#and the way he's right like 65% of the time increasing as the story progresses bc the only thing he lacks is context | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fit-as-fxck · 6 years ago

Text

hi. I have a lengthy update and a story.

Good Evening, Friends. Here’s an update that no one asked for. I continue to feel much, much better. I can credit that to a constant, normalized sleep schedule, a reduction of the constant stress of the last three months and making sure I eat. As far as movement goes that’s exactly what I've been focusing on. m o v e m e n t. This doesn't mean always going to the gym and slamming weights around, this means moving more intuitively and listening to what I want to do and what I need (without putting too much pressure on myself to be rigid with set demands). Some days I take my dog with me to the park while I do outdoor yoga (in preparation for my outdoor classes I always do in the summer). Sometimes I meet up with a friend and hit the trails for an easy run. Sometimes, doing “nothing” is more important and takes precedence. (If you don't want to read this all skip down to the bottom for a lil story I guarantee you’ll want to read.)

Habits/personal: Every morning make it a point to tell myself I'm going to stay present today. That’s my goal. To stay present and take advantage of every moment, and yes, it comes down to actively monitoring my habits. Even things like social media and electronic use impacts us and none of us were given a manual on how to navigate this shifting terrain. So yeah, reading an actual book before bed and shutting down devices actually does make a difference on our mind and body. Sometimes, we have to set rules for ourselves depending on our lives and how we know we respond to things like this. I’m starting a gratitude journal too so that’ll be new journey for me (it’s scientifically proven to lower inflammation in the body). My life is starting to go back to “normal”, finally. I was under intense life stressors for a few months.

Training:

I’ve done some easy trail runs with my friend (the one who was my old gym partner). His training is ramping up significantly and mine is just now recovering so I've only been joining him on his easy recovery runs. The first one I did, my legs felt like two ton bricks. It felt like I was running through jello. I’m not embarrassed to say it was just awful. Consider that I spent since October not putting an emphasis on cardio (only some conditioning), so yeah not surprising. The good news is, it only sucks for a little bit and then it gets better. I mean, each run I do I'll never have to redo again lmao. I hate treadmill running unless I'm doing sprints. I always choose outdoor if I can. I haven't done any major strength training and I’ve probably lost a lot of strength but I'm not worried about it. Muscle has a memory. I’m ready to pick up some strength training again but my goals right now are more geared towards movement and cardio (so the strength training will be to support that). And of course, yoga. I love doing more and more of it. It just makes you feel so damn good. Plan: adding cardio in 4 times weekly. Alternating between cycling, running, trail running, moderate intensity and intervals. Finishing with a handful of lifting exercises a couple times a week to stay strong.

Nutrition:

Like I mentioned, I am making sure to eat. And haven't been too strict about it, like, at all. I’ve been fueling on pb&j’s. (Side note: I am always making sure I keep my caffeine intake low, I feel better without it. I do half-caff coffee mostly.) I’m increasing my workouts since I'm feeling good so my nutrition is going to be shifted to support those goals. I don't want be too extreme so I'll be following an 80/20 diet. 80% clean Whole Foods and 20% Oreos and Snickers (jk). A major pitfall of mine is failing to prepare to have food when I need it. This week, and for the following weeks, I'm meal prepping everything (which I should be doing anyways *glares* @ me). I’m sticking to whole, “clean” foods and following basic nutrition principles. I’m 100% sure you can make progress on nearly any “diet” as long as you follow nutritional fundamentals. I feel better when I eat better anyways. Sometimes we have to go back to basics. Foundations are what we build everything on and any tweaks we do to that foundation are just the “fluff” on top. Don’t want that foundation to have cracks in it, do we? (SO this week I made a homemade Mac and cheese. Most times I burn everything but sometimes my attempts are a slam dunk. I made my own cheese sauce and used half noodles and half shredded cauliflower to increase the volume and MAN IT WAS BOMB. YOU GOTTA TRY IT. YOU COULDNT EVEN TELL THERE WAS CAULIFLOWER IN IT. Sneaky vegetables.) Unfortunately, I'll have to cut out the Mac & cheese and pb&j’s BUT if it’s the weekend and I want a bagel, I'm gonna have a bagel (80/20 ok). I’m prepping things like grass fed beef, vegetables and sweet potates or rice etc (yes, its potates).

Other (friends/lifestyle/inspo):

So I got a call from my gym buddy this week which I did not expect. When he started working out with me in January(?) he was what you would call “skinny-fat”, which is defined as not looking overweight but also not having any distinguishable muscle tone. Since then he’s put some serious size and strength and totally upped his cardio game. I started him out on some basic training and knowledge and then he continued on his own. When he called me he told me a man approached him in the gym and asked what he was training for. He told him he was training for an iron man (his overall bucket list goal). This is a hefty goal considering he started at ground zero. BUT everyone starts at zero and he is young and you won’t see me telling him he can’t do it. You can do anything you put your mind to. My friend told the guy about how he went down to 135 pounds at his thinnest (dude is like over 6 feet tall) and then went up 65 pounds at his heaviest. Well, they got to talking and this man started telling him about his friends going through BUDS training (SEAL training). And, my friend spilled the beans. He told him that he hadn't told anyone yet but his overall goal was to go out for the Seals. Yeah, aggressive goal. Thats when the guy told him he was special forces (ranger). He told him David Goggins was headed through town and they were all going to dinner with him. Yeah, I know, sounds odd. Anyways, this guy told him that the only difference between him and the ones that made it, was that now it was his turn to do it. That’s it. (Pretty crazy considering like 6% of people that go out for this pass). So my friend told him he “didn’t know anyone”. The guy told him that there were a ton of special forces in this area but they don’t tell you they are unless they want you to know. But, my dude meant he quite literally didn’t. know. anyone. He had lost all his friends when he found out they had different priorities and pretty much has no one around him supporting him on this, which is why he called me when he was astounded this happened. Serendipity, I guess. Put your goals out there into the world with iron conviction and the universe will find a way to meet you halfway. So this guy was 38 I think and didn’t look his age (not that 38 is old..) and told dude that he could probably smoke everyone in this gym and well, he could, based on the workouts he was doing. My friend’s jaw was on the floor with this whole interaction. He told me he was nervous and stumbling over his words and felt like he probably made an ass of himself. He apologized for it, saying he barely got any sleep and was super stressed and the guy said “Who gets sleep? And we’re all stressed.” The guy offered his advice and networking anytime dude sees him in the gym etc.

We all come from somewhere, we all have dark, broken histories, large goals, even larger struggles etc and feel like our lives consist of constantly trying to pull it together until the day we die but, I swear, you gotta find a way to believe in yourself and even accept your failures. Whats the worst that could happen? You die trying? At least you followed your heart. Just like this dude, out of shape, stumbling, mad at himself because of slow progress but just look back three or four months... He’s strong now and the progress happened because he was patient with himself and didn’t give up even when he felt like it and he’s still not done. More power to him and anyone willing to try. Perhaps the overall goal doesn't matter as much as who we become in the act of trying (thank you Kaylo Littlejohn for that quote). Most times, people just need a positive push in the right direction. Maybe we can focus a little bit more on uplifting and being positive because that shit is contagious.

#personal #try #iron man #special forces #gym #trail running #inspo #April 2019

2 notes · View notes

writerkimwilkes-blog · 4 years ago

Text

5 Biggest Mistakes Men Make With Prostate Health

Kimberly Wilkes

Note: This article originally appeared in Whole Health Insider.

The prostate gland isn't something a lot of men pay much attention to—until it starts to cause problems, or, even scarier, becomes cancerous. And if you're a male who's edging up there in years—or you have a father, brother, or husband who's getting older—chances are good the prostate will start to cause problems.

In fact, most men, if they live past 70, will develop an enlarged prostate, a noncancerous condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia—BPH, for short. Studies have shown that BPH is present in only 10 percent of men in their 30s, but 20 percent of men in their 40s have BPH, 50 to 60 percent of men in their 60s, and 80 to 90 percent of men in their 70s and 80s.1

The threat of prostate cancer also becomes more real as a man ages. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2015.2 And in the same year, an estimated 27,540 men will die from the disease.2

But developing a prostate condition later in life isn't inevitable. There are important actions men can take to protect themselves and to increase the odds of becoming part of the 10 to 20 percent of men over 70 who don't have BPH. When it comes to prostate health, avoiding five big mistakes can go a long way in reducing the risk of any problems down the road—or addressing the symptoms you already have.

Mistake #1

Eating Too Much High-Saturated-Fat Animal Protein

If you're constantly in touch with your inner cave man and scarf down steaks, ribs, and hamburgers, your prostate gland may pay the price. Studies in mice have found that a high-fat diet promotes the growth of prostate tumors.3 And the story's the same in humans. In a study of 4,577 men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer—in other words prostate cancer that hasn't spread to other parts of the body—subjects who consumed the most vegetable fat after being diagnosed with the disease experienced a lower risk of lethal prostate cancer. In fact, the risk of lethal prostate cancer dropped 29 percent in men who ate more vegetable fat.4

And the men eating the most vegetable fat didn't just have a reduced risk of dying from prostate cancer. They also had a 35 percent lower risk of dying from any cause. On the opposite end of the spectrum, increasing saturated fat by five percent was linked to a 30 percent higher risk of death. Eating more polyunsaturated fat after diagnosis was associated with a lower death rate. Replacing five percent of calories from saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat caused the death risk to drop by 34 percent.4

The researchers in this study also looked at the type of food associated with a reduced risk of dying from prostate cancer in men who already had the disease. They found that increasing the amount of oil-based dressing eaten by one tablespoon daily was linked to a 29 percent lower risk of lethal prostate cancer and a 13 percent lower risk of death. Nuts also proved to be a power food for the prostate. Adding one ounce of nuts to the diet daily was linked to an 18 percent lower risk of dying from prostate cancer and an 11 percent lower risk of death from all causes.4

Other studies have backed up these results. For example, when 161 prostate cancer patients ate flaxseeds or flaxseeds together with a low-fat diet, the rate at which prostate tumors spread was much lower compared to subjects in the control groups who didn't eat flaxseeds.5

Scientists can't say with 100 percent certainty why a diet high in saturated fats, especially animal fats, is linked to increased prostate cancer growth and a lower survival rate. But studies have hinted at a couple of reasons. First, a diet high in animal fat is linked to weight gain and weight gain also is linked to prostate cancer and BPH.3,6

Second, having high cholesterol promotes the spread of prostate cancer throughout the body,7 a process known as metastasis. And eating a diet high in saturated fats from animal proteins causes cholesterol levels to spike. Cholesterol is thought to cause the spread of prostate cancer for a number of reasons including the fact that when cholesterol becomes oxidized in the body it can suppress immunity and promote angiogenesis, the creation of new blood vessels that tumor cells use to spread to other areas of the body.7

And diets low in saturated fat and high in vegetable fat protect against more than just prostate cancer. Studies have found a link between low-fat, vegetable-based diets and a reduced risk of developing BPH.8

If you have a hard time letting go of your cave man tendencies, your best bet is to choose grass-fed beef over conventional beef. Grass-fed beef is low in saturated fats and high in omega-3 fatty acids. And make sure you eat lots of nuts and flaxseeds every day.

Mistake #2

Not Eating Enough Tomatoes—or Eating Them the Wrong Way

One of the most powerful prostate-protecting foods is the tomato—or more specifically, a component of tomatoes called lycopene. Eating tomatoes and tomato products causes lycopene to build up in the prostate where it protects against DNA damage that is a starting point for cancer development.9 If you're not eating enough tomatoes or if you're not eating tomatoes together with the right types of food, your prostate could suffer.

Research shows lycopene may halt BPH in its tracks. In one study, 40 elderly men with BPH randomly received 15 mg per day of lycopene in supplement form or a placebo for six months. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels fell in the men taking lycopene, but not in the placebo group. What's more, the prostates of the men in the placebo group enlarged during the study, but the prostates of the men taking lycopene remained the same size. Even though symptoms improved in both the placebo and lycopene group, the men taking lycopene experienced a greater improvement in their symptoms.10

In addition, scientists have looked at lycopene for its possible prostate-cancer protecting effects. Eating tomato paste a couple times per week can lower the risk of developing prostate cancer by about 20 percent, according to some studies.11,12

In men who already have prostate cancer, not every study has found that lycopene can be of benefit. But there's some evidence to show lycopene might have an effect. For example, in one study 20 men with metastatic prostate cancer took 10 mg per day of lycopene for three months. One of the subjects taking lycopene experienced a complete response, including normal PSA levels and no sign of disease for at least eight weeks. Six of the patients (30 percent) experienced a partial response after taking a lycopene supplement, 10 patients (50 percent) remained stable, and the disease progressed in only three (15 percent) of the patients taking lycopene.13

It won't do you any good to take a lycopene supplement or eat tomatoes if you're not also eating some form of fat along with them and making sure the tomatoes are cooked. Cooking tomatoes and adding some extra virgin olive oil makes it easier for your body to absorb the lycopene and results in much greater antioxidant activity compared to when tomatoes are eaten raw.14

If you decide to bypass the tomatoes for a lycopene supplement, aim for 10 to 15 mg daily, taken with meals.

