A Red-shouldered Hawk finds a perch in the branches of a willow tree on a rainy February afternoon. (Photo by Bryan Stevens)

By Bryan Stevens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some of the buteo species have adapted to life on islands, including the Galapagos Hawk and the Hawaiian Hawk. Some of these hawks have quite descriptive names, including the White-throated Hawk, Gray-lined Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk and Short-tailed Hawk. Outside the United States, raptors in the buteo genus are often known as buzzards.

When the first European colonists came to the New World, they applied the term buzzard to both types of native vultures as well as the large raptors like Swainsons Hawk and Broad-winged Hawk that reminded them of the ones back in Europe.

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

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Feathered Friends - Area home to different species of hawks - Erwin Record

Human Behavior

‘Ukraine is Europe of the Middle Ages: Zelensky slams angry mob who protested against evacuees from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan – RT

February 21, 2020 medical

Protests against Ukrainians evacuated from Wuhan which descended into road blockades and clashes with police have drawn the ire of President Volodymir Zelensky, who said his nation has fallen back into the Middle Ages.

Ukraine has apparently become reminiscent of Europe, something it has always aspired to, but certainly not in a way it wanted, at least according to its own president. Zelensky compared his nation to Europe of the times of witch hunts, inquisitions, and epidemics.

You know, we always say that Ukraine is Europe, the president told the nation, referring to a slogan popular among pro-Western elements, which became particularly widespread following the 2014 Maidan coup. To tell the truth, yesterday, we sometimes seemed to be the Europe of the Middle Ages, he added, chastising those who staged violent protests in central Ukraine.

The protesters opposed the idea of their fellow citizens being evacuated from the coronavirus epicenter in Wuhan.The president called on his nations citizens to remember that we are all humans while saying that he could not describe the protests as human behavior. He also wished the evacuees good health and expressed hope that they would soon be able to reunite with their families.

A group of evacuees, including 45 Ukrainians and 28 foreigners, that arrived in Ukraine from Wuhan on Thursday were less than welcome at home. Anxiety and suspicion among people in the central Ukrainian village of Novi Sanzhary, over the prospect of potential carriers of the new coronavirus heading their way, soon boiled over into violent protests.

The villagers cut off the road leading to a nearby National Guard medical facility that was expected to host the evacuees, prompting the police to intervene. The protesters then clashed with the officers, and an armored vehicle was used to remove the road blockade.

Later in the day, villagers pelted buses carrying the evacuees and their police escort with stones, damaging the vehicles and injuring almost a dozen officers, five of whom were hospitalized.

It is not the first such protest in Ukraine. Roadblocks were previously established in the Ternopil and Lviv regions in the west, following the rumors that a quarantine facility might be set up there.

The novel coronavirus which originated from Wuhan has infected more than 75,000 people worldwide and claimed at least 2,000 lives over the two months since the first case was recorded.

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'Ukraine is Europe of the Middle Ages: Zelensky slams angry mob who protested against evacuees from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan - RT

Human Behavior

Q&A: Professor publishes book analyzing food and family – The Ithacan

February 21, 2020 medical

Joslyn Brenton, assistant professor in the Ithaca College Department of Sociology, recently published a book that she co-authored that looks at the relationship among childhood obesity, motherhood and social class.

The book, titled Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Wont Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It follows 12 mothers in their daily lives of motherhood, specifically looking at the way culture, socioeconomic class and food affect these mothers, their children and family dynamics as a whole.

Opinion editor Kate Sustick spoke with Brenton about her book, the research used in the book and the importance of sociology when analyzing health and food structures.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kate Sustick: What inspired you to go into this specific discipline within sociology?

Joslyn Brenton: I actually started out as an occupational therapy major. My parents didnt go to college. My guidance counselor figured out that I would be good in a health field. I picked occupational therapy. Sociology was just a prerequisite. I didnt even know what it was, and I remember it was an 8 a.m. class that I went to because I felt I had to. I like to joke that [when I went to the class], the sky opened up and an angel sang and the light shone down on me. I couldnt believe that people could do this for a living. Id always been a studier or observer of human behavior, and I love human interaction. My guidance counselor was right though. I do like the health and illness kind of research but as a sociologist. The health [aspect] does interest me still because there is so much inequality embedded within health processes. Health is a social process. We tend to think of it as a biological process, but it is an incredibly social process. I never lost that angle.

KS: Could you tell me about the book you recently published?

JB: The book starts in North Carolina, and thats where we collected the data. At the time, I was a graduate student getting ready to start my dissertation work. Two professors in my department had applied for a multimilliondollar grant to study childhood obesity, and they got it, which sociologists do not often get such large grants. They needed research assistants I became one of their lead graduate student researchers, and I had to figure out Whats my big question here? The study became about questioning this very idea of an obesity epidemic and questioning the stuff that has been written about it prior to our study. [What has already been written] is a lot of assumptions about mothers and the ways mothers are feeding their children and mothers inability to really understand whether their children are overweight or not. All of the research was pointing in a direction of blaming mothers, and, therefore, all of the interventions were being targeted at mothers. Mothers need more cooking classes. Mothers need health education classes. If we can just make these women understand better ways to feed their children and to be able to correctly identify when their children are overweight, this is going to help us solve this problem. As sociologists, we asked, Is that true? We started digging into the literature, and we found out nobody is asking mothers what they think. Nobodys even talking to mothers. Nobody is actually trying to get an understanding of how women experience this phenomenon of being expected and demanded to put a meal on the table. Nobody asked women, Whats this like for you? So thats what we did. It was a fiveyear study. It started in 2012, and we followed 120 lowincome mothers, white, black and Latina. We picked an urban county, a suburban county and a rural county because the story of food is also a story of access. We started with interviewing them. Then we [realized] interviews arent enough. We need to actually be with them in their homes, follow them to the grocery stores, so thats what we did.

KS: Were there any requirements for involvement in the study?

JB: To get into the study, the mother had to have at least one child between the ages of two and eight because we knew wed be following them for five years. That age range for children is the range when kids are adopting eating habits and range in which parents still have a large degree of control over what their children are eating. We also picked this age range because it is the time in which mothers receive a lot of cultural and social pressure to feed their children in a very specific way and feed them the right kinds of food so they set them up for success in terms of eating. As long as a mother had at least one child between the ages of two and eight, they could. And that they qualify incomewise because were really only following lowincome mothers.

KS: It seems like extremely personal work. Were there ever moments in which it felt like too much?

JB: Every day. I was also pregnant at the time. I was pregnant with my [second child] as I was conducting these interviews. I am a mother too, and I am very visibly pregnant, which helps and can backfire sometimes. We knew so many mothers who were just living in the direst of circumstances, people who had no cash income, were living in trailers with holes in the floors, people who didnt have kitchen tables or chairs to sit at. You leave these interviews and observations and feel all sorts of things. You feel sympathy. You feel a weird feeling of Now I go home to my husband and my children who definitely have enough to eat. What does it mean for me to be a white researcher interviewing a poor mother of color? Heres a pregnant mother over here whos unemployed and their only source of income is [Women, Infants and Children] food stamps, but then heres this pregnant woman who is here to research [the other pregnant woman.] These are stark differences, and you have to think about What does this mean for the data Im collecting? What does this mean about the analysis I end up producing? In one of the chapters in the book, I ride along with this mom and her mother, and Im in the backseat with the toddler [going] to the grocery store. It is a blazing hot day. [The mother] has no money, theres a problem with her food stamps and her paychecks havent come in. We are [going back and forth] across town, and [we are all] dripping sweat. We get home, and the mother and the grandmother are unloading the groceries, and then the husband starts berating the wife for getting the wrong flavor of Oodles of Noodles. Every single situation just solidified this feeling of I have to tell this story. There is a huge story here to be told that nobodys talking about when it comes to family life and feeding kids.

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Q&A: Professor publishes book analyzing food and family - The Ithacan

Human Behavior

Are you for wheel? These 6 European startups disrupting mobility and subscription services are – The Next Web

February 21, 2020 medical

Were in the midst of the next big evolution in human mobility. While this may elicit images of flying Deloreans and a hovercraft skateboard or two, the changes were now experiencing go much deeper than cool factor.

This change is being driven by a surge of new startups and scaleups on a mission to push forward a new mobility paradigm. Instead of creating futuristic (yet accident-pronedoors, theyre focusing on innovations and new service offerings that will help us accelerate towards a future thats circular, sustainable, and more affordable for the masses.

The future of mobility is here; it may not come in the shape of a flying Delorean but it will be much cooler (if not thousands of times more practical).

Every year TNW and payments tech giant Adyen have been scouring the European tech scene for the fastest-growing scaleups. The top five winners are then invited to join Tech5 an exclusive network of the best companies, investors, and experts from across the continent. This years winners will be revealed at TNWs Founders Day event in Amsterdam on June 17, 2020.

This year were focusing on the ways technology can help create change and have a positive impact on the planet. The next batch of startup finalists we want to highlight is those innovating in the category: Mobility & Subscriptions.

Find out who the literal movers and shakers are in 2020, and read Adyens Mobility guide hereto learn about whats coming next.

No list of mobility scaleups could be complete without mention of Belgian ebike success story Cowboy. Its homepage encourages visitors to TAKE THE STREETS in large bold black and hot pink letters and thats exactly what riders from Spain to the Netherlands have done.

With an automatic electric boost, even the most technologically-challenged riders can feel like an urban cowboy as they ride off into the sunset, without breaking a sweat. The detachable battery provides approximately 70km of range and can be easily removed and charged at home or anywhere with a socket in 3.5 hours.

While the Cowboy is a beautiful industrial piece of road candy, the 2,000 price tag may not be on the table for everyone.

Not to worry! If you live in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, or Denmark youve undoubtedly seen an influx of blue front-wheeled bikes. Ever the cost-minded innovators, Dutch-born Swapfiets has come up with a new subscription-based value proposition for the growing number of city bikers, answering the main pain points they face.

After subscribing, youll receive your very own recycled, blue-wheeled beauty. The rest is on Swapfiets. The companys lifetime guarantee means that if your bike breaks, theyll fix it (and even bring you some loaner wheels in the meantime). If it gets stolen, theyll help you fill out a police report and replace it for a small fee. Urban biking has never been so easy.

For commitment-phobes who dont want to be attached to one bike, simply hop on a donkey. Danish Tech5 finalist, Donkey Republic, created a subscription-based app that allows you to rent bikes for as long or as short a period as you need.

Simply unlock the nearest donkey bike with your phone. When youre done, simply drop it off at a location point and end the rental in your app. Donkeys are already starting their steady invasion of cities all over Europe from Malaga, Spain all the way up to Lisalmi, Finland.

If biking isnt your thing, German escooter company, Tier, has something for you. This Tech5 finalist is offering city dwellers across Europe (plus Abu Dhabi) an easy, sustainable, and affordable option to get from A to B. You can get started simply by signing up through their app. Then just hop on the nearest Tier scooter, unlock it with your phone, and youre off to cruise the neighborhood.

Not only is Tier working to reduce emissions on the streets, its also become the first fully climate-neutral micro-mobility company. As of January 2020, theyve gone beyond focusing solely on emissions linked to charging and are also reducing emissions related to production, operations and transportation.

At the same time, why go anywhere at all? Lithuanian Tech5 finalist Ziticity is a modern-day courier service. If your business needs to deliver food, flowers, groceries, clothing, office supplies, or anything in between, Ziticitys couriers can do it for you, within the same day and even the same hour.

The cool part about it is that you can integrate their API directly into your website or app, allowing you to schedule, automate and track deliveries. Its time to unleash your very own fleet of couriers in your city.

What if its not you, but your favorite pair of yoga pants that needs to go? Spanish Tech5 contestant, Jeff, is a mobility service that doesnt transport you, but your laundry across the city to be cleaned, pressed, folded, and returned back to you within 48 hours. In this hectic age, sometimes realizing your underwear drawer is running low is the last thing you need.

With their global takeover going strong (Jeff is present in over 40 countries), this dynamic startup has now decided to branch out into Beauty Jeff and Fit Jeff, making it easier than ever for users to book a beauty appointment or get in a workout.

Changes in human mobility will also trigger changes in human behavior and traffic flows. This means that businesses will have to reassess how they connect their physical locations with their audiences. How will new green spaces impact foot traffic near your store? How will the increase in ebike and escooter lanes in your city affect billboard placement? Or property values for that matter?

Norwegian startup, Unacast, is putting businesses a step (or several) above the rest by sourcing location data, map data, and strategic intelligence to get a better understanding of real-world human activity. These insights can then be used to find the best location for your food truck or identify the next up and coming neighborhood for real estate development. Whatever it is, Unacast has the data you need to find the next hot spot for your business to grow.

This is part of the 2020 Tech5 series covering the top finalists in the categories of: Circular Economy & Sustainability, Social Platforms & Matchmaking, Mobility & Subscriptions, Food & Delivery.You can find all the featured companies, with daily updates,here.

This post is brought to you byTech5.

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Are you for wheel? These 6 European startups disrupting mobility and subscription services are - The Next Web

Human Behavior

Part III: How to Create a Functioning Communications System to Save Democracy and the Planet – New American Journal

February 21, 2020 medical

Earth Hanging in the Balance. A New American Journal graphic by Walter Simon [Art Market Place]

Editors Note: This is the third in a three part series on how to create a functioning communications system to save democracy and the planet. We face an existential crisis in this world and no one seems to know what to do about it. We are just beginning to explore solutions while others seem willing to profit from anarchy, chaos and sensational clickbait.

Part I: Can Altruism Trump Selfishness to Save Democracy and Planet Earth?

Part II: Case Studies Donald Trump and George Wallace How Existential Anxiety Leads to Authoritarianism

By Glynn Wilson

Who wants to stop Donald Trump and Facebook from destroying democracy and the planet?

This is a problem Ive been grappling with for the past three years as a journalist and social scientist. In December, 2018, sitting around in Mobile, Alabama on the smoking porch out of the rain, I had an epiphany about what is needed to begin to solve this problem. I wrote a business plan for a new app to take on Facebook and create something better for real news consumers in search for the truth amongst all the fake news, and a better tool for activists struggling to save the world in their own way, grappling with the problems inherent in the Facebook popularity algorithm.

This year, hiding out in a national forest on the Gulf Coast, watching Venus and the crescent moon in a dark night sky and listening to the coyotes howl like wolves, I had another epiphany.

So I started doing research looking for answers in the science of human evolution.

While following the yellow brick road, so to speak, I ran across a scientist involved in the new field of Cultural Evolution named Joe Brewer. Hes from Wheaton, Missouri, but now lives in Columbia, and hes trained in math, statistics, atmospheric sciences and cognitive policy.

On his personal Facebook page, he describes his mission in life, which sort of reminds me of my own mission.

I have dedicated my life to one goal, he says. Secure the existence of a complex thriving global civilization in 100 years. Everything I do is in service of this mission.

So I contacted him and conducted a video interview, and we had a wide ranging discussion about everything from the latest thinking on the science of evolution to the solutions to solving our essential problem of creating a functioning communications system to save democracy and the planet.

My own academic training is in Science Communications and Environmental Sociology, as well as Political Science and Journalism.

It didnt take long for him to pick up on what I was after, so he began to lead me to the other science and social science sources I needed to explain the problem Im tackling and the solution we are both searching for.

The essential problem is how to find a way to help speed up the evolution of the culture by fostering prosocial behavior and fighting anti-social behavior, which is rampant in politics and on social media.

Part of the way to deal with this is to figure out how to develop pro-social functioning groups of groups, up and down the chain, he said.

We talked about the research on the selfish gene and the altruistic gene, which we covered in part one of this series. Some scientists focus on quantitative research and the selfish gene, for example, while others focus on qualitative research on the altruistic gene, and visa versa.

Part I: Can Altruism Trump Selfishness to Save Democracy and Planet Earth?

He reminded me of something I had already concluded for myself 20 years ago when in grad school we often engaged in the debate about Nature versus Nurture, often over strong beers and good weed.

You remember this debate, right? Is human behavior more influenced by our genes (nature), or are family, education and cultural influences more powerful (nurture)?

Of course its both, we said simultaneously, and laughed out loud.

The lesson then becomes, how do we bring the cultural evolution process to a higher level, he said. Its about pro-social behaviors, like how do we think of a basketball team. How do you get your star player to play as part of a team, uplevel, for a functioning team? Thinking of that example and dynamic helps you to see multi-level selection more clearly.

A star players nature may be to hog the ball and take all the shots, but even the best players miss the goal a certain percentage of the time. So a team of altruistic individuals who work well together will defeat a team with one star player much of the time. If you have a star player and you can teach him to play well with others, then you have a championship team.

This is what we need to save democracy and the planet. A team with a star player who is trained to work well with others.

Otherwise, an ego-maniac narcissist with no altruism will win and bring the entire system down.

I think you see where Im going with this. Can you say Donald Trump?

So Brewer led me to the research of Elinor Ostrom, an American political economist, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson. To date, she remains the first of only two women to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Ostrom identified eight design principles of stable local common pool resource management. This research is well known in international relations, and while not making it explicit, the Obama administration was using it to push what was called soft cultural power to promote democracy around the world.

In other words, the United States doesnt just have military power and economic power. We have cultural power, and its possible to use that to foster democracy and work to save the planet.

This stands in stark contrast to the political power of a selfish, cheating, narcissistic bully, who is so ignorant of science that he thinks Americas power derives from military might, which can be used to make lots of money.

So in thinking about how to stop an authoritarian dictator from using existential anxiety to turn our democratic republic into just another totalitarian state, (which we covered in Part II), we must develop a functioning communications system based on an understanding of altruism, to counter all this selfishness that is out of control in a world where most people are now depending on Facebook for news, information and entertainment.

I know many people have become addicted to Facebook, which feeds the same chemicals in the brain that come from snorting a line of cocaine or listening to the Hallelujah Chorus, but think of the symbolism of the selfie. As everyone aims the camera at themselves, and says, Look at me, look at me, what happens to the evolution of the altruistic gene that we actually need far more than the selfish gene to survive as a species?

In thinking through the process of creating a new social media app to start from scratch and create something better, there is a matrix, an outline, a blue print we can draw upon to build this, if we can put the budget together to do it.

As I eluded to in Part I, what if Mark Zuckerberg, who created Facebook, instead of dropping out of college would have gone around on the Harvard campus and found some experts in all these fields to consult with on how to build something to save the world, he could have created a powerful tool to do just that. Instead, he was like a star basketball player (computer programmer) who selfishly created something to make himself a billionaire, and didnt have any liberal arts or science understanding of how to work altruistically in groups to make something that was not just about the money, capitalist.

He created a Frankenstein monster that threatens to destroy democracy and the planet.

So lets talk about Ostroms model.

Caring for the commons had to be a multiple task, organized from the ground up and shaped to cultural norms. It has to be discussed face to face, and based on trust, Brewer says. Its how we interact that matters.

Core design principles for managing the commons and creating successful pro-social groups requires developing a group with a clear identity and purpose, a clearly thought out mission.

Have you taken the time to look up and read Facebooks mission? It never had a clear mission, so over the years, Zuckerbergs team struggled to craft one. This reminds me a little of journalism historians struggling to define objective journalism in textbooks. I discuss this problem in my book, Jump On The Bus: Make Democracy Work Again.

A few years ago, faced with growing criticism for the disfunction of its platform and the spread of fake news in the 2016 election cycle that helped Trump win, confounding all the public opinion experts and elite pundits, Facebook changed its mission statement to bring the world closer together and making the world more open and connected. But according to critics, this had one fundamental flaw: It didnt push for any specific positive outcome from more connection. Rather the new mission was just a muddled statement of a goal or simple philosophy, not a mission.

So this thing worth $200 billion is based on one goal, to make Zuckerberg a billionaire? Well, it worked for that. This past year he visited Donald Trump and slept in the White House, then came out and said he would not stop allowing misleading political ads on Facebook. As a computer programmer who has read a few psychology books, he has no idea how to decide what a false claim is in an advertisement, so he will keep making billions more in advertising revenue, while the world burns.

According to Ostroms model, now used by the United Nations and countries around the world in International relations, a group must have a clear identity and purpose.

Who is in the group, who is not in the group, and what is the group for?

A successful social media app would necessarily have a fair and timely way to conduct conflict resolution, just like countries do when faced with bad actor countries, which foster and support anarchy and chaos through terrorism and violence. This requires a system of graduated sanctions.

Administrators must have the ability to monitor the behavior of the members and have support mechanisms that increase helpful behavior and reduce unhelpful behavior.

This is the theory behind why I do not publish hateful and false comments in my web interface as most other news media outlets do, or allow Trump trolls or other ignoramuses to run all over me in Facebook comments. Successful communication requires strong moderation. If you allow selfish bad actors to undermine the altruistic content, you lose, we lose.

Even psychologist B.F. Skinner knew about designing experiments to show the consequences from reinforcing or suppressing anti-social behavior.

According to Ostrom, a successful system absolutely requires an effective communications system based on trust and reciprocity. Once trust breaks down, reciprocity stops, and existential anxiety is introduced by an authoritarian leader who is willing to abandon any scientific basis for establishing whats true and whats not. Any ability to solve problems like climate change, for example, are lost.

What we dont have is monitoring and regulation of behavior in coherent and functional groups, Brewer says.

Hes right. Thats where we are.

You take the ability to form a dominance hierarchy, have the group invert it, to stop the dominator from rising to power, he said when I asked him for his thoughts on how to create a replacement for Facebook for people interested in a way to find real news and engage in successful activism on social media.

We do this with language and coordinated action, he said. What you see with Facebook is how we lose the ability to do it.

There are basically three levels of regulation that evolved from hunter-gathering tribes of humans.

People used shaming stories on bad actors and shaped social norms. This starts with giving people gentle consequences for smaller actions, and supportive guidance for how to change their behavior.

When that doesnt work you go to the next level, he said. Ostrom called it graduated sanctions, increasing levels of consequences depending on the level of the harm.

If the bad actor simply wont take the hint, there is the option of ostracism, temporary, then permanent. Like leaving folks out in the wilderness when they wont play well with others to accomplish an altruistic goal.

Even churches know something about this. They have the option of excommunication.

Research indicates that in hunter-gathering societies, kicking selfish bullies out of groups often resulted in death to the bully, although perhaps at times they found another group to join, like rogue male chimps sometimes do in the wild.

Of course the most extreme but least common punishment for anti-social behavior is execution, which in the criminal justice system is the death penalty.

Every now and then, if a serial killer invades your group, youve got to take them out, Brewer says.

Humans have this capacity for pro-social coordination, based on trust and generosity, to come together and keep these dominators from dominating, Brewer says. This is the basis for democracy.

Egalitarianism evolved from those early groups of humans, he said, but the rise of city states, civilizations, a division of labor and complex societies, led to the mechanisms of social norms to stop working. In small, homogenous countries and some small towns, this can still work.

These principles have been tested in third-world countries by non-profit groups and worked. Can we make it work on a global scale? That is the question that must be asked if we are to survive as a species.

When you know how it works, you can critique something like Facebook and say, how would you keep a narcissist from spreading misinformation the way the Trump group does, Cambridge Analytica, Brewer says. People without conscience have more evolutionary strategies available to them. So the sociopaths and psychopaths are at an advantage because you dont have any of the behavior regulating mechanisms structured into the social system.

So whats a potential solution?

Near the end of our conversation, I laughed out loud and asked: What if we could kick Trump off of Twitter?

It would really help, Brewer said.

Conclusion

Were all in this together. We have not evolved for millennia to be isolated behind digital screens, connected only via text message and social media, or to grow up playing violent video games in windowless basements. Science proves that our genes and our brains have evolved to be compassionate, to cooperate, and to foster community. This is common sense. Hopefully, the science presented here reinforces what we already know intuitively. Being altruistic and kind to one another benefits us all.

Part I: Can Altruism Trump Selfishness to Save Democracy and Planet Earth?

Part II: Case Studies Donald Trump and George Wallace How Existential Anxiety Leads to Authoritarianism

Tik Tok The Pros, the Cons, and The Halacha – Yeshiva World News

February 21, 2020 medical

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com

For one reason or another, the Tik Tok app has been the talk of the community of late. Tik Tok is one of the fastest growing Apps in the social media world with somewhere near a billion users. This article will discuss the pros, the cons, and the halacha of allowing ones children to use the App.

THE PROS

Very little, other than that it may be fun.

THE CONS

There are numerous reasons to make sure that this APP should be deleted immediately not just by Torah Jews, but by all Americans. We will list 6 very serious reasons.

UNDERMINING THE UNITED STATES

The first issue is that there is a very strong concern that we are handing over huge amounts of data to an enemy of the United States. Lets not forget, last week it was announced that the Justice Department unveiled charges against four members of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army for hacking into the credit-reporting agency Equifax back in 2017 and stealing sensitive information on 147 million Americans.

Thats right. China stole everyones very personal data. They have all our credit information and pretty much everything else about us.

The charges are the latest in a campaign of indictments against Chinese-government-linked hackers that dates to 2014 but has ramped up considerably since 2017.

According to the New York Times, lawmakers raised concerns about TikToks growing influence in the United States.. the American government had evidence of the app sending data to China.

The US government has opened an investigation about it, the New York Times reported in November. The Times further writes, The move is the latest in a back and forth between the United States and China, which are enmeshed in a global competition for technological dominance that has begun to cleave the high-tech world in two and start what some analysts refer to as a new Cold War.

We live in a wonderful country and we should not be handing out data to a foreign government bent on undermining our economy and country.

VILE WORDS

The second reason is that this App has millions of young women and young men lip-singing to songs that have the most vile words one can imagine. There is no escape from it. Not one person that was interviewed for this article who has been on TikTok has escaped exposure to these horrifying words.

The Gemara in Pesachim 3a cite Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: A person should never allow an unseemly word to come out of his mouth, for the Torah went eight letters out of its way to avoid writing something unseemly (Bereishis 7:8). The Torah states min habeheima asher einena tehorah from the animal that is not pure instead of just saying, Habeheimah hatemeiah the animal that is impure. Many extra words are used by the Torah to teach us this important lesson not to sully our neshamos by cursing.

The Midrash attests to this on the verse in Devarim (23:10), When you go out to war, guard yourself from every evil matter. How does the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 24:7) define evil matter? You guessed it unseemly words, referred to in Hebrew as nivul peh.

TORAH PROHIBITION

The Midrash seems to indicate that it is a Biblical prohibition whether in war or not in war it is just that it is more common in wartime or in the soldiers barracks rather than in the typical social structure or setting to which the Torah generally speaks. The Machzor Vitri (424), one of the foremost students of Rashi, writes that the prohibition is Biblical.

There may be a different source for a Biblical prohibition, too. The Torah tells us (Devarim 23:17), Lo yireh becha ervas davarThere shall not be seen within you an unseemly thing Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani in Vayikra Rabbah (24:7) rereads the words to say ervas dibbur instead of ervas davar. The verse now reads There shall not be seen within you an unseemly statement namely improper speech.

NOT HARMLESS

Aside from the Torah prohibitions mentioned there are repercussions to nivul peh that we want to avoid. It seems that it is not just an innocuous, harmless little activity. The Gemara in Shabbos (33a) tells us that because of the sin of nivul peh, great problems come. Harsh decrees are promulgated, the youth die young, orphans and widows cry out and are not answered. In other words, the repercussions are rather serious. The Shelah (Osios Shin Shtika 24) writes that nivul peh is the avi avos hatumah the ultimate source of impurity.

The human soul reflects the Divine aspects of mankind. In contrast, nivul peh reflects the nefesh habeheimis, the animalistic aspect of mankind.

The bottom line is that cursing emanates from and reflects the lowliest aspects of human behavior.

Avi Avos HaTumah

The reason cursing is called avi avos hatumah by the Shelah HaKadosh is that such activity undermines holiness, both of oneself and of others. The Gemara in Kesuvos (5b) instructs the others just how they should react. The Gemara states that fingers were created like straight tent pegs for a reason so that someone who hears nivul peh can place his fingers in his ears to blot out the sound.

The Midrash tells us that the Jews in Egypt reached the 49th level of impurity, but even then, they did not succumb so low as to use nivul peh (Pesikta Zuta Shmos 6:10). They did not change their language implies, according to the Midrash, that they did not change their manner of speech either. We see how serious such activity truly is.

From a Torah perspective, the issue is impurity. Man was created in the Divine Image and possesses a cheilek Elokah mimaal a Divine section from Above. Cursing and the uttering of profane words darkens and sullies that Divine section from Above that we all possess.

Reduces Life

It also reduces our pre-designated life spans. The Gemara in Niddah (16b) states that even if one had a lifespan of 70 years, nivul peh can turn it around in the wink of an eye.

EXPOSURE TO UNWHOLESOME INDIVIDUALS

The fourth reason is that it exposes our children to predators. Also, the default setting to these accounts is public which means that predators are clearly present. There are predators that are highly trained at luring the innocent into very difficult challenges, and often they fail. These predators, unfortunately, exist both outside our communities and sometimes, rachmana litzlan, in our own communities. Why place our children in what amounts to a holding cell for a level 1, level 2 and level 3 offenders registry?

There is also the issue of having unwholesome friends. The Mishna in Pirkei Avos 2:9 discusses the repercussions of this. Many of these friends or followers are anonymous. Is this not terribly scary that only the police have a chance at identifying who these people may actually be?

The fifth reason is that it is a gateway to other potentially deadly trends. Recently, a TikTok video demonstrated a prank one can do where two friends demonstrate how to jump up to a third friend who stands in the middle between them. It is called the Skullbreaker Challenge, and originated, it seems in South America. When the third friend jumps up, the other two kick his feet out beneath him knocking him down on the ground. Often the one being pranked can hit his head. This has led to two deaths already and has prompted an official in Israel to ban the App entirely.

ADDICTION

The sixth reason is that kids that use TikTok more often than not suffer from an addiction to it. For many, the daily use is upwards of two or three hours a day. The Gemorah in Yuma 86b explains that Rav Huna says in the name of Rav when a person does an aveirah and repeats it it becomes permitted to him. Rav Shalom Shwadron explained that Rav Elya Lopian understood this phraseology as an addiction. When one has an addiction one pursues it without regard to morals and what is right or wrong. They just pursue it. The evils of addiction are manifold.

CONCLUSION

For these six reasons mentioned above, it is a no-brainer that the App should be deleted from all phones in the house immediately. Like everything in regard to parenting, it should be done with love, and respect for our children, but also firmly.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com

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Tik Tok The Pros, the Cons, and The Halacha - Yeshiva World News

Human Behavior

Author’s second book inspects humanity’s seemingly increase in aggression and the consequences of altering normal social interactions with technology…

February 21, 2020 medical

DANVILLE, Va. (PRWEB) February 20, 2020

C.A.A. Savastano's new book "Human Time Bomb: The Violence Within Our Nature" confronts the long-term dangers of ignoring the modern descent into violent and irrational behavior that experts have long decried is aided by technology and modern social detachment. As new modern challenges face the nations of the world, a generation of humans has been developing under widely divergent social norms along with some modern ideas that do not comport with successful evolutionary strategies that have served humanity for millennia. As comfortable speech, political hyperbole, and censored environments become more prized, each seemingly reduces the ability of several people to use rational thinking and reasonable socialization.

The book considers the massive spikes in youth suicide and the diminishing capacity for human interaction as the modern world further replaces normal interactions with machine assisted socializing. While the benefits of technological development and social media are significant, the book offers the many consequences of increasing overuse that several cases attest ends in disaster. A pattern of worsening thoughts, mental illness, and violence seems to emerge as humans dive into a realm of interaction for which no substantial amount of long-term studies exist. Operating in this realm of the unknown has caused some to lash out ceaselessly unable to cope with the rapidly changing environment and exist by adapting its worst qualities. Human minds that require thousands of years to evolve are sometimes forced into destructive social patterns nature could not anticipate.

Using the scientific reports, educational studies, and supporting journalism the book offers additional historical context about significant issues such as parenting, the costs and benefits of gender roles, competing styles of economics, increasing hyperbolic politics, the role of technology in altering human behavior, and a host of debated modern cultural debates. It reveals some of our species most heinous tendencies are human problems and cannot be reasonably ascribed to any single culture if the greater scope of history is considered. Some of the most sinister periods of human aggression and the evolution of modern expressions of violence present the mental and emotional cost to all involved. The dangers of present day tribalism expose brutal social interactions and the habit of advocates to vilify those who disagree about nearly anything. Some of the most outspoken advocates of antisocial behavior are masked within political advocacy while their supporters join them in a spiral of worsening behavior online and in reality.

C.A.A. Savastano is an author, speaker, and Editor-in-Chief of the Neapolis Media Group whose historical research focuses on intelligence, government, international politics, and human behavior. He has studied thousands of legal documents, written over seventy research articles; consulted for multiple experts in his field, presented new research of public value, and makes regular appearances in the media. He is the author of "Two Princes And A King: A Concise Review of Three Political Assassinations", multiple academic groups have accepted his historical research findings, and Savastano has presented new evidence at public conferences and universities.

For all media inquiries please contact: Publisher Campania Partners LLC, Mike Swanson - contact [at] campaniapartners.com

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Author's second book inspects humanity's seemingly increase in aggression and the consequences of altering normal social interactions with technology...

Immunology

Should an FDA warning affect your use of hand sanitizer? – WTOP

February 21, 2020 medical

The FDA told the maker of Purell it could not claim that the product prevents viral illnesses, raising new questions about hand sanitizer use.

The Food and Drug Administration told the maker of Purell last month that it could not claim its product prevents the flu and other viral illnesses, raising new questions about hand sanitizer use.

In a letter to GOJO Industries, the FDA said it is currently not aware of any adequate and well-controlled studies demonstrating that killing or decreasing the number of bacteria or viruses on the skin by a certain magnitude produces a corresponding clinical reduction in infection or disease caused by such bacteria or virus.

Though the company may be limited in the claims it can make, hand sanitizers that have at least 60% alcohol content are still believed to be an important line of defense against getting sick, according to Dr. Julie Fischer, an associate research professor of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University.

The correct use of hand sanitizer involves applying enough of it and rubbing your hands for 15 seconds, because the rubbing together actually helps destroy and remove those organisms as well, Fischer said.

Still, its preferred that you use soap and water and wash your hands correctly if you have time, she said, which means rubbing hands together for at least 20 seconds while washing.

Meanwhile, in an apparent vote of confidence for hand sanitizers, the FBI has ordered $40,000 of hand sanitizer and face masks in case the coronavirus becomes a pandemic in the United States, according to the acquisition document obtained by CNBC.

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Immunology

COVID-19: Why you should call the coronavirus by its official name – ABC10.com KXTV

February 21, 2020 medical

SACRAMENTO, Calif. The outbreak of a new coronavirus, first detected in Wuhan City, China, now has an official name.

In comments to the media on Tuesday, Feb. 11, World Health Organization (WHO) General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a name for coronavirus: COVID-19.

"Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing," he said during his remarks. "It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks."

COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats and bats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The center says it's rare for animal coronavirus to infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this new virus named SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations developed the name based on best practices, according to health officials. The disease was previously referred to as 2019-nCoV, shorthand for novel (new) coronavirus found in 2019.

"We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease," the director general said.

Tracey Goldstein, professor in the UC Davis Department of Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology, said it's important to have an official name for the virus to curb misinformation.

"People may call a virus or disease by an incorrect name based on species or locations," Goldstein said. "If people think a virus comes from a particular location they may treat people from that area inappropriately."

As of Wednesday, Feb. 19, there are 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to the CDC. Health officials confirmed thefirst case of coronavirus in Napa Countyon Tuesday after a local hospital took in a patient from Travis Air Force Base after they were flown in from Japan.

Globally, there are 75,204 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to WHO.

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Anatomy

Whats behind the tutu?: An anatomy of the costume as seen through Houston Ballets Sleeping Beauty – Houston Chronicle

February 21, 2020 medical

With apologies to pointe shoes, nothing says classical ballet like a tutu.

For more than a century, little has changed with the basic structure of its two essential styles: the historically older romantic tutu, a long skirt whose loose layers flow with the body; and the short, stiff classical tutu the stuff of music-box figurines that forms a saucerlike, horizontal halo around a ballerinas hips, also distancing her arms from her torso.

Ben Stevensons formal production of The Sleeping Beauty, which returns Thursday to the Wortham Theater, features both types. But when most people think of tutus, what comes to mind is the classical version that began to appear in the 1870s.

Hard to believe now, but those first tutus created a bit of a scandal, exposing dancers thighs in ways that probably did not help the reputations of ballerinas who at the time were often seen as little more than talented call girls anyway.

Designers can tinker endlessly with the top decorations, but its whats underneath that gives a tutu its form. Viewing dozens of Sleeping Beauty tutus close up recently in Houston Ballets wardrobe studio, I couldnt decide if I was examining the downy, upended butts of a flock of exotic birds or rows of wispy daisies. They dangled sideways on hangers to consume less space on the rolling racks, with short, ruffled panties at their centers. (Ballet people still primly call the coverage part bloomers.)

Laura Lynch, Houston Ballets head of wardrobe, gives her staff a single, time-honored pattern for most classical tutus, guided by a handbook published in 1958: Joan Lawson and Peter Revitts Dressing for the Ballet, based on costumes created for the Royal Opera House many years before that.

A lot of what we do is restoration, preservation, rebuilding and refurbishment, unless its a new production, Lynch says.

She doesnt really need the book. She knows the requirements by heart. Tutus are designed in two parts. The fitted bodice is often boned inside to hold its form, with several rows of hook-and-eye closers on the back to accommodate dancers of various sizes. The Sleeping Beauty tutus have basques, elongated waistlines that dip with a V into the skirt/bloomer half.

The skirt portion is inspired by Elizabethan ruff collars, Lynch says.

The frilly, layered business consists of 9 yards of 54-inch netting. If you know sewing, thats almost enough fabric to upholster a small couch. The material is typically tulle, sometimes combined with stiffer tarlatan. The fabric is cut into 12 layers, in descending increments. The scissor-cut edges for the Sleeping Beauty tutus are dagged, or zig-zagged, at various lengths; but they can also be left straight or scalloped.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; additional performances through March 8

Where: Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas

Details: $25-$200; 713-227-2787, houstonballet.org

The layers descend from the basque, with bloomers sewn in. Each layer is secured with three threads of soft, cotton embroidery floss so that when it bounces, it bounces as a unit. A hoop in there somewhere helps keep the whole thing aloft.

Some classical tutus are more pancakelike, but Sleeping Beauty designer Desmond Heeley, who died in 2016, preferred a softer bell shape. He had tutus made at different lengths for different characters and dyed some of the undersides in gradated colors to create a gorgeous ombr effect.

A Tony Award-winning designer who trained as a milliner and prop maker, Heeley also designed the sets and costumes for Stevensons long-running productions of The Nutcracker and Copplia.

The Sleeping Beauty costumes are 30 years old but still dazzling, heavily embellished with glitter, shiny paint and plastic flowers.

Desmond loved using plastic, Lynch says. Any time I see plastic flowers, I pick them up because they dont make this stuff anymore. That is the hardest and my favorite thing to do: to keep a costume the way the designer designed it.

For this production, Heeley was honoring the 100th anniversary of The Sleeping Beauty, Lynch says. The show boasts 225 over-the-top costumes, including the tutus, with multiples of each design for different casts of dancers. Some of the tutus have been taken apart and put back together more times than Lynch can count.

We spend lots of love and money on them, she says, leading me through a maze of opulent confections on racks, including ballgowns for the royals, dresses for the peasants and the tearaway gown that conceals the evil fairy Carabosses tutu when she arrives at the ball.

Tutus worn by dancers who are lifted by partners require continuous attention. Lynchs staff has remade the Bluebird costume bodices this season, recycling their original dcor onto new fabric, and the stock of Princess Auroras bright-pink tutus is always being refreshed.

This is Auroras 16th-birthday-party Hello, Im lovely tutu, Lynch says, picking up the pieces of one that is currently dismantled. We bought new fabric and mixed it with old, cut the trimmings off and repurposed them. Next time we might add another tutu layer here, with a casing, and come out about 2 inches and add another hoop just to give it a little bit more life, before we have to gut it and re-net it again. We try to keep them living as long as we can.

She has completely rebuilt another Aurora tutu this season.

The name tutu likely evolved from the French slang tu-tu, meaning bottom.

Marie Taglioni was the first to perform in one the long, romantic style (and the first pointe shoes) during her fathers production of La Sylphide in 1832 at Paris Opera Ballet.

By the time Tchaikovskys Swan Lake debuted in the late 1870s, dancers could jump higher and were capable of fancier legwork. Their costumes began to creep up above the knees to better display their virtuosity.

Auroras pink tutu shows off the ballerinas one-legged balances through the famous Rose Adagio. Her friends and the various fairies wear slightly longer ones that are still considered classical; for a dance after Prince Florimund wakes up Aurora, Heeley put the ladies in romantic-style tutus that drift down around their calves.

Carabosse has the shows longest classical tutu, which Lynch calls a high-low.

Principal dancer Melody Mennite loves wearing it. Its really different, black and really lightweight, she says. Its a high-fashion moment. I feel like Im in an evening gown.

Mennite is not so fond of other tutus she has worn. When a gal is dancing a demanding role that already taxes her stamina, she says, a heavy tutu can impact your energy.

She has a love-hate relationship with the romantic but heavy tutu she wears as Clara during the Waltz of the Flowers in Stanton Welchs 2016 production of The Nutcracker. She has even given it a name, Rosy, she says, because it feels like Im toting another person across the stage when Im in it.

And she has not forgotten a La Bayadre tutu so stiff and wide she could knock a partner over with it, before the wardrobe staff reduced its diameter. It would be great if the ballet were a comedy, but its not, she says.

These days, choreographers hungry to update the art form experiment endlessly with tutu designs.

The wide, disclike biker-chic designs for Welchs revved-up Divergence are the extreme. Designed in 1994 by Vanessa Leyonhjelm for the Australian Ballet, they have leather-look bodices, with tutus that call to mind car air filters. In fact, they are made of plastic air-conditioning filter mesh that was spray-painted black at an auto-body shop, cut with a soldering iron and hand-pleated and edged with contrasting ribbon. From a side angle, they resemble ribbon candy.

Mennite chuckles, I imagine Stanton helped us out by putting in a moment when we toss them.

Holly Hynes tutu designs for Jorma Elos One/end/One, a 2001 Houston Ballet commission that the company will perform in March, aim for more of a bridge between the classical and the contemporary. They are topped with that same, stiff mesh but much smaller than the Divergence tutus, with just one arch-pleated hard layer over several layers of blue and black tulle.

Wearing tutus is just part of our everyday life, says principal dancer Yuriko Kajiya, who is scheduled to perform Feb. 27 as Princess Aurora.

Kajiya says she feels more comfortable onstage in a tutu than in a leotard, but with the exposure a tutu brings to her form, she concedes, you definitely feel like you need to pull yourself together.

No tutu has been more memorable for her than one she wore while guest-starring a few years ago for a small East Coast company whose costumes originally belonged to American Ballet Theater. Sewn inside an Aurora tutu was the name Natalia Makarova, evidence that it had been worn by the influential Russian prima who performed with ABT in the 1970s.

She was shorter than me, but I had to wear it, Kajiya says. I felt very special, wearing that costume. Like a little girl.

molly.glentzer@chron.com

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Whats behind the tutu?: An anatomy of the costume as seen through Houston Ballets Sleeping Beauty - Houston Chronicle