Roberts (technology and society).
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When the covid-19 pandemic first stormed the globe three years ago, the coronavirus was believed to be largely a respiratory ailment that also damaged the cells that line the blood vessels. But research is now showing that the virus can spread throughout the body and remain lodged in organs. This might offer one clue about the lingering phenomenon of “long covid” and suggest why it will remain a serious problem for individuals and the heath-care system for some time to come. The entire world will have to prepare for a legacy of long-covid sufferers.
It is not yet known how many people have long covid, why and what their prospects for recovery are, let alone what the long-term impact on society will be. The U.S. government reported in August that “no laboratory test can definitively distinguish” long covid from other causes of illness. But some general definitions are that long covid, or “post-acute sequelae of covid-19,” is a series of symptoms that continue or develop after the initial infection, that persist three months or more after the first sickness, and that can include fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction, pain, difficulty sleeping, racing heart rate, gastrointestinal problems and other ailments that
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interfere with everyday functioning.
Research is providing new insights into why. In a study published in Nature in December, researchers carried out 44 autopsies in search of how far and wide the virus had spread in patients who had died, a group largely older and unvaccinated. The researchers found that the virus can spread throughout the entire body and that it is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, infecting and replicating in the human brain, but they also noted that it seems to reserve most of its damage for the respiratory system. A separate study, published in Nature in January, pointed out that long-covid symptoms can crop up in the heart, lungs, immune system, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, neurological system, kidneys, spleen and liver, blood vessels and reproductive system. It is also possible that covid causes long-term damage to the endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and that such damage is leading to persistent symptoms.
counterpointThe Checkup With Dr. Wen: Three questions that remain after three years of covid
The U.S. Census Bureau added questions about long covid to its Household Pulse Survey last year, and the results suggest, according to a Brookings Institution analysis, that some 3 million Americans might be out of the workforce due to long covid. That’s 1.8 percent of the entire U.S. civilian labor force, representing $168 billion in lost annual earnings. The National Bureau of Economic Research found in a September study that in a typical week of the pandemic, 10 workers per 1,000 missed an entire week of work due to their own health problems, compared with six in an average week in the years before. That study estimated covid reduced the U.S. labor force by 500,000 people at an annual cost of $62 billion. Worldwide, a conservative estimate is that 10 percent of the documented 651 million covid cases might have long covid — that’s 65 million people.
This could portend enormous changes in workplaces, economies and health care. President Biden last spring took initial steps to begin research into how the government and health-care system should respond. But much is still unknown, such as whether long covid will unleash a tidal wave of disability claims from workers who find they no longer have the stamina or good heath they enjoyed before the pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that long covid can be a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act, but to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, people must be unable to work and have health conditions lasting for at least a year, and it is unknown how many will meet this criteria. Another worrisome prospect is that those suffering long covid will lose not only jobs and income but also health insurance to support their treatment.
Also on the Editorial Board’s agenda
- The misery of Belarus’s political prisoners should not be ignored.
- Biden has a new border plan.
- The United States should keep the pressure on Nicaragua.
- America’s fight against inflation isn’t over.
- The Taliban has doubled down on the repression of women.
- The world’s ice is melting quickly.
What’s needed now is to recognize the seriousness of the coming crisis — and to devise plans for dealing with it. The COVID-19 Patient Recovery Alliance, a collaboration of health-care organizations, came up with a promising list of recommendations in 2021-2022 for Congress and the administration, centered on acquiring more data about who suffers long covid, and creating tools and strategies to help health-care systems, clinicians and caregivers respond. It’s time for all hands to be engaged. The National Institutes of Health should take leadership by appointing a senior official to drive the science about long covid forward, across all fields. The nation and the world should not hesitate to prepare for what is shaping up to be the pandemic after the pandemic.
The Post’s View | About the Editorial Board
Editorials represent the views of The Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.
Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Opinion Editor David Shipley; Deputy Opinion Editor Karen Tumulty; Associate Opinion Editor Stephen Stromberg (national politics and policy, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care); Lee Hockstader (European affairs, based in Paris); David E. Hoffman (global public health); James Hohmann (domestic policy and electoral politics, including the White House, Congress and governors); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Associate Editor Ruth Marcus; and Molly Roberts (technology and society).
|
Where AI evolves from here
Microsoft researchers say the latest model of OpenAI's GPT "is a significant step towards AGI" — artificial general intelligence, the longtime grail for AI developers.
The big picture: If you think of AI as a technology ascending (or being pushed up) a ladder, Microsoft's paper claims that GPT-4 has climbed several rungs higher than anyone thought.
Driving the news: Microsoft released the "Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence" study in March, and it resurfaced in a provocative New York Times story Tuesday.
- The researchers found that "GPT-4 can solve novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more, without needing any special prompting."
- Among other remarkable responses, they asked GPT-4 how to stack "a book, 9 eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail," and it provided a plausible plan.
Catch up quick: Three key terms to understand in this realm are generative AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and sentient AI.
- Generative AI sounds like a person.
- AGI reasons like a person.
- Sentient AI thinks it's a person.
GPT-4, ChatGPT, Dall-E and the other AI programs that have led the current industry wave are all forms of generative AI.
- These are big software programs — mostly, "large language models" or LLMs — that are trained on troves of text, images or other data to perform one trick over and over: filling in the next word or pixel in a pattern that the user has requested. Developers then fine-tune these models for more specific applications.
- Generative AI does amazing things today, but experts are divided over whether it is on course to evolve toward the loftier status of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
AGI has a variety of definitions, all centering on the notion of human-level intelligence that can evaluate complex situations, apply common sense, and learn and adapt.
- The "Sparks" paper authors define AGI as "systems that demonstrate broad capabilities of intelligence, including reasoning, planning, and the ability to learn from experience, and with these capabilities at or above human-level."
- OpenAI's mission statement is to build AGI and ensure that it "benefits all of humanity."
Many experts, like Microsoft's authors, see a clear path from the context-awareness of today's generative AI to building a full AGI.
- Another expert contingent believes that generative AI is likely to plateau at some point, and the quest for AGI will need to explore different avenues to advance.
Beyond the goal of AGI lies the more speculative notion of "sentient AI," the idea that these programs might cross some boundary to become aware of their own existence and even develop their own wishes and feelings.
- Last year, a Google engineer went public with a claim that the firm's LaMDA language model had become sentient enough that it should be granted the AI equivalent of human rights. Google later fired him.
Virtually no one else is arguing that ChatGPT or any other AI today has come anywhere near sentience. But plenty of experts and tech leaders think that might happen someday, and that there's a slim chance such a sentient AI could go off the rails and wreck the planet or destroy the human species.
- These are the concerns that drove many industry insiders to sign an open letter in March calling for a six-month pause in the development of the next generation of AI.
- Other experts discount that worry as a distant and unlikely scenario — and believe that it distracts from closer-to-reality harms stemming from actual AI systems in use today that make biased decisions, disrupt employment and confuse fiction with fact.
Our thought bubble: The questions these categories raise divide people into two camps.
- Pragmatists argue that at some point, generative AI will get good enough at pattern-matching the real world that it will function as well as, or better than, a human being.
- Then it will get equipped with enough sensors and robotics to sense and act in the physical world — and eventually it will become futile to try to exclude such technological creations from the "sentient beings" category.
- Essentialists, on the other hand, argue that there will always be something about human beings, and human being, that's distinct from artificial life — rooted in biology (our bodies), spirituality (the idea of a soul) or epistemology (our self-knowledge).
The bottom line: For help navigating this landscape, you're likely to find as much value in the science fiction novels of Philip K. Dick as in the day's news.
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Where AI evolves from here
Microsoft researchers say the latest model of OpenAI's GPT "is a significant step towards AGI" — artificial general intelligence, the longtime grail for AI developers.
The big picture: If you think of AI as a technology ascending (or being pushed up) a ladder, Microsoft's paper claims that GPT-4 has climbed several rungs higher than anyone thought.
Driving the news: Microsoft released the "Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence" study in March, and it resurfaced in a provocative New York Times story Tuesday.
- The researchers found that "GPT-4 can solve novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more, without needing any special prompting."
- Among other remarkable responses, they asked GPT-4 how to stack "a book, 9 eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail," and it provided a plausible plan.
Catch up quick: Three key terms to understand in this realm are generative AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and sentient AI.
- Generative AI sounds like a person.
- AGI reasons like a person.
- Sentient AI thinks it's a person.
GPT-4,
|
ChatGPT, Dall-E and the other AI programs that have led the current industry wave are all forms of generative AI.
- These are big software programs — mostly, "large language models" or LLMs — that are trained on troves of text, images or other data to perform one trick over and over: filling in the next word or pixel in a pattern that the user has requested. Developers then fine-tune these models for more specific applications.
- Generative AI does amazing things today, but experts are divided over whether it is on course to evolve toward the loftier status of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
AGI has a variety of definitions, all centering on the notion of human-level intelligence that can evaluate complex situations, apply common sense, and learn and adapt.
- The "Sparks" paper authors define AGI as "systems that demonstrate broad capabilities of intelligence, including reasoning, planning, and the ability to learn from experience, and with these capabilities at or above human-level."
- OpenAI's mission statement is to build AGI and ensure that it "benefits all of humanity."
Many experts, like Microsoft's authors, see a clear path from the context-awareness of today's generative AI to building a full AGI.
- Another expert contingent believes that generative AI is likely to plateau at some point, and the quest for AGI will need to explore different avenues to advance.
Beyond the goal of AGI lies the more speculative notion of "sentient AI," the idea that these programs might cross some boundary to become aware of their own existence and even develop their own wishes and feelings.
- Last year, a Google engineer went public with a claim that the firm's LaMDA language model had become sentient enough that it should be granted the AI equivalent of human rights. Google later fired him.
Virtually no one else is arguing that ChatGPT or any other AI today has come anywhere near sentience. But plenty of experts and tech leaders think that might happen someday, and that there's a slim chance such a sentient AI could go off the rails and wreck the planet or destroy the human species.
- These are the concerns that drove many industry insiders to sign an open letter in March calling for a six-month pause in the development of the next generation of AI.
- Other experts discount that worry as a distant and unlikely scenario — and believe that it distracts from closer-to-reality harms stemming from actual AI systems in use today that make biased decisions, disrupt employment and confuse fiction with fact.
Our thought bubble: The questions these categories raise divide people into two camps.
- Pragmatists argue that at some point, generative AI will get good enough at pattern-matching the real world that it will function as well as, or better than, a human being.
- Then it will get equipped with enough sensors and robotics to sense and act in the physical world — and eventually it will become futile to try to exclude such technological creations from the "sentient beings" category.
- Essentialists, on the other hand, argue that there will always be something about human beings, and human being, that's distinct from artificial life — rooted in biology (our bodies), spirituality (the idea of a soul) or epistemology (our self-knowledge).
The bottom line: For help navigating this landscape, you're likely to find as much value in the science fiction novels of Philip K. Dick as in the day's news.
|
II Kings 20:20 “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool [of Siloam] and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?”
Amazingly, about 700 years before Christ, Hezekiah built a 2000-foot-long tunnel through solid rock to secretly carry water from the Gihon spring in Jerusalem to the Pool in Siloam. The Pool of Siloam was 53 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 19 feet deep. Hezekiah built the tunnel and pool to ensure that Jerusalem had water if the Assyrians surrounded the city. The pool was safe inside the city.
The pool was located on a stone path (called the Pilgrimage Road) that led to the Southern Gate of the Temple (about 210 feet). According to Josephus (an historian of the times), about one million Jews would visit three times a year (spring, summer, and fall), to celebrate Jewish Feast Days (Leviticus 23). Many Jews would stop at the Pool of Siloam to take a required ritual bath before they went into the Temple. After the Romans destroyed it, the Jews were scattered, and it was not discovered until approximately 150 years ago.
Now after almost 2000 years and a fourteen-year court battle over ownership of the site, on December 27, 2022, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced that work will begin in January 2023 to restore the Pool of Siloam and should be completed in about a year.
Could it be that those who visit a rebuilt Temple will need a place to take the ritual bath very soon? This is even more indication of how close we are to the Tribulation Period.
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II Kings 20:20 “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool [of Siloam] and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?”
Amazingly, about 700 years before Christ, Hezekiah built a 2000-foot-long tunnel through solid rock to secretly carry water from the Gihon spring in Jerusalem to the Pool in Siloam. The Pool of Siloam was 53 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 19 feet deep. Hezekiah built the tunnel and pool to ensure that Jerusalem had water if the Assyrians surrounded the city. The pool was safe inside the city.
The pool was located on a stone path (called the Pilgrimage Road) that led to the Southern Gate of the Temple (about 210 feet). According to Josephus (an historian of the times), about one million Jews would visit three times a year (spring, summer, and fall), to celebrate Jewish Feast Days (Leviticus 23). Many Jews would stop at the Pool of Siloam to take a
|
required ritual bath before they went into the Temple. After the Romans destroyed it, the Jews were scattered, and it was not discovered until approximately 150 years ago.
Now after almost 2000 years and a fourteen-year court battle over ownership of the site, on December 27, 2022, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced that work will begin in January 2023 to restore the Pool of Siloam and should be completed in about a year.
Could it be that those who visit a rebuilt Temple will need a place to take the ritual bath very soon? This is even more indication of how close we are to the Tribulation Period.
|
School of Environment experts weigh in on fear and bias in ecological research
Researchers at the Yale School of Environment advocate for a greater inquiry into negative human experiences in environmental scholarship.
Jessai Flores, Illustrations Editor
A recent study at the Yale School of Environment examined the role that fear and historical bias play in how scientists go about ecological research.
Gabriel Gadsden ENV ’27, associate professor of wildlife and land conservation Nyeema Harris and postdoctoral researcher at the Woodwell Climate Research Center Nigel Golden hypothesize that “social ecological landscapes of fear,” or SELF, create place-based bias, which in turn influences the success of conservation efforts.
The researchers point out that in grappling with a place’s identity, conservationists often encounter bias based on predominant cultural and historical narratives, disregarding the ecological landscapes themselves.
