Roy Exum: Sheriff Candid On Riots – The Chattanoogan

June 13, 2020 medical

In a conversation with Jim Hammond on Thursday, Hamilton Countys sheriff for the past 15 years, told me the rioting that has swept across America in the past two weeks is absolutely unprecedented. It is the worst sampling of unchecked criminal behavior I have ever witnessed. I cant believe what my eyes tell me I am seeing. And as a lifelong devotee of history and human behavior, this is exactly the recipe Hitler used to take over Germany just before World War II.

For the record, the county sheriffs department is a Constitutional office. To defund Hammonds department and other sheriff departments across the United States would take an Act of Congress.

But, sheriff, the rowdies say they are going to recall you vote you out of office -- if you fail to comply. Let them try. And wish em luck, he said candidly. That is never going to happen. I was on WGOW earlier this morning and every caller was pro-law enforcement. This movement to defund police is absolutely wrong. In the 15 years I have held office, I can count on one hand the instances where race has been a factor in an arrest. I can also tell you in Hamilton County black-white policing is not a problem we even worry about. In the proper enforcement of law, every soul is the same.

A current poll on Chattanoogan.com asks, Should the City Council take money from the police budget and put it into social programs? At 8 oclock last night, 2,737 who responded answered with a resounding no by an 82-18 percent margin.

Unfortunately, this has become a Black Lives Matter issue and my office has always taken the stance that crime has no color. We have never, and we will not ever, arrest anyone because of race. I was looking at our county jail census the other day and we had 158 whites and 156 blacks. It is roughly the same at Silverdale where a larger population of county detainees are held. There is no racial disparity.

One of lifes most true facts is that in every population or area of business, the great majority are law-abiding, God-fearing people who contribute mightily to our community. We are charged, very seriously, to keep all of them safe in every way, said the sheriff, but even before the Bible was written, we find that a small percentage in any specific group is not nice.

There are a few white people, black people, men, women, teenagers, doctors, teachers, firemen news media, too who are bad. Less than 10 percent, who take up 90 percent of the good peoples time, effort and patience. Its true. What I find is worse, than all, are bad cops, Hammond pointed to each of the 40 years hes worn a badge. I take the responsibly of hiring who I believe are the right people very personal.

Right now, there are approximately 1 million law enforcement officers in our nation. More and more of them come from the military; a huge number are college graduates. Most have families, children of their own, and the only thing that each has in common is that they love peace, and will perform whatever it takes to insure that American ideal.

Several weeks ago I am afraid a white police officer, using a method of control that certainly wasnt proper, resulted in the death of a black man. Wait again, crime doesnt come in a color yet the incident touched off a terrible phenomena that was quickly fanned into a race issue. The death could have happened between two white people, two black people, or with the black man on top. Instead, it touched off total havoc, our government leaders on every level reacted terribly, and now The Black Lives Matter crowd wants to 'profile' every officer, defund every police department across America, and create a vicious criminal atmosphere where police suddenly have not enough funding 'to protect and serve.'

How bad is it? Our County Commission could take a vote on anything in the sheriffs department and it would be a purely racist show of hands six conservative ones versus three liberal ones. To me, very personally, that is one of the most hurtful things for me to watch because my oath is to protect all nine commissioners, completely and fairly, but because I am a white law enforcement officer well, it breaks your heart, said Hammond, who has announced his retirement in the next election cycle, two years from now. Because of the protests and our riots, my overtime surplus is spent. I am having to go before the County Commission and ask for $50,000 more thats the bill right now and the vote will be 6-3 by nine people I admire very much.

In other words, compassion, the benefit of the doubt, the slow down, okay? days are over. Hate is now the true word among the The Legion of the Miserable who have as their cornerstone the steadfast vow to pull any and all down. Then, as Hitler so adroitly accomplished, made these inessentials the first he slaughtered. Follow the script, and be ever vigilant.

royexum@aol.com

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Roy Exum: Sheriff Candid On Riots - The Chattanoogan

Human Behavior

Four ways to tell a prophet from a political puppet – Brookings Institution

June 13, 2020 medical

In the streets of Washington, D.C., we have seen religion used as a political prop and we have seen it exercise its prophetic voice.

On June 1, President Donald Trump infamously had the street in front of the White House cleared of protesters so he could use St. Johns Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square as a photo backdrop. Not only were peaceful demonstrators tear-gassed, clergy were chased away from the church, which was turned into a political prop without the permission of its pastor or bishop.

The crassness of this photo-op was transparent to all but the president, who is used to being blessed by obsequious clerics in the Oval Office. If this were done in China, it would be denounced by the U.S. State Department as a violation of human rights and religious freedom.

Meanwhile, many of the demonstrators who had been pushed aside were responding to the prophetic call of their religious leaders. Racism was denounced as a sin, and police violence condemned as an assault on the life and human dignity of Gods children. This prophetic voice was heard especially from black clergy, but white clergy and white believers also responded to the call.

