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Immunology

Capito, Manchin announce funding for Marshall University research – My Buckhannon

WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced a grant of $434,180 to support Marshall Universitys Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research. Funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Across West Virginia, our universities are known for their exceptional research capabilities, Senator Capito said. This funding will help support Marshall Universitys Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and further our understanding in the field of Immunology. I am proud of Marshall Universitys research efforts and the positive impact they create in our state. This is a wonderful investment into West Virginia, and I thank DHHS for their continued support.

Marshall University conducts essential research that impacts countless lives every day and this funding will ensure their research continues. I applaud Marshall for their great work in medical research, which covers diseases that affect millions of Americans, and look forward to them continuing to make West Virginia proud, said Senator Manchin.

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Capito, Manchin announce funding for Marshall University research - My Buckhannon

Human Behavior

How to Make the Study of Consciousness Scientifically Tractable – Scientific American

Strangely, modern science was long dominated by the idea that to be scientific means to remove consciousness from our explanations, in order to be objective. This was the rationale behind behaviorism, a now-dead theory of psychology that took this trend to a perverse extreme.

Behaviorists like John Watson and B.F. Skinner scrupulously avoided any discussion of what their human or animal subjects thought, intended or wanted, and focused instead entirely on behavior. They thought that because thoughts in other peoples heads, or in animals, are impossible to know with certainty, we should simply ignore them in our theories. We can only be truly scientific, they asserted, if we focus solely on what can be directly observed and measured: behavior.

Erwin Schrdinger, one of the key architects of quantum mechanics in the early part of the 20th century, labeled this approach in his philosophical 1958 book Mind and Matter, the principle of objectivation and expressed it clearly:

By [the principle of objectivation] I mean a certain simplification which we adopt in order to master the infinitely intricate problem of nature. Without being aware of it and without being rigorously systematic about it, we exclude the Subject of Cognizance from the domain of nature that we endeavor to understand. We step with our own person back into the part of an onlooker who does not belong to the world, which by this very procedure becomes an objective world.

Schrdinger did, however, identify both the problem and the solution. He recognized that objectivation is just a simplification that is a temporary step in the progress of science in understanding nature.

He concludes: Science must be made anew. Care is needed.

We are now at the point, it seems to a growing number of thinkers who are finally listening to Schrdinger, where we must abandon, where appropriate, the principle of objectivation. It is time for us to employ a principle of subjectivation and in doing so understand not just half of realitythe objective worldbut the whole, the external and internal worlds.

The science of consciousness has enjoyed a renaissance in the last couple of decades and the study of our own mindsconsciousness/subjectivityhas finally become a respectable pursuit. Its still tricky, however, to determine what kinds of data and what kinds of experiments we should consider legitimate in the study of consciousness.

We are retreating from the notion of only objective science being legitimate. We are now developing a new set of standards to replace objectivity. These new standards are based on the notion of intersubjective confirmation. This fancy term just means that we recognize that all objective data are data that we can discuss and decide as a community of scientists whether to regard as accurate and relevant and thus true. Truth is intersubjective, not objective. There is no view from nowhere. There is always a somewhere, a perspective, a subject.

This is the epistemological hard problem lurking behind the ontological hard problem. The former asks: What kinds of data and questions do we need to ask to figure out the nature of consciousness? How does science make sense of what has seemed to so many for so long to be a scientifically intractable problem? The latter is the now well-known reframing of the classic mind/body problem proposed by David Chalmers in his 1996 book The Conscious Mind: Toward a Theory of Consciousness.

Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi made the epistemological problem clear in their 2001 book A Universe of Consciousness:

Consciousness poses a special problem that is not encountered in other domains of science. What we are trying to do is not just to understand how the behavior or cognitive operations of another human being can be explained in terms of the working of his or her brain. We are not just trying to connect a description of something out there with a more sophisticated scientific description. Instead, we are trying to connect a description of something out therethe brainwith something in herean experience, our own individual experience, that is occurring to us as conscious observers.

So, the study of consciousness requires a mapping between two very different domains: an objective (i.e., intersubjective) measurable world out there and a subjective hard-to-measure internal world. How do these worlds correspond to each other? What physical structures are associated with consciousness and why? How far down the chain of being does consciousness extend?

I want to suggest here, however, that while the study of subjectivity, as a physical phenomenon, is different to some degree because its turning the very lens of consciousness back on itself, it is not different in kind from other scientific objects of study.

Reasonable inference is a commonly used tool in science because we very rarely know what is really going on in whatever area of science were focused on. We make inferences all the time, based on the best information available. Neuroscientist Christof Koch makes this point well in his new book The Feeling of Life Itself.

A number of neuroscientists and philosophers are now developing various tools for measuring the presence and type of consciousnesssome of which I discussed in my last essay here.

All of these tests depend on reasonable inference. We cant know any consciousness other than our own.

