All posts by medical

Human Behavior

In Split Vote, WeHo City Council Bans Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products – WEHOville

West Hollywoods City Council approved on Tuesday night a proposal that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products. The flavor ban would cover smoking tobacco (cigarettes, pipes, cigars), smokeless tobacco (snuff, snus and chewing tobacco) and nicotine solutions in vape forms (e-cigarettes).

The flavor ban was presented as a public health initiative intended to prevent people from becoming addicted to nicotine, the drug contained in tobacco products.

In its vote, the Council directed staff to bring back an ordinance to ban these products. As of right now, there is no ban and until it passes on second reading whenever a draft ordinance comes to Council these are still allowed to be sold in WeHo.

Studies have shown the vast majority of people who become addicted to nicotine first try it before the age of 18 and many of those young people are first introduced via flavored products. E-cigarette vapes come in dozens of flavors including cotton candy, chocolate, and bubble gum, flavors particularly appealing to young people. Use of tobacco products has been shown to cause cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

We have a community-wide commitment to helping people with addiction and this falls in that category, said Councilmember Lindsey Horvath who authored the proposal along with Mayor John DAmico.

Additionally, the proposal would ban the use of coupons and discounts on tobacco products since they make it cheaper for people to buy tobacco products.

The item was passed with three votes from DAmico, Horvath and Councilmember John Heilman. Meanwhile, Councilmember John Duran voted against it and Councilmember Lauren Meister abstained from the vote.

Duran spoke vehemently against the ban, pointing out that West Hollywood is an adult city with less than 10% of its residents under age 18. He also noted federal law already bans people under age 21 from buying any form of tobacco. Duran suggested that people who want flavored tobacco products will just go outside the city to buy it so this ban will not deter use.

Sometimes I think government can go too far intruding into the private lives of people when we try to regulate human behavior, said Duran.

Duran further noted that West Hollywood is a city known for its adult nightlife and that passing such a nanny-state item as this goes against the culture of the city.

Meister suggested the proposal should first go to the citys Business License Commission for input before the Council voted on it. She also criticized the lack of clarity about several points of the proposal.

It this targeting youth or is this targeting our 21+ adult population? asked Meister.

She also asked if flavored vapes that do not contain nicotine will be included and if flavored cannabis vapes will be included but got no answer.

However, when Meister asked if menthol cigarettes will be banned, Horvath said they would. Horvath explained her proposal was modeled after a Los Angeles County ban, passed in October 2019, on flavored tobacco products that included menthol cigarettes.

Menthol has been used as a flavoring in cigarettes for decades. Menthol brands such a Newport or Salem or Kool are particularly popular with African-American smokers as well LGBT smokers. Meister suggested banning menthol cigarettes that are popular with minority groups could be viewed as discriminatory.

Duran and Meister also questioned the hypocrisy of the city recently approving smoking lounges for cannabis, but now trying to ban flavored tobacco products.

It is inconsistent for us to support the creation of smoking lounges, hookah bars for our Middle Eastern community and then attempt to do this to our ma and pa retailers, said Duran.

Heilman responded that public health is more important than business.

The point of this is to protect our residents from the dangerous impact of tobacco and Im going to support that over the interests of the business community, said Heilman.

Heilman also suggested that city staff return with a date for implementing it, saying that waiting until the end of the year would give tobacco retailers time to adapt,

During the public comment period, several store owners criticized the proposal, noting they received no advance notice from the city about the item. Typically, the city seeks input from business owners and the Chamber of Commerce on matters that will impact their business prior to proposing an item like this.

Donny Cacy, who owns the 7-Eleven convenience store on Santa Monica Boulevard at Curson Avenue, suggested the city should work on enforcing the ban of sales to minors rather than initiating this.

Mani Merabi, owner of Smoke for Less tobacco shop at 8205 Santa Monica Blvd., at La Jolla, said he is a responsible shop owner who has never been cited for selling to minors. He said the ban could put him out of business and the city should work to help keep stores open rather than add to the many empty storefronts in town.

Meanwhile, Arthur Corona, speaking for a group of shop owners, suggested the city shouldnt ban flavored tobacco products but instead regulate them like cannabis.

Banning this in one fatal swoop leads to perhaps a slippery slope. I think if were looking at the fact its flavored, we have to look at flavored alcohol, we have to look at other flavored things that are perhaps are damaging to ones health, said Corona.

Resident John Hall said the city shouldnt change the rules on how a business can operate and suggested grandfathering in existing businesses.

Meanwhile two employees of Equality California spoke in favor of the ban, noting that tobacco use is higher in the LGBT community than the general population and preventing LGBT youth from getting addicted is a good thing.

Horvath and DAmico initially placed their proposal on the consent calendar, which is where the Council approves multiple items in a single vote without any discussion. However, Duran removed it from the consent calendar so it could be discussed.

This is not the first time a Councilmember has tried to pass a tobacco-related item via the consent calendar. In Dec. 2009, then Councilmember Abbe Land proposed a ban on smoking in outdoor areas of bars and restaurants and initially placed it on the consent calendar. However, Duran also removed that item from the consent calendar for discussion, which ultimately caused the creation of a smoking task force to study the matter. The end result was the city ended up banning smoking on patios of restaurants but not nightclubs.

Two other smoking related items are tentatively scheduled to be on the Councils agenda in the coming months a ban on smoking in the citys parks and a ban on smoking in apartment buildings.

Link:
In Split Vote, WeHo City Council Bans Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products - WEHOville

Human Behavior

Want to make your brand psychologically capturing? Try using the power of ritual. – Business Insider – Business Insider

Whether it's tech or retail or any other niche industry, brand value is the crux of a company's continued success. Just ask Apple.

For years, various market and consumer reports have hinted at the things that matter most for building good brand value. Things like commitment, novelty, authenticity, trust, presence.

With these, there's an underlying psychology at play. So how do you design products and experiences to make a brand psychologically capturing?

In all the trade secrets of brand strategy, one piece has been overlooked: rituals.

There's a growing science and psychology of ritual that's started to shed light on many of the puzzling aspects of human behavior. Ritual, as we've come to learn, is the basis of all human culture and a core feature in the evolutionary history of the human species. Rituals emerge as a byproduct of physical interactions between people and the external environment.

Nick Hobson. Courtesy of Nick Hobson

They start small. But, in time, mere physical actions get transformed into a symbolic ritual that stands for something big, something sacred.

While most recognize this to be true of religious life (think ritual prayer), research tells us it's the same underlying psychology and neurobiology for how consumers relate to their most cherished brands. It's been shown that when people look at their favorite brand logos, there's an activation in the brain's reward circuitry not unlike that with cultural and religious symbols.

Kelly Peters. Courtesy of Kelly Peters

So, whether Apple, Amazon, Google, or Mercedes, we worship our most beloved brands. We become fanatical in our loyalty and following. That feeling of emotionally connecting to a brand and having that shared social identity comes from and through ritual.

If your brand or company wants a true fan, you need to get your customers to ritualize your offering.

Nathaniel Barr. Courtesy of Nathaniel Barr

Below are the three unique features of ritual that, if properly applied and integrated into design strategy, have the capacity to truly transform brand value for your customers.

Go here to see the original:
Want to make your brand psychologically capturing? Try using the power of ritual. - Business Insider - Business Insider

Human Behavior

For the Birds: Area is home to different species of hawks – McDowell News

In recent weeks, Ive enjoyed some observations of the regions larger raptors, including red-tailed hawks and red-shouldered hawks.

Anyone who travels along the regions Interstate Highway System has probably noticed hawks perched in trees or on utility lines adjacent to the roadway. The section of Interstate 26 that runs between Unicoi and Johnson City is often a productive area for keeping alert for raptors. The raptor I have most often observed along this stretch of road is the Red-tailed Hawk, although I have also observed Coopers Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and American Kestrel. In the time of spring and fall migration, its also possible to observe Broad-winged Hawks.

The Red-tailed Hawk is named for its prominent red tail. However, only adults show the characteristic red tail. The affinity for Red-tailed Hawks for roadsides is a double-edged sword. Viewing a large hawk from your car is an easy way to watch birds. For inexperienced or careless raptors, however, roadside living is often rife with the chance for a collision with a car or truck. The Red-tailed Hawk, which prefers open countryside, is attracted to the margins of roads and highways because these locations also attract their favorite prey, which includes rodents like rats, squirrels, mice and other small mammals such as rabbits.

Human behavior contributes to some of the problems that hawks encounter in the zone that brings them too close for comfort to motorized vehicles. When people toss trash from a car, the scent of the litter will lure curious and hungry rodents. In turn, hunting hawks are brought to the edges of roads in search of their preferred prey, increasing the likelihood of colliding with automobiles.

In recent days, I have also noticed a Red-shouldered Hawk lurking among the branches of the large weeping willow next to the fish pond. The Red-shoulder Hawk typically prefers wetland habitats and is less likely to haunt roadsides. According to a factsheet published by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, this raptor breeds in moist woodlands, riverine forests, the borders of swamps, open pine woods and similar habitats. Nesting almost always occurs near water, such as a swamp, river or pond.

The Red-shouldered Hawk produces a distinctive, piercing whistle that reminds me of the shrill call of a Killdeer. The visiting Red-shouldered Hawk has been silent so far, perhaps not wishing to draw attention. The few times the local crows have noticed the presence of any sort of raptor, theyve flocked together to mob the unfortunate hawk. Its also not the right time of year; during courtship and the subsequent nesting period, these hawks are vocal, but at other times of the year, they are rarely heard. Its also possible to mistakenly think you have heard one of these large hawks. Blue Jays have apparently learned to imitate the kee-yar call of this hawk, often working a flawless rendition of the whistled notes of this large raptor.

In contrast to the related Red-tailed Hawk, the Red-shouldered Hawk soars less and prefers to perch hidden in the cover of trees. This hawks name comes from the reddish-brown shoulder patches in the birds wings. Adults show a tail marked with vivid bands of black and white that is quite distinctive. The Red-shouldered Hawk belongs to the same genus of raptors as its larger relative, the Red-tailed Hawk. The genus, buteo, includes about two dozen large raptors that are often the dominant avian predators in their respective habitats.

Some of the buteo species have adapted to life on islands, including the Galapagos Hawk and the Hawaiian Hawk. Some of these hawks have quite descriptive names, including the White-throated Hawk, Gray-lined Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk and Short-tailed Hawk. Outside the United States, raptors in the buteo genus are often known as buzzards. When the first European colonists came to the New World, they applied the term buzzard to both types of native vultures as well as the large raptors like Swainsons Hawk and Broad-winged Hawk that reminded them of the ones back in Europe.

All too often, our large hawks dont receive the love they deserve from the public. They may even run afoul of misinformed individuals who may regard all predatory birds as bad. The reality is that all hawks are valuable components of a healthy, working ecosystem, with each species filling a certain niche.

Link:
For the Birds: Area is home to different species of hawks - McDowell News

Human Behavior

Novel or familiar: A conversation about drug addiction and the brain – Arizona Public Media

Scientists are researching addiction by studying how the human brain responds to addictive drugs. University of Arizona pharmacologist Art Riegel begins with observing how rodents become addicted. He talked with UA professor emerita in neuroscience Leslie Tolbert about his studies.

TOLBERT: In animal science, people often talk about novelty-seeking. And yet what we're seeing in addicted humans is in many cases the seeking of something that is very familiar.

RIEGEL: We have an area of the brain that is hard-wired. It is evolutionarily advantageous for us to pick out new things in our environment, and if you were exposed to something that was rewarding, like an apple, and the activation of that area of the brain is designed for you to learn and remember and go back to that place. But if you were to go back to that same area where you received that reward, in that instance, in the brain area called the midbrain, wouldn't be turned on because the reward you are receiving was normal and expected. In fact, it might be turned on if you didn't receive the reward because that would be a change.

So, this area of the brain has evolved to pick up on differences in our environment. The problem is that the drugs of abuse dont allow the system to turn on and off rapidly. In fact, every single time that the person uses the drug, the drugs are so powerful in activating this system, that experience registers as novel every single time.

TOLBERT: It doesn't really register as less than before, it actually registers as "novel."

RIEGEL: That's true. So as the experience goes on and the person progresses from experimental use into substance abuse, they develop a tolerance to some of the unpleasant effects. All other natural rewards, the importance and value of those items is diminished relative to the powerful association of the drug. This is the beginning of a compulsion that elicits that sort of behavior.

TOLBERT: So, youre really getting at the cellular basis of compulsion?

RIEGEL: The final pathway that we're studying is probably important for the instrumental act of relapse. So, when we're thinking about drug addiction, it's a multi-faceted disease, and the treatments or the aspects that we are interested in won't necessarily alleviate the genetic changes that have rendered this person an addict. What we possibly can do is knock down the behavior, the poor decision making, the inability to understand the repercussions of what's going to happen, and yes, at a cellular level that's what we are studying.

TOLBERT: So how do you do that? How do you knock down that automatic response?

RIEGEL: What we need to do is to understand how this area of the brain which has many types of cells, we need to identify these individual types of neurons which we think are the problem. I guess the challenge comes in at a human level, is that there are so many different environmental cues that can facilitate relapse. It could be stress, it could be the behavior context, and so were parsing out those things as well as understanding the individual neurons, the genetic wiring that is inside those particular cells.

More here:
Novel or familiar: A conversation about drug addiction and the brain - Arizona Public Media

Human Behavior

Grok combines Machine Learning and the Human Brain to build smarter AIOps – Diginomica

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece here about Moogsoft which has been making waves in the service assurance space by applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to the arcane task of keeping on keeping critical IT up and running and lessening the business impact of service interruptions. Its a hot area for startups and Ive since gotten article pitches from several other AIops firms at varying levels of development.

The most intriguing of these is a company called Grok which was formed by a partnership between Numenta, a pioneering AI research firm co-founded by Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, who are famous for having started two classic mobile computing companies, Palm and Handspring, and Avik Partners. Avik is a company formed by brothers Casey and Josh Kindiger, two veteran entrepreneurs who have successfully started and grown multiple technology companies in service assurance and automation over the past two decadesmost recently Resolve Systems.

Josh Kindiger told me in a telephone interview how the partnership came about:

Numenta is primarily a research entity started by Jeff and Donna about 15 years ago to support Jeffs ideas about the intersection of neuroscience and data science. About five years ago, they developed an algorithm called HTM and a product called Grok for AWS which monitors servers on a network for anomalies. They werent interested in developing a company around it but we came along and saw a way to link our deep domain experience in the service management and automation areas with their technology. So, we licensed the name and the technology and built part of our Grok AIOps platform around it.

Jeff Hawkins has spent most of his post-Palm and Handspring years trying to figure out how the human brain works and then reverse engineering that knowledge into structures that machines can replicate. His model or theory, called hierarchical temporal memory (HTM), was originally described in his 2004 book On Intelligence written with Sandra Blakeslee. HTM is based on neuroscience and the physiology and interaction of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex of the mammalian (in particular, human) brain. For a little light reading, I recommend a peer-reviewed paper called A Framework for Intelligence and Cortical Function Based on Grid Cells in the Neocortex.

Grok AIOps also uses traditional machine learning, alongside HTM. Said Kindiger:

When I came in, the focus was purely on anomaly detection and I immediately engaged with a lot of my old customers--large fortune 500 companies, very large service providers and quickly found out that while anomaly detection was extremely important, that first signal wasn't going to be enough. So, we transformed Grok into a platform. And essentially what we do is we apply the correct algorithm, whether it's HTM or something else, to the proper stream events, logs and performance metrics. Grok can enable predictive, self-healing operations within minutes.

The Grok AIOps platform uses multiple layers of intelligence to identify issues and support their resolution:

Anomaly detection

The HTM algorithm has proven exceptionally good at detecting and predicting anomalies and reducing noise, often up to 90%, by providing the critical context needed to identify incidents before they happen. It can detect anomalies in signals beyond low and high thresholds, such as signal frequency changes that reflect changes in the behavior of the underlying systems. Said Kindiger:

We believe HTM is the leading anomaly detection engine in the market. In fact, it has consistently been the best performing anomaly detection algorithm in the industry resulting in less noise, less false positives and more accurate detection. It is not only best at detecting an anomaly with the smallest amount of noise but it also scales, which is the biggest challenge.

Anomaly clustering

To help reduce noise, Grok clusters anomalies that belong together through the same event or cause.

Event and log clustering

Grok ingests all the events and logs from the integrated monitors and then applies to it to event and log clustering algorithms, including pattern recognition and dynamic time warping which also reduce noise.

IT operations have become almost impossible for humans alone to manage. Many companies struggle to meet the high demand due to increased cloud complexity. Distributed apps make it difficult to track where problems occur during an IT incident. Every minute of downtime directly impacts the bottom line.

In this environment, the relatively new solution to reduce this burden of IT management, dubbed AIOps, looks like a much needed lifeline to stay afloat. AIOps translates to "Algorithmic IT Operations" and its premise is that algorithms, not humans or traditional statistics, will help to make smarter IT decisions and help ensure application efficiency. AIOps platforms reduce the need for human intervention by using ML to set alerts and automation to resolve issues. Over time, AIOps platforms can learn patterns of behavior within distributed cloud systems and predict disasters before they happen.

Grok detects latent issues with cloud apps and services and triggers automations to troubleshoot these problems before requiring further human intervention. Its technology is solid, its owners have lots of experience in the service assurance and automation spaces, and who can resist the story of the first commercial use of an algorithm modeled on the human brain.

See original here:
Grok combines Machine Learning and the Human Brain to build smarter AIOps - Diginomica

Human Behavior

Jennifer Aniston’s Advice to Her 30-Year-Old Self is Great for Anyone – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Jennifer Aniston rose to fame on the hit 90s sitcom, Friends. Though the show has been off the air for nearly two decades, fans still remember Aniston as her iconic character, Rachel Green.

Now starring in Apples The Morning Show, the 51-year-old is taking time to reflect on her life and what she would do differently.In an interview with Glamour Magazine, Aniston discussed what advice she would give her 30-year-old self. Though her remarks reflect on her personal experience, its advice that anyone could benefit from.

Aniston seems to have it all. Shes beautiful. Shes successful. And she just seems to exude confidence.

But recently, The Marley and Me actress opened up about her childhood and revealed that it wasnt as stable and happy as the actress appears to be now.Though the actress has talked about her parents before, in a recent interview with Interview, Aniston revealed that watching her parents as she grew up taught her who she didnt want to be.

She told Sandra Bullock, who was conducting the interview that she considered her childhood home destabilized and unsafe. She says she thinks thatseeing adults be mean to each other and witnessing certain things about human behavior, made her decide that thats not what she wants. Thats not who she wants to be.

In 2013, Aniston sat down for an interview with Glamour magazine. This time the interviewer was her Were the Millers co-star Jason Sudeikis.

During the interview, the pair discussed their lives and where they are today. But Sudeikis also asked his co-star to reflect on the past.

Midway through the interview, Sudeikis asked the actress what she would tell her teenage self. The response was typical and something we all wish we would have known: Dont try so hard. Pay attention. Do your homework. Go to class.

For her 20s, her advice was a little more insightful. She says she would tell her 20-year-old self: Not to fret so much.

But the advice she would give her 30-year-self is advice that we should all listen to. At this age, its a time where you have a better understanding of yourself and are carving out your future.

Aniston says, to her 30-year-old self, she would say: Go to therapy. Clean up all of the sh-t. Clean up all of the toxins and the noise. Understand who you are. Educate yourself on the self.

This isnt the only time the star has discussed how therapy has helped her. In 2015, the actress did a revealing interview with The Hollywood Reporter. In the interview, she discussed a lot of the drama that surrounded her life.

She brought up her relationship with her mother, her infamous split from fellow actor Brad Pitt, and also revealed that she suffers from dyslexia.

To help her through some of her toughest times, Aniston has turned to therapy. In fact, at the time of the interview, it was a regular part of her routine.

During therapy, her favorite therapist, who tragically died while the actress was going through her divorce, helped her face her anger issues. The star discussed how she had a tendency to bottle things up and how this would cause her problems on set.

Through therapy, the actress has learned to recognize her anger and understand how to assert herself. She is now open with her emotions and her feeling about what is going on.

In addition to therapy, her therapist helped her integrate other therapeutic activities in her life. One of her favorites: mediation.

Aniston told The Hollywood Reporter that she would start her day with meditation, right after coffee and right before the days chaos began. It sounds like shes got things figured out.

Excerpt from:
Jennifer Aniston's Advice to Her 30-Year-Old Self is Great for Anyone - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Human Behavior

Slain Hollywood Sex Therapist Asked Court to Protect Her From Ex-Boyfriend – The Daily Beast

One thing is clear: Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick feared ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse enough to ask a court to issue restraining order against himtwice.

Online court records show the former Playboy model and fitness trainer filed for a protective order in 2011, got one, and then petitioned the court for another one the following year. The second was dismissed for what the docket listed as lack of prosecution, which often means the person seeking it did not follow up.

The courts were closed for the federal holiday Monday so details of Harwicks complaints against Pursehouse were not available. But the LAPD said she had seen him two weeks ago and had recently expressed fear of the 6-foot-4 computer programmer.

Then, early Saturday morning, Pursehouse allegedly burst into Harwicks Hollywood Hills home and began attacking her. According to a narrative issued by police, her roommate was so terrified he jumped over a wall to run for help.

The officers who responded to the house found the 38-year-old on the ground, below a third-floor balcony, police noted. She later died at the hospital from her injuries. That afternoon, police arrested Pursehouse, 41, at his own home on suspicion of murder based, in part, on the signs of a ferocious struggle inside the home.

The homicide drew headlines not only because Harwick was a well-known therapist who made frequent appearances on podcasts and TV shows, but because she had also once been engaged to Price Is Right game show host Drew Carey. They called it off in 2018.

Carey issued a statement Monday that said he and Harwick had a love that people are lucky to have once in a lifetime.

She was a positive force in the world, a tireless and unapologetic champion for women, and passionate about her work as a therapist, he said. I am overcome with grief. I would like to thank you in advance for giving myself and everyone who loved Amie privacy while we try to work through this tragic situation.

Friends and clients of Harwick publicly mourned her as a vivacious personality and passionate advocateespecially for women.

She was just a good person, who always saw the good in everyone, pro wrestlerJasmin St. Claire told The Daily Beast.

St. Claire met Harwick in 2003 when both were modeling for Coffin Case, a guitar case company. St. Claire opened up about problems she was having in her marriage at the time.

Amie was talking to me about it and I thought this girl seems really smart, she recalled. I told her, you know, Are you a therapist? You should be a therapist.

That was already Harwicks plan. She was pursuing a B.A. in psychology at California State Polytechnic University, which she later followed up with a masters degree from Pepperdine University, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She set up a practice in West Hollywood and recently told the streaming show Good Morning LaLaLand many of her clients were younger women working through relationship issues, people coming to terms with a kink or fetish, or former or current sex workers.

Kelsey Darragh, a writer for E!s Dating No Filter, said on Twitter that she was fucking enraged to hear the terrible news, especially because Harwick had helped her deal with domestic violence in her own past.

I want everyone to know how badass this woman is. She wore vintage chanel suits with bright red pumps...she made her space feel warm & feminine...she was the DEFINITION of boss bitch. & while she had a take no shit attitude she was an incredibly empathic & thoughtful therapist, Darragh wrote.

She added, The system fails women.

Laura Lux, a lingerie model and DJ, said she also had sessions with Harwick when she lived in Los Angeles. She was such a wonderful person and i cant put into words how much she did for my mental health. hard to believe its even real, she told her 342,000 followers on Twitter.

In her bio, Harwick described herself as a former Playboy centerfold who had also produced her own workout video. In 2014, she wrote The New Sex Bible for Women: The Complete Guide to Sexual Self-Awareness and Intimacy.

In her January 2019 appearance on Good Morning LaLaLand, Harwick said sex therapy was a natural career choice for her. She said that as a teenager, she could be found carrying around true crime books and feminist zines.

I was always interested in human behavior, like the dark side of human behavior, and also feminism and sexuality.

Pursehouse is jailed in lieu of $2 million bail. He is due in court on Wednesday. His relatives could not be reached for comment, and it is not clear if he has an attorney.

Visit link:
Slain Hollywood Sex Therapist Asked Court to Protect Her From Ex-Boyfriend - The Daily Beast

Human Behavior

From SARS to COVID-19, cities plagued by inequality bear brunt of outbreaks – The Japan Times

BANGKOK As the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, becomes the latest urban center to face a deadly disease outbreak, city planners and physicians say such densely packed hubs are particularly vulnerable and may need a redesign.

Wuhan, a city of about 11 million, has been under virtual lockdown for over three weeks. More than 1,400 people on the mainland have died, according to authorities.

The outbreak has brought to mind another deadly epidemic, SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed more than 770 people between 2002 and 2003.

That diseases epicenter was a housing estate in Hong Kong, amongst the most densely populated and unequal cities in the world.

With more than two-thirds of the global population forecast to live in urban areas by 2050, cities need to be designed for good health, said Sreeja Nair, a policy researcher at the Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) in Singapore.

While urban living offers prospects of better economic opportunities and infrastructure, including health care facilities, the way cities densify and expand plays a huge role in the spread of infectious diseases, she said.

Wealth inequality in cities also affects their vulnerability and capacity in terms of preparedness and response, Nair said.

This skew on account of socioeconomic disparities and governance puts some parts of the population at higher risk, including those lacking access to proper housing, health care and basic utilities such as water and sanitation, she said.

Cities have long been magnets for people seeking economic opportunities and a better quality of life.

But these areas with people living in close proximity have also enabled the fast spread of disease, from bubonic plague in the Middle Ages to bird flu, SARS and the novel coronavirus.

Although urban residents generally have better health than rural populations, the risks are distributed unequally, with most of the burden falling on vulnerable segments such as slum dwellers, according to the World Health Organization.

WHO has identified urbanization as one of the key challenges for public health in the 21st century, even as it notes municipal agencies often implement health policies first and act more quickly than federal bodies in emergencies.

The urban environment is linked to a large number of noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, heart disease and pulmonary disease, as well as communicable diseases such as tuberculosis from crowding and poor ventilation, and waterborne and vector-borne diseases such as dengue, according to the WHO.

Urban areas also have more points of risk because of contact between humans and animals, said David Heymann, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

That includes areas with rodents, live domestic and wild animal markets and suburban areas where animals are raised in industrial agricultural facilities, said Heymann, a former executive director at WHO where he led the response to SARS.

Urban areas are unique and must develop solutions in addition to strong disease detection and response systems to rapidly control emerging infections, he said.

The proliferation of drug-resistant infections and the myriad methods of transmission can overwhelm even the cleanest and wealthiest of cities.

Singapore, among the worlds best-planned cities but also among the most connected, has reported nearly 60 coronavirus cases, one of the highest tallies outside China.

Modern cities are better able to leverage technology to strengthen monitoring of cases and populations at risk, and create strong communication channels for building awareness and avoiding panic among residents, said Nair at LKYCIC.

But in addition, cities need good design and infrastructure, noted Matt Benson, program director at Think City, a government-backed urban regeneration agency in Malaysia.

More than density, what facilitates the spread of diseases in cities is human behavior. You can have a neighborhood of low density, but if no one picks up their waste that could lead to a dengue outbreak, he said.

Planners should focus on building 20-minute cities, or villages within the city, where one can get to their job, the doctor or their friends all within 20 minutes, he said.

Melbourne, Australia, is already testing such neighborhoods where most daily needs are within a 20-minute walk, bike ride or public transport commute.

And Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is aiming for the quarter-hour city to reduce pollution and improve the quality of life.

These high-density areas create greater social cohesion and bring more economic and environmental benefits, said Anjali Mahendra, research director at the World Resources Institutes Ross Center for Sustainable Cities in Washington.

What stops such areas from becoming overcrowded environments where disease transmission can be high is the availability of good quality physical infrastructure, with planning standards that promote livability for all, she said.

Informal settlements in cities in developing countries have particular trouble accessing such services, she added.

Cities represent places of innovation, amenities, and opportunity, so we continue to see cities grow, Mahendra said.

But our urban institutions should function such that the economic benefits of cities, and the value created, are more equitably shared.

Originally posted here:
From SARS to COVID-19, cities plagued by inequality bear brunt of outbreaks - The Japan Times

Human Behavior

This could be Microsoft’s most important product in 2020. If it works – CNET

This story is part of Elections 2020, CNET's full coverage of the 2020 elections.

Building 83 doesn't stand out on Microsoft's massive Redmond, Washington, headquarters. But last week, the nameless structure hosted what might be the software giant's most important product of 2020.

Tucked away in the corner of a meeting room, a sign reading "ElectionGuard" identifies a touchscreen that asks people to cast their votes. An Xbox adaptive controller is connected to it, as are an all-white printer and a white ballot box for paper votes. If you didn't look carefully, you might have mistaken all that for an array of office supplies.

ElectionGuard is open-source voting-machine software that Microsoft announced in May 2019. In Microsoft's demo, voters make their choices by touchscreen before printing out two copies. A voter is supposed to double-check one copy before placing it into a ballot box to be counted by election workers. The other is a backup record with a QR code the voter can use to check that the vote was counted after polls close.

With ElectionGuard, Microsoft isn't setting out to create an unhackable vote -- no one thinks that's possible -- but rather a vote in which hacks would be quickly noticed.

The product demo was far quieter than the typical big tech launch. No flashy lights or hordes of company employees cheering their own product, like Microsoft's dual screen phone, its highly anticipated dual-screen laptop or its new Xbox Series X.

And yet, if everything goes right, ElectionGuard could have an impact that lasts well beyond the flashy products in Microsoft's pipeline.

ElectionGuard addresses what has become a crucial concern in US democracy: the integrity of the vote. The software is designed to establish end-to-end verification for voting machines. A voter can check whether his or her vote was counted. If a hacker had managed to alter a vote, it would be immediately obvious because encryption attached to the vote wouldn't have changed.

The open-source software has been available since last September. But Microsoft gets its first real-world test on Tuesday, when ElectionGuard is used in a local vote in Fulton, Wisconsin.

The local election will provide Microsoft an opportunity to find blind spots in the ElectionGuard system. The question is how many it will find. During ElectionGuard's first demo at the Aspen Security Forum last July, Microsoft identified some user experience flaws. A big one: Voters were confused as to why two sheets of paper were printing out.

"This is a critical, important part of why we're having this pilot next week," Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president for customer security and trust, told a group of reporters at Building 83. "To find out, does this stuff all work? Do people verify? Do they do these things?"

You could mistake the ElectionGuard setup for office supplies, what with the printer and ballot box next to the voting touchscreen.

Microsoft isn't alone in looking to keep the vote safe from hackers, disinformation campaigns and other forms of interference. Tech giants, election officials and governments around the world are all tackling the issue after cyberattacks played a key role in the 2016 US presidential election.

Election security poses a maze of concerns beyond the potential for voting machines to be compromised. Political campaigns have been targeted, voter registration databases have been hacked and a lack of funding or training -- sometimes both -- has hampered local officials. Then there are the coordinated disinformation campaigns that use social media to undercut democracy.

The Department of Homeland Security says no votes have been tampered with in the last four US elections. But that doesn't mean voting machines can't be hacked. In 2017, the Defcon hacker conference introduced a Voter Hacking Village. Every year since then, attendees have found security issues with machines used in actual elections. Sometimes the vulnerabilities were found in as little as 15 minutes.

Hackers at Defcon have shown how easy it is to get through voting machines' cybersecurity.

Many of these machines are still being used because red tape prevents software patches or the budget isn't available to replace them.

Even if no votes had been hacked, the vulnerabilities present another thing to fret about: disinformation about the integrity of election results. US officials consider that to be more worrisome than a cyberattack. If you can be convinced that your vote was hacked, you lose confidence in the results. That's potentially as powerful as the effects of an actual hack.

Microsoft isn't alone in proposing solutions to the problem. Since 2016, many tech giants have rolled out programs aimed at buttressing trust in the system. Google's Advanced Protection Program for political campaigns protects their accounts from basic cyberattacks. Facebook has plans to take on disinformation campaigns and protect campaigns that use the social network.

Still, Microsoft is the first major tech company to directly address voting machine infrastructure, the front line of election security. But it isn't promising that ElectionGuard prevents machines from being hacked. Rather, it's promising to make it obvious if a machine is hacked.

"This is not a system that cannot be hacked by an adversary. it is a system that is pointless for an adversary to hack," Burt said. "Even if they can figure out a way to somehow influence that or change that, it would be detected by the system, and you can go to the paper ballots and do a hand count if you needed to."

Most election security experts will tell you that technology and voting tend to make a bad cocktail.

It's why lawmakers like Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has long advocated for paper ballots to keep elections secure. There's a long history of security concerns with election technology, and Microsoft is walking a tightrope with ElectionGuard.

MIT computer science researchers, for instance, found significant security issues with the Voatz mobile voting app, including the ability to change votes. Voatz said that the researchers' information was incomplete.

Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president for customer security and trust

And it doesn't require an expert to tell you that technology has failed democracy in the 2020 presidential campaign. The important Iowa caucuses crumbled under the rushed rollout of a vote-tallying app that was too complicated for election volunteers.

When asked about the Iowa caucuses, Anne Johnson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Cybersecurity Solutions Group, couldn't help but laugh at the blunder.

"Let me just say, don't test in production," Johnson joked at the company's Redmond headquarters. "That wasn't a cybersecurity issue. That was a dev issue."

Microsoft has that maxim clearly in mind with ElectionGuard's debut. It's why the software giant deliberately worked with a small Wisconsin town that has about 500 registered voters. The vote is for the town's school board and a local judge. ElectionGuard will also serve as the backup to paper ballots, rather than the primary voting method.

Burt said the company hopes to learn how ElectionGuard gets used by voters, election officials and poll workers. The Wisconsin elections board decided in June 2019 to work with Microsoft on the pilot, but the ElectionGuard system hasn't been certified for standard use in the state, according to a statement from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

"We hope this pilot test will give us further insights into how the system works and whether voters like it," said Meagan Wolfe, administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. "We can use this data as we try to make elections in Wisconsin even more secure, usable and accessible."

The pilot is intended to be the first of many for Microsoft over the next few years. ElectionGuard won't be used for any major elections in 2020, the company said. With so many opportunities to bungle ElectionGuard's rollout, and so few to redeem it, Microsoft is being careful with how it presents the technology.

"We're basically trying to test in a very controlled environment where the outcome of the election is in no way dependent on the technology," Burt said. "We just want to test, 'How does it work? What can we learn? What we need to change and improve?'"

ElectionGuard works through a process known as "homomorphic encryption," a concept first introduced in 1987 by Josh Benaloh, a Microsoft Research senior cryptographer.

Your vote is meant to be private. Private votes make intimidation or bribery useless, since no one can confirm you voted a certain way.

Microsoft's encryption also keeps the vote secret by converting choices into random lines of code until they're decrypted.

Votes shouldn't be decrypted, however, since they're intended to stay private. Homomorphic encryption allows for counting votes while they remain secret, according to Benaloh.

"It's sort of structured gibberish," the cryptographer said. "Yes, it's gibberish. Yes, you can't tell what it is. But it retains enough structure that you can actually work with it rather than just ungibberishing it."

With ElectionGuard, Benaloh said, only the final tally should be decrypted, not individual votes.

At Microsoft's demo for its new system, R.C. Carter, the company's director of strategic projects, explained that ElectionGuard would run parallel to paper ballots.

After a vote is cast on the touchscreen, the digital vote is encrypted and tallied. The vote would also be printed out, verified by the voter, then placed in a ballot box next to it. The printout would come with two sheets of paper: one for the ballot box, and the other, which bears your votes and a QR code, to serve as a receipt to verify your vote later online.

Once you vote, two pieces of paper are printed out -- one to put in the ballot box, and one to take as a receipt to validate your vote after the polls have closed.

Election officials count the paper ballots, the usual and most secure method. The counted paper ballots are the election results, not those submitted digitally. The count takes place offline, after the polls closed.

Once that happens, the encrypted votes are collected as a .ZIP file that anyone can download and use to verify the votes.

If something didn't match up, a voter could look at the encrypted vote to see if anything had been tampered with.

"If you can't stop the hack, the second-best thing is to know that you've been hacked," Carter said. "This is exactly what this does."

ElectionGuard addresses many voting machine security concerns. But not all of them.

It's open-source, which means that it's free and can be adapted for any machine. That helps local election officials facing budget issues. It also allows major election machine makers to implement it on their hardware across the board.

Cutting through red tape surrounding election machines, however, is another obstacle.

Different states have different regulations on complying with the Election Assistance Commission, a US agency that develops voting system guidelines. Getting the EAC's certification has become a major challenge for election security, Burt said.

Microsoft found that many election counties were using outdated Windows machines because EAC guidelines required a complete recertification process just to apply simple security patches, for example. Installing an entirely new voting system would be another hurdle for certification, Burt said.

"The process of certifying is incredibly slow and burdensome," Burt said. "What it really is going to require is a refresh of devices in the market. You can't take some old Windows 7 voting machine and download ElectionGuard and stick it in."

Another human error concern that Microsoft will have to address is that people tend to fail at verifying their own votes, or even reporting it when there's something wrong.

In a study from the University of Michigan published in January, researchers found that only 6.6% of 241 voters in a mock election told poll workers there was an issue, despite all the machines being rigged to show errors on the printed-out vote. Without any intervention, only 40% of the voters actually reported the issue to the voting officials, the study found.

And even if it were reported, election security experts don't expect much recourse over detected errors.

"Being able to verify something is not a remedy if there's no recourse," said Harri Hursti, an election security expert and co-founder of Defcon's Voter Hacking Village. "Most people don't want to do things twice. It's just human nature and human behavior."

Microsoft is hoping to address the nonreporting issue by training the poll workers in Wisconsin to prompt voters to check their ballots once they've been cast. In Wisconsin, poll workers have to sign ballots before they're cast, and that's when they'll also tell voters to verify their vote.

The University of Michigan study found that reporting errors jumped from 6.6% to 85.7% when poll workers encouraged people to check their vote.

Harri Hursti, election security expert

During tests with election volunteers, Microsoft found that small adjustments like changing the color on printouts could also be effective.

"One simple thing we've done that already looks like it's working super well in Wisconsin is the ballot comes out white, the verification code is going to be printed on a piece of yellow paper, just so you have that visual difference," Burt said, referring to test runs conducted last week with election volunteers.

Human error isn't the only concern for ElectionGuard. Microsoft has put the system through a bug bounty program. It also invited NCC Group, a security research firm, to do an independent review of the software last September.

Researchers have submitted bug bounties on ElectionGuard for review, though Microsoft has yet to make any payouts, Carter said. Microsoft is also working to change ElectionGuard's core programming language from C, after NCC Group pointed to vulnerability issues.

If all goes well, Microsoft and ElectionGuard could change the way votes are counted and verified around the world, introducing a new layer of security to protect democracies. The company is considering possibilities of what could go wrong and carefully rolling out ElectionGuard in pilot tests in smaller elections over the next year. But other adopters might not be so cautious.

As an open-source tool, it's available to the world, and a public failure -- something like the Iowa caucuses app debacle -- could tarnish ElectionGuard's image even if Microsoft had nothing to do with it.

"You've put your finger on a valid concern. I won't deny it," Microsoft's Benaloh said. "There is risk there. There is some subtlety to how to use it properly."

Burt said that governments around the world have been interested in using ElectionGuard, some for countrywide elections.

"We just heard from a developer in a European country who's been contracted to build the ElectionGuard system for city elections," Burt said. "And we had no idea they were doing that. That's the nature of open-source projects. You put stuff up there and say, 'It's here for anyone to use.'"

Galois' prototype voting machine wasn't available for hackers to test at Defcon.

Election machines that go perfectly right in testing and demonstrations might experience issues when used in the real world. That's what Galois, a government contractor, learned when it brought DARPA's $10 million voting machine to Defcon to see if hackers could find issues with its security. An unexpected bug prevented the machine from working until the last day.

Microsoft worked with Galois to help develop ElectionGuard's software as well. Joey Dodds, a research engineer at Galois, said the open-source tool is still very much in a testing phase and he doesn't expect it to be used in an actual election with major consequences until 2024 at the earliest.

He acknowledged that ElectionGuard is solving for a small part of election security, and that hackers still have many ways to meddle with democracies.

"It is not a complete solution for electronic voting without a backup," Dodds said. "It is not going to have anything to say about poll books, voter registration, anything that happens prior to ballot recording and casting. That's all going to require different approaches."

Even if the technology behind Microsoft's ElectionGuard was perfect, it would have to deal with motivated disinformation campaigns mixed with human error from all sides -- voters, poll workers and third-party developers using the open-source tools.

"There are still plenty of opportunities to screw it up, but ElectionGuard gives you a framework to work forward," said Tod Beardsley, director of research at security firm Rapid7. "We'll see if it's actually implemented right."

Originally posted here:
This could be Microsoft's most important product in 2020. If it works - CNET

Human Behavior

‘Better Call Saul’ Showrunner Peter Gould on Season 5 Flashforwards, ‘Breaking Bad’ Cameos, and the Looming Ending [Interview] – /FILM

Posted on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020 by Fred Topel

For the last two seasons, Peter Gould has taken over as showrunner onBetter Call Saul. While Vince Gilligan wrote and directed El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, his co-creator Gould has handled the origin story of Saul Goodman, from his early days as Jimmy McGill to his future as Gene Takovic in witness protection in Nebraska.

At the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, AMC announced Better Call Saul was renewed for a sixth and final season. Gould and Gilligan also revealed some Breaking Bad characters who would appear on season five of Saul. Consider this as spoiler alert if youre trying to stay fresh before the new episodes.

After the panel, Gould spoke with /Film about spending more time with Gene, working Breaking Bad characters into the story, and how theyre thinking about ending the series. We even got into some theories about what Jimmy/Saul is doing to Kim Wexler. Better Call Saul returns Sunday, February 23 on AMC.

Is this the longest cold open flash forward youve done on the series?

This is. This was the longest weve ever spent with Gene, Jimmys escaped alter ego. The first few times we saw Gene, it was really more of a tone poem or a character moment. Now, theres a Gene story and well see where it goes.

Did that come from the moment where he started giving legal advice to a guy in the mall caught by security?

Well, it came from in the previous season he fainted and then he was taken to the hospital in season four. He thought he got out home free and there was a cabbie who drove him home. The cabbie, he saw, was from New Mexico and he had this feeling the cabbie knew who he was. Thats what were paying off this season in the beginning of the season, just the fear of being discovered. Its all about Gene.

Could season six open with a whole episode of a Gene flash forward?

It absolutely could. Im fascinated by it. I want to see more Gene. Im really interested in Gene. Every time weve gone to that world, that black and white world in Nebraska, Ive been really interested in whats happening. So I think were going to see more.

Was it difficult to think of a way for Hank to appear pre-Breaking Bad?

You know, we dont sit around trying to bring characters in from Breaking Bad. Its just not how we work but we had this idea that youll see happens very organically. It just felt very natural that the DEA would be called in this particular circumstance and who from the DEA would show up would be Hank. We didnt know for sure that Dean was available or that he even wanted to do it. We had the whole episode broken and we were starting to write it. Vince and I got on the phone to Dean and told him how meaningful it would be for him to come back and started pitching where Hank was in his life. As I recall, Dean basically cut us off and said, Man, Im so excited. I cant wait to be there. He just brought it. I think youll see when you see the episode, he is just great.

Its Hank and his partner, Gomez. Was there any way to get his wife into the episode?

Oh boy, theres nothing Id like better than having Betsy Brandt on the show. Betsy Brandt is one of my, aside from Marie being one of my all time favorite characters, Betsy Brandt is one of my all time favorite people. So we really would love to get her into the world. You wont see her in these next two episodes though.

Vince said on the panel it would be awesome to see Jesse Pinkman again. Aaron said after El Camino he thought that was it and there was no going back. Do you think Aaron could be wrong?

I think that if we find a way to bring Jesse back or Walt back into the world, I would hope. Its completely up to Aaron whether he wants to go back to that character. Certainly, we wouldnt do it if Aaron wasnt interested. That would just kill it right there but we wouldnt approach him unless we thought there was a pretty compelling case to be made.

You just said Walt too.

Well, yeah. Look, Bryan Cranston is one of my heroes. I love Bryan. I loved working with Bryan. I got to write episodes on Breaking Bad that Bryan directed. I would love to have Bryan come to Albuquerque and direct an episode or two. Theres very few people who can move from comedy to drama the way Bryan can do. To be honest with you, its all about the story and its about whats happening with Jimmy McGill, Saul Goodman, Gene Takovic and well just have to see.

Do you know how it ends or are you figuring that out now?

We have a method which sounds crazy, but we try to think ahead but really we dont know for sure whats going to happen until we go brick by brick. We try to keep asking ourselves, What would this character do now under these circumstances? We try to be as true as we possibly can to real human behavior. Having said that, this season we got an idea of how to end the show that Im really excited about. Well see if that ends up being it.

Jimmy is the sort of character who if I knew him in real life, he would exhaust me with all his schemes and shenanigans. Yet theres something so sympathetic about watching him. What do you think that is?

I think Jimmy really wants everyone to like him. Hes somebody who just wants love. When we started, we started asking ourselves, whats the difference between Jimmy and Walt. Walter White on Breaking Bad, to some extent he wanted respect. He wanted to dominate people. He wanted to have power. Jimmy, in his heart, wants to be loved by everybody. Its impossible. He wants to be loved by Chuck and thats never going to happen. Well see if being loved by Kim is enough for him.

Is he corrupting Kim?

Thats a great question. Thats one of the questions that were going to ask this season is what affect does being with Jimmy have on being Kim? You have to wonder what the appeal of Jimmy is for Kim. Kim clearly has a wild side to her that Jimmy brings out. So is Jimmy corrupting her? Or, is he bringing new aspects of her personality to the front? Its really hard to say. Thats one of the big questions I think well all be asking as the season goes on.

Are there people who are just not cut out for the sort of way Jimmy operates? Could Kim be one of those people? Shes trying to follow his lead but shes not cut from the same cloth.

Jimmy cant help it. He always sees the shortest distance between two points. He always sees a way to cut corners, even if he doesnt do it. Kim is, I think, just as smart and maybe more creative than Jimmy but she still has ethics. Shes not willing to hurt other people to get what she wants. Well have to see how she holds onto that.

Original post:
'Better Call Saul' Showrunner Peter Gould on Season 5 Flashforwards, 'Breaking Bad' Cameos, and the Looming Ending [Interview] - /FILM