Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Jim Parsons (Hollywood): Theres something else going on in the air right now in Hollywood [WATCH] – Gold Derby

I will say when I first read it, I think I was scared of it, reveals Jim Parsons about his role as real-life talent agent Henry Willson in the Netflix series Hollywood. The actors performance has earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor, his ninth career bid. Parsons previously took home four Best Comedy Actor Emmys for his role as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. But as Parsons told us in an interview prior to the Emmy Nominations (watch above), playing Willson was a new and ultimately rewarding experience.

The role of Willson marked a dramatic departure for Parsons, both physically and emotionally. The actor spent hours in the makeup chair everyday, something that he says enhanced his ability to get into the characters mind. I just felt different after I came out of there, he says. Id never been through a hair and makeup process like that. It was a very helpful, freeing thing that I had never experienced before. Despite Willson being the complete antithesis of Sheldon Cooper, Parsons says that there was a certain connection between both roles. Really, when I first started playing Sheldon on Big Bang was probably the last time, certainly on camera, that I played a character that felt so colorful and complicated to me, at least, and full of possibilities, he exclaims. And again, once you get past the, Oh, thats horrible human behavior, for an actor its very fun to portray.

When it came Willsons bad behavior, which ranged from verbal abuse to sexual manipulation, Parsons went to great lengths to try to get at the source of Willsons unhappiness. I do think that theres just no doubt having to protect himself from his own sexuality being revealed, living in a world that vilified him at several different turns, he knew that whether it was happening to him personally or not, thats just the way of the world. I think that obviously can cause a self-hatred and help cause bad behavior in that way.

Parsons says that he felt a very real connection between the seriess period setting and the entertainment world of today, particular in discussions of racial and gender inequality within the industry. Theres something else going on in the air right now in Hollywood, in the world in general, he explains. And that felt good. That felt like something worth doing.

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Dont miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derbys free newsletter with latest predictions

Read the original:
Jim Parsons (Hollywood): Theres something else going on in the air right now in Hollywood [WATCH] - Gold Derby

Human Behavior

Characteristics that Give Viruses Pandemic Potential – The Scientist

Even before COVID-19 swept across the globe this year, coronaviruses were on scientists radar as pathogens that could one day ignite a pandemic. Theyd threatened to beforein 200203, the SARS virus infected 8,000 people in more than two dozen countries and killed almost 800and they checked off several specific boxes that emerging infectious disease specialists worry about in a virus. But theyre not the only group of viruses that researchers are concerned about. Influenza and a handful of other viruses have long been viewed as pandemic threats.

One aspect that signals pandemic potential in a virus is having an RNA, rather than DNA, genome. Thats because the process of copying RNA typically doesnt include a proofreader like DNA replication does, and so RNA viruses have higher mutation rates than the DNA variety. This means they can change and become more adaptable to human infection and human transmission, says Steve Luby, an epidemiologist at Stanford University.

Researchers on the lookout for dangerous pathogens also pay close attention to viruses with track records of leaping from animals to people. Smallpox, measles, Ebola, and HIV all originated in animals, as Luby estimates that 80 percent of our most devastating infections did.

An RNA virus that causes respiratory tract infections can evolve into something we havent seen before and spread rapidly.

Ralph Baric, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Once a virus makes the zoonotic leap from animals to humans, it must then transmit from one person to the next if it is to cause an epidemic. In this respect, SARS-CoV-2 seems to outperform the original and deadlier SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, and some bird flu strains. But these less-transmissible viruses could always acquire some new mutation that revs up their R0, the expected number of infections caused by one person, increasing their potential to spread rapidly through human populations, says Raina Plowright, an infectious disease researcher at Montana State University.

How a virus is transmitted is yet another consideration when evaluating its pandemic potential. The most concerning situation is when a virus can spread through respiratory droplets, allowing it to jump from person to person through close interactions, as is the case for the seasonal flu and also SARS-CoV-2. An RNA virus that causes respiratory tract infections can evolve into something we havent seen before and spread rapidly, says Ralph Baric, a virologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Measles, an RNA paramyxovirus spread through respiratory secretions, is perhaps the most contagious disease known in humans.

As the world continues to grapple with SARS-CoV-2, The Scientistasked virologists to rank viruses with the greatest potential to cause a future pandemic. Three answers routinely popped up: influenza, coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses, a large family of viruses that includes mumps and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as Nipah virus, which researchers say poses the biggest pandemic threat among them. There are lots of concerns to keep communicable disease epidemiologists up at night, says Luby.

Prior to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, most virologists rated influenza as the most likely agent to trigger a deadly pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic caused an estimated 50 million to 100 million deaths over two years, and there have been three flu pandemics sincein 195758, in 1968, and most recently in 2009.