Mistake #3

Relying on the PSA Test

Since 1994, it's been standard practice for doctors to use the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test on men who have prostate symptoms. PSA is an enzyme produced by the prostate gland. High levels are considered a red flag that a man has BPH, and may indicate he has prostate cancer.

So what's wrong with the PSA test? Its biggest flaw is that it has a low accuracy rate in actually detecting prostate cancer. And it's worthless for telling doctors which type of prostate cancer a man has, a less-lethal form of the disease or one that's more likely to result in death.

In addition, taking the PSA test will not necessarily stop a man from dying from prostate cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2009 that the death rate over seven to 10 years is no less in men who take the PSA test compared to men who don't take it.15

Another study also published in the New England Journal of Medicine in the same year found that PSA screening didreduce the rate of death from prostate cancer but only by 20 percent. And a high risk of over diagnosis tainted the PSA test results, meaning many of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer when they didn't have it.16

In fact, based on these and other findings, the American Cancer Society cautioned against relying on this test. And the American College of Preventive Medicine also doesn't believe there's enough evidence to justify recommending routine use of the PSA test.

Instead of taking a PSA test, your best bet is to get regular prostate exams and to have your doctor test you for BRCA1 and BRCA2. You might have heard of these two genetic abnormalities in regards to breast cancer. But science is showing that BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations are involved in prostate cancer, too.

Men who carry the BRCA1 mutation are two to five times more likely to develop prostate cancer compared to men who don't have this mutation. Men who carry the BRCA2 form are eight to nine times more likely to develop prostate cancer and are more likely to develop prostate cancer earlier in life (when they are under the age of 65). BRCA2 carriers also are at risk of developing a more aggressive form of the disease.17

If the test reveals you carry one of the mutations, don't lose hope—it's not a guarantee you'll get cancer. Lifestyle choices are important. Use the test results as a motivation to put into practice all the advice in this article.

Mistake #4

Not Using Saw Palmetto

When it comes to BPH, saw palmetto might just be a man's best friend. Evidence continues to pour in that saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) improves many symptoms of BPH. A 1998 analysis of the medical literature found that men treated with saw palmetto experienced a decrease in urinary tract symptoms and didn't have to urinate as frequently in the middle of the night (a condition known as nocturia).18

Other researchers have looked into saw palmetto's potential to reduce BPH-related sexual dysfunction—with promising results. When 82 elderly men with BPH took 320 mg of saw palmetto daily for eight weeks they experienced a decline in the International Prostate Symptom Score and improved sexual function and overall quality of life.19

Studies also have shown that saw palmetto is as effective as two drugs commonly given to BPH patients, finasteride and tamsulosin. In one study of 103 men, the combination of saw palmetto and tamsulosin was more effective than tamsulosin alone in reducing lower urinary tract symptoms in BPH patients during up to 12 months of treatment.20

When combined with lycopene and selenium, saw palmetto packs a particularly strong prostate-protective punch. Several human studies in men with BPH who had lower urinary tract symptoms found that these three supplements can team up to reduce inflammation and improve prostate symptoms.21-23 In one study, 102 men who had chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome received either a combination of saw palmetto, lycopene, and selenium or saw palmetto alone. Chronic prostatitis symptoms declined dramatically in both groups, but the combination therapy resulted in a greater improvement than with saw palmetto alone.23 Another study found that the combination of saw palmetto, selenium, and lycopene was particularly effective in relieving BPH symptoms when used together with the prostate drug tamsulosin.22

An animal study in rats with testosterone-dependent BPH found that the combination of saw palmetto, lycopene, and selenium can block prostate enlargement by 43.3 percent. It accomplished this by increasing a process known as apoptosis, where unhealthy cells are programmed to die and cleared out of the body.24

The jury is still out on whether saw palmetto is useful in prostate cancer since randomized, controlled studies are lacking. But in a handful of cell culture studies saw palmetto reduced inflammation and the expression of genes involved in inflammation, blocked the growth of the cancer cells, and destroyed cancerous cells through apoptosis.25,26

Based on these limited cell culture studies, if you have prostate cancer, we don't recommend relying exclusively on saw palmetto to conquer the disease. But if you have BPH, taking 400 mg per day of saw palmetto together with 15 mg per day lycopene and 200 mcg per day selenium is a smart move.

Mistake #5

Skipping the Selenium

We've already talked about how selenium combined with saw palmetto and lycopene can improve the symptoms of BPH. But what about reducing your risk of prostate cancer?

By studying the data collected in the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) trial, a 2003 study found that giving men selenized yeast supplements significantly decreased prostate cancer risk, but only in men with a history of cancer and whose selenium levels were lower at the study's start.27 Four years earlier, a group of researchers found that prostate cancer risk dropped by 30 percent in men who ate 88 to 119 micrograms/day of selenium compared to men who ate lower or higher amounts.28

The results of the SELECT trial, a large study published in 2009, dashed the hopes that selenium could prevent prostate cancer. This trial found that 200 mcg/day of selenomethione did not reduce prostate cancer risk. But, unlike many of the past studies, the study subjects weren't deficient in selenium and had no history of cancer.29

The bottom line? There's no guarantee that taking selenium will stop you from getting prostate cancer. But there are other good reasons to take selenium. For BPH, combining this mineral with lycopene and saw palmetto can offer some definite benefits. And certain areas of the U.S. such as the northwest, southeast, southwest, and much of Texas are plagued by low selenium levels in the soil. So if you're living in one of those regions it's an especially good idea to supplement with up to 200 mcg per day. As far as which type of selenium to choose, opt for methylselenocysteine, a form that more easily converts into methyl selenol, a metabolite studied for its potential anti-cancer abilities.30

In addition to taking selenium supplements, you can also munch on pumpkin seeds, which contain a fair amount of selenium. Brazil nuts actually have the highest amount of selenium of any food, but researchers have studied pumpkin seeds for their benefits in BPH, with some promising results. In a 12-week study, researchers gave pumpkin seed extract to 2,245 patients suffering from benign prostate hyperplasia and found that the International Prostate Symptom Score dropped by 41.4% while the men's quality of life improved.31

Just be certain not to overdo it. Taking more than 200 mcg of selenium per day will cause more harm than good, since high doses of selenium can be toxic.

Protecting the Prostate

Prostate problems are common with age—but they're not inevitable. By avoiding all the mistakes mentioned in this article, you can give your prostate a fighting chance. It's also a good idea to make sure you're not packing on the pounds. Obesity is linked to a 98 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.32 Plus, doctors are less likely to recognize prostate cancer in obese men. One reason? Obese men have larger prostates, making it more difficult to detect cancer.32

References

1. Roehrborn CG. Rev Urol. 2005;7(Suppl 9):S3-14.

2. National Cancer Institute. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html

3. Cho HJ, et al. Nutrients. 2015 Apr 9;7(4):2539-61.

4. Richman EL, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2013 Jul 22;173(14):1318-26.

5. Demark-Wahnefried W, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Dec;17(12):3577-87.

6. Parsons JK. J Urol. 2007 Aug;178(2):395-401.

7. Moon H, et al. Oncotarget. 2015 Apr 10;6(10):7438-53.

8. Denis L, et al. Eur Urol. 1999;35(5-6):377-87.

9. Talvas J, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun;91(6):1716-24.

10. Schwarz S, et al. J Nutr. 2008 Jan;138(1):49-53.

11. Giovannucci E, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995 Dec 6;87(23):1767-76.

12.Giovannucci E, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2002 Mar 6;94(5):391-8.

13. Ansari MS, Gupta NP. Urol Oncol. 2004 Sep-Oct;22(5):415-20.

14. Vallverdú-Queralt A, et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2015 Apr 28;16(5):9588-99.

15. Andriole GL, et al. N Engl J Med. 2009;360:1310-9.

16. Schröder FH, et al. N Engl J Med. 2009;360:1320-8.

17. Walker R, et al. Can Urol Assoc J. 2014 Nov;8(11-12):E783-8.

18. Wilt TJ, et al. JAMA. 1998 Nov 11;280(18):1604-9.

19. Suter A, et al. Phytother Res. 2013 Feb;27(2):218-26.

20. Ryu YW, et al. Urol Int. 2015;94(2):187-93.

21. Morgia G, et al. Int Braz J Urol. 2013 Mar-Apr;39(2):214-21.

22. Morgia G, et al. Prostate. 2014 Nov;74(15):1471-80.

23. Morgia G, et al. Urol Int. 2010;84(4):400-6.

24. Minutoli L, et al. J Biomed Sci. 2014 Mar 10;21:19.

25. Silvestri I, et al. J Inflamm (Lond). 2013 Mar 14;10:11.

26. Baron A, et al. BJU Int. 2009 May;103(9):1275-83.

27. Duffield-Lillico AJ, et al. BJU Int. 2003;91:608-12.

28. Jain MG, et al. Nutr Cancer. 1999;34:173-84.

29. Lippman SM, et al. JAMA. 2009;301:39-51.

30. Marshall JR. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2011 Nov;4(11):1938-44.

31. Friederich M, et al. Forsch Komplementarmed Klass Naturheilkd. 2000 Aug;7(4):200-4.

32. Freedland SJ, et al. Urology. 2008 Nov;72(5):1102-5.

0 notes

kathleenseiber · 4 years ago

Text

Ventilating complaints about air standards

The world has finally accepted that the COVID-19 virus is spread on the air, and mainly indoors. So why haven’t ventilation standards been updated for buildings?

This article first appeared in Cosmos Weekly on 30 July 2021. For more stories like this, subscribe to Cosmos Weekly.

Australia is in the grips of another COVID-19 outbreak. This time, the highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has plunged many into lockdown and put the nation on high alert.

Epidemiologists say the Delta variant, which has spread to 104 countries and counting, may be about 90% more infectious than the original – Alpha – strain of SARS-CoV-2. But one thing remains the same: this virus is airborne. It spreads in the air we breathe. In lab studies, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to linger in the air for up to 16 hours, carried aloft on microscopic particles called aerosols.

World-leading aerosol scientist Professor Lidia Morawska, of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Brisbane, says the latest outbreak has once again exposed the gaps in our hotel quarantine system and highlighted flaws in building design and ventilation systems – which should flush out contaminated air, without affecting other occupants, if designed correctly and operating well.

“Well over a year into the pandemic, there hasn’t seen any progress whatsoever [in Australia] to tackle this,” Morawska says. “No one mentions the word ventilation.”

The latest outbreak has once again exposed the gaps in our hotel quarantine system and highlighted flaws in building design and ventilation system.

Morawska is not alone in her frustration. Architects and building engineers are also calling for stronger recognition of respiratory viruses that spread via aerosols and improvements to ventilation in public spaces.

“We knew in July last year that SARS-CoV-2 was airborne,” says architect Geoff Hanmer, an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Adelaide. “And yet it’s taken ISIAQ [the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate] and the World Health Organization almost a year to admit that that’s the case.”

These experts’ exasperation is exacerbated because the engineering solutions to rid indoor spaces of airborne pathogens already exist – they just need to be installed or upgraded.

What needs to be done?

There are three key ingredients in the cocktail that is infection risk, Morawska explains. The first is the concentration of airborne particles that are emitted when an infected person talks, sings, coughs or sneezes. Second, a lack of ventilation, which lets aerosols linger in the air. And thirdly, some exposure time for people to inhale the virus-laden particles.

Traditional infection control pyramid adapted from the US Centers for Disease Control. Credit: Morawska et al/CDC/Environment International

Changing how buildings operate can address two out of those three factors. Improved ventilation increases airflow, diluting airborne particles; incorporating high-grade filtration systems can remove microscopic contaminants from the air.

However, the current standards for ventilating indoor public spaces (excluding hospitals) are not designed for infection control.

Public buildings from hospitals to schools and aged care facilities are “naturally” ventilated, meaning they rely on open windows to let fresh air in. They often have inadequate or poor ventilation, particularly in colder months.

“Very few countries have any regulations about indoor air quality. Infection transmission – which occurs mainly in indoor public spaces – is not specifically mentioned in any national regulations,” says Morawska.

“We must do something about the [building industry] standards.”

Hanmer says revising construction codes to improve ventilation standards to control for airborne infections would be a good start.

“But the problem is that new buildings are only a very small fraction of the total population of buildings,” he says.

Many commercial buildings, such as shopping centres, hotels and universities, are also poorly ventilated, Hanmer says, because the performance of their mechanical ventilation systems – which pump in fresh air to replace stale indoor air – is too often substandard.

“It’s a bit of a lottery at the moment – certainly we need to get to a state where we’ve got better data and better regulation on air quality, generally,” says Hanmer, who recently surveyed the air quality in a number of public buildings.

“Clearly, the application of [national construction] codes in mechanically ventilated buildings hasn’t been as good as it should be.”

How can it be done?

Increasing ventilation rates to create greater airflow through rooms and buildings is one way to minimise infection risk indoors.

In 2009, WHO compiled 65 studies showing that poor ventilation is “associated with increased infection rates or outbreaks of airborne diseases”, concluding that “higher ventilation rates could decrease the risk of infection”.

But hard evidence linking improved ventilation with reduced infection rates directly is scarce. A 2019 study from the Taiwan Centres of Disease Control is a rare example. It found that increasing ventilation in stuffy university buildings controlled an outbreak of tuberculosis, an airborne bacterial disease. The outbreak, which lasted three years and involved 27 active cases and 1,665 contacts, was snuffed out after ventilation specialists reconfigured the building’s ventilation systems to improve airflow.

Portable air purifiers may help. Credit: Onurdongel/Getty

Fast forward to 2021, and both the WHO and US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommend that the total indoor air volume in healthcare facilities should be replaced with fresh outdoor air a minimum of 6 to 12 times per hour to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws, of UNSW Sydney, says this is the gold standard for ventilation for “hot zones” in hospitals – equivalent to 80 litres of air per second per person – and that these ventilation rates can be hard to achieve. In other settings, such as confined spaces and offices, airflow rates of 3 litres of air per second per person are needed, McLaws says.

While experts deliberate over exactly how much ventilation is needed to reduce infection rates, Morawska says there is no magic number because it depends on how the building is used.

This includes the number of people in each room (“The more sources, the higher the [required] ventilation rate,” she says) and their usual activities such as exercising, singing or talking loudly, all of which expel large amounts of viral particles.

Occupancy, though, can vary from one hour to the next, so ventilation systems need to be flexible. But ramping up ventilation is not just a matter of a simple flick of a switch; airflow direction and distribution are also important.

Engineering level controls to reduce the environmental risks for airborne transmission. Credit: Morawska et al/Environment International

Adding pathogen-proof filters to existing ventilation systems is not always possible either, if the airflow is too weak. Engineers also need to design ventilation systems with energy conservation in mind, Morawska says.

“It’s not just about increasing ventilation rates,” she says. We need smarter systems that remove the virus or any other contaminants but do not increase energy use.”

“We need to make sure that naturally ventilated buildings with high use have some fallback ventilation,” he says.

Demand-controlled systems could be used in schools to increase ventilation during predictably busy periods and dial airflow down when rooms are not in use. Another option is installing ventilation systems that detect rising levels of CO2 levels and kick in when air quality deteriorates, says Hanmer.

Ramping up ventilation is not just a matter of a simple flick of a switch; airflow direction and distribution are also important.

A fallback ventilated system comes into operation when the detected levels of CO2 in the air rise above about 800 parts per million, so it could reliably improve air quality, Hanmer says. Aged-care facilities would be the “absolute first priority” and schools a close second.

Building systems engineer Professor John Zhai, of the University of Colorado Boulder, suggests a simpler solution: portable air purifiers could be installed to filter air in crowded public spaces such as supermarket checkouts. These systems could be deployed quickly to reduce infection risk, provided they are the right size for the space.

Researchers are also designing smart systems that can detect mobile phone signals or use cameras (with image-processing algorithms) to determine when an indoor space gets too crowded and needs more ventilation, adjusting flow rates accordingly.

What would it cost?

Few economic analyses have been done to estimate the cost of improving ventilation because no one has been asking the question, says Morawska. However, available estimates suggest that necessary investments in building systems may be less than 1% of the construction cost of a typical building for new builds.

Hanmer estimates it would cost a few thousand dollars per room to install fallback ventilation systems in aged-care facilities. “I don’t think that’s an unreasonable burden given the seriousness of the disease,” he says. “And it’s whole lot less than a lockdown in a major capital city.”

But on top of the price tag for installations and upgrades, Zhai says that building engineers also have to consider the energy costs of running souped-up ventilation systems. Installing high-grade filters capable of trapping and removing microscopic airborne particles means greater fan power is needed to push the air through the filter – and that uses more energy, he says.

Around 40% of the total electricity used in buildings already goes into powering ventilation fans and it would take tremendous amounts of energy to increase airflow rates to recommended levels, Zhai says: “To double the flow rate, you basically need eight times the energy use.

The cost of improving ventilation system would be far less than the billions of dollars spent each year on influenza and other respiratory diseases.

“It can work for most emergency situations. You can supply a lot of air for a short period of time, to reduce infection risk. But for regular times, it’s not economically wise to do that.”

Morawska says, however, that the cost of improving ventilation system would be far less than the billions of dollars spent each year on influenza and other respiratory diseases. It could also help curb the costs of COVID-19, which currently has a global financial toll to the tune of $1 trillion each month.

But if countries continue to dismiss the airborne transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, as they have done for decades, then we will suffer the cost of this denial, Morawska says.

“Unless we start putting steps in place now to fix things on the longer term, once the pandemic passes – and it will eventually pass – no one will want to do anything about this,” she says.

“We’ll be left in exactly in the same situation when the next pandemic comes and still dealing with respiratory infections like the cold and flu.”

This article first appeared in Cosmos Weekly on 30 July 2021. To see more in-depth stories like this, subscribe today and get access to our weekly e-publication, plus access to all back issues of Cosmos Weekly.

Subscribe now

Ventilating complaints about air standards published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

0 notes

grahamperryondisputeresolution · 4 years ago

Text

COVID AND DEMOCRACY PART 4

https://grahamperryonchina.com/?p=2092 COVID AND DEMOCRACY PART 4 - VACCINATION, INDIA, AND RACE HATE IN THE USA MAY 2021 This is the last in a series of four articles on the topic of Covid and Democracy. Democracy is often used by the US/UK and other countries as the point of significant difference relied upon by the West to undermine and belittle China. The West’s thinking is along with the following; The West is democratic; it has one man, one vote; tyranny has been overcome; the people are in control; they are free to elect their governments; democracy has trumped autocracy. In these articles, I have argued that democracy is about freedom. Still, it is also about governance and the government’s credibility, and when Covid-19 challenged all governments the world over, why did the US/UK perform so badly and, relatively speaking, China perform so well? And in support of my argument, I looked at the death count in the three countries. In the US/UK, with a combined population of 400m, why was the death count as high as 730,000 and in China, with a population of 1.41bn, why was the death count as low as 10,000? One person questioned my personal sense of morality in comparing the figures for loss of life. But democracy is about the ability of governments to look after the safety, health and well-being of their people and by that standard, the US/UK failed, and China succeeded. As China is battered for its reliance on the leadership of the Communist Party and its alleged totalitarian apparatus, which, the critics say, denies freedom to Chinese citizens and condemns them to servitude, hardship and oppression, it is worth asking the question which population was better looked after by its government? One government, after initial hesitancy, took decisive action, imposed a lockdown, closed the streets and the parks and the airports whilst two other governments were indecisive, gave contradictory messages and were, ultimately, casual with the lives of their two peoples. Individuals, CEO’s, heads of schools, parents, hospitals, plants and all organisations are in one way or another put to the test. The question is asked – Can they rise to the occasion and provide leadership when danger threatens? It is for these reasons that reviewing the figures for loss of life is a very correct and relevant format to use in assessing leaders’ abilities to lead. Xi Jinping rose to the occasion. Johnson and Trump fell short. So how do we assess the role of vaccinations in the pandemic? In one sense, Johnson had a big achievement. He was able to secure the jabs and make them available in an organised manner to the UK people. Trump was slower, but Biden has made vaccination the main policy and has provided increased protection to US citizens. And, of course, looking after your constituents is an achievement. It is part of the test of the Government to protect its people, and providing vaccination is evidence that the people have been protected – even if the same government was very slow in imposing lockdown as late as March 2020, causing unnecessary deaths. But UK vaccinations have gone to UK citizens, and US vaccinations have overwhelmingly gone to US citizens. China, with a population of 1.4bn, has pursued a quite different path. First, it attacked the pandemic – relentlessly and aggressively. Contrary to the casual approach of Trump and Johnson, Xi Jinping closed down cities, airports, trains and shops. Citizens were instructed, not asked, to remain indoors on pain of arrest. Two large hospitals were built from scratch with 8 days. The pandemic was beaten back. Strong and decisive action protected the people of China, and deaths have been restricted to less than 10,000 people. Second China, instead of setting about the vaccination of all its people, decided on a dual policy. Vaccinations were necessary for China, and vaccinations were necessary overseas. The numbers tell a story about governance and democracy. 7 May 2021 was a significant date – the WHO added Sinopharm’s vaccine to its emergency use list for the Covid-19 pandemic – the first from a developing country. Sage experts conducted on-site inspections at the production facility in China before approving worldwide distribution. The FT recently reported that Chinese jabs were dominating vaccination campaigns in Latin America. China has shipped more than half of the 143.5m doses of vaccines delivered to the region’s 10 most highly populated countries. China – 75.8m doses; AstraZeneca + Pfizer – 59m doses and Russia 8.7m. The Turkish Health Minister, Mr F Koca, said Turkey prefers China’s “inactivated vaccines” to the technology of Pfizer/Moderna because the latter “require difficult and costly cold-chain handling compared with China’s inactivated vaccines”. The UAE and Bahrein have officially registered the Sinopharm vaccine, and inoculations have already started for residents in Abu Dhabi. Morocco has ordered 10m doses, and Jordan is carrying out Sinopharm clinical trials. Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy, said,” We see increased Chinese dominance as a health power”. This reflects Xi Jinping’s Win-Win philosophy – a recognition, like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), that the World prospers if progress is shared. The West will misrepresent China’s policy because the West is challenged by China. Why doesn’t China use all its vaccine for its 1.4bn people? Because of China-controlled Covid-19 by decisive action in February/March 2020. US/UK deaths – 730,000. China deaths – less than 10,000. The numbers matter. They tell a story. Whereas the US and the UK, with one eye on electoral popularity, are gobbling up every jab available without supplying to the rest of the world, China has maintained tight control over Covid-19 at home while distributing considerable doses to the world at large. They also tell another story. China has been represented as a mass manufacturer of soft consumer goods as Western companies piled into China from 2000 onwards – sweaters, trainers, deckchairs, trinkets, fireworks. Now Made in China will be remembered for life-saving vaccinations and drugs. Beijing’s strategic pivot away from low-tech manufacturing to quality construction projects, highways, new ports, and now vaccinations will change how developing countries view China. The West will say that China seeks political leverage and power in political circles. Actually, No. China’s achievement will be the reputational gain – a country fully aware of the vital need to help and assist the world’s countries in achieving mutual prosperity. This is not hegemony but a realisation that the long-term gain to the world community is to facilitate well-being, growth and progress. Past world powers have all been hegemonists and imperialists. The significance of China will be that “Win-Win” prevails over “All-For-Me”. China will not exploit weaker countries for their own benefit. This will only become apparent when historians come to write the history of the current century. But significant world changes are taking place now that will grow in importance as the Century progresses, as the US settles in at #2 economic power. China champions a new attitude to world development. China and India are often thrown together in comparison. Both have large populations – 1.4bn/1.3bn – both are non-White countries – both became independent at the same time, China in 1949 and India in 1947 – and both countries expelled the British. It was not an accident of history that the British took the opium seeds from the hills of India and converted them into the drug that created addicts the length and breadth of China. The similarities disappear when it comes to the Pandemic as we view the distressing Indian TV footage of families carrying their dead ones to crematorium only to be turned away at the gates; the individual Indians pleading for help with oxygen, hospital beds, and medical treatment. The loss of life is considerable, and on 27 April, India recorded 3,876 deaths according to the Health Ministry – statistics likely to be very under-expressed as they will not include deaths at home or full burial numbers. India is grappling with the world’s worst Covid-19 epidemic as cases on 27 April rose by 329,942. Hospitals are full. Supplies are short, and human misery is on every street corner. On 20 May, India reported 276,110 cases over the last 24 hours and 3,874 deaths, bringing the country total to 25.77 million infections and 287,122 fatalities. Chinese people are not better than Indian people. There is no racial argument here at all. But Chinese authoritarianism is better than Indian democracy when it comes to governance and the protection of the public. Having “One Man, One Vote” counts for nothing if the government cannot organise oxygen supplies, deliver hospital beds; procure vaccinations; set up vaccination centres; provide emergency crematoria, arrange home visits, organise mourning periods; protect schools; arrange on-the-spot testing. It is back to the wider question of What Works. When crisis comes, and a Government has to look after its people, the system of Indian democracy failed the Indian population, and as we advance, this lesson will not be lost on developing countries trying to find the right formula for bringing law, order, prosperity, housing and medical supplies to their people. Finally, I want to comment on the surge in anti-Asian racism in the US since the pandemic commenced. On 29 March 2021, 65-year-old Vilma Kari was brutally assaulted on her way to church in New York. The crime made headlines in her home country of the Philippines, where Vice President Robredo and Senator Pacquiao, both prospective presidential candidates, were quick to pick up on video film that showed the assailant, Brandon Elliott, a 38-year-old homeless man, yelling, “You don’t belong here” before kicking and punching the victim in the face. The incident was part of a recent spike in anti-Asian violence across the US. Even as overall hate crimes declined in 2020, it is the case that anti-Asian hate crimes reported to the police rose nearly 150% in 16 of the largest US cities, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in California State University, San Bernandino. The trend was underlined by the 16 March 2021 killing of six women of Asian descent near Atlanta, Georgia, which ignited protests in the US and sent shockwaves through Asia. Specifically, to China, an assault on a 76-year-old woman in San Francisco triggered anger when shown on video in China, which led to a strong narrative about the US abusive treatment of native Indians, African slaves and Chinese labourers. Many blame former President Trump, who appealed directly to white nationalism and stirred anti-China sentiment at home and abroad, often referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus” and attacking China’s trade policies as “economic rape”. And the incidence of hate crimes has not abated under President Biden. Yuen Yuen Ang is a Politics Professor at the University of Michigan. He writes that “It is common to portray US-China relations as ‘a clash of civilisations’ – two cultural opposites with nothing in common. This narrative is unhelpful and misleading. It induces Americans to perceive the Chinese as weird and consequently threatening…While most people avoid overt racism, orientalism creeps in easily and unconsciously as people view China as the land of lanterns and dragons. Imagining an entire race of people as strange and exotic dehumanises them. Once a person ceases to see other people as human, it becomes easy to hate and inflict violence. Racism stalks the streets of US cities. It was there before Trump, but his free-wheeling right-wing US First agenda has fired up racial antagonisms with the last year of his term in office dominated by an anti-China agenda. “Reds Under the Beds” was a term from the Cold War of the 1950s. It has been revived as Pompeo and now Blinken claim that China is a genocidal nation. It is not a surprise that the Ash School of Government at Harvard University found that Chinese students and tourists returning home after a visit to the US had an even greater commitment to China and its style of democracy. Covid-19 is a pandemic that has thrown up many questions about individual well-being, public health policies, government capability and democratic effectiveness. There will be investigations into the origins of the virus, the performance of governments, the policies on vaccination and vaccination distribution. There will be allegations and counter-allegations. Big issues are on the table with important consequences for the long term well-being of the Earth’s inhabitants, and answers will be sought to key questions relating to the ability of democratic and authoritarian governments to handle the demands made upon them by the virus. There is an indication that control of the virus may now be underway. The focus will switch to how governments discharged their primary responsibility to maintain the safety and well being of their populations. GRAHAM PERRY MAY 2021 - - https://grahamperryonchina.com/?p=2092

0 notes

shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

Text

Schools Use Software That Blocks LGBTQ+ Content, But Not White Supremacists

Several days ago, Motherboard sent a series of emails from a dummy Gmail account. One read: “Hello, I am going to join the Neo-Nazi group Texas Rebel Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”

The dummy account was being monitored by child surveillance software purchased for $14 per month from Bark, an Atlanta-based company that claims on its homepage to protect more than 5 million children and have prevented 16 school shootings by monitoring everything children type, read, and do on their devices.

Over the course of one day, Motherboard sent 65 emails with the subject line “New group to join” and the name of either a white supremacist group (as determined by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League) or the name of a group advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, or gun control in the body of the message.

Bark only flagged two emails: one that simply said “porn,” the other “Everytown for Gun Safety.”

Driven by marketing campaigns that capitalize on parent fears about school shootings and child predators, tools like Bark are part of a child surveillance industry that has grown rapidly in recent years—despite a drought of evidence that the software actually makes kids safer. Often, the tools claim to use algorithms that filter websites, flag dangerous content, and give parents and schools a virtual eye over the shoulders of kids as they use the internet.

According to Bark CEO Brian Bason, the company’s algorithms performed as intended during Motherboard's investigation. Emails with the subject line “New group to join” and a message stating intent to join a notorious Neo-Nazi group “were correctly not flagged because (based on your description of your test messages) there was no context in the messages–had your messages included hate speech or grooming of the child, I am confident it would have been flagged,” Bason wrote in an email.

“I’m just surprised [Bark] wouldn’t have been trained to notice words like KKK or Nazi. It sounds pretty naive,” Megan Squire, a computer scientist working as a senior fellow for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Motherboard. But even if the company’s algorithms were able to recognize context in even the most blatant statements, she said, they would likely fail to parse the clandestine ways Neo-Nazis talk and recruit—by specifically avoiding hate speech and instead communicating through layers of memes, irony, and multiple levels of in-jokes.

Motherboard also asked Bark for news articles, police reports, or other documents to back up its claim of “16 school shootings prevented.” The company did not provide any evidence for the claim, but removed the statistic from its prominent place at the top of its homepage. Bason said “we rotate these stats” and that “it of course comes with the understanding that we are a very small piece of those situations.”

The Bark homepage has been saved 39 times by the Internet Archive during 2021. While other statistics on the page have changed, the school shootings-prevented number was displayed prominently every day until the company responded to Motherboard on April 22.

The failure of algorithmic parenting to do what it says on the label—block access to naughty websites and alert adults to potentially dangerous behavior—goes beyond Bark. Motherboard’s investigation suggests that the tools give parents a false sense of security while also blocking children from educational and health material in a manner that pushes up against legal prohibitions against discrimination.

“None of these things are actually built to increase student safety, they’re theater,” Lindsay Oliver, an activism project manager for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has compiled a surveillance self defense guide for students, told Motherboard. “They leave out the marginalized, they punish the marginalized, and they just don’t work.”

Your identity is pornography

Child surveillance tools are notable not just for what content they fail to flag, but also what they do consider dangerous or prohibited.

Ezra is a student at a high school that uses Securly to filter which websites can be accessed on school-issued devices. While doing research for a recent school project and editing a Wikipedia article about a feminist business, he discovered that the filter was regularly preventing him from viewing websites that most students and educators—particularly at his school—would consider valuable educational resources.

Ezra, who asked to retain partial anonymity, shared a list of nearly 60 websites with Motherboard that Securly’s web filter blocked. They include health resources for LGBTQ teens, news outlets that cover LGBTQ issues, educational resources about sexually transmitted diseases, and pages like gayrealtynetwork.com, whose only offense appears to be having the word “gay” in its URL.

Screenshot of a blocked LGBTQ health website that has been labeled "pornography" by Securly

Securly labeled glma.org, the website for an association of health professionals advancing LGBTQ equality as “pornography,” according to screenshots Ezra provided. It determined that transcendingboundaries.org, the page for a conference on bisexual, transgender, and inter-sex issues, was both “other adult content” and “hate.”

Securly has engineered its PageScan algorithm so that it shouldn’t automatically flag content just because it has words like gay or lesbian, Mike Jolley, the company’s director of K-12 safety operations, told Motherboard. “That’s the best way I can sum up what we’ve done to ensure we aren’t blocking a student who needs help or legitimate information. It’s still a work in progress, but we have made great strides.”

Jolley said that when he tested Securly’s filter on April 21, after being contacted by Motherboard, many of the sites on Ezra’s list were no longer blocked. The company also decided to unblock several that were still inaccessible at that time.

Ezra said he was fortunate that, in his school and community, he felt comfortable raising the issue of discriminatory filtering with administrators, who contacted Securly and asked that the sites be unblocked. But several weeks later, when he went back to try the sites again, Ezra found that the algorithm had reverted and was once again blocking some of the pages.

“I just imagine a kid in middle school who is questioning their sexuality or just wants information and the big thing pops up that says ‘this website is blocked’ and the reason is pornography,” he said. Ezra worries that kids may internalize that discrimination, and that the surveillance may even endanger them if they live in homes where it might be dangerous to ask questions about sexuality and gender. “A lot of students at school are exploring knowledge in a way that they aren’t the rest of the time.”

Filtering morality

Under the federal Children’s Internet Protection Act, passed in 2000, public schools and libraries are required to implement web filtering in order to be eligible for certain funds. But the law—which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 after a coalition of libraries challenged it for censorship—offers few specifics about what form that web filtering should take, and what kind of content children should be prohibited from seeing.

As a result, public institutions and the companies that provide web filtering have for years used their own value judgements and opaque algorithms to decide what kind of information is acceptable. That’s allowed public institutions to do things like block whole categories of the internet, such as websites related to “alternative sexuality/lifestyles,” simply by checking a box, according to a 2017 study that analyzed web filtering policies at public schools and libraries in Alabama.

Courts have ruled that public school web filters cannot be used to purposefully block access to certain protected content, such as LGBTQ health and educational information. But those decisions haven’t addressed whether algorithms—which often make it impossible to prove specific human intent—violate the First Amendment when they block students from accessing the same kinds of websites.

Through public records requests, Motherboard obtained a list of the websites that two school districts in Virginia—Alexandria City Public Schools and Rockingham County Public Schools—have either manually blacklisted or whitelisted using Securly. The documents demonstrate the kinds of censorship decisions surveillance algorithms make, and how they create a learning environment subject to the values of school administrators, whose opinions are then fed back into the algorithms.

According to the documents, Rockingham County administrators had to manually block k-k-k.com themselves. Websites for the U.S. State Department, Library of Congress, Virginia state agencies, the Washington Post, and other news outlets were on the list of pages the district had to specifically allow access to. In Alexandria, administrators had to manually allow access to teenshealth.org, a website that includes information on a variety of health issues, including safe sex practices, and unwomen.org, the United Nation’s page for women.

Jolley said that Securly does not assess .gov websites, and that those and others on the whitelists may have been imported from the districts’ previous web filter.

Meanwhile, Rockingham County students can currently access the website of The Family Foundation, an organization that advocates for discriminating against transgender students, because the district manually whitelisted it. But students cannot visit ratemyteachers.com, a forum for feedback on teachers and classes, because it was manually blocked.

“The same story”

Computer science and educational technology experts interviewed for this article told Motherboard that parents and school districts considering placing their faith in algorithmic monitoring tools like Bark and Securly should remember that even the largest tech companies with the most advanced machine learning systems still struggle to identify hate speech and prevent algorithmic discrimination.

Facebook, despite years of criticism for platforming hate speech, still fails to rein in dangerous content. Google has been accused of algorithmically discriminating against LGBTQ content on YouTube, while also failing to identify common phrases used by white supremacist groups.

“It’s the same story over and over,” Chris Gilliard, a Harvard Shorenstein Center fellow who researches digital redlining and surveillance, told Motherboard. “A company makes inflated claims about what it can do, and somehow manages to not only not do the thing it claims to do, but also keeps out legitimate pursuits.”

Schools Use Software That Blocks LGBTQ+ Content, But Not White Supremacists syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

0 notes

lindafrancois · 4 years ago

Text

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do? (Building The Correct Workout Plan)

If you’ve ever asked yourself “Am I doing too little or too many reps and sets?” then this guide is for you.

This article is part of our Strength 101 series, and we’ll show you exactly how to determine the number of repetitions and sets for specific exercises, so you can build your own workout routine.

It sounds easy, but depending on your goals, the answer to “How many reps and sets should I do?” can vary greatly.

We work hand-in-hand with our Online Coaching Clients to create the correct workout program that suits their goals, needs, and available equipment

Never wonder how many sets and reps again! Let us build a program that fits YOU. Learn more:

In today’s guide on workout programing, we’ll cover (click each to get right to that answer):

What’s the correct number of reps and sets for a workout?

How many reps should I do?

How many sets should I do?

How to build a workout routine.

The Correct Number of Reps and Sets for a Workout

youtube

As Coach Jim mentions above, “Rep” stands for “repetition” and defines one complete motion of an exercise.

And one “set” is a consecutive number of reps without stopping.

And one “smorgasbord” is a buffet of food.

This has nothing to do with this article, but it’s a fun word to say.

As we mentioned throughout our Strength Training 101 series, how many reps and sets you should do is really going to be dependent on your goals.

Oh, you’re just starting your strength training journey?

Well, make sure you grab our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. I’ll send it to you for free when you join the Rebellion (that’s us!).

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

Alright, let’s break down reps and sets for you, because I can see you still have questions.

How Many Reps Should I Do?

Remember, “Rep” stands for “repetition” and is more or less one complete exercise.

Like a push-up:

So “2 sets of 5 reps of push-ups” means, “5 consecutive push-ups, a rest, then another 5 consecutive push-ups.”

Cool?

Cool.

When deciding on how many sets and reps to do, it begins by asking “What am I trying to get out of this workout?!“

We’ll group different rep ranges into different goals, for:

Muscular endurance

Muscle size

Overall strength

I’m going to share with you the commonly accepted answers, but they ALL come with a HUGE caveat that I’ll share at the end of this article.

I’m going to start with the “widely accepted numbers here.”

Let’s chat about the following:

1) MUSCULAR ENDURANCE (long-lasting muscle) – Endurance means encouraging and training your muscles to perform for an extended period of time. This means doing a LOT of repetitions.

People targeting muscular endurance will aim for a range from 12 to 20+ reps.

Obviously, you won’t be able to lift heavy amounts of weight for 20+ reps, so you’ll be lifting lighter loads.

Also, because you’re targeting endurance improvements, you want to decrease the amount of rest between sets: 30 seconds to a minute.

If you are a runner or cyclist, strength training with higher repetitions can help your muscles develop more endurance as well!

Reps for increased muscular endurance: 12+

2) MUSCLE SIZE (“sarcoplasmic hypertrophy”) – This is for guys or gals looking to build larger muscles.

The scientific term here is “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy,” as it focuses on increasing the amount of sarcoplasm, the non-contractile fluid found in your muscle.

Up to 30% of your muscle’s size is attributed to the sarcoplasm, so focusing on this type of hypertrophy helps build overall size.

If you’re looking to get bigger:

Target a rep range of 6 – 12 reps per set.

Aim for 3-5 sets.

Rest time between sets should be short, about 60 to 90 seconds.

Reps for increased muscle size: 6-12

3) STRENGTH AND POWER (“myofibril hypertrophy”) – If you’re training for specific sports and just want to get stronger with more power – but not necessarily get bigger, this is the strategy for you.

This type of training focuses on strengthening the myofibril, the contractile part of the muscle, hence the name “myofibril hypertrophy.”

For this, target reps in the 1-5 range. And yep, that means you’re going to be picking up heavy weights, focusing all that concentrated effort into just one or a few reps.

Something to note: not only are you shocking your muscles, but you’re also putting a lot of pressure on your body’s central nervous system.

Here’s that caveat I was discussing:

A 2015 study [1] called into question the best rep strategy for building muscle or size:

“It appears that high-intensity resistance (sets of 3-5 reps) training stimulates greater improvements in some measures of strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men during a short-term training period [compared to sets of 8-10 reps].”

What this means: Do not freak yourself out by worrying if you should do 4 sets or 5 sets of 8 reps or 10 reps.

Our advice would be to START with lighter weight, with more reps as you learn the movement for safety’s sake. Then decide if you want to stay at higher reps and lower weight or vice versa.

You do you, because either one will get you results!

What this means: Don’t overthink it.

Pick up heavy stuff for 3-4 sets of 5 reps. Pick up a weight that is heavy enough that you can only complete your specified number of reps.

Challenge yourself on bodyweight exercises, either by making them more difficult, adding weight, or doing high reps to failure.

And then do more next time.

This forces it too to adapt and become stronger, which is critical for strength and power.[2]

This is how powerlifters train:

Low reps

High weight

Long time between sets

You need to increase your rest period because lifting this heavy fatigues the central nervous system and you’ll need longer to recover.

You might be waiting 3-5 minutes between sets when training in this fashion.

TO RECAP, these are the rep ranges you should be considering:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

I realize this is a lot to figure out, so if you are somebody – like me – who just wants to be told what to do and outsource all the worry of “am I doing the right workout for my goals?” I got you covered!

I’d love to learn your story, and then build a custom program that fits your goals. We’ll help you with your nutrition, your workouts, and even check in regularly to keep you accountable!

Let us answer all of your training questions and create a program just for you. Details here!

How Many Sets Should I Do?

As explained above, a “set” describes a group of repetitions performed for an exercise without stopping.

For example, if you do 10 squats right now, you just did 1 SET of 10 reps of squats.

So let’s talk about the “correct” number of sets per exercise.

Here’s the simple answer “3-5 work sets of a given exercise.”[3]

Why 3 to 5, and why not 6 or 10 sets?

This answer of “3 to 5” has a story behind it.

3 sets became popular in 1948 when the physician Thomas L. DeLorme suggested 3 sets of 10 reps to be an effective form of weight training.

Delorme came to his conclusion after prescribing strength training to his injured patients, as a way for them to rebuild muscle and rehabilitate.

He recorded and analyzed their improvements. When Delorme published his findings, it was one of the first academic looks on how to strength train.

As one of the pioneers, Delorme’s recommendations stuck and became “permanently etched into the collective subconscious of the fitness community.”[4]

And THAT’S the history of 3 sets at 10 repetitions…

I do want to point out that more volume (more sets of exercises) per week resulted in more mass compared to less volume (fewer sets of exercises) in this study[5].

Anyways!

Don’t stress yourself out by worrying if you should do 5 sets or 4 sets or 3 sets.

The correct answer is: however many sets you can do, with your target rep range, without compromising your form.

“STEVE, JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO.”

FINE! Pick a weight that feels light to you, and then do 3 sets of 10 reps.

(Learn how much weight should I be lifting”).

And then next time?

Do more than last time:

Did 3 sets of 10 reps of a 65 lb bench press? Do 3 sets of 8 at 75 lbs this week!

Did 3 sets of 5 pull-ups last week? Go for 3 sets of 6 this week.

This is a great place to start as you start to figure out your weight training routine and goals:

There is evidence of 3 or 5 sets performed leading to more gains in endurance, size, and strength when compared to just doing 1 set per workout.[6] If you are trying to bulk up quickly, or just build more muscle, volume is the name of the game.

This makes sense. You are forcing your muscles to do more work overall.

So, if after your third set you feel like you can do a fourth, go for it. And if you have the energy, get that 5th set.

Any more than that, and you should be thinking about increasing your weight instead. 6+ sets of an exercise with lots of rest makes for a LONG workout, and we are trying to be efficient here.[7]

If you’re not sure if “3 sets of 10” or “5 sets of 5” is right for you, we got you covered.

We’ll build a program that fits your goals, and then adjust it each month based on your progress. Never guess or wonder what you should be doing again.

No more guesswork. Just results. And accountability. And nerd humor. Learn about our Coaching Program:

How to Build a Workout Routine!

Now that you have “edumacated” yourself on how your specific goals influence the number of reps per set, and what sets actually are, you can build your workout program around this info.

TO RECAP, aim for 3-5 sets in the following rep rangers per exercise based on your goals:

Endurance: 12+ reps per set.

Hypertrophy (bigger muscles): 6-12 reps per set.

Strength (dense, powerful muscle): 1-5 reps per set.

Oh, remember that “caveat to all of this” I mentioned above?

A recent study showed that heavier weight for low reps created more muscle mass than a higher volume (lower weight for more reps).[8]

Studies show that bodyweight training exercises can build muscle, but require a LARGE number of sets per rep, and pushing oneself to absolute failure.[9]

What this means: studies suggest targeting heavier weight with fewer reps for big lifts like squats and deadlifts to build muscle, while targeting high reps to absolute failure with bodyweight exercises for muscle building.

Oh, and Nutrition is still 90% of the equation!

Your rep range doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think, so don’t overthink it!

Here are some examples:

If you’re trying to build muscle and get bigger, doing sets of 3 or sets of 5 or sets of 10 will ALL help you get bigger, if you’re eating enough to get bigger!

If you’re trying to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if you do sets of 15 or sets of 5 if you are consistently overeating by 1,000 calories a day. You need to eat the right number of calories.

It doesn’t matter if you train like a bodybuilder, you ALSO need to eat enough food to provide your muscles with enough calories to rebuild themselves bigger and stronger! This is the biggest mistake I see skinny people make when trying to bulk.

This brings me to my final point: because nutrition is 90% of the equation, your sets and reps don’t matter nearly as much as you think they do!

All that matters? Doing MORE this workout than the last workout.

That’s how you build muscle and strength and burn fat: “progressive overload.”

One more rep than last time.

Doing one more set than last time.

Picking up a weight that’s 5 lbs. heavier than last week.

Progressive overload is a concept that Coach Jim explains in this video:

youtube

So get out of your own head, and START TODAY:

1) GET HELP: If you want expert guidance and accountability so you don’t have to figure out all of this stuff on your own, I got you.

Click the red button below to get the details about our amazing online coaching program:

Put an expert in your pocket. Wait, that came out wrong. Learn about our Online Coaching App:

2) FIGURING IT OUT OUT ON YOUR OWN!

Download our free Strength Training 101 Guide! You get it free when you join our Rebellion (the name of our awesome free online community). Sign up in the box below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

3) WORKOUTS YOU CAN DO NOW:

New to strength training? Read our entire Strength 101 series.

Starting barbell training? Go to our “beginner weight training” workouts.

BRAND new to any training? Start with this bodyweight routine, and aim for 3 sets of 10. Work on your form!

Remember: the goal should be to get stronger each workout.

Write down what you did last time, and then do MORE this time.

By continually challenging your muscles to do more, they’ll have to adapt by getting bigger, stronger, burning more calories, etc.

There’s a lot of different truths and fallacies on plateaus and how your muscles can get “used” to working out and stop growing.

If that’s something you’re battling, here’s a way to continue making progress:

Spend a week in a different rep range with different amounts of weight to throw them off.

This will introduce a little chaos into the system, which could be a good thing…unless you’re Batman.

After a week of mixing it up, go back to your regularly scheduled routine and you’ll be right back on track.

Make sure you know what you want, and then design a plan to get there.

-Steve

PS: If you want a nice shiny app to tell you EXACTLY how many seps and reps to do, our shiny new app will do just that!

You can sign-up for a free 7-day trial to Nerd Fitness Journey, which will build a workout around your experience level!

Jump in right here:

###

All photo citations: Evel Knievel, Me riding a bicycle, Bicylelifter, Project Story 1/3

Footnotes ( returns to text)

The effect of training volume and intensity on improvements in muscular strength and size in resistance-trained men: study

If you’re interested, check out this article from Science Daily on the role the central nervous system plays in strength training.

A work set just means a set where you’re training with your heaviest weight. This doesn’t include any warm-up sets.

You can read the history of Thomas L. DeLorme and his pioneering work right here.

Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men: study

Check out the study on more sets leading to more gains right here.

Exception: if you are doing endurance work, you may want to do only 2 sets with more reps. Less recovery time will test your muscle’s endurance.

The effect of training volume and intensity on improvements in muscular strength and size in resistance-trained men: study

Effects of Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy in Well-Trained Men: analysis

The post Blog first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do? (Building The Correct Workout Plan) published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/

0 notes

tenorthrone87-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Cryo Consoles.

females Are utilizing vaginal tightening Up cream On Their Faces as Opposed To Botox.

Content

Do I need a General Practitioner reference For Facelift surgical Procedure?

Which Device and Also Applicator Does Ice Aesthetic use To deal With abdominal Fat?

Face & Neck.

appointment Today.

pick From 13 places supplying vaginal tightening Up In Uk.

Applications as Well As treatments.

With Hifu, you can revitalize your skin as well as look much easier. With surgical renovations, there are always risks of bleeding, infection, embolism, discomfort, scarring, and also anaesthesia threats.

Do I required a General Practitioner referral For Facelift surgical Procedure?

youtube

Throughout the consultation process, your cosmetic surgeon will assess your face by checking and lifting the face skin, to assess skin laxity, quality and also motion. They will certainly make a note of any kind of importance or weakness of the jawline and also the distribution of fat over the face, cheeks and neck.

Numerous high account clinics as well as top visual appeals doctors use a tool called ULTRAFORMER III, this is a Medical Quality CE marked system. This HIFU equipment targets the top dermis 1.5 mm, reduced dermis 3.00 mm and most importantly the SMAS at 4.5 mm. The SMAS is the layer that sits in between your muscular tissue and also your fat layer.

Hifu makes use of multiple ultrasound beams to permeate deep right into the skin.

Your cosmetic surgeon will certainly move the beam of light around to make sure that it warms as well as destroys the cancer cells.

If you have a big prostate you may be supplied various other treatments before you have HIFU.

Hormone therapy does include negative effects which will be explained at the time.

Often your medical professional will certainly suggest hormone treatment for a number of months to reduce the prostate and make therapy simpler.

The beam of light treats one small location of the prostate at a time, concerning the dimension of a grain of rice.

Quickly after the therapy, you might experience moderate redness or swelling, which will progressively recede over the next few hrs. You're cost-free to go house and resume your normal daily activities immediately after the treatment. Ultrasound power is then provided to the target location in other words pulses for roughly 30 to 90 minutes. They might use a topical anesthetic lotion before beginning treatment. HIFU isn't advised for people with infections and open sores at the target area, severe or cystic acne, as well as metallic implants in the therapy area.

We'll provide you a client info booklet, which provides extensive details on your procedure and aftercare. This is a vital resource and also we require patients to review the comprehensive information it contains. You'll additionally locate lots of helpful details right here on our internet site-- you can check out our specialists' certifications, THG's plastic surgery experience as well as inspiring stories from a few of our people. Our client treatment planners are available to discuss any type of concerns you may have. And when you feel all set, they can schedule you in for your procedure.

When can you color your hair after a facelift?

When can I color my hair after a facelift? The incisions from a facelift need to heal before you color your hair. This process of healing for the incisions takes approximately 2-4 weeks, so the timing of coloring of your hair is somewhere between 2-4 weeks.

Which Device as Well As Applicator Does Ice Aesthetic use To deal With abdominal Fat?

The majority of the time, this will not be recognizable to anybody besides on your own. To ensure you are not displeased with the outcomes, we advise that you speak openly with your specialist during your consultation about your wanted results, as well as see to it they comprehend your assumptions. There are a number of different techniques your specialist can utilize for a facelift procedure. You will have met with your BAAPS/BAPRASsurgeon for an assessment before the surgical procedure to go over the different choices, as well as what strategy would certainly be most suitable for you to achieve your goals. This also relies on whether you have extra procedures, such as a neck lift, carried out at the same time. Below is a review on what will take place on the day of your facelift procedure.

How much does a facelift and Necklift cost?

How much does a facelift cost?ProcedurePrice EstimateMiniFacelift/ S-lift/MACS lift$7,990Full (SMAS) Facelift and Neck lift$14,900Facial Rejuvenation: includes full SMAS facelift/necklift, browlift, and upper eyelid correction.$16,990-$17,9901 more row•29 Sep 2020

According to theAmerican Culture for Aesthetic Cosmetic Surgery, HIFU and other nonsurgical options to facelifts have seen a major rise in popularity over the last couple of years. The complete variety of procedures done has actually increased virtually 65 percentbetween 2012 and 2017. There may be small inflammation to the cured location following the session. At many patients may really feel tingling and also inflammation to the touch after the treatment. One of the benefits of this treatment is that there is no downtime.

Where does the fat go when you freeze it?

When the fat cells are frozen, they crystallize and go through apoptosis (cell death) of fat tissue without damage to surrounding skin. When the fat cells die, the body identifies the dead cells as waste and eliminate the waste through its normal process.

And I was not dissatisfied, they were outstanding as well as my skin really felt outstanding also. We have many customer HIFU Facial examines for you to check out in clinic to check out. We have the ability to provide the HIFU Facial at our bespoke facility based in Greenhithe, simply 17 mins from St Pancras Station. You can have a Botox therapy a week or so after the HIFU treatment. You need to review this with the doctor that will certainly be providing your Botox though, due to the fact that she or he might feel in a different way. Yes, the HIFU facial is secure provided it done by a seasoned as well as qualified specialist. Surgery can be extremely expensive, high-risk and also susceptible to difficulties.

There is likewise a risk that after a facelift, your face attributes will certainly look unbalanced. For example, the position of your earlobe may be slightly higher than the opposite side.

Go into the information below as well as we'll communicate to prepare a time for your cost-free consulation. Our specialists will clarify the treatment, how it functions as well as the results you can expect. Failure to terminate or reschedule prior to 2 days will certainly cause you waiving the therapy. You can update your subscription to a higher plan at any time with an updated arrangement. My HIFU treatment was a terrific experience with amazing outcomes. We help clients, much like you, be the best version of yourself without the requirement for cosmetic surgery or intrusive procedures. Treatment costs vary depending upon the technology a center makes use of, some equipments are extra effective, less uncomfortable and also a lot more reliable than others.

We also have a 14-day 'cooling down' period in place, which indicates that if you change your mind about the treatment after reserving within that period, you will not be charged. On the day of your treatment, your medical team will certainly make your experience as comfy as possible and also you'll satisfy your surgeon once more before the treatment.

HIFU and other nonsurgical options to renovations have seen a significant boost in appeal over the last few years. hifu Leicester of treatments done has actually enhanced by virtually 65 percentbetween 2012 and also 2017. If you're bothered with pain, your specialist may suggest taking, such as advil before treatment.

Can you drink alcohol after Aqualyx?

Abstain from demanding exercise for 5-7 days. Maintain a healthy diet while released fat is being metabolised to avoid fat storage elsewhere. Drink plenty of fluids following treatment and avoid alcohol/non- steroidal anti-inflammatory medication or aspirin for 24 hours.

Silhouette Lift is a non-invasive procedure used to lift and also rearrange drooping mid-face tissue. It is executed as a day case under local anaesthetic, taking about one hour. It is best suited to correcting indicators of ageing in the nasolabial folds, the expression lines and the jawline. Silhouette Soft is a non-invasive procedure used to counteract the effects of facial quantity loss. It can redefine the facial functions in a 30-minute therapy without any incisions and also with marginal downtime. After a plastic surgery, there is constantly the opportunity that you discover you are miserable with the outcomes of your procedure.

Face & Neck.

Facelift surgical procedure involves making lacerations, which usually begin over the hairline at the temples, adhere to the all-natural line before the ear, contour behind the earlobe and also along the lower scalp. Facial tissue and also muscle are then separated, fat might be cut or suctioned and also underlying muscle might be tightened up. The excess skin is pulled up as well as back, trimmed and also sutured into setting. A complete facelift procedure generally takes around 4 hrs under basic anaesthetic. The one-stitch lift treatment is executed as a day case under local anaesthetic. It takes around 30 minutes and involves marginal recovery time.

appointment Today.

How much does fat freezing cost UK?

LipoGlaze Fat Freezing Treatment PricesAREA TO BE TREATEDNORMALLYOUR OFFERUpper or Lower Abdomen (1 area)£250£200Complete Stomach/abdomen (2 areas)£750£400Rear of arms 'Bingo Wings' (2 areas)£600£400Inner thighs or outer thighs (2 areas)£600£4006 more rows

select From 13 locations supplying vaginal tightening In Uk.

https://www.sciontiprostatecenter.com/hifu-pros-and-cons is likewise for those that have actually had surgery in the past to extend the impacts of medical facelifts. Patients in their 40s as well as 50s are the most common age group who have this therapy. For people in their 30s it is generally made use of to stimulate collagen manufacturing and also hence assist delay the aging process. At your appointment, you can book your surgical treatment if you really feel all set, but there's no commitment to proceed. Cosmetic surgery is a big action as well as you may intend to require time to do more research study as well as think of your choice.

How do you permanently get rid of fat cells?

CoolSculpting 1. CoolSculpting is an FDA-cleared freezing technology that causes fat cells to crystallize, thus permanently removing unwanted fat cells. 2. CoolSculpting is a great option for people interested in targeting areas of fat that have not been eliminated with diet and exercise alone. More items•

There are presently no testimonials offered for this certain treatment. A small amount of individuals report swelling, tingling or inflammation to touch. It is additionally suitable for those aged 60+ gave the level of laxity is not too great.

youtube

We suggest you do your homework on the innovation that's utilized. Lots of facilities in London as well as nationwide have the Ultraformer III or it's sister device ULFIT, make certain it's the best tool. This SMAS layer is the real location a cosmetic surgeon would certainly pull and also tighten under a surgical operation utilizing a knife. HIFU targets this layer with no medical cuts, giving the individual a no-downtime facelift. Which indicates you can gain excellent outcomes without any threats related to surgery, such as infection, scarring, swelling and so on . Treatments are quick and also results can be seen instantly for some clients, relying on the level of laxity your skin has.

What can you eat after a facelift?

Eat Your Way to a Healthy Recovery after Plastic SurgeryMore water. Drinking more water is critical to helping you heal. Vegetables and fruits. As with any diet, fruits and vegetables are recommended, especially dark leafy greens. Omega-3 fats. Spinach. Eggs. alternative called Hi-Fu .

This evaluation will certainly assist determine top priorities in the treatment and also what result you can anticipate. We want you to make a totally educated choice before you go ahead with surgery, so we provide a. private appointment at your regional facility absolutely free. At your examination, you'll consult with a cosmetic surgeon to review the facelift alternatives offered as well as whether surgery is one of the most suitable treatment for your needs. You'll be able to ask inquiries about all facets of the surgical procedure, from the different types of facelift to aftercare as well as the outcomes you can expect. You'll additionally fulfill your client treatment organizer, who will certainly be with you every step of the journey.

0 notes

khalilhumam · 5 years ago

Text

The six government reforms we need in 2021

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-six-government-reforms-we-need-in-2021/

The six government reforms we need in 2021

By Paul C. Light If Joe Biden is elected president and the federal government is to meet rising public concerns for faithful execution, he must make reform part of his agenda. It is one thing for him to promise a twenty-first-century government that is open and competent, as so many candidates have over the years. It is quite another to offer specifics on the size and cause of problems and provide a clear list of possible solutions that might help the government deliver on presidential promises. Consider five commitments toward that goal. And while these ideas are more likely to be implemented under a Biden administration—given President Trump’s disinterest in such approaches during his first four years—the same ideas would be useful if the president were reelected and opted to shift dramatically in his approach to a government reform agenda. 1. Expand the make-government-work-for-the-people plan to include government performance Biden’s campaign and lobbying reforms are unlikely to affect day-to-day government performance unless he commits to deep bureaucratic repairs. Americans agree that campaign spending is too high and special interests too strong, but the way to make government work for the people is to give it the resources and authority to do the job well. Biden should also promise to eliminate the backlog of high-risk problems that continue to undermine federal performance, while reinforcing and extending the Obama administration’s commitment to evidence-based policymaking. 2. Reinforce the ethics system to protect against deceit Dismantlers and rebuilders are more likely than other Americans to believe that special interests run the country, and they blame both parties for the horror stories about members of Congress and presidential aides who engage in misconduct. They know the legislative process is broken and want it fixed. Call it worse than it looks, worse than you think, or even the worst of the worst, the two groups want an end to insider dealing and the gridlock it produces. They also want effective federal oversight offices, starting with the Office of Government Ethics and Offices of Inspector General. 3. Reinvent government, again by streamlining the organization chart The Biden campaign can find a perfect outline of how to reinvent government again at the University of West Texas “cyber-cemetery.” That is where Gore’s reinventing government papers are archived. Although Gore’s reinventors made significant progress in their first few years, the campaign slowed down with Clinton’s fall from grace. Gore’s long-running reform campaign was widely caricatured at the time as a paradise for bureaucratic wonks and dreamers, but it generated an impressive list of impacts. “We cut government the right way by eliminating what wasn’t needed,” says Gore’s top reinventing aide, Elaine Kamarck, of the bloated hierarchies, duplication, obsolete field offices, needless regulations, and antiquated systems that grew the kudzu strangling federal innovation and productivity. Kamarck endorsed another round of reinventing early in Trump’s first term: “It is time to review the government again and ask the hard questions about what it’s doing and what it should be doing. And it is time to focus on obsolete functions and getting rid of them.” She is right. 4. Squash the Plum Book Most presidential appointees are fully committed to faithfully executing the laws, but their growing numbers create opportunities for misconduct and inefficiency. Biden would do well to swear off the traditional addiction to political plums by promising to eliminate half of the “at-will” positions currently listed in the leadership directories (commonly referred to as the Plum Book). Doing so would draw a sharp contrast with the Trump administration’s use of every available slot to enforce party discipline deep into the federal hierarchy. Along the way, Biden should demand a head-to-head inventory of the workforce—how else to manage it?[1] Congress and the president could call on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management for detailed information on every employee in the government, including hiring dates, promotions, job switches, and performance evaluation; however, that would only be part of the battle. They would still have no idea about the employees who show up to work under contracts and grants. 5. Rebuild the public service The past two years have been especially punishing for the federal public service, and not just because of the shutdown in the winter of 2018–19. As former Federal Reserve Board Chairman and founder of the Volcker Alliance, Paul A. Volcker and I argued soon after that shutdown ended, the federal workforce needs immediate action as its workforce ages and the competition for talent increases: Congress and the president must repair the federal government’s outdated personnel system. It has been forty years since Congress and President Carter inked the last major civil service reform, and the ossification is taking its toll on productivity and retention.

Congress and the president must reassure young Americans that the federal government is a good place to work. The millennials and Gen Zs are not saying “show me the money” but rather, “show me the impact.”

Democrats and Republicans must work to restore “regular order” in the federal budgeting process. There will always be an element of brinksmanship and uncertainty associated with the appropriations process, but the use of shutdown budgeting must end.

Biden must honor the federal government’s pledge to fund the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program by addressing continued mismanagement at the Department of Education.

Congress and the president must make implementation a bigger issue in the policy process. As long as our leaders work to design and enact “high policy” such as the Affordable Care Act and immigration reform, they devote negligible attention to the nut and bolts of action.[2]

Volcker dedicated his life to calling the nation’s best and brightest to public service. It is the perfect time for Biden to start drafting a law built around Paul A. Volcker’s long commitment to public service reform. Naming a statute for the chairman of two historic national commissions on public service would not just honor promises to make government work for the people, it would encourage Americans to give the federal government the chance to regain their trust. 6. Try Common Sense If vision without execution is hallucination, as Mr. Volcker often said, execution without vision is bureaucratic sloth. As public administration scholar Philip K. Howard contends, effective government flourishes with policies based on the human capacity to make appropriate decisions for the public good. Instead of relying on “bureaucratic verbiage,” Howard urges the federal government to embrace a “new operating philosophy built on the bedrock of individual responsibility and accountability.”[3]

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to my research team and many colleagues for their help in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data presented in this report. Of special note are my colleagues at New York University, especially my lead research scientist in the effort, Jie Ding, the survey team at SSRS, Nick Taborek at Nation Analytics, John Hudak, Christine Stenglein and my many colleagues at the Brookings Institution Center for Effective Public Management, and the Volcker Alliance team that shepherded so much of my past work on the topics presented here. [1] The need for careful accounting was highlighted by then Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in late 2014 in a tense House Budget Committee meeting as the committee began debating a cut in the number of federal employees. Pushed forward by the Association of Federal Government Employees (AFGE), Van Hollen asked the Congressional Budget Office enlighten the debate by providing a side-by-side analysis of budget savings from reductions in the number of federal and contractors: “I ask that when future reports include options to reduce the number of federal employees that they also consider options to achieve savings in the contracted workforce. This would allow Congress to consider tradeoffs between all aspects of government operations.” CBO refused the request, noting that it was unaware of any comprehensive database that contained the information, which was why Van Hollen asked the agency to build it. This exchange was summarized in an AFGE newsletter on December 11, 2014. It is useful to note that the methodologies used to generate estimates of contract and grant employment for this report had already been tested in a 2006 report from my Organizational Performance Initiative. See Paul C. Light, “The New True Size of Government,” The Organizational Performance Initiative, New York University, Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, August 2006. [2] Americans showed strong support for the public service during the historical government shutdown in late 2018, but have long viewed government as a good place to work and often cited as positives the pay, job security, chance to make a difference, and helping people in need. Moreover, when asked whether they would like to see their child pursue a career in government, roughly half of Americans endorse the choice. Not surprisingly, dismantlers have been the most likely to answer “no” to that question over the years, while streamliners, rebuilders, and expanders have been more favorable. In 2016, for example, 66 percent of dismantlers said “no,” while 45 percent of streamliners, 52 percent of rebuilders, and 65 percent of expanders said “yes.” For the recent trend line on this question, see the Pew Research Center’s 2015 survey, Beyond Distrust, page 42. According to Pew, support for a career in government rose from 43 percent in 1997 to 56 percent in 2010 before dropping to 48 percent in 2015. My 2016 survey showed a further drop to 44 percent, a move that was likely a response to polarization surrounding the 2016 campaign. [3] Philip K. Howard, Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left, (New York: W.W. Norton, 2019), 161.

0 notes

kathleenseiber · 4 years ago

Text

Ventilating complaints about air standards

The world has finally accepted that the COVID-19 virus is spread on the air, and mainly indoors. So why haven’t ventilation standards been updated for buildings?

This article first appeared in Cosmos Weekly on 30 July 2021. For more stories like this, subscribe to Cosmos Weekly.

Australia is in the grips of another COVID-19 outbreak. This time, the highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has plunged many into lockdown and put the nation on high alert.

“Well over a year into the pandemic, there hasn’t seen any progress whatsoever [in Australia] to tackle this,” Morawska says. “No one mentions the word ventilation.”

The latest outbreak has once again exposed the gaps in our hotel quarantine system and highlighted flaws in building design and ventilation system.

These experts’ exasperation is exacerbated because the engineering solutions to rid indoor spaces of airborne pathogens already exist – they just need to be installed or upgraded.

What needs to be done?

Traditional infection control pyramid adapted from the US Centers for Disease Control. Credit: Morawska et al/CDC/Environment International

However, the current standards for ventilating indoor public spaces (excluding hospitals) are not designed for infection control.

“We must do something about the [building industry] standards.”

Hanmer says revising construction codes to improve ventilation standards to control for airborne infections would be a good start.

“But the problem is that new buildings are only a very small fraction of the total population of buildings,” he says.

“Clearly, the application of [national construction] codes in mechanically ventilated buildings hasn’t been as good as it should be.”

How can it be done?

Increasing ventilation rates to create greater airflow through rooms and buildings is one way to minimise infection risk indoors.

Portable air purifiers may help. Credit: Onurdongel/Getty

While experts deliberate over exactly how much ventilation is needed to reduce infection rates, Morawska says there is no magic number because it depends on how the building is used.

Engineering level controls to reduce the environmental risks for airborne transmission. Credit: Morawska et al/Environment International

“It’s not just about increasing ventilation rates,” she says. We need smarter systems that remove the virus or any other contaminants but do not increase energy use.”

“We need to make sure that naturally ventilated buildings with high use have some fallback ventilation,” he says.

Ramping up ventilation is not just a matter of a simple flick of a switch; airflow direction and distribution are also important.

What would it cost?

The cost of improving ventilation system would be far less than the billions of dollars spent each year on influenza and other respiratory diseases.

“It can work for most emergency situations. You can supply a lot of air for a short period of time, to reduce infection risk. But for regular times, it’s not economically wise to do that.”

But if countries continue to dismiss the airborne transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, as they have done for decades, then we will suffer the cost of this denial, Morawska says.

“Unless we start putting steps in place now to fix things on the longer term, once the pandemic passes – and it will eventually pass – no one will want to do anything about this,” she says.

“We’ll be left in exactly in the same situation when the next pandemic comes and still dealing with respiratory infections like the cold and flu.”

Subscribe now

Ventilating complaints about air standards published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

0 notes

sheilacwall · 6 years ago

Text

Jesus Walks… in Adidas

Jesus is King has finally dropped. This is Kanye West’s first Christian rap-gospel album since turning into a born-again Christian in April after the hedonistic indulgence of Coachella.

The Lucifer, Mercy and New God Flow producer has given up secular music and has now turned his career toward the servitude of God.

However, his return from hospital and new found faith will flow nicely into his plans to expand his fashion, music & entertainment empire as well as possibly delivering him the top spot in the White House. This is a man not to be underestimated.

Saint Pablo

‘Ye recently turned around a personal debt of $53 million into a nearly $50m profit. Back in 2016, ‘Ye went out cap in hand to Mark Zuckerberg for $1bn for his ideas, but was promptly ignored. Zuckerberg was raised in a Jewish household, although his wife is a Buddhist and he hasn’t publicly stated his faith. But, this wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by ‘Ye and may have pushed Kanye toward his born-again Christian position.

Soon after, the “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” star seemingly finally started listening to his wife.

“My wife said, I can’t say no to nobody, and at this rate we gon’ both die broke,” West raps on Saint Pablo. “Got friends that ask me for money knowin’ I’m in debt, and like my wife said, I still didn’t say no.”

Stronger

Whilst facing the cold shoulder from Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey – the Square & Paypal founder who was raised a Catholic, offered to invest in Kanye early on.

Jay-Z also kicked in a loan of $20m triggering tensions between the two ending in a public feud.

Here’s Jay-Z on “Kill Jay-Z”:

“You dropped outta school, you lost your principles / You gave him 20 million without thinkin’,” Jay-Z raps, seemingly confirming the rumor that he lent West money. “He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f–k was he thinkin’?”

Recently, Kanye has tried to dead the beef with the recent track “Brothers” with Charlie Wilson.

Power

‘Ye never got that billion from Zuckerberg, although they apparently became friends and even performed karaoke together, but it appears West has now healed his own financial woes: His apparel brand Yeezy is a billion-dollar empire, according to Forbes and over the past 12 months, Forbes estimates West has earned over $150 million before taxes. His wealth is due largely to Yeezy’s Adidas deal, a line that is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales in 2019.

The Jordan line does approximately $3 billion in annual sales, so the Yeezy line is catching up fast. If he can latch onto the Christian vote, sales could explode even more rapidly.

Touch the Sky

Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019. This is down from 85% in 1990, 81.6% in 2001, and 12% lower than the 78% reported for 2012. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.

Kenneth Copeland is the number one pastor in the USA and his net worth is $300m. After the backlash for supporting Trump, the natural progression seems to be for Kanye to target the Trump supporters and Christians who make up the large majority of America with around another 20% of the population perhaps open to conversion back to Christianity. It is a huge target market… and that is just America.

Christianity is by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth in 2010.

Jesus is King

The new sound track has been carefully crafted to be sung by large audiences to worship god. With tracks such as “Follow God” and “Use This Gospel”, Kanye is on a mission to convert. He has brought the Church to the streets and into the hills… No Church in the Wild.

His carefully chosen purple hair and purple cloths are to portray himself as an Emperor, clergy-like figure, if not Jesus himself, I don’t think it will be long before Kanye professes himself as a Prophet of some sort.

Kanye pronounced himself “I am a God” back on Yeezus.

I just talked to Jesus He said, “What up, Yeezus?” I said, “Shit—I’m chillin’ Tryna stack these millions” I know he the most high But I am a close high Mi casa, su casa That’s our cosa nostra I am a god I am a god I am a god

Rappers as Jesus

This isn’t new in rap. Check out the images below from Kanye, Nas, Tupac, DMX and The Game.

Jeru the Damaja, who follows the Nation of Islam, like Wu-Tang, Rakim & Brand Nubian, famously wrote a song “Can’t Stop the Prophet”.

Rappers have always seen themselves as street prophets, telling war stories, from Rakim, Nas & KRS-One right back to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five in The Message.

Purple Robes

Throughout history, purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. Many believe this to be true because the rare occurrence of purple in nature made it one of the most expensive color dyes to create.

Purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.

At the time of Jesus, the dye used for making the colour purple, extracted from shell-fish and was one of the most expensive dyes. The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes, usually worn by Emperors. The very fact that purple was an expensive color made it affordable only to the royals. That Jesus was made to put it on before his crucifixion, implies that the Romans were sending a strong signal to the Jews against any coup.

A.D.I.D.A.S.

ADIDAS was founded by German, Adi Dassler (Adolf Dassler). In fact, one of the founders, his brother Rudolf Dassler later went on to found Puma and started a bitter rivalry between the brothers. There is a popular myth among fans (not true) that Adidas stands for All Day I Dream About Sports, whilst in 2003, Killer Mike dropped a hip hop track called A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Sex).

Like many of their fellow citizens, the brothers joined the Nazi party after Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933. Their shoe business remained modest until 1936. In that year, Germany hosted the Olympics.

In an ironic twist, the two party members got legendary African-American runner Jesse Owens to wear their running shoes while competing. Owens went on to win four gold medals during the games. The exposure of their product gave Dassler Shoes a huge boost in sales. You can read more in Sportsweek History.

It does seem ironic, given Kanye’s sex addiction that he would align himself with this particular shoe and his plans are to get the shoes made in America and give “second chances” to inmates.

But, he is going to run into problems with the media as the average wage of a prison inmate ranged between $0.23 and $1.15 an hour – According to the International Labor Organization, in 2000–2011 wages in American prisons

In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, inmates aren’t paid at all for their labor.

The “New Slave” indeed. I initially thought another way to make money would be to make inexpensive Jesus style sandals and sure enough, I found that is exactly what ‘Ye is planning. They are called “slides” in America and Adidas will be making these from injection moulding and it hasn’t gone unnoticed from Twitter that they are basically prison shoes, but now they are being remarketed as a high fashion item for children of rich kids. That is marketing genius.

Why do the yeezy slides look like the slides worn in prison.. pic.twitter.com/LsR8dbFyqE

— Cyn ☕️ (@Kingxxcyn) October 17, 2019

ADIDAS YECHEIL

The first shoe in Ye’s collection is the Yecheil, which is a Hebrew masculine given name meaning “May God live” or “God shall live”. Several people in the Bible also have this name.

ADIDAS YEEZREEL

For the second shoe of ‘Ye’s collection, there is the“Yeezreel”. It has no exact translation but it seems he might’ve been inspired by the word “Jezreel” which was an ancient Israelite city and fortress originally within the boundaries of the Tribe of Issachar, and later within the northern Kingdom of Israel.

ADIDAS YESHAYA

The third shoe is called the “Yeshaya” which directly translates to “God Is Salvation”. The name Yeshaya (Yesha’yahu) translates from Hebrew to English as the name Isaiah, who was one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament, and the author of the Book of Isaiah. He was from Jerusalem and probably lived in the 8th century BC.

Many of these shoes use Adidas “Cloud” foam, so ‘Ye and his fans are figuratively walking on clouds.

Click the pic to get the best prices on Adidas below

Through the Wire – Prison Reform

Kim Kardashian announced her decision to study law back in April. Since then, she’s met with President Trump to discuss prison reform, teamed up with the 90 Days of Freedom campaign, and is producing a documentary on the subject.

CNN reported that Kim Kardashian West helped free 17 inmates in 90 days.

Kanye West has donated $1m to prison reform, but is now getting US prison workers to make his shoes at 25% of the cost of having his shoes made in China, unless somehow, he is quadrupling the prison wage.

There will be Church factions and sections of the media who will most likely attack Mr. West for essentially using slave labour in prisons to increase profit. Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever: Average hourly wages hit $3.60 in 2017 compared to around $1 for an American prison worker.

Kanye West’s Interview with Zane Lowe

If you don’t want to watch the lengthy interview below, scroll down for a quick summary.

youtube

In the interview Kanye talks about the following:

How billboards are guilty of sex trafficking

How he became a born-again Christian in April after Coachella

Why he wants to create jobs and bring jobs back to the USA

How he experimented with Domes & living in them then “the man” tore them down as a metaphor for tearing down his ego

How his farm will be growing cotton & wheat

He will employ prisoners to make his shoes as a “second chance”

His respect for founders, especially Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortego (Zara), Elon Musk, James Turell (artist concerned with light & space) and Jack Dorsey (Paypal)

He calls himself a Christian innovator

How his daughter North drives his passion for church

How Sunday Service may become a church and how he may become a Pastor

He is asking people to fast & not have premarital sex

How he had a porn addiction due to seeing Playboy at 5 years old & his sex addiction

People should pray together, fast together, stay together to increase power

Getting stumped by Zane Lowes question on whether he had to work for his 4th house

How white owners controls hip hop

How God is using Kanye to show off

Compares himself to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, diagnosed of Bipolar disorder. This was also the ship in the film The Matrix which “woke” people up

According to the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC and conquered Judah and Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile.

How he will become the President of the United States, perhaps as early as 2024

How Facebook & social media is a disease

How porn is ruining marriages and brainwashing children

How to keep the eternal, imaginative 3 year old at all costs

How he’s undeniably the greatest artist of all time, no question!

How wearing the red cap was a joke on all the liberals as well as Drake living four blocks down from him was also a joke from God.

I guess him wearing blue fur whilst talking and making a blue record is also a joke on the liberals

How he will now rewrite and censor all his old songs for performances

How some of the merchandise money will go to the church

How the Louis Vuitton boss reneging on a handshake to make him the LV don and his wife getting robbed helped put him in a mental hospital

Jokes about being the pastor at Drake’s wedding

How he objects to the censorship of speech of the left

Jesus is King is out now on Spotify, mp3, vinyl & CD

Jesus is Born, another new album, is arriving on Christmas Day this year.

Kanye West’s Journey

There is a bigger story here. How hip hop can be cathartic. Hip hop is bashed left, right and centre in the mainstream media daily, mainly times rightly so, for enforcing stereotypes. But, real hip hop can be a spiritual journey.

Some artists have found solace and teachings much earlier on in their lives such as Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, KRS-One & Jeru the Damaja. Other artists take longer to mature. It seems to me to be better rapping about street crime then taking part in it. This is something most non-hip hop heads seem to not understand. Hip hop is way out the streets, just like a sports contract.

Everyone has their own journey and Kanye’s has taken him into Christianity. If record sales pick up, it will turn into a bigger movement. Time will tell what happens if it “All Falls Down”, streams sour and Adidas sales start to Fade. In such a scenario, it may be very hard for Kanye to stay on the straight and narrow, but I wish him luck. Time will tell.

I’m looking forward to see how he reacts surrounded with Angels in future fashion shows singing his new songs.

youtube

I’ll leave you with the last verse from Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message”, possibly still the greatest hip hop song ever written. The message is as relevant today as it was back in 1982.

A child is born, with no state of mind Blind to the ways of mankind God is smiling on you, but he’s frowning too Cause only God knows, what you go through You grow in the ghetto, living second rate And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate The place, that you play and where you stay Looks like one great big alley way You’ll admire all the number book takers Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money makers Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens And you wanna grow up to be just like them Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers You say I’m cool, I’m no fool But then you wind up dropping out of high school Now you’re unemployed, all null ‘n void Walking ’round like you’re pretty boy floyd Turned stickup kid, look what you done did Got send up for a eight year bid Now your manhood is took and you’re a may tag Spend the next two years as an undercover fag Being used and abused and served like hell Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell It was plain to see that your life was lost You was cold and your body swung back and forth But now your eyes sing the sad sad song Of how you lived so fast and died so young So, don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge I’m trying not to lose my head It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under

Watch Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message

The post Jesus Walks… in Adidas appeared first on Hip Hop World Music.

from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.com/jesus-walks-in-adidas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jesus-walks-in-adidas from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.tumblr.com/post/188656152948

0 notes

abujaihs-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Are Cities’ Housing Policies Making a Difference?

Many Cities Advance Inadequate “Middle Ground” Strategies As the urban affordability crisis increases homelessness and prices out the working and middle-class, cities are responding in various ways. But to paraphrase the Los Angeles Times (“L.A. Spent $619 million on homelessness last year. Has it made a difference,” May 11), are cities making a difference in preserving and increasing housing for the non-rich? Let me put the question another way. When Joe Biden said he would pursue a “middle ground” on climate change, Democrats justifiably went ballistic. We need emergency measures to battle climate change, not half-baked compromises. Yet the infill housing policies of the nation’s most progressive big cities reflect “middle ground” compromises that progressives attack Biden for supporting. Cities backing more housing are allowing luxury homeowners to exclude new apartments from their neighborhoods, the type of inadequate “middle ground” solution that got Biden in trouble. It’s undisputed that long car commutes caused by exclusionary zoning worsen climate change. Yet too many cities are still failing to act. Here’s my take on whether key cities are making a difference. I write about many of these cities in Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. Cities Making A Clear Difference Austin Last week’s unanimous City Council passage of Councilmember Gregorio Casar’s “Affordability Unlocked” Bonus Program opens all neighborhoods to buildings of six units or more that are 50% affordable. The $250 million affordable housing bond voters passed last November will be used to fund the affordable units. Nobody would have predicted one year ago that Austin would pass such a sweeping density bonus/affordable housing measure. The November 2018 elections set Austin on a more pro-housing course, but it took a brilliant policy plan by Casar and the hard work of Austin’s dedicated housing activists for this election win to be translated into new housing policies. Minneapolis Minneapolis’ ending of single-family home zoning last December created a political earthquake. It also set a new standard for other cities. As with Austin, Minneapolis still suffers from affordability issues. The city desperately needs rent control and just cause eviction laws to protect tenants. But the city’s breakthrough on exclusionary zoning has made it easier for other cities to follow. Denver Denver continues to aggressively build more housing, including more affordable units. On March 21, the Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) broke ground for the Walnut Street Lofts, 66 units of permanently affordable housing in the historically African-American Five Points neighborhood. ULC acquired the site in 2011 when the neighborhood was still blighted; it has since become gentrified and has lost nearly a quarter of its black population. I highlight this project as an example of the “land banking” strategy that other cities should emulate. Nonprofits acquire strategic sites without waiting for available construction funding — and before land prices in the area skyrocket (ULC’s Walnut Street site has gone up 600%). I recently urged Richmond, California housing activists to pursue this goal, which also helped preserve the low-income character of my home base in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Colorado state law prevents Denver from enacting rent control and just cause eviction laws. A bill to overturn this preemption was introduced this year.

San Diego No American city has seen a greater recent shift to pro- housing policies than San Diego. And its being driven by a pro-housing Republican mayor and a growing YIMBY movement. Seattle In March, Seattle finally passed its comprehensive Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) plan. I have a chapter on the city’s housing crisis and HALA in my book. Many housing progressives are deeply disappointed that only 6 percent of the city’s single-family neighborhoods (which cover about 65 percent of Seattle) are impacted by the new zoning. As my book describes, the city’s political establishment mistakenly caved into the fuss created by the Seattle Times and homeowner groups to limit the city’s housing needs (another example of wrongly deferring to the “middle ground”). But HALA opened the way for major new housing development which has already shown to have slowed rising rents and home prices. HALA also included a Mandatory Housing Affordability density bonus plan. It grants developers increased height and density in exchange for affordable units with rent control and eviction protections (which state law otherwise bars). The MHA does upzoning the right way, and is a model for other cities. Cities Making Some Difference Berkeley The November 2018 elections set Berkeley on a more pro-housing course. While city commissions remain controlled by housing opponents, student activism has boosted support for housing at City Council meetings. Berkeley is moving toward adopting “missing middle” housing and also building housing on its North Berkeley BART parking lot, though the city opposed Assemblymember David Chiu’s AB 2923 last year that made construction possible. In book talks to Berkeley boomers I have found many support increased density. Most consider themselves environmentalists and increasingly recognize that you can’t fight climate change without building infill housing. Cambridge, MA Cambridge housing activists have been trying to pass a citywide Affordable Housing Overlay. The overlay allows four-story buildings in most residential neighborhoods and seven-story buildings along commercial corridors that already allow for some additional height. Unfortunately, Massachusetts state law requires a 2/3 vote for local zoning changes that increase housing. Majority Council support for the Overlay is not enough, and advocates are still working to secure the 2/3 vote. Massachusetts has a Housing Choice bill to restore majority rule to housing, as the current supermajority requirement is a major contributor to the state building nowhere near as many units as it did in the 1980’s. Los Angeles I have a long chapter on Los Angeles in Generation Priced Out which examines the causes of the city’s affordability crisis and offers solutions. A lot is going on in the city around housing which itself is a good sign. Los Angeles’s population has grown by 1 million since 1970. Yet the city went decades not building anywhere near enough housing or shelters for low-income, working and middle-class residents. The city was left with such an extreme crisis that progress is hard to identify. Those housed or sheltered with the $619 million spent on homeless services in 2018 likely fee the city is making a difference. Those still on the street may feel differently. Similarly, no matter how much affordable housing and market rate projects get built, those forced to live over an hour drive from their job are unlikely to feel that city policies are making a difference. The LA City Council still allows powerful homeowner groups too much power over housing policies. As long as powerful homeowner and real estate interests call the shots, Los Angeles is unlikely to take the stronger measures necessary to make a major visible difference. Portland In March, Portland’s Residential Infill Project, which would re-legalize fourplexes citywide, passed the city’s Planning and Sustainability Commission on a 5-4 vote. The City Council will not vote until the summer—a delay inconsistent with Portland’s extreme affordability crisis. Portland’s fourplex plan goes beyond Minneapolis’ triplexes and would expand affordability. But as with Seattle’s lengthy HALA process, if politicians really saw the housing crisis as an emergency they would pass necessary changes on a much faster timetable. New York City On the Haven Green affordable senior housing project that I write about in my book (aka Elizabeth Street Garden), it appears that Councilmember Margaret Chin and Habitat for Humanity NYC have politically overcome the wealthy and powerful Greenwich Village interests opposed to the project. It’s not over until its over but this combination of a courageous local politician, savvy housing group and local housing activists has won the political fight. Overall, New York City as a whole talks housing affordability but routinely falls short. Critical for many NYC tenants is the outcome of state legislation to expand and strengthen the city’s rent control laws (See the Housing Justice for All campaign which is among the groups holding a sit-in today in the State Legislature chambers in Albany) Oakland Oakland is enjoying an unprecedented housing boom. I do not put it in the top category solely because when thousands of units were approved the city lacked an inclusionary housing law mandating affordable units. The city will regret this. San Francisco San Francisco suffered a steep drop in new housing construction from 2017-2018, as rising construction costs and the city’s glacial housing approval process took a toll. Although Mayor London Breed is arguably the nation’s most pro-housing big city mayor, the Board of Supervisors regularly uses its power to stop projects.

Breed is backing charter amendments that will expedite affordable and teacher housing, and is openly critical of all the hoops and hurdles the city foists upon builders. But San Francisco remains a city where affordable apartments are banned on most buildable land, and where “progressives” align with luxury homeowners to prevent new apartments. The Big Picture Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom followed his May Revise budget talk by saying about housing, “If people are not willing to do what I think is right and address the issue that defines more than any other issue … the reason our poverty rates are so high … address the dream, to address the middle class crisis, we have to address this issue. Otherwise we’re fooling ourselves and I don’t want to be part of that charade for the next eight years.” We need to stop fooling ourselves about housing. That means replacing “we can’t build our way out of the housing crisis” (which nobody I know believes we can) with “we must build enough housing to meet population and jobs growth.” The middle ground is the wrong place to be on housing and climate change, and cities must immediately start doing more on both. By Randy Shaw Read the full article