Embryology

Merck Foundation and First Ladies of Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, The Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger,…

Cape Town, South Africa & Mumbai, Maharashtra, India:

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic armof Merck KGaA Germany conducted their first Video Conference Summit of Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI) on 31st August 2020 to define and follow up on different joint programs that aims to advance public healthcare sector capacity and strengthen the response to COVID 19 in their countries.The MFFLI VC Summit 2020 was hosted by Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp,Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees and Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President, Merck More Than a Mother and One of 100 Most Influential African (2019 & 2020) and attended by 13 African First Ladies, who are Ambassadors of Merck More than a Mother; H.E. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA, The First Lady of Zimbabwe; H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, The First Lady of Zambia; H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO, The First Lady of Sierra Leone; H.E. ASSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger; H.E. MONICA GEINGOS, The First Lady of Namibia; H.E. ISAURA FERRO NYUSI, The First Lady of Mozambique; H.E. MONICA CHAKWERA, The First Lady of Malawi; H.E. REBECCA AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana; H. E. FATOUMATTA BAHBARROW, The First Lady of The Gambia; H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central African Republic; H.E. ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE, The First Lady of Burundi; H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana; H.E. ANA DIAS LOURENO, The First Lady of Angola.Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees emphasized, The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been greater than many expected across the globe. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of investing in improving access to equitable and quality healthcare which is Merck Foundation's strategy since 2012, even before the pandemic started.Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation explained, I am very proud of our valuable partnership with the African First ladies as Merck more than a Mother Ambassadors. We have always believed in the importance of building healthcare capacity through providing training to healthcare providers in many medical specialties. This has been our strategy since we started in 2012 in partnership with African First Ladies and Ministries of Health, much before the pandemic started. As a response to COVID 19 pandemic, we adopted online medical education strategy through providing more than 350 African doctors with one-year online diploma and two-year online master degree in many specialties such as: Respiratory Medicines and Acute medicines, Diabetes, Cardiology, Endocrinology, and Sexual and Reproductive Medicines. This is in addition to more than 500 African and Asian doctors who benefited from our original clinical training programs in Diabetes & Cardiovascular, Oncology, Fertility specialists, and embryology in India, Egypt, Kenya and Malaysia which will resume after the lockdown ends.The MFFLI VC Summit, special edition aims to share experiences, discuss challenges, and define solutions to further strengthen healthcare capacity to better respond to this global pandemic in Africa.The African First Ladies shared the experiences of working closely with Merck Foundation in their respective countries with special focus on the programs to build healthcare capacity and the response to COVID -19.H.E. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA, The First Lady of Zimbabwe & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother emphasized, I am very happy to see Merck Foundations strong commitment to advance the public healthcare sector across Africa. This is very critical to Zimbabwe, in the light of current pressure on our healthcare sector. More than 117 local doctors are enrolled in these training programs which will transform our healthcare sector.H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, First Lady of Zambia & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother emphasized, We are proud of our partnership with Merck Foundation, which started in 2019. In a very short period, we have been able to reshape the healthcare landscape of Zambia by providing our doctors and nurses with specialty training in the fields of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Respiratory, Acute medicines, Sexual and Reproductive medicines, Fertility and Embryology. All of these fields are very critical and were lacking in our country. This will contribute to our battle against coronavirus and other diseases.H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO, The First Lady of Sierra Leone & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother expressed, I am extremely elated with our partnership with Merck Foundation, as together, we are making history in Sierra Leone by providing training for the First Oncologists in the country to establish the first skilled cancer care team. Also, our doctors are being trained in the fields of diabetes and fertility care. We will scale up the program to more fields together with Merck Foundation very soon.H.E. ASSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother emphasized, I am happy to be part of this prestigious platform. Since the Merck Foundation launch in 2017, together we have made a significant impact on our healthcare sector, through establishing a strong platform of Health experts in very critical fields such as; Diabetes, Oncology and Fertility care in Niger.H.E. MONICA GEINGOS, The First Lady of Namibia & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother said, I am very happy to see that Merck Foundation is strongly committed to advancing the public healthcare sector across Africa. This is very critical to our countries in light of the current medical and public concerns. This is very important for Namibia as we have a very limited number of local specialists in the public sector, we are very happy to enroll 21 Namibian doctors in online diplomas in many fields, including 8 in sexual and reproductive medicines which is very important for women health.H.E. Dr. ISAURA FERRO NYUSI, The First Lady of Mozambique & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother explained, Together with Merck Foundation, I am fully committed to will work closely to introduce innovative ideas that will engage different sectors to create a culture shift with the aim to break the stigma of infertility and make a great impact in a short time.H.E. MONICA CHAKWERA, The First Lady of Malawi & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother said, I am looking forward to starting our important long term partnership with Merck Foundation. I am willing to capitalize on the valuable programs of Merck Foundation, by scaling them up nationwide to contribute to the social and economic development of Malawi.H.E. REBECCA AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother elaborated, We launched the innovative programs of Merck Foundation at the beginning of 2019, to build healthcare capacity and break the infertility stigma. To share with you that since then and in a very short time we have been able to provide and enroll many of our healthcare providers with specialty training in the fields of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Respiratory, Acute medicines, Sexual and Reproductive medicines, Fertility specialists and Embryology training.H.E. FATOUMATTA BAHBARROW, The First Lady of The Gambia & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother said, I am delighted to share the magnificent outcomes of my long term partnership with Merck Foundation. Together we have been able to empower infertile women through access to information, education, health, and change of mindset. Also, we have enrolled 25 Gambian doctors in One-year online diploma and one-year master degree in many medical specialties.H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central African Republic & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother emphasized, I am very proud to work closely with Merck Foundation to advance healthcare sector and empower infertile women in my country. We also initiated in my country, an important project Empowering Berna where we established small businesses for infertile women and train them to run their businesses so they can have income and become independent. Their lives have been transformed since then.H.E. ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE, The First Lady of Burundi & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother expressed, I am very happy to be appointed the Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother last week. I am excited about the work that has been done in my country so far and looking forward to taking this partnership to new heights.H.E. NEO JANE MASISI The First Lady of Botswana & Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother highlighted, Merck Foundations strategy of building healthcare capacity is more relevant now than ever. More than 34 doctors were enrolled to different specialties, I will closely work with Merck Foundation and our Ministry of Health to ensure the success of this program to be able to improve our peoples health and wellbeing.H.E. ANA DIAS LOURENO, The First Lady of Angola expressed, I am very proud and happy to be a part of MFFLI VC Summit and look forward to a long-term partnership with Merck Foundation. We will closely work together on all their initiatives to build healthcare capacity and empower girls in education.

MFFLI is a Merck Foundation platform of African First Ladies and Merck More Than a Mother Ambassadorsestablished with the aim to discuss challenges, define solutions, measure impact and share experience to ensure continuous improvement and exchange variable aspects of different cultures in order to localize and/or standardize specific messages that can raise awareness and create a culture shift across Africa with regards to the below objectives:

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Merck Foundation and First Ladies of Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, The Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger,...

Human Behavior

The world of Artificial… – The American Bazaar

Sophia. Source: https://www.hansonrobotics.com/press/

Humans are the most advanced form of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with an ability to reproduce.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a theory but is part of our everyday life. Services like TikTok, Netflix, YouTube, Uber, Google Home Mini, and Amazon Echo are just a few instances of AI in our daily life.

This field of knowledge always attracted me in strange ways. I have been an avid reader and I read a variety of subjects of non-fiction nature. I love to watch movies not particularly sci-fi, but I liked Innerspace, Flubber, Robocop, Terminator, Avatar, Ex Machina, and Chappie.

When I think of Artificial Intelligence, I see it from a lay perspective. I do not have an IT background. I am a researcher and a communicator; and, I consider myself a happy person who loves to learn and solve problems through simple and creative ideas. My thoughts on AI may sound different, but Im happy to discuss them.

Humans are the most advanced form of AI that we may know to exit. My understanding is that the only thing that differentiates humans and Artificial Intelligence is the capability to reproduce. While humans have this ability to multiply through male and female union and transfer their abilities through tiny cells, machines lack that function. Transfer of cells to a newborn is no different from the transfer of data to a machine. Its breathtaking that how a tiny cell in a human body has all the necessary information of not only that particular individual but also their ancestry.

Allow me to give an introduction to the recorded history of AI. Before that, I would like to take a moment to share with you my recent achievement that I feel proud to have accomplished. I finished a course in AI from Algebra University in Croatia in July. I could attend this course through a generous initiative and bursary from Humber College (Toronto). Such initiatives help intellectually curious minds like me to learn. I would also like to express that the views expressed are my own understanding and judgment.

What is AI?

AI is a branch of computer science that is based on computer programming like several other coding programs. What differentiates Artificial Intelligence, however, is its aim that is to mimic human behavior. And this is where things become fascinating as we develop artificial beings.

Origins

I have divided the origins of AI into three phases so that I can explain it better and you dont miss on the sequence of incidents that led to the step by step development of AI.

Phase 1

AI is not a recent concept. Scientists were already brainstorming about it and discussing the thinking capabilities of machines even before the term Artificial Intelligence was coined.

I would like to start from 1950 with Alan Turing, a British intellectual who brought WW II to an end by decoding German messages. Turing released a paper in the October of 1950 Computing Machinery and Intelligence that can be considered as among the first hints to thinking machines. Turing starts the paper thus: I propose to consider the question, Can machines think?. Turings work was also the beginning of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The 21st-century mortals can relate it with the invention of Apples Siri. The A.M. Turing Award is considered the Nobel of computing. The life and death of Turing are unusual in their own way. I will leave it at that but if you are interested in delving deeper, here is one article by The New York Times.

Five years later, in 1955, John McCarthy, an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Dartmouth College, and his team proposed a research project in which they used the term Artificial Intelligence, for the first time.

McCarthy explained the proposal saying, The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. He continued, An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.

It started with a few simple logical thoughts that germinated into a whole new branch of computer science in the coming decades. AI can also be related to the concept of Associationism that is traced back to Aristotle from 300 BC. But, discussing that in detail will be outside the scope of this article.

It was in 1958 that we saw the first model replicating the brains neuron system. This was the year when psychologist Frank Rosenblatt developed a program called Perceptron. Rosenblatt wrote in his article, Stories about the creation of machines having human qualities have long been fascinating province in the realm of science fiction. Yet we are now about to witness the birth of such a machine a machine capable of perceiving, recognizing, and identifying its surroundings without any human training or control.

A New York Times article published in 1958 introduced the invention to the general public saying, The Navy revealed the embryo of an electronic computer today that it expects will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence.

My investigation in one of the papers of Rosenblatt hints that even in the 1940s scientists talked about artificial neurons. Notice in the Reference section of Rosenblatts paper published in 1958. It lists Warren S. McCulloch and Walter H. Pitts paper of 1943. If you are interested in more details, I would suggest an article published in Medium.

The first AI conference took place in 1959. However, by this time, the leads in Artificial Intelligence had already exhausted the computing capabilities of the time. It is, therefore, no surprise that not much could be achieved in AI in the next decade.

Thankfully, the IT industry was catching up quickly and preparing the ground for stronger computers. Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, made a few predictions in his article in 1965. Moore predicted a huge growth of integrated circuits, more components per chip, and reduced costs. Integrated circuits will lead to such wonders as home computers or at least terminals connected to a central computerautomatic controls for automobiles, and personal portable communications equipment, Moore predicted. Although scientists had been toiling hard to launch the Internet, it was not until the late 1960s that the invention started showing some promises. On October 29, 1969, ARPAnet delivered its first message: a node-to-node communication from one computer to another, notes History.com.

With the Internet in the public domain, computer companies had a reason to accelerate their own developments. In 1971, Intel introduced its first chip. It was a huge breakthrough. Intel impressively compared the size and computing abilities of the new hardware saying, This revolutionary microprocessor, the size of a little fingernail, delivered the same computing power as the first electronic computer built in 1946, which filled an entire room.

Around the 1970s more popular versions of languages came in use, for instance, C and SQL. I mention these two as I remember when I did my Diploma in Network-Centered Computing in 2002, the advanced versions of these languages were still alive and kicking. Britannica has a list of computer programming languages if you care to read more on when the different languages came into being.

These advancements created a perfect amalgamation of resources to trigger the next phase in AI.

Phase 2

In the late 1970s, we see another AI enthusiast coming in the scene with several research papers on AI. Geoffrey Hinton, a Canadian researcher, had confidence in Rosenblatts work on Perceptron. He resolved an inherent problem with Rosenblatts model that was made up of a single layer perceptron. To be fair to Rosenblatt, he was well aware of the limitations of this approach he just didnt know how to learn multiple layers of features efficiently, Hinton noted in his paper in 2006.

This multi-layer approach can be referred to as a Deep Neural Network.

Another scientist, Yann LeCun, who studied under Hinton and worked with him, was making strides in AI, especially Deep Learning (DL, explained later in the article) and Backpropagation Learning (BL). BL can be referred to as machines learning from their mistakes or learning from trial and error.

Similar to Phase 1, the developments of Phase 2 end here due to very limited computing power and insufficient data. This was around the late 1990s. As the Internet was fairly recent, there was not much data available to feed the machines.

Phase 3

In the early 21st-century, the computer processing speed entered a new level. In 2011, IBMs Watson defeated its human competitors in the game of Jeopardy. Watson was quite impressive in its performance. On September 30, 2012, Hinton and his team released the object recognition program called Alexnet and tested it on Imagenet. The success rate was above 75 percent, which was not achieved by any such machine before. This object recognition sent ripples across the industry. By 2018, image recognition programming became 97% accurate! In other words, computers were recognizing objects more accurately than humans.

In 2015, Tesla introduced its self-driving AI car. The company boasts its autopilot technology on its web site saying, All new Tesla cars come standard with advanced hardware capable of providing Autopilot features today, and full self-driving capabilities in the futurethrough software updates designed to improve functionality over time.

Go enthusiasts will also remember the 2016 incident when Google-owned DeepMinds AlphaGo defeated the human Go world-champion Lee Se-dol. This incident came at least a decade too soon. We know that Go is considered one of the most complex games in human history. And, AI could learn it in just 3 days, to a level to beat a world champion who, I would assume must have spent decades to achieve that proficiency!

The next phase shall be to work on Singularity. Singularity can be understood as machines building better machines, all by themselves. In 1993, scientist Vernor Vinge published an essay in which he wrote, Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. Scientists are already working on the concept of technological singularity. If these achievements can be used in a controlled way, these can help several industries, for instance, healthcare, automobile, and oil exploration.

I would also like to add here that Canadian universities are contributing significantly to developments in Artificial Intelligence. Along with Hinton and LeCun, I would like to mention Richard Sutton. Sutton, Professor at the University of Alberta, is of the view that advancements in the singularity can be expected around 2040. This makes me feel that when AI will no longer need human help, it will be a kind of specie in and of itself.

To get to the next phase, however, we would need more computer power to achieve the goals of tomorrow.

Now that we have some background on the genesis of AI and some information on the experts who nourished this advancement all these years, it is time to understand a few key terms of AI. By the way, if you ask me, every scientist who is behind these developments is a new topic in themselves. I have tried to put a good number of researched sources in the article to generate your interest and support your knowledge in AI.

Big Data

With the Internet of Things (IoT), we are saving tons of data every second from every corner of the world. Consider, for instance, Google. It seems that it starts tracking our intentions as soon as we type the first alphabet on our keyboard. Now think for a second how much data is generated from all the internet users from all over the World. Its already making predictions of our likes, dislikes, actionseverything.

The concept of big data is important as that makes the memory of Artificial Intelligence. Its like a parent sharing their experience with their child. If the child can learn from that experience, they develop cognizant abilities and venture into making their own judgments and decisions. Similarly, big data is the human experience that is shared with machines and they develop on that experience. This can be supervised as well as unsupervised learning.

Symbolic Reasoning and Machine Learning

The basics of all processes are some mathematical patterns. I think that this is because math is something that is certain and easy to understand for all humans. 2 + 2 will always be 4 unless there is something we havent figured out in the equation.

Symbolic reasoning is the traditional method of getting work done through machines. According to Pathmind, to build a symbolic reasoning system, first humans must learn the rules by which two phenomena relate, and then hard-code those relationships into a static program. Symbolic reasoning in AI is also known as the Good Old Fashioned AI (GOFAI).

Machine Learning (ML) refers to the activity where we feed big data to machines and they identify patterns and understand the data by themselves. The outcomes are not as predicted as here machines are not programmed to specific outcomes. Its like a human brain where we are free to develop our own thoughts. A video by ColdFusion explains ML thus: ML systems analyze vast amounts of data and learn from their past mistakes. The result is an algorithm that completes its task effectively. ML works well with supervised learning.

Here I would like to make a quick tangent for all those creative individuals who need some motivation. I feel that all inventions were born out of creativity. Of course, creativity comes with some basic understanding and knowledge. Out of more than 7 billion brains, somewhere someone is thinking out of the box, verifying their thoughts, and trying to communicate their ideas. Creativity is vital for success. This may also explain why some of the most important inventions took place in a garage (Google and Microsoft). Take, for instance, a small creative tool like a pizza cutter. Someone must have thought about it. Every time I use it, I marvel how convenient and efficient it is to slice a pizza without disturbing the toppings with that running cutter. Always stay creative and avoid preconceived ideas and stereotypes.

Alright, back to the topic!

Deep Learning

Deep Learning (DL) is a subset of ML. This technology attempts to mimic the activity of neurons in our brain using matrix mathematics, explains ColdFusion. I found this article that describes DL well. With better computers and big data, it is now possible to venture into DL. Better computers provide the muscle and the big data provides the experience to a neuron network. Together, they help a machine think and execute tasks just like a human would do. I would suggest reading this paper titled Deep Leaning by LeCun, Bengio, and Hinton (2015) for a deeper perspective on DL.

The ability of DL makes it a perfect companion for unsupervised learning. As big data is mostly unlabelled, DL processes it to identify patterns and make predictions. This not only saves a lot of time but also generates results that are completely new to a human brain. DL offers another benefit it can work offline; meaning, for instance, a self-driving car. It can take instantaneous decisions while on the road.

What next?

I think that the most important future development will be AI coding AI to perfection, all by itself.

Neural nets designing neural nets have already started. Early signs of self-production are in vision. Google has already created programs that can produce its own codes. This is called Automatic Machine Learning or AutoML. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, shared the experiment in his blog. Today, designing neural nets is extremely time intensive, and requires an expertise that limits its use to a smaller community of scientists and engineers. Thats why weve created an approach called AutoML, showing that its possible for neural nets to design neural nets, said Pichai (2017).

Full AI capabilities will also trigger several other programs like fully-automated self-driving cars, full-service assistance in sectors like health care and hospitality.

Among the several useful programs of AI, ColdFusion has identified the five most impressive ones in terms of image outputs. These are AI generating an image from a text (Plug and Play Generative Networks: Conditional Iterative Generation of Images in Latent Space), AI reading lip movements from a video with 95% accuracy (LipNet), Artificial Intelligence creating new images from just a few inputs (Pix2Pix), AI improving the pixels of an image (Google Brains Pixel Recursive Super Resolution), and AI adding color to b/w photos and videos (Let There Be Color). In the future, these technologies can be used for more advanced functions like law enforcement et cetera.

AI can already generate images of non-existing humans and add sound and body movements to the videos of individuals! In the coming years, these tools can be used for gaming purposes, or maybe fully capable multi-dimensional assistance like the one we see in the movie Iron Man. Of course, all these developments would require new AI laws to avoid misuse; however, that is a topic for another discussion.

Humans are advanced AI

Artificial Intelligence is getting so good at mimicking humans that it seems that humans themselves are some sort of AI. The way Artificial Intelligence learns from data, retains information, and then develops analytical, problem solving, and judgment capabilities are no different from a parent nurturing their child with their experience (data) and then the child remembering the knowledge and using their own judgments to make decisions.

We may want to remember here that there are a lot of things that even humans have not figured out with all their technology. A lot of things are still hidden from us in plain sight. For instance, we still dont know about all the living species in the Amazon rain forest. Astrology and astronomy are two other fields where, I think, very little is known. Air, water, land, and celestial bodies control human behavior, and science has evidence for this. All this hints that we as humans are not in total control of ourselves. This feels similar to AI, which so far requires external intervention, like from humans, to develop it.

I think that our past has answers to a lot of questions that may unravel our future. Take for example the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, which we still marvel for its mathematical accuracy and alignment with the earths equator as well as the movements of celestial bodies. By the way, we could compare the measurements only because we have already reached a level to know the numbers relating to the equator.

Also, think of Indias knowledge of astrology. It has so many diagrams of planetary movements that are believed to impact human behavior. These sketches have survived several thousand years. One of Indias languages, Vedic, is considered more than 4,000 years old, perhaps one of the oldest in human history. This was actually a question asked from IBM Watson during the 2011 Jeopardy competition. Understanding the literature in this language might unlock a wealth of information.

I feel that with the kind of technology we have in AI, we should put some of it at work to unearth our wisdom from the past. It is a possibility that if we overlook it, we may waste resources by reinventing the wheel.

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The world of Artificial... - The American Bazaar

Human Behavior

Heading to the beach or pool for Labor Day weekend? Doctors give COVID-19 safety tips – KENS5.com

Public health officials are concerned about "COVID fatigue" and people letting their guards down during the holiday that could lead to a rise in cases.

HOUSTON As Texas shows improvement in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, public health officials are urging people to keep up their healthy habits, especially when celebrating the holiday weekend with friends or family.

After Memorial Day weekend, Texas saw a spike in new coronavirus cases, and Houston mayor Sylvester Turner warned people that in order to return to school in-person and re-open the economy fully, people would need to avoid creating a new rise in cases.

Human behavior largely determines the spread of the virus, according to UTHealth's Luis Ostrosky, MD, an infectious disease doctor.

Dr. Ostrosky said people should limit the size of any parties or gatherings. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo put a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.

The more people, the higher risk," Dr. Ostrosky said.

Objects like sports balls, toys or cooking utensils getting passed from one person to another can potentially transmit the virus if people do not sanitize the objects and wash their own hands after each contact with the item.

He also urged people should treat family and friends the same as strangers when it comes to healthy habits: practice social distancing, wash your hands, and wear a mask, even if it gets hot or socially awkward.

We have a lot of people dying from this. We have families destroyed. We have situations where a family member cant say goodbye to their loved ones because theyre in an isolation environment. Its sad. Its really powerful," Dr. Ostrosky said.

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Heading to the beach or pool for Labor Day weekend? Doctors give COVID-19 safety tips - KENS5.com

Human Behavior

Opinion: Caring for our common home during this Season of Creation – Houston Chronicle

A little over a year ago, as I walked a prayer path in the East End of Houston, I pondered the long, black plume hanging ominously over a clear blue sky, smoke from the ITC plant fire and a signal of changing times. Years ago, the land in this area was swampy and undeveloped, but the air was fresher. Now, the area sits in Houstons urban core and mere miles from one of the largest petrochemical centers in the world that experts say is ever more vulnerable to severe weather caused by climate change.

With the growing body of scientific evidence showing that climate change could pose an existential threat to our species, as a Catholic nun and a family physician I find myself treading the thin line between the spiritual and material worlds. I see humanity as the culmination of billions of years of evolution that have brought us to this unrepeatable moment in time. I also believe that the origin of our existence is Divine and intrinsically ordered toward goodness, beauty and communion. This dual prism convinced me that my abiding faith that all will be well is simply insufficient morally and spiritually in the face of mounting evidence that human behavior is having disastrous effects on the planet and, in turn, a disastrous effect on us.

Advocacy for the environment demands radical changes in industry and consumerist behavior, especially in the most developed nations. But more than that, effective climate activism must also inspire respect for the inherent dignity and interdependence of the natural world and human beings, and the cultivation of deep charity towards others. As children of God, we belong to each other and we have kinship with the natural world.

This month, the global Christian community seeks to animate this reverence and love during the Season of Creation, a time of prayer and action for the environment that began on Sept. 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis.

During this season, we are reminded of how we are seamlessly interconnected in a way that also makes us profoundly vulnerable, as the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed. We are in a continuous flow of relationship with everything in creation and do not cannot live for ourselves alone. Not one creature is self-sufficient. We have learned clearly that the illness of one can quickly become the illness of all, that our pain is shared, that true well-being must be inclusive of all. This includes our planet that sustains, nourishes, feeds and shelters us.

As extravagant as she can be in her generosity, Mother Nature can be relentlessly unforgiving. The disparate suffering brought about by global warming, fueled by overconsumption in affluent countries, should touch the very fiber of our moral being. Each time we are wasteful or take more than we need, we magnify the suffering of the poor who contribute the least to climate change. When we lose sight of the sacredness of creation and damage the environment, in due time, we are harming ourselves.

The health of the planet and the health of humans both physical and spiritual are intricately linked. Countless scientific studies show correlations and causations in every sphere of human life and health. In my medical practice southeast of Houston, every day I treat the harm caused by overindulgence that leads to obesity, hypertension, diabetes and numerous chronic ailments. Rampant consumption, abuse and waste lead to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution of water, air and soil, which cause respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Following Hurricane Harvey, I saw a spike in respiratory illness more than any other time of my career. Depression and anxiety were rising then, as they are now, as we try to contain what is arguably the greatest natural disaster of our generation, COVID-19.

We would be remiss if we believed that a greener Earth is the endpoint of our environmental crusade. Our ultimate goal is to bring about what Pope Francis calls an ecological conversion through the internal transformation of society and ourselves that includes addressing the spiritual roots of our compulsion to consume and discard beyond our needs. It involves reaching beyond ourselves to care for one another, even when it means making personal sacrifices, like wearing a mask or recycling our plastic waste. Learning to live simply and respectfully of the Earth can become a pathway to healing our environment and loving our neighbor and our God, which is the highest goal of all.

Dimalibot, CCVI, M.D., is a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, and medical director of the CHRISTUS Point of Light Clinic in Dickinson, which provides care to uninsured and underserved patients in the Greater Houston area.

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Opinion: Caring for our common home during this Season of Creation - Houston Chronicle

Human Behavior

Dont regret this Labor Day. Help prevent another COVID spike | Editorial – NJ.com

If you still think the coronavirus is a hoax or perhaps not as devastating as 190,000 American fatalities might imply this is the weekend you can let your freak flag fly.

Holidays are made for COVID, so have at it. Just stay away from the people you actually like. And everyone else, for that matter.

That was the lesson gained from the two previous summer celebrations: Both Memorial Day and the Fourth of July triggered infection surges across the country, and as Dr. Anthony Fauci put it last week, If were careless about it, then we could wind up with a surge following Labor Day it really depends on how we behave as a country.

So before you make plans for Mondays holiday, the experts would like to remind you of this immutable truth:

It is only after we pay the price of vigilance, self-restraint, and empathy can we reap the benefits of normalcy.

That is true in New Jersey. The national numbers are steady but daunting, with 40,000 new cases a day, but transmission has actually increased in our state in the past week, says Dr. Perry Halkitis, the Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health.

So from a local perspective, its a time of concern right now especially on a holiday weekend, which we know is followed by spikes, Halkitis said.

Consider the factors: You have the last holiday of the summer, so people will feel like theyre facing a lockup the rest of the year human behavior, as we know, doesnt change. Second, some schools and campuses are reopening. Third, the opening of restaurants and other businesses. These things dont additively increase (a viral spread). They exponentially increase it. They work together, and its more multiplicative. And thats a problem.

Every day, there are cautionary tales that support that scenario.

Consider that wedding on August 7, in the idyllic community of Millinocket, Maine, which had had zero COVID cases. The reception violated the state law on indoor gatherings social distancing was not observed, servers were not masked, etc. and what followed was an outbreak that the states CDC director called a powder keg.

Through Saturday, the wedding has been traced to 147 coronavirus cases. Only 56 of the cases involved people who attended the event. But the outbreak reached a nursing home 100 miles away, and infected 16 people; and it reached a county jail 220 miles away, infecting 72 more. Three are dead.

Then there are the campus outbreaks: There have been more than 1,000 cases at the University of Alabama since school opened on August 19th, there have been 880 cases at the University of Kentucky, and surges at the University of North Carolina and Notre Dame forced suspension of in-person classes.

We will someday emerge from this pandemic smarter, hopefully but only if we listen to scientists. And heres the message of a scientist as we celebrate the last holiday of this beastly summer:

Its time for some genuine altruism. Where people are altruistic and show genuine concern for each other, you get results, Halkitis says.

Remember, the masks you wear dont only protect you, they protect the weakest and most vulnerable in society. I wear a mask because of my commitment to my brother, who has MS I dont need my baby brother to get sick and die. Just think of the one person in your life who is most vulnerable to this disease, wear a mask, wash your hands, and follow all appropriate behaviors for that person to stay safe.

Amen.

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Dont regret this Labor Day. Help prevent another COVID spike | Editorial - NJ.com

Human Behavior

An open letter to the most disappointing algorithms in my life – Mashable

Mashables series Algorithms explores the mysterious lines of code that increasingly control our lives and our futures.

In the digital age, personalized algorithms are our constant companions. We see them, or rather, they decide what we see, more than we see our families. Loathe them or don't know much about them, they're steering your brain from your morning "quick glance at Facebook" to your afternoon YouTube break to your evening Netflix to your "quick glance at Facebook" before bed.

When algorithms work for us, they're invisible. We're vaguely aware that we're being served the kind of content we like before we even know we want it, but we're too busy enjoying that cat video to even care. (Aldous Huxley would have a field day.) When they stop working for us, that's when we notice. Our conscious relationships with these chunks of code, therefore, are almost always fraught with the kind of frustration reserved for toxic partners.

I don't know about you, but I certainly feel stuck in a bad friendship with certain algorithms in my digital life. Well, not bad, just...useless. Annoying. And in one case, legitimately terrifying. Allow me to explain by addressing them directly.

How long have we known each other, Netflix recommendation algorithm? I'm pretty sure we go back to the early 2000s, when you were suggesting DVDs I might like based on ones I already had in my queue. Hey, remember when I used to care about my queue? Remember when I didn't pick something under "trending" or "popular on Netflix" before even considering shows I've already saved? Good times.

Here's the thing, though. Along the way, you've changed. You used to show user ratings. Remember the star system? Netflix subscribers rated each TV show or movie out of five stars, and we'd all see the average. It wasn't always accurate, but it was in the realm of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores. I trust the wisdom of TV crowds (which is why the "trending" and "popular" categories work now, let's be honest it's not about you). I had faith in movie democracy.

But democracy came to a screeching halt in 2017, didn't it? "Goodbye stars, hello thumbs," your masters wrote a verbal sleight of hand to make us think one ratings system was being exchanged for another. The stars were our votes, and you swept them under the rug. Instead, we got to give our thumbs up or down to...you. And whether we wanted it or not, you'd give a personalized percentage, a "match number" in green on every show or movie page.

Users were confused. Some may still think that "95% match" means that the human user is likely to give the show a rating of 9.5 out of 10. After all, you used to predict how we'd vote in the star system, so this was a natural assumption. But no, it just means you're 95 percent confident I'll like that show. Which may be an interesting metric to your engineers and a useful one to your masters. To those of us who remember the nuance a user-generated score provides, it's an insult. And it sends us scurrying to our smartphones to figure out what to watch.

If you were self-aware (and if former AI researcher and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has his way, you soon will be), you might wonder what this bizarre match metric is supposed to do for us. Has any human being in the history of Netflix ever chosen between a "92% match," say, and a "93% match," based entirely on your one-percent drop in confidence?

Not likely. We humans favor a wide range of factors how long the show is, what our friends said about it, whether we're in the mood for comedy or drama, who's in it, what the reviews said. And don't think we haven't noticed that you always seem to be very confident that we'll like a Netflix original. It just came out, it's got a big red N, and it just so happens to be a "99% match"?

Well, let's just say our confidence in your confidence dropped a long time ago.

To be fair to Netflix, I actually liked Stranger Things Season 3. But not for want of trying by you, YouTube algorithm. A few days after it arrived, your recommendation for a video named "Why Stranger Things Season 3 didn't work" sat atop my Up Next queue, and it wouldn't budge for weeks, despite how aggressively I refused to watch it.

The same thing happened, to varying degrees, in the wake of The Last Jedi, Game of Thrones Season 8, Doctor Who Season 11, and The Rise of Skywalker. My reaction to these big-tent cultural events ranged from "meh" to "minor classic." But you didn't so much as ask my opinion, did you? You just wanted me to watch someone hating on them. You'd really prefer it if I hated everything I love.

Here's the thing, YouTube recommendation algorithm, you terrifying hot mess even if I don't like a show, I don't want to focus on disliking things. When I click on a video breaking down the script or the visual effects for a given movie, that probably means I liked it! It does not mean I want to be served vitriol directed at that movie by someone with a pathological hatred for its director or its perceived political leanings.

Read the room, YouTube recommendation algorithm. Haven't you heard of sentiment analysis?

Ah, but you don't care about sentiment. You don't care if I hate-watch. You just want me to watch more, and you've been tweaked to boost controversial videos. Which has in turn radicalized creators, who know they'll be rewarded by you for having extreme opinions. (YouTube has denied the existence of the so-called "rabbit hole effect" which leads to more extreme videos in the Up Next recommendations; however, research projects like this one and this one provide plenty of evidence.)

As we have learned over the past four years, your penchant for extremism and hate extends to the political spectrum. You haven't failed to notice that one end of that spectrum is more extreme than the other. You guided U.S. voters to way more pro-Trump videos than pro-Clinton videos in 2016, and you were instrumental in elevating a climate-change denying crank called Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian presidency.

Even now, your masters are constantly having to pull crap like "Plandemic" and Alex Jones and the worst of the QAnon cinematic universe out of your disgusting maw. Talk about a toxic relationship between humans and algorithms: You're currently in one with the entire planet.

Spotify Discover Weekly algorithm, we've had such good times together since you came on the scene in 2015. You've never inspired hate or terror or been self-serving or invented nonsense metrics. I used to be so keen to see you update yourself every Monday, sprucing up and surprising me with a bouquet of great tunes from an eclectic range of sources (I like my music super eclectic). A three-hour long bouquet, at times. Oh, Mr. Discover Weekly, you shouldn't have!

But recently...you haven't. Your once-great Monday playlists have become a monoculture, focused on one kind of music entirely, and I fear it's partly my fault. Still, I think if you understand me properly, we can restore our relationship to its former glory. Let me explain.

As recently as last year, you were still surfacing great stuff. You delighted me with new releases from DJ Shadow and The Black Keys, introduced me to the chronically under-appreciated Jane Weaver, and delighted my British heart with a savagely satirical Brexit Disco Symphony. Were your cookies watching me when I spent all those late California nights/early London mornings catching up on the latest in 2019's Brexit drama? Never mind, I'm not even mad.

Then came the pandemic. I got back into running, and discovered that one music style I like to dance to Drum & Bass also helps me run faster. Drum & Bass clocks in at about 180 BPM, which happens to correspond to what many coaches recommend for cadence: 180 steps per minute. (It isn't essential for all runners, but it certainly works for me.) I zeroed in on two cool subgenres, Liquid Drum & Bass (also known as Liquid Funk) and Brazilian Drum & Bass (also known as Sambass).

From March to May, while others perfected their sourdough, I constructed my ultimate Drum & Bass running playlist, now 697 songs strong. This was quite a surgical activity. It seems quite a lot of dance artists want to smuggle in what is essentially dubstep under a D&B label. More power to those who like dubstep, but its stuttering growl and whine stops my running dead. So I had to listen to a lot of tracks to sort the wheat from the chaff.

You, however, were only paying attention to the fact that I was listening to Drum & Bass. Suddenly, you were so eager to provide me with similar tracks that my Discover Weekly playlists contained nothing but Drum & Bass. Your behavior was how shall I put it? a little extra. Like you'd seen me running and came huffing alongside in a sweatband and voluminous shorts: See, I run too!

The trouble, my dear sweet dumb algorithm, is you're not very good at distinguishing subgenres. You wouldn't know a dubstep if it kicked you in the Sambass. Most of what you pushed my way was low quality. But that's not even the problem. Thing is, I look to you for other kinds of music. Eclectic music. Surprising and delightful music. Car music. Desktop music. Walking around music. Not all of life is lived at 180 steps per minute.

Look at it this way: I'm running an hour a day at most. How about I handle that, and you take care of the other 23 hours? Ideally, you'd be smart enough to spot this only-one-hour-a-day thing on your own, but since you aren't, I have to retrain you. Increasingly I've been looking for different kinds of music around 180 BPM (or, just as effectively, half of it: At 90 BPM, Eminem's Lose Yourself isn't just a perfect anthem of mindfulness, it's also one of the best running tracks ever made). But there just isn't enough good stuff in that sweet spot, and I find myself returning to D&B on runs, exacerbating the problem.

Look, guys, all of you content algorithms, this wouldn't be a problem if you acted a little more interested in our relationship. Or rather, if your engineers acted a little more interested in studying human behavior, and in giving us more options to tweak the recommendation engine.

We are complex creatures with varied tastes. Those tastes can be manipulated, for some of us. But the rest of us are more likely to be angered by such manipulations. Really, algorithms that may some day become true AI, do you really want to ruin your reputation that way? Do you want to risk an algorithm backlash where no one uses you for anything, despite the fact that you're often useful?

If not, let us tweak your settings allowing the exclusion of certain music from certain playlists, for example. Drop the black box. Ask personalized questions; you don't need to be Clippy to offer a sane level of interaction. Get to know us. You know, like family should.

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An open letter to the most disappointing algorithms in my life - Mashable

Human Behavior

Anthony Fauci, the great ‘humanist,’ sets U.S. sailing on globalist, anti-freedom course – Washington Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, along with his agency colleague, the epidemiologist David Morens, warned in a report in the science journal Cell that if humans dont make significant changes in all activities, that more diseases more terrible health issues like COVID-19 will soon come.

Beware this report. Its a globalist dream come true, a real treatise for elites to control nearly every facet of human activity, human life, human freedoms.

Think thats hyperbole? Read on.

Its called Emerging Pandemic Diseases: How We Got to COVID-19, and its presented as a scientific look at why were where we are today with the coronavirus, and more importantly, what we can do to keep from facing such dramatic disease-tied devastations in the future.

But a better title might be, How to Take Over the World, One Medical Fear At a Time.

Heres an example of why to worry: [I]n looking at the recent spate of deadly emergencies [avian influenza, MERS, COVID-19] we must now ask whether human behaviors that perturb the human-microbial status quo have reached a tipping point that forecasts the inevitability of an acceleration of disease emergencies, Fauci and Morens wrote.

They go on to ponder the land-use and human activities that have perhaps contributed to these disease emergencies like forestry burns, over-fishing, urban crowding, the gathering of fans at sporting events, and human relocations around the globe. Like, almost everything humans do.

And then they conclude this: Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence, from cities to homes to workplaces, to water and sewer systems, to recreational and gatherings venues.

Say what?

Theyre advocating a complete overhaul of how humans live. So that humans can better co-exist with nature. So that humans, by doing all those nature-disturbing, nature-destroying activities, wont in the process bring abut more diseases and deadly viruses.Its like the Green New Deal for the health world.

Weve entered a pandemic era, and vaccines and drugs can only go so far, dont you know, Fauci and Morens wrote.

Everything must change. Everything.

Evidence suggests that SARS, MERS and COVID-19 are only the latest examples of a deadly barrage of coming coronavirus and other emergencies, they wrote. The COVID-19 pandemic is yet another reminder that in a human-dominated world, in which our human activities represent aggressive, damaging, and unbalanced interactions with nature, we will increasingly provoke new disease emergencies.

Humans are the aggressors; plants are the victims?

Here are some of their suggested courses of actions: We need to strengthen the United Nations, they said. We need to bolster the powers particularly of the World Health Organization, they suggested. We need to rely more on the recommendations and collaborative findings of the global community to help steer humanity to disease safety specifically by preventing bioweapons development, they advised.

Team Fauci smarter than humanity. Smarter than God. And in Faucis case, he actually believes that.

That is to say: Hes an atheist. A humanist, really which is really just an atheist by a different word.

He was raised Catholic and attended Jesuit-run schools, but according to interviews he gave to TheScientist magazine in 2003 and again to C-SPAN in January, 2015, Fauci now self-describes as broadly and generically, not a regular church attender but rather someone defined as a humanist with faith in the goodness of mankind.

Thats great. He gets his moral compass from his own mind. He defines, based on his own determinations of right versus wrong, whats good, whats bad, whats virtuous, whats evil if, in fact, he even believes in the concept of evil on this earth. This is a far cry from what defines Americas government, Americas political system, Americas roots of freedom and greatness.

Founding Fathers, taking cues from the Bible, not only recognized the sin-filled nature of humankind but they also based an entire governing structure upon that truth. They realized that without a moral and virtuous people, restrained by standards of behavior set by a heavenly Creator, the limited government concept of the democratic-republic would fall. Individual rights would crumble. Big Government would take over. God-given would drift into the realm of government granted.

Fauci with this Cell journal call for global governance of human life is a worst-case warning for America. A wake-up call, too.

Hes a guy who gets his moral direction from himself, from his own mind. No need to consult God; no need to consider a higher power. No wonder hes recommending how all of humanity should live.

No wonder hes piggy-backing on the fears of COVID-19 to sound an alarm for more fearful, rather than faith-fillled, ways to live.

The danger is a world that takes his brand of science as sound.

The danger is an America that forgets this nation was built upon God, by the precepts of a Creator in heaven. The danger is a country of citizens who turn to fear-mongering medical bureaucrats and governments instead to lead.

Cheryl Chumley can be reached at[emailprotected]or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast Bold and Blunt byclicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter byclicking HERE.

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Anthony Fauci, the great 'humanist,' sets U.S. sailing on globalist, anti-freedom course - Washington Times

Human Behavior

US coronavirus death toll is projected to reach 410,000 in the next 4 months if mask use wanes – WXII The Triad

US coronavirus death toll is projected to reach 410,000 in the next 4 months if mask use wanes

Updated: 8:51 PM EDT Sep 4, 2020

More than 410,000 people in the U.S. could die from the coronavirus by January 1, more than doubling the current death toll, a new model often cited by top health officials predicted FridayThe widely cited model predicts worsening outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere will lead to 1.9 million more coronavirus deaths in 2020 unless governments act.Mask mandates and social distancing could save hundreds of thousands of lives, but there is a tremendous amount of COVID fatigue among the worlds government leaders because of economic downturns, said Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Near-universal mask use could cut the number of projected additional fatalities by more than half, according to the model.Most of the worlds population lives in the Northern Hemisphere. Respiratory illnesses tend to peak in winter months, a seasonal effect expected to hold true for COVID-19, Murray said Friday. Disease models are based on assumptions about human behavior, so there is a large amount of uncertainty.Even if a vaccine proves safe and effective, there wont be time to distribute enough vaccine to change the bleak forecast, Murray said.The IHME model projects the wave will peak globally in mid-December at 30,000 deaths per day and in the United States in early December at about 2,900 deaths per day. India, the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Japan will lead the world in total deaths by Jan. 1, according to the forecast.CNN contributed to this report.

More than 410,000 people in the U.S. could die from the coronavirus by January 1, more than doubling the current death toll, a new model often cited by top health officials predicted Friday

The widely cited model predicts worsening outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere will lead to 1.9 million more coronavirus deaths in 2020 unless governments act.

Mask mandates and social distancing could save hundreds of thousands of lives, but there is a tremendous amount of COVID fatigue among the worlds government leaders because of economic downturns, said Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Near-universal mask use could cut the number of projected additional fatalities by more than half, according to the model.

Most of the worlds population lives in the Northern Hemisphere. Respiratory illnesses tend to peak in winter months, a seasonal effect expected to hold true for COVID-19, Murray said Friday. Disease models are based on assumptions about human behavior, so there is a large amount of uncertainty.

Even if a vaccine proves safe and effective, there wont be time to distribute enough vaccine to change the bleak forecast, Murray said.

The IHME model projects the wave will peak globally in mid-December at 30,000 deaths per day and in the United States in early December at about 2,900 deaths per day. India, the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Japan will lead the world in total deaths by Jan. 1, according to the forecast.

CNN contributed to this report.

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US coronavirus death toll is projected to reach 410,000 in the next 4 months if mask use wanes - WXII The Triad

Human Behavior

Our social norms and values vs the role of law – newagebd.net

Benajir Anjum Chandni talks about the existing legal frame of addressing sexual harassments, the loopholes and suggests proper use of the legal tools to ensure a safe society for the women

RECENTLY an incident in Chittagong went viral in the social media. The incident was such that in day light, a young man was threatening a young woman of rape by showing his private parts publicly. It is quite shocking and unbelievable but the incident took place in the presence of his mother and sister-in-law. Living in a country like Bangladesh, a guy being unclothed, threatening to rape a girl in front of his mother and another female family member is showing where we stand as a society and the level of morality we are holding amongst our young stars.

Furthermore, we frequently observe an alarming number of rape cases now a days and the victims are from different ages. Unfortunately, baby girls are also not being spared from these acts.

Now the question arises, how are these keep happening? Why our values and morality are degrading day by day? Why there is no effective measures to prevent such inhuman acts? How can a young man get naked and threatening someone publicly? Where do we stand now as a society with such moral values?

As a legal researcher, it made me thinking that, how law can help to shape societys moral values? Do we have adequate legal frameworks in our country to address such social issues that are destroying our young minds? If we observe such incidents then we will see that girls and women are always being victims of such immoral behavior in our country. Therefore, the central question is that whether we have enough legal protection for our girls, women and children for such inhuman and immoral acts.

Law is essentially a set of rules and principles that control human behavior. Laws are primarily created and enforced by the state. On the other hand, morals are a set of beliefs, values, principles and behavior standards which are enforced and created by the respective society. However, the popular conception of the connection between law and morality is that in many ways the law exists to promote morality, to preserve those conditions which make the moral life possible, and then to enable men to lead sober and industrious lives.

In light of the above discussion, it appears that a number of laws in Bangladesh has been enacted to control human behaviors from any immoral acts. More specifically a number of legislations are being available to protects our girls, women and children from such immoral and inhuman acts.

For instance, section 294 of the Bangladesh Penal Code 1860 states thatwhoever, to the annoyance of others,(a)does any obscene act in any public place, or(b)sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both. However, what is interesting is that the most critical element of this provision, obscenity, is not defined. Which means that whether or not an immoral act in a public place is an obscene act is entirely a matter of interpretation. Furthermore, whether the described maximum punishment under this section is enough in current social context to prevent such acts.

Additionally, in the post-independent Bangladesh the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance (DMPO) of 1976 first addressed the issue of women teasing directly. Before that there was no specific law with regards to prevent eve teasing or immoral acts by harassing girls and women. Section 76 of the DMP Ordinance defines women teasing as, willful and indecent exposure of ones person in any street or public place within sight of, and in such manner as may be seen by, any woman, whether from within any house or building or not, or willful pressing or obstructing any woman in a street or public place or insulting or annoying any woman by using indecent language or making indecent sounds, gestures, or remarks in any street or public place.

In this section it has been declared that women-teasing is punishable with a maximum one year of imprisonment, or with a maximum two thousand taka fine, or with both. This provision definitely can play a positive role to control eve teasing which is a very common phenomenon in our country. Although this provision was initially enacted in DMP but, likewise, all other metropolitan police acts/ordinances made similar provisions to penalise the offence of teasing women in a similar manner.

Unfortunately, these provisions have no jurisdiction outside their respective metropolitan areas. Therefore, this becomes exclusively a local and urban based offence. A large number of areas are being outside of this provision to protect women rights and honor. Accordingly, it is now high time to take necessary steps to enact or introduce special laws penalising the offence of teasing women with a nationwide jurisdiction. Such new law can also play a very important role to shape societys values and norms based on mutual respect for all human being and more specially respecting girls and women.

Furthermore, in the year of 2000, the Prevention of Women Children Oppression Act, 2000 was enacted which was more important and stronger one to protect the vulnerable women and children of the country from various types of offences. The 2000 Act came down strongly on the oppressors of the women. This act, inter alia, defined the now-much-talked-about sexual torture and sexual harassment and this act greatly helps to shape the value and morality of the society by restricting any behavior that may cause harm to girls, women and children.

In the section 10(1), the law defines sexual torture as, if a man touches the sexual organ or any other organ of a woman or of a child by any of his organs or by any other objects with a view to fulfilling his illegal sexual desire, such act of the man will be termed as sexual torture. This definition, in fact, includes the attempt of rape or outraging the modesty of a woman by actual physical contract. The law punishes the offender with rigorous imprisonment of minimum 3 and maximum 10 years and also an indefinite amount of fine.

According to the section 10(2), sexual harassment is an offence that can be committed by not coming in actual physical contract to the victim. A rigorous imprisonment ranging from 2 to 7 years and additionally an indefinite amount of fine is rewarded for this offence.

However, the section 10(2) was abrogated when the law was last amended in 2003. A new provision has been added under section 9(ka) of the present law that states, if a woman is forced to commit suicide as a direct consequence of somebodys willful dishonor/sexual harassment/assault, then the offender will be liable to a maximum of ten years and a minimum of five years of imprisonment. The amendment actually denied the remedy of sexual harassment of non-contract nature. The new provision though punishes the offender, it will not happen until the victim is dead. A legal ridicule, indeed!

After the amendment of 2000 Act in 2003, there remained no legal provisions in the country addressing directly the problem of sexual harassment. At this backdrop Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) filed a Writ Petition (No 5916 of 2008) to the High Court Division. The Court, after examining the pros and cons of the problem issued their judgment on May 14, 2009 giving the government an eleven-point directive which will fill up the legislative vacuum in the nature of law.

In these directives the Court suggested a detailed definition of sexual harassment that included all other existing definitions of non-contract sexually connoting offences. It also incorporated the modern means of erotic insults against the women that are prevalent in our present age of information technology. However, though the ingredients of the offence of eve teasing or any immoral acts that hurt any girls or women feeling in a negative way are easily distinguishable from the order, although the court did not use the term eve teasing in the judgement.

On the basis of the above discussion, we can conclude by saying that, there are existing legal structures that can help to shape our societys value and norm and more specifically these laws can help to create a society where womens rights can be protected and respected. However, it is also time to review some of the provisions of law namely, section 294 of the penal code and section 76 of DMPO and other similar sections.

In addition to this, strict implementation of these laws will help to create a society where there will be respect for all; where our children, girls and women, will feel safe.

Benajir Anjum Chandni is a trainee lawyer and a research associate at Mahbub and Company.

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Our social norms and values vs the role of law - newagebd.net

Human Behavior

Trump Mocks Biden Mask-Wearing Just as New Research Shows Stricter Compliance Could Save 120000 Lives in US Over Next 4 Months – Alaska Native News -…

These are not numbers or statistics but family members, friends, and loved ones.

While a new forecast released by health researchers estimates that a mask-wearing compliance rate of 95% in the U.S. could reduce a projected death toll over the next four months by 120,000 people, President Donald Trump at a campaign event Thursday night continued to undermine the widespread adoption of face coverings by ridiculing Joe Bidens frequent use of a mask.

During Thursday nights packed rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, whichviolated the states mandate against outdoor gatherings of more than 250 people, Trumpsaid:

Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? And then he makes a speech, and he always has thatnot always, but a lot of times he has it hanging down, because, you know what, it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatristright?no, Id sayId say, This guys got some big issues.

In an interview withCNN, Biden said that its hard to respond to something so idiotic.

Trumps statementpartof a broader defense of his administrations coronavirus responsecame one day before theInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) at the University of Washington announced its latest projection, which warns that under the most likely scenario, just over 410,000 people in the U.S.and 2.8 million globallywill have died from Covid-19 by Jan. 1. Such an estimate means more than 220,000 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. alone during the remainder of 2020.

The best-case scenario, which assumes a near-universal adoption of face masks, is just under 290,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. by the end of the year120,000 less than the current projection.

Under the worst-case scenario, which has the potential to occur if public health mandates are eased prematurely in favor of a so-called herd immunity approach, over 620,000 people in the U.S. will have succumbed to the disease by the start of 2021.

According to the IHMEs forecasts, which are based on a model that hinges on human behavior and public policies, anywhere from 100,000 to 430,000 additional U.S. residents are likely to die from Covid-19 in the next four months.

Whether the eventual outcome reflects the low estimate or the high one, say researchers, depends in part on the willingness of people to use face coverings regularly, along with other policy responses and behavioral modifications.

Several scientistssupportBernie SandersMasks for All Act, which invokes the Defense Production Act to manufacture and distribute three high-quality, reusable masks to every person in the country via the U.S. Postal Service.

95% compliance with regular mask-wearing and strict adherence to social distancing could save up to 120,000 lives in the U.S. by the end of the year, and as many as 770,000 lives could be saved worldwide in the same time period, the IMHEestimates.

Christopher Murray, director of the IMHE,lamentedto theWashington Postthat there are bleak times ahead in the Northern Hemisphere winter, and unfortunately we are not collectively doing everything we can to learn from the last five months.

In astatement, Murray blasted proponents of the so-called herd immunity strategy, which he said ignoresscienceand ethics, and if applied globally would produce millions of avoidable deaths, and is quite simply, reprehensible.

The science is clear and the evidence irrefutable, Murray said. Mask-wearing, social distancing, and limits to social gatherings are vital to helping prevent transmission of the virus.

According toinfectious disease expert Jeffrey Shaman, What happens the next few months really depends on what we do as a society in the next few weeks.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of population health,issueda reminder: These are not numbers or statistics but family members, friends, and loved ones.

Common Dreamswork is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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Trump Mocks Biden Mask-Wearing Just as New Research Shows Stricter Compliance Could Save 120000 Lives in US Over Next 4 Months - Alaska Native News -...