Influenza is an RNA virus and thus prone to mutation, which necessitates a new seasonal flu vaccine each year. Virologists classify influenza strains according to two surface proteins: the hemagglutinin (H) protein that binds to a receptor on target cells and the neuraminidase (N) protein that virus particles use to escape host cells. There are 18 hemagglutinin subtypes and 11 neuraminidase subtypes. Its likely that all permutations occur influenza viruses that affect in influenza viruses that affect birds but only a handful have cropped up in those that infect people. Over the last one hundred or so years, we have had pandemics and seasonal epidemics caused by only three of the eighteen H subtypes and two of the eleven N subtypes, says virologist Kanta Subbarao, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne.

From time to time, influenza viruses in ducks and shorebirds spill over to infect domestic poultry and sometimes pigs. The H protein is critical. Concern mounts whenever the H protein of a bird flu virus gains the ability to infect human cells. This allows the virus to jump to humans, introducing people to a new strain with avian proteins to which they have little or no immunity. So far, says Luby, the H7N9 and H5N1 viruses still primarily connect to the cellular receptors in birds, but sometimes they infect people and cause serious disease.

The concern is that some of the viruses with killer characteristics might change in a way that allows them to more easily spread from person to person. Indeed, influenza has a radical way to shapeshift. Its RNA genome is split into eight segments. When two different subtypes of virus, be they bird or mammalian strains, are in one cell, viral segments can be shuffled to create entirely new strains. Pigs are suspected to be ideal viral melting pots. Pigs carry similar receptors to humans, and they can be infected by avian and mammalian viruses, says Subbarao. The 1957 and 1968 flu pandemics were caused by reassortant viruses, with some gene segments from avian influenza viruses and other segments from circulating human flu viruses. It is long proposed that this [mixing] happened in an intermediate host, possibly pigs.

The WHO has a constellation of national labs to watch for emerging strains of flu, and now collaborates closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health. We want to pick up any novel influenza viruses in animals, Subbarao explains. Scientists recently became concerned, for example, when a swine influenza variant of H1N1, called G4, circulating in pigs was shown to be able to infect and replicate in human epithelial cells. The virus carries genes from the H1N1 subtype that caused the 2009 flu pandemic.

Pandemic pathogens are rare, however, and are by their nature difficult to predict. We do know there are some things we should worry about, Luby says, yet we tend to get caught off guard.

Both the SARS and MERS coronaviruses are deadlier than SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, human-to-human transmission of SARS and MERS is relatively low. But there is a tremendous diversity of coronaviruses in bat species. They mostly infect the gut, but can replicate in lung tissue as well. After the SARS outbreak in 200203, scientists searched for coronaviruses in bats in Chinese caves and found a trove of them in common insectivorous species. Moreover, antibodies identified in the blood of people in southern China suggest that some human populations are routinely exposed to bat coronaviruses. This gives the viruses ample opportunity to adapt to people.

Harbingers of coronaviruses propensity to jump to new species are the lethal outbreaks that often occur on farms. Three devastating swine coronavirus strains have emerged in pigs in the last couple of decades. These viruses are on the move, says Baric. He worries that we have toggled on a switch to promote coronavirus emergence from animal reservoirs into other mammalian species, including ourselves. This is mostly linked to human behavior, such as consumption and farming of wild animals in certain countries. Markets where lots of animals are in cages together can mean more animal transmission and more humans getting infected, says Luby, who says he believes China should close all its wet markets.

Our immediate highest risk is coronaviruses.

Steve Luby, Stanford University

The current coronavirus pandemic along with the first SARS outbreak are not the first we have experienced. MERS coronavirus seems to have been in camels for decades, occasionally infecting people. It has now caused 2,400 cases, mostly in the Arabian Peninsula. Some virologists say that the coronaviruses that are now endemic in people, causing common cold symptoms, may have sparked deadly pandemics when they first made the jump from animals to humans. The OC43 coronavirus, for example, seems to have come from bats via cattle and there is evidence that it caused a pandemic in the 1890s, says Baric.

Now, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some researchers rank coronaviruses as the biggest threat. Id put coronavirus ahead of flu, says Luby. It demonstrated higher case fatalitynot with SARS-CoV-2, but we have seen it with SARS and MERS, and it looks like the live markets in China are allowing coronaviruses associated with bats to spread to other mammals. Our immediate highest risk is coronaviruses.

In 1994, a mysterious disease broke out in horses in a suburb of Brisbane, Australia, called Hendra. Twenty-one horses fell severely ill from a pathogen that was soon named Hendra virus. Then, a vet attending to the sick horses died from the virus, whose origin was traced to fruit bats in the genus Pteropus(aka, flying foxes). Four years later, a related virus called Nipah virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia. Two million infected pigs were slaughtered, halting the outbreak. In 2001, researchers realized that outbreaks of Nipah virus in people happened each year in Bangladesh, primarily from people drinking the sap of date trees that was contaminated with bat urine. But there didnt appear to be human-to-human transmission.

In 2018, however, an outbreak in southern India suggested that human-to-human transmission of Nipah virus was possible through close contact. A 27-year-old villager, who may have contracted the virus from fruit contaminated by bat saliva or urine, was admitted to the hospital in Kerala state and infected nine other people, including fellow patients, visiting relatives, and medical staff. He was referred to another hospital, where more patients and medical workers were infected. Twenty-one of the 23 infected people died from severe respiratory sickness and/or brain inflammation. One reason it doesnt take off is because it makes people so sick so quickly that they tend to be hospitalized and isolated, says Plowright, who studies bats and Nipah virus outbreaks. But Nipah viruss fatality rate of between 50 percent and 100 percent is exactly what makes it such a concern.