“The social-ecological landscape of fear theory states that fear of relinquishing dominant narratives of space creates a bias in where, how and to what extent conservation and environment scholars conduct studies,” Gadsden told the News.
Place-driven biases have deep historical context. For instance, Black scholars can feel hesitant to pursue research in disproportionately racist environments, which can affect conservation goals, according to Gadsden.
“Science is not as objective as perhaps previously casted across disciplines,” Harris wrote to the News. “The SELF theory proposed forces applied scientists, especially those in natural sciences, to grapple with history. We question not only the past biophysical attributes of the ecosystem that shape contemporary patterns of biodiversity and nature processes, but also how legacy tied to socio-economic conditions and treatment of people drive such patterns.”
Gadsden’s work is the first of its kind to study how fear in ecological research affects humans, as previous studies have focused specifically on animal behavior in fear-stimulated environments.
“Past theories of fear separate humans and nonhumans,” Gadsden wrote. “Our paper unionizes ideas about fear borrowed from the humanities and social science[s] with ecology. It compels disciplinary experts to come to terms with the nature of societies’ histories that promote colonization mindsets in environmental scholarship, and ways to overcome this fear-based or place-based bias.”
Gadsden’s research offers unique prospects, acknowledging that place-based bias is a layered dilemma. In his work, Gadsden focuses on the researchers; he suggests that in order to eliminate any biases, researchers should be cognizant and engage with subject communities in a proactive fashion.
More precisely, Gadsden insists on a three-tier approach to address the crisis. First is co-creation, which is when eco-political and eco-justice scholars unite to cope with geographical prejudices. It could spur them into action, he said, as they invest in missed histories and carry out more intentional research.
The second step is community collaboration, where scientists cooperate to understand attitudes and behavior in specific geographies, interacting with local habitats to create a more stable conservation framework.
Lastly, Gadsden prompts researchers to recognize the role of history in their work. For instance, the displacement of indigenous people in Yosemite between 1850 and 1966 made the forest ecosystem more susceptible to fires, and in order to propel conservation efforts, it is important to be aware of the ecosystem’s pre-displacement state.
Environmental studies major Roxanne Shaviro ’26 said that there are multiple ways intergenerational trauma can affect people and manifest itself in research. There are very few people of color in the major, which she said could partly be because of traumas resulting from racial discrimination.
“People don’t want to face trauma,” Shaviro said. “I saw very few people of color in academia growing up.”
Since the inception of ecological scholarship, dominant narratives have projected false ideals for ecological inquiry, according to Gadsden’s study. Thus, the resulting landscapes of fear have caused gaps in scholarship. In order to remedy this, there has to be a broader effort to consult multiple sources, which can allow researchers to avoid implicit bias in prioritizing ecological issues in certain areas.
Harris’ diverse team at the Applied Wildlife Ecology Lab, where Gadsden works, aims to negate biases by doing hands-on work with a wide array of terrestrial systems, from national parks to farmlands and backyards. The team is working resiliently to not let fear constrain their exploration.
The study was published in the January 2023 issue of BioScience.
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|
School of Environment experts weigh in on fear and bias in ecological research
Researchers at the Yale School of Environment advocate for a greater inquiry into negative human experiences in environmental scholarship.
Jessai Flores, Illustrations Editor
A recent study at the Yale School of Environment examined the role that fear and historical bias play in how scientists go about ecological research.
Gabriel Gadsden ENV ’27, associate professor of wildlife and land conservation Nyeema Harris and postdoctoral researcher at the Woodwell Climate Research Center Nigel Golden hypothesize that “social ecological landscapes of fear,” or SELF, create place-based bias, which in turn influences the success of conservation efforts.
The researchers point out that in grappling with a place’s identity, conservationists often encounter bias based on predominant cultural and historical narratives, disregarding the ecological landscapes themselves.
“The social-ecological landscape of fear theory states that fear of relinquishing dominant narratives of space creates a bias in where, how and to what extent conservation and environment scholars conduct studies,” Gadsden told the News.
Place-driven biases have deep historical context. For instance, Black scholars can feel hesitant to pursue research in disproportionately racist environments, which can affect conservation goals, according to Gadsden.
“Science is not as objective as perhaps
|
previously casted across disciplines,” Harris wrote to the News. “The SELF theory proposed forces applied scientists, especially those in natural sciences, to grapple with history. We question not only the past biophysical attributes of the ecosystem that shape contemporary patterns of biodiversity and nature processes, but also how legacy tied to socio-economic conditions and treatment of people drive such patterns.”
Gadsden’s work is the first of its kind to study how fear in ecological research affects humans, as previous studies have focused specifically on animal behavior in fear-stimulated environments.
“Past theories of fear separate humans and nonhumans,” Gadsden wrote. “Our paper unionizes ideas about fear borrowed from the humanities and social science[s] with ecology. It compels disciplinary experts to come to terms with the nature of societies’ histories that promote colonization mindsets in environmental scholarship, and ways to overcome this fear-based or place-based bias.”
Gadsden’s research offers unique prospects, acknowledging that place-based bias is a layered dilemma. In his work, Gadsden focuses on the researchers; he suggests that in order to eliminate any biases, researchers should be cognizant and engage with subject communities in a proactive fashion.
More precisely, Gadsden insists on a three-tier approach to address the crisis. First is co-creation, which is when eco-political and eco-justice scholars unite to cope with geographical prejudices. It could spur them into action, he said, as they invest in missed histories and carry out more intentional research.
The second step is community collaboration, where scientists cooperate to understand attitudes and behavior in specific geographies, interacting with local habitats to create a more stable conservation framework.
Lastly, Gadsden prompts researchers to recognize the role of history in their work. For instance, the displacement of indigenous people in Yosemite between 1850 and 1966 made the forest ecosystem more susceptible to fires, and in order to propel conservation efforts, it is important to be aware of the ecosystem’s pre-displacement state.
Environmental studies major Roxanne Shaviro ’26 said that there are multiple ways intergenerational trauma can affect people and manifest itself in research. There are very few people of color in the major, which she said could partly be because of traumas resulting from racial discrimination.
“People don’t want to face trauma,” Shaviro said. “I saw very few people of color in academia growing up.”
Since the inception of ecological scholarship, dominant narratives have projected false ideals for ecological inquiry, according to Gadsden’s study. Thus, the resulting landscapes of fear have caused gaps in scholarship. In order to remedy this, there has to be a broader effort to consult multiple sources, which can allow researchers to avoid implicit bias in prioritizing ecological issues in certain areas.
Harris’ diverse team at the Applied Wildlife Ecology Lab, where Gadsden works, aims to negate biases by doing hands-on work with a wide array of terrestrial systems, from national parks to farmlands and backyards. The team is working resiliently to not let fear constrain their exploration.
The study was published in the January 2023 issue of BioScience.
|
Where is the dam and what has happened?
The dam is located upstream of the city of Kherson on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Russia controls the territory on the left bank of the river. The right bank is held by Ukraine.
In the early hours of 6 June, the dam collapsed.
Before its collapse, the 30-metre-high, 2km-long dam had a road running along its top. It powered the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, a major energy producer, and held back a reservoir containing 18 cubic km of water that supplied communities and agriculture and provided cooling water to the nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia, which is under Russian control.
How serious is the damage and the flooding?
Before-and-after satellite images show the extent of the damage to the dam and the adjacent Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which were largely swept away.
The collapse sent water cascading downstream, flooding 230 sq miles of territory, according to Ukrainian authorities. This map shows the extent of the flooding as of 7 June.
The geography around the river means Russian-controlled areas to the south have been more badly hit. North of Kherson city, the land rises to a plain overlooking the river. To the south is a wide delta with marshes, low-lying islands and flat, sandy levels.
Video images from the city of Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka showed flood waters in the main square rising around the municipal building on 6 June.
This footage shows flooding in Korsunka, Dnipriany and Nova Kakhovka – the three settlements immediately downstream of the dam on the Russian-controlled left bank of the river.
These before-and-after satellite images show the impact of the flooding on the settlements of Krynky and Oleshky.
These images show the flooding of a granary in Nova Kakhovka.
What has the humanitarian impact been?
At least five people have reportedly died as a result of the floods, a number that is expected to increase. Emergency services in the occupied southern portion of Kherson said on 8 June that up to 14,000 homes had been flooded.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes. Some of those who haven’t left have become stranded on rooftops as the water levels have risen.
This drone footage shows water being delivered by air to a family trapped in their house in Oleshky. They were later rescued.
Who was responsible?
Ukraine has blamed Russian occupying forces, which have had control of the dam and the adjacent town since last year’s full-scale invasion, of blowing it up in an attempt to ward off a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Kremlin says Kyiv sabotaged the dam to deprive Russian-controlled Crimea of the fresh water it receives from the reservoir and to distract attention from the counteroffensive.
Ukraine’s allies in the west have not directly apportioned blame to Russia, but they have questioned why Kyiv would want to destroy the dam. Engineering experts have said the collapse was most likely caused by a deliberate explosion inside the dam.
It is possible that the collapse was made more impactful by the fact that Russia had deliberately allowed water levels to rise in the reservoir behind it.
How will it affect Ukraine’s counteroffensive?
The delta area had been seen as vulnerable for Russian forces in part because of its low elevation.
The flooding has put paid – for now at least – to any potential Ukrainian attempt to cross the Dnipro River around Kherson/Nova Kakhovka by widening the barrier separating the two forces.
The loss of the road across the top of the dam also deprives Ukraine of a potential line of attack across the river, leaving only the Antonivsky Bridge in Kherson city as a paved river crossing.
The flooding may also allow Russian reserves in the south to block any move on Melitopol. And it could free up troop reserves concentrated in the south, allowing them to be directed elsewhere.
What is the impact on farming and the environment?
In the hours after the collapse, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said “a global ecological disaster” was playing out. On 8 June Zelenskiy himself said that 50,000 hectares of forest had been flooded, and that 20,000 animals and 10,000 birds were “under threat of imminent death”.
This footage from upstream shows dead and dying fish on the drained bottom of the Nova Kakhovka reservoir on 7 June.
There are fears that the depleted reservoir will leave three critical regions in Ukraine’s “bread basket” without a key water supply. A series of canals run from the reservoir, all of which help irrigate swaths of agricultural land.
The most significant of these canals are the North Crimean canal, which supplies water to western Kherson before flowing down to Crimea, and the Kakhovsky canal, which irrigates most of the Kherson region’s fields before entering Zaporizhzhia.
Satellite imagery of the area directly south of the reservoir taken before the dam collapse shows mile upon mile of agricultural land.
Ukraine has warned that agricultural land in these regions could be so heavily affected that they could turn into “deserts”.
What is the impact on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant?
The cooling systems for Europe’s largest nuclear plant are supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir. If the dam falls below 12.7m, the lowest level at which water can still be pumped upstream to Zaporizhzhia, there are alternative water sources to keep the nuclear plant cool.
The post A visual guide to the collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam appeared first on The Guardian.
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Where is the dam and what has happened?
The dam is located upstream of the city of Kherson on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Russia controls the territory on the left bank of the river. The right bank is held by Ukraine.
In the early hours of 6 June, the dam collapsed.
Before its collapse, the 30-metre-high, 2km-long dam had a road running along its top. It powered the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, a major energy producer, and held back a reservoir containing 18 cubic km of water that supplied communities and agriculture and provided cooling water to the nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia, which is under Russian control.
How serious is the damage and the flooding?
Before-and-after satellite images show the extent of the damage to the dam and the adjacent Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which were largely swept away.
The collapse sent water cascading downstream, flooding 230 sq miles of territory, according to Ukrainian authorities. This map shows the extent of the flooding as of 7 June.
The geography around the river means Russian-controlled areas to the south have been more badly hit. North of Kherson city, the land rises to a plain overlooking the river.
|
To the south is a wide delta with marshes, low-lying islands and flat, sandy levels.
Video images from the city of Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka showed flood waters in the main square rising around the municipal building on 6 June.
This footage shows flooding in Korsunka, Dnipriany and Nova Kakhovka – the three settlements immediately downstream of the dam on the Russian-controlled left bank of the river.
These before-and-after satellite images show the impact of the flooding on the settlements of Krynky and Oleshky.
These images show the flooding of a granary in Nova Kakhovka.
What has the humanitarian impact been?
At least five people have reportedly died as a result of the floods, a number that is expected to increase. Emergency services in the occupied southern portion of Kherson said on 8 June that up to 14,000 homes had been flooded.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes. Some of those who haven’t left have become stranded on rooftops as the water levels have risen.
This drone footage shows water being delivered by air to a family trapped in their house in Oleshky. They were later rescued.
Who was responsible?
Ukraine has blamed Russian occupying forces, which have had control of the dam and the adjacent town since last year’s full-scale invasion, of blowing it up in an attempt to ward off a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Kremlin says Kyiv sabotaged the dam to deprive Russian-controlled Crimea of the fresh water it receives from the reservoir and to distract attention from the counteroffensive.
Ukraine’s allies in the west have not directly apportioned blame to Russia, but they have questioned why Kyiv would want to destroy the dam. Engineering experts have said the collapse was most likely caused by a deliberate explosion inside the dam.
It is possible that the collapse was made more impactful by the fact that Russia had deliberately allowed water levels to rise in the reservoir behind it.
How will it affect Ukraine’s counteroffensive?
The delta area had been seen as vulnerable for Russian forces in part because of its low elevation.
The flooding has put paid – for now at least – to any potential Ukrainian attempt to cross the Dnipro River around Kherson/Nova Kakhovka by widening the barrier separating the two forces.
The loss of the road across the top of the dam also deprives Ukraine of a potential line of attack across the river, leaving only the Antonivsky Bridge in Kherson city as a paved river crossing.
The flooding may also allow Russian reserves in the south to block any move on Melitopol. And it could free up troop reserves concentrated in the south, allowing them to be directed elsewhere.
What is the impact on farming and the environment?
In the hours after the collapse, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said “a global ecological disaster” was playing out. On 8 June Zelenskiy himself said that 50,000 hectares of forest had been flooded, and that 20,000 animals and 10,000 birds were “under threat of imminent death”.
This footage from upstream shows dead and dying fish on the drained bottom of the Nova Kakhovka reservoir on 7 June.
