#it is now functionally summer but not scientifically or legally summer

[thirtheenprimes]

On one hand I love pre-Christian religions and mythologies, their holidays and practices and all of it is interesting. Especially historically Gaelic stuff because I've got a lot of ancestors from there and even though I have negative connection to them or the culture, I still think it's neat and I love it.

On the other hand I am unbelievably autistic for astronomy and the modern scientific seasons don't mesh exactly with ancient Gaelic seasons.

So happy Beltain to those who care. Have a wonderful first day of summer even though we're in the middle of spring. Based off my research I'm chalking the discrepancy up to precession (the slow wobble of the earth over the course of centuries that move the seasons around) and ancient Gaelic societies casting more about the natural world and weather patterns than technical orientations of the earth and its tilt when determining seasons. And honestly, every unique climate and geophraphical location experiences different seasons.

But also, modern Earth can't just say this is the first day of summer! At least acknowledge that isn't quite accurate in the modern world. The middle of spring is definitely way more full of life than the beginning of spring, but it's still spring these days. I think this calendar shift can also explain why the summer solstice is commonly celebrated as the middle of summer even though it's the first day of summer.

Idk, I love celebrating the earth and her natural world, the seasons, and all of that, and I love historical holidays and celebrations, but I get pulled out of the immersion when the first of May is celebrated as the first day of summer.

Its like the difference between geographical north and magnetic north, or between enjoying a fun movie about fairies and getting hung up on them showing a full moon on the horizon when the plot says its almost midnight. Or saying the thumb isn't a finger because it is anatomically different from the rest of your fingers even though language was created for day to day functioning before science and this the thumb is functionally a finger.

Honestly, ignore this because belting actually being the beginning of summer and putting the solstice as the mid point would make so much sense too. Then the 'dog days' of summer (when Sirius the brightest star which happens to be in canis major the big dog is first visible in the early morning, lining up with the flooding of the Nile, the hottest days of summer, and the beginning of harvest season in lots of places in the ancient world) would be near the end of summer.

So yeah, happy Beltain for anyone who cares.

[encounterthepast]

If you enjoy this please follow @RussInCheshire on twitter for his regular threads on UK politics.

As it’s the weekend, let’s start #TheWeekInTory with a frivolous and jolly story about our own govt deliberately starving hundreds of thousands of children...

1. In May, Boris Johnson promised “nobody will go hungry as a result of Coronavirus”

2. He then denied school meals to the 600,000 poorest children

3. So Marcus Rashford ran a campaign to get the govt to feed children, which - just think about that: he had to *campaign* for it

4. Then Boris Johnson congratulated Rashford on his campaign to overturn the cruel policies of, erm, Boris Johnson

5. And then 3 days later, Boris Johnson refused to feed those kids during school holidays

6. So this week Labour organised a parliamentary vote about it

7. And 322 Tories voted against feeding hungry children

8. Vicky Ford, the Children’s Minister (who you’ll be surprised to hear neither looks nor sounds like a ludicrous Dickensian villain) went ahead and voted against feeding children

9. Tory MP Jo Gideon voted against feeding children. Jo Gideon, in case you didn't think things could get any more unbelievable, is also the chair of "Feeding Britain", a charity that campaigns to end food poverty and hunger in the UK.

10. Tory MP Paul Scully waved away the grumbling parents of kids with grumbling tummies, and said “children have been going hungry under Labour for years”, seemingly forgetting Tories have been in power for a decade

11. Tory MP Ben Bradley, who once had to apologise for suggesting sterilising the poor, said feeding children will simply “increase their dependency”. On food. Yeah, wean the little bastards off it. It’ll do them good in the end, which will be around 3 agonising weeks.

12. At this point, pause to consider that MPs get their food and drink subsidised. A £31 meal in a parliamentary restaurant costs MPs £3.45. In 2018 this subsidy cost the taxpayer £4.4m. I can’t find any record of Tories like Ben Bradley voting against this.

13. Pressing on: Ben Bradley also said “Some parents prioritise other things ahead of their kids. Small minority, yes... but some do”. Yes, and a small minority of Tory MPs have been arrested for rape. Should we send them all to prison?

14. Also, Mark Francois voted (by proxy) to keep kids hungry. Not related to the previous item. Why would you think that?

15. Tory MP Nicky Morgan said the govt voted to starve 600,000 children cos a Labour MP called a Tory MP scum. And that’s not a scummy thing to do at all.

16. Tory MP David Simmonds said Marcus Rashford’s experience of poverty in secondary school “took place entirely under a Labour government”. Rashford was 11 when Tories came into power, making David Simmonds are rare example of an ad hominem attack on yourself

17. Simmonds then said Labour’s parliamentary vote was “all about currying favour with wealth and power and celebrity status”. He might be right – the govt managed to unify Gary Linaker and Nigel Farage in condemnation of their denial of food to kids

18. Brandan Clark-Smith (who voted to starve kids) demanded “more action to tackle the real causes of child poverty”

19. So at once, the govt cut minimum wage for furloughed people. They now get 2/3 of the money the govt says is the absolute minimum it is possible to survive on

20. And then it was revealed that low-paid workers who have to isolate due to Covid can claim £500. Yay!

21. But if they’re told to isolate by the govt’s contact tracing app, they can’t claim anything. Un-yay.

22. Long story short: the govt cannot spend £120m feeding children. But it can spend £522 on the Eat Out Scheme, which its own report said contributed “negligible amounts” to the hospitality economy, and Boris Johnson admitted drove up infection rates – especially in the North

23. Those infection rates caused the govt to move Manchester into Tier 3

24. So the Mayor of Manchester asked for a £90m support package (1/6th of the money the govt spent causing the problem in the first place)

25. The govt said no, £60m

26. The Mayor said, how about £65m?

27. The govt said no, £60m

28. The Mayor said ok, fine, we’ll take the £60m

29. And then govt offered Manchester £22m, and then went to the press and said the Mayor was "being unreasonable"

30. The negotiations were led by Robert Jenrick, who recently set up a fund for the poorest 101 towns, then awarded his town £25m even though it is the 270th poorest, and therefore not even eligible

31. £25m is £237 per person

32. Manchester gets £7.85 per person

33. Robert Jenrick gave Manchester (2.8 million people) £22m

34. Robert Jenrick gave Richard Desmond (1 person) £45m

35. The talks broke down when the govt wouldn’t spend an extra £5m

36. The govt plans to spend £7m vitally rebranding "Highways England" to "National Highways"

37. Manchester Young Conservatives tweeted “Boris has lied about helping us in the North. It’s time for him to go". Don't look - they deleted it. Suspect somebody had a word.

38. Meanwhile the govt said Manchester will get the £60m after all, and chaos continue to reign supreme

39. But that £60m is brief reprieve for the Tories of Manchester, as a govt report said Tory seats in the North of England (the so-called "Red Wall" seats) can expect to lose at least 4000 jobs *each* as a result of Brexit, even if we do get a deal. More if we don't.

40. The govt rushed to begin its first airport Coronavirus testing, a mere 211 days after mandatory airport testing was begun in South Korea

41. South Korea has had 8 deaths per million

42. The UK has had 665 deaths per million

43. More airport news, as the govt finally accepted Brexit will cause “up to 8-hour delays at passport checks” and asked the EU to allow UK citizens to queue at EU-only lanes. Like we did when we were in the EU. But we aren’t now. So tough.

44. A senior diplomat said, “Having grown up in Brussels, Boris Johnson values the ability to travel freely to the continent”. You’d think Boris Johnson would foresee this problem when he led the campaign to stop that freedom.

45. The independent reviewer of Terrorism Legislation said the UK “will be increasingly unable to cope” after Brexit, as we lose access to EU data-sharing agreements

46. And a No-Deal end to UK/EU scientific collaboration will leave London with a £3bn annual deficit

47. In the space of 38 days, the govt announced the £100bn "Operation Moonshot" to solve Covid; then cancelled it; and then re-launched it again after it was found they’d accidentally continued to pay over 200 private consultants up to £7000 a day to work on it.

48. So this week, Boris Johnson said Moonshot would continue, but it’s goals “would take time”, which is the literal opposite of what he said it would do when it first announced it, and makes the entire thing absolutely pointless

49. And now it’s been admitted that Operation Moonshot would be quietly folded into the existing £12bn Test and Trace programme, and the £100bn has vanished. Apart from the bits the Serco consultants took for doing… nothing.