Religion and politics have been locked in relationship since the dawn of humanity. Sometimes that relationship is healthy and sometimes its exploitative. Working together in a positive way, the two forces have created community and fostered the common good. With the blessing of the gods, political leaders could rule without brute force. With the help of political leaders, great temples and works of art were created that enriched the religious and cultural life of the community.

Conflict between the religious and political leaders could also be healthy. Before there were elections, independent courts and the rule of law, religion often provided the only check on political power. There was a higher law than the law of the king, and the prophet could challenge the despot with the voice of God.

On the other hand, rulers sometimes became the only ones powerful enough to reform religious institutions that had become corrupt.

Over the course of history, prophets and reformers have only succeeded when the people supported them.

But when religion and politics were in an incestuous relationship, religion turned rulers into gods and political leaders corrupted religious leaders with wealth and gave them power to impose religious beliefs on unbelievers. Temples and churches became not houses of God but monuments to clerical power and privilege.

The history of the United States has seen these themes play out. Political and religious leaders supported slavery and racism in an incestuous relationship where religious institutions even owned slaves. On U.S. soil, religion too often became part of the establishment and turned against new immigrants, whether Catholic or Muslim, Irish or Chinese.

Too often religion stood on the side of the status quo against workers, blacks, women, gays and social reformers. It too frequently used its political influence to protect criminal clergy and hush up scandals. It tried to impose its views about human behavior long after it had lost the support of the public.

But religion in America also had a prophetic voice, whether it was Catholic clergy defending Irish immigrants against the WASP establishment or black clergy leading the civil rights movement against racism.

Today, there are prophetic voices on almost every issue, sometimes on both sides. There are pro-life prophets and feminist prophets. How can we judge true prophets from false prophets?

Here are four ways to test a prophet:

Religion can be a political prop or a prophetic voice. History should teach religious leaders not to get in bed with political leaders. Religious and political leaders can work together for the common good, but they should be enriching the community, not each other. A prophet can speak courageously about issues, but when he starts endorsing political parties and candidates, he is no longer speaking for God.

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Four ways to tell a prophet from a political puppet - Brookings Institution

Human Behavior

Mathematicians Rethink Approaches to Predicting Spread of COVID-19 – CSUF News

June 13, 2020 medical

While health and science researchers worldwide are racing to find a cure for COVID-19, Cal State Fullerton mathematicians are stepping up to do their part using the power of math modeling.

Sam Behseta and Derdei Bichara of the Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics teamed up to apply mathematical and statistical approaches to understand the spread and control of COVID-19 and even the prediction of a second outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Many existing math models solely utilize data within each community for predicting the number of infections and fatalities in the future, said Behseta, a statistician and professor of mathematics, who also directs the center.

But these models fall short in exploring scenarios for the prevalence of the disease when the restrictions in multiple states are relaxed, and when populations within those states dont follow the social distancing and self-protection guidelines.

Behseta and Bichara, assistant professor of mathematics whose research focuses on mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, are working on creating a new math approach for the coronavirus to gauge the effects of human behavior and mobility restrictions on the spread of the deadly disease.

Information is one of the main weapons in fighting the disease. I hope, when it comes down to devising policies that affect all of us, our work can be useful for more informative decision-making, Behseta said. Dr. Bichara and I have been in this game long enough to know that no single model, or group of models for that matter, will be sufficient to fully describe the ins and outs of a pandemic of this magnitude.

Historically, the two cultures of mathematical and statistical modeling have been detached in the context of modeling contagious diseases, Bichara explained.

This work were doing brings the two realms together. The main goal, broadly speaking, is to provide decision-makers and the scientific community with yet another layer of useful information as far as understanding the dynamics of COVID-19, Bichara said.

While their research efforts are in the early stages, the mathematicians point to the massive amount of data accumulated from pandemic records across the globe that will aid them in their work. Additionally, the center has created a COVID-19 resources website, which includes the best expert models, research by faculty from CSUF and other universities, and raw data from the U.S. and other countries.

The information on the website can be utilized as a teaching tool for years to come, Behseta said.

This is a simulated cloud of data using a simple mathematical model.

Applying Mathematical and Statistical Approaches

Behsetas expertise in statistics includes building statistical models for biological studies. He has worked on developing models for the patterns of nerve cells in the brain and understanding the effects of temperature and soil moisture on respiratory diseases in Central California.

Bichara has published numerous research papers on the dynamics of diseases and viruses, including malaria, tuberculosis, and Ebola, Zika and HIV. His work takes into account the effects of mobility and interaction among communities, as well as the role of human behavior in the spread of the disease.

Long before the outbreak of the coronavirus, Bichara developed what he calls exogenous and endogenous parameters on the speed in which a disease can spread. In other words, with the current pandemic, exogenous variables are state-imposed restrictions, such as quarantine or shelter-in-place policies, and endogenous or self-imposed restrictions deal with an individual's behavioral patterns with respect to social distancing or wearing masks in public.