Nipah and Hendra belong to a group of paramyxoviruses now called henipavirus, and there are many more strains harbored in flying foxes in Asia, Oceania, and Africa, says Plowright. Although henipaviruses have not yet caused widespread outbreaks in people, other paramyxoviruses, such as measles and mumps, have. Some of these viruses spread really well, says Rebecca Dutch, a molecular biologist at the University of Kentucky. If Nipah moved efficiently from one person to another, perhaps mutating so it transmits before making someone really sick, this would be devasting, says Luby, more like the Black Plague.

Viruses that did not top the list but still demand attention are filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg virus, which cause hemorrhagic fever and can infect apes, monkeys, and bats, in addition to humans. The fact that Ebola requires blood or body fluids to be transmitted means that it is harder to transmit and so less likely to be a global threat, explains Luby. And as with Nipah virus infections, people get sick quickly and thus are isolated early. For a filovirus to cause a pandemic, it would need to be transmissible in respiratory form or spread readily in diarrhea, experts say, and its not yet clear how easily that might happen. The big question is, what is the diversity of the Ebola viruses in nature? says Baric.

Other viruses that scientists are keeping tabs on include those in the Bunyavirus and Arenavirus families, which primarily infect rodents, and mosquito-transmitted dengue, Zika virus, and West Nile virus. Vector-borne pathogens have the potential to infect two billion people, says Baric, but if you are in the northern latitudes it may be low risk for you. As the geographical range of mosquitoes spreads to higher latitudes with climate change, however, so too will the diversity of the pathogens they carry.

There is also disease X. The WHO uses this term to acknowledge that a serious epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease. But studying an undescribed pathogen is a tall order. Until SARS emerged in 2002, those who study coronaviruses had trouble getting anyone to fund their research, says Dutch. There certainly could be things out there we dont know about.

Experts warn that humans are creating conditions for more viral spillover events by disrupting natural habitats and by packing different wild animals together in wildlife markets. We are creating the perfect storm for new viruses to emerge, says Plowright, who recently coauthored a review on bat-borne virus diversity, spillover, and emergence. Despite this, the scientific community is largely unable to accurately forecast future outbreaks, she adds. No one predicted that a flu pandemic [2009] would come from pigs in Mexico, says Plowright. We have to keep an open mind as to what the next pathogen outbreak is going to be.

But researchers are hopeful that our experience with COVID-19 will turn the tide of pandemic preparedness. As Luby says, I anticipate there will be more attention to these threats.

Huge diversity in insectivorous bats and fruit-eating bats. Horseshoe bats (genus Rhinolophus) in Southeast Asia harbor SARS-like coronaviruses.

Water birds, poultry, and domestic pigs. Some outbreaks in dogs and horses.

Some family members abundant in fruit bats.

Four common cold coronaviruses may have origins in bats, possibly in last few centuries. SARS caused an outbreak during 200304. MERS continues to infect people, presumably jumping from camels.

Numerous pandemics throughout human history were likely due to flu. Confirmed flu pandemics include the devastating 1918 pandemic, as well as pandemics in 195758, 1969, and 2009.

Hendra virus infected horses and people first in 1994. Nipah virus first recorded in pigs and humans in 1998.

Varies hugely. COVID-19 possibly around 1 percent. SARS is thought to be closer to 15 percent. MERS has proved fatal in about 35 percent of patients.

In the case of the 1918 pandemic, the case fatality rate was around 2.5 percent globally.

Some of the deadliest known pathogens. Hendra virus rarely infects humans, but when it does, the fatality rate is around 50 percent. The case fatality rate for Nipah is even higher, ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent in some outbreaks.

Contact and airborne (droplets and aerosols)

Contact and airborne (droplets and aerosols)

Mostly urine and saliva from bats contaminating food of domestic animals and humans. Close contact between people for Nipah

Dogs, pigs, cats, cattle, camels, and others

Pigs, horses, ferrets, dogs, and poultry

Hendra virus infects horses and dogs. Nipah virus infects pigs (and lab animals such as hamsters and ferrets)

More:
Characteristics that Give Viruses Pandemic Potential - The Scientist

Human Behavior

Pandemic behavior: Why some people don’t play by the rules – The Jakarta Post – Jakarta Post

Lockdowns and social distancing measures introduced around the world to try and curb the COVID-19 pandemic are reshaping lives, legislating activities that were once everyday freedoms and creating new social norms.

But there are always some people who don't play by the rules.

Rule-breaking is not a new phenomenon, but behavioral scientists say it is being exacerbated in the coronavirus pandemic by cultural, demographic and psychological factors that can make the flouters seem more selfish and dangerous.

Here are some questions and answers on the science of human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic:

What makes some people flout and others obey the rules?