50. But Boris Johnson said the Test and Trace programme was “helping a bit”, and “a bit” is the least you’d expect if you’d spent £12bn

51. And then the £12bn Test and Trace programme fell to its lowest success rate so far, identifying only 60% of at-risk people

52. Local councils, with no additional funding, are tracing 98% of cases

53. A quick sweep though other epic successes you may have missed (or deliberately blocked out): Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch declared that it should be illegal to teach about inequality

54. The Cabinet Secretary said the report into “vicious and orchestrated” bullying by Home Secretary and Dementor Priti Patel “may never see the light of day”, cos if you have a report that vindicates you, you definitely sit on it as long as possible

55. And the appeals court unanimously overturned Priti Patel’s policy of removing people from the UK without giving them access to legal process or justice because – and I’m paraphrasing the judges here – what the fuck, Patel? What the actual fuck?

56. Undeterred, she announced plans to make rough-sleeping “grounds for removal of permission to be in the UK” and "denial of legal aid". So if you’re too poor to have a home, you must pay for a lawyer or she’ll shove you in the sea

57. After an unnamed Tory MP said it “looks bad to be handing top jobs to your friend and old boss”, Charles Moore, Boris Johnson’s friend and old boss, withdrew as next BBC chair.

58. The new favourite is Richard Sharp, the - yep - friend and old boss of Rishi Sunak

59. You’ll be amazed to hear this: Richard Sharp is a major donor to the Tory party. These little coincidences keep on happening

60. The govt decided to prevent EU citizens from having physical proof of their right to live in their own home

61. Grant Shapps threatened to “seize control of Transport for London” to save it from financial ruin at the hands of Sadiq Khan, who – the bastard - achieved a mere 71% reduction in the debts caused by his noble predecessor, Boris Johnson

62. Matt Hancock, facts at his fingertips, told MPs from Yorkshire their constituents could go on holiday abroad

63. But not in the UK

64. And then that they CAN go on holiday in the UK

65. But can't leave Yorkshire

66. He then said “I'll get back to you” about the details

67. A cross-party report found “the UK’s foreign policy is adrift”, that it lacks “clarity, confidence and vision” and that Britain is “absent from the world stage”. All of which is very soothing, as we move into the govt's proclaimed goal of a post-Brexit Global Britain.

68. And we can all relax: the govt is finally supporting culture in the UK, specifically the Nevill Holt Opera, which performs private operas, and is owned by Boris Johnson’s friend (and - jaw on floor! - Tory donor) David Ross, who is worth £700m so really needs the money.

69. The Nevill Holt Opera only functions in the summer, so thank god it has been prioritised with £85,000 to “maintain operations” in October.

And now, in honour of the opera, the fat lady can sing, cos I’m off to drink myself into oblivion. Join me.

We live in interesting times.

[spencerbdpi978]

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[rogerbikes]

You might want to think a little bit before diving into genderfluidity. Maybe do a little research, which I'm sure you're doing. Gender expression totally fluctuates! Coming from a trans guy, some days I feel more feminine/masculine. But from a scientific perspective, brains (where your gender is) don't really work in a way that makes the change of your actual gender from day to day possible. Gender expression is different than gender itself. You don't have to answer this, just think on it. ❤️

I honestly really appreciate this. Also coming from another trans guy makes it 10x more appreciated. Around summer/fall of 2018 I decided that I was going to transition from female to male. I’ve legally changed my name, my gender from F to M on my license, I’ve started testosterone and this was all after a really long, hard struggle with making the official decision. But ultimately I decided I couldn’t see myself living comfortably as a woman.

It’s been over a year since I’ve been living as a trans male and being open about it. There are certain terms that make me uncomfortable. For instance I’ve never really liked thinking of myself as a grown MAN. But as a grown adult. But I also wouldn’t say I’m a grown WOMAN either.

I’ve stopped my hormone treatment in September so that I could safely carry out a pregnancy so I’m pretty much all estrogen again besides some little thing such as the facial structure change and voice change that’s happened while I was on T.

The thing that has really had me thinking about gender-fluidity is that I’m not sure if I feel like a mom or a dad and what role I’d like to play in my child’s life. At times I truly want to be both. Obviously being off testosterone for a couple of months now on top of being pregnant has made me start becoming in tune with my body and mind in a different way. It’s made me appear more female again and even appreciate the fact that I am biologically female because I love that I’m able to carry out this function so much.

There are certain times and places when I feel alright with people misgendering me honestly and I feel safer using the woman’s room. But there are also times when I really dislike it. I’m starting to think my gender is becoming more situational but I’m also trying to give myself some time since I’m obviously in a really rough spot now and my main priority is to just take care of myself and the baby with my body as is.

I guess the bottom line is. Sometimes I feel okay being more female and other times I don’t. But at the end of the day I wouldn’t want my birth name back and I still prefer he/him pronouns and I know I wouldn’t want to be with anyone romantically if they saw me as female.

IM JUST CONFUSED !!!

[tanadrin]

Land Tenure and Property in Seileshrant

About two hundred years ago, the world ended for the people of Seileshrant. Global political instability driven by resource constraints due to climate change, a series of bad political decisions by world leaders, and the ensuing breakdown of the international order led to a general nuclear war. In the aftermath, a collapse of international trade and damage to infrastructure led to starvation and pandemics. It was, for the people of that era, very much like their most pessimistic predictions for the future. And yet, those that looked around in the aftermath could not help but realize one simple fact: they had survived. And there was nothing to do, but to keep on living.

Two things did not happen that they had feared. For one, people did not instantly revert to barbarism. This prediction, that the post-nuclear world would be home to cannibal kings and roving plunderers, proved to be the lurid fantasy of those who, by want of attention to the relevant scientific literature, failed to understand how humans actually react to sudden catastrophe. And it failed to understand the keenest pain felt by those whose world had been annihilated by war: in the absence of that world, they wanted to rebuild it as swiftly as possible. The second thing that did not happen is that humanity did not revert to technological ignorance or luddism. The only hope of rebuilding the things that they had lost, after all, was in mastering and deploying every bit of technical knowhow they had on hand. The destruction of roads and cities and factories, coupled with the deaths of billions, did indeed trigger a massive economic contraction whose effects would be felt more than two centuries later, and it is an unescapable truth that some knowledge, irrelevant for the long decades of initial rebuilding, was lost--knowledge like how to manage transcontinental logistics effectively, or operate ports that handled millions of tons of cargo annually--but the civilization that preceded Seileshrant wrote and recorded information obsessively. Not only physical science, but art and philosophy and history and a hundred other disciplines carried on very much as before, incorporating this catastrophe into themselves like they had the plagues and collapses of empire before.

So, yes: four hundred years ago, the world ended, in Seileshrant and everywhere else. But then it continued to spin; and, looking about themselves, the survivors noticed that they were stuck with the world that came after. And so with heavy hearts they set about their task--and resolved to build a world that was, if they could manage it, a little bit better than the one they had lost.

Seileshrant sits along a wide inland sea, an inlet of the great ocean; primevally, its land was a strip dense conifer forests, pinned between the mountains and the open ocean. From the inlet whence the country draws its name hundreds or thousands of smaller bays, sounds, and fjords cut into the land, producing a thick scattering of islands along the shores, and spreading across the bays like stepping-stones. The climate is temperate, on the warmer side, and oceanic. The winters in Seileshrant are mild, but very wet, while summers are drier. Four hundred years ago, Seileshrant was home to two large cities, one to the south and one to the north. Both are now sprawling ruins; the total population of Seileshrant now is only a little more than three-quarters what the population of those cities were at their peak; it is about one million people. The current largest city and economic hub of Seileshrant is Green Mountain, with about three hundred thousand people, located roughly halfway between the two great ruined cities. The name is an old one, from the prewar era, though perhaps one not entirely well-translated.

Seileshrant borders are not quite firmly delineated. To the east are high mountains, and beyond that a country that is very sparsely populated. This definitely does not belong to Seileshrant . Its people are organized into far smaller communities, and though friendly with the people of Seileshrant , too independent-minded to consider themselves culturally the same. To the west, of course, is the ocean. North, along the island-specked coast, the population gradually thins out, and the towns there participate less often in the great projects and major cultural events that seem to define Seileshrant for its people. To the south, after the land bends sharply westward, abruptly cutting off the inland sea, there is an allied state organized along much more centralized lines. It and Seileshrant and dozens--hundreds, really--of other communities on the same continent are loosely confederated. A common rule of law runs throughout the hemisphere, both an assurance of individual rights and a safeguard against any other catastrophic wars that might devastate the planet. But this is still a postapocalyptic world. The states are smaller, the populations more thinly spread, the difficulty of travel greater, than they were in a century or two or more before the end of the world, and the dream of a single world united in harmony is perhaps even more distant for the people of Seileshrant than it is for our own.

This is not a utopia. This is by no means a perfect world. The people of Seileshrant would be the first to tell you that. They have lost so much that the grief of it still overwhelms them sometimes, even two hundred years later. They would be the first to tell you that if that great disaster had been averted, if people had just been a little less stupid, if they had been a little more hesitant to lash out with the worst of weapons, well, who knows what kind of world they would be living in? What kind of wonders they’d have achieved by now? But it doesn’t really bear thinking about, because that’s not the world they live in. Thus the motto of Seileshrant: “the world that is given to us.”

The constitutive political unit of Seileshrant is the “neighborhood.” It’s a technical term, now quite divorced from the folksy connotations it was originally intended to inspire. (Such is the fate of all bureaucratic terminology!) Originally intended to denote a small part of an urban community, a neighborhood designates a contiguous physical expanse that can contain anywhere from dozens to thousands of households. A neighborhood is the formal administrator of its territory, but not the actual owner of property, and while neighborhoods may level certain kinds of taxes to pay for their own upkeep, they also don’t directly manage larger pieces of infrastructure. What they do manage, most importantly, is housing. For Seileshrant, “housing” is all physically occupied real estate, residential and commercial. (Industrial is a slightly distinct case in some circumstances--agricultural, polluting, and location-specific industries are managed differently.) By general custom, housing is managed by lottery: when a unit of housing falls vacant, a lottery is held among those wishing to move into the neighborhood, or that unit specifically, weighted if necessary to accomodate people with specific needs (e.g., a ground floor apartment for someone who can’t manage stairs). If the wait list for housing is very long, this is generally seen as a sign that a neighborhood needs more housing. It falls to the neighborhood to build it, funded by taxes or a grant. This process is automatic; the organic laws which establish a neighborhood generally instruct that the building committees “shall” begin planning procedures when a certain waitlist threshold is reached. It can be delayed, but not indefinitely; a long and ever-growing waitlist is generally seen as a sign that a neighborhood’s leadership is neglecting its job.

No housing is owned. Indeed, the concept of “ownership” of real estate doesn’t exist in Seileshrant. The tenant--the resident, we should say; they pay no rent or property tax--has the right of quiet enjoyment of their home. They cannot be evicted. All persons of majority age (and minors under various conditions) are guaranteed a home. You might want to opt to live with your friends if you’re young; the wait list can be shorter if you’re willing to have roommates. Commercial property works much the same way: businesses--which as legal entities are a unionized workplace with a persistent identity--occupy storefronts and workshops and small factory spaces on much the same basis; if they move or dissolve, the space is reallocated according to a weighted lottery, administered by the neighborhood, though under standards enshrined by law throughout Seileshrant.

Very large, very specialized endeavors--ports, hospitals, power plants, wastewater treatment--will be the common task of groups of neighborhoods. These are “towns,” but it’s important to note that towns do not need to be contiguous and have flexible membership. A neighborhood can also belong to more than one town at a time. Towns levy taxes to fund major common projects, but their area of operations is mostly limited to what we would think of as municipal-scale works. Importantly, neighborhoods unhappy with their town can, to a limited extent, opt to join another for some purposes. A sewer system is hard to reconfigure, but if you want a different garbage pickup service, that’s a bit easier to rearrange. Some towns are highly specialized and offer only one service: the South Seileshrant Power Town runs a nuclear plant that thousands of neighborhoods use, and does nothing else. Others are functionally independent cities: Green Mountain Town coordinates almost every public service in Green Mountain.

Every town, every neighborhood that isn’t a part of a town, and the unincorporated rural areas of Seileshrant are organized under the auspices of the Seileshrant Coordinating Committee, a body of directly elected officials organized via a set of more than two dozen statutes. Various communities in the Seileshrant region have decided to what extent they want to participate in the SCC’s activities; most are signatories to every statute; some to only a majority, some to only a few. As a result, the authority of Seileshrant’s collective elected government varies, although certain essential laws (like those banning murder) always have force everywhere; and all of Seileshrant is strongly influenced by the same common body of legal customs.

The SCC manages pensions and basic income; it pays for healthcare and heavily subsidizes the Seileshrant Free University; it also manages the major wilderness reserves. In setting certain statutory minimum rights, the SCC has a big effect on how real estate is managed in Seileshrant--but it, also, is not in any real sense the “owner” of property or land. Rather, in all Seileshrant, the governing principles behind how land or a building or a space is disposed of is: 1) is it being used? 2) Does someone want to use it? 3) Will the use they want to put it to have negative effects on those around them? 4) Can these effects be reasonably mitigated? You cannot open a fireworks factory next to a preschool, generally speaking; but the system is designed to enable, not to inhibit, the productive use of space.

A special case might seem to arise in those circumstances, when a resident or commercial user of property makes immovable improvements to land or a building. To treat the cases in ascending order of complexity: basic resident rights mean there are some things (putting up pictures, painting, redoing your kitchen) a neighborhood cannot and would never forbid. The costs of upkeep beyond basic maintenance for a house or apartment fall to a neighborhood and not the resident, which might seem like an incentive not to take care of your home--but because nobody is ever going to kick you out, and you’ll probably be living their a long time, that is in fact a very strong incentive to take good care of the place you live in. After all, the unit you live in is in a very real sense exclusively yours--no one else has a right to be there. You just can’t sell it when you’re done with it.

What about if you build your own house on unoccupied land? For one, you automatically have the right to live there. Indeed, it’s yours as long as you want it--no evictions, remember? And you can even pass it on to your heirs: residential rights can be bequeathed under certain circumstances, including that of a house you built yourself. The only thing you or your heirs can’t do is 1) sell it, or 2) let it stand empty. If you have a house in Green Mountain, and your aunt leaves you a house up north, you have to pick one or the other to live in. The one that’s empty will go in the lottery.

What about non-residential structures--say, specially built factories or mines or farms? Is it worth it to invest money and time and labor in improving property you can’t sell? Well, yes--productive improvements are productive improvements. And businesses enjoy similar, if a little more limited, rights to occupation as individual residents. The SCC will even help fledgeling cooperatives undertake new tasks with loans or subsidies if they think their business will be especially economically beneficial to the region. What you cannot do is extract rents.

Many other kinds of property also don’t exist in Seileshrant. You can’t own part of a company; there are no stocks. All companies are owned entirely by their workers, per SCC regulations. Companies can still split and merge as their workers see fit, but they’re much more like democracies than dictatorships. If the lack of capitalistic investment seems like it would inhibit economic growth, remember that Seileshrant’s economy is far smaller than our own; any benefits it might be missing out on there are probably comparatively small. Seileshrant has no legal concept of intellectual property. Artists have the moral right to be identified as the creator of their work, and certain kinds of limited copyright exist, but these are more akin to choosing which Creative Common license you want to distribute your work under, with preventing other people from selling copies of your work or close derivatives being assumed as the default. It is always legal to redistribute copies of artistic works for free. Most movable property is covered under the law of possessions, which gives rights of exclusive use and bequest to the things you keep in your house, or on your person, or otherwise haven’t intentionally abandoned, even more strongly than it does to housing. And businesses have the same rights to the fruits of their common labor, at least until they’re sold or abandoned.

In general, a Seileshranter would be a little puzzled at our ideas about property, namely the way in which we exercise a kind of sovereign metaphysical authority over space. In Seileshrant, law and custom is much more narrowly focused: it is geared at solving in practical terms certain problems of competing uses and desires. Either you’re using a thing or you’re not, and if you’re not, someone else is generally permitted to use it. The system has its limitations, but it also has several salubrious effects: lacking a concept of property, as well as sovereignty, has perhaps given the Seileshranters a much more nuanced attitude toward how they think about shared spaces and objects in their communities; what communal administration of space looks like when it doesn’t have to demonstrate that is possesses metaphysical authority; and, indeed, what their government is for and what it is supposed to be doing at any given moment.

[dailynewswebsite]

Coronavirus: the road to vaccine roll-out is always bumpy, as 20th-century pandemics show

Polio affected person in an iron lung to assist them breathe. Everett Assortment/Shutterstock

When you’ve got been following the media protection of the brand new vaccines in growth for COVID-19, it is going to be clear that the stakes are excessive. Only a few vaccine trials in historical past have attracted a lot consideration, maybe since polio within the mid-20th century.

A now largely forgotten chapter, summer time polio outbreaks invoked terror in mother and father. Immediately, restrictions on gatherings and motion within the efforts to manage COVID-19 have been an enormous pressure on society, however within the 1950s, mother and father locked their youngsters in stifling scorching buildings throughout the summer time with home windows sealed shut as a result of they have been terrified polio would by some means seep by means of the cracks within the wall.

The event of the polio vaccine within the US in 1955 was a second of worldwide celebration. Reaching that time concerned hundreds of thousands of residents elevating funds to develop the vaccine, political goodwill by the bucket-load and a pushed public-private scientific collaboration, with scientist Jonas Salk on the helm. Kids throughout the US have been enlisted in one of many largest medical trials in historical past.

1955 newspaper headlines on the event of an efficient polio vaccine. March of Dimes/Wikimedia Commons

Clearly, setbacks and challenges occurred alongside the way in which, even as soon as the vaccine was being rolled out. In a surprising episode known as the “Cutter incident”, a failure in making and inspecting the vaccine by a California-based agency known as the Cutter Laboratories led to youngsters getting polio from the vaccine, which contained viable poliovirus.

The incident led to a serious tightening of federal laws to make sure manufacturing security. It additionally resulted in new legal guidelines being handed that prevented vaccine producers from being sued. (The concern was that drug producers wouldn’t wish to develop vaccines with out being protected by the legislation.)

An absence of urgency for vaccine uptake rapidly set in. It’s taken with no consideration that youngsters are vaccinated routinely, however this acceptance took time. Within the early period of vaccination, it was a software towards epidemics and other people anticipated to be vaccinated throughout an outbreak. By means of well being schooling and communication, funding of immunisation companies, and political help throughout occasion strains, vaccination was promoted as a central pillar of a public well being globally.

Promise of an Aids vaccine

When the following huge plague of the 20th century hit – Aids – naturally it was vaccination that may be appeared to. Inside a short while of scientists confirming HIV was the reason for Aids in 1984, the US well being and human companies secretary, Margaret Heckler, introduced {that a} vaccine can be prepared in two years. The excessive expectations and hope instilled in vaccination weren’t shocking, notably following the eradication of smallpox from the planet in 1980. Nevertheless, an Aids vaccine proved to be unattainable.

Sadly, many elements of HIV an infection make it very tough to develop a vaccine. As a substitute, it has been antiretrovirals – a gaggle of medicine that inhibit varied steps within the HIV replication course of – which have proved to be the best technique for treating Aids.

The stigma of Aids was additionally an inhibitor for controlling the illness. Well being officers originally of the Aids disaster coyly referred to the transmission being by means of “bodily fluids”, as a substitute of specifying blood and semen. This result in misunderstandings concerning the illness being unfold by means of contact.

New pandemic, similar issues

Immediately, COVID-19 is the newest public well being disaster that can’t be separated from politics and society. Concern of this illness, and whether or not it’s taken significantly and seen as vital to guard towards, will play a serious function within the help and uptake of a vaccine.

Most individuals wish to return to a “regular life”, and a vaccine is essentially the most dependable solution to obtain this. Nevertheless, the general public’s need for a vaccine is balanced towards considerations concerning the velocity of vaccine growth, wariness about new sorts of vaccines, and distrust of pharmaceutical firms, governments and the “well being institution”.

Public motion in communities has been evident all through the COVID-19 pandemic, in neighbours supporting the aged and people unable to depart their properties by delivering groceries and medicine, in addition to compliance with authorities well being messaging, and willingness to participate in medical trials. However nationwide political stakes for a vaccine stay excessive with politicians utilizing “vaccine offers” to bolster standard help and win elections.

The acceptance of vaccines is fragile, so when leaders promote their nation’s vaccine with clear political motivations, it will probably knock the general public’s confidence and draw intense scrutiny. As with the polio vaccine of the previous, the world is watching.

Samantha Vanderslott receives funding from the Nationwide Institute for Well being Analysis (NIHR) and the New Enterprise Fund. She can be a steering committee member for the Vaccination Acceptance Analysis Community (VARN).

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/coronavirus-the-road-to-vaccine-roll-out-is-always-bumpy-as-20th-century-pandemics-show/ via https://growthnews.in

[soundmanrecords]

Strike Out Tyrannous Bill Or The People Will

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Strike Out Tyrannous Bill Or The People Will

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Open Letter To Boris Johnson | Strike Out Tyrannous Bill Or The People Will

Posted on 26th March 2020 by The Bernician

Open Letter To Boris Johnson

Greetings Boris. I trust your inevitable briefing on this heart-felt open letter, about the tyrannous bill given Royal Assent on 25/03/2020, finds you well, in spite of these most troubling of times.

You will, of course, already know that nothing which arises from the provisions of the Final Brexit Bill can in any way derogate from the sovereignty it restored, which necessarily means that any act of the UK government that subsequently suspends the unalienable sovereign rights of the British people – such as the right to remove governments by democratic vote, for instance – is constitutionally unlawful and the passing of legislation to that effect automatically renders Parliament illegitimate and the mandate given by the people in the last election a legal nullity, which could easily be overturned by any properly convened Common Law or international court.

Now you can choose to listen to the advice of Dominic Cummings, who, after all, did mastermind the winning campaigns in both Brexit and last December’s election. However, if rumours are true that he initially argued that the savings to the pension funds meant elderly deaths due to a pandemic would be a boon for the economy, then he is obviously Malthusian at heart and the people cannot trust him.

You might also choose to listen to the lawyers, QC’s and mandarins who will no doubt tell you that there is no merit to the points of law which I am setting forth in this letter, but in getting Brexit done you have already proven you are capable of standing up to those whom the late Denis Healey called “those who hold the purse-strings,” which is exactly what you need to do as a matter of great urgency. The future of all our children depends upon it.

Nevertheless, you must first accept that a wise man will always observe the nature of a problem before prescribing the remedy for it, whilst a fool always rushes in without investigation and looks for a quick fix that doesn’t actually exist.

This is, of course, analogous to the current crisis faced by everybody on the Earth, as almost every government worldwide has effectively declared medical martial law, without any diligent inquiry into exactly what the Coronavirus is, whilst a rush to make its vaccine mandatory, at the point of a gun, if necessary, is dominating the newsfeeds.

If it looks like tyranny, walks like tyranny and talks like tyranny, it’s not a Common Law Constitutional Democracy.

It is simply unsustainable to argue that Parliament has the authority or the legal powers to create a government which operates outside of Britain’s long-established constitutional framework.

Otherwise, the Remainers in the last Parliament would simply have voted to remain in the EU, in spite of the majority of the people desperately wanting to leave and that would have been that, without the guarantees the constitution provides.

This means that any action which purports to suspend any aspect of that constitutional framework – such as the indefinite suspensions of the rights of free assembly and association, to come and go as we please, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty before a jury of our peers – is always a criminal act of treason against the sovereign, free people of Britain.

Wherefore, this bill is not just emblematic of monumental foolishness, it is also the kind of treacherous act that the newly restored Common Law protects the British people from.

Since the Common Law guarantees that there are no circumstances in which the people’s unalienable natural rights can be suspended, without obtaining their express consent in a democratic plebiscite, which would never transpire.

This is a fact that you know very well, given that it is the only reason your predecessor at Number 10 legislated for the Brexit referendum to decide the matter of EU membership, instead of Parliament.

You also don’t need me to tell you that to hold a referendum on whether Britain should allow the government to suspend the sovereignty, protections and freedom guaranteed by the Common Law, would result in a resounding cry from the people that Britain must remain sovereign, protected and free.

However, the actions of your government and Parliament this week give rise to an increasingly common suspicion among the British people that you are using this crisis to impose conditions which nobody in this nation would every consent to in a democratic election or referendum.

Why else would you have passed a bill which is the grossest and most tyrannous breach of Constitutional Law, which strictly prohibits the suspension of the very laws which guarantee the British people can never be subjected to the kind of unaccountable government the bill enables?

Why else would you have ignored the recommendations of your medical experts on 19/03/2020 that Coronavirus should be reclassified as no longer being a serious public health risk and instead lay such an unconstitutional bill before Parliament?

Why else would you have cancelled every family celebration, as well as every academic achievement due to be celebrated by hard-working young people and their families this summer?

Why else would you have condemned grandparents to spend what could be the last few months of their lives without being able to see the grandchildren who make their lives worth living?

Indubitably, the answer to all of those questions is the same: the only other realistic alternative explanation is that the UK government is bereft of compassion because it is engaged or complicit in facilitating acts of genocide, as per the European Convention.

Nobody needs to remind you whose name history will record as having enabled such tyranny, in the event you don’t act without delay to stop this criminal bill being enforced.

The actual scientific evidence abounding demands that an independent public inquiry into Coronavirus [and the effects of wireless radiation] must immediately be set in motion, to establish the reasons why the current infrastructure of central government allowed such an aberration of British Constitutional Law [and the facts] to be passed into law, when its own advisers had already announced publicly that Coronavirus was no longer a serious public health risk.

Failure to strike out the bill as unconstitutional will result in a representative action, for and on behalf of the British people, seeking the same outcome, under the protection of the Treaty of Universal Community Trust, within which no government can claim jurisdiction, as the Treaty Office can corroborate.

Whatever you elect to do and whatever outcome we all have to face, whether I like it or not, no matter what else I have achieved or will achieve, history will remember me as the working class lad from Newcastle who took on the might of the banksters and won, even after being banned from litigating in every court in a so called justice system, long since rigged to protect my adversaries from the consequences of their myriad of crimes against the people.

However, the question you should now be asking yourself is not anything to do with whether I am right or wrong on these issues.

It is what history will record of the first year of Boris Johnson’s government.

If you proceed with the enforcement of this act, the working class which deserted Labour to give you your landslide will know that the sovereignty Brexit restored has been stolen from them by the Parliament they enabled.

Your government can only proceed from here as an unaccountable totalitarian dictatorship, built upon a genocidal false flag health emergency and ultra vires claims of both jurisdiction and legitimacy.

A class action to end such tyranny at its outset will therefore quickly gain the support of the people, even if voices such as mine are suppressed, as they always are in totalitarian dictatorships of all natures and descriptions.

However, if you agree to settle this without resorting to tyranny and without the people having to resort to legal proceedings, by guaranteeing in signed writing that you will move to annul the bill indefinitely, history will almost certainly give you more credit than it ever might for getting Brexit done.

Moreover, in guaranteeing that the people of this country remain free, calm and sensible, in the midst of worldwide fear, uncertainty and panic, you would no doubt be remembered as the Prime Minister who foiled an international plot to turn Britain into a totalitarian, 5G-enabled, total surveillance prison without bars, from which there would be no escape without risking arrest, detainment or death.

Since my family was one of the first twenty clans to settle here during the Trojan migration, you will no doubt fully comprehend that my DNA prevents me and my kindred from not doing all we are able to prevent tyranny from ever rearing its demon head upon these ancient isles.

In that regard, the people also rely upon the seminal Common Law case of Chamberlain v Lindon [1998], which held that a person who genuinely believes their actions to be right has the lawful excuse to act according to their conscience, even it is proven in a court of law that they were mistaken.

I therefore look forward to receiving your most appropriate response by public declaration at your earliest opportunity, in the genuine hope that the British people can reach an amicable out of court settlement with the UK government, over the obvious and profound exaggerations of the threat Coronavirus poses to our health and the tyranny you seek to enforce.

In sincerity and honour, without ill will, frivolity or vexation.

Michael of Bernicia

Sovereign Ambassador of Universal Community Trust | Draftsman of Magna Carta 2020

All Rights Reserved under the Treaty of Universal Community Trust.

The existing Memorandum of Understanding between UCT and the UK government applies nunc-pro-tunc and the author of this missive enjoys the benefits of sovereign immunity, under international law.

[dailykhaleej]

Coronavirus: Dubai lawyers see sharp spike in divorce enquiries

Picture for illustrative functions solely Picture Credit score: Pixabay

Dubai: Dubai-based household lawyers have reported a sharp spike in divorce enquiries in current weeks reflecting a world development, at the same time as registered divorces in the Dubai Courts rose over the past quarter.

Nita Maru, solicitor and managing associate of TWS Authorized Consultants

Nita Maru, solicitor and managing associate of TWS Authorized Consultants, instructed DailyKhaleej, “Divorce enquiries at TWS Legal Consultants have surged by more than 30 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Usually, we have a spike post summer holidays or the Christmas break, but now, we are observing an increase during these extraordinary times too.”

Tina Thapar of Al Midfa & Associates (Advocates & Authorized Consultants) , stated, “I have received several queries regarding divorce in these difficult times, when there are other things to think of.”

In accordance with official statistics, Dubai Courts registered 375 divorce certificates in the primary quarter of 2020, in comparison with 330 throughout the identical interval in 2019 – recording a 13.6 per cent improve. The month of March alone this yr noticed as many as 84 divorce instances – and 292 marriages.

Too shut for consolation?

Satirically, the spurt in divorce enquiries comes at a time when {couples} globally are attending to spend extra time with one another below the present stay-in circumstances.

In accordance with Maru, “Of their prolonged togethernesss, {couples} are realising there are holes in their marriage past restore and are choosing divorce. These unprecedented instances have positioned immense stress on {couples} resulting in irrational arguments, bitterness and friction while being cooped up collectively in isolation. Even the place there have been current issues, these have escalated quick and intensified as {couples} wrestle to maintain their marriage intact.

NUMBER OF DIVORCES

In accordance with official statistics, Dubai Courts registered 375 divorce certificates in the primary quarter of 2020, in comparison with 330 throughout the identical interval in 2019 – recording a 13.6 per cent improve. The month of March alone this yr noticed as many as 84 divorce instances – and 292 marriages.

“Being together 24/7, high levels of stress, lack of communication, lack of freedom, financial strain and being burnt out from daily chores are some of the main reasons why divorce enquiries have surged at my firm,” stated Maru. “This period of self-isolation is taking a toll on some couples who are losing their patience and finding there is no release to their frustration,” she added.

As Thapar sees it, “The differences for sure are not because of the current circumstances per se, but have been building up for years. The mere fact of living with the person you want to divorce under the same roof during such a time when you can’t go out has made it more difficult for couples to cope with each other.”

The frequent complaints

Juan Van Wyk, scientific psychologist at The Lighthouse Arabia Centre for Wellbeing

From a psychologist’s perspective, Juan Van Wyk, scientific psychologist at The Lighthouse Arabia Centre for Wellbeing in Dubai, who can be seeing various such {couples} says, “Circumstances of being either physically removed from each other or being continuously together creates challenges for couples. Human beings need connection, but they also need space and a sense of control over their life and the latter is being compromised right now.”

He stated the most typical complaints embody:

• Associate being too controlling.

• Associate not pulling his/her weight in all the brand new roles and obligations.

• Problem dealing with a associate’s fears or anxiousness and fixed negativity.

• Being extra irritable and having a decrease tolerance degree, small issues inflicting massive reactions.

• Feeling smothered or overwhelmed with the fixed presence of the associate.

• Needing some house to breathe.

Van Wyk stated, “Our close relationships are in itself the space where we get triggered the most. We expect a lot from our relationships and often times can want our partners to take care of us in times of crisis. Now, add to that the uncertainty of our current situation, creating on a neurobiological level, a sense of danger. Our whole brain-body system activates for survival, and if you do not feel supported or cared for by your partner, even momentarily, they can easily become the ‘enemy’ from which you need to escape or if not possible, attack.”

Provided that lawyers and psychologists are distance working, the distraught {couples} are reaching out to them via phone calls, emails and web site enquiries. Consultations are being dealt with on digital conferences and calls.

Are the court docket hearings on?

Thapar stated, “The Personal Status Court is not treating divorce matters as an urgent matter, therefore it will take time in obtaining hearing dates for these cases, hence the frustration among couples has also escalated.”

Dubai Courts Picture Credit score: DailyKhaleej

Maru stated dealing with of Dubai marriages and divorce instances was lately suspended however Dubai Courts has now began to conduct distant hearings.

The time it’ll take for a divorce to return via will depend on whether or not the divorce is amicable or contested.

Maru stated, “An amicable divorce commences with opening a file at the court followed by the mandatory conciliatory process. Parties who wish to pursue the amicable route could have their divorce concluded in a matter of weeks. A contested divorce could take anywhere between eight to 24 months, sometimes longer.”

Room for reconciliation

In accordance with the lawyers and the psychologist, {couples} could discover the present circumstances they’re in stifling, however there’s at all times room for reconciliation.

Maru stated, “There are some couples that are resilient and are using this self-isolation time to repair cracks in their marriage bringing them closer as opposed to breaking up permanently. Some couples have been willing to use this time to work things out and compromise. So in some instances, this period has actually led to resolution, not dissolution, as couples have been able to take time to resolve their marital issues and become stronger together.”

In different instances, as Thapar identified, “Most of the divorce queries are mutual, where both parties have consented to the fact that they cannot live with each other due to irreconcilable differences and have drawn up mutual divorce agreements and just want the divorce certificate as soon as they can, to get their official freedom from each other.”

Steps to salvage a wedding

Maru stated, “There once used to be a societal taboo against divorce but with marriages eroding rapidly these days, filing for divorce is no longer a shameful option. With couples self-isolating and spending more time together, tensions escalate and cracks in the marriage surface. But they should take this opportunity to make make amends.”

• Spend high quality time with one another, show mutual respect, appreciation, belief, love and dedication.

• Be extra aware of speaking successfully and positively.

• Reasonably than losing time with blame video games and heated arguments on trivial issues, use time collectively extra productively.

• Plan forward to make your bond stronger, maybe organize a film night time at residence. Or attempt to be taught a brand new exercise collectively like a brand new language on-line or do meditation or yoga.

• Make time to do issues you wouldn’t usually do collectively like cooking.

• Avoiding discussing delicate/delicate points in entrance of kids because it may result in heated arguments.

• Put aside time to attach with one another bodily, emotionally and on an intimate degree to offer the reassurance the opposite celebration could also be in search of.

• If the state of affairs turns into such {that a} divorce is inevitable, it’s prudent to hunt early authorized recommendation as to issuing proceedings regionally or overseas and a celebration’s rights in this specific jurisdiction as it may well have a big impact in your monetary settlement, upkeep and custody of kids going ahead.

The psychologist’s prescription

Van Dyk recommends the next:

• Acknowledge what is occurring.

• Personal your emotions – “I am feeling this.”

• Take accountability for self-care and well-being.

• Set boundaries in all spheres of the connection – bodily, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

• Don’t try at fixing relationship issues now.

• Together with the boundaries, schedule “WE” time.

• Do sufficient enjoyable actions collectively.

• Have check-in instances the place you simply LISTEN and don’t reply or give recommendation, sharing about one of the best a part of day and the hardest second of day. Only one sentence, sure only one.

• When you discover it onerous to remain in the second with out reacting – talk it to your associate – Depart the house BUT schedule when you’ll proceed.

• Attain out for skilled assist.

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[sciencespies]

Heavily Trafficked Songbirds Have a Path Back to Resiliency

https://sciencespies.com/nature/heavily-trafficked-songbirds-have-a-path-back-to-resiliency/

Heavily Trafficked Songbirds Have a Path Back to Resiliency

The black-helmeted, crimson-jacketed males flit from branch to branch chirping at the female birds, who are shaded gray with less flamboyant flashes of orange and red. The environment is hot and humid, just the way the tropical birds like it. But this conditioned climate exists in a Smithsonian facility in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, thousands of miles from the birds’ ancestral home along the Caribbean coast of Venezuela.

These 20-odd red siskins are part of a population helping researchers to learn more about this endangered South American songbird. They aren’t the only ones in captivity. In fact, the diminishing Venezuelan population of birds in the wild is likely dwarfed by the number of siskins held and trafficked by breeders and pet owners around the world.

Researchers are working on learning more about trafficking rings in an effort to potentially co-opt some of the breeders and other players to help with siskin conservation. Meanwhile, working with Provita, a conservation partner in Venezuela, plans are underway to reintroduce the birds to parts of their former range in Venezuela to bolster the fast-dwindling wild population.

Even as the birds’ native country suffers from ongoing societal disruption, the researchers see promise. “We would like to think the reintroduction could happen soon,” says Michael Braun, an evolutionary biologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of National History, who works with the birds.

A local breeder voluntarily surrenders a male red siskin. “We were surprised and heartened to find many people interested in helping to save our natural heritage,” says Cardozo-Urdaneta.

(Leonel Ovalle-Moleiro, Provita NGO)

Red siskins, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, face threats from habitat loss and poaching for the pet trade. The small finches live in the northern coastal foothills of Venezuela, and at least historically in Trinidad, though no birds have been seen in the island country for decades. Some birds may cross into Colombia while another distinct population lives in Guyana.

Red siskins can crossbreed with canaries to create red canaries, a bird long-prized by pet owners across Europe and in the United States. In fact, many of the siskins trapped over the last century were likely taken for interbreeding purposes, though pure red siskins are also highly prized by pet owners.

“These birds have been maintained in private aviculture since the 1800s,” says Warren Lynch, the bird unit manager in charge of the climate-controlled facility at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. As siskins whistle and flit about in an enclosure behind him, the researcher discusses the complex dynamics of the ongoing trade of these birds. “Any red canaries you see are a result of that interbreeding.”

The majority of Venezuela’s exported red siskins (above: female in the wild) are sent to the United States.

(Jhonathan Miranda, Provita NGO)

At the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, red siskins (above) are part of a captive population helping researchers to learn more about this endangered South American songbird.

(Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)

The diminishing native population of birds in the wild (above: male in Venezuela) is likely dwarfed by the number of siskins held and trafficked by breeders and pet owners around the world.

(Jhonathan Miranda, Provita NGO)

The use or trade of red siskins is illegal in Venezuela, but the continuing political crisis in the country means that some poachers and traffickers can act with near impunity. Just the same, learning from the operators of the illegal siskin trade may offer researchers a leg up in disrupting the capture of birds in the wild. Braun and colleagues conducted a study, published recently in Animal Conservation, in which they analyzed social networks in the South American country from 2010 to 2017. The researchers suspected that the people trafficking red siskins may be using some of the same networks and routes used by drug traffickers or other illicit traders.

“Efforts of this type in Latin America are rare, because high impunity, low resources, and a very diverse market can make it difficult to understand illegal activities scientifically without putting the team at risk,” says Arlene Cardozo-Urdaneta, a research professional in the Spatial Ecology Laboratory of the Venezuela Institute of Scientific Investigations and one of the co-authors of the study.

The researchers used known contacts to get in touch with other players in the process and gained the trust of dozens of breeders, harvesters and others involved in red siskin trade. They also monitored specialized Facebook and Whatsapp groups dedicated to wildlife sales. They recorded 1,013 instances of siskins being either offered for sale or requested for purchase.

They also found that while drug traffickers or other illicit operators might be moving siskins occasionally, a lot of siskin trade occurred between people highly specialized in dealing with the birds.

“This is not a product they’re selling on the street corner in Venezuela,” says Kathryn-Rodriguez Clark, a population ecologist in animal care sciences at the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, who was also a co-author of the study.

Brian O’Shea, a collection manager for ornithology for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science who was not involved in the recent study, says the researchers’ findings make sense. “Siskins have always been a target of a unique niche.”

Basically, the process of trafficking a siskin may start with a trapper in a rural area. Their traps use a live male bird that sings in one side of the two-compartment cage. Territorial males will come by to check out their potential rival and get trapped in the other compartment of the cage once they enter.

Many of the breeders share a common interest with conservationists—they are fascinated by the bird and carry a deep understanding of its biology and natural habitat.

(Raul Jimenez, Provita NGO)

At this point the bird is sold for as little as $5 per animal to a commercial vendor who attempts to adapt wild birds to living in a cage. More than 60 percent die during this stage in the network, Rodriguez-Clark says.

“For the bird, it’s probably not a picnic,” she says.

The rest are often passed to one or more intermediaries, who move the birds to cities, or sometimes pass them on to what amounts to bird launderers, who sell them as legal captive-bred birds for about $80. In other cases, the birds are sent via smugglers to international breeders or pet owners, who may pay as much as $500 for a bird. The smugglers use everything from medicine bottles to suitcases. One man was even caught in Venezuela with siskins trapped in hair curlers taped to his body, the researchers say.

Rodriguez-Clark’s preliminary data shows many of these stay in Venezuela. But the majority of exported birds are sent to the United States.

These dollars mean a lot to Venezuelans undergoing a devastating economic crisis, and while the researchers didn’t examine whether the crisis has resulted in an uptick in siskin trade, Cardozo-Urdaneta says it’s likely. “The appeal of more valuable foreign currency may led to increases in the international wildlife trade,” she says.

Based on their research, Rodriguez-Clark and her colleagues detected about 70 birds taken from the wild in western Venezuela alone every year. Since estimates put the wild bird population in the low thousands at most, this take is worrisome, says Rodriguez-Clark.

Now that the researchers know how these networks function, they are optimistic that they might be able to interrupt the trade of wild-caught birds by co-opting some of these players to become active in conservation efforts. Many of the players caught up in the illegal trade share a common interest with conservationists—they are fascinated by the bird and carry a deep understanding of its biology and natural habitat. “We were surprised and heartened to find many people interested in helping, and in generating changes to save our natural heritage, even in the most remote areas,” Cardozo-Urdaneta says.

Putting this shared passion into practice could involve a banding program that helps to verify whether an individual siskin was bred in captivity or taken from the wild. Breeders would put closed-ring bands on the small feet of young birds that couldn’t be placed on adult feet. If the bird doesn’t have one, it may have been caught from the wild. Conservation-minded bird enthusiasts could ensure their hobby isn’t contributing to the bird’s demise in the wild by verifying these bands, while breeders could pledge to only work with banded birds.

“We have to do a little bit of conservation jujitsu,” Rodriguez-Clark says.

Meanwhile, zoos are working to breed captive siskins destined for eventual release in the wild. The Red Siskin Initiative, an effort started by some of the authors of this paper, partners with a number of international institutions, including Provita. The Initiative is working to help coffee farmers in siskin environments to participate in the Smithsonian’s highly successful Bird Friendly certification project, as well as producing a red siskin chocolate bar made from bird-friendly cacao.

“What we would do for red siskin habitat would also improve things for migratory birds,” Braun says, since siskins use some of the same coffee farms as many birds that summer in the U.S. and travel down to Venezuela, such as the golden winged warbler or Connecticut warbler.

The Initiative is also coordinating breeding efforts between zoos in the U.S. and the newly constructed Red Siskin Conservation Center in Turmero, Venezuela.

Trappers use a two-compartment cage (above) holding a live male bird that sings from one side. Territorial males will come by to check out their potential rival and get trapped in the other compartment of the cage once they enter.

(Raul Jimenez, Provita NGO)

Facilities like the Smithsonian location in Front Royal are writing protocols on breeding and husbandry so they can exchange information with this center and other zoos in Venezuela.

“Basically what they want is a recipe,” Lynch says after pointing out a female with several recent chicks in the enclosure at Front Royal.

But researchers are still worried about the situation in Venezuela. In fact, Braun and his colleagues kept a discovery of a distinct population of siskins in Guyana in 2000 under wraps for years until the government there placed it on their endangered species list.

“We don’t tell anyone where they are, because they are still being poached,” says Royer.

The trouble with reintroduction, Rodriguez-Clark says, is that any release of these birds would only be successful if the original threats to the birds are mitigated. Poaching is a problem that is unlikely to stop. Nonetheless, she believes that more conservation money could help save the bird from extinction. “Give us $2 million and 10 years and we can save this bird from extinction,” Rodriguez-Clark says.

O’Shea says that since captive breeding efforts seem to be going well, zoos may eventually end up with a surplus. Eventually they will need to think about releasing some of them, regardless of the situation.

“People are always going to want to trap these things no matter what,” he says, adding that he’s not sure released birds would face extra danger, especially if their release spots are secretive.

Red siskins are a culturally important bird in Venezuela, where they are called cardenalitos. Siskins are even featured on some of the bills of their national currency. Rodriguez-Clark hopes that if the situation improves, Venezuelans will get behind reintroduction efforts and conservation of red siskin habitat, which will help a number of other vulnerable species as well.

“It could transform into something very positive for Venezuela,” Braun adds.

Editor’s note, April 13, 2020: This story has been edited since publication to clarify the role of Venezuela’s current political turmoil has had in the illegal red siskin trade. The problem long predates the nation’s current situation.

#Nature

[feministdragon]

「I’m a Pediatrician. How Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse.

Last summer, the federal government stated that it would not require Medicare and Medicaid to cover transition-affirming procedures for children or adults because medical experts at the Department of Health and Human Services found the risks were often too high, and the benefits too unclear. Undeterred by these findings, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health has pressed ahead, claiming—without any evidence—that these procedures are “safe.” Two leading pediatric associations—the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pediatric Endocrine Society—have followed in lockstep, endorsing the transition affirmation approach even as the latter organization concedes within its own guidelines that the transition-affirming protocol is based on low evidence. They even admit that the only strong evidence regarding this approach is its potential health risks to children. The transition-affirming approach has been embraced by public institutions in media, education, and our legal system, and is now recommended by most national medical organizations. There are exceptions to this movement, however, in addition to the American College of Pediatricians and the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice. These include the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Catholic Medical Association, and the LGBT-affirming Youth Gender Professionals. The transgender movement has gained legs in the medical community and in our culture by offering a deeply flawed narrative. The scientific research and facts tell a different story. Here are some of those basic facts. 1. Twin studies prove no one is born “trapped in the body of the wrong sex.” Identical twins contain 100 percent of the same DNA from conception and are exposed to the same prenatal hormones. So if genes and/or prenatal hormones contributed significantly to transgenderism, we should expect both twins to identify as transgender close to 100 percent of the time. Skin color, for example, is determined by genes alone. Therefore, identical twins have the same skin color 100 percent of the time. But in the largest study of twin transgender adults, published by Dr. Milton Diamond in 2013, only 28 percent of the identical twins both identified as transgender. Seventy-two percent of the time, they differed. That 28 percent of identical twins both identified as transgender suggests a minimal biological predisposition, which means transgenderism will not manifest itself without outside nonbiological factors also impacting the individual during his lifetime. The fact that the identical twins differed 72 percent of the time is highly significant because it means that at least 72 percent of what contributes to transgenderism in one twin consists of nonshared experiences after birth—that is, factors not rooted in biology. 2. Gender identity is malleable, especially in young children. Even the American Psychological Association’s Handbook of Sexuality and Psychology admits that prior to the widespread promotion of transition affirmation, 75 to 95 percent of pre-pubertal children who were distressed by their biological sex eventually outgrew that distress. The vast majority came to accept their biological sex by late adolescence after passing naturally through puberty. But with transition affirmation now increasing in Western society, the number of children claiming distress over their gender—and their persistence over time—has dramatically increased. For example, the Gender Identity Development Service in the United Kingdom alone has seen a 2,000 percent increase in referrals since 2009. 3. Puberty blockers for gender dysphoria have not been proven safe. The authors note that there is some evidence for decreased bone mineralization, meaning an increased risk of bone fractures as young adults, potential increased risk of obesity and testicular cancer in boys, and an unknown impact upon psychological and cognitive development. With regard to the latter, while we currently don’t have any extensive, long-term studies of children placed on blockers for gender dysphoria, studies conducted on adults from the past decade give cause for concern. For example, in 2006 and 2007, the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology reported brain abnormalities in the area of memory and executive functioning among adult women who received blockers for gynecologic reasons. Similarly, many studies of men treated for prostate cancer with blockers also suggest the possibility of significant cognitive decline. 4. There are no cases in the scientific literature of gender-dysphoric children discontinuing blockers. Most, if not all, children on puberty blockers go on to take cross-sex hormones (estrogen for biological boys, testosterone for biological girls). The only study to date to have followed pre-pubertal children who were socially affirmed and placed on blockers at a young age found that 100 percent of them claimed a transgender identity and chose cross-sex hormones. This suggests that the medical protocol itself may lead children to identify as transgender. There is an obvious self-fulfilling effect in helping children impersonate the opposite sex both biologically and socially. This is far from benign, since taking puberty blockers at age 12 or younger, followed by cross-sex hormones, sterilizes a child. 5. Cross-sex hormones are associated with dangerous health risks. From studies of adults we know that the risks of cross-sex hormones include, but are not limited to, cardiac disease, high blood pressure, blood clots, strokes, diabetes, and cancers. 6. Neuroscience shows that adolescents lack the adult capacity needed for risk assessment. Scientific data show that people under the age of 21 have less capacity to assess risks. There is a serious ethical problem in allowing irreversible, life-changing procedures to be performed on minors who are too young themselves to give valid consent. 7. There is no proof that affirmation prevents suicide in children. In addition, contrary to the claim of activists, there is no evidence that harassment and discrimination, let alone lack of affirmation, are the primary cause of suicide among any minority group. In fact, at least one study from 2008 found perceived discrimination by LGBT-identified individuals not to be causative. Over 90 percent of people who commit suicide have a diagnosed mental disorder, and there is no evidence that gender-dysphoric children who suicide are any different. Many gender dysphoric children simply need therapy to get to the root of their depression, which very well may be the same problem triggering the gender dysphoria. 8. Transition-affirming protocol has not solved the problem of transgender suicide. Adults who undergo sex reassignment—even in Sweden, which is among the most LGBT-affirming —have a suicide rate nearly 20 times greater than that of the general population. Clearly, sex reassignment is not the solution to gender dysphoria. Bottom Line: Transition-Affirming Protocol Is Child Abuse The crux of the matter is that while the transition-affirming movement purports to help children, it is inflicting a grave injustice on them and their nondysphoric peers. These professionals are using the myth that people are born transgender to justify engaging in massive, uncontrolled, and unconsented experimentation on children who have a psychological condition that would otherwise resolve after puberty in the vast majority of cases. Today’s institutions that promote transition affirmation are pushing children to impersonate the opposite sex, sending many of them down the path of puberty blockers, sterilization, the removal of healthy body parts, and untold psychological damage. These harms constitute nothing less than institutionalized child abuse. Sound ethics demand an immediate end to the use of pubertal suppression, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries in children and adolescents, as well as an end to promoting gender ideology via school curricula and legislative policies. It is time for our nation’s leaders and the silent majority of health professionals to learn exactly what is happening to our children, and unite to take action.

http://dailysignal.com/2017/07/03/im-pediatrician-transgender-ideology-infiltrated-field-produced-large-scale-child-abuse/

[un-enfant-immature]

Europe issues a deadline for US’ Privacy Shield compliance

The European Commission has finally given the U.S. a deadline related to the much criticized data transfer mechanism known as the EU-US Privacy Shield .

But it’s only asking for the U.S. to nominate a permanent ombudsperson — to handle any EU citizens’ complaints — by February 28, 2019.

If a permanent ombudsperson is not appointed by then the Commission says it will “consider taking appropriate measures, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation”.

So not an out-and-out threat to suspend the mechanism — which is what critics and MEPs have been calling for.

But still a fixed deadline at last.

“We now expect our American partners to nominate the Ombudsperson on a permanent basis, so we can make sure that our EU-US relations in data protection are fully trustworthy,” said Andrus Ansip, Commission VP for the Digital Single Market, in a statement.

“All elements of the Shield must be working at full speed, including the Ombudsperson,” added Věra Jourová, the commissioner for justice and consumers.

It’s the first sign the Commission is losing patience with its U.S. counterparts.

Although there’s no doubt the EC remains fully committed to the survival of the business-friendly mechanism which it spent years negotiating after the prior arrangement, Safe Harbor, was struck down by Europe’s top court following NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s disclosures of US government surveillance programs.

Its problem is it has to contend with Trump administration priorities — which naturally don’t align with privacy protection for non-US citizens.

While the EU-US Privacy Shield is over two years’ old at this point, president Trump has failed to nominate a permanent ombudsperson to a key oversight role.

The acting civil servant (Judith Garber, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs) was also nominated as U.S. ambassador to Cyprus this summer, suggesting a hard limit to her already divided attention on EU citizens’ data privacy.

Despite this problematic wrinkle, the EU’s executive today professed itself otherwise satisfied that the mechanism is ensuring “an adequate level of protection for personal data”, announcing the conclusion of its second annual Privacy Shield review.

The EU-US #PrivacyShield functions as it should. But it still needs a permanent Ombudsperson. I call on the US to nominate one by end of February at the latest. https://t.co/hTWOTlso2j pic.twitter.com/u1ltLndVw9

— Věra Jourová (@VeraJourova) December 19, 2018

The data transfer mechanism is now used by more than 4,000 companies to simplify flows of EU citizens’ personal data to the US.

And the Commission clearly wants to avoid a repeat of the scramble that kicked off when, three years ago, Safe Harbor was struck down and businesses had to find alternative legal means for authorizing essential data flows.

But at the same time Privacy Shield has been under growing pressure. This summer the EU parliament called for the mechanism to be suspended until the U.S. comes into compliance.

The parliament’s Libe committee also called for better monitoring of data transfers was clearly required in light of the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data misuse scandal. (Both companies having been signed up to Privacy Shield.)

The mechanism has also been looped into a separate legal challenge to another data transfer tool after the Irish High Court referred a series of questions to the European Court of Justice — setting the stage for another high stakes legal drama if fundamental European privacy rights are again deemed incompatible with U.S. national security practices.

A decision on that referral remains for the future. But in the meanwhile the Commission looks to be doing everything it can to claim it’s ‘business as usual’ for EU-US data flows.

In a press release today, it lauds steps taken by the U.S. authorities to implement recommendations it made in last year’s Privacy Shield review — saying they have “improved the functioning of the framework”.

Albeit, the detail of these slated ‘improvements’ shows how very low its starting bar was set — with the Commission listing, for e.g.:

the strengthening by the Department of Commerce of the certification process and of its proactive oversight over the framework — including setting up mechanisms such as a system of spot checks (it says that 100 companies have been checked; and 21 had “issues that have now been solved” — suggesting a fifth of claimed compliance was, er, not actually compliance)

additional “compliance review procedures” such as analysis of Privacy Shield participants’ websites “to ensure that links to privacy policies are correct”; so previously we must assume no one in the U.S. was bothering to check

the Department of Commerce put in place a system to identify false claims which the Commission now claims “prevents companies from claiming their compliance with the Privacy Shield, when they have not been certified”; so again, prior to this system being set up certifications weren’t necessary worth the pixels they were painted in

The Commission also claims the Federal Trade Commission has shown “a more proactive approach” to enforcement by monitoring the principles of the Privacy Shield — noting that, for example, it has issued subpoenas to request information from participating companies.

Another change it commends — related to the sticky issue of access to personal data by U.S. public authorities for national security purposes (which is what did for Safe Harbor) — is the appointment of new members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) — to restore the Board’s quorum.

The denuded PCLOB has been a long running bone of contention for Privacy Shield critics.

“The Board’s report on the implementation of Presidential Policy-Directive No. 28 (PPD-28, which provides for privacy protections for non-Americans) has been made publicly available,” the Commission writes, referring to a key Obama era directive that it has previously said the Shield depends upon. “It confirms that these privacy protections for non-Americans are implemented across the U.S. intelligence community.”

It says it also took into account relevant developments in the U.S. legal system in the area of privacy during the review, noting that: “The Department of Commerce launched a consultation on a federal approach to data privacy to which the Commission contributed and the US Federal Trade Commission is reflecting on its current powers in this area.”

“In the context of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Commission noted the Federal Trade Commission’s confirmation that its investigation of this case is ongoing,” it adds, kicking the can down the road on that particular data scandal.

Meanwhile, as you’d expect, business groups have welcomed another green light for data to keep being passed.

In a statement responding to the conclusion of the review, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said: “We commend the European Commission for its thorough review. Privacy Shield is a robust framework, with strong data protections, that allows for the daily transfers of commercial data between the world’s two biggest trading partners.”

[filosofablogger]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is, lest you think otherwise, alive and well.  And they are on top of the really, really important things!  But beware!!!  They are coming for your candles!  The agency that once issued memos about carbon pollution from power plants and the threat that they posed to public health, is now warning that burning candles and incense can irritate the lungs of asthma sufferers.  Oh yes, and beware, too, of those summer bonfires, as the wood smoke can trigger asthma attacks.  Isn’t it wonderful that an agency with an $8 billion budget is spending our money to warn us about the dangers of candles and wood smoke?

As one who has had asthma since birth, I can assure you that candles burning in my home are not a problem.  My two biggest problems are the air outdoors when it is warm and humid, and flowers.  Ohhhh … I better watch what I say there, or perhaps the EPA will come dig up all my flowers!!!

Just days after the announcement about candles and incense, the EPA also announced that it would seek a two-year delay in the implementation of a rule requiring oil and gas companies to detect and repair leaks of methane and other air pollutants from oil and gas wells. In announcing the delay, the EPA acknowledged that it could have a disproportionate impact on the health of children, but argued that delay was worthwhile because it would save the oil and gas industry roughly $173 million.

Liz Purchia, a former EPA communications official under the Obama administration:

“They are just distracting from the larger issues by focusing on the really small ones. I’d love to see the last time they talked about carbon pollution from power plants and the threat that they posed to public health. It’s pretty unbelievable. They are using smoke and mirrors to make it appear like they are trying to protect public health, and meanwhile they are doing everything that they can do rollback regulations and work with the fossil fuel industry to bend to their will. They are showing a willful blindness towards the health of the American public.”

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has not, as of yet, taken any legal action against incense or scented candle manufacturers.

In other EPA news …

The Environmental Protection Agency has given notice to dozens of scientists that they will not be renewed in their roles in advising the agency. Members of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) whose terms end in August will not see them renewed, according to an email sent to members this week. They may re-apply, but were given a June 30 deadline to do so. The BOSC functions as an advisory board for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, and helps the office make sure that it is using sufficiently rigorous science in its research and development programs.

Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists:

“The Board of Scientific Counselors was formed to make sure the EPA does the best possible scientific work with limited taxpayer dollars. This independent advice is needed now more than ever. By sacking dozens of scientific counselors, Pruitt is showing that he doesn’t value scientific input and the benefits it offers the public.”

Is anybody surprised by that?

In May, when Pruitt announced the terminations of nine scientists, his spokesman, J. P. Freire, said he would consider replacing the academic scientists with representatives from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate, such as the chemical, oil and gas industries. “The administrator believes we should have people on this board who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community.”  Putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop?

And in other climate news …

At an Energy and Natural Resources Committee budget hearing earlier this week, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke came under fire from Senator Al Franken over his inane comments that “the vanishing glaciers at Glacier National Park have undergone a “consistent melt” since the end of the last ice age”.  Franken informed Zinke that “scientists who work for you” have found the melting has “dramatically accelerated” in recent decades.

Ryan Zinke

Al Franken

Franken: “Can you tell me how much warming government scientists predict for the end of the century under a business-as-usual scenario?”

Zinke: “The Paris accord, in the president and my judgement, it wasn’t about climate change, it was about a bad deal.”

Huh???

Franken interrupted to ask Zinke to answer the question.

Zinke: “I don’t think the government scientists can predict with certainty. There isn’t a model that existed it can predict today’s weather given all the data. If everyone adhered to the Paris climate accord, that change would be roughly 0.2°, which is insignificant.”

Franken: “No, no, no!  I just want you to answer the question that I asked you. That’s all I want you to do.”

And so it continued, as nauseam. Keep in mind that Mr. Zinke is the head of the Department of Interior, a position that pays in the $100,000 per year range, yet intellectually I would pit almost any 8th grader against him in a debate.

Meanwhile, out in the real world …

The Southwest is experiencing its worst heat wave in decades. Excessive heat warnings have been in effect from Arizona to California and will be for the remainder of the week. On Monday, temperatures in Phoenix hit 118 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, which announced the record-tying heat.

It was so hot that dozens of flights have been canceled this week at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

My vote is for sending Trump, Pruitt and Zinke to Phoenix, make them stand on the airport tarmac for about three hours in their suits and ties, then ask if they still believe climate change is a ‘hoax’.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is, lest you think otherwise, alive and well.  And they are on top of the really, really important things!