There are fears that the depleted reservoir will leave three critical regions in Ukraine’s “bread basket” without a key water supply. A series of canals run from the reservoir, all of which help irrigate swaths of agricultural land.
The most significant of these canals are the North Crimean canal, which supplies water to western Kherson before flowing down to Crimea, and the Kakhovsky canal, which irrigates most of the Kherson region’s fields before entering Zaporizhzhia.
Satellite imagery of the area directly south of the reservoir taken before the dam collapse shows mile upon mile of agricultural land.
Ukraine has warned that agricultural land in these regions could be so heavily affected that they could turn into “deserts”.
What is the impact on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant?
The cooling systems for Europe’s largest nuclear plant are supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir. If the dam falls below 12.7m, the lowest level at which water can still be pumped upstream to Zaporizhzhia, there are alternative water sources to keep the nuclear plant cool.
The post A visual guide to the collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam appeared first on The Guardian.
|
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is currently featuring a free online course supporting its At-Risk Individuals program: HHS/ASPR Addressing the Needs of Older Adults in Disasters.
The older adult population is growing. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2035, there will be more Americans who are 65 and older than there will be children under the age of 18.
Older adults are a very diverse group, with varying life experiences and capabilities. In many cases, older adults demonstrate greater resilience in the face of disasters than younger populations. However, many disasters and emergencies disproportionately impact the older adult population, especially older adults ages 85 and older. It is important to understand how to identify and address the specific needs of older adults during a disaster or emergency.
This course is targeted to public health and medical responders and is designed to improve their capabilities to address the access and functional needs of community-dwelling older adults in disasters. The course provides information, resources, tools, and strategies to help responders address the needs of older adults during natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, and other common disaster situations.
The course is estimated to take about 1 hour to complete. It is self-paced and can be paused and resumed at any time.
The course is hosted on the TRAIN Learning Network, a national learning network powered by the Public Health Foundation (PHF), a non-profit dedicated to improving public health and population health practice to support healthier communities.
ASPR leads the nation’s medical and public health preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters and public health emergencies. ASPR collaborates with hospitals, healthcare coalitions, biotech firms, community members, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and other partners across the country to improve readiness and response capabilities.
To take this course, first create a free account with the TRAIN Learning Network. Then, see the course page for instructions on how to launch the course. You can also share this learning opportunity using the downloadable course flyer.
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The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is currently featuring a free online course supporting its At-Risk Individuals program: HHS/ASPR Addressing the Needs of Older Adults in Disasters.
The older adult population is growing. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2035, there will be more Americans who are 65 and older than there will be children under the age of 18.
Older adults are a very diverse group, with varying life experiences and capabilities. In many cases, older adults demonstrate greater resilience in the face of disasters than younger populations. However, many disasters and emergencies disproportionately impact the older adult population, especially older adults ages 85 and older. It is important to understand how to identify and address the specific needs of older adults during a disaster or emergency.
This course is targeted to public health and medical responders and is designed to improve their capabilities to address the access and functional needs of community-dwelling older adults in disasters. The course provides information, resources, tools, and strategies to help responders address the needs of older adults during natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, and other common disaster situations.
The course is estimated to take about 1 hour to complete. It is self
|
-paced and can be paused and resumed at any time.
The course is hosted on the TRAIN Learning Network, a national learning network powered by the Public Health Foundation (PHF), a non-profit dedicated to improving public health and population health practice to support healthier communities.
ASPR leads the nation’s medical and public health preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters and public health emergencies. ASPR collaborates with hospitals, healthcare coalitions, biotech firms, community members, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and other partners across the country to improve readiness and response capabilities.
To take this course, first create a free account with the TRAIN Learning Network. Then, see the course page for instructions on how to launch the course. You can also share this learning opportunity using the downloadable course flyer.
|
If dyed-in-the-wool rockhound Gregor Losson takes you to his favorite mineral hunting grounds, be prepared to set out before sunrise in his four-wheel-drive truck and follow a tangle of backcountry dirt roads to a remote corner of the Mojave Desert.
It’s a desolate alluvial fan on the southern flanks of the Cady Mountains, where sparkling calcite crystals and pieces of quartz, jasper and agate are continually carried down the slopes by thunderstorms and flash floods.
“This place is as good as it gets,” Losson said recently as he hoisted a small geode filled with quartz crystals.
But that may not be the case for much longer.
A fierce seven-year debate over whether or not to prohibit the removal of rocks and minerals from Mojave Trails National Monument threatens to end rock collecting within its 1.6 million acres.
A controlled burn in Calaveras Big Trees State Park has badly damaged a pair of giant sequoias named ‘the Orphans,’ outraging community members.
Specifically, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is nearing completion of a management plan that could declare rock collecting a form of mining.
If that happens, rockhounding would fall under the control of the General Mining Law of 1872, which regulates extractive industries that take such raw materials as gold, silver, lithium and oil from the earth on public lands. It would also hasten the demise of California’s relatively small and aging community of gem and mineral collectors, Losson and others say.
“We see this issue as an existential threat to a hobby that dates back to the turn of the last century,” said Lisbet Thoresen, a mineralogist and advocate of hobbyists who find joy in lugging a few bucketfuls of rocks home to be cut and polished with lapidary equipment: diamond saws, grinders and tumbling machines.
No national monument administered by any federal agency currently operates under a management plan that allows mining. But advocates of rockhounding are hoping that the BLM will make an exception at Mojave Trails that could be used as a template for accommodating the hobby at monuments elsewhere.
“Rock collecting is not mining,” Thoresen said. “How are students going to learn to be geologists if not in nature’s own classroom?”
Katie Boyd, curator of rocks and minerals at the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, described the situation as “bordering on ridiculous.”
“I take strong exception to rockhounding being under review for possible classification as a crime,” she said. “It’s a wonderful hobby, and I’m all for it.”
California has enacted the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which is aimed at helping to ensure the survival of millions of the climate-threatened trees.
Often, stones and minerals collected by rockhounds are turned into pendants, bolo ties, rings, bookends and colorful spheres. Others wind up in glass display cases or in school classrooms.
The debate over whether or not rockhounding should be permitted in this desert just a few hours east of Los Angeles arises from President Obama’s 2016 proclamation designating Mojave Trails as a national monument.
The official proclamation did not include “rock hunting” as a desirable activity and ended with the admonition: “Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.”
To add to the confusion, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had asked Obama to create the monument in the first place, insisted that the proclamation’s warning referred to cultural and historic items, not rocks.
The BLM would not go that far. But it has allowed rockhounding to continue at least until the management plan is finalized later this year.
For rockhounds, the battle over the future of rock collecting in Mojave Trails is also a battle over the future of the pastime itself.
Rock hunting was a fast-growing new hobby in the 1930s, when collectors began venturing into the vast Mojave Desert by car via the legendary U.S. Route 66, then took dirt roads to mineral hot spots including the Cady Mountains, Lavic Siding and Afton Canyon — a four-mile furrow carved by the Mojave River.
Its heyday was in the 1950s, when there were an estimated 2 million home lapidary shops in operation across the nation, and rockhounding was encouraged by the U.S. Bureau of Mines as part of a strategy to increase stockpiles of minerals crucial for national defense.
In a 1956 newspaper article titled “You can be a week-end gem hunter,” Thomas H. Miller, director of Bureau of Mines, argued that “sooner or later, one of these rockhounds is going to make a ‘find’ of one of the many important strategic minerals, such as manganese, or nickel, or beryllium, which we desperately need.”
An ornery, board-jacking sea otter is terrorizing surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz. An effort is underway to capture the creature.
Rockhounds have been steadily losing access to premier hunting grounds since the 1970s due to urban sprawl, the expansion of military bases, and the implementation of conservation policies aimed at ensuring the long-term survival of vital land rich in anthropological resources, historic sites, plants and wildlife, including bighorn sheep.
The sweeping California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980 omitted “rock collecting” among its enumerated recreational opportunities. Although the plan has been revised 147 times since then, rock collecting was never included as a specifically permitted activity.
That omission produced a rift with rockhounders that only deepened in 2016 when Obama’s proclamation overlooked the activity as a desired use in Mojave Trails.
“Rockhounds hate national monuments,” Thoresen said, “because wherever [rock collecting] is not explicitly stated as a desirable use in their management plans, it is not allowed.”
The rock hunting community’s fight for permanent access to Mojave Trails is supported by the nonprofit conservation group CalWild and the Mineralogical Society of Southern California, some of whose members are responsible for the identification and classification of several hundred new minerals.
“We are passionate about keeping the Mojave Trails National Monument for science, for education, for mineral collecting, and for rockhounding for many generations to come,” Angela Guzman, president of the society, said in a recent letter to BLM officials.
Other supporters include the Mojave Desert Land Trust and the Wildlands Conservancy, both of which are dedicated to acquiring ecologically significant tracts of land throughout California.
“To prohibit casual collection by grouping it with commercial mining would be a true failure of our federal policymakers and violate commitments made as Mojave Trails National Monument was being promoted and advocated over 10 years ago,” said Frazier Haney, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy.
In the meantime, Southern California rockhounds are bracing for change.
“Rockhounds don’t have lobbyists and lawyers on staff to fight any of this,” said rock collector Ruth Hidalgo of Palmdale, who has earned the moniker “Mama Bear” because of her strong arguments at public hearings on the issue. “There are definitely going to be compromises — rockhounds won’t be able to go everywhere they do now.”
But Hidalgo has high hopes of ensuring access to an inexpensive weekend getaway she refers to as “my quiet, remote happy place, where sparkling minerals in every direction are staring out at you.”
“My husband, who passed away last year, always had a rock in his pocket,” she said. “Now I have it. It’s a piece of agate from the Cady Mountains.”
Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
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If dyed-in-the-wool rockhound Gregor Losson takes you to his favorite mineral hunting grounds, be prepared to set out before sunrise in his four-wheel-drive truck and follow a tangle of backcountry dirt roads to a remote corner of the Mojave Desert.
It’s a desolate alluvial fan on the southern flanks of the Cady Mountains, where sparkling calcite crystals and pieces of quartz, jasper and agate are continually carried down the slopes by thunderstorms and flash floods.
“This place is as good as it gets,” Losson said recently as he hoisted a small geode filled with quartz crystals.
But that may not be the case for much longer.
A fierce seven-year debate over whether or not to prohibit the removal of rocks and minerals from Mojave Trails National Monument threatens to end rock collecting within its 1.6 million acres.
A controlled burn in Calaveras Big Trees State Park has badly damaged a pair of giant sequoias named ‘the Orphans,’ outraging community members.
Specifically, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is nearing completion of a management plan that could declare rock collecting a form of mining.
If that happens, rockhounding would fall under the control
|
of the General Mining Law of 1872, which regulates extractive industries that take such raw materials as gold, silver, lithium and oil from the earth on public lands. It would also hasten the demise of California’s relatively small and aging community of gem and mineral collectors, Losson and others say.
“We see this issue as an existential threat to a hobby that dates back to the turn of the last century,” said Lisbet Thoresen, a mineralogist and advocate of hobbyists who find joy in lugging a few bucketfuls of rocks home to be cut and polished with lapidary equipment: diamond saws, grinders and tumbling machines.
No national monument administered by any federal agency currently operates under a management plan that allows mining. But advocates of rockhounding are hoping that the BLM will make an exception at Mojave Trails that could be used as a template for accommodating the hobby at monuments elsewhere.
“Rock collecting is not mining,” Thoresen said. “How are students going to learn to be geologists if not in nature’s own classroom?”
Katie Boyd, curator of rocks and minerals at the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, described the situation as “bordering on ridiculous.”
“I take strong exception to rockhounding being under review for possible classification as a crime,” she said. “It’s a wonderful hobby, and I’m all for it.”
California has enacted the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which is aimed at helping to ensure the survival of millions of the climate-threatened trees.
Often, stones and minerals collected by rockhounds are turned into pendants, bolo ties, rings, bookends and colorful spheres. Others wind up in glass display cases or in school classrooms.
The debate over whether or not rockhounding should be permitted in this desert just a few hours east of Los Angeles arises from President Obama’s 2016 proclamation designating Mojave Trails as a national monument.
The official proclamation did not include “rock hunting” as a desirable activity and ended with the admonition: “Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.”
To add to the confusion, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had asked Obama to create the monument in the first place, insisted that the proclamation’s warning referred to cultural and historic items, not rocks.
The BLM would not go that far. But it has allowed rockhounding to continue at least until the management plan is finalized later this year.
For rockhounds, the battle over the future of rock collecting in Mojave Trails is also a battle over the future of the pastime itself.
Rock hunting was a fast-growing new hobby in the 1930s, when collectors began venturing into the vast Mojave Desert by car via the legendary U.S. Route 66, then took dirt roads to mineral hot spots including the Cady Mountains, Lavic Siding and Afton Canyon — a four-mile furrow carved by the Mojave River.
Its heyday was in the 1950s, when there were an estimated 2 million home lapidary shops in operation across the nation, and rockhounding was encouraged by the U.S. Bureau of Mines as part of a strategy to increase stockpiles of minerals crucial for national defense.
In a 1956 newspaper article titled “You can be a week-end gem hunter,” Thomas H. Miller, director of Bureau of Mines, argued that “sooner or later, one of these rockhounds is going to make a ‘find’ of one of the many important strategic minerals, such as manganese, or nickel, or beryllium, which we desperately need.”
An ornery, board-jacking sea otter is terrorizing surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz. An effort is underway to capture the creature.
Rockhounds have been steadily losing access to premier hunting grounds since the 1970s due to urban sprawl, the expansion of military bases, and the implementation of conservation policies aimed at ensuring the long-term survival of vital land rich in anthropological resources, historic sites, plants and wildlife, including bighorn sheep.
The sweeping California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980 omitted “rock collecting” among its enumerated recreational opportunities. Although the plan has been revised 147 times since then, rock collecting was never included as a specifically permitted activity.
That omission produced a rift with rockhounders that only deepened in 2016 when Obama’s proclamation overlooked the activity as a desired use in Mojave Trails.
“Rockhounds hate national monuments,” Thoresen said, “because wherever [rock collecting] is not explicitly stated as a desirable use in their management plans, it is not allowed.”
The rock hunting community’s fight for permanent access to Mojave Trails is supported by the nonprofit conservation group CalWild and the Mineralogical Society of Southern California, some of whose members are responsible for the identification and classification of several hundred new minerals.
“We are passionate about keeping the Mojave Trails National Monument for science, for education, for mineral collecting, and for rockhounding for many generations to come,” Angela Guzman, president of the society, said in a recent letter to BLM officials.
Other supporters include the Mojave Desert Land Trust and the Wildlands Conservancy, both of which are dedicated to acquiring ecologically significant tracts of land throughout California.
“To prohibit casual collection by grouping it with commercial mining would be a true failure of our federal policymakers and violate commitments made as Mojave Trails National Monument was being promoted and advocated over 10 years ago,” said Frazier Haney, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy.
In the meantime, Southern California rockhounds are bracing for change.
“Rockhounds don’t have lobbyists and lawyers on staff to fight any of this,” said rock collector Ruth Hidalgo of Palmdale, who has earned the moniker “Mama Bear” because of her strong arguments at public hearings on the issue. “There are definitely going to be compromises — rockhounds won’t be able to go everywhere they do now.”
But Hidalgo has high hopes of ensuring access to an inexpensive weekend getaway she refers to as “my quiet, remote happy place, where sparkling minerals in every direction are staring out at you.”
“My husband, who passed away last year, always had a rock in his pocket,” she said. “Now I have it. It’s a piece of agate from the Cady Mountains.”
Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
|
Flinders University scientists use biology from insects to build robots with a brainBy Meagan Dillon
Scientists at a South Australian university are using biology from insects to build robots with a brain – technology that could become a game changer for police, defence and national security.
- Scientists have used the biology of insects to create a robot that can understand the vision it captures from a camera
- The robots can take a picture and also interpret the environment
- They say the technology will be useful for a range of areas including law enforcement and conservation
"I'm giving a robot a brain so it can understand its environment," said Flinders University associate professor for autonomous systems, Dr Russell Brinkworth.
His biologically-inspired robots have the ability to not just take a picture of the world, but interpret the surrounding environment and adapt accordingly.
"Our current robots work well in structured environments that don't change. That sounds complex – but they're all the same," Dr Brinkworth said.
"When cars are set on an assembly line, all the cars are the same, the parts are the same, they're all in the same environment, same lighting, same size.
"But real life isn't like that – there's always changes, so we need to build robots that can adapt to the environment, rather than forcing the environment to adapt to the robots."
By studying the biology of insects, such as flies and dragonflies, Dr Brinkworth "reverse engineered" the process that goes on biologically to create a robot that can understand the vision it is capturing from a camera.
"The way that insects interpret the world is very similar to the way primates and even humans interpret the world. We just do it on a larger scale," he said.
He said his robots can pinpoint a drone or surveillance balloon from kilometres away, far advancing the technology of current cameras.
"If you look at security footage and there's someone wearing a hoodie and they've got their face covered – it's hard to understand what's going on based on the camera footage," he said.
"But if you were standing there, and you were looking at them, that shadow wouldn't fool your eye because your eye is sophisticated enough to be able to extract out the information hiding in the shadows.
"That's the sort of cameras we're building."
Dr Brinkworth said the cameras would be vital for law enforcement, defence and national security in the future, but could also be used for conservation, such as recording the density of koalas in a national park.
"You'd have to send somebody out to walk through that forest to do a manual count, or you send a drone overhead with an operator," he said.
"They will miss quite a few.
"What we've been able to do is design a system that is far more accurate and doesn't rely on human judgement."
He said his camera can more accurately pick out where the koalas are because it could "break the different types of camouflage" created by the dense branches and leaves.
"It can find animals hiding in forests, it can find all sorts of things that are camouflaged to regular camera views because it's able to look for, and enhance, the very subtle differences across different wavelengths of light."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Dr Malcolm Davis said studying biology was important to advance technology such as robots.
"We want them to be flexible and in effect, to be able to operate as humans do," he said.
"The battle space is a complex, rapidly changing environment – we can't afford to have autonomous systems or robots, essentially requiring human oversight.
"We need them to be able to understand their environment and make their own decisions.
"There's obviously a Terminator mindset here that if we give robots too much control, then they turn on us [but] I don't think that's likely.
"If we're talking about artificial intelligence, if we're talking about advanced robotic systems, then it's humans that are creating those systems.
"We would build into those machines an understanding or basis for behaviour based around our approaches to things like international law, humanitarian law, the laws of armed conflict."
Dr Brinkworth said the technology could one day be used to potentially build an eye for someone who was blind.
"If somebody was blind, you can't just put a camera on them, you have to find a way of giving that information to the person," he said.
He said in order to do that, the way the brain communicates needs to be replicated by better understanding how the visual systems of animals work.
"We could augment existing visual systems and replace missing parts and communicate that information in the brain's native language back to the brain," he said.
"This is very science fiction – it doesn't exist just yet. The interface between technology and biology is a frontier.
"The augmentation side of technology moving into biology is a bit Borg-like, if we're looking for Star Trek.
"It is very far in the future. But the future starts now, you must start somewhere.
"If you want to invest in a future where giving sight back to the blind is important, than you've got to start."
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Flinders University scientists use biology from insects to build robots with a brainBy Meagan Dillon
Scientists at a South Australian university are using biology from insects to build robots with a brain – technology that could become a game changer for police, defence and national security.
- Scientists have used the biology of insects to create a robot that can understand the vision it captures from a camera
- The robots can take a picture and also interpret the environment
- They say the technology will be useful for a range of areas including law enforcement and conservation
"I'm giving a robot a brain so it can understand its environment," said Flinders University associate professor for autonomous systems, Dr Russell Brinkworth.
His biologically-inspired robots have the ability to not just take a picture of the world, but interpret the surrounding environment and adapt accordingly.
"Our current robots work well in structured environments that don't change. That sounds complex – but they're all the same," Dr Brinkworth said.
"When cars are set on an assembly line, all the cars are the same, the parts are the same, they're all in the same environment, same lighting, same size.
"But real life isn't like that – there's always changes, so we need to build robots that can
|
adapt to the environment, rather than forcing the environment to adapt to the robots."
By studying the biology of insects, such as flies and dragonflies, Dr Brinkworth "reverse engineered" the process that goes on biologically to create a robot that can understand the vision it is capturing from a camera.
"The way that insects interpret the world is very similar to the way primates and even humans interpret the world. We just do it on a larger scale," he said.
He said his robots can pinpoint a drone or surveillance balloon from kilometres away, far advancing the technology of current cameras.
"If you look at security footage and there's someone wearing a hoodie and they've got their face covered – it's hard to understand what's going on based on the camera footage," he said.
"But if you were standing there, and you were looking at them, that shadow wouldn't fool your eye because your eye is sophisticated enough to be able to extract out the information hiding in the shadows.
"That's the sort of cameras we're building."
Dr Brinkworth said the cameras would be vital for law enforcement, defence and national security in the future, but could also be used for conservation, such as recording the density of koalas in a national park.
"You'd have to send somebody out to walk through that forest to do a manual count, or you send a drone overhead with an operator," he said.
"They will miss quite a few.
"What we've been able to do is design a system that is far more accurate and doesn't rely on human judgement."
He said his camera can more accurately pick out where the koalas are because it could "break the different types of camouflage" created by the dense branches and leaves.
"It can find animals hiding in forests, it can find all sorts of things that are camouflaged to regular camera views because it's able to look for, and enhance, the very subtle differences across different wavelengths of light."
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Dr Malcolm Davis said studying biology was important to advance technology such as robots.
"We want them to be flexible and in effect, to be able to operate as humans do," he said.
"The battle space is a complex, rapidly changing environment – we can't afford to have autonomous systems or robots, essentially requiring human oversight.
"We need them to be able to understand their environment and make their own decisions.
"There's obviously a Terminator mindset here that if we give robots too much control, then they turn on us [but] I don't think that's likely.
"If we're talking about artificial intelligence, if we're talking about advanced robotic systems, then it's humans that are creating those systems.
"We would build into those machines an understanding or basis for behaviour based around our approaches to things like international law, humanitarian law, the laws of armed conflict."
Dr Brinkworth said the technology could one day be used to potentially build an eye for someone who was blind.
"If somebody was blind, you can't just put a camera on them, you have to find a way of giving that information to the person," he said.
He said in order to do that, the way the brain communicates needs to be replicated by better understanding how the visual systems of animals work.
"We could augment existing visual systems and replace missing parts and communicate that information in the brain's native language back to the brain," he said.
"This is very science fiction – it doesn't exist just yet. The interface between technology and biology is a frontier.
"The augmentation side of technology moving into biology is a bit Borg-like, if we're looking for Star Trek.
"It is very far in the future. But the future starts now, you must start somewhere.
"If you want to invest in a future where giving sight back to the blind is important, than you've got to start."
|
Website Link (Article by Megan Schmidt)
Essential oils smell great. But what do researchers have to say about the health benefits of essential oils? Are they really safe remedies for anxiety, stress, pain and other health problems?
Since the dawn of civilization, people have turned to the power of plants for healing purposes. But one folk medicine in particular seems more popular than ever: essential oils.
Today, there’s renewed interest in using essential oils to improve physical or psychological well-being. One poll found that a third of Americans believe in the health benefits of essential oils and aromatherapy. No longer niche, these little vials of plant essence are a billion-dollar industry, favored by Gwyneth Paltrow and grandmas alike.
With around 90 essential oils on the market — each with its own purported healing qualities — there’s a so-called “cure” for practically everything. Lavender, sandalwood and bergamot are popular essential oils for stress relief. Varieties like ylang-ylang and jasmine are reputed to boost libido. Some, like lemon oil, are believed to address a laundry list of conditions: morning sickness, pain and acne, to name a few. But there’s a problem with essential oil claims: Science hasn’t caught up to their popularity. There simply haven’t been enough large-scale, peer-reviewed studies in humans to prove whether essential oils really can improve health or mood, or support any other commonly bragged about health benefits of essential oils.
With this in mind, let’s clear up what essential oils are, how they are thought to work, and what research says about them.
What’s in Your Oils: Are Essential Oils Safe?
Essential oils are highly concentrated extracts of plant material — such as seeds, flowers, stems or roots.
But it can often be tough for consumers to know what they’re really buying. The market isn’t regulated, so there tends to be a lot of variation between essential oils — even among those that originate from the same brand.
“The constituent makeup of essential oils will vary from batch to batch, as they are drawn from plants that vary from country to country, field to field and even within the same plant from morning to evening,” says Mark Moss, a psychologist who studies essential oils at Northumbria University in the U.K., in an email to Discover. “The major components will always be there, but the relative concentration will vary.”
Another important thing to keep in mind is that essential oils haven’t been put through rigorous FDA testing and approval like the over-the-counter drugs available at your neighborhood pharmacy. So what essential oils do for health, if anything, is still pretty murky.
“Essential oils are neither medicines nor drugs because the effects have not been fully assessed yet in terms of science,” says Hideki Kashiwadani, a physiology researcher at Kagoshima University in Japan, in an email to Discover.
Despite this, essential oils have wide appeal, particularly among people who have grown dissatisfied with modern Western medicine. And this alternative therapy is showing no signs of slowing down.
How Essential Oils are Used
Most essential oils are inhaled via diffusion or applied topically to the skin after being mixed with a carrier oil. Other essential oils are supposed to be ingested, but medical professionals and health authorities generally warn against the safety of this method.
When essential oils are inhaled via aromatherapy, compounds are absorbed through receptors in our noses, which send messages to our olfactory system, the part of the brain responsible for our sense of smell. Eventually, these messages reach other areas of the brain, such as the limbic system, which plays a role in our emotions.
When essential oils are applied topically for cosmetic reasons or to treat aches and pains, the compounds are absorbed into the skin and eventually enter the bloodstream before they’re metabolized by the liver.
But beyond that, even scientists have a tough time figuring out what various essential oils really do. Since there are no accepted standards for essential oils, Kashiwadani explains that scientists often find it challenging to replicate another scientist’s experiment.
“One of the problems with essential oils and the lack of standardization is that you can’t tell if two researchers are actually testing the same essential oil,” Moss says.
But other issues — which are surprisingly commonplace in scientific research — further complicate matters. For instance, human studies on essential oils are few and far between. Of the research that has been conducted on humans, many studies involved small numbers of participants, which can skew results. As a rule of thumb, reviews or meta-reviews, which draw conclusions from large numbers of similar studies, tend to be the most reliable and comprehensive.
We also must remember that correlation does not equal causation. In other words, a mere association between two things isn’t enough to prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship. So, even if a study found people who smelled lavender aroma felt less anxious, something else may be responsible for the effect (such as controlled breathing).
On top of that, the results from scientific studies can sometime be misinterpreted or blown out of proportion. When scientists study treatments, they’re looking for changes that are “statistically significant.” All this means is that the results cannot be explained by random chance alone. So the impact of an essential oil might be scientifically significant, but fall far short of what we might view as meaningful.
In light of the shortcomings of essential oil studies, a lot of the information concerning the health benefits of essential oils tends to be anecdotal or rooted in folklore. And their safety hasn’t been fully vetted. So it’s important for people to remember that natural or organic doesn’t directly translate to being “safe” or “beneficial.” Plant compounds — especially in high doses — can be toxic, irritating or may cause allergic reactions or drug interactions.
What Are the Health Benefits of Essential Oils?
But essential oils may not be totally worthless. Based on his own work, Moss said rosemary, sage and peppermint oils might improve memory and cognition to a degree. He also says lavender has been linked with improved sleep. Just don’t expect essential oils to be magical elixirs. They’re a far cry from being on medication, and shouldn’t replace standard medical care.
“The effects of essential oils are small. They are not a panacea. They can provide small benefits for individuals and should, in my opinion, be seen as self-care life enhancers rather than treatments as such,” Moss said.
If anything, many essential oils smell nice. So, if spritzing your pillow with lavender oil brings enjoyment and relaxation — even via the placebo effect — is there really anything wrong with that?
“Don’t go searching for solutions to problems. Consider the potential for enjoying the experience. That is a benefit in itself,” Moss said.
Essential Oils as ‘Medicine’
Are essential oils safe and effective treatments for certain medical conditions? The jury’s still out, but Discover rounded up some of the published work that explores the effects of some popular essential oils in animals and humans. If you’re thinking about trying essential oils, make sure you check with your doctor first.
The woodsy aroma of rosemary may do more than perk up a roast chicken. A small study of 20 people from Moss’ research team at Northumbria University linked rosemary to improved memory and cognition, particularly among older adults.
Another small study from Moss’ team found that rosemary might improve test scores among school-aged kids. Children who took tests in rooms scented with rosemary received higher scores than children in nonscented rooms.
Despite his work investigating rosemary, Moss said he’s not necessarily an advocate of promoting the use of essential oils, but thinks consumers should be able to make their own choices.
Lavender is one of the most popular scents in aromatherapy. Studies in both mice and horses have found that the scent of lavender is calming. In humans, small-scale studies found that it might have a modest effect on anxiety.
One study of 100 people found that lavender slightly improved anxiety before surgery. The researchers cautioned, however, that additional research is needed before drawing conclusions between lavender aroma and anxiety.
Taking lavender oil capsules orally might also have some effect on anxiety. That’s according to a meta-analysis of five studies that involved more than 500 people, which looked at how lavender capsules measured up to a placebo and some anti-anxiety drugs. Although lavender capsules (also known as silexan) helped with anxiety, it also caused unpleasant side effects like nausea, belching and diarrhea in some people.
Lavender is also a common sleep aid. A review of studies concluded that it may offer some small to moderate sleep-promoting benefits. However, the review called for larger and more rigorous studies that investigate lavender and sleep.
Beyond that, lavender may have some pro-social benefits. A study that involved 90 people found that the aroma of lavender was more effective than a control in promoting a sense of trust among strangers.
But lavender oil maybe isn’t a good idea for everyone. It may be a hormone disrupter, and studies have linked regular exposure to lavender oil with abnormal breast growth in girls. Lavender (and tea tree oil) was also found to cause abnormal breast tissue growth in boys.
Peppermint oil, which may have pain-relieving qualities, has been used for centuries to treat gastrointestinal problems. But unlike some other essential oils, there’s pretty sound evidence to back up these claims. Reviews of studies have found that taking peppermint oil capsules may ease irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, like gastrointestinal pain.
A small pilot study also found that peppermint oil capsules may be helpful for people who have problems swallowing during meals or experience noncardiac chest pains. Consuming peppermint tablets helped ease discomfort in these patients, likely because the compounds helped to relax smooth muscles in the lower esophagus.
Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree oil is often found in cosmetic products because of its purported anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. When applied to the skin, tea tree oil might be an effective treatment for mild to moderate acne.
A review study found tea tree oil was better than placebos, and just as effective as benzoyl peroxide, in stopping pimples. In addition to acne, several older studies suggest tea tree oil may be helpful for nail fungus and athlete’s foot.
|
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Website Link (Article by Megan Schmidt)
Essential oils smell great. But what do researchers have to say about the health benefits of essential oils? Are they really safe remedies for anxiety, stress, pain and other health problems?
Since the dawn of civilization, people have turned to the power of plants for healing purposes. But one folk medicine in particular seems more popular than ever: essential oils.
Today, there’s renewed interest in using essential oils to improve physical or psychological well-being. One poll found that a third of Americans believe in the health benefits of essential oils and aromatherapy. No longer niche, these little vials of plant essence are a billion-dollar industry, favored by Gwyneth Paltrow and grandmas alike.
With around 90 essential oils on the market — each with its own purported healing qualities — there’s a so-called “cure” for practically everything. Lavender, sandalwood and bergamot are popular essential oils for stress relief. Varieties like ylang-ylang and jasmine are reputed to boost libido. Some, like lemon oil, are believed to address a laundry list of conditions: morning sickness, pain and acne, to name a few. But there’s a problem with essential oil claims: Science
|
hasn’t caught up to their popularity. There simply haven’t been enough large-scale, peer-reviewed studies in humans to prove whether essential oils really can improve health or mood, or support any other commonly bragged about health benefits of essential oils.
With this in mind, let’s clear up what essential oils are, how they are thought to work, and what research says about them.
What’s in Your Oils: Are Essential Oils Safe?
Essential oils are highly concentrated extracts of plant material — such as seeds, flowers, stems or roots.
But it can often be tough for consumers to know what they’re really buying. The market isn’t regulated, so there tends to be a lot of variation between essential oils — even among those that originate from the same brand.
“The constituent makeup of essential oils will vary from batch to batch, as they are drawn from plants that vary from country to country, field to field and even within the same plant from morning to evening,” says Mark Moss, a psychologist who studies essential oils at Northumbria University in the U.K., in an email to Discover. “The major components will always be there, but the relative concentration will vary.”
Another important thing to keep in mind is that essential oils haven’t been put through rigorous FDA testing and approval like the over-the-counter drugs available at your neighborhood pharmacy. So what essential oils do for health, if anything, is still pretty murky.
“Essential oils are neither medicines nor drugs because the effects have not been fully assessed yet in terms of science,” says Hideki Kashiwadani, a physiology researcher at Kagoshima University in Japan, in an email to Discover.
Despite this, essential oils have wide appeal, particularly among people who have grown dissatisfied with modern Western medicine. And this alternative therapy is showing no signs of slowing down.
How Essential Oils are Used
Most essential oils are inhaled via diffusion or applied topically to the skin after being mixed with a carrier oil. Other essential oils are supposed to be ingested, but medical professionals and health authorities generally warn against the safety of this method.
When essential oils are inhaled via aromatherapy, compounds are absorbed through receptors in our noses, which send messages to our olfactory system, the part of the brain responsible for our sense of smell. Eventually, these messages reach other areas of the brain, such as the limbic system, which plays a role in our emotions.
When essential oils are applied topically for cosmetic reasons or to treat aches and pains, the compounds are absorbed into the skin and eventually enter the bloodstream before they’re metabolized by the liver.
But beyond that, even scientists have a tough time figuring out what various essential oils really do. Since there are no accepted standards for essential oils, Kashiwadani explains that scientists often find it challenging to replicate another scientist’s experiment.
“One of the problems with essential oils and the lack of standardization is that you can’t tell if two researchers are actually testing the same essential oil,” Moss says.
But other issues — which are surprisingly commonplace in scientific research — further complicate matters. For instance, human studies on essential oils are few and far between. Of the research that has been conducted on humans, many studies involved small numbers of participants, which can skew results. As a rule of thumb, reviews or meta-reviews, which draw conclusions from large numbers of similar studies, tend to be the most reliable and comprehensive.
We also must remember that correlation does not equal causation. In other words, a mere association between two things isn’t enough to prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship. So, even if a study found people who smelled lavender aroma felt less anxious, something else may be responsible for the effect (such as controlled breathing).
On top of that, the results from scientific studies can sometime be misinterpreted or blown out of proportion. When scientists study treatments, they’re looking for changes that are “statistically significant.” All this means is that the results cannot be explained by random chance alone. So the impact of an essential oil might be scientifically significant, but fall far short of what we might view as meaningful.
In light of the shortcomings of essential oil studies, a lot of the information concerning the health benefits of essential oils tends to be anecdotal or rooted in folklore. And their safety hasn’t been fully vetted. So it’s important for people to remember that natural or organic doesn’t directly translate to being “safe” or “beneficial.” Plant compounds — especially in high doses — can be toxic, irritating or may cause allergic reactions or drug interactions.
What Are the Health Benefits of Essential Oils?
But essential oils may not be totally worthless. Based on his own work, Moss said rosemary, sage and peppermint oils might improve memory and cognition to a degree. He also says lavender has been linked with improved sleep. Just don’t expect essential oils to be magical elixirs. They’re a far cry from being on medication, and shouldn’t replace standard medical care.
“The effects of essential oils are small. They are not a panacea. They can provide small benefits for individuals and should, in my opinion, be seen as self-care life enhancers rather than treatments as such,” Moss said.
If anything, many essential oils smell nice. So, if spritzing your pillow with lavender oil brings enjoyment and relaxation — even via the placebo effect — is there really anything wrong with that?
“Don’t go searching for solutions to problems. Consider the potential for enjoying the experience. That is a benefit in itself,” Moss said.
Essential Oils as ‘Medicine’
Are essential oils safe and effective treatments for certain medical conditions? The jury’s still out, but Discover rounded up some of the published work that explores the effects of some popular essential oils in animals and humans. If you’re thinking about trying essential oils, make sure you check with your doctor first.
The woodsy aroma of rosemary may do more than perk up a roast chicken. A small study of 20 people from Moss’ research team at Northumbria University linked rosemary to improved memory and cognition, particularly among older adults.
Another small study from Moss’ team found that rosemary might improve test scores among school-aged kids. Children who took tests in rooms scented with rosemary received higher scores than children in nonscented rooms.
Despite his work investigating rosemary, Moss said he’s not necessarily an advocate of promoting the use of essential oils, but thinks consumers should be able to make their own choices.
Lavender is one of the most popular scents in aromatherapy. Studies in both mice and horses have found that the scent of lavender is calming. In humans, small-scale studies found that it might have a modest effect on anxiety.
One study of 100 people found that lavender slightly improved anxiety before surgery. The researchers cautioned, however, that additional research is needed before drawing conclusions between lavender aroma and anxiety.
Taking lavender oil capsules orally might also have some effect on anxiety. That’s according to a meta-analysis of five studies that involved more than 500 people, which looked at how lavender capsules measured up to a placebo and some anti-anxiety drugs. Although lavender capsules (also known as silexan) helped with anxiety, it also caused unpleasant side effects like nausea, belching and diarrhea in some people.
Lavender is also a common sleep aid. A review of studies concluded that it may offer some small to moderate sleep-promoting benefits. However, the review called for larger and more rigorous studies that investigate lavender and sleep.
Beyond that, lavender may have some pro-social benefits. A study that involved 90 people found that the aroma of lavender was more effective than a control in promoting a sense of trust among strangers.
But lavender oil maybe isn’t a good idea for everyone. It may be a hormone disrupter, and studies have linked regular exposure to lavender oil with abnormal breast growth in girls. Lavender (and tea tree oil) was also found to cause abnormal breast tissue growth in boys.
Peppermint oil, which may have pain-relieving qualities, has been used for centuries to treat gastrointestinal problems. But unlike some other essential oils, there’s pretty sound evidence to back up these claims. Reviews of studies have found that taking peppermint oil capsules may ease irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, like gastrointestinal pain.
A small pilot study also found that peppermint oil capsules may be helpful for people who have problems swallowing during meals or experience noncardiac chest pains. Consuming peppermint tablets helped ease discomfort in these patients, likely because the compounds helped to relax smooth muscles in the lower esophagus.
Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree oil is often found in cosmetic products because of its purported anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. When applied to the skin, tea tree oil might be an effective treatment for mild to moderate acne.
A review study found tea tree oil was better than placebos, and just as effective as benzoyl peroxide, in stopping pimples. In addition to acne, several older studies suggest tea tree oil may be helpful for nail fungus and athlete’s foot.
|
Warning: Syphilis cases on the rise in Stark, Tusc region
- Increase in syphilis traced to pandemic.
- Doctors are urged to do more testing for syphilis.
- Untreated disease can have long-lasting effects.
CANTON − The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered another public health problem, namely an increase in syphilis.
The number of regional syphilis cases grew from 41 in 2020, to 68 in 2021, to 109 last year, said Diane Thompson, director of nursing for Canton City Public Health.
High-risk behavior such as substance abuse combined with unsafe sex are the two biggest culprits behind the rise in cases.
STDs in Ohio:Gonorrhea and syphilis cases spiking in Canton
According to Ohio Department of Health, syphilis, which is a bacterial infection, increased from 2,442 cases in 2019, to 3,956 in 2021, with 25- to 34-year-olds making up the largest number of cases.
Other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia also are seeing higher numbers since the pandemic. New figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that syphilis and gonorrhea infections hit an all-time high in 2021.
Post-COVID rise in STI'shttps://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3944195-sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high-in-2021-cdc-finds/
Worrisome rise in congenital syphilis in Ohio
But there's a particularly worrisome rise in congenital syphilis, which is transferred to unborn babies by their mothers. According to preliminary figures, there were three congenital syphilis cases last year.
In response, Canton City Public Health launched a billboard campaign earlier this year to encourage sexually active people to get tested and treated if necessary. The health agency tracks syphilis and HIV cases in eight counties: Carroll, Coshocton, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne.
Thompson said that after the first congenital syphilis case in the region was reported in 2020, Canton issued a statewide health alert via the Ohio Department of Health.
Statewide, the number of syphilis infections in infants to those age 9 jumped from 19 in 2019 to 50 in 2021.
Thompson said a woman who has syphilis prior to getting pregnant can transfer the organism to a fetus once she becomes pregnant.
"And it can occur at any time during pregnancy," she said. "It can happen at a sexual encounter during pregnancy. We've had some high-risk cases where people didn't know they were pregnant because they were deeply into their substance abuse, and so if they don't get prenatal care, obviously testing doesn't get done until they end up in labor and come into the hospital."
Effects of syphilis can be lifelong
The effects for a baby infected with syphilis can be lifelong.
"They could have some chronic medical conditions and have to be cared for throughout their life," Thompson said. "Bone issues, which can cause deformities. It can also cause stillbirth."
Thompson said the health agency has applied for an Innovative STI (sexually transmitted infection) Prevention & Strategies grant from the state.
"We are proposing to partner with the Multi-County Attention Center to do STI testing on their youth," she said. "We're also proposing to do STI testing with our needle exchange participants."
She said another challenge is many people don't know they're infected. One factor for transmission is high-risk individuals, people who have multiple sex partners or who engage in substance abuse.
"We catch some of our adults through blood donations," she said.
Thompson noted that some younger physicians have never seen a syphilis case.
"So, people end up going to the doctor and they get diagnosed with a dermatitis, or they think you're having a reaction to soap," she said.
Thompson said syphilis symptoms for adults occur in stages.
"They will go through a primary stage where a lesion may appear," she said. "And the reason people may not notice a lesion is because it can be in the mouth, it can be in the anal area, in can be inside the vaginal area so they may not see it, and this lesion is not particularly painful."
As the organism continues to attack the body, it goes into a secondary stage, Thompson said.
"The secondary stage is when you see loss of hair. You can see a rash that can be all over the body or on different parts of the body," she said. "What is classic for secondary syphilis is the rash on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet."
Syphilis got Al Capone
Left untreated, syphilis will continue to attack the body for up to 12 months.
"After 12 months, if an adult doesn't get treated for it, that's when the organism lies dormant in the body for years and years and years," Thompson said. "It can travel to the brain and cause lots of damage. That's why Al Capone died."
Was Capone in Canton?:Al Capone and Stark County: Truth, legend or myth?
Thompson said a combination of risky behavior and a lack of testing makes it difficult to get a handle on transmissions.
"Years ago, we had a syphilis problem, but it was men having sex with men," she said. "So, you target that population of individuals and gear your testing in that population. When it's in your heterosexual population, it's very difficult to know how and where to target the message, which is why we've gone to the billboards."
Syphilis in adults and infants are treated with penicillin — the sooner, the better.
"If we can catch them in the first 12 months, it's one dose," she said. "But if we catch them after 12 months, it's three weekly doses. If we diagnosis an adult with neurosyphilis, it's I.V. penicillin for 10 days, and if we diagnose an infant with syphilis, it's also penicillin multiple times throughout the course of the day for 10 days."
Expectant mothers can be treated 30 days prior to delivery.
"But obviously, you have to infectious disease (experts) involved, and a pediatric neonatologist to assess that baby," Thompson said. "If we don't know mom has syphilis and the baby is born and transmission has occurred, mom could potentially present (the baby) to a pediatrician with broken bones because it does impact the bones."
The Canton City Public Health, 420 Market Ave. N, conducts free STI screening clinics from 8:15 to 11:15 a.m. by appointment only. Call 330-489-3322. If appointment slots are available, walk-ins are permitted. For more information visit https://www.cantonhealth.org/nursing/.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or <email-pii>.
On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
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Warning: Syphilis cases on the rise in Stark, Tusc region
- Increase in syphilis traced to pandemic.
- Doctors are urged to do more testing for syphilis.
- Untreated disease can have long-lasting effects.
CANTON − The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered another public health problem, namely an increase in syphilis.
The number of regional syphilis cases grew from 41 in 2020, to 68 in 2021, to 109 last year, said Diane Thompson, director of nursing for Canton City Public Health.
High-risk behavior such as substance abuse combined with unsafe sex are the two biggest culprits behind the rise in cases.
STDs in Ohio:Gonorrhea and syphilis cases spiking in Canton
According to Ohio Department of Health, syphilis, which is a bacterial infection, increased from 2,442 cases in 2019, to 3,956 in 2021, with 25- to 34-year-olds making up the largest number of cases.
Other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia also are seeing higher numbers since the pandemic. New figures from the U.S
|
. Centers for Disease Control show that syphilis and gonorrhea infections hit an all-time high in 2021.
Post-COVID rise in STI'shttps://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3944195-sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high-in-2021-cdc-finds/
Worrisome rise in congenital syphilis in Ohio
But there's a particularly worrisome rise in congenital syphilis, which is transferred to unborn babies by their mothers. According to preliminary figures, there were three congenital syphilis cases last year.
In response, Canton City Public Health launched a billboard campaign earlier this year to encourage sexually active people to get tested and treated if necessary. The health agency tracks syphilis and HIV cases in eight counties: Carroll, Coshocton, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne.
Thompson said that after the first congenital syphilis case in the region was reported in 2020, Canton issued a statewide health alert via the Ohio Department of Health.
Statewide, the number of syphilis infections in infants to those age 9 jumped from 19 in 2019 to 50 in 2021.
Thompson said a woman who has syphilis prior to getting pregnant can transfer the organism to a fetus once she becomes pregnant.
"And it can occur at any time during pregnancy," she said. "It can happen at a sexual encounter during pregnancy. We've had some high-risk cases where people didn't know they were pregnant because they were deeply into their substance abuse, and so if they don't get prenatal care, obviously testing doesn't get done until they end up in labor and come into the hospital."
Effects of syphilis can be lifelong
The effects for a baby infected with syphilis can be lifelong.
"They could have some chronic medical conditions and have to be cared for throughout their life," Thompson said. "Bone issues, which can cause deformities. It can also cause stillbirth."
Thompson said the health agency has applied for an Innovative STI (sexually transmitted infection) Prevention & Strategies grant from the state.
"We are proposing to partner with the Multi-County Attention Center to do STI testing on their youth," she said. "We're also proposing to do STI testing with our needle exchange participants."
She said another challenge is many people don't know they're infected. One factor for transmission is high-risk individuals, people who have multiple sex partners or who engage in substance abuse.
"We catch some of our adults through blood donations," she said.
Thompson noted that some younger physicians have never seen a syphilis case.
"So, people end up going to the doctor and they get diagnosed with a dermatitis, or they think you're having a reaction to soap," she said.
Thompson said syphilis symptoms for adults occur in stages.
"They will go through a primary stage where a lesion may appear," she said. "And the reason people may not notice a lesion is because it can be in the mouth, it can be in the anal area, in can be inside the vaginal area so they may not see it, and this lesion is not particularly painful."
As the organism continues to attack the body, it goes into a secondary stage, Thompson said.
"The secondary stage is when you see loss of hair. You can see a rash that can be all over the body or on different parts of the body," she said. "What is classic for secondary syphilis is the rash on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet."
Syphilis got Al Capone
Left untreated, syphilis will continue to attack the body for up to 12 months.
"After 12 months, if an adult doesn't get treated for it, that's when the organism lies dormant in the body for years and years and years," Thompson said. "It can travel to the brain and cause lots of damage. That's why Al Capone died."
Was Capone in Canton?:Al Capone and Stark County: Truth, legend or myth?
Thompson said a combination of risky behavior and a lack of testing makes it difficult to get a handle on transmissions.
"Years ago, we had a syphilis problem, but it was men having sex with men," she said. "So, you target that population of individuals and gear your testing in that population. When it's in your heterosexual population, it's very difficult to know how and where to target the message, which is why we've gone to the billboards."
Syphilis in adults and infants are treated with penicillin — the sooner, the better.
"If we can catch them in the first 12 months, it's one dose," she said. "But if we catch them after 12 months, it's three weekly doses. If we diagnosis an adult with neurosyphilis, it's I.V. penicillin for 10 days, and if we diagnose an infant with syphilis, it's also penicillin multiple times throughout the course of the day for 10 days."
Expectant mothers can be treated 30 days prior to delivery.
"But obviously, you have to infectious disease (experts) involved, and a pediatric neonatologist to assess that baby," Thompson said. "If we don't know mom has syphilis and the baby is born and transmission has occurred, mom could potentially present (the baby) to a pediatrician with broken bones because it does impact the bones."
The Canton City Public Health, 420 Market Ave. N, conducts free STI screening clinics from 8:15 to 11:15 a.m. by appointment only. Call 330-489-3322. If appointment slots are available, walk-ins are permitted. For more information visit https://www.cantonhealth.org/nursing/.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or <email-pii>.
On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
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Uisce Éireann has said it is taking advice on whether it needs to warn more than 220,000 consumers that their drinking water contains a level of toxic chemicals called trihalomethanes in excess of that permitted under European Union limits.
The State water authority has been working for several years to eliminate trihalomethanes, known as THMs, from drinking water supplies which were the subject of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) finding against Ireland in recent weeks.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency’s remedial action list now cites water supplies not named in the ECJ case which exceed the European Union’s limit for THMs of 100 microgrammes per litre. THMs can arise when chlorine is added to peaty water as part of the purification process.
Affected supplies include: those serving Limerick city, where 114,764 people are exposed to the toxins: Listowel in Co Kerry, where 14,905 people are exposed; and parts of Kilkenny city, where more than 14,000 people are also exposed. Smaller areas such as Castletownbere, Co Cork, Glenties-Ardara in Co Donegal and Aughrim, Co Wicklow, are also affected.
Under a legal process to transpose the EU Drinking Water Directive into Irish Law in 2014, it was determined that where Uisce Éireann, in consultation with the Health Service Executive, “considers that a supply of water intended for human consumption constitutes a potential danger to human health” those affected should be “informed promptly” and “given the necessary advice” to safely consume water.
In its recent decision against Ireland, the ECJ said: “In the present case, the failure to comply with the parametric value set for THMs constitutes, by definition, a potential danger to human health.”
The ruling would at least appear to oblige Uisce Éireann to notify nearly a quarter of a million people of the risks associated with their supplies. Asked if it intended to do so, the utility company replied: “We are taking the decision under advisement at this time.”
Uisce Éireann said it had made good some 70 schemes named in the original ECJ case and “it is important to assure customers on the remaining [five] schemes that water is safe to drink”.
Uisce Éireann said it took advice from the HSE concerning THMs and drinking water. It said the advice was that the “benefits of using chlorine to treat our drinking water are much greater than any possible health risk from THMs”.
This is also the World Health Organisation position which states that adequate disinfection should never be compromised to control THMs, added Uisce Éireann.
However, Friends of the Irish Environment, which made the original complaint about THMs in drinking water in 2010, said the issue was not about disinfection.
“Nobody wants to stop disinfecting supplies. What is required by the EU Drinking Water Directive is to eliminate the THMs,” said its director Tony Lowes. “People could do this themselves with a €70 charcoal filter, but Uisce Éireann needs to warn consumers about that … There can no longer be any doubt since the ECJ decision, that consumers should be notified.”
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Uisce Éireann has said it is taking advice on whether it needs to warn more than 220,000 consumers that their drinking water contains a level of toxic chemicals called trihalomethanes in excess of that permitted under European Union limits.
The State water authority has been working for several years to eliminate trihalomethanes, known as THMs, from drinking water supplies which were the subject of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) finding against Ireland in recent weeks.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency’s remedial action list now cites water supplies not named in the ECJ case which exceed the European Union’s limit for THMs of 100 microgrammes per litre. THMs can arise when chlorine is added to peaty water as part of the purification process.
Affected supplies include: those serving Limerick city, where 114,764 people are exposed to the toxins: Listowel in Co Kerry, where 14,905 people are exposed; and parts of Kilkenny city, where more than 14,000 people are also exposed. Smaller areas such as Castletownbere, Co Cork, Glenties-Ardara in Co Donegal and Au
|
ghrim, Co Wicklow, are also affected.
Under a legal process to transpose the EU Drinking Water Directive into Irish Law in 2014, it was determined that where Uisce Éireann, in consultation with the Health Service Executive, “considers that a supply of water intended for human consumption constitutes a potential danger to human health” those affected should be “informed promptly” and “given the necessary advice” to safely consume water.
In its recent decision against Ireland, the ECJ said: “In the present case, the failure to comply with the parametric value set for THMs constitutes, by definition, a potential danger to human health.”
The ruling would at least appear to oblige Uisce Éireann to notify nearly a quarter of a million people of the risks associated with their supplies. Asked if it intended to do so, the utility company replied: “We are taking the decision under advisement at this time.”
Uisce Éireann said it had made good some 70 schemes named in the original ECJ case and “it is important to assure customers on the remaining [five] schemes that water is safe to drink”.
Uisce Éireann said it took advice from the HSE concerning THMs and drinking water. It said the advice was that the “benefits of using chlorine to treat our drinking water are much greater than any possible health risk from THMs”.
This is also the World Health Organisation position which states that adequate disinfection should never be compromised to control THMs, added Uisce Éireann.
However, Friends of the Irish Environment, which made the original complaint about THMs in drinking water in 2010, said the issue was not about disinfection.
“Nobody wants to stop disinfecting supplies. What is required by the EU Drinking Water Directive is to eliminate the THMs,” said its director Tony Lowes. “People could do this themselves with a €70 charcoal filter, but Uisce Éireann needs to warn consumers about that … There can no longer be any doubt since the ECJ decision, that consumers should be notified.”
|
Climate change turns up the heat in Tampa Bay
Climate change hit Tampa Bay hard this summer.
Driving the news: Sarasota experienced 66 days with temperatures notably influenced by human-caused climate change in 2023, per a new Climate Central analysis.
- That's 73% of the season's 91 days. Tampa had 60, meaning 66% of its summer.
Why it matters: Florida is used to heat. But a future full of extreme heat means places like Tampa Bay have to think about how to adjust living conditions.
- Without the influence of carbon pollution, the extreme heat felt by millions in Florida would have been highly unlikely, research by the nonprofit shows.
What they're saying: Andrew Pershing, the nonprofit's director of climate science, tells Axios that carbon emissions are on track to only make things worse, and the effects will keep worsening unless global carbon emissions get down to zero.
- "Streaks of unusually warm days are much more likely," Pershing said. "We need to think about how we design our cities and adapt our lifestyles to a world that has more heat like that."
Zoom in: The eastern coast of the sunbelt — from south Texas to southeast Florida — felt the biggest impact, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports.
- The three U.S. cities with the most hot summer days driven by climate change are San Juan, Puerto Rico (90 days); Victoria, Texas (80) and Lafayette, Louisiana (74).
The big picture: Climate Central published a similar global analysis last week that found nearly half the world's population experienced temperatures made more likely by global warming this summer.
- Meanwhile, Earth just experienced what was likely its hottest summer on record, with a global average surface temperature about 0.65°C (1.17°F) above the 1991-2020 average for June through August.
What we're watching: The city of Tampa released a Climate Action and Equity Plan over the summer with the goal of reducing carbon emissions, building climate-ready infrastructure and supporting "all people along the way."
More Tampa Bay stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Tampa Bay.
|
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Climate change turns up the heat in Tampa Bay
Climate change hit Tampa Bay hard this summer.
Driving the news: Sarasota experienced 66 days with temperatures notably influenced by human-caused climate change in 2023, per a new Climate Central analysis.
- That's 73% of the season's 91 days. Tampa had 60, meaning 66% of its summer.
Why it matters: Florida is used to heat. But a future full of extreme heat means places like Tampa Bay have to think about how to adjust living conditions.
- Without the influence of carbon pollution, the extreme heat felt by millions in Florida would have been highly unlikely, research by the nonprofit shows.
What they're saying: Andrew Pershing, the nonprofit's director of climate science, tells Axios that carbon emissions are on track to only make things worse, and the effects will keep worsening unless global carbon emissions get down to zero.
- "Streaks of unusually warm days are much more likely," Pershing said. "We need to think about how we design our cities and adapt our lifestyles to a world that has more heat like that."
Zoom in: The eastern coast of the sunbelt — from south Texas to
|
southeast Florida — felt the biggest impact, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports.
- The three U.S. cities with the most hot summer days driven by climate change are San Juan, Puerto Rico (90 days); Victoria, Texas (80) and Lafayette, Louisiana (74).
The big picture: Climate Central published a similar global analysis last week that found nearly half the world's population experienced temperatures made more likely by global warming this summer.
- Meanwhile, Earth just experienced what was likely its hottest summer on record, with a global average surface temperature about 0.65°C (1.17°F) above the 1991-2020 average for June through August.
What we're watching: The city of Tampa released a Climate Action and Equity Plan over the summer with the goal of reducing carbon emissions, building climate-ready infrastructure and supporting "all people along the way."
More Tampa Bay stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Tampa Bay.
|
Prescribed burn season underway in Nebraska, surrounding states
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - Officials say prescribed burns throughout the next few months may impact air quality in Nebraska.
According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, prescribed burning season has begun in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and other states.
Prescribed burns are done to conserve and manage areas like grasslands, woodlands and wetlands.
“This practice can reduce hazardous fuel loads, restore and preserve natural wildlife habitats, provide better forage for cattle, and control invasive plant species,” the Nebraska DHHS said in a statement. “Prescribed burning minimizes the risk of wildfires and is effective in managing rangeland resources.”
Although the burns can provide long-term benefits for the environment, the smoke can impact air quality temporarily. Potential wildfires throughout the year can also impact air quality. The DHHS says the air may only be impacted for only a few hours during a prescribed burn, but wildfire smoke can impact air quality for multiple days.
In 2018 the DHHS announced the development of the public smoke advisory system. Smoke advisories are issued when smoke from planned burns or wildfires negatively impacts air quality. The advisories inform residents in affected areas of what they should do to protect themselves during times when the air quality is negatively impacted.
Smoke advisories are developed in coordination with the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, the DHHS, local health departments and other sources in the region.
One region that often has prescribed burns is the Flint Hills rangeland in Kansas and Oklahoma. In a typical year, roughly 2.4 million acres are burned in the Flint Hills. Last year, some areas of Nebraska were impacted by the smoke from these burns.
In 2022, Nebraska saw nearly 2.1 million acres burned and there were eight days when the air quality was considered “moderate” on the index scale.
The DHHS says smoke from prescribed burns and wildfires can cause several negative health effects, especially for those with pre-existing conditions. Smoke can cause burning eyes, runny nose, coughing and illnesses such as bronchitis. The DHHS recommends Nebraska residents follow some advice when the air quality is poor:
- Keep doors and windows closed and run air conditioners with HEPA filters.
- Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
- Limit or avoid strenuous outdoor exercise.
- People with respiratory or heart-related illnesses should remain indoors.
- Contact your doctor if you have symptoms such as chest pain, chest tightness, shortness of breath, or severe fatigue.
Current air quality in Nebraska can be checked online through AirNow, a tool that uses the Air Quality Index.
Copyright 2023 WOWT. All rights reserved.
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Prescribed burn season underway in Nebraska, surrounding states
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - Officials say prescribed burns throughout the next few months may impact air quality in Nebraska.
According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, prescribed burning season has begun in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and other states.
Prescribed burns are done to conserve and manage areas like grasslands, woodlands and wetlands.
“This practice can reduce hazardous fuel loads, restore and preserve natural wildlife habitats, provide better forage for cattle, and control invasive plant species,” the Nebraska DHHS said in a statement. “Prescribed burning minimizes the risk of wildfires and is effective in managing rangeland resources.”
Although the burns can provide long-term benefits for the environment, the smoke can impact air quality temporarily. Potential wildfires throughout the year can also impact air quality. The DHHS says the air may only be impacted for only a few hours during a prescribed burn, but wildfire smoke can impact air quality for multiple days.
In 2018 the DHHS announced the development of the public smoke advisory system. Smoke advisories are issued when smoke from planned burns or wildfires negatively impacts air quality. The advisories inform residents in affected areas of what
|
they should do to protect themselves during times when the air quality is negatively impacted.
Smoke advisories are developed in coordination with the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, the DHHS, local health departments and other sources in the region.
One region that often has prescribed burns is the Flint Hills rangeland in Kansas and Oklahoma. In a typical year, roughly 2.4 million acres are burned in the Flint Hills. Last year, some areas of Nebraska were impacted by the smoke from these burns.
In 2022, Nebraska saw nearly 2.1 million acres burned and there were eight days when the air quality was considered “moderate” on the index scale.
The DHHS says smoke from prescribed burns and wildfires can cause several negative health effects, especially for those with pre-existing conditions. Smoke can cause burning eyes, runny nose, coughing and illnesses such as bronchitis. The DHHS recommends Nebraska residents follow some advice when the air quality is poor:
- Keep doors and windows closed and run air conditioners with HEPA filters.
- Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
- Limit or avoid strenuous outdoor exercise.
- People with respiratory or heart-related illnesses should remain indoors.
- Contact your doctor if you have symptoms such as chest pain, chest tightness, shortness of breath, or severe fatigue.
Current air quality in Nebraska can be checked online through AirNow, a tool that uses the Air Quality Index.
Copyright 2023 WOWT. All rights reserved.
|
Extreme heat is far deadlier than other natural disasters, killing on average more than twice as many people each year as hurricanes and tornadoes combined, according to data tracked by the National Weather Service.
Despite this, heat isn’t on the list of disasters eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because it’s nowhere in the Stafford Act – the federal law that gives FEMA the power to respond to emergencies and determines what qualifies as one.
As President Joe Biden travels West this week to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ landmark climate law, and tout his climate agenda, temperatures in the Southwest are still topping out above 100 degrees. Phoenix clocked its 44th consecutive day over 105 degrees on Monday, and the extreme heat has wilted the Southwest’s iconic saguaro cactuses and given third-degree burns to people who fell on the sidewalk.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego recently told Biden the city’s extreme heat is a “long-term emergency.” But it can’t get FEMA federal assistance unless Congress amends the Stafford Act – something some Western lawmakers are pushing for.
“We essentially just don’t have the governance structures in place to deal with heat” in the same way we deal with wildfires and hurricanes, University of Arizona professor and heat response expert Ladd Keith told CNN. “Heat is literally the fingerprint of climate change, but it’s the last part of climate we’ve begun to address at the national, state and local level.”
FEMA isn’t ignoring extreme heat; the agency has programs to raise heat awareness and has emergency preparedness funding that can go towards helping mitigate heat. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell recently told the Washington Post that the agency has a role to play in giving communities funding to set up new cooling centers or ensure power infrastructure won’t fail during high temperatures.
“Just because we don’t necessarily have the authorities right now in the Stafford Act, that doesn’t mean we’re sitting idly by,” Criswell said.
But the agency’s full power and resources that are set in motion when presidents declare disasters don’t apply during a heatwave – no matter how long it lasts.
“Right now, FEMA doesn’t treat extreme heat in the same way as it does other disasters because it can’t,” Juanita Constible, senior climate and health advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CNN.
Gallego told CNN on Tuesday that adding heat to the Stafford Act would enable Phoenix and other communities to unlock far more federal resources to help cool people and protect the electric grid when extreme heat refuses to quit. For instance, it could enable the federal government to bring in more mobile cooling units, she said.
“We only have so many of them and if the fed government had a critical mass of those units they could bring them wherever they are and really help communities,” Gallego said. “We know that climate change is a reality for the entire country. We’ve seen communities from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest lose hundreds of people during heatwaves.”
There is currently a bipartisan bill – led by Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona – to add extreme heat to the Stafford Act. But the legislation hasn’t gotten far in Congress.
Rep. Gallego said in a statement he had spoken to Biden during the president’s visit to Arizona on Monday night “about the need for FEMA to declare extreme heat a disaster.”
Heat is a “largely invisible threat,” Keith said, but Congress adding it to the Stafford Act could be a tremendous boost to state and federal efforts to combat its effects. For instance, if power goes out in a community that is sweltering in a heatwave, federal officials could more easily step in to provide cooling, Keith said.
“Adding it to that official list from Congress would clarify FEMA’s role in addressing heat,” Keith said.
But Constible told CNN that despite FEMA’s vast federal resources, it actually might not be the best agency to respond to extreme heat. For one thing, heat is a “creeping disaster;” unlike a hurricane or tornado, it lingers, instead of rolling in and out of a place quickly. And heat takes a toll on humans more than it does on infrastructure.
“Disasters tend to be defined in terms of property damage,” Constible said. “Very expensive things get broken and that’s when a disaster gets declared. But heat is more of a health problem.”
|
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Extreme heat is far deadlier than other natural disasters, killing on average more than twice as many people each year as hurricanes and tornadoes combined, according to data tracked by the National Weather Service.
Despite this, heat isn’t on the list of disasters eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because it’s nowhere in the Stafford Act – the federal law that gives FEMA the power to respond to emergencies and determines what qualifies as one.
As President Joe Biden travels West this week to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ landmark climate law, and tout his climate agenda, temperatures in the Southwest are still topping out above 100 degrees. Phoenix clocked its 44th consecutive day over 105 degrees on Monday, and the extreme heat has wilted the Southwest’s iconic saguaro cactuses and given third-degree burns to people who fell on the sidewalk.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego recently told Biden the city’s extreme heat is a “long-term emergency.” But it can’t get FEMA federal assistance unless Congress amends the Stafford Act – something some Western lawmakers are pushing for.
“We essentially just don’t have the governance structures in place to deal with heat” in the same way we deal with
|
wildfires and hurricanes, University of Arizona professor and heat response expert Ladd Keith told CNN. “Heat is literally the fingerprint of climate change, but it’s the last part of climate we’ve begun to address at the national, state and local level.”
FEMA isn’t ignoring extreme heat; the agency has programs to raise heat awareness and has emergency preparedness funding that can go towards helping mitigate heat. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell recently told the Washington Post that the agency has a role to play in giving communities funding to set up new cooling centers or ensure power infrastructure won’t fail during high temperatures.
“Just because we don’t necessarily have the authorities right now in the Stafford Act, that doesn’t mean we’re sitting idly by,” Criswell said.
But the agency’s full power and resources that are set in motion when presidents declare disasters don’t apply during a heatwave – no matter how long it lasts.
“Right now, FEMA doesn’t treat extreme heat in the same way as it does other disasters because it can’t,” Juanita Constible, senior climate and health advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CNN.
Gallego told CNN on Tuesday that adding heat to the Stafford Act would enable Phoenix and other communities to unlock far more federal resources to help cool people and protect the electric grid when extreme heat refuses to quit. For instance, it could enable the federal government to bring in more mobile cooling units, she said.
“We only have so many of them and if the fed government had a critical mass of those units they could bring them wherever they are and really help communities,” Gallego said. “We know that climate change is a reality for the entire country. We’ve seen communities from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest lose hundreds of people during heatwaves.”
There is currently a bipartisan bill – led by Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona – to add extreme heat to the Stafford Act. But the legislation hasn’t gotten far in Congress.
Rep. Gallego said in a statement he had spoken to Biden during the president’s visit to Arizona on Monday night “about the need for FEMA to declare extreme heat a disaster.”
Heat is a “largely invisible threat,” Keith said, but Congress adding it to the Stafford Act could be a tremendous boost to state and federal efforts to combat its effects. For instance, if power goes out in a community that is sweltering in a heatwave, federal officials could more easily step in to provide cooling, Keith said.
“Adding it to that official list from Congress would clarify FEMA’s role in addressing heat,” Keith said.
But Constible told CNN that despite FEMA’s vast federal resources, it actually might not be the best agency to respond to extreme heat. For one thing, heat is a “creeping disaster;” unlike a hurricane or tornado, it lingers, instead of rolling in and out of a place quickly. And heat takes a toll on humans more than it does on infrastructure.
“Disasters tend to be defined in terms of property damage,” Constible said. “Very expensive things get broken and that’s when a disaster gets declared. But heat is more of a health problem.”
|
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last year became the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court, said the country must confront “uncomfortable lessons” from its long history of racial violence and discrimination.
(Bloomberg) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last year became the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court, said the country must confront “uncomfortable lessons” from its long history of racial violence and discrimination.
“If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history,” Jackson said at a memorial service commemorating four Black girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. “We cannot forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves.”
Jackson’s remarks come amid debate over how schools teach children about US history, including the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Florida has been a particular flashpoint, with Governor Ron DeSantis defending new standards that limit how teachers can talk about racism.
The bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church by Ku Klux Klan members was one of the nation’s notorious acts of racist violence. It fueled outrage that helped lead to enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Jackson suggested the country is still dealing with the type of violence, hatred and prejudice she said led to the bombing six decades ago.
“Can we really say that we are not confronting those same evils now?” she said. “We have to own even the darkest parts of our past, understand them and vow never to repeat them.”
Jackson in June issued a strongly worded dissent as the court abolished the use of race as a factor in university admissions. She wrote that the majority opinion ignored “the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
|
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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last year became the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court, said the country must confront “uncomfortable lessons” from its long history of racial violence and discrimination.
(Bloomberg) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last year became the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court, said the country must confront “uncomfortable lessons” from its long history of racial violence and discrimination.
“If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history,” Jackson said at a memorial service commemorating four Black girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. “We cannot forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves.”
Jackson’s remarks come amid debate over how schools teach children about US history, including the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Florida has been a particular flashpoint, with Governor Ron DeSantis defending new standards that limit how teachers can talk about racism.
The bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church by Ku Klux Klan members was one of the nation’s notorious acts of racist violence
|
. It fueled outrage that helped lead to enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Jackson suggested the country is still dealing with the type of violence, hatred and prejudice she said led to the bombing six decades ago.
“Can we really say that we are not confronting those same evils now?” she said. “We have to own even the darkest parts of our past, understand them and vow never to repeat them.”
Jackson in June issued a strongly worded dissent as the court abolished the use of race as a factor in university admissions. She wrote that the majority opinion ignored “the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
|
After years of relative economic prosperity and hope for the future, Peru has been shaken by months of social unrest and political instability that seem to have no end.
Thousands of protesters continue to take the streets in Lima and in the south of the country, particularly in Puno where citizens are outraged by decades of marginalization, inequality, allegations of corruption, and stagnating living standards.
Peru’s latest protest wave has seen at least 66 people killed, in a brutal series of deaths that highlight the country’s deep divisions dating back to colonial times.
Although there have been protests across the country, the vast majority of deaths were among demonstrators in southern Peru, where indigenous Aymara and Quechua people maintain their own languages and cultural traditions, as well as a sense of separation from people in urban areas of coastal Peru, particularly the capital city, Lima.
And while security forces’ crackdown on the protest movement has reopened centuries-old wounds in the country’s multicultural society, the government’s response to the ongoing protests has only exacerbated the pain among those from rural areas.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Oscar Becerra criticized Aymara women for taking their children to a protest in Lima, where police used tear gas against them.
“Not even animals would expose their children (like this). …Can they be called mothers if they expose their children to that violence?” said Becerra, who went on to suggest that the women may have “rented” the children to use for “political gain.”
Becerra later apologized. “I want to tell you that if any statement of mine has been misunderstood, I offer my sincere apologies,” he said.
In a letter published Tuesday, the country’s Ombudsman said that Becerra’s comments serve to “increase confrontation among Peruvians.”
Peru’s center and periphery
Since the days when Peru was a Spanish colony, the country’s wealth and political power have been centered in Lima. By contrast, vast swaths of the mountainous central and southern regions, as well as the vast Amazon region, remain isolated and underdeveloped.
Poor healthcare, education and transportation infrastructure have encouraged many residents from those areas to migrate to Lima in recent decades, where they often struggle to be accepted. Those who remain in Peru’s more rural areas have grown increasingly frustrated with a lack of development even during periods of strong economic growth for the country.
The southern Puno region is a microcosm of the issues facing rural Peru.
More than 70% of children there under three years old suffer from anemia, a condition associated with a poor diet, and around a quarter of the population does not have access to running water at home.
The region has been one of the most forgotten regions of Peru, with Lima politicians calculating that a small population and lack of political organization meant they didn’t have to worry about responding to their needs, according to Omar Coronel, a sociology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
The December ouster of President Pedro Castillo, who was accused of corruption and then impeached by lawmakers after an attempted self-coup and later arrested, extinguished hopes in Puno that things might finally change for the better under a president who had positioned himself as a champion for Peru’s most marginalized.
Access to healthcare in rural Peru has long been a sore point – the country suffered the worst death toll per capita from Covid-19 in the world – and its repercussions were felt acutely in the aftermath of protests in the Puno region.
Julia Paccsi, a 42-year-old mother of three, says she was injured by a bullet to the neck fired by security forces as she went to help injured protesters outside her house in Juliaca, the largest city in the Puno region, on January 7.
Paccsi didn’t immediately go to hospital out of fear of being taken for a protester and arrested, but when she did finally go a few days later she was told there were no doctors in the city who could treat her.
“In the hospital they didn’t treat me because they told me that there aren’t neck and head specialists,” she said through tears. “We don’t have head and neck specialists here.”
Paccsi had no option but to travel to Lima for surgery and is still waiting for a second procedure.
The father of another victim, a 17-year-old girl who was shot and killed near protests at Juliaca’s airport on January 9, believes that his daughter could have survived if there were better medical services in the region.
“There aren’t any ambulances, there aren’t good doctors that can help people that are injured,” said Demetrio Aroquipa.
“That day we went out together with my daughter, my other daughter and my wife to the market,” he said. “Four of us left, but only three and a coffin came back. She was a psychology student, a responsible girl. My daughter lost her life when a bullet hit her. I want justice.”
In February, human rights group Amnesty International released a report ascribing the violence of the Peruvian state’s response to “systemic racism ingrained in Peruvian society and its authorities for decades,” according to the organization’s regional director Erika Guevara-Rosas.
“Dozens of people told Amnesty International they felt that the authorities treated them like animals and not human beings,” Guevara-Rosas added.
Peru’s government has denied “systemic racism” and reiterated its support for the ongoing investigations for the deaths and injured during the protests, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
Rubbing salt into old wounds
One of the protesters’ demands is the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, who has been in office just three months.
She angered many in Puno in January when she blamed unsuccessful talks with representatives from the region for the failure of attempts to stop the protests.
“We have to protect the life and tranquility of 33 million Peruvians. Puno is not Peru,” she added.
Boluarte was forced to apologize a day later, and a statement from her office said her words had been misinterpreted.
But for many it was too late.
“They say we aren’t from Peru, but Puno is Peru,” Aroquipa told reporters in Lima – a common response among protesters from the region.
“We have the same blood but sadly you always marginalize us,” said Armando Halire, a lawyer who represents the families of demonstrators killed and injured in Puno, while speaking to journalists in Lima in February.
He went on to list various terms still used in Peru to discriminate against those from the rural Andean regions for their supposed ignorance, or to mark them out from those of mixed Spanish descent – including “cholo,” commonly used to denigrate people from the Andes or from Andean origin.
To argue that Puno is not part of Peru is painful for those in the country’s most marginalized region after years of difficulty accessing basic public services, Coronel told CNN.
“Symbolically it hurts citizens who feel they have an Aymara and Quechua identity, but they also feel part of Peru,” said Coronel referring to these ethnic groups.
And as protesters demonstrate against their treatment by the government, the issue of language has come to epitomize the divisions between Lima and Peru’s marginalized regions.
“We have a country where many prosecutor’s offices, the public prosecutor, of state institutions don’t have people that can speak Aymara, that can speak Quechua, that can speak the other almost 50 ancestral languages that we have in the country, which makes people feel alienated from the state,” said Coronel. Both Aymara and Quechua are official state languages in Peru along with Spanish.
Successive Peruvian governments have proven unwilling or unable to make the state more inclusive toward marginalized groups in the country. And they have been particularly uninterested in Puno, according to Coronel.
“The unique thing about Puno is this more historic exclusion that the executive branch and other actors haven’t wanted to get involved in,” he said.
One recent attempt to bring non-Spanish languages like those spoken in Puno into the heart of government ended in controversy. In August 2021, then-Prime Minister Guido Bellido started to address Peru’s congress in Quechua, but members of the opposition started shouting for him to speak in Spanish because they couldn’t understand.
Bellido’s response at the time summed up the feeling of many in Peru’s south: if the country were truly multicultural, he said, why wasn’t there an interpreter on hand to help those who don’t speak one of Peru’s official languages?
Protesters from Puno are still filling the streets of the capital, and Coronel fears that Boluarte’s “authoritarian” response has now reduced the chances for dialogue: “In Puno, you see signs which ask: ‘Limeño (those born in Lima), would you negotiate with the person that killed your mother? With the person who killed your children?”
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After years of relative economic prosperity and hope for the future, Peru has been shaken by months of social unrest and political instability that seem to have no end.
Thousands of protesters continue to take the streets in Lima and in the south of the country, particularly in Puno where citizens are outraged by decades of marginalization, inequality, allegations of corruption, and stagnating living standards.
Peru’s latest protest wave has seen at least 66 people killed, in a brutal series of deaths that highlight the country’s deep divisions dating back to colonial times.
Although there have been protests across the country, the vast majority of deaths were among demonstrators in southern Peru, where indigenous Aymara and Quechua people maintain their own languages and cultural traditions, as well as a sense of separation from people in urban areas of coastal Peru, particularly the capital city, Lima.
And while security forces’ crackdown on the protest movement has reopened centuries-old wounds in the country’s multicultural society, the government’s response to the ongoing protests has only exacerbated the pain among those from rural areas.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Oscar Becerra criticized Aymara women for taking their children to a protest in Lima, where police used tear gas against them.
“Not even animals would expose their
|
children (like this). …Can they be called mothers if they expose their children to that violence?” said Becerra, who went on to suggest that the women may have “rented” the children to use for “political gain.”
Becerra later apologized. “I want to tell you that if any statement of mine has been misunderstood, I offer my sincere apologies,” he said.
In a letter published Tuesday, the country’s Ombudsman said that Becerra’s comments serve to “increase confrontation among Peruvians.”
Peru’s center and periphery
Since the days when Peru was a Spanish colony, the country’s wealth and political power have been centered in Lima. By contrast, vast swaths of the mountainous central and southern regions, as well as the vast Amazon region, remain isolated and underdeveloped.
Poor healthcare, education and transportation infrastructure have encouraged many residents from those areas to migrate to Lima in recent decades, where they often struggle to be accepted. Those who remain in Peru’s more rural areas have grown increasingly frustrated with a lack of development even during periods of strong economic growth for the country.
The southern Puno region is a microcosm of the issues facing rural Peru.
More than 70% of children there under three years old suffer from anemia, a condition associated with a poor diet, and around a quarter of the population does not have access to running water at home.
The region has been one of the most forgotten regions of Peru, with Lima politicians calculating that a small population and lack of political organization meant they didn’t have to worry about responding to their needs, according to Omar Coronel, a sociology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
The December ouster of President Pedro Castillo, who was accused of corruption and then impeached by lawmakers after an attempted self-coup and later arrested, extinguished hopes in Puno that things might finally change for the better under a president who had positioned himself as a champion for Peru’s most marginalized.
Access to healthcare in rural Peru has long been a sore point – the country suffered the worst death toll per capita from Covid-19 in the world – and its repercussions were felt acutely in the aftermath of protests in the Puno region.
Julia Paccsi, a 42-year-old mother of three, says she was injured by a bullet to the neck fired by security forces as she went to help injured protesters outside her house in Juliaca, the largest city in the Puno region, on January 7.
Paccsi didn’t immediately go to hospital out of fear of being taken for a protester and arrested, but when she did finally go a few days later she was told there were no doctors in the city who could treat her.
“In the hospital they didn’t treat me because they told me that there aren’t neck and head specialists,” she said through tears. “We don’t have head and neck specialists here.”
Paccsi had no option but to travel to Lima for surgery and is still waiting for a second procedure.
The father of another victim, a 17-year-old girl who was shot and killed near protests at Juliaca’s airport on January 9, believes that his daughter could have survived if there were better medical services in the region.
“There aren’t any ambulances, there aren’t good doctors that can help people that are injured,” said Demetrio Aroquipa.
“That day we went out together with my daughter, my other daughter and my wife to the market,” he said. “Four of us left, but only three and a coffin came back. She was a psychology student, a responsible girl. My daughter lost her life when a bullet hit her. I want justice.”
In February, human rights group Amnesty International released a report ascribing the violence of the Peruvian state’s response to “systemic racism ingrained in Peruvian society and its authorities for decades,” according to the organization’s regional director Erika Guevara-Rosas.
“Dozens of people told Amnesty International they felt that the authorities treated them like animals and not human beings,” Guevara-Rosas added.
Peru’s government has denied “systemic racism” and reiterated its support for the ongoing investigations for the deaths and injured during the protests, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
Rubbing salt into old wounds
One of the protesters’ demands is the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, who has been in office just three months.
She angered many in Puno in January when she blamed unsuccessful talks with representatives from the region for the failure of attempts to stop the protests.
“We have to protect the life and tranquility of 33 million Peruvians. Puno is not Peru,” she added.
Boluarte was forced to apologize a day later, and a statement from her office said her words had been misinterpreted.
But for many it was too late.
“They say we aren’t from Peru, but Puno is Peru,” Aroquipa told reporters in Lima – a common response among protesters from the region.
“We have the same blood but sadly you always marginalize us,” said Armando Halire, a lawyer who represents the families of demonstrators killed and injured in Puno, while speaking to journalists in Lima in February.
He went on to list various terms still used in Peru to discriminate against those from the rural Andean regions for their supposed ignorance, or to mark them out from those of mixed Spanish descent – including “cholo,” commonly used to denigrate people from the Andes or from Andean origin.
To argue that Puno is not part of Peru is painful for those in the country’s most marginalized region after years of difficulty accessing basic public services, Coronel told CNN.
“Symbolically it hurts citizens who feel they have an Aymara and Quechua identity, but they also feel part of Peru,” said Coronel referring to these ethnic groups.
And as protesters demonstrate against their treatment by the government, the issue of language has come to epitomize the divisions between Lima and Peru’s marginalized regions.
“We have a country where many prosecutor’s offices, the public prosecutor, of state institutions don’t have people that can speak Aymara, that can speak Quechua, that can speak the other almost 50 ancestral languages that we have in the country, which makes people feel alienated from the state,” said Coronel. Both Aymara and Quechua are official state languages in Peru along with Spanish.
Successive Peruvian governments have proven unwilling or unable to make the state more inclusive toward marginalized groups in the country. And they have been particularly uninterested in Puno, according to Coronel.
“The unique thing about Puno is this more historic exclusion that the executive branch and other actors haven’t wanted to get involved in,” he said.
One recent attempt to bring non-Spanish languages like those spoken in Puno into the heart of government ended in controversy. In August 2021, then-Prime Minister Guido Bellido started to address Peru’s congress in Quechua, but members of the opposition started shouting for him to speak in Spanish because they couldn’t understand.
Bellido’s response at the time summed up the feeling of many in Peru’s south: if the country were truly multicultural, he said, why wasn’t there an interpreter on hand to help those who don’t speak one of Peru’s official languages?
Protesters from Puno are still filling the streets of the capital, and Coronel fears that Boluarte’s “authoritarian” response has now reduced the chances for dialogue: “In Puno, you see signs which ask: ‘Limeño (those born in Lima), would you negotiate with the person that killed your mother? With the person who killed your children?”
|
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