A key factor is individualism versus collectivism.

"Some countries...tend to be higher on individualism, which is about expressing your sense of identity and who you are as an individual," said Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University.

People in individualist cultures tend to reject rules and ignore attempts by public health authorities to "nudge" behavior change with risk messages or appeals for altruism.

"If you say, for example, that wearing a mask will help protect others, people in individualistic cultures just care less," said Michael Sanders, a expert at the Policy Institute at King's College London.

In collectivist cultures, people are more likely to do what's best for the group.

Are trust and fear important?

Yes. These and other instincts are significant influences on human behavior.

In societies with more political division, for example, people are less likely to trust advice from one side or the other, and also tend to form pro- and anti-camps.

Optimism and fear are also crucial. A little of both can be positive, but too much of either can be damaging.

"In a situation like a pandemic, (optimism) can lead you to take risks that are incredibly dangerous," said Van Bavel.

Why is social distancing difficult?

"We are truly social animals," said Van Bavel. "Our bodies and brains are designed for connection and the pandemic in many ways goes against our instincts to connect."

That's partly why local outbreaks can crop up in bars and nightclubs, or religious ceremonies, weddings and parties.

"People have a hard time resisting that tendency for social and group connection."

If rule-breakers are a minority, why does it matter?

"The problem is that, in a massive collective problem like the one we're facing now, if everybody breaks the rules a little bit, then it's not dissimilar to lots of people not following the rules at all," said Sanders.

Originally posted here:
Pandemic behavior: Why some people don't play by the rules - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

Human Behavior

The extremes of human behavior Mondoweiss – Mondoweiss

Of late I keep being reminded of my age. Fortunately, the impinging frailties are emotional, not physical. Emotional lability is common among octogenarians. I shudder to think of other more psychopathological explanations for the infirmity. Whatever the cause, in my rural Palestinian culture crying is not for strong men. But nowadays reading the news seems always to bring tears to my eyes.

The cases of near random brutalizing of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, often multiple and often to death, is a near daily occurrence. Last weeks episode in Haaretz apparently is a case of mistaken identity, a border cop shooting a man from Jenin in the back seat of a car on sight. The Israeli heroic soldiers quick finger on the trigger is in line with the a priori Talmudic license of Ifsomeonecomes tokill you,rise up andkill him first. I cried for the injured mans father visiting him in the hospital. Not only that one of his sons is in critical condition with a pointblank shot to the head but also that there is a death sentence for the other son, the intended subject of the attack. And the same newsfeed has this item as well as this, one of a mother and the other of a child, the second such incident in three months. A weekly inclusive summary of such abuses, deadly and otherwise, is the JVP Health Advisory Committee weekly report.

Then Haaretz (English print version) carried a report about the rush of so many Palestinian families including parents, children and some elderly to the shore of the Mediterranean, mostly at Jaffas beach, many of them for the first time in their lives. Not only that they had no permits but also that most of them crossed the so called Security Barrier through illegal passages and breaks in the fence with the Israeli security officials looking the other way. This surprising event and the pleasure the Palestinian children derived from wading into the sea for the first time, as is shown in one of the pictures in the report, nearly made me cry with pleasure. But what really made me cry to where I was gulping for breath is a video that a search about the topic of Israels borders eventually led me to. It shows a football game between two teams of Palestinian amputees in Gaza. Those young men didnt even touch the fence of their open-air prison, much less crossed it. Just as the unwritten permit to cross the Apartheid wall to reach the sea, shooting with intent to mutilate demonstrating youth in Gaza must have been a well-considered decision of security and political higher-ups. War crimes usually start at the top.

My home in Galilee is nearly equidistant from Jenin and Beirut. For the last five days the scenes of death, destruction and wide spread misery in the Lebanese capitals port area is shocking. For many of us, natives of the region, the shock is in proportion to Beiruts romantic place in our hearts as Paris of the Levant. The tragic scenes in the media, especially on Lebanese TV stations, are sufficient to shock the most stoic amongst us. The account of one touching human tragedy that I have seen on TV is also reported in the New York Times international edition. It is of a heroic young woman from a village in north Lebanon, a medic who had joined Beiruts fire department and died while talking to her fianc. She was buried in a typical village wedding procession with the standard wedding music and singing and with her coffin draped in white and her fianc dressed in a wedding suit and carried on his friends shoulders as befits a groom.

But the one report that brought tears to my eyes the most was a two-line sketch in Arabic on a dear friends Facebook account which went as follows (My translation):

You should be Careful. I have Corona! an injured woman in Beirut told the man trying to rescue her.

I am not letting you die, the man answered as he carried her in his arms.

The humanity of both! I just cant stop crying. I cant breathe.

Visit link:
The extremes of human behavior Mondoweiss - Mondoweiss

Human Behavior

What philosophers have to say about the desire to party – Malay Mail

As social animals, humans are hardwired to need the interaction provided by parties. Stock photo via ETX Studio

AUG 16 Surprising as it may seem, many philosophers have wondered about the phenomenon of partying, and attempted to explain why humankind is so eager to indulge in collective merrymaking marked by excess and occasionally impulsive conduct. At a time when social gatherings are viewed as irresponsible with regard to the pandemic, it is worth remembering that they are an essential aspect of human behaviour, which has been well-documented in literature and social sciences. Even philosophers have sought to explain why they are so deeply needed. Here is a roundup of what they had to say.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: a collective escape from constraints that allows you to forget yourself

The French thinker, who argued that human beings were naturally good but corrupted by society, saw partying as a return to an original innocence fuelled by dancing and alcohol, which offered an escape from the constraints and interests that dominate human behavior to the point where revellers even forget themselves. In the light of this view, the 18th century philosopher would have a hard time understanding people who take selfies at parties.

Mikhail Bakhtin: partying as a momentary subversion of social order

The Russian philosopher and Rabelais scholar was particularly interested in the popular phenomenon of carnivals and their disruption and suspension of the social order. For Bakhtin, the goal of partying was to temporarily do away with hierarchy and convention.

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre: existentialist partying

France's most famous philosophical couple was keen on partying, an activity that they believed to be very much in tune with existentialist thought, which, in a nutshell, sets aside any notion of self that is not defined by action. For Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, philosophy also entailed a commitment to live life to the full. Partying, which they saw as a powerful source of energy that liberated the imagination and stimulated creativity, was an important aspect of that.

Michel Foucault: partying is the jubilant release of the collective unconscious

For the French philosopher Michel Foucault, partying provides an opportunity for the spontaneous manifestation of the collective unconscious that governs ordinary social interaction. With their authorisation of excesses and transgressions (both sexual and social), parties shed light on hidden aspects of morality and society. ETX Studio

See the article here:
What philosophers have to say about the desire to party - Malay Mail

Human Behavior

Ask Amy: Wondering widower wont wait by the phone – HollandSentinel.com

Dear Amy: After 31 years with my spouse, Im now dating (Im a widower). Dating is a new thing for me.

There is a guy with whom I thought I had a good rapport. He reached out to me last week expressing an interest in getting together over the weekend. I responded that I'd like that, and gave him my availability.

I never heard back from him. I thought maybe he had an emergency, and I texted him Sunday night just to confirm that he was OK.

He replied, apologizing for the weekend getting away from him, and said that he had a work project due the next day.

I respect the fact that he takes his work seriously, but I am bothered that he did not let me know his weekend plans were changed.

I may be old-fashioned, but this situation just makes me think we are not as aligned as I thought. To me, a quick text letting me know he needed to cancel would have been common courtesy. I think he was telling me he is not that interested.

Is this how things work now, where you don't really need to let someone know if you are opting out of previously stated plans? Maybe I am out of touch. Dating Newbie

Dear Newbie: Welcome to the dating world, where no matter what era someone is always waiting by the phone.

Even though modern technology has made it possible for us to be in touch frequently and instantly basic human behavior and dynamics have stayed fairly constant over time.

If someone wants to be with you, he will leap over boundaries and deadlines to see you. And if an emergency keeps him away, you will be the first to know, because yes! you are just a text or a quick call away.

Dating is actually great practice at reading social cues.

For instance, you and he did not actually have "previously stated" plans. There was a vague and nonspecific plan-balloon floating over your weekend. (Not locking down plans is a cue.)

When this guy decided he didnt want to see you, he didnt bother letting you know. (Rudeness is a cue.)

Common courtesy is still common, and when someone is truly interested in seeing you, he will demonstrate this by being kind, polite, and eager to see you. Never supply a rationale or excuse for someone elses rudeness.

Move on. When the guy is right for you, you will know it.

Dear Amy: Every summer a group (10 to 15) of us high school classmates get together for a casual picnic. Our 50th high school reunion was canceled until next year.

Silly me, with this pandemic, I assumed that the picnic would automatically be canceled. Instead, I was notified to bring a dish to pass and meet at the usual picnic tables.

I was shocked that these people (almost 70 years old, and many with careers in the medical field, would be so oblivious to the pandemic. Many of these classmates live out of town.

I refused to go. I pointed out that group gatherings and sharing food main dishes/serving utensils, public grills during a pandemic was a very bad idea. The person planning it was quite mystified and miffed at my decision not to attend. Why are people so oblivious during a pandemic? Did I overreact? What Pandemic?!

Dear What: Although this virus doesnt seem to be transmitted the way some other illnesses are on shared utensils, for instance the very act of sharing food and utensils brings people in close proximity, which gives this virus a chance to spread.

I dont know why some people are so oblivious, but you cannot control them. Your duty is to do your very best to take care of yourself. If you dont contract the virus, you wont spread it, and this is how you will help to take care of others. I hope your group gets lucky and that everybody stays safe and well.

Dear Amy: I had to laugh when I read the letter from "Screw Loose in Lucedale."

Although I don't live alone, I do work from home and am solitary with my pets most of the day.

My son has always made fun of my "narrating my own life." Pointing it out brought humor to the situation, but did not change it. Still Narrating

Dear Narrating: Judging from the huge response to this question, a lot of us have a lot to say to ourselves.

Amy Dickinson is a Tribune Media Service national columnist. Send questions via email to askamy@amydickinson.com or by mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068.

Read more:
Ask Amy: Wondering widower wont wait by the phone - HollandSentinel.com

Human Behavior

TOM PURCELL: The longer we’re isolated, the less productive we get – Henry Herald

Covid-19 is getting old particularly for employees whove been working from home for months.

Thats the finding of a recent article by Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter, Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isnt So Great After All.

Early on, when millions stopped commuting and started working from home, many companies saw good results. Work was getting done. Most employees enjoyed it. Companies saw an opportunity to reduce future office overhead costs by making remote work part of their long-term strategy.

But that was before cracks began to emerge in the work-from-home model.

According to The Journal, initiatives now take longer. Hiring and integrating staff is harder. Employees arent bonding or growing with each other. Efforts to collaborate online are going flat.

The reporter cited one CEOs conclusion: Its important to have people in a room and see body language and read signals that dont come through a screen.

Hes exactly correct. Humans are social animals. Were at our best when we collaborate face to face. Communication theoristNick Morgan explains why in Forbes: (W)e share mirror neurons that allow us to match each others emotions unconsciously and immediately. We leak emotions to each other. We anticipate and mirror each others movements when were in sympathy or agreement with one another when were on the same side. And we can mirror each others brain activity when were engaged in storytelling and listening both halves of the communication conundrum.

As a freelance writer, working from home for years, I find myself climbing the walls many days. Too much home-office isolation makes getting things done harder.

Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.

Error! There was an error processing your request.

Though online meetings are helpful, I long for face-to-face interaction. The best ideas come from in-person brainstorming as one person jots ideas on a whiteboard and others shout out concepts. You just cant do that well in online meetings.

Furthermore, Ive worked for clients I never met in person. Such relationships are never as rich as those in which Im able to meet and work with clients in their offices over time.

In any event, as companies rediscover human natures limitations that employees isolated at home arent as productive or as engaged with colleagues they shed light on a growing problem in our society: Increasingly isolated inside our homes, particularly due to the virus, more people are interacting solely through social media and other online platforms.

And these detached means by which we communicate enable our growing incivility.

This era of smartphones and social media of nasty tweets and Facebook insults ismaking rudeness, reports Psychology Today, our new normal.

The magazine cites research, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, that finds technology-enabled anonymity and a lack of eye contact are chief contributors to our growing incivility.

This prolonged virus is getting old, for sure, and our patience is running thin. But I hope we will learn from the lessons its teaching us.

I long for a time when pubs are fully operational and we can discuss politics civilly and with open minds over pints of Guinness, with renewed hope that well figure out how to maintain our humanity and civility in our increasingly nutty world when this pandemic is finally behind us.

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free.Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution today.

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.

See the article here:
TOM PURCELL: The longer we're isolated, the less productive we get - Henry Herald

Human Behavior

Frustrated? Human patterns of synchronization may be the reason – study – The Jerusalem Post

In order to study the behavior of human synchronization, Dr. Moti Fridman of the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Nir Davidson of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Elad Shniderman from Stony Brook University in New York created a musical ensemble composed of 16 violinists that acted like a network. Their results were published on August 11, 2020, in the journal Nature Communications."Our research is related to epidemic control and understanding how many connections we can preserve and still prevent an epidemic from spreading," added Fridman, in the shadow of the spread of the coronavirus.The study was operated as follows: the ensemble was composed of 16 violinists wearing headphones, each of them playing a short musical phrase repeatedly, again and again, and hearing the performance, along with the performance of at least two other musicians, through their headphones. No visual information was available for the musicians who were separated from one another with partitions. All they were asked to do was to synchronize with one another according to what they heard in their headphones. However, the researchers imposed an increasing delay on what the violinists heard in their headphones. "By introducing a delay between the coupled violinists so that each violinist heard what his/her neighbors played a few seconds ago, we prevent the network from reaching a synchronized state," Fridman explained. This is called a frustrated situation and is well studied in different types of networks. According to current network theory models, in a frustrated state each node a certain violinist will try to compromise between all its inputs what this violinist heard in his headphones."Humans behave differently," Fridman explained. "In a state of frustration they don't look for a 'middle', but ignore one of the inputs. This is a critical phenomenon that is changing the dynamics of the network."According to the study, led by Fridman and his colleagues, two main innovations were enlightened: first, a methodology to measure accurately human network dynamic, and second, the two unique characteristics of a human network, namely the flexibility to change pace, and the ability to filter and ignore inputs that create frustration. These capabilities fundamentally change the dynamics of human networks relative to other networks and necessitate the use of a new model to predict human behavior."If you take humans and you study how they clap together, you have no control over who hears what. While working on this project we discovered that human networks behave differently than any other network we've ever measured. Human networks are able to change their inner structure in order to reach a better solution than what's possible in existing models. This concept is the core of our scientific and aesthetic discovery," Fridman said.The new model for stimulating human network established by this study can be applied in several fields, starting from understanding decision-making process in a wide range of fields such as politic, economics, human sciences, but it can also help to understand the behavior of people on social network when they are exposed to "fake news," and how to prevent those false information to spread.

