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didanawisgi · 3 years ago

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Note that views expressed in this opinion article are the writer’s personal views and not necessarily those of TrialSite

I always get vaccinated. I have been fully vaccinated with the Moderna COVID vaccine. My three daughters have all been vaccinated.

I recently learned that these vaccines have likely killed over 25,800 Americans (which I confirmed 3 different ways) and disabled at least 1,000,000 more. And we’re only halfway to the finish line. We need to PAUSE these vaccines NOW before more people are killed.

The CDC, FDA, and NIH aren’t disclosing how many people have been killed or disabled from the COVID vaccines. The mainstream media isn’t asking any questions; they are playing along. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and others are all censoring content that goes against the “perfectly safe” narrative so nobody is the wiser. Tony Fauci, the “father of COVID,” is still in his job even though all of this is his fault. Cliff Lane, who reports to Tony, is still sandbagging early treatments so that people will falsely believe that the vaccine is the only option. The Democrats are still asleep at the wheel by refusing to request Fauci’s unredacted emails from the NIH which will prove he covered up the fact he created the virus in the first place. Biden is clueless urging Americans to vaccinate their kids with a deadly vaccine that has likely killed more than 25,000 Americans so far. Academics in the medical community are nearly all clueless, urging people to get the safe and effective vaccine. When I tried to bring this to the attention of leading academics they told me I was wrong and not to contact them ever again. Sound too hard to believe? I don’t blame you. But there is a reason that this article is the most popular article that has ever been on TrialSiteNews with over 1M views so far. It’s because everything I’ve said is true. And nobody will debate me live about it. They all refuse.

Based on what I now know about the miniscule vaccine benefits (less than a .5% reduction in absolute risk), side effects (including death), current COVID rates, and the success rate of early treatment protocols, the answer I would give today to anyone asking me for advice as to whether to take any of the current vaccines would be, “Just say NO.”Waiting for Novavax (and other traditional vaccines) is a much safer option. If you get COVID in the meantime, treating with early treatment protocols that incorporate fluvoxamine and ivermectin is vastly superior to getting the most dangerous vaccine in the last 30 years.

Vaccines are particularly contraindicated if you have already been infected with COVID or are under age 20. For these people, I would say “NO! NO! NO!”

In this article, I will explain what I have learned since I was vaccinated that totally changed my mind. You will learn how these vaccines work and the shortcuts that led to the mistakes that were made. You will understand why there are so many side effects and why these are so varied and why they usually happen within 30 days of vaccination. You will understand why kids are having heart issues (for which there is no treatment), and temporarily losing their sight, and ability to talk. You will understand why as many as 3% may be severely disabled by the vaccine. You will understand why doctors aren’t reporting these as vaccine-related.

What I find deeply disturbing is the lack of transparency on how dangerous the current COVID vaccines are. Healthy people could end up dead or permanently disabled at a rate that is “off the charts” compared with any other vaccine in our history. Look at the death report in our government’s official Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) summarized in the tweet below. This is the most deadly vaccine we’ve ever made by a long shot. That’s why they have to give you incentives to get vaccinated. They need to vaccinate everyone BEFORE people read this article or watch this video of Dr. Peter McCullough explaining clearly why the current COVID vaccines are unsafe and completely unnecessary for our children.

The stopping condition of a typical vaccine is 25-50 deaths. But there isn’t a stopping condition for this vaccine! It appears we’ve killed over 25,800 people (based on CDC “unexplained deaths”) and nobody is batting an eye. The CDC is focused on how to vaccinate more people. Clinics today report as high as a 10:1 ratio of vaccine-related cases to COVID cases. So now we have a new health emergency: deaths and disability from the vaccines.

But this is just the beginning of our story. We have a lot of ground to cover. I’ll talk about Fauci, NIAID, CDC, Congress, academia, Cliff Lane, and more. I will close with action items you can take and how to treat vaccine victims.

Before we jump into the details, here are some key points:

At least 25,000 deaths from the vaccine. The OpenVAERS team think it is over 20,000 due to under reporting. But we looked at the CMS database and it appears VAERS is under-reporting by 5X. And the CDC excess unexplained deaths are 25,000 as well. It matches up.

NOBODY will debate me. People resort to personal attacks because they can’t attack the facts. But nobody who counts (e.g., over 10K Twitter followers) will debate me. I’ve tried everything. People are too afraid I’ll win. If you have at least 10K Twitter followers and agree to a recorded live Zoom debate, just say so in the comments below.

Biodistribution data shows massive accumulation in ovaries of the LNP (which instructs cells in ovaries to sprout toxic spike protein). Whoops. That was never supposed to be leaked out. We obtained it via FOIA request. The CDC never told you about that one, did they? Of course not!

82% miscarriage rate in first 20 weeks (10% is the normal rate). It is baffling that the CDC says the vaccine is safe for pregnant women when it is so clear that this is not the case. For example, one of our family friends is a victim of this. She miscarried at 25 weeks and is having a D&C on 6/9/21. She had her first shot 7 weeks ago, and her second shot 4 weeks ago. The baby had severe bleeding of the brain and other disfigurements. Her gynecologist had never seen anything like that before in her life. They called in a specialist who said it was probably a genetic defect (because everyone buys into the narrative that the vaccine is safe it is always ruled out as a possible cause). No VAERS report. No CDC report. Yet the doctors I’ve talked to say that it is over 99% certain it was the vaccine. The family doesn’t want an autopsy for fear that their daughter will find out it was the vaccine. This is a perfect example of how these horrible side effects just never get reported anywhere.

25X the possibility of myocarditis for teen boys (can lead to heart failure and death)

Kids already have natural immunity (Science Magazine article), so there is no benefit to vaccination, only risk. Have you ever seen the risk / benefit analysis by the CDC?? Ask for it before you consent.

No point vaccinating those who’ve had COVID-19: Findings of Cleveland Clinic study. No benefit, only risk.

Doctors who attribute adverse events to the vaccine are punished (such as Dr. Hoffe). So under reporting is incentivized.

The CDC refuses to say how many people have died and is “still investigating” heart damage in kids even though it is obvious why (free spike protein causing clotting and inflammation). A 25X increase when the only “new” thing is the vaccine isn’t hard to figure out. Ask the CDC for their current top 5 hypotheses for the cause. It will be more than amusing to see what they say. If it isn’t the vaccine, heads should roll.

The CDC is deliberately misleading the American people. Check out the side effects page. Death, disability, excessive miscarriage rates, heart attacks, stroke, inability to walk, talk, or see, Bell’s Palsy, persistent pain, Parkinson’s like symptoms, re-activation of shingles, blood clots, etc. are all missing.

>500X more deadly than the flu vaccine

COVID vaccines have generated more adverse reports in the last 6 months than all 70 vaccines over the past 30 years combined. They missed that one.

Defective virus design (s1 was never supposed to be free, inclusion of PEG was unnecessary and allows LNP to be widely distributed)

Strong opposition to vaccination by extremely credible voices like Malone, Geert Vanden Bossche, others

NIAID (Cliff Lane) is improperly manipulating the COVID Treatment Guidelines to make it appear these drugs do not work, thus giving the world the false impression that the vaccine, even if imperfect, is the only way out. Ivermectin and fluvoxamine have been confirmed in Phase 3 trials. Ivermectin has a very high quality systematic review, the highest possible level in Evidence Based Medicine. Repurposed drugs are safer and more effective than the current vaccines. In general, early treatment with an effective protocols reduce your risk of dying by more than 100X so instead of 600,000 deaths, we’d have fewer than 6,000 deaths. NOTE: The vaccine has already killed over 6,000 people and that’s from the vaccine alone (and doesn’t count any breakthrough deaths).

Vaccines skipped proper toxicology studies in order to bring to market faster. We don’t know what we don’t know.

The unpredictable and horrifying side effects of this vaccine on heathy kids, such as the 16 year old girl who was unable to speak and see just 48 hours after being vaccinated

Debilitating side effects can happen at any time because vaccine victims are very similar to COVID long haulers (Dr. Bruce Patterson has discovered this) and we all know that long haul can start at any time (even when the disease is asymptomatic) and could be incurable.