A colleague, psychologist Jonathan Schooler at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told me that an important aspect of first-person science is identifying key tenets that emerge from experience itself, and then examining what implications they may have for science more generally. He and other scientists are fleshing out a first-person science and a metascience along these lines.

To sum up, by ignoring mind in nature we ignore ourselvesbecause the world is, for each of us, wholly a creation of our own mind, but based on the imperfect sense data we receive from the objective world. What we gain by accepting subjectivity as part of nature is a more complete science.

Human minds are, in this new view of science, a natural product of the evolution of mind and matter, which are just two aspects of the same thing. Human minds represent the most complex form of mind in this corner of our universe, as far as we know.

We are, then, special in the complexity of our minds, but we are not distinct in a qualitative sense from the rest of nature, and the infinite number of far less complex minds that constitute naturethe world all around us.

We are now at a point where scientists and philosophers who study consciousness can roll up their sleeves and get busy testing the nature of consciousness in its many manifestations, and that data will, in turn, feed back into our theories of consciousness, and of physical reality more generally, in an ongoing dance of unfolding truth.

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How to Make the Study of Consciousness Scientifically Tractable - Scientific American

Human Behavior

The Company Behind the Iowa Caucus App Debacle has a Deeply Troubling Plan to Manipulate Voters – Common Dreams

Those gathered to see the Iowa caucus results roll in on February 4 were sorely disappointed- the vote-counting process had been delayed by the slick new app meant to make the process more efficient had malfunctioned, delaying the announcement of the final results until Friday. The botched voting process caused an uproar online, sparking rumors about another DNC effort to sideline Bernie. The debacle also brought scrutiny to Shadow, the company that created the app, which bills itself as progressive digital consultancy.

While Shadows massive mishandling of the Iowa caucus vote is important, investigation into Shadow and its sole investor, Acronym, may have revealed something even worse.

A memo leaked by VICE last Friday showed that Shadow is part of a dense web of progressivenew media companies headed by Tara McGowan, a former Obama campaign staffer with personal ties to the Buttigieg campaign. While parent company Acronym News Corp has distanced itself publicly from Shadow, but org charts show that it is closely intertwined with the tech company as part of a concerted campaign to counter Republican messaging online and reach Democratic voters through strategic narratives. They plan to disseminate content with a mix of paid advertising and messaging from local new sites set up in swing states, with messages optimized to convert citizens based on their online activity.

What is deeply concerning is McGowans seeming inability to distinguish between reporting and strategic communication. According to the VICE article, Asked whether they had license to report freely on Democratic politicians or were tasked with, as the document says, Reach[ing] voters with strategic narratives + information year-round, she said, I dont know what the difference between the two is.

The memo states that Acronyms previous campaign has shown how much more effective boosting and targeting owned media and news content online was over pre-produced ads at influencing a voters support for or against an issue. Essentially, Acronym treats reporting and advertising as different methods to reach the same objective. In a glowing profile in Bloomberg news, McGowan anticipated critiques of this approach:

A lot of people I respect will see this media company as an affront to journalistic integrity because it wont, in their eyes, be balanced, she says. What I say to them is, Balance does not exist anymore. In her view, there are only facts and lies.

And according to McGowan, facts are bits of information that happen to align with a progressive agenda. She sounds a lot like Breitbart News Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, who said back in 2017, Journalistic integrity is dead. There is no such thing anymore. So everything is about weaponization of information.

McGowan is essentially arguing for a liberal adoption of right-wing media tactics, under the guise of objective, fact-based local news. She argues that this is necessary in a media ecosystem where right-wing opinion media has steadily gained ground since the 1980s, first through the underutilized airwaves of AM talk radio, and more recently through digital channels that amplify Fox Newscoverage on social media. McGowan is correct in pointing out that this creates a conservative feedback loop of sensationalist, hyper-partisan content that is particularly effective in an era where headlines are more influential than the articles themselves.

The issue with this response is that it completely devalues any concept of truth. While it is no secret that complete objectivity is unattainable, it is reporters commitment to pursuing this impossible ideal that sets them apart from advertising execs.

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Journalists, unlike many other professionals, do not have a claim to expertise through extensive training or certification. Instead, media sociologists C.W. Anderson and Michael Schudson have made the widely accepted claim that the unifying factor within the profession is a commitment to a professional ideology that values objectivity as a normative endpoint. Even while most journalists recognize the irreducible plurality of viewpoints that comprise reality, journalists use best practices, such as corroborating information with multiple sources, to get as close to a shared, objective truth as possible.

This approach is not without limitations. Notably, the journalistic practice of reporting on both sides of an issue, once enshrined in US broadcast law, often creates false equivalencies between issues of different magnitudes, and can increase the reach of extreme viewpoints. In the same Bloomberg article, McGowan critiques liberal media for its narrow focus on liberal, white, urban audiences. She isnt wrong. However, traditional journalism is rooted in a desire to provide audiences with sufficient information to evaluate issues for themselves.