Read more:
Frustrated? Human patterns of synchronization may be the reason - study - The Jerusalem Post

Human Behavior

Certifiably clean: Hotels, airlines and venues turn to Clorox and Lysol to vouch for their cleanliness – Kankakee Daily Journal

If you jump on a United Airlines flight, you are likely to see the Clorox logo on signs and posters as you board.

Check into a Marriott or Hyatt hotel and expect to see stickers emblazoned with the name of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, an arm of the worlds cleaning-products industry trade group.

Customers of Delta Air Lines, Avis car rentals and Hilton hotels might run into placards and stickers touting the Lysol brand.

Trying to reassure a nervous public about their efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19, hotels, airlines, car rental companies and sports arenas have teamed up with the makers of popular cleaning products to vouch for their cleaning protocols.

These protocols focus mostly on disinfecting public spaces and high-touch surfaces, whereas medical experts note COVID-19 primarily is transmitted through the air after an infected person coughs, sneezes or exhales.

And the new partnerships and accreditation programs touted by such travel and hospitality companies do not guarantee the makers of the popular cleaning products have inspected the facilities so theyre very different from, say, restaurant letter grades, which assure local health inspectors scrutinize the eateries on a regular basis.

Also unlike government health departments, the cleaning-product makers expect to profit by charging fees to the venues or boosting sales of their products.

Venues embrace these programs for good reason, hospitality experts say, because travelers no longer are as preoccupied with getting the best price for their next trip as they are with protecting themselves from COVID-19.

Its a critical move, said Anthony Melchiorri, a hospitality expert who hosts the Travel Channel series Hotel Impossible. Not only do your guests have to feel safe but your employees must feel safe.

Although brand names can inspire confidence and comfort, human behavior is key to safety, health experts note.

What you hope hotels are doing are things like encouraging physical distancing in common spaces and limiting the number of people who are riding in elevators, said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at UCLAs David Geffen School of Medicine. Those are things, in addition to cleaning, that will be very important in minimizing the risk of infection.

The hotels, airlines and sports arenas that are partnering with the cleaning-product makers say social distancing and wearing masks are elements of their new protocols, but the emphasis still is on disinfecting surfaces with name-brand products.

In some of the partnerships, the cleaning-product makers simply help draft cleaning standards for their business partners. In others, the cleaning specialists develop accreditation programs similar to a pass-or-fail exam the hotels and arenas must pass to earn the brands endorsement.

The Global Biorisk Advisory Council, also known as GBAC, and Ecolab Inc., a Minnesota-based maker of cleaning, sanitizing and maintenance products, each have created accreditation programs for several hotels and sports arenas.

The accreditation is not free, and it usually doesnt involve in-person inspections.

A GBAC accreditation program costs as much as $15,000 per year per facility. Ecolab declined to disclose its fees, saying only the costs vary by industry and customer, depending on the components included in the program and implementation needs.

For Lysol and Clorox, the financial benefit from such partnerships is expected to come from promoting their brands in hotels, airlines and rental car companies and from the boost in sales as the partner companies stock up on cleaning products to meet the new protocols.

The partnerships have been growing steadily in recent weeks.

View original post here:
Certifiably clean: Hotels, airlines and venues turn to Clorox and Lysol to vouch for their cleanliness - Kankakee Daily Journal

Human Behavior

What happens in the next weeks will turn on how academic leaders make choices and change no longer effective behaviors (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

Academic leaders across the nation are dealing with what will probably prove to be the most challenging time of their tenures. In the days of COVID-19, the broader consequences of leadership decisions -- for people's health, even their lives, and potentially the future existence of an institution -- have ramped up significantly, especially for provosts and presidents. Those jobs, always lonely, have become even lonelier and more pressured.

We all have never had a stronger imperative to be, in the parlance of the negotiation literature, "hard on the problems and soft on the people." The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented disruptions to the operations of colleges and universities have left academic leaders and members of their communities forced to balance concerns for individual health and safety, budgetary survival, and academic quality and integrity. The decisions around those challenges pose innumerable tensions and tradeoffs that need to be managed in a context that is rapidly changing -- one in which accurate projections even a few weeks into the future are impossible.

A second historic set of challenges has also confronted our academic environments in recent months. The "Black Lives Matter" protests have resurfaced questions about campus inequities, inclusion, campus policing and whether moves made to address one set of problems -- such as moving classes online -- create new disadvantages for members of certain groups.

So much of what will happen in the next weeks and months will turn on how academic leaders make choices and the ways in which they recognize and adapt long-standing but no longer effective behaviors and habits. The very desire for a return to normalcy may result in choices that prove to be counterproductive to supporting the life and vitality of the academic environment leaders wish to preserve.

The profoundly difficult decisions ahead are exacerbated by an external environment in which policy and public health decisions are influenced by partisan political interests. Across the country people -- especially young people -- continue to avoid masks, distancing and other health and safety requirements. The safety of future policies, such as plans to reopen campuses, depend on human behavior and choices that are not always rational. Developments at the national level complicate campus decisions and the future even further.