We are interested in how mobility and intrinsic human behavior alter or mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. As the pandemic sprung across the nation, many states issued shelter-in-place or lockdown policies, thereby limiting, and thus decreasing, the mobility of individuals in those states or counties. These are exogenous measures, Bichara said.

However, as states have started to open up for business, health officials have recommended wearing masks, observing social distancing and other such measures. These are what we refer to as endogenous measures because the responsibility falls on individuals to pursue them.

Ultimately, the mathematicians goal is to assess the effectiveness of these endogenous and exogenous measures in reducing the level of COVID-19 disease incidences.

This will eventually contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of the disease, as well as a clearer prediction or forecast of the future trends, Bichara said.

Contact: Debra Cano Ramos, dcanoramos@fullerton.edu

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Mathematicians Rethink Approaches to Predicting Spread of COVID-19 - CSUF News

Human Behavior

Anderson: We have been jolted awake . . . now lets heal the wounds – Deseret News

June 13, 2020 medical

The last several days have been wrenching for our nation and state. My own emotions have been on a roller coaster. Ive seen, mostly via TV, police brutality, senseless deaths, peaceful protests, courageous law enforcement action, violent rioting, malicious looting along with many acts of kindness, compassion, service, forgiveness and grace.

We have seen the whole range of human behavior, the best and worst of individuals and society.

After much thought, one humbling thing has become clear to me. While I have tried my entire life to be empathetic, to treat all people with caring and respect, I have not fully understood, and perhaps never will, the depth of pain, anxiety and suspicion that members of our black and brown communities feel as a result of longstanding racial inequality and distrust.

The deaths of George Floyd and other black people have struck a nerve so deep and sensitive among these communities that all of us have been jolted and awakened to festering wounds that have not healed. As someone who has obviously never experienced life as a person of color, I have not fully grasped the gravity and intensity of these feelings.

And, thus, at this tipping point in history, we are having conversations that are both uncomfortable and necessary. It wont be easy, but I believe we can emerge much better than before. Many of us are now thinking and stretching, in ways we havent previously, to determine how we can unite in creating a more just and equal society. It will be difficult, and will take sustained effort and time. It starts with our own hearts and souls.

I have been touched by the heartfelt statements released by a wide variety of individuals. While some might note that these are people of privilege and power, they have been humbled by this transformative moment and they are committed to make a difference. Here are some excerpts:

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, while marching Sunday with protesters in Washington, D.C.: We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality. And we need to stand up and say Black Lives Matter. He earlier said: We are all children of God, equal in His eyes. And I am committed to continuing to listen and to learn from Utahns about the changes we must make together to ensure the full promise of America for all its people.

Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Salt Lake City. The path with the greatest potential for good begins with we. ... Let us rise together as we take this opportunity head on. Together we will commit to this critical work in the months and years ahead with an open heart, mind and imagination and a healthy dose of kindness and grace.

Gail Miller, owner of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. As I stated on the basketball court of Vivint Smart Home Arena last year, We believe in treating all people with courtesy and respect as human beings no one wins when respect goes away. It is my sincerest hope that we will work together, peacefully and respectfully, to put an end to the mistreatment of any human being.

Harris Simmons, chairman and CEO of Zions Bancorporation. I hope each one of us will consider seriously the opportunity we have to build stronger relationships ... especially with colleagues whose backgrounds, characteristics and perspectives differ from our own. Tolerance should never be the objective; none of us aspire to be tolerated. Our lives will be most abundant as we move beyond tolerance and form real friendships with those outside our usual circles and determine to do all we can to help them succeed.

Dr. Marc Harrison, president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare. We live in communities enriched by diversity. ... Free speech, fair policing, and peaceful protests are all part of the American way of life. For all forms of discrimination to end, and greater equity to truly take hold, we all must be part of the solution. ... By walking the walk arm-in-arm, all 41,000 of us can make a difference at the individual and collective level. We can start by listening to and truly hearing those who are hurting during this difficult time.

Gov. Gary R. Herbert and members of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission and the Utah Multicultural Commission. We are here to make the necessary call for us all to work together, to help one another, to listen intentionally to those who feel unheard, to be braver and better, to create the solution for such a time as this, and commit to eradicate racism from our thoughts, words, deeds and actions. ... The time to usher in change and healing is now. ... We look forward to advancing efforts for change and creating a Utah where families of all races and backgrounds feel safe, heard and valued.

President Russell M. Nelson, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We need to foster our faith in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. We need to foster a fundamental respect for the human dignity of every human soul, regardless of their color, creed or cause. And we need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of segregation. I plead with us to work together for peace, for mutual respect and for an outpouring of love for all of Gods children.

Personally, I hope we will use this period of improvement to truly make the promise of our Declaration of Independence a reality for all every human is created equal and enjoys unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. I am committed to do better, to listen more, empathize more and support equality life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

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Anderson: We have been jolted awake . . . now lets heal the wounds - Deseret News

Human Behavior

How JJAIBOT Generates Health and Wellness Awareness From AI – Influencive

June 13, 2020 medical

Artificial intelligence has undoubtedly become one of the most outstanding concepts among the technological advances of recent times. Its unstoppable application in different fields has attracted worldwide attention. One of the most prominent approaches to the fight against environmental pollution, mental illness, and wildlife destruction, this is precisely the basis of the origin of JJAIBOT.

Julian Jewel Jeyaraj, an artificial intelligence researcher, composer, and influencer, created JJAIBOT in January 2019, focusing on three key elements: environmental, psychological, and wildlife conservation.

His intention is to promote the understanding of the effects of climate change, but also to use artificial intelligence as a valuable resource to help in psychological processes, such as cognitive therapies, meditation, among others, that help decrease conditions such as depression.

Julian seeks that society empathizes with this technology, understanding that robots can act just like human behavior and helping to deal with the problems of everyday life.

However, for Julian, the Artificial Intelligence project seems to have no limits, and besides applying it in these important areas, he had the initiative to create an application that contributes to the early detection of the COVID-19.

After the worsening of the pandemic, Julian arranged his efforts for the creation of this application through JJAIBOT. Its operation is based on the diagnosis of the virus through computerized tomography, with proven accuracy of 99%.

This not only supports the management of medical personnel fighting to deal with the disease but also the possibility of saving the lives of people affected by the coronavirus, thanks to the detection of COVID-19 more quickly.

Demonstrating once again the scope of artificial intelligence in the field of health, Julian implements his creation to help society in the fight against the pandemic. Contributing to an efficient way of diagnosing patients.

In addition to contributing to society, it will also significantly help to reduce the management costs of counteracting the disease. The use of this technology is focused on two outstanding parameters:

It provides an overview of the organs and their condition. Its effectiveness is proven and facilitates the diagnostic process.

It brings greater precision to the studies. It helps to get a view of the lungs and their condition. It has a high degree of accuracy and will help doctors determine the existence and progression of disease in the human body.

Although there is not yet an official cure for COVID-19, it is contributions such as JJAIBOT by Julian Jewel Jeyaraj that represent a significant advance in the fight against this disease. This robot, created with artificial intelligence, represents the possibility of reducing the mortality rates generated by the disease thanks to its rapid diagnosis and early care.

In this context, this new technology constitutes a revolution in the area of medicine, since, given its characteristics, there is the possibility of extending its use, even after the pandemic, for the detection of other respiratory conditions.

JJAIBOT can be used all over the world, having as a central focus to reduce the negative impacts that the disease has generated in society.

Initiatives like JJAIBOT show that artificial intelligence is here to stay. Leading society to understand the effects of climate change, psychological change, and wildlife conservation through the use of this technology is not only a challenge but a transformation to the usual social processes.

In the environmental field, JJAIBOT has had a leading role in India, specifically in Delhi, where its founder has applied the use of its technology to reduce environmental pollution processes and contribute to the health of the population, especially in children who have been most affected by lung diseases due to this phenomenon.

However, in terms of wildlife conservation and psychological changes, Julian implements his computer knowledge, information technology, and other areas, to promote a better quality of life in people, beyond the physical aspect, focusing on the emotional.

Both the current generation and future generations will have the opportunity to understand the importance of preserving and protecting their inner being and the environment through the processes of artificial intelligence proposed by Julian.

A different way to transform societys concept of these issues and generate a true consciousness of well-being and health for human life, through the technology of artificial intelligence.Opinions expressed here are the opinions of the author. Influencive does not endorse or review brands mentioned; does not and can not investigate relationships with brands, products, and people mentioned and is up to the author to disclose. VIP Contributors and Contributors, amongst other accounts and articles, are professional fee-based.

Kevin Leyes is the Chairman ofLeyes Enterprisesand the Founder and CEO ofTeam Leyes, an urban jewelry company, andLeyes Media, an SMM and PR agency. He is an Official Member of the Forbes Business Council and Young Entrepreneur Council.

Published June 12, 2020

Human Behavior

Liberty Bar owner in the age of coronavirus: I feel like the tail struggling to wag the dog – San Antonio Express-News

June 13, 2020 medical

Dwight Hobart founded the Liberty Bar 35 years ago in a historic, but structurally odd, building it slanted on Josephine Street. Ten years ago, he moved the storied restaurant into a restored convent on South Alamo Street.

Operating the Liberty Bar, Hobart said, had always been difficult and rarely profitable. And then the pandemic hit.

He recently reopened for take-away service and limited outdoor seating.

In an email exchange with Express-News columnist Michael Taylor, Hobart reflected on the travails that he and other restaurateurs faced pre-COVID-19 and their prospects for recovery now.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Most restaurants go broke sooner rather than later. The Liberty Bar was born broke and has pretty much stayed that way, with the exception of 10 golden years at the old location on Josephine Street, during which we enjoyed the inadvertent benefits of what amounted to an endless going out of business sale. That was before moving to our present home in the former convent on South Alamo Street. The Liberty Bar has been in business 35 years.

The rubber met the road on July 14, Bastille Day, of 1985 when we opened our doors to the public in a catawampus two-story wood-frame building that looked like it was about to fall down. We had low rent and a long-term lease in a largely vacant light industrial neighborhood. We lived upstairs and did the greater part of the renovation ourselves.

The downtown business crowd came for lunch, matrons from Alamo Heights got tipsy in the afternoon and every night the art mob was all over us like a dog on a June bug. Still, we lost money hand over fist for the first 10 years.

We had style, but when it came to facts of life we didnt know get down from sic em. The basic American restaurant format relies on bulk suppliers and their supplies are geared to the bottom line: frozen, pre-processed, pre-portioned, canned and built for volume. Hot grease is the name of the game. And the customers love it. Cut to the nuts and bolts. Even effete artists have to track inventory and control labor costs. We did not. We baked three different kinds of bread every day, then gave it away. Our baker alone ate our payroll lunch, not to mention our supper and our breakfast on the weekend.

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We did learn a few things about cost control. Never ask the people who collect money for desserts to portion out the desserts. Always look a gift horse in the mouth. There was a hardworking busboy from Tampico named Ruben who expressed the desire to move up the ladder in the kitchen and learn how to bake. He did that. And did it well. One day, he showed up with a copy of the magazine California Living. There was a Coconut Custard recipe in the magazine that called for the canned ingredient Coco Lopez, commonly used to mix pia coladas. Ruben had seen Coco Lopez behind the bar. He wanted to try the recipe. We said yes. It was a great success. We still serve the Coconut Custard today. Unfortunately, Ruben no longer works at the Liberty Bar. Six months after his inspiration, we realized that Ruben was baking twice as much as we needed, then selling the extra out the back door to other restaurants.

There are other harsh realities of human behavior in what we might laughingly call the hospitality industry. Cooks hate servers, servers hate cooks and they all disdain management. Customers are a necessary evil. One day a cook rummaged around among the memorabilia and impedimenta accumulated by a previous leaseholder and discovered a boxing ring bell. The cooks installed it in the kitchen above the order window and took pleasure in banging this ear-splitting gong with the back edge of a chefs knife every time an order was late in going out. This act never failed to enrage the servers or delight the cooks.

We own the building at 1111 South Alamo Street. The building is paid for, but even a debt-free building in the King William district of San Antonio is an expensive asset. Property taxes have doubled over the past few years. What is the city of San Antonio going to do about the loss of sales tax revenue during the coronavirus shutdown? Tax appraisals for 2019 are a done deal, but will there be adjustments to appraisals and valuations next year? Part of our building is over 150 years old. Death and taxes are inevitable. Utilities and maintenance are interminable.

After we moved, our sales fell by about half while our building costs and labor expense doubled. I could say I didnt know what I was doing, but the fact is I did know. And I did it anyway. You dont live forever. And everybody has their eccentrics as my Panhandle partner Doyle Smith puts it. Restaurants tend to be an emotional-calculus function of the owners personal identity fantasy. We could say this is irrational, but personal identity is not paid out in dollars and cents. Wages and taxes are, though. I guess I have become more rational as time goes on, but probably not enough so as you could tell the difference.

I have no idea how restaurant owners will make enough money to pay the rents they were paying before the shutdown. It seems impossible. A realistic home run in the sit-down restaurant business is holding onto 10 percent of all the money that walks through the door. If you reduce the number of potential customers 50 percent by fiat, and you were only holding onto 3 percent (or losing money) when the limit was 100 percent table occupancy, how will you ever close the gap? Raise prices? Concoct burgers out of polyurethane foam? While customers are feeling poor and fearful about the future?

The restaurant business prospers when folks are feeling flush, but gets flushed when folks are feeling flakey. Knowing may not necessitate an infinite regress because some knowledge does not depend on demonstration. But I expect the bar and restaurant contingent will come to know the sad consequences of the coronavirus to be turtles all the way down. To quote Robert Palmer, The truth is irrefutable. Or perhaps, Theres no tellin where the money went!

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio restaurants owners talk of hardships caused by coronavirus shutdown

My thought process was all of the above, economic, health related, spiritual, morale-related and morality-related. In the simplest terms, technically speaking, I didnt know whether to s*** or go blind.

On Monday, May 18, 2020, the Liberty Bar decided to restart with take-out. We have elected to be a little bit pregnant. A new menu. Some golden oldies. Some stunning departures. Weve been reading Anthony Bourdain and Peter Reinhart. We're sharpening our knives and feeding the sourdough.

Right now, (most) employees are on furlough with the promise that they can return to work if we ever get the Liberty Bar back in business. The concept is simple, the fact is more complicated. Like so much of life, saying it is one thing, doing it is another.

Staying alive is a good idea.

I am 77 years old. Of course, after I have washed and shaved my face, brushed my hair and settled back with a cup of strong coffee, I look much younger. But candidly speaking I am on the backstretch of my working life. My jocular Amarillo urologist tells me I need the roto-rooter! And that is all before the coronavirus reared its ugly head, which, as I am given to understand, has a predilection for the aged and infirm.

My life partner Patty Ortiz is much younger but still old enough to know better. We both fall into the high risk category. So, again, even before the present crisis, our strategy and our priority for survival is: 1) stay alive and healthy, then: 2) make the business happen.

Over the past year we ground out a steady improvement in sales, cost control, quality of service, character of food and drink as well as the look and feel of the place. Southtown has actually become a destination. It is not the North Side. It is not the Pearl. But it does have its own cachet.

To quote the old country song, Its too soon to know. I am not now and never have been a cook, although I do cook. I was once, for a brief while, a baker. I continue to bake. I am, for better or worse, a restaurant owner, a restaurateur. I feel more like the tail struggling to wag the dog.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates.

michael@michaelthesmartmoney.com | twitter.com/michael_taylor

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Liberty Bar owner in the age of coronavirus: I feel like the tail struggling to wag the dog - San Antonio Express-News

Human Behavior

Humans upend the social lives of giraffes, study shows – swissinfo.ch

June 13, 2020 medical

June 13, 2020 - 12:47

Living near human settlements disturbs the social networks of giraffes, according to an international study led by the University of Zurich.

They have weaker bonds with other giraffes and fewer interactions with other members of the species, according to the study, which examined the social structure of over 500 female giraffes in Tanzania.

The effects of human presence on the social relationships of wild animals have rarely been studied.

Even if the animals are not hunted or killed, increasing contact with humans could have profound indirect impacts, according to the researchers. This is because proximity to humans could disturb the animals ability to perform at tasks that are important for survival such as feeding together or rearing young.

Researchers from the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich have now taken a closer look at this topic by studying Masai giraffes in Tanzania.

The study, carried out with researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, the University of Konstanz and Pennsylvania State University, provides the first robust evidence that human presence affects the social structure in this iconic herbivore.

For their study, the scientists first needed to obtain large amounts of data from field research.

Detecting signals of natural versus human-caused influences on social relationships among wild animals is challenging, says Monica Bond, first author of the study.

Over a period of six years, Bond and her research collaborators collected photographic data spanning 540 adult female Masai giraffes that live in a large, unfenced landscape in the Tarangire Ecosystem of Tanzania an environment that features varying levels of anthropogenic (human-caused) disturbance.

The researchers were able to identify individual giraffes by their unique and unchanging spot patterns. This resulted in one of the largest-scale social networks ever studied in a wild mammal.

The female giraffes in Tarangire live in a complex society, with individuals preferring to associate with some females while avoiding others.

These preferences result in discrete social communities of 60 to 90 females with little mixing among the groups, even when they move in the same general area.

The study reveals that social structuring is clearly an important feature of female giraffe populations, says Barbara Knig, UZH professor and co-author of the study.

Being exposed to humans disturbs these social networks, according to the research data. Giraffes living closer to settlements of indigenous Masai people have weaker and fewer social ties.

The researchers suspect that giraffes living near these communities are more likely to encounter livestock and humans. This potentially causes groups of giraffes to split up.

Masai giraffe populations have declined 50% in recent years due to poaching, loss of habit and changes in food supply. Researchers speculate that disrupted social systems may be a hidden cause for their decline.

The team also found that groups of female giraffes with calves were more likely to occur closer to human settlements possibly because this provides better protection from lions and hyenas.

It seems that fmale giraffes face a trade-off between maintaining important social bonds and reducing risk to their calves near these traditional settlements, explains Bond.

The studys results suggest that human presence could play an important role in determining the conservation future of this species of giraffe.

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Humans upend the social lives of giraffes, study shows - swissinfo.ch

Physiology

Painstakingly handwritten chart preserves complicated feat of breaking the DNA code – Alton Telegraph

June 13, 2020 medical

Erin Blakemore, The Washington Post

A compilation of data contributing to the genetic code.

Photo: National Library Of Medicine/National Institutes Of Health Handout Photo

A compilation of data contributing to the genetic code.

Painstakingly handwritten chart preserves complicated feat of breaking the DNA code

When scientists discovered DNA and its double-helix form, they had finally identified the molecules that contain every human's unique genetic code.

But determining how those instructions were interpreted by cells was a beast of a challenge. Scientists had to figure out how a double helix of just four building blocks could be translated into proteins, the molecules that are the basis of living tissues - and they had to do so without the help of computer spreadsheets.

A painstakingly handwritten chart preserved by the U.S. National Library of Medicine shows how complicated the feat was.

It was filled in by biochemist Marshall W. Nirenberg and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health. During the 1960s, they raced with other researchers to figure the universal code shared by every living organism's cells.

Proteins consist of linked chains of amino acids, and they are made in two stages. First, the information in a molecule of DNA is transcribed into a messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule that consists of codons. Each codon consists of a three-unit combination of RNA nucleotides U, C, A and G. Cells then use the mRNA's codons as instructions to create chains of amino acids that, taken together, equal proteins. The codons - 64 in all - also tell the cells when to start or stop amino acid chains.

In 1961, Nirenberg and his colleague, J. Heinrich Matthaei, proved that the combination UUU was decoded as the amino acid phenylalanine. Over the next five years, the team conducted more experiments to figure out which codons created which amino.

As they went along, their working chart - made of multiple pieces of taped-together paper - gained a vast collection of letter combinations, stars and circles. Nirenberg shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work on the code, a discovery that is known as one of the most significant in the history of science.

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Curious about the chart and its scientific importance? Visit bit.ly/DNAchart to see a website devoted to the chart and its legacy.

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Painstakingly handwritten chart preserves complicated feat of breaking the DNA code - Alton Telegraph

Physiology

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through June 13) – Singularity Hub

June 13, 2020 medical

GOVERNANCE

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The US Can Get to 90% Clean Electricity in Just 15 YearsAdele Peters | Fast Companythe cost of wind, solar, and battery storage has fallen so quickly that in just 15 years, the US could feasibly run on 90% clean electricity, with no increase in electric bills. And adding new renewable infrastructure could create more than half a million new jobs each year. By 2045, the entire electric grid could run on renewables.

OpenAIs GPT-3 Algorithm Is Here, and Its Freakishly Good at Sounding HumanLuke Dormehl | Digital TrendsThe famous Turing Test, one of the seminal debates that kick-started the field, is a natural language processing problem: Can you build an AI that can convincingly pass itself off as a person? OpenAIs latest work certainly advances this goal. Now what remains to be seen is what applications researchers will find for it.

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Ground-Penetrating Radar Reveals Entire Ancient Roman CityGeorge Dvorsky | GizmodoThe researchers were able to document the locations of buildings, monuments, passageways, and even water pipesall without having to pick up a single hand trowel. In addition to documenting these previously unknown architectural features, the scientists were able to chronicle changes to the city over time and discern unique elements not seen elsewhere in ancient Rome.

With an Internet of Animals, Scientists Aim to Track and Save WildlifeJim Robbins | The New York TimesUsing tiny sensors and equipment aboard the space station, a project called ICARUS seeks to revolutionize animal tracking. The system will relay a much wider range of data than previous tracking technologies, logging not just an animals location but also its physiology and environment.

A Plan to Turn the Atmosphere Into One, Enormous SensorStaff | The EconomistOne of AtmoSenses first goals will be to locate and study phenomena at or close to Earths surfacestorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mining operations and mountain waves, which are winds associated with mountain ranges. The aim is to see if atmospheric sensing can outperform existing methods: seismographs for earthquakes, Doppler weather radar for storms and so on.

Image credit: James Henry /Pixabay

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This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through June 13) - Singularity Hub

Physiology

The Mysterious World Of Viruses And Why You Can’t Escape Them – Outlook India

June 13, 2020 medical

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was a giant of twentieth century science. His discoveries on Vitamin C, the Krebs cycle and how our muscles function are part of textbooks of biochemistry. He once wrote how, in his search for a picture of life, the torch-light slipped over the very edge of being: I started with anatomy, then shifted to function, to physiology, and studied rabbits. But then I found rabbits too complicated and shifted to bacteriology...later I found bacteria too complicated and shifted to molecules and began to study chemistry.... I ended with electrons which have no life at allmolecules have no lifeso life ran out between my fingers actually while I was studying it, trying to find it...

Szent-Gyorgyi was not alone in this. The boundary that separates the non-living from the livingthat mysterious cuspis a real one, but trying to put that knife-edge under a microscope can actually impede understanding life on this blue planet. Take the most abundant biological entities of natureviruses. The sheer number and diversity of viruses easily dwarfs humans, our crops and domesticated cattle, the billions of insects teeming in the tropical forests, even the microscopic organisms abundant in any river. A litre of seawater may contain a hundred billion viruses of few thousand different kinds! They occur in millions in the lungs and intestines of healthy people. They are present deep below the Antarctic surface, in the subterranean caves of Mexico, on the scorched sand dunes of African deserts, and in almost every living species scientists have studied. They control the growth of bacterial populations, play vital roles in the mega geochemical cycles that make up our environment and can, of course, evolvejumping from one host species to another, as we now are only too keenly aware. Its no wonder that Carl Zimmer referred to the Earth as a planet of viruses. The present global crisis brought on by Covid-19directly linked to rampant deforestation and illegal animal tradeis a result of our unbridled and greedy misadventures into virosphere.

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Yet, viruses are not exactly alive in the sense cellular organisms are. The latter are made up of one or many cells. Indeed, many of them, like ourselves, form large, organised cellular associationsa body. The bodies move, eat, fight, take in resources to build their cells and, in time, mate with other bodies to make more cellular entities like themselvesthe next generation. The instructions for doing all this is encoded in a long chain-like polymer(s), called DNA, present within the cells. The DNA is a manual, a blueprint; different links in the chaingenescarry the information for making different proteins. Following those commands embedded in the DNA, the rest of the cell makes proteins. In turn, the proteins (like insulin, antibodies, enzymes and collagen) join hands to do all the physiological work, finally leading to reproduction and thus ensuring that there are more copies of that body and the DNA within. Its teamwork between the cells DNA and protein-making apparatus.

Viruses do the same but they have found a shortcut. They do carry DNA (or RNA, a related molecule), but, being so tiny, theres no space for the protein-making apparatus. Theres no need either: when a virus infects a cell, it hijacks the latters protein-producing factories, captures the depots of nutrients and commands the cell to make only multiple copies of viral proteins and viral DNA! Thus, although they carry only a part of the ingredients essential for life, viruses are intracellular parasites that evolve and flourish in the foggy zone that demarcates the living from the inanimate.

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How viruses evolved this hijack strategy is an enduring mystery. The fact that prehistoric viruses have not left fossils has not helped either. But today, theres a wealth of knowledge that take us to the very origins of life. Notably, even within present-day cells, some RNA molecules can store genetic information (like DNA does) as well as catalyse biochemical reactions (like proteins do). This is an indicator that at the very dawn of life, in the hot, anoxic oceans of the primordial world, simple chemicals formed bonds resulting in complex molecules and some of them, in turn, gained the chemical ability to make copies of themselves. It was certainly not an efficient process, more like a stenographer who makes mistakes while typing several copies of a document, so soon there were variants of the parent molecule that were competing with each other for better duplication. In time, small RNAs (or the more stable DNAs) might have joined to form larger chains of genes, and then a membrane of fats probably enclosed them to form a mobile, self-replicating unit. Alternatively, some proto-cells might have gained both DNA and protein-making machines, but then lost the latter and learnt to enslave neighbours who had both. Probably both mechanisms gave rise to the vast repertoire that makes up virosphere today. Evolution by natural selection had found its way.

What is certain is that its this ancient lineage that has made viruses so ubiquitous. Animals, plants and bacteriaall are hosts to viruses in this timeless struggle for existence. The most abundant of viruses are the bacteriophages, literally the bacteria-eaters. But, phages do not only devour bacteria. They constantly shuttle fragments of bacterial DNA from one cell to another, creating fresh combinations of genes and thus providing fodder for evolution. Science has put these phage-couriers to good use. During WWI, Felix dHerelle discovered that bacteriophages could be used to cure soldiers of dysentery. Popular in the 1930s, phage therapy lost to non-living antibiotics. However today, when antibiotic-resistant bacteria have significantly blunted our ability to stop infections, phage therapy is being studied with renewed enthusiasm. In addition, oncolytic viruses are being harnessed to selectively target and kill cancer cells. Thus, no more only parasites, viruses now answer to that proverban enemys enemy is a friend! The utility of viruses does not stop there. Rather, their perennial arms-race with bacterial cells is the source of what are called restriction enzymes and CRISPR-Cas, sets of bacterial proteins without which many of the applications of modern biotechnology would be impossible.

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There are others who are less friendly, of coursefor example, the malignancy-inducing Papillomavirus and Hepatitis B viruses. But, humankinds association with viruses goes way beyond diseases and modern technology. Stunning as it may seem, the DNA in our chromosomes is peppered with sequences that once belonged to active viruses. Called Endogeneous Retroviruses, these relics of past encounters make up more than 8 per cent of our genomic spacea colossal number when you consider that our protein-encoding sequences take up hardly 1.5 per cent! None of them make active viruses any more, but some have been recruited into our cellular circuits. One noteworthy retrogene is Arc, which is essential for long-term memory storage in the human brain. Another is Syncytin. Originally from an endogeneous retrovirus, it has got harnessed to build up the placentaa unique mammalian organ without which none of us would have been born! These new findings, however, should not confound us. After all, the present is a fleeting snapshot on the evolutionary timescale and, like viruses, we are little more than carriers and mixers of genetic information. The restculture, history, societies, politicsare facets of human collective imagination.