Because the vaccine is not perfectly safe, the government is required by law to warn people of the death and disability risks caused by the vaccine and to obtain informed consent. Always be sure to ask for the 50 most serious side effects and how often they happen. And find out whether they will compensate you if you are disabled for life from the vaccine. This is important because the blood clots can form anywhere with this very unsafe vaccine....

#covid-19 vaccine #covid-19 #Steve Kirsch

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the-mira-life-project-mtf · 6 years ago

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Male To Female ~ Hormone Replacement Therapy Fears

Hormone Replacement Therapy Fears-- My Transgender Journey

When it was 6 months…I was excited to have H.R.T….I wanted to start it right away and hated the wait! It felt like it would be years before I could correct what was wrong with me and as the months wore away, my paranoia grew. At the turn of the New Year, January ushered only 3 and a half months and I began to doubt myself. In March, the dysphoria hit new levels as I began to ‘fear’ the idea of doing hormone replacement therapy. I even considered ‘skipping’ my appointment and pretend that this all was a bad idea! I found that the only way to calm myself was to write down these fears in the articles that you are reading. Who knows…in two years I will read these articles and have a good laugh or be ashamed of my decisions. I know that no one can ‘advise’ me on the right thing to do. Forums, blogs, messaging and one-on-one are just for conversation…in the end, it is all up to me to make the correct decisions in the end. Back in January, I had read many blogs about the jitters LGBT folks have prior to their therapy. Logically, I should seek out a therapist to talk to about my fears and concerns…but it would change nothing! The advice that the community always offers is to brave through it. It is only natural to be afraid and if you were not afraid, then you really have a problem! I always wanted to believe that this all was psychological and I was going through a phase because of my failed relationship with my girlfriend. My brain would paint pictures of the worse-case scenarios as I battled with myself.

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THE FACE

‘You can’t hide your face!’ my inner voice would tell me. I’ve seen hundreds of pictures of men’s faces slowly turning into something…androgynous. H.R.T. does not make men look feminine and woman look masculine. ‘You will be ridicule!’ the voice mocks me. I would stare at my face…I can tolerate my face for a short time as it has changed in the last three years as my cheeks have puffed up. I try to imagine myself with plump lips and weak-looking jawline but as I look at my eye-brow…I am lucky I have fine eyebrows that are much higher on my face than my male counterparts. But my lips are small and thin…they would need a lot of growing! Like testing the waters, I made small modification to my appearance to see if I can adjust. The biggest modification I made was my hair! For nearly 10 years, I had my head nearly shaved because I needed to appear masculine to gain authority and respect from my peers in the field of geology and science. When I was unable to be a geologist due to my health, I slowly grew out my hair in 2018 and even having hair greatly changed my appearance as having hair took some time to get used to. For the first time in 10 years, I actually had to buy a comb to brush my hair and when I awoke in the morning, it looked as if I was getting in touch with my Einstein looks! I looked at my long hair and it brought me bliss…a sensation I have not felt when it comes to my person. I spent time actually brushing it throughout the day as I watched the ends of the hair swirl in odd patterns…curling up, straighten and some actually flowing against predicted patterns. Having long hair seemed right, it looked like I was denying my masculinity as my face was framed by my hair, making my cheeks look puffier.

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THE PUBLIC

‘What will you do when you start to look feminine…how will you explain this to your family?’ the inner voice asks me as I know that H.R.T.’s end results is to look feminine with hints of masculinity. I know that people will look at me, I am going to have to deal with everyone I know at some point! I can only keep my family in the dark for so long before I can’t hide my breast growth, feminine face or feminine body any longer. I will have to answer questions and avoid situations that might emotionally compromise me. Even where I live, the town is small and my church friends know me well…what will they think? What about the people at the YMCA where I go 3 times a week? Personally, I am a very private individual. I like to do many volunteer jobs at various locations. As I volunteer at Camp Sealth on Vashon Island, only a month before my H.R.T. appointment and I am exercising my male privilege as I rely on my muscles and strength to do meaningless labor intense jobs. I think to myself: ‘If I do H.R.T. I might be unable to do this stuff again!’ as I know that most men who take estrogen lose much of their muscle mass…for lean mass...becoming weaker in the process. It has been about a year since most of my friends at Camp last saw me and they use ‘masculine’ terms to identify me as saying: ‘The Man is here!’ ‘Hey Big Guy!’ ‘Hey Dude!’ There is nothing wrong with them trying to strike up small-talk, but they know me as a man. What will they think if I come back with breasts, a feminine face or even a new name? Will they respect me? Treat me the same? The uncertainty was a killer! I don’t want to be called the transsexual! I hate that term! That is what I fear greatly…labels! I don’t want to be known as the freak, the degenerate or a discussion topic at the next family get together! There's so much social stigma to it and I don't understand why I can't be happy with my biological gender from birth….I wish it were that easy, I wish I did not have to undergo such dramatic procedures to balance myself…but I wish people were equally accepting of the situation and supportive when it was socially acceptable! Life would be much easier then! The problem with dysphoria is that it can take many avenues within a day. For example: In the morning, I feel feminine and wonder why I doubt my dysphoria as I know it is real! I long for balance as I prepare for the day. By afternoon, depending on my day, I tend to slip into my masculine mind as I doubt my feminine side. This is where the problems begin and can last throughout the day and into the evening hours. By the evening, I usually am still in my masculine phase, but its hold is weakening as the nighttime hours bring me back to thinking feminine and longing for my missing characteristics...writing my feeling in books and art is the only thing that seems to help. When I am with others, I take the gender the best suits me…but if I try to be man or woman without the other, I am worn down and emotionally exhausted. Ironically, being masculine is my weakest suit and prefer to remain in my feminine suit which feels comfortable. This is called ‘imposter syndrome.’ We spend time pretending to be someone outside our birth gender, and fearing that we will be ‘found out’. For example, I spent many hours pretending I was Delenn from Babylon 5. I would dress like her, arrange my hair like hers and even adapt her characteristics and personality to my own. I even wore breast forms while dressed like her at night as I feared someone would see me if I did so in the daytime. When I did not dress like Delenn, I would choose careers and tasks that suited to Mira, my female personality. I even did things that weren’t manly like sitting to urinate or squatting to pee while hiking in the woods. I would be aware of my nipples and lack of breasts as I lifted things…even walked with a sway to my hips. It was so obvious that even my girlfriend suspected that I might be possibly asexual without me saying a word.

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THE YMCA

‘You will have to find a new activity…you won’t be able to swim when you have breasts!’ comes another comment that I had much time to think about. Already, I don’t conform with most male swimmers at the Y! I refuse to use the Male-Changing Room and use the Universal Changing Room as they are private and single occupancy. I’ve seen the cruel side of male-changing rooms when I was in high school and I dread them! I hide my chest as I wear a shirt that seems to reveal my chest worse than if I went in shirtless. I began wearing shirts to pools when I was only 9 years old because I felt that if women had to hide their chest…so did I...that is what I was taught by my mom. Then I wondered: ‘At what point in transition would I have to remain covered even if I wanted to go shirtless…does it apply to gender-fluid people?’ Logically, the spoken rule is that the nipple needs to be covered if your a woman. The breast is only covered as most suits are made that way to hide the nipples. But does that apply to MtF people? Technically, we are not female nor male. Even now, with the growth I’ve obtained from prednisone, I remain covered up as they ‘appear’ as big pecs or fatty male breasts. If I take H.R.T., they will grow and fill out like female breasts and be quite visible on my body. About a year ago, I was conscientious about them and even now find myself doing the Picard maneuver to hide the nipples from poking in the fabric when I am sitting, wet. However, I am lease concern about what people might think of them when they walk on by. Honestly, I don’t care…I am here to take care of my health, not subjugate to their ideology or sexism. I find that the least I am concerned about the opinions of others, the easier I can accept my gender-fluid nature. I know that my change might be noticed by the staff who have gotten to know me over the two years, but I doubt that they will really be condemning on my transformation as they are mainly female. Nevertheless, I have greater fears to occupy myself with!

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THE BRAIN

‘Your brain will change!’ the voice warns me as I can’t find any information to dispute or prove this claim. The truth is that we don’t know the full extent of estrogen on the male brain. We know that hormones play a major part in our bodies’ chemistry and influence how we live in out worlds.

‘You will become sexually attracted to men…’ the voice says, giving a sucker punch to my non-existent sexuality. Honest truth, I am lease likely to be attracted to men as I am of women…but the comment scares me nevertheless! It is well established in the studies of mammals that differences in the male and female brain structure can be reversed by sex hormones, even in adulthood. However, it is not known whether alterations in sex hormone levels can change structures of the human brain in adulthood. In human adults, the volumes of the brain and hypothalamus of males tend to be larger than those of females. The findings of a research on transgender individuals suggest that treatment of MtFs with estrogen's and anti-androgen's decreases the male brain size towards female proportions. The magnitude of this change occurs typically in 4 months! Cogitative tests found that in 3 months the patients had a decline in anger and aggression proneness, sexual arousal, sexual desire, and spatial ability (usually males outperform females) and in an increase in verbal fluency (usually females outperform males)…meaning it is scientifically plausible to ‘think’ as a woman as the brain is transformed into a female brain via hormones. It is plausible to assume that adding testosterone back would reverse the transformation as the study found women taking testosterone had their brain turn male (actually growing in size!). However, there is no evidence that I would be attracted to men…actually, as testosterone is converted to oestrogen, sexual desire will be greatly reduced. There are documented cases that the sense of smell will change as the brain is transformed, making me acceptable to male pheromones as compared to female pheromones (as my body will release female pheromones while taking estrogen), but this will not change my sexual preferences which are based on family teachings. As I read medical journals on the brain and hormone influence, I am left with a concern that I might transform to quickly! Or maybe not quick enough! Will my insurance cover the medication? I already know it will not cover my visits at Cedar Rivers! One of the best yearly diaries I have read explained what happened to one MtF: Week 1 -- Libido changes and patient notices male musty scents. Emotional state changes to unstable. Patient have become more temperamental and emotional as the estrogen acts like a toxin. Patient was also more calm and at ease with themselves. 1 Month -- Patients sex drive completely changed. Erections don't happen at will anymore. Breast growth started it's very early stages (Breast buds along with nipples that are very painful to the touch). A slight change is going on in the face...mainly fatty tissue growth. Also, muscle strength loss is very noticeable, however no muscle mass lost. 2 Months -- Face has rounded a tiny bit and skin texture has changed. Scalp hair has grown quicker. The muscles are literally melting away. Most patients begin taking anti-androgen now. 3 Months -- Skin is getting a bit lighter in color as pigment changes. Breasts are becoming noticeable thru the shirt and investment in a training bra might be needed. Libido changed from visual stimulation to emotional stimulation. 4-6 Months -- Body hair is falling off arms, legs, chest and back. The face started changing a little more rapidly now. The jaw is becoming weaker in appearance. The skin is very dry during the winter. 7 Months -- The changes are now very obvious to family and friends. Most patients achieve an A-cup in size. Patient will begin having a harder time telling if it is female or male. Most patients refrain from gendering until they call them by the second name! Most gender-neutral patients switch between calling themselves male and female. Patient claims they had shrank in size about 1.5 inches in height. 8 Months -- Patient is called a female more than male at this point. Some patient’s feet shrink in 1-2 shoe sizes. Patient’s scalp hair begins to feel thicker. 9-10 Months -- Patient's face further feminized. Patient could see the fat in their cheeks collecting and they started getting more comfortable with seeing themselves as a female as the brain chemistry changes. Also, Patients body hair was growing in a lot slower on their body. Patient only needs to shave their legs and torso about once a week...some can go up to a month depending on genetics. Patient typically grow into a small B-cup bra as growth slows. Patients muscles diminished. 11 Months -- Patient feet still might lose width (however bones will not shrink due to H.R.T.). Patients typically lose about an inch in their overall height as their muscle mass is depleted. 12 Months -- Changes seem to be slowing down; like they were in months 4-6. The patients face is still shaping more and more each week, filling out. Otherwise patients breasts don't hurt anymore (although they have been off and on throughout the whole process after month 3 or so). With 12 days to go...I am excited and scared to death of the unknown and the consequences of either not doing H.R.T. or actually undergoing H.R.T.. What really has my concern is that I am honest-to-god thinking about Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) as a possibility if I don't like how my breasts look or to rid of my penis which has disgusted me ever-since I learned what it was designed for. I also am considering breast reduction as I begin to wonder: 'It is these moobs that have made me question my gender!' Maybe if they are gone...maybe I will balance? I am torn in-between two worlds as in one world I want breasts and in another world...I don't want them because it will always be a reminder of my imbalance. I began to contemplate: 'What if I grew them and see if having breasts made my dysphoria better? If I don't like them or they cause me too much grief...I can always have them surgically removed! It would be a process I would have to take if I wanted to enhance my masculinity!' In 12 days...I will know what path I choose to follow!

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tak4hir0 · 5 years ago

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For the past 3 years, freeCodeCamp has surveyed 10,000s of developers about how they're learning to code and pursuing their careers. And we've made our full datasets publicly available. In 2020, we decided to take a year off. So this article isn't about a new dataset from us. Rather, it's about a survey conducted by our friends at HackerRank. They surveyed 116,000 developers for their 2020 skills report. And I'm going to break down the results that I think are most relevant to new developers here. Many of the developers they surveyed were also hiring managers. So let's start there. What do Hiring Managers Look for in Developer Hires?It turns out this depends a lot on the size of the company. Smaller companies rely more heavily on generalists. They bring on lots of full-stack developers who can wear many hats. This usually comes at the expense of dedicated front-end and back-end developers. Smaller companies consider full-stack developers more important. Larger companies are more likely to want specialists.A chart from HackerRank's 2020 Developer Skills report showing that for smaller companies (less than 50 employees) 43% consider Full-stack Developer to be their highest priority hiring role.If you think about it for a moment, this makes sense. Larger companies allow for more specialization. This said, most hiring managers at all sized companies reported prioritized front-end, back-end, or full-stack developers. Only about 25% of hiring managers considered it a higher priority to fill roles like: DevOps EngineeringData ScientistQA EngineerAnd in terms of skills that employers are looking for when they hire... JavaScript is still the most sought-after programming language skill by employers.A chart showing language popularity among hiring managers by region, with JavaScript as the most popular language, followed Python and Java.JavaScript was by far the most popular globally, followed by Python. In the Asia-Pacific region, Java is still very much in demand. C# and C++ are more popular in the Africa-Europe-Middle-East region than elsewhere. But one of the most interesting insights here is that a growing number of managers – especially in The Americas – are "language agnostic." They don't really care which specific programming languages you know. This goes back to something I've been preaching ad nauseam over the past few years: if you can learn one programming language well, you can easily learn a second language on-the-job. So I'm glad more employers are acknowledging this reality instead of just posting jobs for "JavaScript developers" or "Python developers." What a developer has built in the past is a much better indicator of ability than which specific tools they used to build it. Fewer and fewer employers require university degrees. And smaller companies are more flexible on this.A chart showing the proportion of developers who have no Bachelor's degree, who have a degree, and who have graduate degrees - sorted by employer size. Smaller companies are more likely to hire developers who don't have degrees.31% of developers who work at small companies don't have Bachelor's degrees (also known as "undergraduate degrees" or "4 year degrees" in the US). And even at large companies, 9% to 18% of their developer workforce don't have degrees. This represents a pretty big shift from the 1990's and early 2000's when most developer jobs required a degree. If you think about this for a moment, though, it makes perfect sense. The cost of earning a university degree – certainly in the US – has skyrocketed over the past 40 years. Inflation in US University tuition and fees VS overall inflation (Consumer Price Index). Source: The US National Center for Education Statistics.More and more Americans are choosing to forego traditional university degrees in favor of self-learning. My advice has always been: go to a cheap community college, then a cheap public university. I still think 4 year degrees are worth it if you can earn them without going into debt. But I can understand why someone who's already past the traditional university age (late teens to early 20s) may want to skip university entirely. This 2,500% increase in university tuition and fees has also coincided with the birth of the world wide web, and a wealth of free learning resources. These days you can learn pretty much anything for free if you're willing to sit down and learn it. So it's heartening to see more and more employers who are bringing on fully self-taught developers in addition to university graduates. And there's a new middle ground between going to university and just learning everything for free on the web: coding bootcamps. I've written extensively about coding bootcamps, and the role they can play for people who don't want to go back to school. Most people are able to successfully get a developer job after a year or two of self-teaching with online resources, attending local tech events, and hanging out at local hackerspaces. But some people prefer the added structure and accountability that enrolling in a coding bootcamp can provide. These can be nearly as expensive as going to community college + state universities. But they are a bit faster. And the good news is that some employers are hiring these coding bootcamp grads, and are sharing their opinions of them. Do Coding Bootcamps Work? Here's Data From Employers.A chart showing that nearly 32% of hiring managers surveyed had hired a developer who went through a coding bootcamp.About 32% of hiring managers surveyed said they'd hired a coding bootcamp grad. And here's what they had to say about their perception of these bootcamp grads' skills: A chart showing most hiring managers consider coding bootcamp graduates to be as well-equipped for the job as non-bootcamp grads.They found these coding bootcamp grads to mostly be as well equipped as their other hires. And nearly a 1/3 said coding bootcamp grads were better than their typical hire. One thing to note is that many coding bootcamp grads already have Bachelor's degrees – some in Computer Science and Engineering fields. So some of these bootcamp grads have more education than a typical hire would have. Also note that the quality of instruction among different coding bootcamps varies dramatically. This survey didn't release the underlying data, so we don't know which coding bootcamps are most favorable among employers. We also don't know how many of these were traditional in-person coding bootcamps VS online coding bootcamps. (And if you've read my articles in the past, you'll know that I think much more highly of the in-person variety.) But either way, the fact that the 32% of hiring managers who have hired a coding bootcamp grad think so highly of their skills has to be reassuring for all the developers out there who have founded their own coding bootcamps in their cities. What Skills are Developers Interested in Learning?While JavaScript is the most widely used and most widely-sought programming language skill today, there's always a question of what's next. Fortunately the survey covered that, too. Here's the chart: A chart showing that 36% of developers want to learn Go next, followed by Python and Kotlin.We can assume that most of the respondents already know JavaScript since it's hard to be a developer in 2020 without knowing it. So developers are shifting their gaze to focus on some new languages. I'm going to describe these languages right now in case you aren't yet familiar with them. Go is a powerful server language created by Google in 2007. Go offers: garbage collectionmemory safetylimited structural typingand a ton of features for writing heavily-parallel programming.Want to learn Go? You're in luck. We've got a free 7-hour course on Go right here: Learn the fast and simple Go programming language (Golang) in 7 hours The Go programming language (also called Golang) was developed by Google to improve programming productivity. It has seen explosive growth in usage in recent years. In this free course from Micheal Van Sickle, you will learn how to use Go step-by-step. Go is designed specifically as a systems progr… The second language developers want to learn is Python. Want to learn Python? More than 10 million people have done this free 4-hour course freeCodeCamp published on Python: Learn Python basics with this in-depth video course If you’ve been wanting to learn Python, you’re in luck. Mike Dane created this in-depth video course for Python. It’s 4 and a half hours, so it will probably take you at least a weekend to go through. In this video, Mike will walk you through important Python concepts, and help you build some basic… And we also have the world-famous Dr. Chuck teaching a free 14-hour course called "Python for Everybody": Python for Everybody - Free 14 hour Python course from Dr. Chuck This course aims to teach everyone the basics of programming computers using Python 3. The course has no pre-requisites and anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this course. The course was created by Dr. Charles Severance (a.k.a. Dr. Chuck). He is a Cli… And we're working on an interactive browser-based Python curriculum with certifications, too. It'll be out later in 2020. Build 111 Projects, Earn 10 Certifications - Now With Python We’ve been working hard on Version 7.0 of the freeCodeCamp curriculum. Here’s what we’re building. Some of these improvements - including 4 new Python certifications - will go live in early 2020. Note: if you’re already going through the current version of the curriculum, keep going. As you’ll see… The 3rd language developers want to learn in 2020 is Kotlin. Kotlin is an awesome language created by our friends at JetBrains (creators of popular IDEs like InteliJ and WebStorm). Kotlin makes it much easier to create Android apps (which were originally written in Java). So – of course – freeCodeCamp has a free 4-hour course on Kotlin, too: Learn how to develop native Android apps with Kotlin - A Full Course Android is the most popular operating system in the world. It is on more devices and computers than Windows, iOS, and MacOS combined. In this complete video course from Ryan Kay, you will learn how to build native apps for Android using Kotlin. This full course explains how to build an entire Andro… What do professional developers actually care about in terms of professional development?A chart showing that 59% of developers want to learn new technical skills at work. This is significantly more than the developers who primarily want to earn certifications, develop soft skills, or receive promotions.In one word: skills. Most developers care less about traditional markers of professional advancement (promotions). They care more about expanding their toolbox of technical skills. And this makes a lot of sense when you look at this following chart: A graph showing developers are much more interested in technical roles than managerial roles.Most developers would rather get promoted into more technical role than a managerial role. An Engineering Manager is a manager and an individual contributor is a developer who is managed. But what is a technical lead exactly? The role of Tech Lead varies from company to company, but usually involves making high-level technical decisions (like an architect) and setting the vision for a team of developers. Tech Leads usually report to Engineering Managers, who then report to executives like the CTO. As of 2020, how much money do developers make each year?Based on the 116,000 developers surveyed, average annual salary is US $54,000. This is for developers globally. Let's zoom in to look at the US – the country where developers get paid the most. (I'm not quite sure why this is, but I suspect it's a combination the US housing the headquarters of many of the world's largest software companies, combined with restrictive immigration policy that limits the availability of developers.) Here is average developer salary by US metro area: San Francisco leads with an average annual salary of $148,000, followed by Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston.To put these numbers in perspective, the average American earns around $47,000. So being a developer – not bad work if you can get it. 😉 Thanks again to the HackerRank team for conducting this survey and creating these visualizations. These, combined with Stack Overflow surveys and freeCodeCamp's own surveys, help paint a higher-resolution picture of software development as a field.

#freeCodeCamp.org

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jam2289 · 5 years ago

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On the Subjects of Education

The subject of education is large. It technically covers all of the information ever known, or at least currently known. It's hard to face something that enormous and determine which direction to go. Nevertheless, we must wrest some semblance of order from the clutches of this giant known as education and determine a path forward.

I was recently teaching a young actress who is focused on her career to the exclusion of most other things. She's currently in a play, and because they have had intensive rehearsals for the last few weeks she has missed school.

This is a normal cycle for her. She has a job that consumes most of her time and energy for a few months. Her mother and father work with her during that time on some subjects. And obviously she still has private English lessons with me. Then, after the job is done, she goes back to school. But, as her career grows that's becoming harder to do, and it seems like a normal high school experience may not be the path for her.

That's all fine. You can learn just as well, or better, at home. I skipped quite a lot of school. My mother would ask me why I was skipping school and I would tell her I could learn more by staying home and reading. Which is true. But, she assured me that I still had to go to school.

Learning is almost impossible without inner motivation. With some people, usually certain kids, that's a huge part of my real work. It's finding out what they want to learn so that they will be motivated and engage in the material. This actress and I have been working on this exact problem. She's very specific about what she doesn't think she needs to know, so she doesn't want to study certain things.

I decided to start over, to have a discussion about what she thought would be valuable to her.

There are many ways to think about the structure of education. It was in medieval universities where subjects were divided up in the way that we recognize today. (Yes, I'm going to ignore ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the rest of the world for now.)

First, there was the trivium, which consisted of: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Next, there was the quadrivium, which consisted of: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. That's a total of seven subjects, which seems like a decent number to me.

One of the problems with education now is that there are too many directions to go. Just look at the lists of majors at universities. There are hundreds of them. Do you need to study hundreds of subjects to have an idea of how the world fits together? Yes, you do. That's a problem.

One reaction to this problem is to overreact. To decide that there is so much to learn that it doesn't matter. That you just have to choose. I think that might be a natural tendency for someone that is as career focused as this young woman, and it was the direction she was headed in.

The first thing I wanted to do was find a base, to establish common ground. It's hard to beat the concept of the 3 Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. She agreed that all of those were important, and she's already doing pretty well at all of those in both English and Russian.

It's hard to beat the 3 Rs, but I can, with what I have termed the 4 Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic, and rhetoric. In this case, by rhetoric I mean the various forms of public speaking. It's a skill that can be learned with steady practice. I did it primarily through Toastmasters. And it's immensely valuable in so many ways. Luckily, as an actress, my student is already doing a lot of training in that direction.

After that we run into the same problem, there are too many directions to go. Here's a way to solve that. Study a subject that covers all of the rest. There is one subject that covers every other subject, and I'm not talking about philosophy, although that's a good guess. I'm talking about history.

Everything that has ever happened is a part of history. Every subject is a part of history. Here's the problem with history, it's boring. But that's because of the normal way in which it is taught in schools. "Here's a date and a place, and here's some stuff that happened then and there. Remember it for the test." Completely boring! There is a better way.

Because everything in history is connected you can pick up a thread almost anywhere and it will lead you to places that are astounding.

If the student just happens to be interested in the American Civil War, as a for instance, that's going to connect with why there was a cultural division, how it came about, how it resolved, the history of slavery, religions impact on all of this, the history of laws in both the United States and Europe, international trade and politics, military operations, different economic systems, technology improvements in arms, spying and codes, shipping, land transportation, and so much more. More than you could study in a lifetime, or two.

So, just start with something or someone your interested in. And the someone is important. People are interested in people, and people are what make history. Read the original sources if you can, instead of what someone says about what someone says. Commentaries and interpretations can be great, but you'll often find that the truth is different from what's in the textbook. Read the speeches, read the letters, read the official reports, the diaries, the journals, etc. You'll be amazed how much history continually changes, and it will be interesting the entire time.

You'll need to zoom in and zoom out continually to understand what you're learning. In our example, to understand the American Civil War you need to know what the Corwin Amendment is, and what the Minie Ball is. Those are specific things from that specific time. You also need to know the debates about states rights that the American Founding Fathers were having a century before the Civil War when they made the Articles of Confederation, and then replaced them with the American Constitution. To understand those, you need to understand English political history for the 700 years before 1800, Roman law, the Viking political system, Athenian democracy, and more. And none of that even touches on the Minie Ball.

I think I made my point. I convinced my student too, history is a great subject that is an inexhaustible source of valuable and useful knowledge.

The other most important subject for understanding how the world fits together is literature. Humans think in stories. And they are more than that, much more than that. Stories communicate things that we can't communicate in any other way. They transmit culture, worldviews, morals, and unconscious insights. They help show us more than what has been, they help to show us what can be, and what should be. They allow us to work out behavioral patterns in a separate reality and come to conclusions about right and wrong, good and evil. Without stories, we would not be human.

Of course, as an actress she was already sold on the importance of stories and literature.

With these six things as a foundation you are equipped to explore and decide on other areas of exploration. There are so many. I like the rest of the humanities, especially things like psychology, anthropology, politics, economics, religion, and philosophy.

The major criticism that I probably deserve up to this point is that I haven't mentioned science. It's good to have a general overview, but for all of the focus on science in our society, most people don't know that much, and don't need to know that much about it. Touching on biology, chemistry, and physics often seems to let kids know when and if they're interested in these things. Learn some of the history. Then, you can explore as much and as deep as you want, just like all of the subjects in the humanities that I mentioned.

I have a student right now that's highly interested in biology. She's eleven. That's great. We're specifically working on writing because her and her mother want her to improve in that area, but I still think it's useful to incorporate other subjects that she's interested in. I do that in an odd way. For instance, we talked about how Michael Crichton had an M.D. from Harvard University, and now we're writing some science fiction while also talking about genetic modification. In this case biology becomes literature.

There are so many other choices that have to be made. What about music, languages, sports, trades, fine arts, performance arts, law, medicine, business, finance, accounting, theology, engineering, electronics, and programming? Yeah, I say do them all, or do all of the ones you're interested in, or all of the ones that you're interested in that you can also manage as far as your time, energy, money, and attention are concerned. These are choices that have to be made based on interest and context.

These are often the areas where people will do a little bit of something and then switch. Do one thing for a couple of years, and then move on. I think it's perfectly fine, and even good, to explore like this. At least get some exposure so that you know what you don't like. And it's probably good advice to then dive deep somewhere and really drill into something. Parents can have a major influence over that, but in the end the student will ultimately decide if they are going to engage and give something their attention and dedication.

If you focus on the first two layers of education that I propose you will have laid a solid foundation that is a benefit to everyone. Start with the 4 Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic, and rhetoric. Expand on that by reading, writing, and talking about literature and history. The rest we can never be as sure about, for life in the end is always an exploration, and education is no different.

________________________________________________

Read more of Jeff's thoughts at: http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/

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chelseaandthediscourse · 8 years ago

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Recently, I found myself embroiled in a debate with another user on Tumblr in a back-and-forth that encompassed issues such as trans rights advocacy, the medicalization and pathologization of trans identities, and the exclusion of non-binary identities from the trans community. These, I feel, are very important issues that the entire trans community needs to look at more critically and decide what kind of movement we want to be. The politics espoused by the person with whom I was debating are harmful to some of the most marginalized of our community and by excluding them we risk repeating the mistakes of the past in throwing those of us who are ‘too transgressive’ under the bus for our own gain, an issue I expand on during the debate. This debate, in my opinion, is an example of transnormativity and intercommunity bigotry in action, and it shows precisely why we need to combat the biases within the trans community if we want a trans rights movement that isn’t a repetition of the hegemonic assimilation that has hurt so many in the broader LGBTQ+ community.

The debate started with me responding a post which was lauding the ‘truscum’ ideology. For reference, truscum, short of ‘true transsexual scum,’ is a term, usually pejorative, denoting a trans identified individual who believes that trangender identities are a medical, typically psychological, disorder, which requires strict diagnostic guidelines and subsequent medical treatment in order to be considered ‘valid.’ Typically, those who espouses truscum ideology are also very set in thinking that gender and sex exist as a binary, often acknowledging that while gender is social construct, sex is a biological truth based on genitals and other physical markers.

I have transcribed the debate in its entirety below, but the original post containing my participation in the debate may be found at https://chelseaandherself.tumblr.com/post/159568375672/truscum-more-like-common-sense. In the beginning, there are a few other participants, but it swiftly moves to just being between myself, Tumblr name Chelseaandherself, and by debate opponent, tumblr name Thathighclassbitch. I have underlined all usernames to denote the start of a new post, and bolded the usernames of myself and Thathighclassbitch to make them stand out.

Thathighclassbith: Truscum? More like common sense.

Softtrains: truscum? More like let people live their lives fucker

Asprodente: More like have an at least semi-verifiable way of identifying a real condition.

More like stop justifying people’s whimsical identifications, especially when it hurts the case for real transgenders to be accepted because they’re thrown into the boat with people who throw on a new change of clothes and call themselves trans for snowflake points. You’re participating in swaying the science side of the right away from transgenderism.

You are not helping and you’re making it worse.

Softtrains: hey… if people identify as a gender they weren’t assigned with at birth… guess what theyre a “real transgender”

Asprodente: Let me ask you something, what does it mean to identify as something? What is the requisite?

Softtrains: it means being the goddamn thing youre identifying as

Asprodente: Actually, you know what, I’ll just skip beating around the bush and get right to it.

Calling yourself something and being that something are vastly different. If I said I was trans, right now, would you believe me? Is my word the only factor worth consideration?

How about an example: / I say “I have diabetes.”. You don’t have much reason to doubt that, but you don’t know if I really have it. Someone else asks me, “Are you sure you have diabetes?” Now, this question is quite rude, yes, but I fail to present a doctor’s note, a prescription, or any medication for diabetes, and have not presented enough of the symptoms. I tell them that I identify as a diabetic.

Is that okay? In that scenario, should I be defended to identify as diabetic? What if diabetics nationwide are facing discrimination? Well, after my stunt, the anti-diabetics have gone around saying “Hey, they might be one of those fake diabetics!” to justify their treatment. Diabetics are now being treated worse than they were before. / We do have a way of determining whether someone is trans. It’s called dysphoria. We’ve observed mental discrepancies between trans brains and cis brains, which make MtF trans brains look more similar to cis female brains than cis male brains.

Geekandmisandry: There is some, but minimal and conflicting evidence that brain waves are different in trans people, relying on that is ridiculous when the researchers THEMSELVES tell you not to because it’s not conclusive and there are a great number of variables.

Trying to test trans people is fucking ridiculous, comparing it to diabetes is willful ignorance. There isn’t a blood test for transness and don’t pretend you’re on a “science side” when you clearly haven’t actually looked at the finding, you’re just doing a hopeless regurgitation of some cherry picked data.

It shows.

Sex and gender are complex and anyone who claims to know the exact nature of them at this point of our scientific research is a liar.

Chelseaandherself: Sex and gender are social constructs.

Blood sugar is not.

Thathighclassbitch: Actually

Vagina equals female Penis equals male And when you have gender dysphoria, you either want to have a dick or a vagina. It’s not a social construct.

Chelseaandherself: Buddy, pal…listen…please actually read legitimate sources on the matter before coming on to my blog with this stuff.

There’s absolutely zero scientific reason to equate having certain genitals with certain genders or sexes. You’re erasing the entire spectrum of intersex just to create a binary system. What do you call someone with a penis who has an XX karotype? Because that’s possible. Someone with a vagina with an XY karotype? Because that’s also possible. As is any number of other assortments of genital and chromosome combinations that make it impossible to actually have a binary system of sex. We made it up. That’s the definition of a social construct.

Thathighclassbitch: That’s rare and not exactly a ‘normal’ thing. Normal people have xy if they’re male, and xx if they’re female. That’s science. And intersex is a mutation, and is not a normal thing. And even so, it wouldn’t be SOCIAL.

And buddy, pal…maybe give some backup for the shit you’re saying before coming onto MY post. Because this is my post. And I don’t care if you respond, it’s public. But don’t shit me with coming onto your blog.

Chelseaandherself: http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency

http://www.isna.org/faq/ten_myths/rare

http://oii-usa.org/2563/how-common-is-intersex-in-humans/

Most estimates put intersex conditions at about 1-2% of the population, but it’s hard to get an accurate measure and these are fairly conservative estimates. This may not seem like a large portion of the population, but it’s actually pretty significant. And ignoring that large of a population is just bad science.

https://sites.psu.edu/evolutionofhumansexuality/2014/02/19/third-genders-new-concept-or-old/

Prior to colonization, multiple cultures around the world recognized genders and sexes outside of the binary, demonstrating that our understanding of such matters is constructed by our culture. Even within western society, understandings of sexuality and gender have not been static; for a long time, what we now consider to be homosexual men were considered a third gender. I do not have a convenient online source to link to you for this, but consider checking out Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies by Jonathon Alexander, et al.

http://sociologyinfocus.com/2016/08/sex-is-a-social-construction-even-if-the-olympics-pretends-its-not/

Here’s a nice little article that discusses the issue and provides a few other sources.

Sources I can recommend off the top of my head but can’t link you to as they aren’t available online:

Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling

Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler (or any number of her other works)

A significant portion of the works of Michel Foucault, most notably The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception and The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, both of which discuss how knowledge in the sciences is constructed through a social and cultural lens.

I could provide you with a significantly better selection of sources if you had access to a university level research database, but…

Thathighclassbitch: I’ll check out the links later, alright? So do consider that when I’m replying right now, since I haven’t checked them out yet.

But intersex and such is still a rare case, and people can usually identify with either one of the sexes. Plus the belief of more genders is, like I said, a belief, and should not be connected to being transgender, since it harms people like me in various ways.

Chelseaandherself: Intersex is a rare case compared to some things and not when compared to other things. As some of those articles mention, the 1-2% estimate puts it at being about as rare as being born with naturally red hair and more common that cystic fibrosis. The point is, it’s not a statistical anomaly, and ignoring it is bad, reductive science. And further, some people do not know they are intersex.

Sexing the Body by Fausto-Sterling specifically addresses the issue of an Olympic athlete who had to undergo genetic testing to participate only to discover that, having lived her entire life thinking she was a “normal” female, she was actually intersex and had latent testes hidden in her body. I’ve switched back to mobile tumblr, otherwise I’d find you a link on her, but her name was Maria Patino, a quick Google search should find her. And there are other accounts of similar things. The belief of more genders is just that, a belief, I agree, but, I’m arguing, that the belief in a binary system of gender is also just that, a belief. I literally have no idea what you being transgender has to do with this discussion. I’m transgender too and I think the discourse your perpetuating is harmful to me.

Thathighclassbitch: No I completely understand that ignoring that issue is bad and that’s not what I was going for when it comes to this post. This post was mainly directed at people who think they are nonbinary in any way. Because these people confuse this for being a different gender, and think they are transgender. Even though you cannot transition to any non binary gender.

Gender identity, however, is a social construct. This is mainly just the way you present yourself and kinda the way you respond to gender roles. (Don’t fully know how to put it.)

And what I meant with the last part was that people who say they are transgender, yet don’t have dysphoria, are hurting people like me with dysphoria. I wasn’t directing it towards me, but more towards a group of people I’m part of.

Chelseaandherself: I know what gender identity is?

But okay, look, this is what it comes down to then. You want non-binary people out of the trans community because you think they somehow hurt trans people. Again, I reiterate that I am a transgender woman, I am part of this group that you claim to be protecting. All you’re really doing is policing people’s identities in the same way that binary trans people have had their identities policed and told they are legitimately the gender they identify as. You’re also perpetuating the same discourses that historically have been used to keep transgender people out of the mainstream LGBTQ+ movement. I speak here specifically of that movement within the US; I see on your blog description that you are Dutch and I cannot speak to the history of any civil rights movements originating in that area of the world. But in the US, trans people were systematically pushed out of the rights movement because we were considered too transgressive and were thought to be hurting the more normative, cisgender members of the community by holding them back from acceptance in mainstream culture. You are doing the same to a marginalized section of an already marginalized minority. What you are essentially arguing to is the idea of trickle down advocacy…much like trickle down economics, the idea is that we fight for the rights of the least oppressed, and those rights will eventually trickle down to those who are more oppressed, and we slowly work our way down the rungs of the social hierarchy. But this isn’t a great model for social rights. Think about it this way, your goal is to fight for the rights and acceptance of binary transgender people, correct? Doing it you’re way will eventually gain those things for binary trans people, and sure, that’s great, but non-binary individuals will still be out in the cold. If you include non-binary people in you’re advocacy, then maybe the fight is a little harder and a little longer, but in the end everyone is better off. Let’s be honest, non-binary identities ARE more transgressive to social norms and people have more trouble accepting those identities. Because of this, don’t you think that if non-binary identities are accepted and recognized within the mainstream, that binary trans identities like yours and mine are also going to be accepted?

Thathighclassbitch: You see, what I’m saying is that nonbinary does not equal trans. It means not confirming to gender roles, and it’s something you cannot transition to.

People should first understand what nonbinary is, and should understand that it’s not a gender, before we can work towards acceptance.

Nonbinary and transgender are two different things. One has something to do with a mental disorder, and the other is not confirming to the stereotypical gender roles. It’s not an entirely new and amazing gender.

Basically, you can be a nonbinary man or nonbinary woman, but you’re still a man or a woman either way. It’s basically another way of saying that someone is a tomboy or a femboy.

However, tomboys/femboys do appear to have different stereotypes than nonbinary people, and nonbinary includes both men and women. So I suppose that would be a bigger community.

But it’s not transgender.

Chelseaandherself: Okay, have fun thinking your identity is a mental disorder and playing identity police.

This is no longer a productive debate as I can see that you are very set in your thinking here, so I really don’t feel the need to spend my time in the futile pursuit of trying to convince you otherwise. Thank you for the mental exercise and have a lovely day.

At this point, I decided to disengage from the debate as it became clear to me that not only did he seem unwilling to actually read the sources which I provided, on his request, but also had no intention of engaging with me with arguments that were more substantial than a reiteration of phobic language. The debate was, in short, entirely unproductive. We, as a community, need to do better than this. We need to stop repeating the same bias that has been thrown at us and using it to further marginalize members of our community. Trickle down social justice isn’t good enough and it doesn’t work.

#transnormativity #gender identity #trans rights #trans advocacy #lgbtgia #queer #queer theory #transgender #social justice #truscum ideology

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sciencespies · 6 years ago

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Why Jessica Biel is Lobbying Against This Vaccination Bill

https://sciencespies.com/news/why-jessica-biel-is-lobbying-against-this-vaccination-bill/

Why Jessica Biel is Lobbying Against This Vaccination Bill

Jessica Biel attends the 70th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Getty

What do Jessica Biel and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have in common? Well, first of all, neither of them has played Wonder Woman in a movie. Biel reportedly turned down the role in 2007, and no one seems to have offered the part to Kennedy. Secondly, both of them appeared together this past week in Sacramento, California, apparently lobbying against California Senate Bill 276, a bill aimed to address declining childhood vaccination rates in California by making the process of getting medical exemptions more stringent.

Biel is best known for starring in movies such as The Rules of Attraction (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), Stealth (2005), The Illusionist (2006), The A-Team (2010), and Total Recall (2012). Kennedy shared pictures of their day via his Instagram account, such as the following:

From Instagram

Instagram

As you can see, he called Biel ”courageous.” Courageous for what exactly? He continued by saying “for a busy and productive day at the California State House.” Is the California State House really that dangerous? Are there deadly spiders, pits of molten lava, vampires, or chainsaws there? Was Biel risking getting some potentially deadly diseases, such as measles?

Not according to Biel’s Instagram post, which said:

This week I went to Sacramento to talk to legislators in California about a proposed bill. I am not against vaccinations — I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians. My concern with #SB276 is solely regarding medical exemptions. My dearest friends have a child with a medical condition that warrants an exemption from vaccinations, and should this bill pass, it would greatly affect their family’s ability to care for their child in this state. That’s why I spoke to legislators and argued against this bill. Not because I don’t believe in vaccinations, but because I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what’s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment. I encourage everyone to read more on this issue and to learn about the intricacies of #SB276. Thank you to everyone who met with me this week to engage in this important discussion!

What is SB 276? Currently, in California, like many places around the country and world, children are required to get a set of vaccinations before entering school. These vaccinations are supposed to protect children from getting diseases such as the measles, mumps, pertussis, tetanus, and hepatitis B. This year has shown what can happen when measles vaccination rates drop below 95% in a community. We’re not even halfway through 2019, and as of June 6, there have been already at least 1,022 individual cases of the measles in 28 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s the greatest number of reported cases reported in the U.S. since all of 1992. This is measles, a disease that was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.

The problem is, since 2000, an increasing number of parents around the U.S. have been trying to opt their kids out of vaccinations. As Laura Eggertson explained in CMAJ, in 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a since-retracted and since-discredited study in The Lancet suggesting that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism. Despite no real scientific evidence supporting such claims, Wakefield has continued to assert this link and some celebrities like Jenny McCarthy have greatly amplified Wakefield’s claims about vaccines and autism.

In order to prevent the return or surge of vaccine-preventable diseases, legislators such as State Senator Dr. Richard Pan, who is also a pediatrician, have been attempting to close the loopholes that have allowed parents to keep their kids from getting vaccinated. In 2015, California Senate Bill (SB) 277, co-authored by Pan and fellow State Seantor Ben Allen, passed the California State Senate and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. This law eliminated vaccine exemptions for personal beliefs, meaning that parents could no longer just say that they didn’t want their kids to get vaccinated because they didn’t want to do so.

Since the passage of SB 277, a main way parents in California have been able to keep their kids from getting vaccinated has been medical exemptions. A medical exemption is when a doctor determines that a kid has real medical reasons not to get vaccinated. Real medical reasons include severe allergic reactions to vaccines or a significantly weakened immune system from taking required medications or having a real medical condition. These are scientifically legitimate reasons not to get vaccinated but tend to be relatively uncommon. It is also relatively straightforward to medically prove that you have such conditions.

State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, left, calls on lawmakers to approve his measure to toughen the rules for vaccination exemptions Wednesday, May 22, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. The Senate approved the bill, SB276, that gives state public health officials instead of local doctors the power to decide which children can skip their shots before attending school. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

However, as Pan explained on his State Senate page, “Medical exemptions have more than tripled since the passage of SB 277. Some schools are reporting that more than 20 percent of their students have a medical exemption. It is clear that a small number of physicians are monetizing their exemption-granting authority and profiting from the sale of medical exemptions.” People profiting off selling something not backed by science? Shocking. Is that really a thing?

That’s why Pan, along with State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, introduced SB 276 on March 15 to make the process of getting a medical exemption more stringent. The California Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, California and Vaccinate California co-sponsored the bill. If SB 276 were to pass, physicians could no longer just write patients medical exemptions for vaccination. Instead they would have to fill out a form including their name, license number, reason for requesting the exemption, and certification that they have examined the patient, and submit the form to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The CDPH then would determine whether the medical exemption is granted. The bill would also have the CDPH create and maintain a database of medical exemptions to check whether any physicians were cranking out such exemptions like a printing press. Moreover, it would grant the CDPH and County Health Officers the authority to revoke medical exemptions if they found something fraudulent or inconsistent with medical guidelines.

The return of measles to the U.S. has been a real and costly problem, as I have written before for Forbes. Although no reported deaths have occurred yet this year, measles can cause serious problems such as brain inflammation and kill. This year’s measles outbreaks also may be a harbinger for worse things to come, should vaccination rates slip even further. Something needs to be done about the threat of vaccine preventable diseases returning and surging.

Yet, as Melody Gutierrez And Soumya Karlamangla reported for the Los Angeles Times, opponents of SB 276 have called Pan a “tyrant,” and the bill a “crime against humanity.” Yes, someone called a pediatrician trying to find ways to protect the population against measles and other vaccine-preventable disease a “tyrant.” And, yes, someone didn’t say that he plays Cards Against Humanity but instead claimed that Pan is committing “crimes against humanity. ” As the United Nations describes, “crimes against humanity” usually refers to true atrocities such as genocide, mass murdering, and atrocities committed during European colonialism. To equate a pediatrician trying to solve a real problem to a genocidal dictator is simply outrageous. This type of language and claiming that someone is “courageous” simply for spending a day lobbying against a vaccination bill is unnecessarily inflammatory and may create an impression of oppression that simply doesn’t exist.

Kennedy’s own family members, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Maeve Kennedy McKean, have condemned his continuing anti-vaccination actions in an article they co-authored in Politico, writing that, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Joe and Kathleen’s brother and Maeve’s uncle—is part of this campaign to attack the institutions committed to reducing the tragedy of preventable infectious diseases. He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.”

Regardless, State Senator Brian Jones still seemed quite welcoming to Kennedy in this tweet:

Welcome to #caleg, @RobertKennedyJr and @JessicaBiel! Thank you for taking the time to chat about your opposition to #SB276. #caleg #NoOnSB276 pic.twitter.com/AkkWRbPSJk

— Brian W. Jones (@SenBrianJones) June 12, 2019

It is one thing to inquire about the risks of vaccines and whether such a bill will further threaten the autonomy of physicians or create more administrative overhead. Routine vaccination certainly has its risks, just like anything in life, including throw pillows, or watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Nonetheless, the risks of vaccination are quite low and certainly much lower than the risks of not getting vaccinated or, for that matter, putting jade eggs in your vagina. And yes, SB 276 would take some decision making authority away from individual physicians. But insurance companies and hospital administrators have been progressively taking authority away from individual physicians in much, much greater and more alarming chunks for the past couple decades and adding much more administrative overhead. If you are truly worried about physician autonomy and independence, why not address these?

It is something completely different to use inflammatory words and suggest conspiracies that don’t exist. Vaccination is important because there is currently no alternative to preventing and controlling disease such as the measles, pertussis, mumps, rubella, and tetanus. The viruses and other microbes causing vaccine-preventable disease would love it if more people stopped getting vaccinated. Telling people to not vaccinate without offering any viable scientifically-backed alternative is not engaging in scientific discussion and frankly not being responsible.

Time may show what Biel’s true motivations and stances are. (I am reaching out to Biel’s representatives to get further clarification.) Does she have real questions, and is she simply getting caught in anti-vaccination rhetoric from others? Or is she actually spreading misinformation about vaccination herself? Ultimately, the question is how similar or different is Biel really from Kennedy.

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genevestokblog-blog · 8 years ago

Text

WOK and AOK

Emotion: What do human sciences tell us about emotions?

- Cognitive and biological approaches to psychology have often been used in understanding how we experience emotions, and how they affect our behavior. Different psychologists and studies tell us different things about emotions/feelings.

Primary VS. Secondary Emotions:

Primary emotions are the first emotions a person feel consequent to an event. These emotions are often then masked by secondary emotions. Secondary emotions are ones that are felt the most. They can also make it difficult to discover the deeper problem at hand. Robert Plutchik believed there were also tertiary emotions that augmented the first and secondary emotions.

Example 1: Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Walter B. Cannon was an American Physiologist who coined the phrase "fight or flight" and the word homeostasis. "Fight or flight" refers to the response that animals and people have to a threatening situation. Homeostasis is the tendency of a system to remain in a stable state. If there is a change in the system, the system will somehow compensate to regain that homeostasis. Walter Cannon and Philip Bard worked together to develop the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion. They believed emotions come first and physical reactions come second. For example, a person sees a bear and is afraid. Then the person has the physiological changes of rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, and adrenaline that prepares a person for "fight or flight."

Bear (Event) => Fear (Emotion) => "Fight or Flight" response (physical)

Example 2: Ronald De Sousa

Ronald de Sousa is a philosopher who believes emotions are subject to the norms and perceptions of society and the individual. They are neither true nor false. Emotions define experiences and experiences define emotions. (Philosophy always gives me a headache). So in respect to the bear scenario, Sousa would say "I am scared of the bear so it must be dangerous," or "The bear is dangerous so I must be scared."

Mathematics: Can we reduce studies of human behavior to mathematical, statistical analysis?

- The use of mathematical models in the experimental analysis of behavior has increased over the years, and they offer several advantages. Mathematical models require theorists to be precise and unambiguous, often allowing comparisons of competing theories that sound similar when stated in words. Sometimes different mathematical models may make equally accurate predictions for a large body of data. In such cases, it is important to find and investigate situations for which the competing models make different predictions because, unless two models are actually mathematically equivalent, they are based on different assumptions about the psychological processes that underlie an observed behavior. Mathematical models developed in basic behavioral research have been used to predict and control behavior in applied settings, and they have guided research in other areas of psychology. A good mathematical model can provide a common framework for understanding what might otherwise appear to be diverse and unrelated behavioral phenomena. Because psychologists vary in their quantitative skills and in their tolerance for mathematical equations, it is important for those who develop mathematical models of behavior to find ways (such as verbal analogies, pictorial representations, or concrete examples) to communicate the key premises of their models to nonspecialists.

For some behavior analysts who began their careers when mathematical modeling was not so commonplace in this field, or for those who do not use mathematical models in their own work, this trend may be disconcerting. For some, the sight of an equation or two in a JEAB article may be reason enough for them to skip over the article and move on to the next. They may feel that an article with mathematical equations is beyond their comprehension, or worse, irrelevant to their interests. After all, isn't the experimental analysis of behavior supposed to be about behavior, not about mathematical equations and symbols?

Failures of communication between those who do and those who do not use mathematical models in their work are not unique to psychology.

Example: James Clerk Maxwell

As the science of physics became increasingly quantitative in the mid-nineteenth century, some very competent scientists felt as if they were being left behind. During the course of a very productive career, the British physicist Michael Faraday conducted some fifteen thousand experiments on electromagnetic fields, and yet he could not comprehend the beautiful equations of field theory that James Clerk Maxwell derived from Faraday's own research. Faraday asked Maxwell if he could use verbal descriptions or other means to make his equations comprehensible to a nonmathematician, and Maxwell made a sincere effort to do so. According to Timothy Ferris (1988):

“Maxwell obligingly rendered some of his explanations of field theory into the mechanical cogwheels and sprocket formulations that Faraday could understand, but it was when stripped to bare equations that his theory flew. With fuguelike balance and power, Maxwell's equations demonstrated that electricity and magnetism are aspects of a single force, electromagnetism, and that light itself is a variety of this force. Thus were united what had been the separate studies of electricity, magnetism, and optics.”

Natural Sciences: How do the human sciences differ from the natural sciences?

- What is the difference between natural sciences and human sciences? First of all, what are the definitions for these two areas of knowledge?Natural science focuses on the study of the nature and involves experiments and theories. Chemistry, physics, biology are examples of some of the study areas of natural science. They are very logic, and are usually supported with evidence and reason. Experiments can be done in either at small or large scale. They could be simple lab experiments at school to a chemical synthesis in an industry.On the other hand, human science is more about the behavior, and is more abstract. Psychology, economics, and anthropology are some examples. Compared with natural sciences, this involves more thought and emotion. Unlike natural science, there is no correct answer, so it is difficult to do an experiment. However, conclusions can be drawn out from testing a large number of people and looking at what the majority has shown.

The Arts: How does knowledge about humans differ in the human sciences from the knowledge gained about humans in art or literature?

- Let us first be clear about what scientific knowledge is. Scientific knowledge is testable knowledge: it is factual knowledge of our world that we can talk about. Scientific knowledge is also empirical: it can be measured through observation and experiment. This could be something as simple as knowing the answer to questions such as: ‘How many sandwiches did you eat today?’ or ‘Has the temperature changed over the last 100 years?’ Given the current trend for combining art and science you would be forgiven for thinking that knowledge from art and knowledge from science held an equal footing. However, it is important to remember that while science has strict guidelines for transferring knowledge, art has none.Art does not just affect us, it informs us. Like all information, we can use art to build a rich picture of the world beyond which we interact everyday. One way art does this is by giving us a kind of conceptual knowledge: knowledge about our own concepts. Conceptual knowledge can include our own feelings or mental states, such as having empathy for others. Art then, cannot only inform us of our own mind but also give us a feeling of ‘what it is like’ to be someone else. Art can be a way of walking in someone else’s shoes.Art can also give us moral knowledge. Art can play a role in informing our opinions of what is right, wrong, justified and unjustified. When standing in front of Ai Weiwei’s work for example, we might develop a different sense of knowing about corruption and human rights than simply reading a newspaper about these issues. However, we may view art with strong pre-conceptions of our own morality already made, and artworks might just reinforce our moral knowledge. Still, it is likely that art can play a role in transferring some information about morality, which cements our moral knowledge.

History: Should human scientists know about the history of their subjects?

- Personally, I believe that human scientists should know about the history of their subjects. This is because they will be performing experiments on humans and animals and just other things in general, and they will need to know the history of what works together and what does not. If they do not know the history of their subject, they will not know how an element came into existence/was found, they will not know what elements mixed together cause an explosion, psychologists won’t know anything about how NOT to cause PTSD in people, how not to stress people, ect...

Ethics: What are the moral responsibilities of human scientists?

- To begin with, deception is not allowed unless it is vital to the study. The participants must leave the study unharmed mentally and physically, and must be aware of the fact that they may leave the experiment at any point in time if they begin to feel unsafe or uncomfortable. The participants must be ensured that the results will not be released to the public eye unless the participants sign a waver that the results can be released, which will only happen if the study is valid, and has results that will most likely help the human race evolve into a better set of species.

Religion: In what ways might beliefs influence human scientists?

- If we think about it, religion has a very specific set of believes. This may result in them applying these beliefs into their study. This will then tweak the results as religion will be influencing the study itself, how the study is conducted. For example, someone may believe doing an experiment in a certain way is against god [s], or their religion, and may conduct the experiment differently which will give them different results than if it had been done without religion affecting it.

Language: How might the language used in polls influence conclusions?

Perception: How far do expectations influence observations?

Reason: Is there logic of scientific discovery?

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