This uncertainty has led some faculty members and students to oppose reopening campuses. At the same time, not reopening will mean financial crises that will likely entail furloughs and layoffs. Students in many fields will miss crucial educational and professional development experiences. The tradeoffs here are real and excruciating -- and someone needs to make the decisions.

Responsible leadership now entails a significant degree of flexibility and responsiveness to a changing environment. Meanwhile, students, parents and faculty members are demanding greater specificity from college leaders about future plans for reopening campuses than might be feasible. An honest answer to some questions might be, "We just don't know yet." Leaders will need to adapt to changing conditions and to be constantly ready to reverse or change strategies.

Reopening or not, plans are needed, but those plans will certainly have to change and evolve. In a situation that is based on so much uncertainty, clear principles and processes are needed: data-based decisions, meaningful consultation and transparency. Finding a way to the longer term through this dangerous period requires a balance of strategic and tactical choices. In fact, what may be a tactical decision today could significantly limit longer-term strategic options.

What does all this mean for the academic leader in the midst of such a crisis? How do you embrace responsibility and accountability for decisions that will influence the health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff at your institution? What do you do if you make choices that turn out to be wrong? We offer five recommendations.

Focus on core values. Leadership is grounded in creating a vision and guiding others through actions toward achieving that vision. Leaders need, and need to express, distinct and clearly articulated values and pursue mission-critical priorities. In higher education, those priorities include:

Can you articulate, clearly and concisely, which values are guiding choices now and, as circumstances change, in the future?

Communicate, communicate, communicate. It almost goes without saying, but it can't be said enough: communication is key. That involves:

The times do not call for a mere PR campaign: the voice and values of the leader will communicate powerfully.

Provide accessible education. This pandemic will be over one day, and we will probably return to a New Normal in ways that no one can fully predict. The confluence of the virus and the Black Lives Matter protests aims toward a reconfiguration of values -- one in which "safety" takes on many meanings and in which equity and the asymmetrical impact of policies on different groups at the institution are at the forefront.

If campuses do re-open, BLM protests will probably be part of that New Normal. The movement has broadened from a focus on violence toward African Americans, to a re-examination of racial injustice in all its forms. It is building a wider coalition to question who does and does not have access to the America Dream -- including access to quality higher education. It is inevitable that colleges and universities will be confronted with the ways in which they have fallen short.

How do leaders respond to those challenges while also coping with the health, organizational and financial challenges posed by COVID-19? Here again, a commitment to certain values, open communication, an honest assessment of the facts, and careful listening are essential.

Moreover, a key part of the New Normal will be an upsurge in online and blended instruction models, not as a temporary emergency measure but as a continuing effort to provide access to a diverse and global student body. These instructional trends were already underway and have now accelerated, and with them come important questions. Temporarily teaching at a distance on an emergency basis is not the same as fundamentally redesigning a course into online or blended formats. What does it mean to teach in this way, with quality and innovation? Who is best served through these alternative approaches, and who is disadvantaged? (For example, consider students in areas with poor Wi-Fi connectivity or students without support structures at home.) What are some of the broader institutional and budgetary implications of more online teaching -- and who does it?

Establish an environment of excellence. Another aspect of the New Normal will be an acceleration in already existing tendencies for people to teach and work from home. What does that mean for promoting a sense of unity, community and collegiality? What does it mean for evaluating work? What does it mean for educational activities where work must be done in a particular place, and together? What does it mean for formal meetings? As a leader, how do you run an online meeting while ensuring active participation and shared decision-making? Even after the virus is behind us, many of these patterns of activity will persist -- and indeed, we are learning to appreciate some of the ways that some aspects of non-face-to-face practices have their own benefits.

At the same time, true excellence also includes commitments to diversity and inclusion. Every means of expanding access for some may entail challenges to access for others. Good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes for all. We must all pay attention to how our words and actions affect those around us, and take responsibility for doing better when we fall short./p>

Recognize real and often profound impacts. We must be honest and direct about the emotional toll these changes are having on people, including on leaders themselves:

Similar observations apply to the Black Lives Matter movement. Real feelings and experiences must be considered. How things look from a leader's perspective will not always tell you how they appear from those of disparate groups. Passion, anger and fears drive behavior. Groups that have long felt left out or neglected are now demanding attention. Every policy response to the virus must be examined through the lens of differential impact.

Leaders are part of the campus community and suffer from all the same kinds of stresses and anxieties that other people feel -- often more so. They need to care for themselves and build their own networks of personal connection and support. And they must prepare themselves for the inevitability that some of the decisions made today, with the best available information and the best intentions, will turn out later to have been mistaken -- and second-guessed. That has always gone with the territory, and the stakes are higher now. Principled, values-based decisions, communicated in the leader's own authentic voice, are powerful and necessary tools.

Follow this link:
What happens in the next weeks will turn on how academic leaders make choices and change no longer effective behaviors (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed