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Neuroscience

Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research – Yahoo Finance

Cell Types and MindScope research programs to enter new stages of resource generation and discovery; another neuroscience division to launch in 2022

SEATTLE, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Allen Institute today announced new phases of research for its largest division, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, as well as a leader hired to direct a new neuroscience-related division of the Institute.

This change reflects a structural transition for the Allen Institute for Brain Science as it nears the end of its current 10-year scientific timeline. Established in 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has grown to more than 300 researchers and staff working in two broad research programs.

The larger of these groups, the Cell Types program, will move into a new 16-year phase that builds on the team's success in working toward a "periodic table" of brain cell types. In this new phase, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will focus solely on brain cell types and connectivity research. The MindScope Program, which seeks to understand how the brain's neural circuits produce the sense of vision, will also move into a new phase of discovery and will transition out of the Allen Institute for Brain Science to become a separate program of the Allen Institute.

"Through the vision and guidance of our late founder, Paul G. Allen, our model has always been to find scientific problems where our particular flavor of big, team and open science can have the greatest impact," said Allan Jones, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute. "As we shift into the next phase of our neuroscience research, I am confident that our teams will continue to push the boundaries of discovery and create invaluable resources for the community."

Christof Koch, Ph.D., currently the President and Chief Scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, will continue to lead the MindScope Program as its Chief Scientist. Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D., currently Executive Director of Structured Science, will lead the cell types and connectivity research as the Executive Vice President, Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Additionally, renowned neuroscientist Karel Svoboda, Ph.D., will join the Allen Institute in 2021 to lead a new division of the Institute, which will launch in 2022 and will focus on research related to neural computation and dynamics.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science's next phaseThe Allen Brain Observatory, established under Koch's leadership, was built to understand how the brain stores, encodes and processes information, using the mouse visual system as a model for understanding. Koch will continue to lead Observatory projects and direct a team of researchers under the MindScope Program.

"After spending the past eight years building up the tools (such as MesoScope and Neuropixels), instrumental recording capabilities and data analysis pipelines of the Allen Brain Observatory, we are now ready over the next five years to harvest the scientific insights into how the mouse cortex, 14 million complex neurons packed into the volume of a tenth of a sugar cube, represent and evaluate incoming visual information to rapidly and robustly control the behavior and the perception of the mouse," Koch said. "I'm looking forward to dedicating my efforts to this exciting area of research in the years ahead."

Zeng has been a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute since 2006 and leads several projects aiming to create a periodic table of cell types in the brain. Under her leadership, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will now dedicate its focus to defining comprehensive catalogs of mouse and human brain cell types, understanding how different cell types arise through development and evolution, and how they connect and function in health and in disease. The division will generate brain atlases, tools and foundational knowledge for the neuroscience community. Zeng is also the principal investigator on several large National Institutes of Health-funded research projects and programs, which she will continue to lead in her new role.

"I am honored to lead the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and I am confident our researchers will continue to lead their fields as we work together to tackle new and challenging scientific questions," Zeng said. "Our teams have made incredible progress in the past decade in our quest to identify the 'parts lists' of the mouse and human brains and how these parts are connected into the 'Google map' of the brain. Information gained from these efforts opens up unprecedented opportunities for us to look deeper into how brain works. I'm excited to help bring our endeavor to the next level."

A new Institute coming in 2022The Allen Institute's newest division is slated to launch in 2022 and will focus on neural computation and dynamics, with a more specific vision to be developed in several planning sessions this year and next. The new division, led by Svoboda, will focus on making new discoveries and solving hard problems in neural computation.

Svoboda is currently a senior group leader at The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus, where his lab studies synaptic plasticity and develops new technologies and tools. He was previously a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Labs and earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. He has served as a member of the Allen Institute for Brain Science's scientific advisory councils over the past 10 years.

"Over the years as a frequent visitor and advisor to the Allen Institute, I have grown to know and value its unique intellectual culture," Svoboda said. "The Allen Institute has made extraordinary contributions to science and the world, and I'm so excited join this amazing community."

About the Allen Institute for Brain ScienceThe Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute (alleninstitute.org), an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization, and is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works in health and disease. Using a big science approach, the Allen Institute generates useful public resources used by researchers and organizations around the globe, drives technological and analytical advances, and discovers fundamental brain properties through integration of experiments, modeling and theory. Launched in 2003 with a seed contribution from founder and philanthropist, the late Paul G. Allen, the Allen Institute is supported by a diversity of government, foundation and private funds to enable its projects. The Allen Institute for Brain Science's data and tools are publicly available online atbrain-map.org.

Media Contact:Rob Piercy, Director, Media Relations206.548.8486 | press@alleninstitute.org

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Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research - Yahoo Finance

Human Behavior

Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis – Harvard Business Review

Executive Summary

The coronavirus crisis has led to new consumer behaviors and sentiments. The author recommends five ways for brands to serve and grow their customers, mitigate risk, and take care of their people during this difficult time: 1) Present with empathy and transparency; 2) Use media in more agile ways; 3) Associate your brand with good; 4) Track trends and build scenarios; 5) Adapt to new ways of working to keep delivering.

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In times of crisis, it may be hard for marketers to know where to begin. In just a few short weeks, people have shifted into protection mode, focused on themselves, their families, their employees, their customers, and their communities. Social media reflects this, with pleas for fellow citizens to follow government safety guidelines. People have crossed partisan lines to build bridges within their neighborhoods and communities and unify against an invisible force.

With social distancing keeping many people at home, were also seeing major shifts in behavioral trends. Consumers have returned to broadcast and cable television and other premium media sources for credible information. They are also seeking more in the way of escapism and entertainment downloading gaming apps, spending even more time on social media, and streaming more movies and scripted programming. And between remote working arrangements and live-streamed workout classes, college lectures, and social engagements, we are testing the bandwidth of our homes in a largely pre-5G world.

Meanwhile, the need for physical goods is placing pressure on new channels, with demand for e-commerce rising to new levels. For those who do venture out, grocery and convenience stores are the source for essentials, but supply is inconsistent. Health and safety concerns are driving more customers toward frictionless payment systems, such as using mobile phones to pay at check-out without touching a surface or stylus.

Some of these behavior changes may be temporary, but many may be more permanent. As people move beyond the current mode of survival, the momentum behind digital-experience adoption is unlikely to reverse as people are forced by circumstances to try new things. With so much changing so fast during this difficult time, what actions can brands take to serve and grow their customer base, mitigate risk, and take care of their people ?

People feel vulnerable right now. Empathy is critical. Many banks, for example, have moved to waive overdraft fees, recognizing the hardship on their customers. SAP has made its Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse platform free to companies who might be rapidly transitioning to new ways of working. Such instances show humility in the face of a force larger than all of us.

The nuances of brand voice are more delicate than ever. Brands that use this time to be commercially exploitative will not fare well. Better to do as Guinness did in the period surrounding St. Patricks Day, when the company shifted its focus away from celebrations and pub gatherings and instead leaned into a message of longevity and wellbeing. In these moments, we dont have all the answers, and we need to acknowledge that. If you make pledges, even during uncertain times, you have to be able to deliver on what you say.

To quickly pivot creative messages as circumstances change, marketers will want to build more rapid-response operating models internally and with agencies. Access to remote production and creative capacity will become particularly important as the crisis evolves. Nike, for example, immediately moved to adopt a new message: Play inside, play for the world. And in order to promote social distancing and show a commitment to public safety, Chiquita Brands removed Miss Chiquita from their logo. Im already home. Please do the same and protect yourself, its Instagram caption read.

Beyond creative, as the mix of actual media platforms used by consumers changes quickly, marketers should consider modifying their media mix. For example, with digital entertainment spiking, marketers may want to amplify their use of ad-supported premium video streaming and mobile gaming. Similarly, as news consumption peaks while consumers jostle to stay informed, brands should not fear that adjacency, given the level of engagement and relevance. News may simply be an environment that requires more careful monitoring of how frequently ads appear to avoid creative being over-exposed, which can damage brand equity.

People will remember brands for their acts of good in a time of crisis, particularly if done with true heart and generosity. This could take the form of donating to food banks, providing free products for medical personnel, or continuing to pay employees while the companys doors are closed. Adobe, for example, immediately made Creative Cloud available to K-12 institutions, knowing this was a moment to give rather than be purely commercial. Consumers will likely remember how Ford, GE, and 3M partnered to repurpose manufacturing capacity and put people back to work to make respirators and ventilators to fight coronavirus. And people appreciate that many adult beverage companies, from Diageo to AB InBev, repurposed their alcohol-manufacturing capabilities to make hand sanitizer, alleviating short supplies with their Its in our hands to make a difference message.

Feel-good content that alleviates anxiety and promotes positive messaging will go a long way to enhancing the brand. However, companies need to show that their contributions are material and not solely for commercial benefit. Consumers recognize authenticity and true purpose.

Frequent tracking of human behavioral trends will help marketers gain better insights in real time. Marketers will want to measure sentiment and consumption trends on a regular basis to better adapt messaging, closely observing the conversation across social-media platforms, community sites, and e-commerce product pages to look for opportunities and identify looming crises more quickly. Companies should consider quickly building dashboards with this kind of data to fuel the right decisions.

Marketers will also want to consider building deeper connections with their C-suite colleagues to provide insights to executives who, increasingly, will be involved with marketing choices. The marketing team should work closely with finance and operations to forecast different scenarios and potential outcomes, depending on how long the crisis lasts.

Its encouraging how quickly many companies were able to transition to remote working arrangements. Deploying collaboration technologies can seamlessly provide chat, file sharing, meeting and call capabilities, enabling teams to stay connected and remain productive. Already, virtual happy hours are emerging as the new normal to build team morale. Partners are pitching remotely, recognizing that an in-face sales call is unlikely to transpire for weeks to come. Leaders have to do their best to transition each element of the operating modelfrom marketing, to sales, to serviceto this new normal. New sources of innovation and even margin improvement will emerge out of our current discomfort.

We are in the acknowledge-and-adapt phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we also have to plan for lifebeyond the crisis. As we navigate what we know, marketing leaders must work externally to keep their brands and customer journeys as whole as possible, while working internally to do three things:

Unquestionably, there is a forced acceleration of the digital transformation agenda as we recognize how quickly customers and employees have embraced digitally enabled journeys and experiences.

Brands are all having to think, operate, and lead in new ways during these uncertain and unprecedented circumstances, and we will all have to learn together with both confidence and humility.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and dont necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

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Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis - Harvard Business Review

Biochemistry

2020 UWMadison Distinguished Teaching Awards – University of Wisconsin-Madison

Thirteen faculty members have been chosen to receive this yearsDistinguished Teaching Awards, an honor that annually recognizes some of UWMadisons finest educators. The following testimonials were given, and photographs made, before virtual teaching was instituted in response to COVID-19 but whatever form instruction might take, this group ranks among the universitys best. While the ceremony originally scheduled for April 7 has been postponed, we honor the winners here, and commend all who are teaching in these challenging times.

Photographs byJeff MillerandBryce Richter

Emil Steiger Teaching Award

PaulBlockAssociate professor of civil and environmental engineering

Paul Block teaches graduate students a Hydroclimatology for Water Resources Management class in Engineering Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller

Block has taught each semester since beginning at UWMadison in 2013 at both the graduate and undergraduate level. He creates an intellectually stimulating classroom environment by combining demonstrations, experiential learning, reinforcement and critical thinking in an interactive setting. Block has modernized the content of several courses and significantly upgraded lab facilities, modules and the number of experiments students do. Fluid Mechanics is widely regarded as one of the more difficult engineering courses, but Block uses demonstrations, experiments and visuals to make it engaging and enjoyable. His research and applications connecting climate prediction and water resources systems management have involved international efforts and collaborations, ranging from Ethiopia to Peru and Chile.

Class of 1955 Teaching Excellence Award

William BrocklissAssociate professor, Classical & Ancient Near Eastern Studies

William Brockliss is pictured with artwork titled Sarcophagus with the Allegory of the Four Seasons in the Roman and Greek collection at the Chazen Museum of Art. Photo: Jeff Miller

Brockliss has a gift for engaging students through discussions, activities and presentations, even in high-enrollment courses like his popular Ancient Greek and Roman Monsters course. He has given presentations on classics and the Latin language to students in elementary and high school, acted as a liaison with Latin teachers from Wisconsin high schools, organized three visit days for high-school students on the UW campus, and taught classes for the Odyssey Project, which allows low-income adults to earn college credit. Brockliss has served as a mentor to students with an interest in teaching high school Latin, with three going on to be certified to teach Latin and now employed in Wisconsin high schools.

Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award

SamuelButcherProfessor of biochemistry

Samuel Butcher is pictured in his office at the Biochemistry Labs. Photo: Jeff Miller

Butcher has been teaching Introduction to Biochemistry for almost two decades, with enrollment growing from 200 students per semester to more than 600. He has been instrumental in reshaping the course with the goal of teaching students to think like a scientist. Theyre focused on learning concepts rather than memorizing facts. Butcher is also committed to accessibility and led an initiative to add more sections of Biochem 501, including courses in the summer and online to increase access. He has been a leader in using technology to make the course material more accessible for all students, regardless of disability or learning style.

Chancellors Teaching Innovation Award

ShuchiChawlaProfessor of computer science

Shuchi Chawla teaches students an Introduction to Algorithms class in Noland Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller

Chawla has risen to the challenge in teaching Computer Science 577: Introduction to Algorithms. When she began teaching the course in 2006, 30 students were enrolled. Today, there are more than 300. To ensure that todays students receive the same high-quality experience as their predecessors, she has restructured the pace of the course, held frequent office hours, and brought in peer mentors (undergrads who have recently taken the course) so that students who are struggling have a variety of resources available when they need help. The peer mentor system has been so successful it has been adopted for other Computer Science courses.

William H. Kiekhofer Teaching Award

Kathleen CulverAssociate professor of journalism and mass communication

Kathleen Culver teaches a Journalism 563: Law of Mass Communication class in Helen C. White Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller

As the driving force behind Journalism 202: Mass Media Practices, Culver is responsible for giving students a solid foundation for success in the rapidly changing media landscape. Her effectiveness is evident in the words of the many students she has guided and mentored, both in and out of the classroom. Culver has trained media educators from across the country at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and as director of the Center for Journalism Ethics, she serves as a source for reporters on questions of journalism ethics, digital innovations in journalism, and other contemporary issues.

Chancellors Inclusive Excellence Award

RamziFawazAssociate professor of English

Ramzi Fawaz is pictured at Stanford University, where he is currently on leave as a 2019-2020 faculty fellow. By Steve Castillo, courtesy of Stanford Humanities Center

Fawaz has added many innovative courses to the English departments offerings, with titles such as Queer about Comics, Gay is Good: Queer Visions of Freedom Since the 1970s and America in the 1990s. In an open, welcoming setting that encourages students to share their thoughts and feelings about the course material, he challenges students to step out of their comfort zones and examine their views of the world. Fawazs influence on teaching extends well beyond the university. Among his many outreach activities, he frequently participates in interviews and panel discussions on teaching and has written a widely read article on trigger warnings in the classroom.

Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award

ChristineGarloughProfessor of gender and womens studies

Christine Garlough talks with students during a Gender and Womens Studies 449 course in Chamberlin Hall. Photo: Bryce Richter

Garlough believes classrooms should address real-world issues with rigor and compassion, guiding students to pursue knowledge and develop their own voices. She inspires critical thinking and self-reflection in a supportive learning environment. Her approach mixes lecture, discussion and small group participation. Students in large lectures can be disinclined to connect with others in a sea of strangers, but Garlough regularly creates opportunities for dialogue and engaged listening. Students eagerly engage with others every class period and even change seats over the course of the semester so they can benefit from discussion with a variety of classmates holding different perspectives.

Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award

EricaHalversonProfessor of curriculum and instruction

Erica Halverson talks with students at Thoreau Elementary School in Madison during a Whoopensocker outreach program event. Photo: Bryce Richter

Halversons work focuses on teaching and learning in and through the arts. From First-Year Interest Groups to graduate-level courses, she is known for challenging her students to understand themselves and their world differently. She designed and teaches Arts Integration for Teaching and Learning, a unique course that engages future elementary school teachers in understanding and using various art forms in their teaching. The students learn to create art that represents their experiences and to think about how they might bring the arts into their future classrooms not only for the arts own sake, but also in support of core concepts like reading and math.

Excellence in Community-Based Learning Teaching Award

AndreaHicksAssistant professor of civil and environmental engineering

Andrea Hicks is pictured in her office in Engineering Hall. Photo: Bryce Richter

Hicks used a $5,000 grant from the Morgridge Center for Public Service to turn her Environmental Sustainability Engineering course into a community-based learning course. She works with the UniverCity Year program, which connects the UW with Wisconsin communities, to find class projects. Her students then work on problems identified by counties, villages and school districts. Students evaluate the problem and potential solutions using the three paradigms of sustainability: environment, economy and society. Community partners use the students work to advance projects in areas such as renewable energy and wastewater treatment. Students love the opportunity to take what theyve learned in the classroom and apply it to real-life problems.

Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award

IrenaKnezevicProfessor of electrical and computer engineering

Irena Knezevic talks with a graduate student during a progress check-in meeting. Photo: Bryce Richter

ECE 235: Introduction to Solid State Electronics is a required course with a large enrollment and difficult subject matter. But 10 years ago, Knezevic reimagined how the fundamentals of quantum mechanics could be introduced to undergraduate engineering learners and revamped the course. She developed a successful approach thats been adopted by everyone who teaches it. She began redesigning the course before she had been granted tenure a time when junior faculty typically devote most of their time to research. Her reward was the knowledge that students would more easily master difficult material and would approach the course with enthusiasm rather than dread.

Chancellors Inclusive Excellence Award

LoriLopezAssociate professor of communication arts

Lori Lopez talks with students during a Communication Arts 250 course in the Educational Sciences Building. Photo: Bryce Richter

In teaching everything from large introductory courses to small graduate seminars, Lopez has earned high marks and glowing comments from students for her approach to controversial topics such as racism. As the creator and chair of her departments Diversity and Equity Committee, she has added mini trainings to monthly department meetings, on topics such as trans-inclusive pedagogy, universal design, diversifying the syllabus, and diversity accommodations. Lopez is also committed to creating opportunities for learning outside of the classroom and created Madisons Asian American Media Spotlight, a film festival that invites filmmakers from across the country to screen their films on campus and engage in discussions with students.

Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award

JenniferRatner-RosenhagenProfessor of history

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen talks with audience members during a public lecture in the Elvehjem Building. Photo: Bryce Richter

Ratner-Rosenhagen teaches U.S. intellectual history a topic she acknowledges might seem forbidding, arcane and dull to undergrads. But she brings it to life and gives her students the confidence to believe that they can do important intellectual work. Her innovative undergraduate courses build on students interests and guide them in thinking about how key ideas in U.S. intellectual history relate to their own lives. In her course titled A History of Your Parents Generation: 1970s-90s, students interview their parents about their memories of that time. Outside the classroom, she founded the Intellectual History Group grad students and faculty who meet to discuss books, articles and dissertation chapters.

Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award

KateVieiraAssociate professor of curriculum and instruction

Kate Vieira talks with students during a Curriculum and Instruction 596 class session in the Teacher Education Building. Photo: Bryce Richter

Vieiras work focuses on issues of literacy among everyday people, especially those at the margins of society. She explores literacy and writing as a means of social change. Her outreach work has taken her to Colombia, where she has worked with community members using writing to help people build peace after the violence of a decades-long civil war. Locally, she has forged connections between South American educators and the Madison community. Two of her collaborators from Colombia visited last May to co-lead workshops at East and West high schools, meet with local Latinx writers, and share pedagogical practices with representatives of the Greater Madison Writing Project.

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2020 UWMadison Distinguished Teaching Awards - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Immunology

William Frankland, global authority on the treatment of allergies obituary – Telegraph.co.uk

William Frankland, who has died aged 108, worked with Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, persuaded Saddam Hussein to give up his 40-a-day habit and, as one of the most eminent and senior practitioners in the management and treatment of allergy, championed the view that an allergic reaction is due to a malfunctioning immune system; he also developed the idea of a pollen count to help hay fever sufferers.

In 2012, at the age of 100, Frankland who was known to all as Bill became probably the worlds oldest expert witness when he was called by the defence to prepare a report on a motorist charged with dangerous driving, who claimed that a delayed reaction to a wasp sting had caused him to pass out, with the result that he had become involved in a head-on collision.

The prosecution alleged that the defendant had been distracted while changing tracks on his iPod or using his mobile phone. In his evidence Frankland confirmed that the defendant suffered from an allergy to wasp stings.

But he agreed with a prosecution witness that cases of delayed reaction occur only where a patient has shown symptoms immediately after a sting which the defendant had not. The man was duly convicted.

Franklands career in immunology began in the 1950s when he joined the Department of Allergic Disorders in the Wright-Fleming Institute at St Marys, Paddington, dealing with patients who suffered from seasonal hay fever.

He and his colleagues undertook a series of trials which showed that antihistamine tablets, the standard treatment at the time, were ineffective against pollen asthma. After publishing the results in a paper in the Lancet entitled Prophylaxis of Summer Hay-fever and Asthma, to facilitate further research Frankland took over the running of St Marys pollinarium, turning it into the worlds largest pollen production plant.

Frankland argued that the rise in levels of allergy can be linked to increased levels of hygiene in modern life, noting, for example, that people living in the former East Germany experienced much lower levels of allergies than their counterparts in the more prosperous West Germany.

He became a leading proponent of allergen immunotherapy, in which the patient is vaccinated with increasingly larger doses of an allergen with the aim of inducing immunological tolerance, and was the first clinician to demonstrate the benefits of grass pollen immunotherapy.

Over the years, tens of thousands of his patients injected themselves with pollen on a daily basis.

Frankland was keen to provide hay fever sufferers with information about the level of pollen in the air, and on his recommendation St Marys recruited a full-time botanist to produce pollen counts. Weekly London counts were sent to members of the British Allergy Society from 1953 and to the media every day from 1963.

Frankland went on to study insect venom allergies, using himself as a subject. Through the London School of Tropical Medicine, he obtained the South American species Rhodnius prolixus, which he could be sure he had never been bitten by before, to measure his own allergic reaction.

After the insect had bitten him at weekly intervals for eight weeks, he suffered a severe anaphylactic shock and nearly died: All I could do was hold up three fingers to indicate the doses of adrenalin the nurse should inject me with, he recalled.

The son of a parson, Alfred William Frankland was born in Sussex on March 19 1912. His mother had had no idea she was expecting twins until his arrival closely followed that of his brother Jack. My cot was a chest of drawers, he recalled.

He grew up in the Lake District and attended St Bees School, before studying medicine at Oxford and St Marys, where as a student he ran for London University against Oxford and Cambridge and captained the hockey team. He began his first job at St Marys as a house physician to Winston Churchills doctor Charles Wilson (later Lord Moran) in 1938.

At the outbreak of war, Frankland joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was promoted captain. Posted to Singapore, on arrival he tossed a coin with a colleague to decide upon the institution where each would work.

Some two months later, on February 15 1942, the Japanese swept into Singapore. His colleague, who had gone to the Alexandra Hospital, died there along with other staff, killed by Japanese soldiers armed with bayonets. Frankland survived the invasion but endured three and a half years of hell in an internment camp on Blakang Mati Island.

Despite the gruelling tropical heat, the shortage of food and diseases such as beriberi, dengue fever and dysentery, Frankland retained enough intellectual curiosity to notice and wonder why the Japanese guards seemed remarkably unaffected by bites from native insects to which many of his fellow PoWs were allergic.

After liberation, so emaciated that even sitting down was painful just bones on a hard seat Frankland was flown in a convoy of three Dakotas to Rangoon for rehabilitation and a ship home. The aircraft hit a storm over the mountains of southern Burma, and one did not make it.

After V-J Day he returned to St Marys to specialise in dermatology, but decided to apply for a part-time job at the hospital working in allergies which ended up being his vocation.

During the early 1950s he served as clinical assistant to Alexander Fleming and later wrote a chapter on penicillin for a book edited by Fleming, in which he predicted (correctly) that Flemings wonder drug would cause allergic reactions in some patients.

Fleming, who did not really believe in allergies, made him change the passage: He was wrong, Frankland observed, but you cant really argue with a Nobel Prize winner.

Frankland became director of the Allergy Department (now the Frankland Clinic) at St Marys in 1962 and subsequently undertook research into latex allergy among other conditions. After retiring in 1977 he worked as an allergist at Guys Hospital for 20 years, but in 1997, aged 85, returned to St Marys as an emeritus consultant.

Frankland treated royalty, stars and even dictators. In 1979 he was flown to Iraq to treat Saddam Hussein, who was being treated with desensitising injections for some unspecified allergy.

He wasnt allergic at all, Frankland recalled. His problem was that he was smoking 40 cigarettes a day. I told him to stop and if he wouldnt I would refuse to come and see him again. I dont think anyone had spoken to him like that before.

I heard some time later that he had had a disagreement with his secretary of state for health, so he took him outside and shot him. Maybe I was lucky.

Frankland made a significant contribution to organisations concerned with allergies. He was honorary secretary of the Asthma Research Council for 35 years and served as president of the Anaphylaxis Campaign and of the British Allergy Society (now the British Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society), which established the William Frankland Award for Outstanding Services in the field of Clinical Allergy in 1999.

He was president of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the International Association of Aerobiology, and was a founder member of Asthma UK. In 2006 Frankland was awarded the Clemens von Pirquet Medal for Clinical Research.

On his 100th birthday in 2012, Frankland was as busy as ever. He had just had a paper accepted by The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and said he had no intention of stopping work. He told The Daily Telegraph: If I wasnt interested in things how would I do in my old age? I hope I am just going to keep going. In 2015 he was made an MBE.

William Frankland married Pauline; she died in 2002, and he is survived by their three daughters and a son.

William Frankland, born March 19 1912, died April 2 2020

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Human Behavior

Blackbird.AI CEO: COVID-19 is the Olympics of disinformation – VentureBeat

COVID-19 disinformation has exploded in recent weeks, with campaigns using a combination of bots and humans to sow fear and confusion at a time when verifiable information has become a matter of life or death.

According to a new report from Blackbird.AI, a wide range of actors are leveraging confusion around the coronavirus to dupe people into amplifying false and misleading information. With COVID-19s almost unprecedented impact around the globe, virtually every type of player in the disinformation wars, from nations to private actors, is rushing into the breach.

If its favorable for creating societal chaos, for sowing some sort of discord, then they all kind of jump on, said Blackbird.AI CEO Wasim Khaled. COVID-19 is the Olympics of disinformation. Every predator is in for this event.

In the past few weeks, many of the leading online platforms have attempted to clamp down on the information warfare their services have enabled. To direct users toward helpful sites, many of them now place links to reputable scientific or government sources at the top of feeds or in search results.

And theyve implemented other tactics in an attempt to turn the tide. Pinterest has been highlighting verified health advice, while Facebook gave unlimited free advertising to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, Google has announced it will invest $6.5 million to fight misinformation.

Still, voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant are struggling to respond to questions about COVID-19. To address the onslaught of erroneous information online, the U.K. has established a disinformation rapid response team. Today, an EU official blasted players like Google, Facebook, and Amazon for continuing to make money from fake news and disinformation.

We still see that the major platforms continue to monetize and incentivize disinformation and harmful content about the pandemic by hosting online ads, the European Unions justice chief Vera Jourova told Reuters. This should be stopped. The financial disincentives from clickbait disinformation and profiteering scams also should be stopped.

Founded in 2014, Blackbird.AI has developed a platform that uses artificial intelligence to sift through massive amounts of content to dissect disinformation events. It uses a combination of machine learning and human specialists to identify and categorize the types of information flowing across social media and news sites. In doing so, Blackbird. AI can separate information being created by bots from human-generated content and track how its being amplified.

Typically, the company works with corporations and brands to monitor changes to their reputation. But with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has shifted to focus on a new threat. The goal is to raise companies and individuals awareness in the hopes that they can curb the virality of disinformation campaigns.

Anyone whos watching this spread is pretty familiar with the concept of flattening the curve, Khaled said. Weve always used a similar concept. Weve described disinformation as a contagion, with virality being the driver.

Unfortunately, the spread of disinformation is still in the exponential part of the curve.

For its COVID-19 Disinformation Report, the company analyzed 49,755,722 tweets from 13,203,289 unique users on COVID-19 topics between February 27 and March 12. The number of tweets in this category soared as Italy implemented lockdowns and the Dow Jones plummeted. Of those tweets, the company found that 18,880,396 were inorganic, meaning the tweets were being manipulated in a manner not consistent with human behavior.

Measuring the ratio of inorganic content helps the company generate a Blackbird Manipulation Index. In this case, the BBMI of COVID-19 tweets is 37.95%, which places it just inside the medium level of manipulation.

Were facing this kind of asymmetrical information warfare thats being waged against not only the American public but across many societies in the world at a really incredible clip at one of our most vulnerable moments in history, he said. There is incredible fear and uncertainty around what is right and what is wrong. And today people feel if you do the wrong thing, you just might kill your grandfather. Its a lot of pressure and so people are looking for information. That gives a huge opening to disinformation actors.

That BBMI number varies widely within specific campaigns.

For instance, on February 28 President Trump held a rally in Charleston, South Carolina, where he claimed the concern around coronavirus was an attempt by Democrats to discredit him, calling it their new hoax. Following that speech, Blackbird.AI detected a spike in hashtags such as #hoax, #Democrats, #DemHoax, #FakeNews, #TrumpRallyCharleston and #MAGA. A similar spike occurred after March 9, when Italian politicians quarantined the whole country.

In both cases, the platform detected a coordinated campaign to discredit the Democratic Party, a narrative dubbed Dem Panic. Of 2,535,059 tweets, 839,764 were inorganic for a BBMI of 33.1%.

But within that campaign, certain hashtag subcategories showed even higher levels of manipulation: #QAnon (63.38% BBMI), #MAGA (57.00%), and #Pelosi (53.17%).

The driving message: that the Democrats were overblowing the issue in order to hurt President Trump, the report says. The Dem Panic narrative and related spin-offs also included the widespread mention of the out of control homeless population and high number of immigrants in Democratic districts. Many of these messages unwittingly found their way into what would traditionally be considered credible media stories.

In all these cases, the hashtags have synthetic origins but eventually spread far enough that real people picked them up and furthered their reach. The broad goal of such campaigns, said Khaled, is to delegitimize politicians, the media, medical experts, and scientists by spreading disinformation.

While all the policymakers are still trying to decide what is the best course of action, these campaigns work very hard at undermining that type of advice, he said. The goal was, How do we downplay the health risks of COVID-19 to the American public and to cast doubt on the warnings that are given by the government and public health agencies?'

Other coronavirus disinformation campaigns include the conspiracy theory suggesting the U.S. had bioengineered the virus and introduced it into China.

This content was seeded into public media in China, Khaled said. And, of course, it was immediately distributed by social media users who believed those narratives and amplified them. Its happened around the world and in dozens of languages. There was not only the U.S. and China, but there was Iran blaming the U.S., the U.S. blaming China, all of these campaigns were out there.

While Blackbird.AI doesnt necessarily identify the originators of these campaigns, Khaled said they generally fall into three categories. The first is state-backed, typically Russia or China these days. The second is disinformation-as-a-service, where people can hire firms to buy disinformation service packages. The third is the lone wolf that just wants to watch the world burn.

It all has the objective of creating a shifting in perceptions in the readers mind pushing them toward a behavior change or pushing them to spread the narrative further, he said.

This doesnt mean just retweeting fake news. Behavioral manipulation can also be used to move fake masks or drugs. And in some extreme circumstances, it has resulted in direct threats to life. Khaled noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist who is featured at presidential briefings, required extra security following death threats that were fueled by online conspiracy theorists. In addition, a train engineer attempted to attack the Navy ship entering a Los Angeles harbor by derailing a train because he believed another set of online conspiracies about the ship being part of a government takeover.

While Blackbird.AI is trying to help rein in the chaos, Khaled is not optimistic that the campaigns are going to be contained anytime soon.

Im 100% confident this is going to get much worse on the disinformation cycle, he said. Not only are we not seeing any indication that its slowing down, were seeing significant indication that its significantly ramping up. These disinformation actors, theyre going to take every possible advantage right now. People have to be aware. They have to understand that the things that they are going to see might have bad intent behind [them], they have to go to the CDC, they have to go to the WHO, they cannot take the stuff that they see at face value.

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Blackbird.AI CEO: COVID-19 is the Olympics of disinformation - VentureBeat

Human Behavior

We call it panic, the world calls it preparedness – Pakistan Today

It was a warm day of July 2015 in Hawaii, when we Fellows of the Crisis Management Course at APCSS role-played handling of a health epidemic with potential to be pandemic in South Asian Region. To our utter surprise we as crisis managers had to communicate with Border Control Forces, the Health Minister, National Security Officers, the Police, the Fire Department, the Finance Ministry, the Military officials of the affected country and its neighbors, and above all the Prime Minister along with his bureaucracy, and the border security of neighborly countries. What the heck had we to do with all these stiff collar people, we thought. We were the national crisis management team to deal with crisis-specific stuff only, but now with Covid-19 termed a pandemic by the WHO, it all seems so true!

The mock-up opened avenues unknown to us, making us realize how close knitted disaster management is to human and international security. It did enable us to realize that making consented decisions an all-inclusive approach taking all stakeholders on board, is the answer to hindrances, both human and situational in crises. At the policymaking level understanding the importance of information dissemination and risk communication as a safety weapon, like a missile in war, is absolutely vital.

The first coronavirus case was reported on 26 February in Karachi. The evidence suggest the source was imported not indigenous, and now we have reports of cases being transmitted within communities, which is alarming as economic factors and inability to earn a living might be a precipitating factor for political unrest starting from the lowest income earning population. Today, with infected cases crossing, 2400 Pakistan needs to realize that earthquake 2005 was an eye opener for the world as a whole, but as it was restricted to Pakistan, the world rushed for help. Covid-19 has affected the whole world, made health systems collapse and left corpses to pick so the international help scenario might not be the same as in 2005. A recent analysis by Foreign Policy argues that Covid-19 might be a precipitating factor for political unrest in economically weak states as the world is facing its own economic crisis. The report warns that with main aid providers busy in their own countries, there is serious risk that economically weak states may face debt, deaths, mass unemployment and political unrest due to economic collapse leading to toppling governments around the world.

In a crisis no one person is Aristotle and its OK to build a team and learn, thats how we converted the adversity into opportunity in past and only group approach involving all stake holders is the answer, you dont need to hire people to trace experts already working in government. We need to get going, the sooner we realize this, the better it will be for Pakistan

With the Army now actively participating, we are hopeful to get real data which is necessary for further planning. Keeping in view the unknown nature of this virus and its ability to adapt and change, we cannot purely depend on kneejerk reactions but must understand that this virus is amongst us and here to stay for a while. With rapid growth capability, remaining dormant in many, thus infecting others without the host knowing he or she is a carrier and likely relapse of cured population after months, it poses a unique challenge to think innovatively keeping in view the cultural, social and economic fabric of our society. Are we ready for the future?

Comparing our reaction versus the worlds, we saw while the Australian Government took a fairly aggressive approach, making the National Response Strategy keeping the worst-case scenario in mind, saying it was better to be prepared that to avoid fear as we are attacked by an entity we do not know much about, we on the other hand focused on not scaring the masses, thus no proactive awareness campaigns were seen initially. The world made nearly 100 academic journals, societies, institutes, and companies data on COVID-19 available free of cost available, for the outbreaks duration. I wonder how many of us took advantage of this research covering social, economic, psychological and political impacts of the pandemic and sharing input with policy makers to make consented and long-term decisions? Unfortunately we are still stuck at fight-alone mode.

Another example, as the virus could affect employees, NASA charted out a four-stage response plan for Civil Servants. Using a predictive model for disease, each stage caters for severity and frequency of spread and discusses a four-point agenda from access to center, health and safety of employees, meetings and events and travel of employees so that even if the situation gets really bad, work does not suffer. The good thing is the plan refers to Center of Disease Control which has updated Travel details warnings and awareness, meaning all relevant departments are well synchronized. Can we learn and implement by replicating an already good plan making changes suited to our cultural and social needs? Have we spelled out a COVID-19 strategy for government and private office employees knowing most of the lower staff comes to work by bus?

Other examples are of John Hopkins University giving public access to its live database worldwide, the Royal College of Obstetricians recommending social distancing for pregnant women, while chemical and biological journals are tracking the virus plasma to hinder its growth. All this has gone open-source, so a world of knowledge is right there to take, learn and prevent the disease, but you need a team for that. Do we have a database and names of experts of disaster managers in the country? Where are the trained teams who handled earthquake 2005? Do we know past strategies and policies, tried and tested for previous disasters stacked somewhere in stores? Or are we re-inventing the wheel? If so will COVID-19 wait?

A tried and tested cluster approach must be taken with short-, medium- and long-term goals. Clusters could include, Health, Livelihood, Security, Water and Power, Sanitation, Risk Communication Awareness and Community Engagement, Gender and Vulnerable Groups (including women and children stranded in jails), Economic Revival and Stability, Agriculture and Research and Knowledge Management (not medical, but from a human behavior and change perspective). On War footing each Cluster should prepare action plans with short-, medium- and long-term measures while a research group has to back them up with latest research and the media should be made partner in Crisis Management.

In a crisis no one person is Aristotle and its OK to build a team and learn, thats how we converted the adversity into opportunity in past and only group approach involving all stake holders is the answer, you dont need to hire people to trace experts already working in government. We need to get going, the sooner we realize this, the better it will be for Pakistan.

The writer is Fellow of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies Hawaii on Crisis Management

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We call it panic, the world calls it preparedness - Pakistan Today

Human Behavior

OPINION: Brands Have an Opportunity to Frame the Torch of Humanity – AdWorld.ie – AdWorld

Pictured: Steve Connelly, president of Connelly Partners

The brands that will see success tomorrow are the ones getting out there with a positive message today, writes Steve Connelly, founder of Connelly Partners.

No one should tell you how to feel right now. Your emotions are yours and yours alone.

But no matter what those emotions are, they are no doubt pretty intense. Some of us are panicking, some are dismissive. Some are paralyzed by the stress caused by this virus of uncertainty, others are stressed by the mandated cure of isolation.

This is not a time to debate, lecture or shout opinions. This is a time to respect each other, see all sides, care for each other, do everything we can to come togetheras this virus, the media, and an election year do all they can to pull us apart.

As an amateur anthropologist and agency founder, human behavior is a passion. I am forever trying to understand what drives our actions, decisions, emotions. Not the actions themselves, but the motivations behind them. The kind of observation that generates human insights that we can use to better understand and connect people.

And what I see right now is humanity holding a flashlight and pushing back the darkness. I see the elevation of simple things, of positive things, of defiantly human things.

Now certainly, there is a bunker mentality out there, and times like these can bring out some less-than-attractive human traits. But theres enough of the negative out there right now. Instead, I choose to see the positive. We are surrounded by positivity;you just have to allow yourself to see it.

I see people outside taking walks. I see kids running across their front yards. I see parents marooned at their desks, hopelessly trying to answer the call of both kids and work but with good humor, intentions and compassion. I see Scholastic supporting parents withopen-accesslesson plans and activities for kidsthrough a new digital hub.

I see people FaceTime-ing, Google Hangout-ing, Facebook Live-ing. I see people who want to look into other peoples eyes digitally and feel comfort. I see people connecting digitally to talk in groupsandmeet in groups.I see people exercising in groups. I see brands from local health clubs to international brands like Nike offering free access for digital workout classes.

I see people coming together as our experts recommend keeping us apart.

I see dogs getting more attention from their humans than they ever have. I see comfort food, comfort TV shows, comfort music being consumed at all-time highs.

I see people who have every opportunity to sleep late and slack off, but instead are working, grinding, innovating and creating at levels we rarely see. People care about their jobs, their responsibilities, the people they work for and with. I see innovation from big and small businesses. I see Titos Vodka and many other alcohol brands usingtheirdistilleriesto make hand sanitizer.

I see people thinking of others in ways that we have never seen before. I see people checking in on senior citizens with regularity and compassion. I see people going to Mass on TV.

I see people applauding health care workers. I see brands reinventing to produce masks for doctors and nurses.I see Ford offering a car payment relief plan. I see internet providers like our client Atlantic Broadband offering free internet to people without it, and another CP client, Gortons Seafood, spreading the goodness of the sea by donating 500,000 servings of seafood for people in need.

The anthropologist in me sees human kindness. The marketing guy in me sees some brands shining a light on our capacity for kindness. Some smart, forward-thinking brands are fueling positivity by simply framing it. They are not self-serving, they are not editorializing, they are not benign white noise. Rather, they are empathetic and earnest, choosing to connect us as humans ratherthansell as marketers. They are the brands that will see success tomorrow by being out there with positive messaging today.

The question all of us face right now in the face of this inhuman assault on our lives, is What do I say? Many brands, like many people, are paralyzed. But I would suggest that expressingthesimplest of messages would have the most resonance. Honest and human. Frame and remind people to see the wonderful things happening around us at a time when we all feel under siege.

Of course I also see some people out there seizing the opportunity to pontificate, to benefit, to impose their opinions and amplify their platforms. I see fear, I see uncertainty, I see tragedy. How can we not?

But right now, I also see people thinking about others. Worrying, caring, thinking, talking, connecting. I see whats good about humans. I see brands reminding us all of that collective good. As is usually the case, bad times reveal the good in us all.

I see a time of darkness. And, at the same time, I see the light of humanity shining through it. Whats needed right now is more human creativity to help us all see that light.

This article first appeared in AdAge on April 2, 2020: https://adage.com/article/opinion/opinion-brands-have-opportunity-frame-torch-humanity-illuminating-darkness/2248001

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Anatomy

RuPauls Drag Race celebrates the charms and excesses of Gays Anatomy – The A.V. Club

TV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

Acting challenges have been a staple of Drag Race since early in its run and over time, the shows priorities have become clear. The task is not to execute a strong script, but to take an underwritten, uninspired role and elevate it into something interesting. Drag Race chooses its parody subjects with love and a wink, but its rare for these re-imaginings to connect to their source material beyond the broad strokes. Not so with Gays Anatomy. Each scene draws from memorable installments of Greys Anatomys 15-season run, and because of the heightened, frankly ridiculous nature of the medical drama, the material doesnt need much of a twist to go from primetime to parody. Fans of Greys Anatomy will appreciate the specificity and shout-outs and having more concrete resolutions to draw from makes for a more satisfying script. Throw in arguably the deepest bench Drag Race has ever had for an acting challenge11 strong queensand its a match made in TV parody heaven.

It may not be the laugh riot that season 11s Church of Britney sketch was, but Gays Anatomy doesnt step a toe out of line, and oddly enough, that consistency winds up as the biggest mark against the episode. The top 11 queens all do a good job. There are a few standouts but no lowlights, and that makes for frustrating judging. Most of the critiques are vague and as in most acting challenges, the queens stuck with the smallest roles find themselves at the bottom, while those given the juiciest parts are at the top. When the bottom two feels more determined by the whims of casting than the queens performances, its hard to engage with the show. If the season 12 queens continue to deliver at this level, the judges will need to step up their game.

The episode begins as always with the queens post-elimination debrief. Several of the seasons threads are center stage. Brita has joined the grand tradition of established, popular queens struggling on Drag Race. Nicky is still insecure, despite her positive critiques, and that insecurity will come back to bite her if shes not careful. Aiden remains defensive, closed off to Jaidas clear-eyed advice. All three queens are falling into the same trap: Theyre making excuses when they should be reassessing their work and seeing what more they have to give.

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Its a new day in the workroom, and it would appear the doctor is in. After a RuMail filled with medical puns, Ru enters the workroom in a lab coat to announce the next maxi challenge. No mini challenge this episode. The queens will be over-acting in Gays Anatomy, a send-up of the long-running medical soap. Its an excellent choice and one of the few shows that caters to as big a cast as this one. Ru summons the Pit Crew to help randomize who will get to cast the parts, and much silliness ensues. Keeping with the medical theme, Gigi and Nicky wind up with pink pills, instead of silver placebos, giving them the power to assign the roles. The queens head over to the couch and read through the script, chiming in with their preferred characters before Gigi and Nicky retire to finalize their casting. Widow and Aiden are a bit salty about their partsneither got their desired rolebut the queens mostly seem happy with Nicky and Gigis choices.

Jaida is concerned heading into rehearsal, and after the palpable tension between Widow and Nicky and Aidens not-great Mae West impression, she may be right to worry. Ru comes back for a walk-through and surprisingly, focuses less on stirring the pot and more on lighting a fire under Brita, Aiden, and a couple others. The episode is surprisingly streamlined so far; most of the queens arent getting much screen time. Showing so little rehearsal is either a good sign or a bad one. Either filming is about to go swimmingly, and the editors dont want to give away the jokes, or the few queens weve spent time with are about to crash and burn.

When the queens arrive on set, Carson is there to greet them. Hell be directing their scenes, pushing them to go bigger as needed, or in Jaidas case, to make a rare Drag Race call for subtlety. There are a few hiccups here and there, but compared to previous acting challenges, the season 12 queens are in fine form. Sherry and Widow are clear standouts and will likely vie for the win, and both Nicky and Brita are in trouble. Nicky looks great as a drag baby, but her nerves are evident every time she gets direction from Carson. As for Brita, her delivery is solid when she needs to go broad, but she struggles when Carson asks her to pair that tone with a few more clinical line readings.

The next day, the workroom is positively buzzing with anticipation as the queens get ready for the runway. Jaida is a little nervous, but most of the queens are excited and confident. Things take a quick turn when the topic of mothers comes up. Its clearly a difficult conversation for some of the queens. Jackie opens up about her strained relationship with her mom, who doesnt know she does drag. After a little prompting, Widow shares that her mother died when she was a teen. She never had a chance to come out to her mom, and the two fought during their last interaction. This weighs heavily on her, and several of the queens come over to console her. Season 12 has had some thoughtful and emotional moments in the workroom, but this is the most fraught yet. Eventually Jaida breaks the tension, and the queens hurry to finish their prep.

Its time for the runway. Ru walks out in a fabulous green gown and welcomes guest judge Normani. Category is: Planet of the Capes. Jaida is first, with a striking pink look featuring dramatic, tall shoulders. Brita has a Little Red Riding Hood-inspired ensemble thats cute, but could use a more substantive cape to better fit the brief. Jackie goes slinky as a belly dancer, complete with headpiece and golden cape. Jans look is solid, a black and silver take on a skydiver, but her cape could use more volume, especially to better invoke a parachute. Gigis look is much more tailored, a Troop Beverly Hills Wilderness Girls-inspired outfit, while Sherry goes full Elvis and Heidi sports a black body suit and multicolored cape. Crystals yellow and purple look is strong, with the volume one expects in a cape category, and Aiden goes spooky with a black Silence Of The Lambs-inspired cape and a moth across her mouth. In contrast, Widows watermelon look is underwhelming, at least until she goes full Janet Jackson and pops off her bra cups to reveal pasties. Last out is Nicky, who looks great in her Joan of Arc armor, but misses the brief a bit by casting aside her massive white cloak early in her walk.

The moment has arrived. Gays Anatomy is screened in its entirety, and as mentioned above, its really fun. There are a couple strange choiceswhy put the Christina stand-in in the Denny storyline, instead of Izzy?but most of the references are on point, from the ghost sex to the bomb to the two patients skewered on a pole. There arent any weak links, and Ru agrees. She compliments the entire cast, singling out Jan, Widow, Jackie, Sherry, Gigi, and Aiden out as the top queens before giving the win to Sherry. That leaves Jaida, Brita, Heidi, Crystal, and Nicky in the bottom.

The judges make sure to specify that all of the queens did well in the challenge. What has put these five in danger of elimination is a sense that they could have made more of their smaller rolesBrita is the only queen in danger whose character has more than two scenes. In theory to help with the decision, and in actuality to stir up drama, Ru asks the queens who they think should be eliminated. Everyone except Jaida says Nicky. Even Nicky says Nicky. Jaida goes with Heidi, based purely on her runway, and is seconded by Nicky, when Ru pushes her to choose someone besides herself. From here on out, the elimination is a foregone conclusion. Nicky has given up, and its sad to see.

After deliberations, Ru concurs with the queens. Heidi and Nicky will Lip-sync For Their Lives to Heart To Break by Kim Petras. Both queens serve drama and face, but Heidi takes command of the stage, forcing Nicky to make way. Shes fighting harder; she wants it more. Thats all Ru needs to see. Heidi is safe, and Nicky is eliminated. Nicky Doll has been a strong competitor, and in a different season, she would have gone much further. Even in this season she would have gone further had the more language-based challenges come later in the season. Ultimately what held her back was not her difficulty with English, but her lack of confidence in herself, her fear of tripping over her tongue. Drag Race demands a lot, but more than anything, it requires supreme self-confidence. Hopefully Nicky will be back with buckets to spare for her eventual All Stars return, and fans will get to see what she can really do. Weve only gotten a glimpse in season 12.

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RuPauls Drag Race celebrates the charms and excesses of Gays Anatomy - The A.V. Club

Human Behavior

Data mapping is a necessary tool against COVID-19. But mass surveillance doesn’t have to be. – Armenian Weekly

This week, the Armenian government passed its most controversial measure yet in its struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, a motion that would allow authorities to access personal phone data passed a first reading in the National Assembly despite strong objections from opposition parties and concerns from privacy watchdogs. The bill was initially defeated in a second reading on Tuesday morning before being pushed through in a late night session.

Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan, who presented the bill, argued that it would simplify efforts to slow the spread of the virus by better identifying the infection rate. These measures will purportedly be limited to data collected from those already infected and only within the duration of the State of Emergency situation which is scheduled to expire on April 16. The government claims to be amending the text with explicit assurances that the actual content of phone conversations remain protected and all private data be immediately deleted once the pandemic is contained.

Still, the move coincides with a worrying trend where liberal democracies across the worldperhaps naively encouraged by the apparent success of Communist Chinas authoritarian containment model, irresponsibly endorsed by the WHOare considering unheard-of draconian measures to fight the contagion. In France, drones patrol the streets to enforce curfews. Canadas Liberal minority government has leveraged the situation in an attempted power grab, while Hungary has done away with the trappings of democracy altogether. Citizens across Europe and North America are being bluntly told to get used to a new reality where mass surveillance is the norm. No matter the approach, individual liberty is always the first victim.

Predictably, Armenias parliamentary opposition parties arent having any of it. Edmon Marukyan, who leads the liberal-leaning Bright Armenia Party (BAP) strongly condemned the measure, declaring, We are against ceding our liberties. With a flair for the dramatic, he later illustrated his point with a tweet of himself perusing through George Orwells dystopian novel 1984. Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP)s Naira Zohrabyan also dismissed the measure as meaningless. Questions arose from within the government itself about the effectiveness of monitoring phone data in cases where infections spread through social settings like supermarket visits or in public. (Preliminary data from Armenia suggests that outside of the initial outbreaks, the virus has primarily spread through community transmission. No cases have been reported in supermarkets at the time of this writing.)

Assuming that these objections are genuine expressions of concernrather than political posturingthey reveal a troubling political reality, but also a general misunderstanding of how pandemic containment strategies work.

Until humanity develops some form of resistance to the novel coronaviruseither through herd immunity or vaccination (both scenarios likely months away)the most effective containment strategy involves a combination of early detection and contact tracing. The first requires widespread accurate testing, while the second calls for massive amounts of real-time data.

Once testing equipment becomes sufficiently available, healthcare workers could identify carriers more quickly and isolate them before they have a chance to transmit the infection. The next step is to identify and isolate anyone which was in contact with a carrier during the incubation period, in doing so flattening the curve enough to relieve overburdened health services. But people may lie or honestly not recall who theyd been in contact with days before. This is where data collection plays an important role. In the words of data scientist Seth Davidowitz, Big data serves as a digital truth serum. Tracing phone records would help healthcare workers map potential contagions and quickly contain them.

Yet mobile phone tracking also beholds a proactive function for public health authorities: projection modeling. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told CNN on Sunday, When someone creates a model, they put in various assumptions. The model is only as good and as accurate as your assumptions. Human behavior constitutes the most important variable in replacing assumptions with accurate projections. At this point, smartphone monitoring remains the most widespread and proven method of collecting enough sample data to predict human behavior and by extension, infection rates during a pandemic.

Mobile data tracking plays a key role in Communist Chinas brutally effective virus containment strategy. State-owned telecoms share color-coded user data with authorities to ensure that suspected carriers cant escape checkpoints. Search histories and app records are crawled through to extrapolate potential infection symptoms. Other countries too are employing variations of mobile tracking to coordinate containment efforts, but not all rely on storing personally identifiable data.

In Singapore, the governments open-source TraceTogether app relies on records of bluetooth interactions between smartphones to warn citizens who come in contact with known carriers of the disease. The Singapore Health Ministry claims that the app doesnt record location data or access contact lists, but they do have the ability to decrypt user information if necessary. Human Rights Watch is pushing for alternative voluntary methods of data sharing, like the Private Kit: Safe Paths app, which stores encrypted and anonymous GPS data locally on a users phone. Ultimately, a combination of anonymous big data collection and edge computing could provide a large enough population sample for the predictive algorithms while divulging nothing about individual citizens.

Of course, legitimate public health purposes dont negate privacy concerns. Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded, once said economist and Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek. And history has proven him right time and time again. The hopelessly bloated nanny-states which characterize western liberal-democracy in the 21st century trace their origins to the endlessly-extended emergency war-economies of the past. To quote another Nobel Prize-winning economic theorist, this time Milton Friedman: Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

The concern is no less relevant to Armenia, where young democratic institutions remain vulnerable to populist or authoritarian whims. At the moment, thankfully, there is no indication that the authorities plan on extending emergency powers beyond the scope of the crisis. The fact that this administration has shown itself to be attentive to the privacy concerns sparked by the measure and included checks and balances into a much more watered-down third reading of the bill is encouraging. The government has already relaxed the media restrictions attached to the emergency situations legislation following outcry from civil rights groups and has treaded carefully in suspending habeas corpus.

So far, Armenias authorities have received (well-deserved) praise for their measured, yet decisive handling of the pandemic. The government has shown its ability to react quickly and responsively to a rapidly developing global crisis despite inexperience and limited resources. In stark contrast to neighboring ex-soviet dictatorships, the transparent nature of information distributionbest exemplified by daily live updates from both the Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan and Prime Minister Pashinyanhas helped cultivate an unprecedented sense of public trust and social solidarity, with potentially life-saving results.

Ignoring, for the moment, that Armenian citizens have likely been victims of illegal state wiretapping for decades, Armenia shouldnt be faulted for choosing already-proven solutions at its disposal rather than theoretical concepts, given the urgency. What matters now is that authorities seriously consider non-invasive alternatives for next time.

That said, members of democratic societies still bear responsibility for keeping elected officials accountable to the constitutional limits of their authority. Yet fulfilling that obligation requires remaining alive for the duration of the pandemic. Thus, ironically, the first step in ensuring the survival of Armenian democracy is to comply with executive orders: stay home and practice regular hygiene. The second is to lobby authorities to adopt innovative data collection methods which boost social equality and public health without compromising individual rights.

Ultimately, the real danger isnt the emergency situation itself, but when citizens come to accept mass surveillance as a new normal. Wilsons final thoughts on the last page of Orwells 1984 should resonate with Marukyan: But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Raffi Elliott is a Canadian-Armenian political risk analyst and journalist based in Yerevan, Armenia. As correspondent and columnist for the Armenian Weekly, he covers socioeconomic, political, business and diplomatic issues in Armenia, with occasional thoughts on culture and urbanism.

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Data mapping is a necessary tool against COVID-19. But mass surveillance doesn't have to be. - Armenian Weekly