In contrast, McGowan has pressed for the abandonment of flawed attempts to achieve objectivity altogether, arguing that they are futile in a distributed, digital media environment. Instead, as her plan for Acronym News Corp shows, she treats the dissemination of information as a means to an end- in this case, converting citizens to Democratic voters.

The glaring issue with this approach is that it denies voter autonomy, instead treating audiences as targets for political manipulation. This undermines the concept of democracy as a society governed by the people, instead treating citizens as pawns in a game run by propaganda shops.

Acronym is made more dangerous by its use of audience tracking to micro-target and convert certain segments of the population, as internet advertisers do. McGowans memo describes this as optimization etc. etc. But media scholars have pointed out that such transparency impinges on the free will of users, creating a dystopian feedback loop that is controlled by those with enough resources to buy and process information. Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias have termed such practices data colonialism, suggesting that the increasingly precise rendering of human behavior as data creates new and dangerous power dynamics premised, like McGowans tactics, on a lack of user autonomy.

Technology scholars Helen Nissenbaum, Daniel Susser, and Beatte Roessler point out that such violations at the level of personal autonomy are directly linked to the integrity of democracy. For them, autonomy is writ small what democracy is writ largethe capacity to self-govern, and It is only because we believe individuals can make meaningfully independent decisions that we value institutions designed to register and reflect them.

The point is not that manipulation never happens in democracies, but that abandoning the ideal of the autonomous, self-reflective voter represents a turn away from democratic governance. It also means that protecting this ideal might require placing ethical limits on the reach of technology. For example, just because we can track every users clicks and eye movements doesnt mean we should.

Related concerns of this nature have led to the recent restriction of targeting for political ads on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But because of its status as a for-profit news corp, Acronym and others like it are able to skirt such regulations.

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The Company Behind the Iowa Caucus App Debacle has a Deeply Troubling Plan to Manipulate Voters - Common Dreams

Human Behavior

Unequal cities bear the brunt of deadly disease outbreaks – Reuters

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - 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 Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) in Singapore.

While urban living offers prospects of better economic opportunities and infrastructure, including healthcare 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 told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This skew on account of socio-economic disparities and governance puts some parts of the population at higher risk, including those lacking access to proper housing, healthcare 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).

The 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 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, D.C.

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 liveability 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.

Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; additional reporting by Zoe Tabary @zoetabary; Editing by Jumana Farouky. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org

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Unequal cities bear the brunt of deadly disease outbreaks - Reuters

Human Behavior

CNN’s fascinating series "The Windsors" confirms why the dysfunctional royal family still rules – Salon

"The Windsors: Inside The Royal Dynasty" knows damn well you don't want to wait 100 years to get to Meghan. The Duchess of Sussex well, a dreamy, imagined version of her as she prepares to walk down the aisle on her wedding day is the first figure we see in CNN's new six-part documentary series, before the story time jumps back a few generations. "But all that glitters is not gold," our narrator Rosamund Pike warns, as our American television star embarks on an alliance with a family that "will do whatever it takes to survive." Corny? Yes. Unsubtle? Absolutely. A deliciously soapy reality show involving a dysfunctional clan with posh accents? Sign me up.

What is it about the British monarchy that is still so compelling to so many of us, on any side of the pond? The royal family is at this point in history mostly just a set of wisdom teeth vestigial, purposeless, most interesting when something painful happens or a removal is required. Yet that heady mix they provide of obscene wealth, pointless ceremony and, as the series promises, "scandal, war, adultery, and tragedy" reliably sucks us in. They fascinate because they live so very far outside our own experience, until we are reminded that their joys and heartaches and mistakes are exactly like ours. There's a reason Shakespeare wrote plays about these people. You may beg to differ, groan when their faces appear on magazine covers, but the Windsors are plain interesting as hell.

The series could not be more serendipitously timed for the cable network. On the heels of "Megxit" and just in time for friend-of-Jeffrey-Epstein Prince Andrew's 60th birthday, the most famous non-Kardashian family in the world is in the midst of a genuinely transformative moment. It's fitting then that "The Windsors" begins its story with another era of reckoning.

It begins back in 1917, when the rising toll of World War I made the family's then brand name, House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, "a PR disaster waiting to happen," and the abdication of King George's cousin Nicholas II in Russia lent to a wave anti-monarchy sentiment across Europe. The king's uncle and his family eventually met a notorious fate, vividly explained in the first episode. "It took a long time to kill his son, the czarina and the princesses," a historian murmurs. "They all had jewels, diamonds, sewn into their underwear, so their death was more agonizing than it might have been." Back in Britain, meanwhile, the inoffensive, patently English and royally associated name of Windsor was adopted. George's son Edward grew up groomed as future king to a new generation. And that didn't exactly go to plan either, especially after Edward met a bewitching married American woman. See? This is some juicy stuff here. And we're just getting started.

Combining subtle reenactments shots that suggest the key players rather than show them outright archival footage, and interviews with historians, friends, and distant relations, "The Windsors" follows a comfortingly familiar format. Yes, the granddaughter of Prince Edward's cousin is there to offer some insight, and yes, I did already know exactly who she is. For those of us who've spent our entire lives inhaling tales of this family, the series doesn't reveal much about the Windsor gang's last century you won't already know (or glean from watching "The Crown"). Edward will abdicate for the love of Wallis. Shy, stuttering Bertie will step in. Stoic Elizabeth will ascend to the throne and stay there longer than any of her predecessors. Her son will marry a sheltered nursery school assistant, barely out of her teens, who will become an international icon and die tragically young. And their boys will become men who go on different paths one dutiful and traditional, the other modern and unprecedented.

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Yet having seen the first two episodes, I still found myself drawn in, spellbound in the way that a season of "Succession" (the word serves as the surely not coincidental title of "The Windsors" first episode) does. There's something about the cyclical nature of human behavior that these corgi-hoarding weirdos exemplify, often in the most surprisingly bittersweet of ways. Each generation seems to offer its own version of the age-old question, "Which one of my garbage sons are you?" Each has a charismatic woman, hounded by a savage press. Wallis Simpson, chased around France by the paparazzi, foreshadows Diana, who in turn serves as an eerie warning to Meghan. Desire and obligation constantly battle for supremacy, creating tensions with global implications. Politics mixes with sex mixes with race mixes with class.

CNN has previously mined closer to home for its dynasties, delving into the Kennedys and the Bush brigade. For contemporary appeal, though, nobody can beat the Windsors. The Bush family has frankly less drama, and the Kennedy mystique seemed to die with JFK Jr., more than 20 years ago. In contrast, the royals right now, today, are not some style page afterthought. Theirs is a story of what if anything are the consequences when a member of your family is accused of sexual abuse. It's one of the hardships of new motherhood, of loneliness, of the limits of loyalty, of quitting the family business. It's one that absolutely will undergo significant change over the next few years. But even if their reign may someday soon end, the Windsors never stop ruling ourimagination, and "The Windsors" shows why.

The six-part series "The Windsors" premieres Sunday, Feb. 16 at 10 p.m. on CNN.

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CNN's fascinating series "The Windsors" confirms why the dysfunctional royal family still rules - Salon

Human Behavior

Probation Officer: How to Destroy Prison’s Revolving Door – The Daily Beast

Jason Hardy was working as a parole and probation officer in New Orleans, with a caseload so large it was literally unmanageable. That didnt seem to faze the mother of one of his clients, who kept calling him to try to track down her son, a runaway who had gotten busted for heroin possession and put on probation.

Hardy had seen the boy only once before, and when he went to an address the kid had given him, it turned out to be an abandoned building in the French Quarter. Hardy realized the boy just didnt want to be found, but the mother kept calling, insisting that the probation officer keep looking for him. Finally, frustrated, Hardy told her, Look, I have 220 people on my caseload. I cant drop everything and send out a search party for your kid, if he doesnt want help.

It wasnt exactly the most polite response, but it was definitely the most honest one. I had to spend what few resources I had on the people who stood the best chance of making use of them, says Hardy today, explaining his reaction.

Hardys new book The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison, is exactly about that tension between trying to keep people from becoming recidivists, and the meager resources available to make that happen. Its the sobering tale of working with drug abusers, drug dealers, and the mentally ill in one of Americas poorest, most crime-ridden cities. Told partially through the stories of seven of Hardys clients, its a wake-up call that zeroes in on one simple, but important, question: if we as a society sincerely want to cut down on crime and recidivism, do we want to spend our money on more prisons, or programs that will give ex-cons the ability to stay off drugs and out of jail?

I think the main day-in, day-out frustration was that we didnt have the tools to do the job, says Hardy. The only real resource at our disposal was the jail. It was a constant struggle to get funding for any alternative to incarceration.

The statistics Hardy provides to show what a difficult job he had during his four years as a P.O. are particularly edifying: African-Americans are 60 percent of NOLAs population, 80 percent of the offender population; 43 percent of the parolees in Louisiana will be back in jail within five years, compared to 25 percent nationwide; 10 percent of parolees are homeless when they get out of prison; the mentally ill make up anywhere from 1/5 to 1/3 of the U.S. jail population; and as of 2016, black employment in NOLA was only 52 percent.

Hardy admits that The City That Care Forgot and the state of Louisiana are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to help for their post-prison constituencies, that in general, states with deeper pockets [he mentions New Jersey and Oregon as examples] have offered a far wider array of services to probationers and parolees. [But] I dont think Ive ever spoken with a state-level P.O. who felt like he had the resources he needed to do the job.

This frustration really comes through in the individual cases Hardy chooses to talk about in The Second Chance Club (the title comes from a parolee who says probation and parole wouldnt be called the second chance club if they didnt expect you to fuck up.):

Theres Sheila, whos big on smoking weed, and is attracted to drug dealers. She manages to get a job at Subway, but still yearns for the wild life. At the end of the book, shes managed to get mental health medication, but her future is still up in the air.

Then theres Travis, whos on probation for heroin, and has problems at work. He gets little respect in the outside world, so feels the need to demand it from bosses, who see no reason to tolerate people like him. Because of this, Travis eventually loses not only a job at Wal-Mart but a lucrative gig working on an oil rig.

Hard Head is a sixty-something military vet who uses crack, drinks, and lives mostly in a homeless encampment, but eventually gets his act together and finds a home and health care. Hes one of the few success stories.

Kendrick is a mentally ill drug user who can only get professional help if his parole is revoked and hes sent back to prison. Prison for mental health, says Hardy in the book, you cant make this up.

And Javaron, a hardcore career criminal, who shoots and kills a teenager in a dispute over a woman and is sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Theyre all different, and yet in many ways, theyre all the same. Poor, badly educated, drug users, often with mental problems. When I worked at probation and parole, one way that we would try to keep each others spirits up was to remind each other that changing human behavior is hard under any circumstances, says Hardy. People with every advantage sometimes struggle to shake a bad habit, make good choices. People coming through our doors after a lifetime of neglectobviously, starting treatment or going back to school was going to be a hard sell for them.

One thing seems certain: job training in prison helps reduce recidivism.

Which brings us to the question of drug legalization. Hardy mentions the Portuguese thing, a drug policy that country instituted in 2001 which essentially decriminalized drug possession and usage and has led to a significant decrease in overdoses, HIV infection, and drug-related crime. It has also led to an uptick in servicestreatment, housing, etc.to serve the addiction community.

Yet although Hardy says he is in favor of making possession of personal-use quantities of drugs a non-felony offense, hes still conflicted about full-out legalization. He feels its difficult for people who have worked with addicts and seen overdoses up close to get behind the legalization movement. He is not convinced legalization will wipe out the black market in drugs and is concerned that it would be hard to regulate toxic pharmaceuticals like fentanyl, which isnt safe for human consumption in any form.

But Hardy admits that I had this conversation with a pro-legalization friend not long ago, and I really didnt have a good answer when he hit me with the old reliable, Hows that working out for you?

One thing seems certain: job training in prison, whether its for HVAC repair, carpentry, even a recent program instituted by New York Citys Rikers Island to teach inmates how to be baristas, helps reduce recidivism. But a lot depends on whether there are programs to help prisoners find jobs when they are released, and in many cases, prisoners on probation are not eligible for housing assistance, and those on drug charges cant get food stamps in their first year out.

Still, Hardy is an optimist. He sees things changing, the general public and legislators caring about the problems created by the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and starting to do something about them. I think care, for lack of a better word, is at an all-time high, he says. The First Step Act [a bipartisan prison reform bill signed into law in 2018] was modest. It was mostly about reducing sentences for people serving time on drug convictions. But the dialogue around it was pretty remarkable. You had vast majorities on both sides of the aisle embracing this idea that rehabilitation is a cause the country should get behind. People of varying ideologies respond to results. If you can say, This is cheaper than what we are doing now, and it also happens to be safer and more humane, they have a hard time blowing you off.

Excerpt from:
Probation Officer: How to Destroy Prison's Revolving Door - The Daily Beast

Human Behavior

Freezing temperatures taking toll on homeless in Denver – The Denver Channel

DENVER -- There are some disturbing numbers from this freezing February.

Our partners at The Denver Post talked to Police and learned that in the last 8 days, two men found dead in separate locations, likely died from exposure.

One of the victims was found Feb. 10, at a bus stop on Brighton Blvd near 29th Street. The temperature in Denver had dropped down to 12 degrees on that day.

The other was found Feb. 8, near 21st and California. The low on that day was 19 degrees.

"When it's as cold as it was, and it was cold that morning, it cold enough to kill you," said Joe McDaniel, a resident at the nearby Crossroads Shelter.

The temperature in Denver dipped down to 19 degrees on Feb. 8, and down to 12 degrees on the 10th.

McDaniel said he knew the man who died at the bus stop.

"Not personally," he said, "I'd seen him at the shelter. We all live in the shelter right there, and we struggle together. We all go to work everyday."

McDaniel said he can't help but wonder if the victim missed the 11:00 curfew and couldn't get back into the shelter.

Joe Davis has another take.

Davis, who is now living in a tent, after being asked to leave the shelter, told Denver7 the victim too was asked to leave.

"He had some kind of conflict," Davis said.

A supervisor at the shelter told Denver7 he "didn't know," if the victim had been asked to leave.

We reached out to the Salvation Army. The media contact, Rachel Flower said they're "still gathering info."

Flower added, We were incredibly saddened to hear of the recent deaths of people experiencing homelessness in our city. The Salvation Army makes every effort to keep people warm and safe, especially in harsh conditions. Crossroads is open every night for up to 500 men experiencing homelessness, and open during the day when weather is extreme. We provide dinner and transportation to additional shelter locations when we reach capacity. Every night from 9pm-1am we operate our Search and Rescue program, offering rides to shelters or providing those who wish to stay on the street with water, snacks, blankets, gloves and scarves. With more cold nights coming up, we hope more people will come to us for help, and that no more lives will be lost.

Davis said he wishes someone would have told him if the victim had been asked to leave.

"They could have come down here and easily asked me to give him these blankets, these jackets," he said. "I have plenty for everyone."

Lisa Calderon, the chief of staff for Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, said, "Even if someone is unruly at a shelter, the options shouldn't be to be out on the street, in sub-freezing temperatures because you had a behavior problem."

Calderon added that many homeless people have behavior issues that are related to mental illness, or addiction, and that cold weather makes it worse.

She said Denver needs more housing for the homeless and needs to revamp shelters.

"Sheltering, the way it's been done in Denver for quite a long time, warehouses human beings, which means we have people packed in rooms 300 - 500 head to foot. That is not a humane way to treat people."

Calderon also said that as Denver residents debate the city's camping ban, they need to remember there are real human beings on the streets every night, out in the cold.

"They're not super-human," she said. They're not used to being out there like a lot of people think. They can freeze to death.

More here:
Freezing temperatures taking toll on homeless in Denver - The Denver Channel

Human Behavior

Promoting Hygiene To Minimize Infections – CleanLink

'Tis the season for colds and flu, and facility cleaning departments are on high alert. From the common cold to severe influenza outbreaks, viral infections can quickly spread throughout the workplace, leading to lost productivity and in some cases lost lives.

Fortunately, good cleaning and disinfecting practices can reduce the spread of viruses by up to 90 percent in facilities, according to Charles Gerba, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. And employees can do their part by following good hygiene practices and staying home when sick.

"The average employee is out ill three or four days a year, but he or she goes to work ill about four weeks a year, which costs the company in lost productivity," says Gerba. "So sanitation in the office is becoming more important and we're seeing more data that shows the cost benefits of good hygiene practices."

To this end, custodial departments can reinforce good handwashing procedures, as well as coughing and sneezing etiquette by posting signage throughout the building.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, housekeeping staff post handwashing procedures and cover-your-cough signs in resident halls and restrooms during cold and flu season.

"There really is a proper way to wash our hands, and it's something we should do every day not just during cold and flu season," says Jodi Krause, assistant director of housekeeping. "We can do a lot to stop the spread of colds and flu just by washing our hands properly and frequently."

Like Krause, Gerba supports the use of handwashing signs but admits that it's difficult to affect human behavior. To that end, easy access to hand sanitizer can have a positive impact on the fight against infections.

University of Wisconsin students and staff have year-round access to hand sanitizer stations in common-use areas, such as resident halls, dining halls, conference rooms and restrooms. Similarly, Gerba advocates the use of hand sanitizer at restroom exits and in coffee break rooms.

"Studies show that it reduces the spread of viruses, but only about a third of people will use it," he says.

POSTED ON: 2/14/2020

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Promoting Hygiene To Minimize Infections - CleanLink

Human Behavior

Letters to the editor, Feb. 16, 2020 | Opinion – Idaho Press-Tribune

Liar king

A few days ago, 52 Republican Senators representing far less than half of the U.S. population acquitted The Liar King of blackmailing a foreign leader in order to increase his chances of being re-elected. In his manifesto of mistruths the day before he told about 25 more lies in an attempt to impress his followers.

He negotiated a Mid-East peace proposal with Israel, ignoring the Palestinians, and then told the Palestinians what they were to do. That is not a peace plan.

The USMCA was approved after House Democrats forced many changes in it. He did not invite any Democrats to the signing ceremony. Contrary to the Kings claims, the plan is expected to add fewer jobs 6 years than we usually add in a month. About 28,000 of these are expected to be in the auto industry, not the Kings stated 100,000.

The phase one trade deal with China proposes exporting more to them than what we have available and has no guarantees any of it will happen.

A supposed charity is passing out envelops containing 100-$1000 to people attending rallies for the King. Probably totally illegal.

U.S. economic growth has been very low in two of the last 3 months and has never approached the numbers the King predicted would result from his huge tax cut for the wealthy and businesses.

If he wanted to give a Medal of Freedom to someone, it should have been Vindman and Sondland who obeyed the law responding to their subpoenas and testifying. Instead he fired them.

Remember the girl whom was s awarded a scholarship t got her out of a failing government school? She attends the highly regarded Math, Science, and Technology Community Charter School III which has no tuition. Her family had no idea why they were in DC.

Leo Faddis, Kuna

Vote no

Another Nampa School Dist Levy vote in March

Nampa School Dist is voting again for another levy March 10th, but early voting end of Feb. If passed this levy is good for 2-years, after that will Nampa School Dist vote for another one? Im pretty sure they will.

Until the school dist. really takes a look on how to budget the money giving to them already I will vote NO. The property owners in Canyon County are being asked for a tax increase for another jail and urban renewal. How about getting the funds needed some other way instead always the property owner. Ada county has a big problem with their property taxes being too high for seniors, the same will be for Canyon county also.

The school dist has not said anything about the vote coming up as they want to have only the supporters to show up and vote.

PLEASE VOTE NO on this levy.

Jim R. Carr, Eagle

Progress?

A new year begins and Add the Words legislation is introduced again in the Idaho Senate by Sen. Maryanne Jordan. Will it pass this time and will the state validate by law the new morality? Out with the old in with the new? As if change itself is a virtue, regardless. The foundation of our current cultures new morality is an ageless opposition to God.

We see commercials and images in the media now with open same sex scenes and blatant flaunting of human sexuality sort of a free for all. Its true we can turn the channel but often its not fast enough. Is this progress? Progress, as currently defined by some in our culture, is any human behavior that is in contrast to Judeo Christian morality.

This years Super Bowl half time show featured inappropriately dressed women pole dancing. Little girls were also part of the show witnessing this indecent behavior, along with millions of others. How many little girls will imitate that? How very thoughtful and beneficial for our culture and moral influence right? When is it enough? Where are the decency standards and how much will we accept in our public sphere? Like a frog in slow boiling water no one seems to know. Also, just as concerning, how many of us have stopped caring or speaking up?

Super Bowl ads this year featured LGBTQ women in a Microsoft ad and drag queens in a Sabra hummus commercial. According to NBCnews.com, for too long LGBTQ visibility in Super Bowl ads was nearly invisible, but this year will mark a breakthrough ... Fox turned away a Super Bowl commercial featuring survivors of botched abortions from Faces of Choice Abortion Survivors.

Are these really our values or are our values being hijacked?

John Seale, Caldwell

Activism

Jeers to Boise High for using high school students for the PC protest of Chase bank for investing in fossil fuel companies. Oil and gas exploration is the life blood of our country. It allows all commerce to take place and reduces pollution in our country. You have totally misinformed these students and used the education system to brainwash these poor kids. I bet they got to their protest site by driving cars that use gasoline. Math and reading should be taught not misinformed environmentalism. Cheers to the students for their activism but not for their lack of knowledge.

John Brown, Eagle

Go plant based

Dr. Beth Malasky left out the most important fact about heart disease in her guest opinion on womens heart health published February 11: heart disease can be reversed with a whole food plant-based diet. This is a diet of beans, other legumes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

The cause of heart disease is largely the standard American diet which is composed of meats, dairy products, eggs, added oil, refined sugar, refined flour and other processed foods. These foods clog our arteries and raise our blood pressures.

Thirty years ago Dr. Dean Ornish published the results of his Lifestyle Heart Trial that proved heart disease is reversible.

A good read on this topic is Dr. Caldwell Esselstyns book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Do you want hope for your diseased heart? Then switch to a whole food, plant-based diet.

Reed Burkholder, Boise

Save the fish

As a shing guide and a small business owner in Riggins, my income has been drastically aected by the downturn in our salmon and steelhead economy. The once-dependable money from guiding and our business is no longer dependable, forcing me to look elsewhere for income to support my family.

I recently joined a group of Idahoans traveling to Washington DC to meet with our Legislature about our diminishing sh returns and the stress that puts on Idaho communities. Meeting with Representative Mike Simpson was eye opening and inspiring. His oce is working on large scale solutions to help bring sh, and the money associated with them (the money that our economy depends on) back to our state. At the same time, his plans also address all the other interests and concerns involved in this complex issue. His oce is willing to have the dicult conversations and face the dicult decisions that must be addressed so our children may experience ghting these mighty sh.

We are at a decision point. As a state, we can either unite behind our cultural heritage and stand up for our sh or we can sit quietly on the sidelines and watch our sh populations dwindle into extinction, taking with them rural Idaho communities. It is time for Idahoans to stand up for Idahoans, taking our future into our own hands. Let your representatives know that the time for action is now. Choosing to delay discussions will lead to the extinction of our salmon and steelhead.

Jon Kittell, Riggins

Better

Once again we have the privilege and responsibility to elect those we want to govern us. It seems the best qualified individuals are not even in the process for consideration. Therefore, our communities and nation are lacking in the best leadership possible because we pick our leaders on the following criteria:

1. political party

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2. biggest promiser

3. anyone but the incumbent

4. personality

5. gender

6. race

7.etc.

Things may get better someday but as for this coming election and the foreseeable future nothing will change for the better, no matter who gets elected.

Ray Archuleta, Nampa

Conscience

I would like to commend Mr. Mitt Romney on his bravery, courage, moral decency and integrity for doing what he was supposed to do in a Senate trial of an impeached president- look at and listen to available evidence and draw a fair and impartial decision based on this evidence. In this partisan political environment, very few have done so. Whether you agree with him or not, this took a lot of soul searching as he is quite aware of the intimidation and retribution and vindictiveness of this administration, if you do not stay loyal and toe the party line. McCain also had this courage. Interesting that two former Republican nominees for president have had this courage, but not others. I believe it is in part because they have already achieved as high as they can in politics and are not intimidated as are others. I have voted for both Democrats and Republican for president. I find it impossible to vote for our current president. Even if his policies were good in the long run it would be akin to selling my soul. He is a terrible role model for children. He is the Liar King, demeans women and Africans, those he perceives as unattractive, etc. He brags and takes credit for good things he did not do, such as saying he has gotten us out of the economic- mess we were in three years ago. This is a revision of the facts-we have had an increasing economy for ten consecutive years. He has only been in office three years+. So, kudos to Mr. Romney. Nay to our narcissistic incumbent. I did not vote for Romney at the time, but if he ran in the future I probably would do so. At least we know he has a conscience.

Rich Rothsh, Boise

Gun laws

Readers

Im writing because I believe in common sense gun laws and their ability to make Idaho safer. According to the CDCs Fatal Injury Reports, Idaho has the 16th highest rate of gun death in the U.S., 87% of which are suicides, meaning it has the 4th highest gun suicide rate in the country. Most of these deaths would have been preventable with common sense gun laws or proper storage of guns. (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline available 24/7: 1-800-273-8255.)

Death by gun suicide is the leading cause of gun violence in Idaho, but its not the only gun safety issue. Two proposed bills in the Idaho Legislature would take power away from local government, instead creating state-wide laws. One would allow concealed carry within city limits, regardless of state residency. The other would allow weapons on public school campuses. Both of these would take away local power from the people that know their communities needs the best.

There are doable solutions for both of these. First is voting for candidates who support common sense gun laws. Second is contacting your state representatives to say you dont support bills that take away local governments gun safety laws.

Thank you.

Lauren Axness, Boise

Fairness

It would seem that being in prison might open an opportunity to go to the Supreme Court for grievances if Edmo case (page A1 of Idaho Press, Wednesday, February 12, 2020) is brought before the Supreme Court? Dont we lose some opportunities when go to prison? Doesnt seem quite fair for taxpayers to pay for this!

Juanita Monaghan, Nampa

See original here:
Letters to the editor, Feb. 16, 2020 | Opinion - Idaho Press-Tribune

Human Behavior

The Science of Human Bonding – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Whether you decide to actually meet your Perfect Match, go out with your significant other or stay in for a night of Netflix with friends, Valentines Day can be an opportunity to appreciate the bonds and love we have for each other as humans.

But the bonds weve formed over the course of our lives dont just start with us human bonding is as old as humanity itself.

Were social animals because we need other people to survive, said Prof. Vivian Zayas, psychology.

According to Zayas, human bonding is an outcome of evolution.

If a behavior is adaptive, one way of ensuring that that behavior occurs is that its rewarding, Zayas said. Its important for us to eat, so eating is pleasurable. Its important to procreate, so sex is pleasurable. Its important to maintain these relationships, so interactions are pleasurable.

But its not just pleasure that pushes us to form bonds its biology. Individual life begins in utero, living in relation to its mother, according to Zayas. This biological relationship carries over to infancy, as infants look to form secure attachments with their caregivers.

Human bonding is, as a result, deeply rooted in an individuals development, and forming secure attachments early on can have lasting impacts throughout ones life.

After developing a relationship with primary caregivers, its an important milestone to learn to have a relationship with peers. As people grow, the attachment system will transfer again from peers to romantic partners, Zayas said.

Whether or not one forms close bonds with peers can also have consequences on mental health.

Part of self-esteem is not just how you view yourself in the abstract, but how you think other people value you. Zayas said. If you do not feel valued by your peers, that undermines feelings of self-worth.

However, although the quality of some bonds differ, everyone forms them.

Most people form these bonds because they do grow up with someone who takes care of them, Zayas said. They are very extreme conditions [where people dont form that bond],.

This predisposition to form bonds also manifests within groups, through synchronous body movements, autonomic responses or emotional reactions that can spread among individuals in a group setting.

For example, applause in concert halls can unintentionally become rhythmically coordinated, and choir members unconsciously exhibit breathing synchrony while singing together even without the explicit awareness of whos involved or that this phenomenon is even occurring.

We are wired to be social and be attuned to another person. Zayas said. These types of activities then lead us to be more cooperative, more prosocial, and the assumption is that has some benefits.

When looking to form bonds whether platonic or romantic we are drawn towards some people and not others. How similar and familiar you are with someone has a big impact on how you view them according to Zayas. Close proximity can be a predictor of attractiveness.

People are more likely to find their partner at Cornell, because youre at Cornell, Zayas said.

So, this Valentines Day, understand the totality of all the bonds that you have developed over the course of your life not just your romantic connections.

The simplest way of viewing it is having relationships is like gravity. We are born to be connected with other people, Zayas said.

More here:
The Science of Human Bonding - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun