Tumgik
#so in a post-covid future where i can travel freely
arsonforcharlie · 3 years
Text
listen champs i know i have the right to talk about my problems but........ like what if i don’t tho
#my family is pretty good on the whole!#but boy howdy have i realized over the past decade or so that how shit i feel after the holidays#correlates directly with how much christmas shit i had to do#my ideal christmas is like one small dinner and maybe a tibb's eve thing#but otherwise just doing whatever i want to do#and my whole family does the Multi Week Obligation Of Dinners Every Night#Every Song Played This Month Has To Be Festive#the entire Christmas Season thing#and it poisons the traditions i do like#because i'm too exhausted to enjoy them#and when i do go home there's no way to say 'yeah i am in town but i don't want to go'#so in a post-covid future where i can travel freely#i would rather stay here for christmas and then travel back to see family some other time of year#when flights are cheaper and everyone at work isn't fighting for the same four days off#maybe see the relatives i choose and actually dedicate time to them#instead of them being stuck in the kitchen taking care of making the evening happen#while i make awkward conversation with my grandma's husband's son's wife#who i have not thought about since i saw her two years ago and i can ensure the feeling is mutual#like i am not even rolling up like 'i don't celebrate christmas' as much as 'i would like to celebrate christmas LESS'#(this feeling has only strengthened since so many of the people who mean so much to me do not live Back Home)#and i know it is foolish to complain about this especially since i do have an easy out#i can just go home when i want to go home#and if i need to spin it as not being able to get the time off#but still jeez may i just Rest
16 notes · View notes
amythecinnabunny · 3 years
Note
Space AU and Time Travel for Juke 👀 <33
Holy shit holy shit holy shit ok ok ok ok first of all AKDBJSJSJJEJE YES
Okay okay so let me try to iron out the mess in my head skxbjsjjd I hereby apologize if things get out of order or whatever but I am literally vibrating with excitement someone please write this I'll love you forever
Ok so I'm thinking also an aged up au for ✧・゚: *✧・゚:* reasons *:・゚✧*:・゚✧ sjsnnsn
Also, I've done this before and I'm gonna do it again, but Bobby and Trevor are two different people for the sake of the timeline here.
Time frame for this would be WAY into the future. Humanity has gone galactic. We also had our asses handed to us by several alien planets but we probably deserved it. Anyway, after we got rid of Elon Musk, we eventually made peace with the aliens and now roam the galaxy freely. 20-30yo generally try to get into a different fleet, just to learn about other races. Think all those alien ships adopts a human posts.
Julie, Carrie and Flynn are my three girl geniuses. They're like,,, the smartest people in every room. They've been like this since freshman year of college. Julie, Carrie and Flynn also all want to get into the student exchange program, which is exactly what you think it is. Alien races (and this now includes humanity) swaps out older students with each other so they get a feel of what the other race is like. It's fun, educational, and! You get to make super long distance pen pals!
I'd also have so much fun making up new memes???? It would be so fucking stupid tho but I love it.
Anyway, so after a few years of jumping through the exchange programme, hoping from planet to planet, unfortunately, without their bestfriends :<, the three of them qualify to board research ships!!!
So at like 23-25, my girls come back together on the same ship!! Its a massive thing and so they've hired so many interns from so many different races. It's like a landing hub for several smaller ships. They have like 10 interns per species and that's only because there are laws against having too many of one kind after they put 50 humans on a space station and the humans tried to take over. Also, humans multiply faster than the others. This terrifies some races.
Anyway, the ship's really just a bunch of college kids from different planets trying to avoid exam season by submitting research papers from their ship. They all bond over deadlines, breakups and coffee (or the alien equivalent thereof)
Flynn dated an alien girl for a while. They were cute. Flynn: as a lesbian, it's my duty to date all the women in space
This is also where they run into Willie!!! Yay, Willie!!!
Nick Danforth-Evans and Kayla Evans-McKessie are around ... somewhere ... in bunk beds like the little toddlers they wish they were, crying about the 15 page essay on why Xjsbsjdjd is a very intelligent race that we could learn a lot from (yes, that is a keysmash I'm too buzzed to be creating alien species names sjdjjdjd)
Carrie and Nick do date for a while but then Carrie hooked up with Kayla. Bisexual queen who?
Julie met Willie that time she didn't sleep for over 48 hours because she had a research paper due within a week and she hadn't started yet and it was 10 000 words on her experiences with the Psjxjjdkeiwj race. Luckily for her, the kid she bumped into and spilled an energy drink all over had the same paper and helped her finish it. Willie sometimes goes by the nickname Lifesaver, thanks to Julie. This confuses the metaphor-less people because Willie's never saved anyone's life?? So why is he a lifesaver??
ANYWAY ON TO THE TIME TRAVEL BIT
On their own, Julie, Carrie and Flynn are professional smart people who know what they're saying and are clever enough not to do things with too many risks. In the same room, however, they turn into dumb geniuses who can and possibly may blow up the entire ship. It's a good thing they have Willie, Nick and Kayla to babysit them, right? WRONG. Willie Kayla and Nick egg them on.
They decide there going to gather all the information there is on time travel and they're going to decipher it and make it work! Yay!
When they find stuff in alien languages they start calling up their alien pen pals "hello what's this word mean in this context? What, haha oh no, it's a research paper on why time travel projects were abandoned before completion. Okay, thank you!"
Before long, they have a working time machine. I mean,, they hope so. And so they enter a random date from the past and prepare to pop their heads through just to see what the world looked like approximately 200ish years ago
2020s, post covid because that exists for joke reasons later, Sunset Curve is performing live for one of their biggest audiences yet when mid-song, the floor just opens them up and swallows them whole before vanishing. The crowd things it's a stunt but Sunset Curve's managers are flipping their shit
Back on the ship, the machine starts sparking and with a soft boom and a hiss, the power in that quadrant goes out -- not before Willie's is pelted in the face with a pair of drumsticks and then a whole person.
It's a miracle the drums survived the trip, pet alone everything else.
So now these sleep deprived geniuses and co. have to hide three people and several musical artifacts, plus the smoking remains of a time machine, from their Supervising Officer, who is regrettably, a human too.
And none of them are very good at lying.
Luke and Bobby are though, and after piecing together bits and pieces from the frenzied rambling around them, Luke and Bobby save the group.
Shenanigans ensue as they try to rebuild the time machine under the watchful eye of the SO, while trying to mantainbfake credentials for the boys and trying to explain their very dated clothing. (Yes, Sunset Curve STILL rocks the 90s vibe. In the 2020s. It's their thing.)
Willex happens in the background -- and I mean that very literally. (Jukebox having a tension moment, Willex making out in the background.)
Honestly I'm not sure yet how theyd solve the problems, whether they'd send the boys back or not or what, but I do know that they will all cause a BUNCH of problems in between.
Sometimes they play music just because they still can. Sunset Curve becomes a house band for the ship. They get broadcasted to neighbouring or passing ships like "hey, losers, we have live music, SUCK IT!"
Focusing on the jukebox aspect of this whole fic, that's gonna be a fucking hilarious slow burn.
It will definitely contain the lines "Oh my god, I have a crush on Julie." "Congratulations, you're officially the last to know." "What? Even [SO's Name] knows??" "Dude. The ship's navigation crew knows." "Does ... Julie know?" "No, you're both morons."
Julie is having the exact same conversation four hallways away.
They'd talk a lot about sending the boys back home and it'd be really quiet conversations when everyone else is asleep.
Julie and Luke write music together and after a while, Julie performs a few of them too. Thanks to the concerts, they meet the other human interns that were on the other end of the ship and Carrie and Kayla form Dirty Candy.
The ship becomes known as the party bus.
A thing that will happen: Luke helps Julie write one of her history papers that she gets an A+ for and a comment about how dedicated she was to have delved so far back in the history records to get authentic insight.
Julie and Luke speak in memes but they don't speak the same memes and it drives them both up the wall.
Luke says yeet one day and Julie's soul leaves her body because she hasn't heard anyone say yeet since she was a toddler back on Earth.
Julie: odd display, but acceptable.
Luke, physically experiencing a record scratch: what the fuck did you just say
That is all I have to offer because I'm afraid of plotting further and causing angst somehow.
oh one more thing, someone gets to bang an alien and it's probably Flynn.
Oh oh oh another one more thing. Reggie says "this is just like in Star Wars" for literally anything. The band goes along with it for shits and giggles. The rest of them are very interested in this ancient tale called Star Wars. Reggie sees a picture of Flynn and her green gf and says "hey, you dated photoshopped Yoda" and Bobby just loses his shit.
27 notes · View notes
Text
Isle Royale is Wildly Unique
Tumblr media
Isle Royale is where nature runs wild. It is in Lake Superior, and it is the fourth-largest lake island in the world. It is 45 miles long and 9 miles wide. There are no roads on the island, and no vehicles are allowed. People don't live on the isle yearlong. Isle Royale was home to the Ojibwe and was called Minong. The island is known for its fisheries, and it was mined for its large amounts of copper. Isle Royale National Park was created in 1931. I went to the island when I was a girl in the early '90s. My experience on the island was unique. I mistook the Loon’s wail for wolf howls which are another species native to the island. The beauty of Isle Royale is unforgettable. Many rules made the island special too. You can’t leave any trash there. The packing for the trip alone was unlike any camping trip I've been on. Whatever you pack in has to be packed out. At that time, there was one little store and a couple of homes. Now they have the Rock Harbor Lodge, a full-service lodging facility, and two restaurants on the island. We have seen what happens when places begin to get overpopulated with tourists and the effects of overtourism on the world.
Tumblr media
This image was found on a blog called Travelling Jezebel which is a great blog about tackling overtourism.
Overtourism is like cancer that spreads and destroys the most beautiful parts of the world. People are traveling to major tourist cities and pushing the people that live there out. It is changing the culture of these towns. As best described in the very informative YouTube video, Crowded Out: The Story of Overtourism, one interviewee says the city of Venice is becoming a Disneyland. Overtourism is causing property tax inflation, and Airbnb is destroying communities.
Along with overtourism comes pollution. There is an estimated 8,000,000 tons of plastic litter put in the ocean each year. With rising climate changes, global warming is causing the Great Barrier Reef to dye. Coral bleaching is when the coral expels the algae living on it. This can lead to mortality, and it is said that the Great Barrier Reef could disappear by 2050. It's one example of the tragedy unfolding on our beautiful planet due to human's push for greed. Isle Royale is a special place that shouldn't be ruined by overtourism. The wildlife gets to live freely without fear of hunters. We have to protect the vulnerable and fight for their existence.
Tumblr media
This image shows the coral reef’s devastating reality of before and after a bleaching event.
"Every organism that devours more resources than can be restored eventually starves one day," wrote blog writer David Lauterwasser. We have seen the future from the past, yet we continue to follow to pretty path with blinders on ignoring the truth. As seen in the movie 180° South, we have learned how we are repeating the same mistakes we have made in the past. For example, the island in Chile called Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, is a reminder of how societies rise and fall due to their own demise. The island has gone through civil war, cannibalism, disease, and environmental collapse. The people depleted their resources, and the downfall effect has been a sad version of what is to come for our planet worldwide.
Tumblr media
This photo is a depiction of what happened on Easter Island. This image was found on a blog by David Lauterwasser. Please check out his work.
The following quote is by Oscar Chapman, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at the dedication of Isle Royale National Park in 1946:
"What we are protecting and preserving here, so far as it is possible and practical to do so, are actually the processes of nature in which the only permanent thing is change, - change which is permitted to take place with the very minimum of human guidance or control. The essence of place is its wild beauty..."
According to National Park Service Stats, the number of annual visitors to Isle Royale was under 3,000 when it opened, and that number has grown to over 26,000 in 2019. The island is an economic booster for the surrounding areas and keeping it a tourist attraction isn't going to go away. The National Park Service needs to make sure they are strict about their rules. They understand the importance of keeping a low human impact on the island. Although, there is talk of making more lodges on a different parts of the island, so people aren't crowded. That sounds like a slippery slope. It will double the people that they bring in, making it more marketable to the tourists. I hope they won't continuing building on the island. It is unique because of its wild beauty, and more people will strip that from the island. The island was recently named the "Best of the World 2021" list by National Geographic. This is a list of the 25 best places to visit in the world. What will this mean to Isle Royale? Sometimes travel writers and making the best of lists is a curse more than a blessing. Should I even be writing this blog, or should I keep my little Michigan paradise island a secret?
Metta McLeod
June 1, 2021
Trending Now:
Isle Royale National Park Opens Back Up to Visitors with Some Restrictions
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/isle-royale-national-park-opens-back-visitors-some-restrictions
Venice Control Room Will Monitor Tourists to Combat Overtourism
https://globetrender.com/2021/03/15/venice-control-room-will-monitor-tourists-to-combat-overtourism/
For Plant Earth, No Tourism is a Curse and a Blessing
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/travel/covid-pandemic-environmental-impact.html
Sources:
https://medium.com/@FeunFooPermaKra/history-repeats-itself-as-the-story-of-the-easter-islands-downfall-begins-to-unfold-globally-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale
https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/SSRSReports/Park
https://travellingjezebel.com/overtourism/
https://www.businessinsider.com/great-barrier-reef-could-disappear-by-2050-why-2019-10
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/08/georgia-aquarium-world-ocean-day-kinkade-intv.cnn
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/whats-killing-coral-reefs-and-how-can-we-stop-it/
https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/11/isle-royale-named-in-national-geographics-best-of-the-world-2021-list.html
https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/historyculture/index.htm
4 notes · View notes
dointoomuchsworld · 3 years
Text
URT amidst the Pharma war
WUpon selecting a communication theory for this blog entry, I decided, why not- let’s just Google search: “what communication theory can be related to the anti-vax crowd”? The top six search results and their links that pop up spew these headlines and additional phrases:
1. “The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral…: However, the anti-vaccination movement is currently on the rise, spreading online misinformation about vaccine safety and causing a worrying…” (www.journals.plos.org) 
2. “How to respond to vocal vaccine deniers in public- WHO: a vocal vaccine denier is defined in this document as a person who is not only denying scientific consensus but also actively advocating against vaccination…” (World Health Organization 2017 Regional Office for Europe). 
3. “Vaccine hesitancy is a problem attracting growing attention and concern.” (www.sciencedirect.com) 
4. “The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination… Distrust in scientific expertise is dangerous… Results show that even if anti-vaccine narratives have a small persuasiveness, a large part of the population will be rapidly exposed to them. ” (www.nature.com) 
5. “Conspiracy Beliefs, Rejection of Vaccination, and…: Many conspiracy theories appeared along with the Covid-19 pandemic. Since it is documented that conspiracy theories negatively affect…” (www.frontiersin.org) 
6. “Combating Vaccine Hesitancy: Teaching the Next Generation… In 1999, the anti-vaxxer movement, an organized body of people who refuse to vaccinate and blaming vaccines for health problems” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) 
Well, this didn’t answer my question. It was surely a lot to read as we dive into my entry here, and it slapped someone with my way of thinking with some shut-down labels: dangerous, misinformed, science-denier, nonconsensual, behaviorally problematic, conspiracist, rejecter.
Do you know what these Google search results say to me? Censorship. 
I am selecting the communication theory of Uncertainty Reduction Theory to apply towards my discussion of the pro-vaccine/anti-vaccine war. 
Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) asserts that “people have a need to reduce uncertainty about others by gaining information about them” (Berger, C.R., & Bradac, J.J.) The information gained can be used to predict the others’ behavior. Reducing uncertainty can be particularly beneficial in relationship development, so it is more typical amongst people when they expect or want to develop a relationship than among people who expect or know they will not develop a relationship.
We have a few basic ways people seek information about another person:
1. Passive strategies: we observe the person, either in situations where the individual is likely to be self-monitoring (in a classroom; in the stands of a public event)
2. Active strategies: we ask others about the person we’re interested in, or set up a way to observe that person (sign up for the same class; sitting at a different table in the same restaurant)
3. Interactive strategies: we communicate directly with the person.
I believe this theory can be used to my topic of discussion because if we are in one of the hottest moments of the ongoing anti- and pro- vaccine movement and pharmaceutical war with COVID-19 at the forefront of it all, no matter which side we put our beliefs, followings, trust, or knowledge in, we seek out others with the same data, statistics, views, and agreeability. We strive to reduce uncertainty with others by gaining their information to benefit one another, and either develop ongoing relationships, or not. If we observe or interact with others to discover where their loyalties lay, we either discuss, debate--or worst of all, we fight like cats and dogs to what seems like the death--or come to an understanding and continue or discontinue the developed relationship. 
Let’s begin how I feel within the war on vaccines. I, if you will, an introvert who isn’t so fond of putting my opinions out there, am publicly posting this in hopes of finding others and reducing my uncertainty about how others may feel, or find if they may feel similarly so that I may stand with them or offer them strength in opinions and studies. Or maybe, just to prompt an open discussion.
1. Pro-vaccine
2. Anti-vaccine
Unnecessary and divisive labels meant to categorize people into black and white thinking.
Where is the label for: I think it’s perfectly logical to want the ability to make decisions about each vaccine available on an individual basis for each of my children and myself?
Pfizer is going for full FDA approval and might have it by the end of this month, emergency approval has already been granted for 12-15 year-olds, and in September emergency approval will be requested for 2-11 year-olds. 
How can you get granted EAU for an experimental drug in an age group that isn’t having an emergency? To protect vaccinated adults? Sacrificing your healthy child for an illness that doesn’t affect them so that vaccinated adults may think you’re a good person and may give you permission to move freely about your lives?
Nothing says I don’t believe in science more than vaccinating a 2-year-old for COVID. 
Imagine being excited to experiment on your own child.
Children don’t stand a chance in this pharmaceutical industry that for decades have put profit ahead of doing what is right. Additionally but important to note, the pharmaceutical industry has not prioritized the research and development of cancer drugs for children. They rely on treating children with adult cancer drugs, which are far more dangerous, toxic, and aggressive on a child’s developing body, because adult cancer drugs are some of the best-selling pharmaceuticals for companies such as Merck & Co., Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and J&J.
Here is an incomplete current list of places making the COVID vaccine mandatory, either for employment or for on site services: Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Officer; WPAFB (when it is FDA approved); Atria Senior Living; Rocky River Senior Center; Continuing Healthcare Solutions; Newburgh Heights city employees; Supers Landscape; Cleveland State University; Kenyon College; Cleveland Clinic fertility center: spouses required to have two doses of vaccine before being able to be present for embryo transfers. Kroger grocery stores now mandate proof of vaccination of its employees in order for employees to de-mask. This is marking the unclean versus clean. Here we are, segregating healthy people and in many circumstances being told to show our private healthcare papers.
There is no place for this behavior in a free society. This is discrimination based on vaccine status. 
A business in Preble County is allowing employees who have taken the coronavirus vaccine to use the fitness room while those who have not, or are naturally immune, are not allowed access. They can work there but they cannot work out there... is this about health?
What changes have you made for yourself as an individual this pandemic to benefit your health and wellness?
The NFL continues to separate their unvaccinated athletes from their fellow vaccinated athletes. Separate practice areas, separate eating areas, and de-masking only those who have been vaccinated. Discontinuing COVID testing twice a week only for the vaccinated. Not allowing the unvaccinated to leave the hotel while traveling with the teams. As if either party is not safe to be around.
As a writer considering her reader, I’m wondering if you’re celebrating right now in regards to these advances, or raising some eyebrows. As for me, it fills me with a primitive rage that I feel only when someone endangers my children.
But let’s keep going.
Vaccines are necessarily risky, as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court and by Congress. 
The risk: benefit ratio varies with the frequency and severity of disease, vaccine safety, and individual patient factors. These must be evaluated by patient and physician, not imposed government, corporations, or other bureaucrats.
The smallpox vaccine is so dangerous that you can’t get it now, despite the weaponization of smallpox. Rabies vaccine is given only after a suspected exposure or to high-risk persons such as veterinarians. The whole-cell pertussis vaccine was withdrawn from the U.S. market, a decade later than from the Japanese market, because of reports of severe permanent brain damage. The acellular vaccine that replaced it is evidently safer, though somewhat less effective. 
After being fully informed of the risks and benefits of a medical procedure, patients have the right to reject or accept that procedure. Preemption of patients’ or parents’ decisions about accepting drugs or other medical interventions is a serious intrusion into individual liberty, autonomy, and parental decisions about child-rearing.
Forcing Ohioans or anyone into receiving an experimental medical intervention in exchange for freedom to go to work or participate in society is contrary to fundamental human rights.
How does one feel about the persuasion to vote YES on Ohio HB 248? How’s this for propaganda: Vote YES, join the movement, on the Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act.
This Ohio House Bill was introduced on April 6, 2021, and is in 25% progression (LegiScan). Per this Republican Partisan Bill, OH HB248 is to enact section 3792.02 of the Revised Code to authorize an individual to decline a vaccination and to name this act the Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act.
Why should we do this? This is a stand for health freedom, for medical freedom; a vital legislation to protect vaccine choice for Ohioans now and into the future. If this legislation isn't passed, you can expect that vaccine mandates and vaccine passports will become a reality of our future. And even if you're fine with the traditional vaccines, even if you have always gotten the flu vaccine, and even if you decided to get the COVID vaccine... Ohioans will be faced with the reality that any future vaccine can be mandated by the state, retailers, employers, schools etc., and we'll have zero to say about it. This legislation will protect all Ohioans from the dystopia that we're currently facing.
Do I sound like one who denies the expertise of science now? I stand with science. I stand with informed consent. I stand with freedom. I stand with healthcare professionals. I stand with Ohio workers. I stand with parents. I stand with students. I stand with this bill for the people, by the people. 
In the year 1983, the total doses of vaccines for children from birth to age 18 consisted of 24 doses and 7 injections. As of 2020, we now administer 69 doses with 50 injections. The CDC child vaccination schedule is bloated, and I will say it from the mountaintops, no matter the reaches for justification. 
Tumblr media
Advanced Pediatric, a Cleveland area pediatric practice, is embracing the idea that unvaccinated children are not safe, and must stay masked and distanced, including from others on the playground (advancedped.com). How badly will we damage our children’s social and emotional health with this kind of discriminatory action propagated by adults that are supposed to be protecting them?
Prior to COVID, measles was the much-publicized threat used to push for mandates, and is probably the worst threat among the vaccine-preventable illnesses because it is so highly contagious. There are occasional outbreaks, generally starting with an infected individual coming from somewhere outside the U.S. The majority, but by no means all the people who catch the measles have not been vaccinated. Almost all make a full recovery, with robust, life-long immunity. 
The last measles death in the U.S. occurred in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Is it justified to revoke the rights of all Americans because of the hypothetical risk that a person who cannot be vaccinated due to immune deficiency might catch measles from an unvaccinated American, rather than from a visitor or a person whose artificial vaccine-based immunity has waned? Such mandates establish a precedent for ever-greater restrictions on our right to give—or withhold—consent to medical interventions?
So as I continue, and back to the focus on the COVID fiasco that I am pondering… Per the CDC website in the association with the COVID vaccine, VAERS reports that in the last four months we have recorded more deaths from the COVID vaccine than from all vaccines combined from mid 1997 through the end of 2013. As of April 30, there are 3,837 cases where the COVID-vaccinated patient has died within days to weeks after their intervention. 384 pages of patients age, sex, location, date of vax, date of onset, who administered it, who the manufacturer is, whether they were taken to the ER, and the symptoms or prior health conditions if any.
Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Lazarus, Klompas). Low reporting rates preclude or slow the identification of “problem” drugs or vaccines that endanger public health. Barriers to reporting include a lack of clinician awareness, uncertainty about when and what to report, as well as the burdens of reporting. Reporting is not usually part of a clinicians’ workflow, takes time, and is duplicative (Lazarus, Klompas). 
VAERS is a passive reporting system. Healthcare workers are not required to submit reports of deaths or injuries. VAERS only reports 1% of actual injuries according to a report prepared under contract with The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Lazarus, Klompas).
To recap those last several paragraphs, we are constantly told those who decline vaccines for illnesses they themselves are at very little risk for developing complications from, are putting the immunocompromised at risk. What we don’t often hear is that the procedure itself comes with risk and what that risk level is exactly is unknown. 
What we do know is that only somewhere between 1-10% of adverse events are ever reported largely due to medical professionals' lack of awareness on the subject matter. We cannot force healthy people to undergo a medical procedure for which the administrator of and manufacturer have no liability when we know there is innate risk. We can’t trade one group's theoretical risk for another group's known risk. 
We never hear any other side of this argument, it’s censored from us and never presented to us. 
Many of these VAERS reports were from assisted living facilities, and we can determine this by scrolling through the log of reports. Do you trust many assisted living facilities, or do you think many of them had a choice?
As of June 18, VAERS reports for myocarditis or pericarditis in people age 6 to 29 for all non-COVID shots in the entire history as VAERS as: 394. The total number of VAERS reports for myocarditis or pericarditis in people ages 6 to 29 in the last six months for COVID shots: 590. 
Without voluntary informed consent, medicine becomes violence. 
How many billions of dollars do you think has been handed out to mainstream media outlets, such as your favorite radio stations, to propagate the COVID vaccine and to have your favorite channel’s or station’s host, or celebrity, holler into your car or household: to go out and get it now, because all the cool people are doing it; to save our communities. Because you’re a selfish expanse of existence if you don’t. Although they who preach to go get the intervention likely have little to no experience in any of the information I have provided thus far.
The Dayton RTA public transit system has banners plastered onto the sides of their buses in all caps that say, “I’m not afraid of the vaccine!” or “Help Save Lives. Get Vaccinated.” 
When their passengers board the bus, they may show their hand gesture of the peace sign, to indicate they’ve been vaccinated. And at that, you’ll get a thirty-dollar credit in adult passenger fare upon proof of being fully vaccinated. A whole month of free rides and a promotional “Vaccinated” button to wear.
Promotions for vaccinated people are a flawed tactic for both brand-building and public health. Brands across industries are skipping beyond vaccine education and awareness to take a more active role in coronavirus vaccine acceleration. 
One size does not fit all. All humans are not the same and have different risk factors for both the disease and the intervention. There is no greater danger to all of us than the dehumanization of others. Not trusting a vaccine, or any given doctor for that matter, does not make me a science denier.
Where there is risk there must be choice. Not ostracism. Vaccine choice and anti-discrimination.
People who are labeled as vaccine hesitant should really be called people who are hesitant to be coerced in the largest drug trial in history. Because it’s the right thing to do... It’s patriotic... to protect our community and, again, “although I am young and healthy, it’s the right thing to do” (Ohio Dept. of Health).
Mandate advocates often assert a need for a 95% immunization rate to achieve herd immunity. However, Mary Holland and Chase Zachary of NYU School of Law argue, in the Oregon Law Review, that because complete herd immunity and measles eradication are unachievable, the better goal is for herd effect and disease control. The best outcome would result, they argue, from informed consent, more open communication, and market-based approaches.
The safest place for an immunocompromised person who is unable to be vaccinated  (there are very few unable to be vaccinated for COVID) is around someone who has had COVID naturally and is actually immune. Vaccinated people still contract and likely transmit COVID unlike the naturally immune. Similar to the pertussis portion of the DTAP vaccine, most often it’s a vaccinated sibling or parent who unknowingly spreads it to an infant too young to be vaccinated.
Let’s think about our Governor DeWine’s Vax-a-Million. His raffle is a disturbing act of child coercion and misuse of money that we could be putting back into our communities. A predatory bribe to bait those who easily succumb to a gambling incentive. I wish we had this kind of monetary dedication to our homeless, to our schools, to our mental health hospitals, to our trash clean-up organizations for our cities, to students already accepted into colleges. To the small businesses who have had to close their doors for good. What are my incentives for not getting the shot? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Public health should not seek to manipulate. To manipulate in the name of public health is to undermine public health.
This is a marketing scheme. You are not required to take a liability free experimental medical intervention in order to be considered a good person. Those who say you are, are either indoctrinated into a cult-like way of thinking and lack the ability to see anything beyond that, uninformed, or evil.
It's one of many elite U.S. institutions to be completely decimated and humiliated by Pharma. It was gradual, then inexorable, and now it's their identity.
An article printed on May 31 states that a Miami Valley Hospital doctor says strokes are occurring in younger people, ages 18-45 years old. Dr. Bryan Ludwig, the chair of the Clinical Neuroscience Institute of Premier Health, is seeing this increase, including the 36-year-old stroke patient he treated upon being air-lifted to the main hospital campus (WHIO). This article does not yet state what leading causes we can look toward for the increase in strokes and clots in the youth, and does not even state a possibility of what it might be, though I’m sure we can make quite a valid assumption. It would seem that the press is trying to normalize things that are not in the least bit normal, as more articles arise in similarity. 
Was it responsible for our Governor Mike DeWine to send out the tweet: “FACT: The COVID vaccine is safe and effective” upon immediate availability of the vaccine?
It is incredible that vaccine reactions used to only exist in the minds of conspirators, and now we pray for the recipients that they may make it through and only have to miss a few days of work. We don’t know anything about long-term effects but that doesn’t matter, because what about long-term effects from the actual disease? Everyone needs to do it anyway, even those at very little risk, because someone said so. Even those who have had COVID, and likely hold a great deal of immunity. 
Those who came out in droves in opposition of HB248 stated things such as, “up to 30% of our college students are immunocompromised, and this justifies mandating those who aren’t to be vaccinated.”
What are we doing that is causing up to 30% of young college students to be immunocompromised? 
Nonetheless, I find that statistic entirely skeptical. The industry recommends for all who they call immunocompromised, such as cancer patients to get these vaccines, and patients on immune suppressive drugs to get them. They want transplant patients to get them. They don’t actually acknowledge any contradictions outside of anaphylaxis. The “we must protect the herd” sentiment seems entirely feigned and disingenuous. It seems manipulative, dismissive.
Surely, there are immunocompromised people out there who are unable to receive the vaccine or others, but I do think it is rare.
A doctor who believe that everyone should be vaccinated, when questioned, acknowledged vaccine injury and death. She was asked what she would say to those people. Her response, in paraphrase, was, “Thank you for your contribution.” She views the injured as expendable.
The amount of doctors who opposed the house bill of vaccine choice was frightening. And who will politicians follow? Those who have personal attestations who are most oftentimes unheard or underrepresented, or clinicians pushing a pharmaceutical curriculum that acquires compensation based on how many patients are vaccinated?
In a statement made by ACIP member, Grace M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., associate chief medical officer for practice innovation at Stanford Children’s Health, she goes on to say: “I think the childhood experience our kids have gone through will have long-lasting consequences that may extend across generations. We don’t really fully yet understand the total... physical health, mental health, and educational impact of the pandemic on our kids.”
Kids are durable. They can endure the worst of things, and they persevere. However, now, to grow up in a world that is censoring and erasing valuable information is chillingly monumental.
Considering that 23 million Americans suffer from some type of autoimmune disease, with the rates increasing 4-7% each year, and that environmental toxins are well known to trigger autoimmunity, it would seem prudent to implicate the distended childhood vaccination schedule as a possible culprit to this rise.
We are not smarter or more virtuous than someone because we draw a different conclusion after looking at the same information. Only one side of this charade wants to enforce their will on the other.
In summary, patients and parents currently have the right to refuse vaccination, although potentially contagious persons can be restricted in their movements (e.g. as with Ebola), as needed to protect others against a clear and present danger. Unvaccinated persons with no exposure to a disease and no evidence of a disease are not a clear or present danger. Making the COVID, and other vaccines, optional is the only way to protect the medical and individual rights of our citizens, consistent with good medical ethics.
Unvaccinated people are variant factories, says expert Dr. William Schaffner, from the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on June 2.
My use of Uncertainty Reduction Theory in Communication Studies applied to my stance I’ve taken on medical freedom enables me to seek and find reassurance with others, to find camaraderie with those who will continue to fight. 
The way that I have questioned the pharmaceutical intervention so many times in so many ways throughout this discussion and at the very least find the timeline of events that have transpired to be odd, and furthermore advocate for the freedom of guilt-free choice instead of a blind acceptance to take whatever is fed to me via our government oversight, it may very well blacklist me from an exceeding amount of peoples’ interest.
BUT, no matter what one may think, or if one should ask me why I don’t find something better to do with my time -
What is more important than protecting my children’s freedom and health through social and ethical communication processes?
Tumblr media
Works Cited:
Berger, C.R., & Bradac, J.J. (1982). Language and social knowledge: Uncertainty in interpersonal relations. London: Arnold.
Clanton, Nancy. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 16 April 2021. www.ajc.com
Holland, Mary and Zachary, Chase. Oregon Law Review. Children’s Health Defense Team. 23 January 2019. www.childrenshealthdefense.org 
Lavin, Dr. Arthur A. “The End of the Pandemic Begins, for the Vaccinated.” 14 May 2021. www.advancedped.com 
Lazarus, R, Klompas M, Hou X, Campion FX, Dunn J, Platt R. Automated Electronic Detection & Reporting of Adverse Events Following Vaccination: ESP:VAERS. The CDC Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA; April, 2008. www.digital.ahrq.gov 
Shimabukuro, Tom T. MD., Cole, Matthew MPH, Su, John R. MD, PhD. JAMA. 12 February 2021. www.jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776557 
LegiScan Bringing People to the Process. www.legiscan.com 2021. 
National Vaccine Information Center. 2021. 21525 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 100, Sterling, VA 20166. 
www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?TABLE=ON&GROUP1=AGE&EVENTS=ON&VAX=COVID19
WHIO Staff. “Miami Valley doctor says strokes are increasing in younger people, shares warning signs.” 31 May 2021. www.whio.com/news/local 
3 notes · View notes
newstfionline · 3 years
Text
Monday, April 5, 2021
Coming out of the cave: As life creeps back, some feel dread (AP) Dinner reservations are gleefully being made again. Long-canceled vacations are being booked. People are coming together again, in some of the ways they used to. But not everyone is racing back. For some, even small tasks outside the home—a trip to the grocery store, or returning to the office—can feel overwhelming. Psychologists call it re-entry fear, and they’re finding it more common as headlines herald the imminent return to post-pandemic life. “I have embraced and gotten used to this new lifestyle of avoidance that I can’t fathom going back to how it was. I have every intention of continuing to isolate myself,” says Thomas Pietrasz, who lives alone and works from his home in the Chicago suburbs as a content creator. Pietrasz says his anxiety has grown markedly worse as talk of post-vaccine life grows. He says he got used to “hiding at home and taking advantage of curbside and delivery in order to avoid every situation with people.”
Vaccine passports are latest flash point in COVID politics (AP) Vaccine passports being developed to verify COVID-19 immunization status and allow inoculated people to more freely travel, shop and dine have become the latest flash point in America’s perpetual political wars, with Republicans portraying them as a heavy-handed intrusion into personal freedom and private health choices. They currently exist in only one state—a limited government partnership in New York with a private company—but that hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers in a handful of states from rushing out legislative proposals to ban their use. Vaccine passports are typically an app with a code that verifies whether someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They are in use in Israel and under development in parts of Europe. But lawmakers around the country are already taking a stand against the idea. “We have constitutional rights and health privacy laws for a reason,” said Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican. “They should not cease to exist in a time of crisis. These passports may start with COVID-19, but where will they end?” Benninghoff said this week his concern was “using taxpayer money to generate a system that will now be, possibly, in the hands of mega-tech organizations who’ve already had problems with getting hacked and security issues.”
Facebook data on more than 500M accounts found online (AP) Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers. The information appears to be several years old, but it is another example of the vast amount of information collected by Facebook and other social media sites, and the limits to how secure that information is. The availability of the data set was first reported by Business Insider. According to that publication, it has information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses. Facebook has been grappling with data security issues for years.
In Myanmar, Easter eggs a symbol of defiance for anti-coup protesters (Reuters) Opponents of military rule in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday while others were back on the streets, facing off with the security forces after a night of candle-lit vigils for hundreds killed since a Feb. 1 coup. In the latest in a series of impromptu shows of defiance, messages including “We must win” and “Get out MAH”—referring to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing—were seen on eggs in photographs on social media. Young people in the main city of Yangon handed out eggs bearing the messages of protest, pictures in posts showed.
With Swarms of Ships, Beijing Tightens Its Grip on South China Sea (NYT) The Chinese ships settled in like unwanted guests who wouldn’t leave. As the days passed, more appeared. They were simply fishing boats, China said, though they did not appear to be fishing. Dozens even lashed themselves together in neat rows, seeking shelter, it was claimed, from storms that never came. Not long ago, China asserted its claims on the South China Sea by building and fortifying artificial islands in waters also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Its strategy now is to reinforce those outposts by swarming the disputed waters with vessels, effectively defying the other countries to expel them. The goal is to accomplish by overwhelming presence what it has been unable to do through diplomacy or international law. And to an extent, it appears to be working. “Beijing pretty clearly thinks that if it uses enough coercion and pressure over a long enough period of time, it will squeeze the Southeast Asians out,” said Greg Poling, the director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, which tracks developments in the South China Sea. “It’s insidious.”
Nearly 20 arrested in alleged plot against Jordan’s King Abdullah II (Washington Post) Jordanian authorities on Saturday arrested as many as 20 people and sought to restrain the movement of a former crown prince amid what officials called a threat to the “security and stability” of a country long regarded as a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East. Prince Hamzeh bin Hussein, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor, was told to remain at his Amman palace amid an investigation into an alleged plot to unseat his older half brother, King Abdullah II, according to a senior Middle Eastern intelligence official briefed on the events. The move followed the discovery of what officials described as a complex and far-reaching plot that included at least one other Jordanian royal as well as tribal leaders and members of the country’s political and security establishment. One official cited unspecified evidence of “foreign” backing for the plan. Biden administration officials were briefed on the arrests, which come at a time of heightened economic and political tension in a country long regarded as a bulwark of stability and an essential partner in U.S.-led counterterrorism operations.
Cairo’s mummies get a new home. And a grand procession on the way. (Washington Post) It was a parade unlike any other this city has seen. A procession of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies streamed Saturday from downtown Cairo, where revolutionaries rose up to topple autocrat Hosni Mubarak a decade ago, to a new museum three miles away that represents Egypt’s future as much as its past. At 8 p.m., the mummies—18 kings and four queens—left the famed ochre-hued Egyptian Museum near Tahrir Square, where they had rested for decades. They were each atop specially decorated gold-and-blue-hued vehicles resembling boats. Or perhaps the symbol of a winged sun, an ornament worn by Egypt’s ancient rulers and seen as providing protection. Each of the 22 vehicles was emblazoned with the name of the royal mummy it carried. The multimillion-dollar affair—called the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade—had been promoted for months. Egyptian authorities are seeking to attract tourists, a key source of foreign currency, and alter the course of an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, Islamist attacks and political chaos in past years. The highly choreographed ceremony was also a nationalist vehicle to highlight Egypt’s place in history. The nation’s authoritarian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who himself is often referred to as “a new pharaoh” for his ambitious projects and iron-fisted rule, presided over the ceremony.
Confronting late-stage pandemic burnout (NYT) Like many of us, the writer Susan Orlean is having a hard time concentrating these days. “Good morning to everyone,” she tweeted recently, “but especially to the sentence I just rewrote for the tenth time.” “I feel like I’m in quicksand,” she explained by phone from California, where she has been under quasi-house arrest for the last year. “I’m just so exhausted all the time. I’m doing so much less than I normally do—I’m not traveling, I’m not entertaining, I’m just sitting in front of my computer—but I am accomplishing way less. It’s like a whole new math. I have more time and fewer obligations, yet I’m getting so much less done.” Call it a late-pandemic crisis of productivity, of will, of enthusiasm, of purpose. Whatever you call it, it has left many of us feeling like burned-out husks, dimwitted approximations of our once-productive selves. “Malaise, burnout, depression and stress—all of those are up considerably,” said Todd Katz, executive vice president and head of group benefits at MetLife. The company’s most recent Employee Benefit Trends Study, conducted in December and January, found that workers across the board felt markedly worse than they did last April. The study was based in part on interviews with 2,651 employees. In total, 34 percent of respondents reported feeling burned out, up from 27 percent last April. Twenty-two percent said they were depressed, up from 17 percent last April, and 37 percent said they felt stressed, up from 34 percent.
3 notes · View notes
barrieshannon · 3 years
Text
Animal Crossing as queer escapism during COVID
Below is a written summary of my contribution to the paper I presented with Dr Megan Sharp to the ‘Queer in the time of COVID’ panel for TASA 2020. It was titled ‘Queer bedroom cultures in COVID’. A recording of the full session can be found here.
Digital space during a pandemic
For queer people, the deliberate curation of demeanour and self-presentation is not a new phenomenon. We know that queer people have long made use of ‘underground economies of expression and relation’ that allow us to live more freely under the radar, living, communicating and connecting through code and affect. There is a solid body of literature that demonstrates queer people have relied on video games and online spaces, among other things, to provide the opportunities for self-expression and education that are not always available in their immediate physical worlds. Megan Sharp and I have written together previously on the overlap between our respective PhD data, in a chapter called Becoming Non-Binary. We wrote about how networked counterpublics were used as a tool for activism and peer education for young queer people and feminists – but also how digital artefacts influenced identity curation and influenced users’ social worlds beyond the digital.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people create and inhabit space, disrupting the lines we draw between public and private, personal and professional, digital and physical.  For many queer people, physical connections to resources, services, communities and intimacy have been severed by quarantine requirements and restrictions on movement and travel. Young queer people in particular have often been confined to the family home, an environment that is not always supportive or affirming. So, digital networked environments have been especially important for queer youth during the pandemic. 
I offer these observations about Animal Crossing: New Horizons not as an ‘expert’ in internet studies or game studies, or to present any unique or profound reading of the text. Rather, Megan and I used Animal Crossing (and alt-TikTok in our presentation above) as a way to think through queer place-making in the ‘real’ and the digital, against the backdrop of a global pandemic where space and movement have been constrained.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released in March 2020, shortly before the first large-scale COVID-19 lockdowns began occurring around the world, and it remained a major social media phenomenon for months thereafter. This instalment of Animal Crossing sees the player take up a ‘Deserted Island Getaway Package’, finding themselves as the only human on a remote island populated by anthropomorphic animals. You can pass time on your island with various activities: catching and collecting fish and bugs, donating them to your local museum or selling them for money; chopping wood or mining for crafting materials, with which you create furniture or infrastructure for your island; planting trees and flowers; designing clothing and custom furniture; socialising, and more. The game progresses in real time and does not have a linear story beyond some initial orientation tasks; there is no ‘end game’ in this sense. Beyond being stung by certain bugs, being hit by a friend’s bug net, or tripping into sinkholes, there is no violence in Animal Crossing. This iteration of Animal Crossing also allows the player to go online, to chat with other human players and visit their islands, all without quarantine restrictions. It is hard to imagine that the game could have been released at a more opportune time for players looking to escape into a different world. 
Tumblr media
Designers of the series have said that it is ‘intended to emulate that feeling of finding community and home in a new place’; the ‘wholesomeness’ and the community focus goes some way to explain how keenly queer players have embraced the series. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is notable for its various queer-friendly affordances. There are no gender restrictions on clothing, makeup, hair style, or face shape. In the English version of the game, players are asked to choose their ‘style’ in lieu of their sex or gender, which is entirely inconsequential. There are also aesthetic considerations that appeal to queer players; the player is encouraged to make decisions about the look and feel of their island and its inhabitants. Unique to this instalment in the series is the ability to terraform the landscape, design infrastructure, and quite literally mould the island into a utopic island escape.
These affordances resonate with queer people beyond simply playing with visual elements. Players are able to curate an aesthetic sensibility that fits the person they see themselves to be. In the case of Animal Crossing it is about making a digital space within which you are who you are, and the very infrastructure, the visuals, the local dialect, all constitute a virtual curation of the self, and of alternative life possibilities. 
Tumblr media
Animal Crossing has been specifically used by queer communities to get together and participate in activism, expressing pride and solidarity through virtual events such as Global Pride Crossing. A central feature of queer Animal Crossing cultures involves the creation and sharing of pride-themed designs with others. A player’s clothing, flag or custom furniture designs can be uploaded and accessed by others with a unique code. Flags and clothing in various pride colours and designs are sharable and are quite often circulated within Animal Crossing Facebook groups, and on other sites such as Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter.
But why is this important?
Building upon the work we have already done together, Megan and I view Animal Crossing as an interesting case study through which we can think about concepts such as Muñoz’s futurity and concrete utopias. The game provides a space within which individuals can freely indulge in their gender nonconformity if they choose to, and can imagine ideal, future potentialities for themselves within and outside of virtual environments. We also see some potentially exciting methodological implications for studying queer youth within games such as Animal Crossing, via digital ethnography, and other creative methods that capture these cultures as they occur and develop. 
Much work on this has been and is happening already - see a couple of links to work by excellent Australian researchers here and here -  but to finish this post, I wanted to draw attention to an exciting project in the UNSW Vitalities Lab that is conducting interviews within Animal Crossing!
1 note · View note
top10seriz · 3 years
Text
Reason behind Elon Musk created Neuralink?
Tumblr media
  Reason behind Elon Musk created Neuralink?
By the end of the year 2030, artificial intelligence will be created that will surpass humans in this will cause very rapid scientific progress, says forecaster Ray Kurzweil, who's also the CTO of Google. According to him, when it comes to inserting chips into people will be able to do really crazy things.
 For example, if any diseases detected, the chip will give us an alert, and we can deal with any COVID at an early stage, we won't need to study in schools and universities because we'll be able to learn anything in an instant, thanks to the fast operation of a chip that will find information and deliver it into our brain in less than a second.
Hello and welcome to the top10seriz.in we always trying to share with you some authentic and interesting topics. Today we will discuss another interesting topic Reason behind Elon Musk create Neuralink. So without waiting lets go to the topic  
 Everything that you'll learn about in this post is based on Kurzweil’s predictions. This man is a genius in the field of scientific prediction, he made 115 completely correct predictions out of 147 in the accuracy of his predictions is 86%.
So according to Ray, immediately after people start having chips implanted in their heads, they'll have endless opportunities thanks to their new cyber body, the neural network will create individual organs and body parts that will be better than human ones. Thus, our lifespans will increase. Thanks to the chip, we can modify our bodies and design them however we want. Remember the movie in the matrix, we can create such worlds simply by lying on the couch in our living room, and playing the chosen one or God with our friends.
 Perhaps we'll even get the opportunity to travel through other people's dreams. Like in the movie inception. While our body is in the real world under a warm blanket, and robots will continuously do the work for us. Humanity will reach a 0% rate of crime because any thief can be identified by finding his job, and the police will not even have to use weapons to neutralize them. Because this can be done at a distance of millions of kilometers.
Tumblr media
By giving the chip a command to send a charge of electricity into the criminal’s body, the police can paralyze them, and then, without shooting our casualties, place them under arrest. We have such fast development in the field of science in the first five years after the creation of the neural network, people will be able to colonize other planets and convert them into living zones.
In addition, humanity will achieve an ideal balance in the allocation of resources. The neural network will calculate the amount of food, electricity, water and everything else needed per person, and will live in maximum prosperity. The concept of poverty will remain only a memory from our past sounds like the ideal of communism. Speaking of politics, international relations will become much easier, the neural network will bring the leaders of countries to the most convenient terms of negotiations, and there will be no more conflicts between states. And if the countries unite their territories, then we will begin to live in one country according to a common set of laws.
But every silver lining has a cloud. Of course, a big downside of chips in our brains is advertising. Corporations will spend their resources to get their product promoted in our heads. Advertising will be customized for each individual, depending on where they live their preferences and interests. In moments when we become more receptive to advertising. The chip will emit special impulses to certain areas of the brain and show us the advertisement. But that's not all the chip will become one with you. In turn, your past will also become the property of the main server. What did you get sick from the last time what kind of sex you like why you vote for a certain candidate, and that awkward and shameful memory from your childhood all will not remain a secret life will cease to be intimate because any information will be recorded on the server where the creator of the chip can use it. And it's also possible that the chip will be hacked and fraudulent. Hackers will access all information about a person in their actions, which will lead to an incredible amount of blackmail.
But the downsides don't tend their work will become the privilege of the elite to take a place in any enterprise, you'll need to endure heavy competition because most of the work will be done by robots and vacancies will attract a huge number of people. In addition, it'll be much easier to lose your job because the chips in their system are very quickly updated, and new versions will come out as quickly as new iPhones. No matter how well you do your job. The advantage will remain with your competitors who receive new versions of the chip.
If they attempt to chip all of humanity, then there will be those who will oppose that the world will split into two factions, those who support chipping and those who resist imagine racism, but it will be about whether you have a chip in your head, the concept of chipophobe chipofile and other positive or negative terms on this topic will appear. It was announced at a recent conference by Elon musk that a chip developed by his company Neuralink was successfully implanted into a pig's brain without harm to its health.
Tumblr media
 According to Musk, this development will help people suffering from disorders of the brain or spinal cord. In the future, this chip will be improved and its capabilities will expand. But so far, it doesn't even have half of the functions of the final version of the chip predicted by Ray Kurzweil. But in addition to Neuralink, there are other developments for example, brain gate, so called brain implant from cyber kinetics. It's a chip like mechanism that can help control limbs or other body functions.
Thus, people who have problems with mobility will finally be able to move freely. Going even further, the company Nielsen has patented a method that uses brain impulses to find out what a person thinks about a product or advertisement, and thus investigate consumer behavior.
Microsoft already has a patent for a technology that can measure a user's readiness to receive ads. And in the future, the new silicon chips developed in collaboration with the National Research Council, or NRC of Canada will help us to understand how brain cells work under normal conditions, which in turn will give us an understanding of the causes of mental illness, and human taste preferences.
 Nobody understands what these developments will lead to. I still have no idea if I want to implant a chip in my brain when it becomes as common as smartphones. I think if Elon Musk were the first to implant his invention into his head, it would be the best advertisement for his product. What do you think about that? Write your opinion in the comments.
 But before that, I suggest you realize the following thing. According to Elon Musk people have already become cyborgs. We move in machine systems communicate via mobile devices. And every year more and more actions are made for us by readymade devices. The development of neuro chips and biological nano robots will just help us to get old mechanisms at hand. You no longer need a separate computer, your brain will become a computer itself.
At last we want to thank you to give your valuable time to read this article.
If you enjoy this article and wants to read more of our content then please visit our website www.top10seriz.in where we publish many interesting articles regularly thanks again for being with us.
Read more
    via Blogger
0 notes
Text
The Ethics of COVID Vaccination Passports
By William Biederman, Cornell University Class of 2022
August 3, 2021
Tumblr media
In a phase of the COVID-19 pandemic that many experts are calling a so-called 'pandemic of the un-vaccinated,' many institutions and governments are asking themselves, "How do we do we best go about checking for vaccination or inoculation status, while still respecting medical privacy laws?" For many nations, particularly in Europe, the answer to this question is a vaccine passport, a digital or hardcopy proof-of-vaccination form, that can be required for admission to high-risk settings, such as dining in a restaurant or visiting a museum. In the United States, however, HIPAA and other privacy regulations limit the ability of state governments or other entities to require visitors to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination beyond a self-attestation form. In this short article, I will explore examples of proof-of-vaccination requirements around the globe in contrast to the legality of vaccination passports in the United States.
Firstly, it is necessary to clarify that vaccination passports are not a recent development but have been in use for many years. In Tariro Mzezewa's article, "Coming Soon: The 'Vaccine Passport'", she discusses the history of vaccination passports for travel to countries known to have transmission of highly contagious and dangerous diseases, and how these might serve as an example for how future proof-of-vaccination programs may be implemented [1]. Mzezewa explains, "For decades, people traveling to some countries have had to prove that they have been vaccinated against diseases such as yellow fever, rubella and cholera" [1]. However, Mzezewa acknowledges that the situation with COVID-19 vaccination may be different from previous uses of vaccination proof: "But a major difference between the yellow card of years past and what is being worked on now is the digital component, which comes with new concerns around privacy and accessibility" [1]. As the author mentions, objections to having a mandatory vaccination check have been raised in the name of privacy concerns, particularly with having potentially sensitive health information in the hands of technology companies and the government. Certainly, this is an understandable concern: over the past few years, companies such as Facebook and Google were involved in several lawsuits alleging misuse of personal information, negligent handling of sensitive data, and underhanded data collection. To gain the trust of the public, especially those who are more skeptical about getting the vaccine in the first place, a vaccination passport program should be developed in an open, transparent manner, so that issues of privacy can be addressed quickly. There is little margin for error, as the general public's distrust of the government has been growing steadily throughout the pandemic due to the bait-and-switch nature of lockdown and other mitigating measures and recommendations: "There are ways this could be done right or done terribly wrong, and the wrong ways could lead us to a techno dystopia" [1]. Taking this all into consideration, the next question that must be asked is, what are other countries around the world doing to create a vaccination passport that provides the necessary documentation, while still protecting the privacy of the end-user?
Many countries in Europe have started to roll out coronavirus vaccine passport apps for smartphones as a way of eliminating the possibility of 'unknown vaccination status' in public spaces where transmission is likely to occur. For example, Denmark is using a mandatory vaccination passport program, known as CoronaPas, to verify the vaccination status of citizens and visitors for admission to venues, restaurants, and museums [2]. While unvaccinated persons can still enjoy outdoor areas in Denmark, to enter indoor facilities, persons must present proof of vaccination through the state-sponsored COVID-19 vaccination passport. Having recently traveled to Demark this summer, I can speak from experience that knowing that everyone who is going to the same museum, for example, is vaccinated against COVID, I felt more comfortable knowing that I could enjoy the exhibit without the risk of contracting the virus. In addition to Denmark, the European Union health authorities have developed their passport, known as 'Digital Green Pass,' which was created "with the aim of allowing people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus to travel more freely. Under the proposed rules, each nation within the bloc could decide which travel restrictions, such as obligatory quarantine, to waive for Digital Green holders" [2]. Unfortunately, because it took the EU such a long time to develop their vaccine passport, we will have to wait many months before we see its potential impact. Coupled with the long development periods, we have seen limited use of vaccine passports globally until relatively recently and there are still questions about their widespread use because many places around the world (especially in economically depressed regions) are still struggling with access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Now that Europe is slowly moving towards national vaccination passport applications, what are some examples of similar systems in the United States? Unsurprisingly, these examples are few and far between. While New York State has released the "Excelsior Pass" and has encouraged some businesses and venues, such as Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden, to require persons to show their Excelsior Pass QR codes for admission, other states around the country have gone so far as to outright ban proof-of-vaccination requirements. Murphy explains, "Lawmakers in at least a half-dozen states, including Texas, Florida and Arkansas, have moved to ban businesses from requiring vaccination, saying it is a privacy violation or will slow down reopening of commerce" [2]. If privacy concerns are address, this objection holds little water based on the resurgence of the virus amongst unvaccinated persons returning to pre-pandemic life without wear masks or having any protection against the virus themselves, which has led to more lockdowns, more infections, and sadly, more preventable deaths. However, we must not forget that because many people in the United States and around the globe lack any identification, such as a passport or driver's license, "digital documents that show vaccine status may heighten inequality and risk, leaving many people behind" [2]. The lack of identification is just another inequity that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and one we will be forced to grapple with within the coming months and years as we move into a post-pandemic world.
And now, after comparing several vaccination passport programs around the world, one question remains: Are vaccine passports legal in the United States, and if so, what is the best way to use them? According to Richard Warren and Nhan Ho's article in The National Law Review, they explain, "There is no federal law specifically prohibiting employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccination in the workplace" [3]. Not only that, but "recently, a district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by hospital employees who were required to get vaccinated as a condition of continued employment" [3]. If this decision serves as precedent, and if we are talking specifically about privately-owned workplaces and companies, proof of vaccination against COVID-19 can legally be a condition for employment. However, it is important to mention that "state and local laws may prohibit a workplace vaccination mandate" [3] More generally though, the consensus in the legal community is that vaccine passports are "generally [legal], [but] in a society so divided, politicians are already girding for a fight" [4]. Furthermore, "government entities like school boards and the Army can require vaccinations for entry, service, and travel — practices that flow from a 1905 Supreme Court ruling that said states could require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox or pay a fine" [4]. As I have discussed at length in my previous articles, due to the state of emergency declarations made at the local, state, and federal levels, special powers, and privileges are granted to governments to protect against and/or mitigate the effects of the current crisis, even at the reasonable cost of some freedoms in a limited and specific scope.
Despite evidence that such a system requiring vaccinations would not only be legal but would help tamp down the spread of the virus amongst unvaccinated persons, the Biden Administration stated that "the government is not now, nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential," a somewhat unexpected decision. What is likely the case is that the Biden White House wants to avoid a political minefield, especially considering the degree of resistance towards vaccines in the first place, and thus, they do not want to 'fuel the fire' by requiring a system of documentation that many people have serious ethical and privacy concerns about. The road forward for vaccination passports is uncertain, even more so given the lack of appetite for the program in the United States -- as for the rest of the world, the early adopters of these proof of vaccination systems will serve as a proving ground for examining just how effective these programs are. What is clear is that we are unlikely to see any kind of federally mandated vaccine passport system anytime soon, if at all, despite indications that such a system would prevent infections and deaths and allow many cautious persons to feel more comfortable to return to pre-COVID life.
______________________________________________________________
William Biederman is a rising senior at Cornell University, majoring in History and minoring in Law and Society. He has a strong interest in healthcare and criminal law, and the medical sciences.
______________________________________________________________
1.    Mzezewa, T. (2021, February 4). Coming soon: The 'vaccine passport.' The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/travel/coronavirus-vaccine-passports.html
2.    Murphy, H. (2021, April 26). A look at covid-19 vaccine 'passports,' passes, and apps around the globe. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/travel/vaccine-passport-cards-apps.html
3.    Covid-19 vaccine passports & policy in the workplace. (n.d.). The National Law Review. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.natlawreview.com/article/covid-19-vaccine-passports-policy-workplace
4.    Stolberg, S. G., & Liptak, A. (2021, April 6). Likely legal, 'vaccine passports' emerge as the next coronavirus divide. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/politics/vaccine-passports-coronavirus.html
Photo Credit: Juliettpapa97
0 notes
artstropicalokinawa · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media
最近、というかここ数年、ラジオをやるようになった。ラジオといっても、誰かと定期的に話すのを録音して、YouTubeやポッドキャストにあげるという素人ラジオなのだが。 
その中の『山下道ラジオ』の放送が、ついに50回を超えた。 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI14yGCeRYoUejQYyzGPeSqUtU2f-xC2J

視聴数は毎回100回程度なので、よく聞いている人はだいたい50人くらいいるのかもしれない。まぁ、すでに視聴者数を気にしないようになっている。このラジオは、おそらく多くのリスナーを獲得するためのものではない(できるに越したことはないが)。これはラジオという”産業”とは全く別のものとして存在していて、二人の日々の思ったことやアイデアを話し合う公開ミーティングであり、公開の飲み会であり、他愛もない日常を繋いだだけの“場所”であり、その記録である。ラジオという形を使った「遠く離れた2人による日記の同時筆記」なのかもしれない。
(産業としてのラジオとは、スポンサー収入や芸能人やミュージシャンとかの営業や告知など、いろんなレベルでお金が発生しているしその関連の存在。『山下道ラジオ』が何にも産業として意味がないのもどうなのか?と思うが、仕事や考え方や生き方を考えたり発言することで脳を回し続ける、”無宗教の寺”みたいな存在なのかもしれない。自分のためでもあり、時に誰かの役にもたつかもしれない。アイデアのオープンソース。) 山下陽光氏との他愛もない会話の中から始まったこのライジオの特徴は、毎回、彼の住む福岡と僕の住む愛知(途中から直島へ移住)をメッセンジャーでつないで録音する、というアナログなもので、「離れた場所どうしをつないで面白いことをしたいね」という『新しい骨董(2013年より活動をするグループ)』の試行錯誤の延長上にあった企画/実験であった。ただ、このラジオは2020年3月11日に開始され、当初本人たちは「離れた場所を繋いで話してラジオ作る全然できるし、たのしいー!」と狂ったように毎日毎日盛り上がって収録していたのだが、1ヶ月後、毎日はやりすぎでしょ、と週一になった。ちょうどその頃、新型コロナが中国以外でも爆発的に流行しはじめ、4月16日にロックダウンが起こると、人々は遠隔で様々なことをしなくてはいけない状況になり、ラジオやテレビ、会議や学校までも、遠隔でオンラインで行うのが“普通”になってしまっていった。(ちなみに、「山下道ラジオ」の第一回テーマは「住む場所と移住」でコロナの話題はまだない。僕自身のこのラジオへの当初の期待は、愛知から直島への移住を準備していた時期に、「どこで暮らすか」をより深く掘り下げて考えることだったと記憶する。)世の中では徐々にウィルスが流行する中で、展覧会やイベントの多くが中止になり、「オンラインで世界が繋がる」という趣旨のイベントが多数行われるようになった。離れた場所どうしでイベントや収録を行うのが当たり前になる感覚は、もし人類がこのウィルスに勝利した後も続くだろうと考えると、『山下道ラジオ』は1ヶ月だけ世界より早くその感覚を手にしていたのかもしれない。いやいや、陽光くんは、YouTubeが始まる一年前の2004年に(中古のフェミカセに書かれた名前をたよりに本人を探す動画を撮ったり、色々と)すでにYouTuberのようなことを始めていた人物でもあるし、ネットラジオというのもかなり早い段階から行なっていたので、この出来事も妙に納得できる。彼は”前衛”であり、0から1の壁を突破する人で、1になった瞬間にそれは世間で”当たり前”になるものだから。(『山下道ラジオ』がそこまで新しくはないが。) 僕はというと、2014年から「旅するリサーチラボラトリー」というサウンドアーティストmamoruとのコラボの中で、「旅のフィールドノートの同時筆記」を試行錯誤し、一���に旅をしながらラジオを収録することを意識的に行なっていたので、その筋力が今ようやく自由に生かされているようにも思っている。
https://www.travelingresearchlaboratory.com/ 
そして
今週、『微妙な放送』という、香港と日本をつなぐラジオ、広東語と日本語で同時に聞けるラジオをはじめた。毎週、直島と香港の日常を毎週繋ぎ、日々の出来事、作品制作や家族の事や色々話す。2年前までかなり頻繁に香港に行っていて、初めは仕事の出会いから、飲み仲間になった3人。香港在住の美術家のヒンさんと通訳のヒコさん。同時通訳ヒコさんは香港と日本、両方がネイティブ。そして、日本のラジオもよく聞くそうで、そんなヒコさんがふたりの美術家を 同時通訳で繋ぎながらMCをする。ヒンさんは素晴らしい美術家であり、四年前に香港の学生を連れて日本を一緒に旅行しながら、毎日ラジオを録音した経験を持つ。いや、3人の関係性や専門性がないとなかなか成立しないし、半分意味の分からない間がある奇妙なラジオ『微妙な放送』。この同時通訳者が二つの国や言語をまたいでつなぐラジオ、これがなかなか新感覚で面白い。(聞いてみないと伝わらないのでリンクをぜひ。)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bHrW1IIVv2xYEM9qSO5Qw このラジオ『微妙な放送』も「遠く離れた2箇所による日記の同時筆記」。僕とヒンさんとヒコさんが、香港で3人でよく飲んでいて、深夜とかになてくると、僕は日本語で語り、ヒンさんも香港語で語り、ヒコさんがそれをひたすらつなぐ、みたいな飲み会がたまにやっていて(プロの通訳に対してリスペクトのない行為…)、そういう関係性や経験があったからナチュラルにスタートしたのだけれど。
今後、誰か真似できるもっと面白い人々が、韓国と日本とか、日本と全く知らないアフリカの人々とか、同じようなことを始めたりしたら、面白いだろうなぁ。聴きたいなぁ。と勝手に想像している。 さて、話を最後にまとめると、
なんだか、国家や政権というのは民衆のことを全く考えないようで私腹を肥やし、他者に対して排他的にどんどん進んでいるように感じる。(いや違うか。実はその国の市民の多数がお金儲け第一で排他的でそういう政権を欲している、という国家はその民度の映し鏡であるとも言えるが。)でも、それって今始まったことでもない。もちろん、反対の声をあげるのは重要だし継続していくべきだけど。香港なんかでは、何万人もの民衆の声を堂々と無視する人たちだ。だからこそ、もしかすると、こういうラジオが離れた人と人や閉ざされた国と国の壁をヒュッと飛び越えて、それぞれの普通の“日常”を繋いで、普通でポジティブに、風穴をいろんなところで開けていくって、結構面白い実験なのではないか。と思っている。 いやいや、そんな大それたことでもないし、日々ストレッチするくらいの気持ちで楽しんでいるだけですが。。
Recently, or rather these past few years, I’ve been doing radio shows. I say radio shows, but they’re just amateur ones where I regularly record myself talking to someone and put it up on YouTube or Podcast.
Of those, ‘Yamashitamichi Radio’ has finally gone over 50 broadcasts. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI14yGCeRYoUejQYyzGPeSqUtU2f-xC2J There are up to a hundred listeners every broadcast, so maybe there are around 50 regular listeners. However, I’ve already stopped being concerned about the number of listeners. This radio show probably isn’t something I made for the purpose of getting popularlity (although that would be nice). It exists as something completely different from the ‘industry’ of radio. It’s a public meeting where two people talk about ideas and things that they think about from day to day. It’s like a public drinking party. It’s a ‘place’ where simply innocent everyday life is joined up. And it’s a record of all of those things. Maybe it’s a ‘simultaneous writing of diaries by two people who are far away from each other’ using the  radio format. ("Radio as an industry" means the radio and the affiliates related to money generation at all sorts of levels, such as sponsor income as well as the business and advertisements of celebrities and musicians. I do wonder if it is really okay that ‘Yamashitamichi Radio’ has nothing to do with it?  but maybe our radio is something like a ‘temple with no religion’ where we continue working our brain by thinking and talking about our job, our thoughts and our life. It’s for ourselves, but it might be useful sometime to someone else too. It’s an open source of ideas.)
A distinctive characteristic of this radio show was taking place as an extension of the trial and error in ‘Atarashii Kotto (‘New Antiques’, a group active since 2013).’ This radio show was started from an innocent conversation with Mr. Akimitsu Yamashita, who living in Fukuoka and me living in Aichi (I moved to Naoshima partway through), and it was a plan/experiment of ‘we want to connect faraway places together and do something fun.’ It is not that technologically advanced, as we record each time via Messenger. When we started this radio show on March 11th, 2020, at the beginning we were super pumped up like, ‘Connect faraway places, talk and make a radio show? That’s easy! It’ll be so much fun!’ and madly recorded every day,  But after one month, we realized every day was a bit much, and it became weekly. Just around that time, COVID-19 began to explode out of China, and when the lockdown happened on April 16th, people had to do various things the long-distance way. Radio shows, televisions and even conferences and school classes being carried out over long distances online ended up becoming ‘normal.’ (In addition, the first theme of ‘Yamashitamichi Radio’ was ‘The Place Where You Live and Moving,’ and the subject of COVID-19 was not yet present. I remember that my own hope for the show at that time was to think more deeply about ‘where to live’ at the timing I was preparing to move from Aichi to Naoshima.) As the virus gradually spread throughout the world, many exhibitions and events were cancelled and lots of events with the theme of ‘the world is connected online’ came to be carried out. When I think about how events and recordings being carried out between faraway places will continue to be totally ordinary even in the post-pandemic society, then maybe ‘Yamashitamichi Radio’ took hold of that sense just one month before the rest of the world. I find this thought understandable, in a strange way. I mean, Akimitsu is someone who was already doing YouTuber-like things in 2004, a year before YouTube existed (he did all sorts of things, like making videos of the search for a person from a name written on a second-hand video game cassette), and he was doing Internet radio from a pretty early stage. After all, he is a ‘vanguard,’ a person who breaks through the wall between 0 and 1. And when it becomes 1, that becomes the ‘normal’ in the rest of the world (although ‘Yamashitamichi Radio’ isn’t that new). As for me, since 2014 I did some trial and error in the ‘simultaneous writing of travel field notes,’ during a collaboration with the sound artist ‘Mamoru’ called ‘The Traveling Research Laboratory,’ and I was consciously recording a radio show while traveling together with ‘mamoru,’ and I think that I’m finally able to freely put that knowhow to good use now. https://www.travelingresearchlaboratory.com/
And this week, I started a new radio show called ‘Bimyo na Hoso, (‘Subtle Broadcast’)’ a radio show connecting Hong Kong and Japan, where you can listen to Cantonese and Japanese at the same time. Every week, we connect the everyday citizens of Naoshima and Hong Kong and talk about all kinds of things, like everyday happenings, creating works and family. There are three of us. I went to Hong Kong quite regularly up until two years ago, and we started by meeting through work, and then became drinking friends. There’s me and the artist Hin-san and the interpreter Hiko-san, who live in Hong Kong. Hiko-san, who does simultaneous interpreting, is native of both Hong Kong and Japan. Hiko-san, who is also a Japanese radio listener, is the MC connecting Hin-san and me, the two artists, through simultaneous interpreting. Hin-san is an amazing artist and has experience of recording a radio show every day while taking Hong Kong students traveling around Japan, four years ago. Yes, ‘Bimyo na Hoso’ is a strange radio show with a half-mysterious intervals, and it’s difficult to make it come together without the relationship and expertise that we three have. A radio show where a simultaneous interpreter crosses over and connects two countries or languages is pretty fresh and interesting (you need to listen to it to get my meaning, so go ahead and click the link). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bHrW1IIVv2xYEM9qSO5Qw This radio show, ‘Bimyo na Hoso’ is also a ‘simultaneous writing of diaries through two places far away from each other.’ The three of us – Hin-san, Hiko-san and me – often drank together in Hong Kong, and sometimes as the night goes on, I spoke in Japanese and Hin-san spoke in Hong Kong Cantonese and Hiko-san earnestly connected us (I guess the two of us weren’t showing respect to the professional interpreter by doing this…), and it was because we had that kind of relationship and experience that we could start the show naturally. It would be interesting if, in the future, more interesting people who can imitate us start the same thing, like with South Korea and Japan, or Japan and people in Africa whom one has never met. I’d love to listen to them. Those are just my own imaginings. Now, to sum up everything, somehow, I get the feeling that ‘country’ and ‘political power’ are advancing continually in a way that excludes other people, enriching themselves without thinking about the public at all (no, that’s not it. You can say that, in actuality, a country where many citizens put making money first and exclude others and want a political power like that, reflects its cultural standards). But that’s not something that started now. Of course, raising voices of opposition is important and should be continued. In Hong Kong, the voices of tens of thousands people in the public are being brazenly ignored. That’s why I believe having a radio show like this, which jumps right over the wall between distant people or countries, connects each of their normal ‘everyday lives,’ and make openings in all sorts of places in a natural and positive way, is a pretty interesting experiment. Well, it’s not something so important. I’m just enjoying it with the feeling similar to doing my daily stretches…
下道基行 / MOTOYUKI SHITAMICHI
1978年岡山生まれ。フィールドワークをベースに、生活のなかに埋没して忘却されかけている物語や日常的な物事を、 写真やイベント、インタビューなどの手法によって編集することで視覚化する。 http://m-shitamichi.com
0 notes
gsasustainability · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Death beyond anthropocentrism. From science-fiction to reality 
Katerina Sidorova. MLitt Fine Art
Generations over generations, Western Europeans have been raised on sciencefiction with subject matters ranging from time and space travel, immortality, utopian state organization to apocalyptic scenarios, bio-futuristic fantasies and specie hierarchy alteration. What if some of these scenarios did come true already and how did it affect our views on death. In this article I will look into several examples from science-fiction literature, cinema and comics in attempt to define the status of mortality in modern Western societies.
Let me begin with a different take on interspecies relationship, a topic, broadly disputed in this dissertation. The alternative view on the possible interactions between humans and the rest of the animal world has been a matter of speculation for many works of fiction amongst which one example stands out: “Planet of the Apes”, a film from 1968, based on 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle "La Planète des singes”, translated into English as “Planet of the Apes” or “Monkey Planet”.[3]
The novel takes place in the distant future (XXVI century A.D.), when interplanetary and interstellar flights became commonplace. A couple of “rich loafers” Jinn and Phyllis, traveling in space, find a bottle with a message from a certain Ulysses Meru with a formidable warning in the “Earth language”. Journalist Ulysses Meru talks about the expedition of the spacecraft to the Betelgeuse star under the leadership of Professor Antel.
Arriving at the intended point of travel, t he crew landed on the planet Sorora (lat. Sister), surprisingly similar to Earth. To their surprise they found humans there, only in a completely savage state - not knowing any language, no clothes, no dwellings, no tools. Instead the planet is run by the apes, possessing intellect and developed way beyond humans. The protagonist finds out that even before the advent of monkey civilization, there was a highly developed civilization of people. However, it fell into decay, while monkeys, imitating human habits and customs, developed more and more, until they took the place of their recent owners.
“Planet of the Apes” has a particular angle on interspecies relationship, especially on the ownership over one’s body. “Thinking” humans for the first time are exposed to how it may be like to exist on the other side of the human-animal relationship, where a single life is not considered as much as a mass of bodies and where economical matters dominate relationships of the ‘leader’ specie with the subject of their oppression. For the first time human species are not the masters of life and death like they are used to, yet their destiny is highly dependent on their not-so-far relative - a monkey.
Similar actions take place in a Russian sci-fi novel by Kir Bulichev - “The Pet”, 1993. Yet Bulichev takes the detailing of the interspecies relationships even further. The protagonist finds himself in situations comparable to the ones of pets (cats and dogs), industrially farmed animals, fight animals (dogs, roosters) and stray animals. Each of the 3 latter cases is directly linked to control over one’s death and the first one is a description of an acceptable involuntary body mutilation (castration) that leads again to impossibility to procreate and control over life in a long term. The attitude of the main character changes from the adoration of the master (normally prescribed to house pets) to slow realization of inequality which is the state of events in the fantasy world that Bulichev created. Becoming ’a stray’, rebelling against the master species (which for the record are giant frog-lizards), he slowly understands that the latter do not always operate in his best interests. Unfortunately, the novel was never finished and we are to never find out whether the new model of specie relationships was established.
In non-fiction, it is for Donna Haraway, author of The Companion Species Manifesto and The Cyborg Manifesto, to shine a light of changes in inter-specie relationship. Haraway talks about the history of domestication, but just as well she’s tackling the near future of species diversity, introducing not only the idea of technically enhanced cyborg femme, but a different kind of a companion specie. Science fiction and theory form a perfect symbiosis in her work and the texts, maybe starting as ‘futuristic’, become highly relatable and easily applied to contemporary reality.
Haraway specifically used the term “companion species” and not “companion animal” in order to expand the range of beings that can be seen as companions to humans. We now can not only talk about cats, dogs, parrots, fish and hamsters. We can freely imagine insects, bacteria and viruses as accompanying our life. Dangerous or not, it is the reality and in the light of recent virus outbreaks (SARS, MERS, Ebola and COV-19) Haraway’s statement stands stronger. Humans are surrounded by companion species, even though we don’t see or recognise them as such. The specie awareness is not only an ethical move of recognition but a safety measure, potentially crucial for our survival on Earth.
Another absolutely important moment in Haraway’s term ‘companion species’ is the inclusion of personal mobile devises into the category. Indeed, attention hungry, needed to be fed (charged), bringing joy and always by our side - mobile devices, and I am talking about smartphones predominantly (although we are surrounded by laptops, portable speakers, e-watches and tracking bracelets to name a few), do deserve a special place of a companion specie.
There’s only one distinct trait that makes them different from us - whilst the technical body of the mobile device won’t survive natural decay, it’s software system is virtually immortal. (Here a little outtake for those of the readers, who haven’t embraced technology at it’s fullest: by today, march 26 2020 it has become a norm to be able to copy all of the complete content of one’s mobile device, settings, etc. and successfully install it on the new one, the ‘digital soul’ of the preceder will live on).
Talk on genderless, adjusted cyborg has been going through feminist thought for decades now, as Julia E Dyck rightfully says: “Feminists have both celebrated and cautioned against the cybernetic or post-corporeal subject as much of feminism’s roots are coded in, on, and from ideas about the female body. Whether the body is seen as inherently woman, mother, goddess, with a deep connection to the earth and nature, or the raw material of culture and society with no pure or natural core as Elizibeth Grosz would see it, the body’s existence and relevance is too often implicit while theorizing about gender and sexuality. I would like to confront this idea by exploring a social subject for analyzing, the bodiless, or post-corporeal woman, the female operating system.” (Julia E Dyck “Cellphones and cyborgs”).
I, having embraced this discourse, would like to focus on the other aspect of it - and that is mortal beings slowly beginning to co-exist with the immortal (to an extend, since software is highly dependent on hardware and therefore access to electricity as of now) species.
Whilst we still cannot speak of artificial intelligence, we definitely can admit having stepped into the realm of hyper-real, with much of our communication and daily routines having moved online. And to exist online we need the help of our mobile devices. /I am writing these words on my laptop, in the proximity of my phone. It is a second week of world wide COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, this time marks the transition of many practices and professions to the digital, for now temporarily. This time is, however crucial to revealing how deep is our involvement with technology./
Hereby, based on stated above, we can propose three theses to expand on:
First, from the end of XX century on human, stops being the center of the world, as other species come on stage.
Second, amongst these new species we now can subtract non-natural, human made entities, for now not having a free will of their own, but playing a huge role in life already. These companions are mobile digital devices.
Third, being in contact with these devices brings humans closer to immortality and the question of digital afterlife comes closer to reality.
Here, online series “Black Mirror” would again be a great example - providing various meditations on involvement of humans with technology. For me much more interesting would be to turn to new services that have sprung since I was writing on Facebook digital cemeteries (undeleted pages left after users who have passed away).
First of all a whole field of death sensitive interfaces is now being researched and guidelines for software developers have been written. For this we are to thank Michael Massimi, a specialist in human-machine relationship, who together with his colleagues has worked on creating tanatosensitive software design. Their guidelines include grief upon loss not being a problem, but rather a given; communication does not always work as therapy; storytelling be a way of making emotions of the living public and prolongate the social life of the deceased; physical death is not a reason to stop communicating; digital traces can function as artefacts, memorabilia of the passed away person; digital space does not equal life and therefore cannot be fully adjusted to death either, it keeps existing beyond the end of physical life. [Оксана Мороз]
Whilst Massimi is talking about all online platforms in general, quite a few services, if not following Massimi’s guidelines, then at least operating on the territory that he describes, exist already. I will hereby list a few, discovered by Russian researchers Sergey Mohov: ‘resting here’ and ‘safe beyond’, mentioned in the works of Sergei Mohov and several, used as examples by Oksana Moroz: ‘the digital beyond, After note, If I die, Dead Social, eter9 and eterni.me. Of course, this list is not extensive and the readers are more than welcome to explore death and mourning related online services on their own. What is important is that not only that they are provided for use if needed, they are in demand. I will illustrate this with a few common internet searches provided in the attachments to this article. People are looking for death and dying related services online, and I dare to say that for younger generation, internet would indeed be the first place to turn to for answers.
But the searches often relate to the precise online legacy - the digital double that is left behind us once we pass.
A digital presence of a living person can thus be describes as a ‘body without organs’, a concept used by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. It usually refers to the deeper reality underlying some well-formed whole constructed from fully functioning parts. At the same time, it may also describe a relationship to one's literal body. This idea is fitting perfectly for when we speak about our existence on the internet. The digital double, internet avatar is a perfect body without organs. What worries us here is the possibility of it’s autonomous existence past the death of a human it was once attributed to. A great example here would be ‘Solaris’, a novel by Stanislav Lem, then brilliantly translated into a film by Andrei Tarkovsky. The action takes place in the uncertain future. Solarism - a science that studies the distant planet Solaris - has come to a standstill. The psychologist, Dr. Chris Kelvin (flies to Solaris to make a decision on the spot. Once at the station, the skeptical Chris discovers that her crew is exhausted by inexplicable phenomena: “guests” come to people - the material embodiment of their most painful and shameful memories. It is impossible to get rid of the "guests" in any way - they return again and again.
While Kelvin is sleeping, the "guest" comes to him, it is the materialized image of his wife, Hari, who 10 years ago had laid hands on herself after a family quarrel. At first, Kelvin, like other solarians, tries to get rid of the "double", but in vain. Over time, Kelvin begins to treat the "guest" as a living person. Hari's “copy” is also gradually becoming aware of its essence. Instead of a programmed need, being inseparably located near Kelvin, a human ability to make independent decisions develops in it. Realizing that by her existence she inflicts suffering on Kelvin, she first tries to kill herself, then, finding it impossible, asks scientists to destroy her by any means.
In ‘Solaris’, we see both an example of alive humans interacting with the deceased, but also a step further, ‘doubles’ realising that they do not equal their physical prototype, therefore causing existential turbulence.
Whilst the rules of online behaviour and environment are being written and used through a variety of above mentioned services, what is particularly interesting is the state/status of a person in the digital sphere. As Massimi said, digital life does not equal reality.
Who we are in real life is not fully represented in the digital, moreover, we are often choosing certain traits of ourselves to be represented, whilst others remain private, some can also be altered. What happens, when we start interacting online is - we create a digital double for ourselves, something that can be referred to as ‘an avatar’. This avatar represents us on the digital platform where it was created - games, social media, or mail interfaces. Over the years of internets existence, a lot of services and platforms have merged and we can speak of a general ‘digital trace’ of one person - a combination of multiplicity of images, texts, audio, other interactions produced whilst one is on the internet. This multiplicity can be linked to a digital representation of one on the internet, for some (for example foreign colleagues from overseas office who one has only communicated with through the internet) may almost completely replace the physicality of that one person.
What interests me, amongst many researchers of the digital sphere, is how this digital double functions. More specifically for this research I would like to look at one of the qualities of the digital double, avatar, - it’s immortality. Unlike our physical body, digital representation of ourselves cannot die, since it was never alive. Still, when interacting with people via social media, we are convinced, that there is a real person, behind the screen somewhere, responding to us.
After one’s death, unless stated specifically, we keep interacting with their social media page, as if the person is still alive. In theory, this can last for an eternal amount of time. The digital double is immortal. And this is where the very subtle field which Massimi and Moroz are researching lies.
With the new services, collecting information about it, recreating it, making posts, as if we were alive, with social media pages being run on the behalf if the deceased, we not only create a place of memory and mourning, we are stepping into a completely unknown territory. For example, if two (a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet, here specifically I am referring to chat bots - automated software mimicking conversations).made from the recordings of a mother and a son, who both have passed away, start a conversation, ethically where does this lead us? Is this conversation then real? What is the value of created content?
As of today, it is still early to speak of artificial intelligence, but we can surely state that the position of humans as the only species reflecting on death is shattered. Last topic that I would like to briefly touch upon is the ethics of cloning, creogenics and similar bio-scientific practices, that once belonged to the world of fantasy but now are slowly stepping into our reality, changing our relationship with death forever.
A fine example here would be a film by Spanish director by Alejandro Amenábar co-written by Mateo Gil ‘Open Your Eyes’ and, more famously, it’s American adaptation by Cameron Crowe - ‘Vanilla Sky’. In the twisted plot of the film, the main character realises that his body was frozen after his sudden death and preserved for the future scientists to bring back to life. In the meantime his consciousness and memories were loaded into a simulation program. Not being able to cope with the fact that his most recent memories were generated, the protagonist chooses to ‘wake up’ in futuristic reality. At this point cryogenics is a reasonably well researched field, it is used in many fields, but of course, it is cryoconservation, that interests me the most. Cryoconservation is an indispensable tool in the storage of genetic material of animal origin and will continue to be useful for the conservation of livestock into the future and is used to save semen, cells, pollen and other materials. Cryonics is a branch of cryogenics, focusing on conserving human body (or just the head in some cases) after clinical death and with the hope of resurrection in the future.
The first corpse to be frozen was that of Dr. James Bedford in 1967. As of 2014, about 250 dead bodies had been cryopreserved in the United States, and 1,500 people had made arrangements for cryopreservation of their corpses. As of today not one of the frozen bodies has been resurrected, although a case of … shows that some bodies have decayed due to poor preservation conditions.
With many ethical issues surrounding cryonics, another, even more extreme method of human remains preservation is arising. In 2018, a Y-Combinator startup called Nectome was recognized for developing a method of preserving brains with chemicals rather than by freezing. The method is fatal, performed as euthanasia under general anethesia, but the hope is that future technology would allow the brain to be physically scanned into a computer simulation, neuron by neuron.
What could life post such procedures be like still remains in the realm of science fiction, but these practices and discussions are slowly but steadily penetrating our daily lives, changing our takes on mortality forever.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”, - perhaps the most famous opening sentence in American science fiction is the first line of William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), contemplates a place where the dead might belong, up above us, in an electronic medium as Gibson’s protagonist Case has to collaborate with ghostlike programs, learning to “work with the dead” inside the “consensual hallucination” that is cyberspace. This profession, once considered fictional, is as close as it gets to the studies that Massimi, amongst others. is performing in our day and age. Modernity makes adjustments and new disciplines appear: we now live through and study of death in digital space; dispute over cryonics; artificial intelligence and the possibility of post mortal existence as a piece of software; our life is surrounded by nonliving companions, who’s loss we mourn scarily similar to their natural protagonists.
The move from science-fiction to reality has been steady and it accelerates year by year. Many great works of fiction have not only predicted, but determined the contemporary developments in medicine, thanatology or even the ways we mourn or think of our last will. Recent developments are showing us that there is not and cannot be one model of death. Moreover, it is now established that death is experienced not only by people. We are faced with the task of species diversification of attitudes towards death, as well as the formation of a broader view of the issue of mortality with more and more drastic changes to come. Which changes? I’d suggest looking through a few books of science fiction.
Literature 1. "A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is "100 percent fatal"". Technology Review. 13 March 2018. 2. B e s t , B . P. ( A p r i l 2 0 0 8 ) . " S c i e n t i f i c j u s t i f i c a t i o n o f c r y o n i c s practice" (PDF). Rejuvenation Research. 493–503. 3. Boulle, P. (2018). Planet of the Apes. Place of publication not identified: ISHI Press. 4. Bulichev, Kir - “The Pet 5. Burt, Stephen. (2014). Science Fiction and Life after Death. American Literary History. 26. 168-190. 10.1093/alh/ajt063. 6. Dyck, Julia “Cellphones and cyborgs” 7. Gibson, W. (2018). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books. 8. Handley, Rich (2008). Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology (1st ed.). New York: Hasslein Books. p. 279. 9. Haraway, D. Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s", Socialist Review, 80 (1985) 65–108 10.Haraway, D. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9717575-8-5 11. Haraway, D. When Species Meet, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8166-5045-4 12.Moen, O.M. (August 2015). "The case for cryonics". Journal of Medical Ethics. 493–503. doi:10.1136/medethics-2015-102715. 13.Moroz, Oksana “Смертельная чувствительность” Антология Русской Смерти №6
More here. 
1 note · View note
eelliescott · 4 years
Text
My Direction
I decided to look a little closer to home and take inspiration on what was going on around me in the world. As it currently stands we are in ‘lockdown’, majority of us are isolating due to ‘COVID-19′, only leaving our homes for essential supermarket trips and one form exercise per day. Our freedom to roam freely, visit our friends/family has been snatched away from us. Summer getaways to bask in the sun are cancelled, Gigs/festivals are postponed, we are living in a time of uncertainty with nothing to focus on other than trying to keep our bodies & minds healthy. During this time, where I am restricted, no work or uni, it is easy to fall into a negative mind space, trapped between the same four walls day in day out and I’m sure lots of people worldwide would agree. In the midst of all the negativity that is surrounding us, there has been some positives from this situation. Firstly due to the dramatic decrease in cars on the road, not many factories running, transport restricted, the earths pollution (particularly above china)has slightly improved... 
‘Orbital instruments designed to monitor air quality picked up a substantial drop in concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution since January. NO2 is a harmful substance emitted by gas vehicles, power plants and other machines that burn fossil fuels.  The decline is likely related to an economic slowdown and travel restrictions in China since the virus became widespread, according to a statement from NASA Earth Observatory.’ Rafi Letzter February 2020.
I think that bit of news is somewhat refreshing, yes we are all staying indoors feeling a bit crazy, but Mother Earth is reeping in the rewards. Ultimately I feel as though we will see pollution levels decrease in other areas of the world as well, as after all we are in lockdown and as we are slowly creeping upon the point of no return in regards to climate change, I think this is a small bit of news we can all get on board with. Personally I was surprised by this news, surprised that actually in a matter of weeks we could reduce pollution, just like that. Hopefully this makes the task of looking after our Earth less daunting & people make more of a conscious effort after all this mayhem, to keep trying to reduce pollution, slow down climate change, after all we only get one chance. This leads me on to say that I feel as though sustainability will be at the top of a lot of peoples agendas, creating less waste, travelling less, walking more, as we have had a bit of a rude awakening as to how easily our livelihoods can be snatched away from us, people wont want to risk this again, we will all be taking extra precautions to look after The Earth and ourselves.
In addition to this, people are taking this time to really focus on themselves. At time were we are all under strict limitations from the government, we are being forced to keep ourselves sane using what we have available at home. To help people adjust to this new temporary way of life, self care is definitely on the rise. With the fear of getting ill & the luxuries of life being taking away, people are a-lot more conscious of how they are looking after their mind and bodies. After doing a bit of snooping on the app store, I found that fitness apps, meditation apps (such as headspace),  along with educational apps were all sitting within the Top 50. To me this supports my point of people being more conscious of looking after themselves. Again I think this is a positive outlook, rather than sitting around all day, worrying, people are actively trying to keep their spirits high. 
In regards to my points made, I would like to create some sort of look book/journal for a future trend. I have no doubt that what we are experiencing now will have a knock on effect in the fashion industry, we will all learn from this. We will not take anything for granted, healing our bodies & minds, will be a heavy focus, after having so much time being able to do this during this scary time period, we will want to ensure we are keeping up with looking after ourselves, when our normal lives resume. I have begun researching future trends on LSN & WGSN which support my direction, which I will go into more in depth in the next few posts. In addition to this I am going to research into what I can personally see people are doing at home, by looking at influencers, popular phone Apps which may indicate people looking after themselves a little more.
Tumblr media
WHAT STEPS I AM GOING TO TAKE
In order for me to make sure I am covering all the ground needed to create my final outcome, I am going to go through step my step how I am going to get there and WHY I am doing these steps. This post will be useful for you to understand where I am going to end up & useful for me to refer back to should I need to.
1. Research, Research, Research. As I am creating a look book on a future trend, it’s crucial that I do a lot of research to support my direction, I need to ensure that all of my choices that I make in my final outcome are backed up with evidence throughout my blog, my choices also need to match my trend.
I will research into AW 21/22 trends on LSN & WGSN, both of these sources will provide me with in depth information about future trends that I can dissect & apply to my trend. The information I gather from these sites will allow me to back up my direction & show that my narrative has a point to it. I will research into:
Colours
Silhouettes
Prints & Texture
Materials
Influences
These areas will give me the materials to start building up imagery for my look book, they are also the areas which make up a trend, they are all different for every trend we see, so it is crucial I put in the research to understand my direction.
Layout research is an important part to my plan of action. I think it will benefit me to have a look at a mix of different zines & look books, to help me decide how I want mine to look like. It will also be useful for me to select out a few examples, that I could refer back to if I struggle with creating my layout. It will be interesting for me to look at how layouts differ depending on the type of aesthetic you are trying to aim for, again this type of research will allow me to understand what my look book should look like. I am going to look into zine layouts, graphic designers, influencers.
Since I am creating a look book for a future trend influenced from our current situation (UK lockdown, due to COVID-19) I am going to conduct research which supports my point that people are learning how to slow down & really taking time to focus on themselves (mental & physical wellbeing), alongside learning to live with less, as right now we don’t really have a choice- we will see this change of mindset continue into the coming years. To support my statement of what we are going through now will influence our future, I am going to do some research into some influencers that I follow on Instagram, which are documenting how they are coping with this new way of living & how they are taking care of themselves. In addition to this, I would like to create a market survey to see what people think is going to happen after this pandemic is over & how they are adapting to it now.
Finally to bulk out my research, I am going to look back at previous trends and look into what influenced them and why. It will be interesting to see what our trends have been over the years & compare them to where our trends are heading in the next few years. I think we will see a complete contrast, we are about to make a 180 spin away from Fast Fast Fast fashion to a much slower pace & appreciation for longevity.
2. Creating my Look Book. Before I start putting my Look book together, I need to fully understand my trend- hence why the research comes first.
I also need to work out the structure of my look book along with the whole aesthetic/mood. I know I want my look book to feel somewhat like a ‘journal’ with little snippets of diary entries throughout, which are related to being in isolation. I feel this will help set the tone & allow the reader to understand a little further why we are seeing this trend. The layout & mood will also come after I have done further research.
I will gather imagery as I research, so that when it comes to selecting my imagery I have a large selection to choose from. I would like to use a mix between fashion imagery & aesthetic imagery, as I feel like it is more interesting to the reader to see diverse images & allows them to understand what I am trying to communicate to them further.
Natalie introduced me to ‘EPUB’ files which you can create on photoshop, I am going to use this type of file to create GIF’s for my look book. As I have mentioned I really want to push my communication skills in this module, pushing my CAD skills further will assist me in doing this, this being why I am going to use LinkedIn Learning to educate myself on how to create GIF’s. Adding a GIF into my look book will add a further element to the final outcome, as it will be a moving visual which I can hopefully create & mould into my narrative, this will also add further support my communication to the reader.
To conclude this post, those are the 2 most important stages in which will assist me in getting to my final outcome. I am going to create a plan using the project timetable Louise provided us with to plan out my weeks ahead, this will allow me to keep up with everything that needs to be done to produce my final outcome. The project timetable plan will also be useful to me as we are not having any time in university throughout this module, the plan will give me the freedom to structure my days myself & keep on top of my work.
0 notes
newstfionline · 3 years
Text
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Public service in the US: Increasingly thankless, exhausting (AP) Historically, jobs like teaching, firefighting, policing, government and social work have offered opportunities to give back to communities while earning solid benefits, maybe even a pension. Surveys still show public admiration for nurses and teachers and, after the terror attacks of 9/11, firefighters. But many public servants no longer feel the love. They’re battered and burnt out. They’re stretched by systems where shortages are common—for teachers in Michigan and several other states, for instance, and for police in many cities, from New York and Cincinnati to Seattle. Colleagues are retiring early or resigning. There are mental breakdowns, substance abuse and even suicide, especially among first responders. Even before the coronavirus arrived, researchers have found in 2018 that about half of American public servants said they were burnt out, compared with 20% over workers overall. Some wonder who will pick up the slack, as more young people avoid public service careers. In the federal government, just 6% of the workforce is younger than age 30, while about 45% is older than 50, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
Gas stations report shortages as pipeline shutdown drags on (AP) More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by a gang of hackers entered its fifth day Tuesday. The Colonial Pipeline, the biggest fuel pipeline in the U.S., delivering about 45% of what is consumed on the East Coast, was hit on Friday with a cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them. A large part of the pipeline resumed operations manually late Monday, and Colonial anticipates restarting most of its operations by the end of the week, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
Colombia protests likely to continue (NBC News) With no agreement between Colombia’s government and protest leaders, demonstrations are likely to continue as major cities brace for a third peak in Covid-19 cases. Since April 28, thousands have protested throughout the country against the government. The violence has resulted in the death of 26 people, including one police officer, according to government figures. Rights groups say the death toll is higher; Human Rights Watch says it has credible reports of 38 deaths. What began as demonstrations over proposed tax increases, that have since been scrapped, has morphed into broader demands for the government to address poverty and inequality. The protests have grown as reports of police violence, deaths, and disappearances have emerged.
More policing in France (AP) France saw its second national homage to a police officer in less than two weeks following the daytime shooting of Eric Masson, who was killed last week during a routine inspection of a street corner. “It’s a reality that there is violence in our society and it’s swelling, and that each day the role of our police is made more difficult by this violence,” said President Emmanuel Macron following a memorial for the slain officer. Experts, however, have noted that more French police were being killed in past decades than today, but that police tactics have hardened in recent years, leading to increased distrust amidst claims of systemic racism within the police, racial profiling, and videos showing apparent abuse and sometimes deadly violence. In contrast to the United States’ recent efforts to curb police powers, France has opted to strengthen them instead. Macron has promised 10,000 more officers in the streets by the end of his term and increased the police budget. The prime minister has also laid out a series of measures to ensure courts get tough on anyone dishonoring the uniform and a guarantee of 30 years in prison for the killing of a police officer, the same punishment as for terrorists.
A sweeping coronavirus lockdown in Turkey sets off arguments and economic anxiety (Washington Post) Shopkeepers pulled their steel shutters down last week in a warren of tool shops near the Bosporus, to comply with a nationwide lockdown. But every third shutter or so was left open a crack, to allow the furtive flow of continued commerce. Hardly anyone in Turkey these days can afford to be locked down. Not small business owners, who were aching from the flailing economy and rocketing inflation even before coronavirus restrictions were imposed last week. And not even the government, which permitted a glaring exception when it said foreign tourists, a critical source of foreign currency, would be allowed to travel the country freely, while telling Turkish citizens to stay home. In the 12 days since the lockdown began, the restrictions have set off soaring economic anxiety, arguments and public irritation. With infections and deaths surging to new highs, few disputed the measures were necessary. Rather, complaints have centered on the way they were imposed, with official edicts viewed as capricious or baffling that critics say have failed to insulate the country from further economic harm. The lockdown has undermined repeated official assurances that Turkey was faring better than many countries in the world. And the rules, from the well-intentioned to the bizarre, have landed on a public that is in no mood for more restrictions, especially this late in the pandemic.
India’s COVID-19 deaths cross quarter million as virus ravages countryside (Reuters) India’s coronavirus deaths crossed a quarter million on Wednesday in the deadliest 24 hours since the pandemic began, as the disease rampaged through the countryside, overloading a fragile rural healthcare system. Boosted by highly infectious variants, the second wave erupted in February to inundate hospitals and medical staff, as well as crematoriums and mortuaries. Experts are still unable to say with certainty when the figures will peak.
Chinese Population Growing At Glacial Pace (Guardian) Despite efforts to increase birthrates in the past half a decade, China is currently seeing its slowest population growth since the 1960s. On Tuesday, the government released the results of its once-a-decade census, saying the overall population of China grew to 1.41178 billion in the 10 years leading up to 2020, a slowdown that was expected, but still worrisome for the future of the country. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were officially 12 million babies born in 2020, 2.65 million fewer than were born in 2019. China ended its one-child policy in 2015 to encourage more births, but the annual growth rate of 0.53% is the lowest since the early 1960s when China was dealing with the aftermath of tens of millions killed by famine. Replacing the one-child with the two-child policy has done little to stimulate population growth over the past few years. According to Dr. Ye Liu, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, “the government had to address the intersecting factors behind the low birthrate, which include rampant workplace discrimination against women of childbearing age and ‘scandalously low’ public childcare funding.”
Amcham finds 42% of members surveyed are planning or considering leaving Hong Kong (CNBC) A survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong found that 42% of respondents are considering or planning to leave Hong Kong, with more than half citing their discomfort with the controversial national security law imposed by China. Various media outlets have reported anecdotes of people or businesses leaving Hong Kong following the clampdown by Beijing. And the Amcham survey offers a glimpse of the sentiment among the expatriate community in Hong Kong. “Previously, I never had a worry about what I said or wrote when I was in Hong Kong,” said an anonymous respondent to the Amcham survey. “With the NSL, that has changed. The red lines are vague and seem to be arbitrary. I don’t want to continue to fear saying or writing something that could unknowingly cause me to be arrested,” the person said.
Hamas launches more rockets, Israeli jets strike Gaza as casualties mount (Washington Post) Violence between Israelis and Palestinians entered its fourth day as rocket attacks on Israeli cities and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip continued early Thursday and casualties climbed on both sides. Sirens blared through the night across Israel as the militant group Hamas fired 130 rockets from Gaza, with at least one striking a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing injuries and significant damage, according to Israeli officials. In Gaza, residents awoke on the normally joyous Eid al-Fitr holiday to pillars of smoke rising from sites bombed by Israeli forces, which said they had conducted overnight operations against Hamas, which controls Gaza. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 69 Palestinians, including 16 children, the Associated Press reported. Seven Israelis, including six civilians and one soldier, have been killed, the Israeli army said Thursday morning. The Israeli army has struck 600 targets in Gaza since the conflict began, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, who raised the possibility of a ground assault on Gaza. Clashes also continued overnight on the streets of Israeli cities between Jewish and Arab Israelis, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce he would deploy the military to quell the “anarchy.” Some 400 people were arrested overnight following riots throughout the country, the Times of Israel reported early Thursday, citing police. It added that 36 officers were injured.
1 note · View note
plogan721 · 4 years
Text
New series: 56 My Ambiance Life things
Hello, long time, no see, rather no write.  I have been thinking.  They say that if you think too hard, something ugly might come up.  OK, I am the only one who said it, BUUTTT….
I just celebrated my birthday.  Yeah, that one.  July 21 is the date.  I am not one to reveal my age because I do not feel it and I do not think it.  Let’s just say that I am a Gen X, the forgotten generation.  They talk about the Baby Boomers and they talk about the Millennials, and they talk about the older folks (my parent’s age group) but they never talk about mine.  I guess that we are the people that others warn each other about.  So, if you were born between 1964-1979, you know exactly what I am talking about, but this is not that conversation.  Not here, and not on this blog.  I can explain further as I go through “56 My Ambiance Life Things on that blog, or not.  You never know until you read all 4 blogs.  Did I say 4?
So, today and for the next couple of weeks or so, I will have 56 Home Prep things on that blog, 56 My Ambiance Life things on this blog, 56 P. Lynne Designs things on that blog and 56 Miss Froggy Loves Traveling things on that blog.  Each series has no rhyme or reason except that it has to do with what each blog has in store for the reader.  In My Ambiance Life’s case, it is about writing, blogging, and inspiration to name a few. So here’s a start.
  Today’s topic:  Writing during Covid
Today, I want to talk about being a writer during this time.  You can call your profession anything you want to help you sleep at night.  I call myself a writer.  I am not comfortable at the moment of calling myself a blogger, and the reason is I am not basically at the moment putting down my feelings.  I have 3 other blogs; one that covers home life (Home Prep), one that covers my business and crafting (P. Lynne Designs), and a new one that covers travel (Miss Froggy Loves Traveling).  I have enough content that can cover this blog (My Ambiance Life) and the other two blogs, but, as soon as I announced that I was putting the travel section into another blog, Covid-19 hit with a vengeance.  The only place I have been since that time is to my brother’s house in Dayton, which is an hour and a half from Columbus. 
Currently, if I were to go to Walt Disney World, I would have to self-quarantine for 14 days before going into the parks, since I am from the state of Ohio, which is now one of the high risks states in the country.  Yeah, idiots who refuse to wear a mask around here.  I hope you are happy about your right to not wear a mask.  Thanks to you, I cannot move freely throughout the country with one on.  You have impeded on mine.
Back to the subject….
As you can see, I am kind of sore about that, and thanks okay.  As a writer (blogger or not), you can write about your experiences with Covid.  There is plenty to write about, and you can put as much or as little details as you want.  After all, it is your article/post/novel.  You can have it fictionalized into something like the “Virus that Ate Manhattan”, or something that Robin Cook could only visualize in his mind.  Humm, I wonder if his book, Pandemic (2018) was about Covid in the future.  The virus in the book describes a “flu-like” virus invading parts of the world.  This is hitting to close to home.
How about writing about your personal experience with the virus, being “Stuck in the house and in the house bored” as the famous Tik Tok video suggests? I was thinking about trying some of the cute recipes that are on Tik Tok.  I already failed that breakfast sandwich trick.  I do plan on writing about it in my Home Prep blog and have a video on my YouTube channel.  Let me give you some other examples.
Examples for Motivational and inspirational type blog posts
First off, if you write motivational and/or inspirational type blog posts or want to start one during this pandemic (or any type of blog post for that matter), do not start on the negative side of it.  February and March 2020 was a shocker in the first place.  I cannot remember in my lifetime where I am ordered by the local or federal government to stay inside.  I also cannot remember a time where there is uncertainty throughout the country.  In fact, by the time I was born, the civil rights movement was almost over and by the time I started school, I was able to be in a classroom with children of different races.  I never experienced a time when I was told that I could not do something during my childhood unless my parents did not want me to do it. They tried to give me every opportunity to make a living, and have a better life. So, start with your own life.  Recall life before the pandemic. 
Who are you and what is your background?   
Where do you live?  For this, do not give out your exact location.  Notice at the beginning of this blog post, where I mentioned where my brother lives.  I said only the city and state.  Giving out your exact location can be bad for privacy. 
What have you been doing during this time?  While you are in your home or if you are working during this time, how has it been? Have you been displaced in your job?  An example of this would be “that as a gig worker and entrepreneur, it has not been easy for me, but I have been trying to stay positive by improving on my skills and creating work for myself to do.” This is how I came up with the 56 blog posts idea for all of my blogs.”  You may have something similar or mention that you have been working remotely.  I am only mentioning things that are allowed in the United States, it may be different in your country.
Examples for “Home living” type blog posts
This is easier than the motivational and inspirational blogs.  The reason is it brings together something that most people during this time, working in the home.  I am not talking about your job, but renovating and doing little remodeling jobs around the home. 
Have you an increase in your shopping habits? Talk about what you have bought during this time.  Haul videos and haul blog posts have become very popular during this time.  I have made a couple myself.
Have you discovered a new way of cooking?  Food delivery has increased since we are still limited from going into a restaurant and having a sit-down meal. 
In my first “56 Home Prep things” blog post over on my Home Prep blog, I mentioned that Uber Eats has sort of becoming my BFF, and now I need to rediscovery my cookware and other things because it is eating into my budget. Yes, you can get carried away with the idea of someone bringing your food to you, and they can sit it in front of your door with you making contact.  A word of advice, have the grocery store bring you some goodies.  I gained 20 pounds in delivery prepared food and my Ipad has become my new timer, LOL.
How have you organized and decluttered?  Talk about the space that you are trying to organize and what you want out of the space.  Come up with a plan and make it a journey. 
My craftroom, kitchen, and home office are three spaces that needed attention.  I am almost done with the kitchen and home office.  My main attention is now on the craftroom. For the craftroom, I mapped out my plan, the furniture pieces, which began before the pandemic, and now I need to order, build (most of it is from Ikea), and plop stuff in place.
For parent eyes ONLY… how have your kids faired during the pandemic?  Does your school system have at least a partial plan for August and September?  What have you done to keep them occupied?  Are you considering permanent homeschooling your kids?  Pet Parents… how has your furbaby felt about you staying at home?  I have a niece furbaby, and I know she is wondering why everywhere she turns, I am right there.  In fact, she has hidden from me on several occasions during this time and tried to escape, LOL.  Most times, she has enjoyed my company, and I have enjoyed hers.
Tips on making writing work for other types of writing besides writing in a blog…
You do not have to write to keep others happy in this form.  If you are a novelist, this is a great time to start that novel.  Of course, if you have already written your first novel, you already know this.  This advice is for those who have always wanted to write one. 
So, what do you write about besides the pandemic around us?  You do not have to write about the pandemic as I previously mentioned.  You can go to another space in your head that speaks to your desires.  For this, there are some wonderful articles on how to start a novel.  I am not a novelist.  Sometimes I wish I were that person, or I can advise you better.
Do you like poetry?  Prose? A good non-fiction how-to book?  All of these would make a good book if you put your mind to it.
Well, it’s the end…
But not for long.  I have lots to say and not enough time to say it.  Some posts will be short and some long-winded, but never boring.  If you like this, stay tuned, there more posts to come.  If you have any comments, questions, and suggestions during this “challenge” (yes, I officially calling it that), please put it in the comments section of this blog or any of my blogs.  You may also address it to my email address, [email protected].
Until then, see you next time.
  from Blogger https://bit.ly/3ghbP0V via IFTTT
0 notes
kathleenseiber · 4 years
Text
Police violence makes COVID-19 worse for black Americans
The trauma and stress police violence cause for black people, and the physical toll of that violence, may contribute to the disparity in COVID-19 deaths, a panel of experts argue.
There are various reasons COVID-19 is killing black people at six times the rate of white people, including a lack of access to health care, and poor environmental conditions in black communities.
“There are levels of chronic stress associated with living in an environment that has more police violence, and the threat of that force on its residents,” says Denise Herd, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley who recently examined how that stress can lead to disease in a new paper that will appear in the Boston University Law Review.
With the world still in the grips of the pandemic, there is no specific research relating COVID-19 cases to police violence, but Herd says the connection between the chronic stress caused by persistent police-related trauma, and diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, which has led to COVID-19 mortality, is clear.
“Those mental health issues often go untreated in African American communities and can lead to diseases that make them more compromised to COVID-19,” she adds.
Another potentially complicating factor is that asking black people, especially black men, to wear masks, as many public health authorities are requiring, may invite unwarranted attention from police, who have falsely profiled black men as criminals.
“It’s a corollary to the ‘hoodie’ argument from a few years ago, where it is not uncommon for racial minorities wearing hoodies to be considered a threat, while others freely wear them without fear of harassment,” says Osagie Obasogie, a professor of bioethics.
“Everyday racism continues to be a more immediate concern to communities of color than a pandemic, so some people may decline to wear masks,” he adds.
Two pandemics
Herd, who is also associate director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, points to an array of studies showing black people are more likely to face poor treatment from law enforcement that includes being stopped, injured, or even killed by police.
One study, conducted from 2001 to 2014, analyzed 683,000 injuries police caused that prompted treatment in emergency rooms across the country. The data showed that black people were nearly five times more likely to experience police-related injuries than white people, and they also experienced a mortality rate from those injuries twice as high as white patients.
Moreover, Herd says the use of so-called Terry stops, or stop-and-frisk policies, that allow police officers to question, search or detain people they suspect are involved in criminal activity, have been used as a way to hyper-police black communities, creating chronic stress that lowers a person’s resistance to disease.
For people of color, particularly black men, wearing or not wearing a mask while out can be a double-edged sword.
Herd references data from the New York Civil Liberties Union that showed between 2004 and 2012, four million Terry stops were conducted predominantly on black and Latino pedestrians. In 2011 alone, 90% of pedestrians stopped were either black or Latino, and 20% of the time police used physical force.
Another study found that men who reported a high number of police stops in their lifetimes were also three times more likely to exhibit post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and high levels of anxiety and stress.
There isn’t just one reason for the health problems in these communities, says Herd. Access to green spaces, affordable housing, and other economic factors also play a role. But forms of discrimination and unfair treatment by law enforcement are linked with higher rates of disease in black communities, she says.
In her paper, Herd points to research showing that in neighborhoods where pedestrians were more likely to have police question them, there was a prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and obesity; health outcomes proven to cause severe COVID-19 symptoms in patients infected with the disease.
“We don’t have all the data in yet, but it looks like it’s two Americas, two epidemics,” says Herd. “In the profile that we saw with affluent white people who had the disease first, it was because of international travel, and the cases tended to be within the older population. I don’t think that’s going to be true for the African American population. We do also see younger African American people dying.”
Masks are a double-edged sword
While wearing a face mask in public to stop the spread of COVID-19 may seem like common sense for some, for people of color, particularly black men, wearing or not wearing a mask while out can be a double-edged sword.
Erin Kerrison, an assistant professor at Berkeley’s social welfare school who studies how law and legal institutions operate as social determinants of health, says that because of the distrust black people have toward law enforcement, they may not wear masks in public to avoid being viewed as criminals.
“Due to the psychological harm and damage done in those stop-and-frisk encounters, and often the unwarranted harassment, there is a feeling that the police treat them as guilty until proven innocent,” Kerrison says.
For example, following the 2012 shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin, a young black teenager walking around his Florida neighborhood, some people says the killing was justified because “he looked shady,” Kerrison says.
“What law enforcement views as a public-safety threat is deeply racialized,” says Kerrison. “So, it is a common practice for black citizens to limit, if not altogether avoid, any sort of trigger that would lead to an encounter with a police officer.”
Source: UC Berkeley
The post Police violence makes COVID-19 worse for black Americans appeared first on Futurity.
Police violence makes COVID-19 worse for black Americans published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/
0 notes
newstfionline · 3 years
Text
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Canada Is Relieved at Biden’s Win (NYT) On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. It was like a tearful goodbye between two old friends. “We are more like family. That’s the way the vast majority of Americans feel about Canada and Canadians,” Mr. Biden said to a hall packed with politicians in Ottawa. “The friendship between us is absolutely critical to the United States.” He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very badly.” After four years of surprise tariffs, stinging insults and threats from President Trump, a giddy jubilation and sense of deep relief spread across Canada on Saturday, with the news that Mr. Biden had won the presidency. Many Canadians hope to return to the status of cherished sibling to the United States, and that the president-elect’s personal connection to Canada, and that of his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, will help heal the wounds.
States cite smooth election (AP) The 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities, according to state officials and election experts, a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat. Election experts said the large increase in advance voting—107 million people voting early in person and by mail—helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation. “The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges,” said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration. Following Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, Trump has sought to discredit the integrity of the election and argued without evidence that the results will be overturned. Republican lawmakers have said the president should be allowed to launch legal challenges, though many of those lawsuits have already been turned away by judges and those that remain do not include evidence of problems that would change the outcome of the race.
Future of business travel unclear as virus upends work life (AP) For the lucrative business travel industry, Brian Contreras represents its worst fears. A partner account executive at a U.S. tech firm, Contreras was used to traveling frequently for his company. But nine months into the pandemic, he and thousands of others are working from home and dialing into video conferences instead of boarding planes. Contreras manages his North American accounts from Sacramento, California and doesn’t expect to travel for work until the middle of next year. Even then, he’s not sure how much he will need to. “Maybe it’s just the acceptance of the new normal. I have all of the resources necessary to be on the calls, all of the communicative devices to make sure I can do my job,” he said. “There’s an element of face-to-face that’s necessary, but I would be OK without it.” That trend could spell big trouble for hotels, airlines, convention centers and other industries that rely so heavily on business travelers like Contreras. Work travel represented 21% of the $8.9 trillion spent on global travel and tourism in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Amazon, which told it employees to stop traveling in March, says it has saved nearly $1 billion in travel expenses so far this year. The online shopping giant, with more than 1.1 million employees, is the second-largest employer in the U.S. At Southwest Airlines, CEO Gary Kelly said while overall passenger revenue is down 70%, business travel—normally more than one-third of Southwest’s traffic—is off 90%. U.S. hotels relied on business travel for around half their revenue in 2019, or closer to 60% in big cities like Washington, according to Cindy Estis Green, the CEO of hospitality data firm Kalibri Labs.
Final weeks of historic hurricane season bring new storms (AP) Just when you thought it should be safe to go back to the water, the record-setting tropics are going crazy. Again. Tropical Storm Eta is parked off the western coast of Cuba, dumping rain. When it finally moves again, computer models and human forecasters are befuddled about where it will go and how strong it will be. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Theta—which formed overnight and broke a record as the 29th named Atlantic storm of the season—is chugging east toward Europe on the cusp of hurricane status. The last time there were two named storms churning at the same time this late in the year was in December 1887, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. But wait there’s more. A tropical wave moving across the Atlantic somehow survived the mid-November winds that usually decapitate storms. The system now has a 70% chance of becoming the 30th named storm. That’s Iota on your already filled scorecard. If it forms, it is heading generally toward the same region of Central America that was hit by Eta. Never before have three named storms been twirling at the same time this late in the year, Klotzbach said. Hurricane records go back to 1851, but before the satellite era, some storms were likely missed.
Religious Persecution Is Worsening Worldwide (CT) Dictators are the worst persecutors of believers. This perhaps uncontroversial finding was verified for the first time in the Pew Research Center’s 11th annual study surveying restrictions on freedom of religion in 198 nations. The median level of government violations reached an all-time high in 2018, as 56 nations (28%) suffer “high” or “very high” levels of official restriction. The number of nations suffering “high” or “very high” levels of social hostilities toward religion dropped slightly to 53 (27%). Considered together, 40 percent of the world faces significant hindrance in worshiping God freely. And the trend continues to be negative. Since 2007, when Pew began its groundbreaking survey, the median level of government restrictions has risen 65 percent. The level for social hostilities has doubled.
Critics, protesters call removal of Peruvian president a legislative coup (Washington Post) The little-known head of Peru’s Congress took the helm of the South American nation Tuesday amid a public outcry over the surprise removal of the country’s popular president, Martín Vizcarra. Vizcarra’s ouster late Monday and the inauguration of interim president Manuel Merino amounted to a return of the political chaos that has long plagued Peru, where nearly every president since 1990 has resigned, been indicted or been jailed amid clouds of corruption. One former president killed himself. Yet at a time when the Andean nation is confronting one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks, Vizcarra’s ouster, based on still-unproven bribery allegations, appeared to be fundamentally different. Critics called it a congressional coup staged by Machiavellian legislators desperate to halt his anti-corruption and political reform campaigns, which took aim at their pocketbooks and threatened to end many of their political careers. Under Vizcarra, Peru adopted laws that took on festering malfeasance within the 130-member legislature, where 68 lawmakers are now under investigation or indictment for alleged crimes ranging from money laundering to murder. Members of the current Congress have been prohibited from seeking reelection, and anyone with active charges is barred from running. Critics now fear that Merino—who previously sought to turn the military against Vizcarra and attempted an earlier removal on different grounds in September—will seek to lift those rules, allowing a compromised political class to preserve itself and setting up a new period of instability in this nation of 32 million.
Generation COVID (Foreign Policy) A report from the British school inspection agency found that children had suffered from being outside the regular school system during lockdown, with some younger children regressing from being potty-trained back to diapers and older children showing reduced reading stamina. The chief inspector for schools found that the children experiencing the worst effects were those whose parents’ employment did not allow for flexible or at-home working.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tests positive for Covid-19 (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Monday that he has tested positive for coronavirus infection and will be working in self-isolation while being treated. “There are no lucky people in the world for whom Covid-19 does not pose a threat,” Zelenskiy said on Twitter. “However, I feel good. I promise to isolate myself and I continue to work.” Zelenskiy became president in 2019 as a political neophyte, previously known as an actor and comedian. He became popular in the country for a TV sitcom, “Servant of the People,” in which he played the role of a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after making a rant about corruption that goes viral. He handily defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko. Ukraine’s coronavirus infections began surging in late summer and have put the country’s underpaid doctors and underequipped hospitals under severe pressure.
Nagorno-Karabakh: Turkey wins the war? (Foreign Policy/Eurointelligence) Russia may have secured a peace deal to end a six-week conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, but Turkey has won the war. Ankara threw its political support behind Azerbaijan and employed Turkish cutting-edge drones and military expertise to allow Azerbaijan to roll over Armenian positions in the difficult mountain area under dispute. The conflict is not new, and occasional fighting has been going on there since 1994, but this time it is a decisive victory. This victory will boost Erdogan’s image as a strongman with geopolitical weight, and helps him put a foot into the South Caucasus. Hard power impresses former Soviet countries.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse (AP) Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said Wednesday that they were resigning en masse following a move by the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s government to disqualify four of their fellow pro-democracy legislators. The 15 lawmakers announced the move in a news conference Wednesday, hours after the Hong Kong government said it was disqualifying the four legislators. The disqualifications came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, passed a resolution stating that those who support Hong Kong’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, or threaten national security or ask external forces to interfere in the city’s affairs, should be disqualified. Beijing has in recent months moved to clamp down on opposition voices in Hong Kong with the imposition of a national security law, after months of anti-government protests last year rocked the city. A mass resignation by the pro-democracy camp would leave Hong Kong’s legislature with only pro-Beijing lawmakers. The pro-Beijing camp already makes up a majority of the city’s legislature.
Iran sanctions continue (Foreign Policy) The Trump administration doesn’t intend to give up its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran just because it lost an election. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on six companies and four people accused of supplying components to Iran Communication Industries, a company run by the Iranian military that is already under U.S. and EU sanctions. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the United States would continue to take action against those that support Iran’s “militarization and proliferation efforts.”
Frantic search after medicines vanish from Lebanon shelves (AP) She is a nurse at a Beirut hospital, and still Rita Harb can’t find her grandfather’s heart drugs. She has searched pharmacies up and down Lebanon, called friends abroad. Not even her connections with doctors could secure the drugs. Unlike many amid Lebanon’s financial crash, she can afford them—they just aren’t there. To get by, her 85-year-old grandfather is substituting his medicine with more pills of a smaller concentration to reach his dosage. That too could run out soon. Drugs for everything from diabetes and blood pressure to anti-depressants and fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment have disappeared from shelves around Lebanon. Officials and pharmacists say the shortage was exacerbated by panic buying and hoarding after the Central Bank governor said that with foreign reserves running low, the government won’t be able to keep up subsidies, including on drugs. That announcement “caused a storm, an earthquake,” said Ghassan al-Amin, head of the pharmacist syndicate. Lebanese now scour the country and beyond for crucial medications. The elderly ask around religious charities and aid groups. Family members plead on social media or travel to neighboring Syria. Expats are sending in donations. It’s the newest stage in the economic collapse of this country of 5 million, once a regional hub for banking, real estate and medical services. More than half the population has been pushed into poverty and people’s savings have lost value. Public debt is crippling, and the local currency plunged, losing nearly 80% of its value. The health sector is buckling under the financial strain and coronavirus pandemic.
‘Countdown to catastrophe’ in Yemen as U.N. warns of famine—again (Reuters) Millions of men, women and children in war-torn Yemen are facing famine—again, top United Nations officials warned on Wednesday as they appealed for more money to prevent it—again. “We are on a countdown right now to a catastrophe,” U.N. food chief David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council. “We have been here before ... We did almost the same dog-and-pony show. We sounded the alarm then.” The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the people in need of help. “If we choose to look away, there’s no doubt in my mind Yemen will be plunged into a devastating famine within a few short months,” Beasley told the 15-member council. In late 2017, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that Yemen was then facing “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims”. “We prevented famine two years ago,” Lowcock told the Security Council on Wednesday. “More money for the aid operation is the quickest and most efficient way to support famine prevention efforts right now.”
1 note · View note
newstfionline · 3 years
Text
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
SpaceX’s ‘Resilience’ Lifts 4 Astronauts Into New Era of Spaceflight (NYT) It’s not yet the same as hopping on commuter flight from New York to Washington or renting a car from Avis, but Sunday’s launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station in a capsule built by SpaceX was a momentous step toward making space travel commonplace and mundane. In the future, instead of relying on spacecraft built by NASA or other governments, NASA astronauts and anyone else with enough money can by a ticket on a commercial rocket. NASA designated Sunday night’s launch as the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft built and operated by SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk. The four astronauts aboard—three from NASA, one from JAXA, the Japanese space agency—left Earth from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A Crew Dragon took two astronauts—Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley—to the space station in May, but that was a test flight to shake out remaining glitches in the systems.
The Hot New Covid Tech Is Wearable and Constantly Tracks You (NYT) In Rochester, Mich., Oakland University is preparing to hand out wearable devices to students that log skin temperature once a minute—or more than 1,400 times per day—in the hopes of pinpointing early signs of the coronavirus. In Plano, Texas, employees at the headquarters of Rent-A-Center recently started wearing proximity detectors that log their close contacts with one another and can be used to alert them to possible virus exposure. And in Knoxville, students on the University of Tennessee football team tuck proximity trackers under their shoulder pads during games—allowing the team’s medical director to trace which players may have spent more than 15 minutes near a teammate or an opposing player. The powerful new surveillance systems, wearable devices that continuously monitor users, are the latest high-tech gadgets to emerge in the battle to hinder the coronavirus. Some sports leagues, factories and nursing homes have already deployed them. Resorts are rushing to adopt them. A few schools are preparing to try them. And the conference industry is eyeing them as a potential tool to help reopen convention centers. Civil rights and privacy experts warn that the spread of such wearable continuous-monitoring devices could lead to new forms of surveillance that outlast the pandemic—ushering into the real world the same kind of extensive tracking that companies like Facebook and Google have instituted online. They also caution that some wearable sensors could enable employers, colleges or law enforcement agencies to reconstruct people’s locations or social networks, chilling their ability to meet and speak freely.
2 states announce new virus restrictions as US cases hit 11M (AP) Michigan and Washington on Sunday joined several other states in announcing renewed efforts to combat the coronavirus as more than 11 million cases of COVID-19 have now been reported in the United States—with the most recent million coming in less than a week—and as many Americans prepare to observe a Thanksgiving holiday marked by the pandemic. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration ordered high schools and colleges to stop in-person classes, closed restaurants to indoor dining and suspended organized sports—including the football playoffs—in an attempt to curb the state’s spiking case numbers. The order also restricts indoor and outdoor residential gatherings, closes some entertainment facilities and bans gyms from hosting group exercise classes. The directives from Michigan come on the same day that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state would enforce new restrictions on businesses and social gatherings for the next month as it, too, continued to combat a rising number of cases.
After Trump, will the presidency recede a bit for Americans? (AP) Calvin Coolidge, known by some as “Silent Cal” during his time in the White House, used his autobiography to live up to his nickname. “The words of a president,” he wrote in 1929 after leaving office, “have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately.” The world is very different now. Communication is instantaneous. Americans—even a president—are often measured by the quantity and volume of what is now called their “content.” Since he took office in 2017 (and for many years before that), Donald Trump has been a different kind of president when it comes to communication—a more-is-better kind of guy. You can adore Trump or despise him. But from late-night tweet storms to oft-repeated untruths to provocative statements about everything from the kneeling of pro football players to canned beans to buying Greenland, there’s one thing it has been almost impossible to do with the president of the United States these past four years: ignore him. “No one can get away from it. It’s never happened before. I’ve always cared about the president, but it’s never been like this,” says Syd Straw, an entertainer and artist who lives in the Vermont woods. “Even people who like him feel that way, I think.” Now, as another administration prepares to take the reins of American power, have the Trump years forever changed the place that the presidency occupies in American life and Americans’ lives? Has Calvin Coolidge’s statement become woefully outdated in the era of the ever-present presidency, or is it an idea whose time has returned, as voiced by a sign on the fence at Lafayette Square near the White House last week: “Enough!”
Hurricane Iota roars onto Nicaragua as 2nd blow in 2 weeks (AP) In a one-two punch, Hurricane Iota roared ashore as a dangerous Category 4 storm along almost exactly the same stretch of Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast that was devastated by an equally powerful Hurricane Eta 13 days earlier. Iota had intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm during the day Monday, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it weakened slightly as it neared the coast late Monday and made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph). It hit the coast about 30 miles (45 kilometers) south of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi. Iota came ashore just 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall Nov. 3, also as a Category 4 storm. Eta’s torrential rains saturated the soil in the region, leaving it prone to new deadly landslides and floods, forecasters warned.
Crisis-hit Peru elects centrist lawmaker as third president in a week (AP) Peru’s Congress on Monday elected legislator Francisco Sagasti as Peru’s interim president in an attempt to defuse a sharp political crisis in the Andean nation after angry protests and the departure of two presidents in the past week. Sagasti, 76, from the centrist Morado Party, won enough votes to head the unicameral Congress, which means he would constitutionally assume the presidency of the country ahead of national elections called for April. The move makes Sagasti Peru’s third president in a week, after interim leader Manuel Merino resigned on Sunday, five days after being sworn in following the ousting of centrist Martin Vizcarra. Sagasti, a former World Bank official and engineer, faces a formidable challenge to bring stability to the world’s no. 2 copper producer, which was already hard hit by COVID-19 and heading for its worst economic contraction in a century.
Brexit Negotiations Are Running Out Of Time (Foreign Policy) The European Union and United Kingdom continue trade talks in Brussels today, following months of stalled debates and stalemate. At this point there have probably been more “pivotal” weeks over the course of Brexit negotiations than there are European Union member states, so what makes this time different? The most important factor is time, and the lack of it. The so-called transition period for Britain and the EU ends on Dec. 31, bringing in a new era of trade relations. The next few days will decide whether that era is relatively smooth or chaotic in the event of a no-deal outcome. Time also weighs on the European parliament, which ultimately has to read the draft deal (after it’s been translated into the bloc’s 24 official languages) and approve it before that end of year deadline.
Northern Ireland and Amazon (Foreign Policy) Amazon may be powerful enough to get away with a light tax bill, but erasing international borders is likely a step too far, despite the inadvertent efforts of the company’s online customer service team. Replying to a frustrated customer in Northern Ireland wishing to watch a rugby match on Amazon’s streaming service, the helpline unwittingly took a side in one of the world’s longest running geopolitical conflicts and told the customer that the reason he couldn’t see the game was because it was only available for viewing in the United Kingdom. Amazon’s response quickly went viral, causing gleeful Irish nationalists to ask the company to help cancel Northern Ireland’s nearly 100-year-old membership in the United Kingdom, as it had been “automatically signed up.”
Mixed messaging in France (Washington Post) The French government is bristling at international criticism of its response to recent Islamist terrorist attacks, accusing foreign leaders and journalists of misrepresenting an attempt to target extremist violence on French soil as a crackdown on Islam. But some French Muslims say the government’s own mixed messaging is to blame. In the wake of the beheading of Samuel Paty, a middle school teacher who had shown his students caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, and the stabbing of three people inside a basilica in Nice, the French government has closed a mosque and is investigating more than 50 Muslim organizations it has accused of fomenting violence. The actions follow a broader initiative unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron in early October to combat “Islamist separatism” and to “reform” the practice of Islam in France, mostly by targeting foreign funding for Muslim community organizations and by creating certificate programs for French-trained imams. But in so doing, Macron called Islam a religion “in crisis all over the world” and said he seeks to create an “Islam of the Enlightenment,” comments that raised eyebrows in the Muslim world. Amid the furor, the government has rejected accusations that it is Islamophobic and voiced exasperation at what it perceives as a smear campaign that amounts to little more than victim-blaming in a time of national mourning.
Cyprus split? (Foreign Policy) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for Cyprus to be split permanently during a visit to the island over the weekend. Erdogan met with the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, whom he had backed in recent elections in the northern part of the island. Erdogan added that Tatar would soon visit Azerbaijan, which suggests the country could soon join Turkey as only the second nation in the world to recognize the independence of Northern Cyprus. “Ankara has absolutely no respect for international law, European principles and values, and its obligations towards the EU,” the Cypriot presidency said in a statement reacting to Erdogan’s comments.
New Asian Trade Deal Pushes West to Margins (Foreign Policy) On Sunday, 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region signed the world’s largest trade agreement, which is expected to accelerate a shift in global trade toward East Asia and away from the West. Negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), spearheaded by China, began with a slow start in 2012 but gained new urgency as the Trump administration pursued a protectionist trade policy. The United States is not party to the new deal. The RCEP will reduce tariffs over a 20-year period, streamline customs procedures, and replace a number of bilateral trade agreements in the region with one set of rules. The pact establishes the Asia-Pacific as the world’s largest trading bloc, bigger than the European Union or North America, accounting for $26.2 percent of global output—some 30 percent of the global economy. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that by 2030 the deal could increase global GDP by $186 billion, although China, South Korea, and Japan are expected to benefit more than other signatories.
Asia at a crossroads as cases surge (Reuters) Countries across the Asia-Pacific region reported record new coronavirus numbers and fresh outbreaks, with Japan facing mounting pressure to reimpose a state of emergency and South Korea warning it was at a “critical crossroads”. The resurgence of the virus in Asia comes as travel restrictions are gradually being eased in the region. New daily cases in Japan reached a record 1,722 on Saturday, with hot spots in the northern island of Hokkaido and the western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka. In South Korea, officials reported more than 200 new cases for the third consecutive day.
Bach says Tokyo Olympic “participants” may need vaccinations (AP) Olympic participants and fans arriving for next year’s postponed Tokyo Olympics are likely to face requirements to be vaccinated to protect the Japanese public, IOC President Thomas Bach said Monday after meeting with new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. “In order to protect the Japanese people and out of respect for the Japanese people, the IOC will undertake great effort so that as many (people) as possible—Olympic participants and visitors will arrive here (with a) vaccine if by then a vaccine is available,” Bach said. “This makes us all very confident that we can have spectators in the Olympics stadium next year and that spectators will enjoy a safe environment.” The Olympics are to open on July 23, 2021.
They Once Ruled Ethiopia. Now They Are Fighting Its Government. (NYT) When it comes to mountain warfare, the people of Tigray—an ancient kingdom in the far north of Ethiopia, spread across jagged peaks and lush farmland—have decades of hard-won experience. Tigrayan fighters led a brutal war through the 1970s and ‘80s against a hated Marxist dictator of Ethiopia, whom they eventually toppled in 1991, becoming national heroes. For most of the next three decades, Tigrayans ruled Ethiopia. But after Abiy Ahmed, a peace-talking young reformer, came to power as prime minister in 2018, he brusquely sidelined Tigray’s leaders. Tensions exploded violently on Nov. 4, as the world was focused on the presidential election in the United States, when Mr. Abiy launched military strikes in Tigray. Now Tigray is once again at war, fighting the federal government. The battle pits the nation’s army and Mr. Abiy, an internationally feted winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, against the ruling party of Tigray, which commands a large force of well-armed and experienced fighters who know their own mountain terrain well. Already the conflict has escalated at alarming speed with intense fighting that has involved airstrikes and artillery barrages, sent thousands of civilians fleeing across borders—some in boats or even swimming—and led to reports of civilian massacres. The rush to war has exacerbated ethnic divisions so badly that on Friday it prompted warnings of potential ethnic cleansing and even genocide.
The Pandemic As A Welcome Lesson In Humility (El Espectador/Colombia) What a drag. It’s so exhausting. I can’t take it any more. These are the kinds of everyday complaints that come with the pandemic, and they’re understandable, because the situation really is an energy drain. And yet, the pandemic also offers some benefits. By pulling the curtain back on some painful inequalities, it may trigger fundamental changes around the world, even if they must happen under duress or fear. Events are forcing us to consider outside realities, but also to look inside ourselves for purpose. We may be wondering what our lives mean. Threats strip our life goals bare like surgery without anesthesia. Without them, life may become painful and depressing, but this may precede a recovery toward a healthier spirit. and that’s because anxiety is an unexplored source of creativity and resilience that is usually only approached by the brave or saintly. Our hidden resources emerge under the pressure of hostile surroundings, when they might have remained hidden and dormant. Uncertainty has recovered its rightful place as an essential part of existence, without the comforts and structures we use to cushion our lives. We are not in control. Science is not an all-powerful god and, believe it or not, Google can’t answer all of our questions. As we do not know what will happen tomorrow, the wisdom is to follow the age-old counsel of living in the present. One day at a time, trusting in God, loosening our expectations and letting go of the absurd ideas about control. It’s better now to be a humble bamboo that bends with the wind than a colossal, and unyielding tree that could come crashing down.
0 notes