#it's fuel for our bodies but also a bridge for social interactions

[crabsnpersimmons]

What if y/n from have you eaten? Au had eating disorders?

oou! good question!

yes! that is definitely a scenario i would like to explore in the fic when i get to it. also why i want to write the fic with multiple different Y/Ns so we can explore different experiences and relationships with food

there is a "main Y/N" who is a glutton who likes to try anything and everything. i haven't done the research for it so i can't say whether or not they have an eating disorder, but they DO have an unhealthy relationship with food as a result of being shamed for their appetite. so that, coupled with their job that emphasizes appearances and first impressions, they eat smaller meals, seemingly healthier meals, safe meals. but when they're alone at the restaurant with the DCA boys, without having to worry about who sees them or how much they eat, they're able to enjoy their food openly and honour their body's cravings.

[ruchirathor]

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence: Essential Strategies for Success

Introduction

In today's dynamic professional landscape, technical skills are no longer the sole differentiator. The ability to navigate complex interpersonal interactions, manage emotions effectively, and foster positive relationships has become paramount. This crucial skillset falls under the umbrella of Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

While IQ measures cognitive abilities, EQ focuses on our capacity to understand, utilize, and manage our own emotions, as well as perceive, understand, and influence the emotions of others. Strong EQ empowers individuals to excel in various aspects of their professional lives, fostering effective communication, collaboration, and leadership.

The good news? EQ is not a fixed trait, but a learnable skillset that can be honed through dedicated effort. Let's explore some key strategies for cultivating your Emotional Intelligence:

1. Self-Awareness: The Foundation of Emotional Intelligence

The cornerstone of effective emotional management lies in self-awareness. Here are some practical steps to enhance your self-awareness:

Mindful Observation: Cultivate a habit of observing your internal state. Pay attention to physical sensations like muscle tension or racing heart rate, as these can be indicators of underlying emotions.

Emotional Identification: Don't simply label your state as "stressed." Pinpoint the specific emotion – are you feeling frustrated, anxious, or perhaps overwhelmed? Precise identification allows for better understanding.

Journaling for Insight: Journaling provides a powerful tool for self-exploration. Reflect on your experiences, identifying emotions that arose and how you responded. Over time, you'll gain valuable insights into your emotional patterns.

2. Mastering Self-Regulation: Maintaining Composure Under Pressure

Even the most composed individuals experience challenging emotions. The key lies in managing them effectively. Here's how to strengthen your self-regulation skills:

The Power of Breathwork: In the heat of the moment, utilize deep breathing techniques to calm your nervous system. This simple act allows for a more measured and thoughtful response.

Cognitive Restructuring: Challenge negative thought patterns that fuel emotional distress. Instead of "I'm a failure," reframe the situation as a learning opportunity – "This is a setback, but I can learn from it and improve."

Healthy Emotional Outlets: Develop healthy coping mechanisms for expressing emotions. Exercise, spending time in nature, or engaging in creative pursuits can be effective stress relievers.

3. Sharpening Social Awareness: Reading the Emotional Landscape

A vital aspect of EQ involves understanding the emotions of others. Here's how to increase your social awareness:

Active Listening: Pay close attention to both verbal and nonverbal cues. Listen not just to the content of the message, but also to the tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions.

Developing Empathy: Practice stepping into the shoes of others. Seek to understand their perspectives and experiences, fostering a sense of compassion and emotional connection.

Observational Learning: Observe how individuals express emotions in public settings. Take note of nonverbal cues and what they might indicate about their emotional state.

4. Communication Mastery: Building Bridges Through Effective Interaction

Clear and respectful communication is essential for fostering strong relationships in the workplace and beyond. Here's how EQ can elevate your communication skills:

Assertive Communication: Express your needs and desires with clarity while remaining respectful of others' feelings. Avoid passive-aggressive behavior or bottling up your emotions.

Active Listening Revisited: Genuine listening involves understanding, not simply waiting to respond. Ask clarifying questions and demonstrate a sincere interest in what the other person has to say.

Nonverbal Communication Matters: Maintain eye contact, use positive body language, and smile appropriately. Nonverbal cues significantly impact the effectiveness of your communication.

Conclusion: Unlocking Your Full Potential with Emotional Intelligence

Investing in your EQ is an investment in yourself. Strong emotional intelligence empowers you to navigate professional challenges with greater ease, build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients, and ultimately, achieve your full potential.

[padawan-historian]

"Southern whites cannot walk, talk, sing, conceive of laws or justice, think of sex, love, the family or freedom without responding to the presence of Negroes." – Ralph Ellison 

The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. – Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro, 1933 

-

When we discuss anti-Black racism, it must be noted that we are talking about a very specific root of white supremacy, one that is wholly unique – but still connected – to the anti-indigenous, anti-Muslim, antisemitic movement that infects and affects the [white] Western world. 

In the weeds of complexities and intersections, there are two major types of anti-black racism that dominate our public sphere: segregationist and assimilationist. 

Segregationist is the school of thought we are most familiar with, in part, because white supremacist violence is both visible and vitriol. 

Our minds supply us with images of the Ku Klux Klan and burning crosses, the Nazi sympathizers and defenders of the Lost Cause with confederate flags, the red-faced parents screaming at Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock Nine, and police officers brutalizing Black bodies peacefully protesting in the streets. These images were introduced to the [white] American public during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s on their living room television sets. They are now ingrained into our collective consciousness and we label those actions and images as RACIST. However, those the danger that comes with that system of reality is that it detaches us from the subtle, pervasive, and continuing politics and practices of segregationists’ work. The Klan did not create America's caste system. They merely reinforced it. 

To understand segregationist thought, you must understand their historical AND contemporary system of reality. 

Southern educator and researcher Thomas Bailey details in his 1914 work Race Orthodoxy in the South the racial credence that was adopted by the majority white Southerners: 

Segregationists believe that Black people are inferior by nature. This idea is based on a multigenerational caste system that places Blacks as intellectually, socially, morally, and physically inferior to those who identify as white (or near white). 

1. “Blood will tell.” 

2. The white race must dominate. 

3. The Teutonic peoples stand for race purity. 

4. The negro is inferior and will remain so. 

5. “This is a white man’s country.”

6. No social equality. 

7. No political equality.   

8. In matters of civil rights and legal adjustments give the white man, as opposed to the colored man, the benefit of the doubt; and under no circumstances interfere with the prestige of the white man. 

9. In educational policy let the negro have the crumbs that fall from the white man’s table. 

10. Let there be such industrial education of the negro as will best fir him to serve the white man. 

11. Only [white] Southerners understand the negro question. 

12. Let the [white] South settle the negro question. 

13. The status of peasantry is all the negro may hope for if the races are to live together in peace. 

14. Let the lowest white man count for more than the highest negro. 

15. The above statements indicate the leadings of Providence. 

 (Scholar question: Which of these credence’s do you think still exist in our present-day spaces?) 

While we have moved forward since Bailey’s book publication 106 years ago, some of these decrees are uncomfortably familiar . . . we often don’t want to analyze why the South, as a geopolitical region and former secessionist state, was able to enforce white supremacy in every area of public (and private) life nor do we care to examine how these policies set the tone for the rest of the United States in regards to the larger Jim Crow ideology, or Dixie Doctrine. 

Dixie Doctrine, as defined in Glenda Gilmore’s massive work Defying Dixie, as the active participation and organization of white supremacists in both the South and nation’s capital who worked to reinforce the racial caste system. 

While Jim Crow often exists in the pages of academia as a series of segregationist policies that influenced [white] public spaces, Dixie Doctrine showcases an international, color-coded solution for ever human deed and thought across color and racial lines. White supremacists believed that a racial caste system would spread across the nations – with the white race at the top.

Since the South was not a sovereign nation, Jim Crow’s – and, by extension, Dixie Doctrine’s – health depended on the federal government’s support of its administration and on receptive public opinion or – at least – the complacency of people both within and outside of the South. Scholar Amy Louise Wood notes that “with the final withdrawal of federal troops in the South in 1877, the use of violence to control the black population was practiced without hindrance, as white southerners sought to reverse the changes brought about Reconstruction and to restore the old social order” (Wood 762). The violence and disenfranchisement that covered the Jim Crow era came about, in part, due to the vacuum created by the disruptions and dislocation of the New South: 

In this new environment, one’s social status was less known and less fixed and traditional forms of authority—the patriarchal household, the church, the planter elite—were called into question. Moreover, interactions in industrial workplaces and exchanges in the commercial marketplace could potentially place white and blacks on equal footing . . . white southerners reasserted their authority amid these changes through the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans and the establishment of racial segregation throughout the 1890s. (Wood 764)

Jim Crow took the national stage when Southerner Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913. The first national Congress under his leadership saw no less than 20 bills presented that pushed for Jim Crow legislation in DC. These bills included segregated train cars – or Jim Crow cars – race segregation of federal jobs, racial exclusion from military service, and tougher miscegenation laws. Under his administration, any form of legal or economic justice for Black Southerners (and Black citizens across the United States) was merely a calculated maneuver meant to “make Jim Crow work more smoothly” (Gilmore 19). 

Under Woodrow, the United States saw one of the worst decades of anti-Black violence – over 100 Black individuals were lynched, shot, or burned in 1915 alone. Following the 1920s, the Great Depression fueled a whole new way of violence against black Southerners and Westerners who were seen by working-class whites as competitors for labor jobs. Since many Black workers were willing (or forced) to work for lower wages and were barred from unions, they were seen by many industrialists as the perfect workers to exploit for labor, given that their protests were met by overwhelming police force. Black laborers also had to worry about the possibility of being fired for speaking out or protesting given that most Southern states had strict vagrancy laws that targeted unemployed Black men, who were then shuffled into hard labor camps and chain gangs for indeterminate amounts of time. 

Employing overworked and underpaid Black workers over white union workers and independent laborers also served to deepen the established racial divide since employment not only guaranteed wages, but also served as a social and economic barometer in the reimagined, industrial age. This resented not only resulted in heightened racial violence, but also squashed any potential interracial efforts to create inclusive unions and strengthen better workers’ rights. 

In summary, white segregationists are very concerned with the economic, political, and [spiritual] advancement of Black, brown, and indigenous people. When author Isabel Wilkerson noted in a recent interview that Trumpians were not only voting on issues relating to 2016 (and now 2020) but also the "Race Question" of 2054 (the year when, according to our census, the United States will no longer be a white-majority country). 

-

The idea of race & caste runs so deeply, and the suggestion that white Americans will no longer be the political and racially dominant group comes from the same place of fear that white Southerners in the 1870s and 1920s used to justify their racial violence and segregationist system of reality . . . . 

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[naturopathycanada]

What Is Integrative Functional Medicine?

Integrative Functional Medicine establishes how and why disease occurs, and also recovers health by addressing the origin of condition for each and every individual.

What is Integrative functional medicine?

Integrative Functional Medicine is a systems biology-based technique that concentrates on identifying as well as addressing the origin of condition. Each symptom or differential medical diagnosis could be among several adding to an individual's ailment. Formerly, researchers thought that when we understood the human genome we 'd be able to respond to almost all questions concerning the resources of condition. What we in fact discovered, nevertheless, is that human biology is a whole lot much more difficult than that. In truth, human beings aren't genetically hardwired for lots of diseases; instead, gene expression is changed by myriad impacts, including environment, way of living, diet plan, activity patterns, psycho-social-spiritual things, and tension. These way of living choices and ecological exposures may push us toward (or far from) condition by turning on or off particular genetics. That insight has assisted to fuel the worldwide rate of interest in Practical Medicine, which has that concept in its core. Practical Medicine directly addresses the underlying sources of ailment with a systems-oriented approach with hereditary medical concepts, initial instruments, a cutting-edge procedure of care, as well as by involving both knwoledgeable and patient in a restorative collaboration.

The Integrative Functional Medicine model is a customized, patient-centered, science-based technique that encourages patients and also practitioners to collaborate to deal with the underlying root causes of disease and also advertise optimal health. It needs a thorough understanding of each client's hereditary, biochemical, and lifestyle elements and also leverages that information to route individualized treatment plans that result in boosted person outcomes.

By addressing the root cause, rather than signs, specialists end up being oriented to identifying the complexity of the condition. They may discover one problem has various reasons may, furthermore, one cause may take to several problems. Consequently, Useful Medicine treatment targets the certain manifestations of disease in each individual.

Dr. Dan Kalish, the creator of Kalish Institute of Useful Medicine, defines it as "a lab-based system of analysis that depends mostly on all-natural health may wellness remedies" making use of scientific research to determine the troubles, i.e. lab work as well as focus on natural wellness therapies that are timeless, diet plan, reflection, exercise may also usually dietary supplements, natural therapies all based upon labs. The meaning of the "Useful" part is that Integrative Functional Medicine professionals aim to find organ "Disorder" before the start of an illness process may restore "Feature" back.

How does Integrative Functional Medicine work?

Aspects of Integrative Functional Medicine

The knowledgebase or "footprint" of Integrative Functional Medicine is created by 6 core foundations:

- Gene-Environment Communication: Integrative Functional Medicine depends on comprehending the metabolic processes of every individual at the mobile degree. By recognizing how each individual's genetics as well as atmosphere interact to make their very own one-of-a-kind biochemical phenotype, it is feasible to make targeted interventions which fix the particular troubles that create devastating procedures such as oxidation may swelling, which may be at the beginning of several diseases.

- Upstream Signal Inflection: Integrative Functional Medicine interventions attempt to impact biochemical pathways "upstream" may stop the overproduction of damaging output, as opposed to obstructing the effects of these end products. Using example, as opposed to making use of medicines that obstruct the previous action in the production of inflammatory arbitrators (NSAIDs, etc.), Integrative Functional Medicine solutions try to avoid the upregulation of these arbitrators in the initial area.

- Multimodal Treatment Techniques: The Useful Drug approach makes use of a broad array of interventions to acquire optimal wellness consisting of diet plan, nourishment, exercise as well as movement; stress may anxiety management; rest as well as sleep, phytonutrient, pharmaceutical, as well as nutritional supplementation; may also numerous other corrective may also reparative therapies. These interventions are all customized to resolve the antecedents, triggers, as well as arbitrators of condition or problem in each individual person.

- Recognizing the individual in context: Practical Medicine utilizes a structured procedure to find the substantial life occasions of every client's background to get a better understanding of who they are as a person. IFM tools (the" Timeline" and also the" Matrix" version) are integral to this procedure for the function they play in collaborating professional info as well as mediating professional understandings. This approach to the professional experience makes certain that the client is listened to, engenders the therapeutic connection, establishes restorative options, and also improves the partnership in between client as well as medical professional.

- Solutions Biology-Based Method: Practical Medicine uses systems biology to understand may recognize how heart discrepancies in certain organic approaches may materialize in various locations of the body. Instead of an organ systems-based approach, Useful Medicine addresses core physiological procedures that go across physiological boundaries such as assimilation of nutrients, mobile protection as well as fixing, structural honesty, mobile interaction may also transportation devices, energy generation, and biotransformation. The "Practical Medicine Matrix" is the medical professional's vital tool for understanding these network effects may provides the foundation for the style of reliable multimodal treatment plans.

- Patient-Centered and also Directed: Practical Medicine professionals make use of the certain to discover one of the most ideal and also appropriate therapy strategy to deal with, balance, as well as optimize the fundamental underlying issues in the realms of mind, body, as well as spirit. Beginning with a personalized as well as comprehensive background, the individual rates to the procedure of investigating their story as well as the feasible causes of their health difficulties. Patients and carriers collaborate to ascertain the analysis treatment, established achievable health and wellness targets, as well as make an appropriate aiding technique.

To assist clinicians in understanding as well as implementing Practical Medicine, IFM has actually generated a up to date approach of representing the client's indications, symptoms, as well as typical pathways of condition. Adapting, coordinating, and incorporating to the Practical Medicine Matrix the 7 organic systems where core medical imbalances are discovered really creates an intellectual bridge in between the rich fundamental scientific research literature concerning physiological devices of disease as well as the medical research studies, medical examinations, and scientific experience gotten during medical training. These core scientific discrepancies work to wed the mechanisms of condition with all the representations and also medical diagnoses of disease.

How is Integrative functional medicine different?

In spite of notable advancements in preventing and also dealing with transmittable condition and also injury, the acute-care version that controlled 20th-century medicine hasn't worked in preventing as well as dealing with persistent illness. Conventional medicine is a western version of medicine where a solid focus is put on characterizing ailments by diagnosis which usually mirrors a group of signs and symptoms or habits in contrast to the cause of the condition. Therapy depends heavily on the use of miracle drugs, intrusive treatments, and surgical treatment.

Among one of the most telling distinctions between conventional medicine and practical medicine is the way analysis testing is come close to. In conventional medicine, the focus centers on the individual's offering signs, then nutraceuticals or therapies are prescribed to may help relieve or handle the signs. Useful medicine is a lot more worried with a systems approach to medicine, where all facets of a client's profile-- environment aspects, psychological elements, toxins, gut health and wellness, food sensitivities-- are thought about before prescribing solutions.

A diagnosis may be the repercussion of more than one cause. For instance, anxiety may be brought on by many different things, consisting of inflammation. Similarly, a reason like inflammation may take to a lot of various diagnoses, including clinical depression. The specific symptom of every reason depends on the person's genes, environment, and also lifestyle, as well as only treatments that attend to the suitable cause will certainly have long lasting advantages beyond sign reductions.

Integrative functional medicine advantages

Typical clinical practices are incorporated with non-conventional clinics - the primary requirements being productiveness & safety and security. It's exercised by certified medical professionals initially trained at the reductionistic, diagnosis-based version of traditional medicine which use that thought process to ideal acute medical issues. However when taking care of persistent complicated health and wellness issues it employs a systems biology technique that watches the certain within a holistic framework and their troubles within an organic network.

Integrative useful medicine makes use of the current scientific knowledge concerning our genetics, lifestyle, as well as environment connect as a whole system to detect as well as mend ailments based upon patterns of imbalance and also dysfunction-- without always managing the particular disease. Integrative functional medicine manages the person that has the illness, not the condition the individual has.

Integrative Functional Medicine supplies a personalized as well as integrative method to healthcare which requires understanding the evasion, monitoring, as well as source of complicated persistent condition. Integrative practical medicine has obtained from all of the versions reviewed and supplies the most comprehensive as well as reliable approach to healthcare in the 21st century.

Specifying the origin of the health problem is an essential part of the system to the extent that a doctor who does not exercise in this fashion isn't exercising practical medicine. Symptom reductions is simply utilized as a temporizing step when looking for the root cause as well as if medically required to make most use of the feature of the individual.

Integrative useful medicine is built on the basis of standard nutraceutical. Practical medicine is holistic in the way that it checks out the issues they provide with. Integrative functional medicine makes up the core theories of naturopathic medicine within its system. Practical medicine incorporates the receptivity of integrative medicine when deciding the most competent method called for to obtain the person well. Practical medicine has actually assembled upon each of these other methods to health care to provide to the private the very most clinical system now recognized.

Integrative Practical Medicine Therapy Strategies

A Integrative Functional Medicine treatment strategy might involve one or more of a wide selection of therapies, such as several dietary interventions (e.g., removal diet plan, high phytonutrient variety diet, low glycemic-load diet regimen), nutraceuticals (e.g., vitamins, minerals, crucial fats, botanicals), as well as way of life modifications (e.g., boosting sleep quality/quantity, raising exercise, reducing stress and also finding out anxiety management approaches, quiting cigarette smoking). Nutrition is so crucial to the method of Useful Medicine that IFM has actually created a core focus on Useful Nutrition and also has financed the advancement of a collection of special, ingenious devices for establishing and also applying nutritional referrals.

Developments in Useful Medicine

The Kalish Approach depends on Practical Medicine and has actually taken it a step even more. Useful Medicine employs lab-based natural health programs along with way of life modifications to turn around chronic health and wellness concerns. Amongst the important things I delight in most around Useful Medicine is that it is based on laboratory science. The leader in me is attracted to such up to date functional lab tests, which differ from traditional laboratory screening due to the fact that they are not made to obtain a disease after it occurs. Instead, they are made to find health issues at an early stage so that they may be reversed with natural treatments, stopping the unnecessary use of medicines or surgery.

The Kalish Method isn't a manage-all; it does not manage illness, or turn around bone loss or, as you may see from my photo, prevent baldness. What the Kalish Approach does do is work unbelievably well as a basis for changing the way of life produced illness of our times.

Based on Dr. Kalish, the new guiding concepts in his search of neglecting signs and symptoms and taking care of body systems, he recognized there was a three-part treatment:

1. The tension reaction is the reason. People begin to establish health issues within a year of being under extreme psychological stress and anxiety as their bodies respond to that stress with an increase in cortisol.

2. The high-stress levels in addition to inadequate diet plan options after that generate their digestive systems to break down, a minimum of for some time, in some cases for lengthy quantities of time.

3. In time, as you are breathing as well as consuming every day, toxic substances build up as well as liver detoxification pathways break down.

Relocating far from symptom-oriented reasoning in the direction of a body version, he eventually saw the model was right in front of him all the years of training. We have three standard body systems that might be thrown off: the adrenals, the gastrointestinal tract, as well as our liver detoxification pathways. In addition, we have the mind and all its regulatory functions. The mind influences the gut, and the digestive tract influences the mind. The mind influences the hormones, and the hormonal agents influence the mind. Toxins influence whatever. As well as to main points off, our feelings, concepts, and the emotional events we experience control everything. The details of the body was shown to me in the very easy as well as foreseeable malfunction patterns of the 3 crucial body systems.

Integrative Functional Medicine doctor or knowledgeable

All Integrative Functional Medicine doctors will order examinations from numerous labs, some used in typical nutraceutical however most distinctive to Integrative Functional Medicine Particularized GI evaluations for your microbiome, determining nutrient degrees, amino acid degrees, natural acids for brain health the liver detoxing paths. Useful Medicine doctor recommend lifestyle modifications, which are rather fundamental sound judgment concepts. Reach bed early, consume your veggies, get outside, exercise, meditate, do yoga asanas, as well as be good to other folks. That component is simple. The tough scientific component is the interpretation of this research laboratory job and also the development of health programs or health and wellness methods based upon the testing. That skill of lab evaluation and comprehension needs takes years to grasp as well as may be quite complex.

Integrative functional medicine medical professionals may additionally order Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or Genetic Checking. You might understand that Nutrigenomics is the research study of the communication( s) between a person's nutrition as well as their unique genes. During the hereditary anomaly screening, Useful Medicine medical professionals have the capacity to discover which genes aren't permitting the body to operate correctly and also how one's nourishment may be intensifying the problem.

Integrative Useful Medicine in fact attracts attention in this expertise due to the fact that the labs' results frequently disclose concealed concerns that have plagued the person for decades. Chronic low-grade GI pathogens or infections which have interfered with the microbiome. A discrepancy in the microbiome itself might be devastating as well as is immediately identifiable in the labs using PCR or DNA technologies to draw up the digestive tract germs. Toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, and also lead usually aren't so type to the human mind and may be identified at a whole lab analysis. The metabolites, or breakdown products of hormones like neurotransmitters such as serotonin or dopamine gives a window into the brain feature and salivary hormone measurements for cortisol reveal the tension hormone system's state of function. There are several other certain information points that may be taken a look at to provide a root cause analysis.

Integrative Functional Medicine is a location of particularized unto itself that is regularly evolving. So you might have a clinical doctor that practices medicine or is a knowledgeable in any of the clinical fields AND techniques Useful Medicine likewise. These companies are called Practical Medicine medical professionals. On the other hand, you might have an acupuncturist or naturopath or nurse practitioner that techniques acupuncture or naturopathy or nursing as well as along with additionally techniques Integrative Functional Medicine. These companies are called Integrative Functional Medicine Professionals. They all rely on the source aiding making use of a holistic technique.

Scientific research studies in Integrative Practical Medicine.

1.) Scientific assistance for the Integrative Functional Medicine approach to treatment is seen in a big and also swiftly broadening evidence base about the alleviative results of nourishment (consisting of both dietary alternatives along with the clinical application of vitamins, minerals, as well as other nutrients like fish oils); botanicals; workout (aerobics, toughness training, versatility); anxiousness administration; detoxing; acupuncture; guide medicine (massage, adjustment); and also mind/body techniques like meditation, guided imagery, and biofeedback. All this work is done within the context of an equal partnership between the patient as well as professional. The professional engages the person in a collaborative relationship, appreciating the person's feature and also understanding of self, and also making certain that the person learns to take responsibility for their own decisions and for complying with all the recommended treatments. Knowing How to examine a person's preparedness to change and afterwards giving the needed guidance, training, and support are similarly substantial as buying the Suitable laboratory examinations as well as prescribing the right therapies

2) Scientific Trials at Cleveland Center

- Integrative Useful Medicine In Asthma Research Study The goal of this study is to identify whether additional treatment with a practical nutraceutical strategy to conventional guideline-based asthma treatment adds advantage to asthma care alone. - Integrative Useful Medicine In Bronchial Asthma Study brochure

3. Kind 2 Diabetes Research Study Research Study at Cleveland Facility

This is a potential, randomized, regulated, open-label professional trial making use of a 1:1 randomization of patients with diabetic issues that have gotten on insulin treatment for a minimum of one year, however, for less than 96 weeks to receive either Useful Medicine treatment along with usual treatment or to continue normal treatment provided by an endocrinologist. Person employment will begin at the Cleveland Center main campus Endocrinology methods as well as may later include Endocrinology facilities at various other Cleveland Center Wellness System websites.

Recap

A perfectly healthy human being is very elaborate. Include in this an ailment or discrepancy and that complexity expands greatly. Useful Medicine addresses the source of disease with a scientific and also systems-oriented method with an ingenious procedure of involving both knowledgeable as well as client in a aiding collaboration. All the strategies we have actually reviewed have their benefits, nevertheless, the apparent choice is an integrative all natural method while looking for the beginning of the health problem making use of Equipment Biology to decipher the integrated networks that make up that we are as human beings.

The post “ What Is Integrative Functional Medicine? “ was seen first on NOURISH

Learn how naturopathic medicine works. Visit Dr. Amauri Caversan ND, Toronto wellness clinic.

[irispublishersengineeringscience]

Iris Publishers - Global Journal of Engineering Sciences (GJES)

Global Impact of Corrosion: Occurrence, Cost and Mitigation

Authored   by   Mohammad A Jafar Mazumder

Abstract

In atmospheric conditions, most of the metals and alloys are unstable and prone to corrosion. The corrosion potentially affects industrial equipment, reduce the shelf life of the infrastructure assets and the quality of the environment. Therefore, it is essential to control the corrosion to save considerable expenses in materials, equipment, and structure. This review article provides a brief overview and impact of corrosion, recent incidence related to corrosion, incurred cost, and mitigation methods of corrosion.

Keywords: Corrosion; Effect of corrosion; Corrosion-related incidence; Corrosion cost; Mitigation

Concepts of Corrosion

According to ISO 8044 standard, corrosion can be defined as the deterioration of the metals by the physicochemical interaction between metals and its environment or technical system, of which these form a part [1]. From a realistic point of view, corrosion can be observed as “the chemical reversion of refined metal to its most stable energy state” [2]. Theoretically, corrosion is considered a confined electrochemical oxidation and reduction reaction that takes place on the metal surface. The electrochemical corrosion process consists of an anode, cathode, and aqueous solution, or electrolyte having positively and negatively charged ions that possess some conductivity. Typically, upon dissolution of metals, the electrons have been transferred to another position on the surface that results in gradual deterioration and consequent failure of the host metal.

Corrosions are of many kinds, but they can be subdivided into two main types, internal and external. External corrosion is regarded as the corrosive effect of high temperature, high humidity, high salt, and highly acidic environments on the metallic part of the alloy [3]. On the contrary, internal corrosion is associated with stored or transported gases or liquids [4]. Continuous exposure of the metal to fluids can cause this type of corrosion either in anaerobic or aerobic conditions [5]. Water is believed to be the most common liquid that has contact with extremely corroded metallic planes. At the same time, oil, despite being not corrosive, contains hydrocarbon phases, most of which are complex emulsions containing oxygen, water, and other dissolved corrosive gases.

The petroleum production operations suffer from different types of corrosion involving several mechanisms. The four broad groups of electrochemical, chemical, biological, and mechanically assisted corrosions are presented in Table 1, and briefly discuss their cause and affected areas to shed some light on the effects of corrosion on oil and gas production in petrochemical industries.

Effects of Corrosion

The effects of corrosion shade our daily life both by direct and indirect means. It is straightforward in the sense that corrosion has an impact on the useful service lives of our possessions, and indirect, in which producers and suppliers of goods and services incur corrosion costs, which they pass onto the consumers. At home, corrosion can easily be recognized on metal tools, automobile body panels, charcoal grills, and outdoor furniture. Painting is one of the significant preventative maintenances that safeguards such items from corrosion. Corrosion protection is built into all major household appliances such as furnaces, dryers, washers, ranges, and water heaters [6].

How corrosion affects us from home to work is of much more severe consequence. The corrosion of steel reinforcing bars in concrete can occur without being noticed. It can cause the failure of a section of highway, damage to buildings, bridges, parking structures, and the collapse of electrical towers, etc., resulting in significant economic loss and jeopardizing public safety. Corrosion that occurs in major industrial plants, such as chemical processing plants or electrical power plants, is perhaps the most dangerous of all. Such type of corrosion could result in plant shutdowns. Some corrosion consequences are economical and result in the following:

• Replacing the corroded equipment

• Taking preventive measures, such as painting

• Equipment shut down due to corrosion failure

• Overdesigning to allow for corrosion

• Efficiency loss

• Damage of equipment adjacent to one in which corrosion failure occurs.

Some consequences are social and can cause the following issues:

• Health, for instance, an escaping product from corroded equipment or corrosion product itself can cause pollution

• Safety, as an example, sudden failure can cause an explosion, fire, release of a toxic product, and/or construction collapse

• Unpleasant appearance of the corroded materials to the eye

• Depletion of natural resources, including the metals and fuels used to manufacture them.

Corrosion Related Accidents

The circumstances can much exaggerate corrosion damage. Throughout history, many corrosion accidents have gone unnoticed for reasons of liability or simply because the evidence disappeared in the catastrophic event; others have made the headlines. Some devastative corrosion accidents that have claimed lives and incurred substantial economic losses are included.

Cost of Corrosion

Corrosion is considered as one of the significant problems for most of the industrialized countries. Before designing any industry, the effect of corrosion on the equipment and its surrounding always deserve to be a considerable issue. The oil companies all over the world to mitigate this corrosion problem have expensed a lot of money. Nevertheless, disasters such as casualties, economic losses, and environmental side effects triggered by corrosion, still happen quite often [7]. Corrosion can cause severe failures in boiler tanks, pressure basins, blades of motors/turbines, harmful/aggressive chemical containers, airplane parts, automotive routing devices, and bridges.

Furthermore, the losses caused by corrosion are not only limited to metals but also extend to water, energy, and the manufacturing phase of the metal frames [8]. Jayaherdashti reported the typical maintenance cost of corrosion-related issues for a particular country varies from 1-5% of its gross national product (GNP) [9]. NACE international conducted a global study on corrosion costs and preventative strategies in 2013, which was utilized in the World Bank economic sector and global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data to relate the cost of corrosion. This study showed that the estimated global cost of corrosion was approximately 3.4% of the GDP (Figure 1a) [10]. To address the economic sectors across the world, World Bank divided the global economy into economic regions with similar economy categories and presented.

Lim investigated the corrosion-related cost for the Gulf Cooperational Council (GCC) and presented in Figure 1b [11]. This study suggested that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) spent the highest to tackle the corrosion. Besides, the UK spent £13.65 B to handle the corrosion-related issue in 1969 [12]. A 2-year study conducted by the USFHWA and NACE in 2002 disclosed that the estimated annual cost of corrosion in the country was US$ 276 B, which was 3.1% of the US GDP. Nearly half of the amount was allotted for establishing corrosion mitigation methods, such as the selection of mechanically resistant plastics and corrosion-resistant alloys, development of protective coatings, corrosion inhibitors, and cathodic protectors [3]. Gas and oil production is one of the leading energy sectors, contributes a considerable portion of the direct costs for corrosion [13]. The total cost of oil and gas production and exploration is approximately US$ 1.4 B, while chemical/petrochemical manufacturing contributes US$ 1.7 B, and petroleum refining adds US$ 3.7 B [14].

Mitigation of Corrosion

Corrosion mitigation in a corrosive environment is a considerable challenge, and one of the most significant costs faced by industry across the world. NACE international commences a global study on corrosion costs and preventative strategies. The study showed that the USA E&P sector, chemicals, and refining and downstream spent US$1.4 B, US$1.7 B, and US$3.7 B per annum, respectively. Therefore, it is in time demand for exploring smart and corrosion mitigation techniques.

To increase the shelf life of the equipment and/or plant/ industry is still very challenging for industry personnel. There are several methods have been proposed for controlling corrosion. They can be categories with the classes as

• Choosing proper construction material for a particular application.

• Choosing proper or modifications of corrosive media.

• Producing a barrier between the metal and medium to circumvent the direct interaction.

To control the corrosion and to choose suitable corrosion mitigation techniques, the corrosion mechanism should be clearly understood. As a whole, the corrosion attack in a plant/industry can be minimized by applying the internal and external mitigation methods. The internal corrosion mechanism can be observed in aqueous corrosion systems, which caused by soluble corrosive gas, such as CO2, H2S, and O2. In addition to these mechanisms, microorganisms can also influence corrosion. To mitigate this type of corrosion, scavenging and biocide treatment can be used. Importantly, the use of corrosion inhibitor (10-1000 ppm continuously or 1-20% in a batch) could be the most essential and standard form to mitigate internal corrosion. The inhibitors usually affect the anodic and/or cathodic electrochemical reactions. They influence the corrosion process, therefore reduce the corrosion rate. Scavenger can be used to mitigate internal corrosion if the inhibitor could not reduce the corrosion rate. Considering the importance of a specific corrosive environment where corrosion failure can be caused by oxygen corrosion from seawater pipelines and fatigue failure from design and stress exerted onto the line or inexplicable mechanism, the external mitigation technique can be applied. In these settings, the coatings and cathodic protection are the best choices of external mitigation technique. The corrosive environment, which causes corrosion, can be segregated, providing a layer on the surface of the pipe. For cathodic protection, the metal needs to be converted to cathodic for another metal or anode. However, when considering the design of a cathodic protection system, the detailed methodological information and suitable standards are required to be considered.

Conclusion

This review article briefly discusses the basic concept of corrosion, followed by a discussion on the impact of corrosion, consequences, and cost of the corrosion. Moreover, different corrosion mitigation methods have also discussed briefly with an understanding of the corrosion mechanism, which is very important before considering various material options for applications.

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[thoughtsofatck]

Being “White”: SE Asian Colorism and the ‘campur’ status

March 4, 2020

Location: SMK - - , Semanggol

It’s officially March! Two months have come and gone and I’m feeling much more comfortable in my placement and school. The majority of my time in our bilik guru (staff room) is spent listening to Malay and having to speak in Malay with non-English-teaching teachers. In lengthy conversations, some teachers may reference how surprising it is that I understand Malay so fluently if I was not exposed to it IN Malaysia, despite recognizing my ancestry. They often will say it is still weird or that they feel nervous because they still see me as a foreigner - which I am. On regular occasions, (especially by the male teachers), they call me ‘campur’ or mixed - the connotation as positive or negative I’m still deciphering.  I always thought that the nervousness came from the worry of inadequate English proficiency, especially since the past two ETAs at my school knew no Malay. However, it seems that it is the title of ‘American ETA’ and that I present more Caucasian-looking in Asia which ultimately stands at the forefront of my interactions at school. The following piece of writing discussing this comes from a reflection on my first month at school - a monthly requirement by Fulbright. 

February Reflection

As we reach a month in placement, I think about a peculiar (on-going) transformation that I recognized through a road trip conversation with my housemate. Growing up in the United States as Asian-Americans, we quickly became cognizant of the different physical features we had compared to the majority Caucasian peers we were surrounded with in school. In my case, I was very self-conscious of my nose, my eyes, and my height through my adolescence - noticeable differences that made me stand out as one of the few Asian-Americans in school. Globally, many Asians look to the West for the standard of beauty - fair-skin, double eye-lids, “Roman” noses, and height reaching 6 feet. Even within Asia, many Southeast Asians regard the Far East Asians (China, Japan, Korea) as prettier because of their porcelain-like skin and taller stature.  While staying in Kuala Lumpur, I slowly began feeling a sense of unremarkableness. While logically that might sound negative, this feeling of undistinguishable characteristics at a first glance was refreshing. I began to notice that people on the street had the same nose as me, the same eyes. My height in Asia is common, where I actually am taller than some other males. This exposure to a new majority of individuals with similar features not only has made me feel more secure in my appearance but has allowed me to be more comfortable looking in the mirror - a big achievement on my end. A sense of pride in the nose I was passed down from my ancestors has grown in me as I notice facial familiarity in the interactions I have daily.  Settling into Bagan Serai and our schools, my housemate and I quickly noticed how often we were complimented on how “handsome, good-looking, and husband material” we were. Though we quickly dismissed it initially as just kind words to the “foreign American”, I eventually ventured into seeking why. 

In an interaction on Sports Day, I was hanging out with some Form 3 boys. “You’re handsome, sir,” one said. “You think? Then we’re all handsome! I look like you guys,” I replied. “Yes, well uh no. Your skin.” He pointed to his arm to which I slowly nodded with reluctant acceptance and said, “Give me two months,” pointed at the sun and laughed, anxiously trying to bridge the social gap. Though my students find many similarities with me, the lightness of my skin and because of that, the social implications that indicate I’m not orang kampung*, make them look at me the way I did many Caucasians in the United States growing up. Colorism is evident here in a way I haven’t had to think about in the U.S. and yet presents its own dichotomy towards me depending on the individual themself. In my first week, a teacher with a fair complexion remarked, “You must have gotten your face from your father, but your skin color from your mom.” To provide context, I also had spent three days in the sun in Penang right before then. This presumption that I should be more fair-skinned perhaps because I do present more Caucasian features in an Asian majority has made me recognize that we all look for surface level similarities in one another and hold our own values in terms of what is deemed beautiful or attractive. The pieces of my physical appearance that I so desperately sought to feel comfortable in are now automatically validated here and the parts that I had never worried about or really noticed now have become the focus of dissimilarity - namely the (relative) fairness of my skin. During our nightly dinner outing to the hawker stalls near the house, I usually glance over to the TV screen playing a TV3 drama Melayu. Drama Melayu had been one of the ways I grew up listening to Malay and I learned to love the mediocre script writing and over-dramatic acting. In all of those years, I had never truly noticed these actors’ lighter skin tones until I refocused my view to the real life surroundings I was planted in now. As ETAs, we jokingly say that we become instant celebrities in Malaysia because everyone knows who we are and wants a picture with us. At the end of day, we stand under a spotlight that allows us to disrupt the narrative that our physical appearances determine our self-value and outward behavior toward one another. In moving forward, I want to be intentional with how I uplift my students’ self-esteems and while I cannot stop them from comparing themselves to me or that I present desired physical features in this contextual environment, I want them to know that attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder and can also be recognized in the work that we do, the kindness we extend, the effort we show, the passion, determination and motivation that fuels us, and the love that we give. 

*This term has been frequently used by teachers in my school and although I can recognize classism in the phrasing, it is clear that students hold this piece of identity close to them and find pride in the upbringing they come from. 

On advertisements for beauty products, almost all feature skin-whitening as an added effect and show models with fair skin, some ads even blatantly using Caucasian models for traditional Malay wear. When Americans are flocking to tanning salons and planning multiple beach trips in the summer, most SE Asians are worried about being in the sun for more than five minutes at a time.

It had taken me a long time to accept an identity that was my own and not projected on to me by my school forms, my peers, or the country I necessarily grew up in. Though identifying with much of the social issues of Asian-Americans, colorism was a topic I had few words to reflect or speak on - I mean how could I as a biracial individual with fairer skin. Now being presented in this environment, I observe the subtle ways students treat each other because of their skin color and the way I am treated especially with strangers that I see me as local. Hearing ‘campur’ or mixed growing up always made me feel ‘other’ because I wasn’t within a label that other people had. Being called ‘campur’ here hasn’t quite settled within me yet. Some see it as positive, some still view me as different. However, as these differences overall appear more stark in contrast (due to subtle social cues, dialect barriers, background knowledge, body language, mindset...I digress), being mixed HERE has let me access my physical identity to its full potential. I am just enough Malaysian passing on the street for no one to do a double-take, but I also can feel comfortable when some recognize that I am more than just Asian - a validated balance . 

As a side note, I would like to acknowledge that this post may be viewed problematically by some. Yes I believe that we should treat ALL people with respect, that skin color should not matter in the way we interact with one another, but I want to point out that no matter what, our physical appearance (among other things) does have an impact on the opportunities we are given, the way people are treated in my contextual environment, and all humans are conditioned in one way or another to recognize attributes of beauty, universal and nuanced. 

[animalsoffarmsanctuary]

Farm Sanctuary’s Annual Hoe Down Returns to Our New York Shelter

Last weekend, guests from far and wide joined us to “party ‘til the cows come home” at the beloved annual Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down event, held at our New York Shelter! The Hoe Down is a wonderful way to slow down and take stock of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going — not just as activists and allies, but as individuals. As guests pitched their tents and greeted friends new and old, we excitedly began another memorable weekend filled with hope, love, and dedication to making the world a better place.

Happy Hoe Down! Gearing up for a compassionate weekend ahead.

For many, the Hoe Down is not just an event, but a feeling — a way to communicate, without explanation, the power of community in making a difference … and it’s a community where everyone has a place, no matter where they are on their compassionate journeys. 

Here’s a look back at this inspiring weekend!

This way, please! Paving the way for a compassionate journey ahead.

We kicked off the weekend with greetings from Farm Sanctuary President & Co-founder Gene Baur, Director of Visitor Experience Michelle Waffner, and a rousing welcome from this year’s emcee, Cam F. Awesome.

Cam F. Awesome gets the show on the road!

As guests took their seats, the air filled with anticipation.

First to speak was Lori Marino, founder and Executive Director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy. Lori spoke about her work, in conjunction with Farm Sanctuary, with The Someone Project: a research-based initiative documenting farm animal sentience through science. Together, we’ve published peer-reviewed journal articles and white papers about pig and chicken intelligence, and will be working our way through the other species who call Farm Sanctuary home. Through this project, we’re establishing a scientific basis to support what we’ve known all along — that farm animals are each someone, not something, and should be valued as such.

Next was the much awaited and beloved presentation from our very own Susie Coston — Farm Sanctuary’s National Shelter Director — about the animals who call Farm Sanctuary home. As Susie reviewed the various rescues we’ve conducted over the past year, she gave the audience an in-depth look not only at the circumstances from whence these animals came, but the incredible individuals they are. Despite all they’ve gone through, many learn to love and trust again — and there wasn’t an individual in the room who didn’t feel inspired by the transformative power of love and kindness. (Watch video of Susie’s presentation here.)

A compassionate spread to fuel the day ahead!

Afterward, guests convened on the lawn for lunch – one of several compassionate meals catered by Manndible Café, based in Ithaca, NY. With a choice of curry or herbed Beyond Meat “chicken” strips, greens, and potato salad, this was a wonderful way to reflect and relax after the morning’s talks!

And of course, some delicious vegan sweets.

After fueling our bodies, it was then time to fuel our souls through some quality time with our rescued residents! 

Guests excitedly greet Faith cow.

Sharing a moment with Moo steer.

Caregiver Amy Gaetz introduces friends to Valentino steer.

A guest shares a hug with Stella cow.

Young Jack sheep….

…and his twin brother Bob Barker greet their human friends.

A guest shares a smile with Joel sheep.

Dana goat joins a friend for a smile and a selfie.

Speaker Lori Marino enjoys some downtime in the sheep barn.

As we learned this weekend, it is extremely important to focus on self care in order to sustain ourselves within this compassionate movement. Here, Caregiver Maddie Cartwright enjoys some quality time with her friends in the sheep barn.

Panza, Shannon, and Clarabell goats enjoy a peaceful moment in the barn.

Kagen goat receives a chin scratch from Tour Guide Kelsey Bomboy, who staffed the goat barn during sanctuary time.

And for Kagen (and all of our rescued residents), there is plenty of love to go around!

Farm Assistant Jason Klein offers Olive goat some tasty leaves.

Meanwhile, Photo Intern Christa Lam checks in with Olive and her daughter Maggie!

And after getting her “close-up,” Olive gets up close and personal with some of her adoring fans.

Tatiana goat is also feeling the love!

Guests also greeted goat pals Benedict, Chucky, and the rest of their chicken and turkey friends in the turkey barn.

Quality time with Joan pig.

Safe and sound, each resident is free to enjoy the peace of sanctuary.

Cameron pig celebrating his second Hoe Down.

After sanctuary time, we reconvened in the Visitor Barn to conclude the first day’s presentations. 

We next heard from pattrice jones, cofounder of VINE — “a LGBTQ-led refuge for farmed animals that works within an ecofeminist analysis of animal exploitation.” Through her work, pattrice demonstrates that we are all in this together — that it is imperative for us to understand how interrelated all beings truly are. She explains that it is negligent to address and fight for one social justice cause — animal rights, for example — without also acknowledging how oppression against one group is not limited to just that group … that in order to create a compassionate world for all, we are obligated to stand against oppression in any and all forms. 

As important as it is to address the strategies and tactics we need to improve, it is just as valuable to acknowledge and celebrate what we are already doing. After discussing the atrocities farm animals experience and our duty, as activists, to work to stop them, we switched gears to a different topic: self-care. As compassionate allies, we strive to change hearts and minds about society’s relationships with farm animals — but sometimes doing so may take a toll on our own hearts and minds.

In working to stop animal cruelty, burnout is unfortunately common: many of us feel that we owe it to the animals to give it our all, but in doing so, we might give more of ourselves than we can afford. Dr. Melanie Joy, founder and president of Beyond Carnism, discussed the toll that secondary traumatic stress can take — and how important it is to give ourselves permission to heal, not just for the cause we are fighting for, but for ourselves. In her inspiring talk, Dr. Joy explained how it can be difficult to distance ourselves from the injustices we seek to overcome — to the point at which we may even place blame on ourselves for not doing what we perceive to be “enough.” But we need not allow our own needs to fall by the wayside out of obligation or guilt — and in fact, we can do more for the animals by understanding our limits and offering ourselves the love and care that we give to others. We can be more sustainable in our activism by focusing on the good we are already doing. In this way, we may put our efforts into perspective and celebrate the changes we make by putting compassion — for all, including and especially for ourselves — first.

A compassionate spread courtesy of Treeline Treenut Cheese.

Afterward, we assembled on the lawn for cocktail hour — a wonderful opportunity to mingle with fellow guests and speakers and to sit back and relax after a busy day!

Guests and speakers interact during a special book-signing opportunity.

Gene and speaker Stephen Ritz!

Photojournalist and animal advocate Jo-Anne McArthur introduces guests to her latest book, Captive.

Staff members Kameke Brown, Erin Dansevicus, and Sam Goldstein serve dinner in style.

During dinner, guests assembled in the Visitor Barn as Gene wrapped up the day’s events with an inspiring talk on the power we all have to make a difference, each in our own way. Since Farm Sanctuary’s earliest days, Gene has interacted with people from all walks of life — and the most important lesson he’s taken away from all of this is that no matter who we are and what we believe, we all deserve to be met with kindness. We each have something to contribute to our shared planet, no matter where we are along our own personal journeys — and Gene drew upon lessons imparted from the other speakers that day to emphasize the power we each have to support a more compassionate world for all. (Watch video of Gene’s presentation here.)

Gene often says, “If we can live well without causing unnecessary harm, why wouldn’t we?” By celebrating the good that we are all capable of, we can help more and more beings live well and enjoy the beautiful lives we all deserve.

No matter who we are, we all deserve to be loved. Here, some of our resident pigeons share a sweet moment.

Next, we cleared the barn for one of the most anticipated parts of the weekend — the traditional barnyard contra dance! 

As we tapped our feet to the beat of the fiddle, we all let loose and celebrated. As the room roared with laughter, we joined hands and danced to our heart’s content.

Farm Sanctuary staff members and volunteers take a selfie with Cam on the dance floor!

The party continued with a fun DJ dance under the tent, while others roasted vegan marshmallows around the bonfire. Then, it was time to turn in for the night to get our rest for the next eventful day! 

A guest runs alongside Gene, taking steps towards a more compassionate world for all.

Some started Sunday off with a bang by joining Gene on a 5K fun run, while others eased into the morning with a peaceful yoga session at our Rainbow Bridge Memorial garden. Then, it was time for breakfast to get our minds ready for another inspiring day ahead!

Australian activist James Aspey kicked off the morning with an inspiring talk on how we can all speak out and make a difference in our own unique way. We were all on the edge of our seats as James described his journey — from being someone who never quite connected with animals to his incredible discoveries of the connections we all share. Interestingly, James found his voice by taking a yearlong pledge of silence, a way to speak out for the beings whose voices typically go unheard. Through this empowering talk, James emphasized the importance of finding our own voice, in our own way — to develop the strength within ourselves to help others find their own.

Next, Dr. Michelle McMacken discussed the health benefits of adopting a plant-based diet. Interestingly, Dr. McMacken, a vegan, made the switch for ethical reasons — even as an MD, she was unfamiliar with the preventative and restorative effects of reducing or eliminating consumption of animal-based products. (Sadly, most medical professionals typically still receive little nutritional training as part of their required coursework.) As Dr. McMacken learned more and more about the health benefits of choosing plant-based meal options over animal-based ones, she underwent and conducted trainings to get more medical professionals on board. Throughout her presentation, Dr. McMacken discussed just seven of the many positive things that happen when people stop consuming animal products — and through her ongoing work, she is helping to change the medical culture from treating diagnoses to treating individuals.

After a short break, we reconvened for a thought-provoking talk by lauren Ornelas, founder and executive director of the Food Empowerment Project. lauren emphasized that as we fight the good fight for farm animals, we must also remember our fellow “humanimal.” Those embracing a plant-based diet often do so to minimize harm – but lauren stressed that just because a meal is plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean that it is cruelty-free. Sadly, workers across the country and the world receive inadequate wages for toiling in inhumane working conditions. lauren advocates that those aligning their actions with their values do their research and support alternative, compassionate practices instead. Through the Food Empowerment Project, lauren and staff also work to develop community-based interventions for and by the community members themselves, in creating culturally appropriate and practical solutions to help everyone enjoy the healthy, happy lives we all deserve.

Next, Stephen Ritz energized the crowd with an inspiring talk about the power of plants! As the founder of Green Bronx Machine, Stephen empowers students to take ownership of their communities. By transforming urban junkyards into lush garden landscapes, Stephen excitedly encourages people to treasure the beauty that lies before and within them, when they take the time to plant and nurture seeds of compassion. 

Later, some of our speakers participated in a round-table discussion, answering questions from our guests about how they can channel the lessons learned over the weekend in their own daily lives.

Staff members Erin and Sam enjoy a quiet moment with Adriano and Francis sheep and Erin lamb after sanctuary time on Sunday.

Our Hoe Down events are a wonderful way to see eye to eye with farm animals like new resident Nancy cow.

After a delicious lunch and more time with our rescued residents, it was time to conclude this year’s event and begin looking forward to the next. As hard as it is to part ways, we do so with renewed inspiration and commitment to taking these lessons home and aligning our actions with our compassionate values.

A young guest greets goat friends Halbert and Darius! 

Huge thanks to all the guests and speakers who joined us this year; to Manndible Café for catering a truly delectable weekend; to our event sponsors for helping to make the Hoe Down a success; and to Farm Sanctuary photo intern Christa Lam and photojournalist and activist Jo-Anne McArthur for their beautiful photographic contributions, including some of the photos you see here.

For more Farm Sanctuary updates, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also tune in live on Explore.org to see what some of our rescued cattle, pig, sheep, goat, turkey, chicken, and alpaca residents are up to in real time! Want to meet our incredible rescued residents in person? Learn how to visit here. Want to help? Your support makes our rescue, education, and advocacy efforts possible. You can also help by sharing our residents’ stories to spread the word that farm animals like them are each someone, not something. A compassionate world begins with you!

[ecotone99]

[SF] A Tale of Time

“Ahhh!” Benji screeched.

“We're losing altitude, fast!” replied Mimi.

“The Einstein-Rosen bridge generator isn't responding!” yelled a panicked Marcel.

Kurrsplooosh! As Voyager-39 impacted the ocean with one thousand newtons.

“Systems 12, 32, and 67 are offline!” shouted Marcel.

“So that gives about 4.5 days before we run out of oxygen. Mimi how long would it take to get us to the surface?” asked Benji.

“About 5 days if we're lucky,” responded Mimi.

“I might be able to get system 12 running, but it would consume most of our supplies!” suggested Marcel.

“What are the odds?” asked Benji.

“About an 81% success rate,” yelled Marcel.

“Do it,” replied Benji.

………. 3 years prior

Since 2000, NASA has been working on a time machine under the project name, Verticore. In 2010, they successfully produced a functioning Einstein-Rosen bridge that lasted for 0.2 pica seconds or 2* 10-13 seconds (0.0000000000002). The bridge consumed one terawatt, costing one billion dollars in that minuscule time slot, making time travel unreasonable.

In 2015, a new breakthrough occurred when liquid Oganesson was used as a catalyst, preventing overheating and dropping power consumption by one trillion percent. Due to the difficulties in making Oganesson, the first test was in 2016. In that test, the bridge stayed open for 4 hours and consumed 100 kilowatts until it was shut down due to safety concerns. In 2017 the first manned time-traveling spacecraft began. Named Voyager-39, costing two hundred billion dollars, was eventually constructed in three years.

The Voyager-39 featured a fully functioning Einstein-Rosen bridge generator, a ten-megawatt Plutonium reactor, an AI assistant known as TTVA, two hundred square feet of livable room, and controls for three highly trained crew members. The reactor is extremely efficient, requiring only fifty grams of plutonium for one round trip. After years of tireless training for many years, Benji, Mimi, and Marcel were ready to board the Voyager-39 for the first time travel mission in history! The launch date was set for January 1st, 2020.

During the launch, nothing unexpected happened. Once they opened the bridge, they would have limited contact with their original world.

background information:

Benji Martinez was born on the 21st of April 1998 in Birmingham, Alabama to Concetta Bender-Lara (43) and Samuel Martinez (50). He has three brothers. They are Kojo (8), Wade (14), and Jessie (18). Benji studied quantum mechanics and quantum physics, receiving a Ph.D. in both. His mother worked as a chef in a small, stingy, yet pleasant restaurant. Benji’s father worked as a mechanic at a small-town body shop. His family, being relatively poor, could not afford to satisfy young Benji’s curiosity and will to learn. Benji was never a social person but instead preferred to make secret changes while watching their impact. He is very quick to anger and panic, especially when stressed and often forgets to think through his decisions.

At the age of seven, Benji already knew more than most highschoolers. He also improved his father’s shop, by making it more organized and modifying tools to better function in custom jobs; massively increasing his father’s income seemingly out of nowhere. After breezing through school at 17, he received a full-time position at NASA. There he worked with top scientists and helped create many top-secret projects. Being in NASA’s top 500 granted him many benefits.

Mimi Peters was born on the 23rd of August 1999 in Modesto, California. Phoebe Gentry-Grimes (55) is her mother, and Patrick Peters (59) is her father. She has one brother, Ricky (21), and two sisters. They are Esther (35) and Jeannette (28). Mimi earned a Ph.D.s in each of chemistry, biology, and calculus.

Marcel Wang was born on August 22, 1998 in Arlington, Texas. His parents are Heidi Patton (54) and Felix Wang (58). He has one sister, Jana (23).

He has a Ph.D. in computer science, including artificial intelligence, computational science, and software engineering.

Inside Voyager-39.

“Is everyone ready? Besides me of course,” Benji asked.

“I guess,” responded Marcel

“Let’s do this!” said Benji

Back to the Present.

“It’s working!” exclaimed Marcel

“We’re nearing the surface! Great job, Marcel!” said Mimi

“I knew it would work!” Benji said, sweat dripping down his pallid face.

“We’ve landed!” Marcel said.

“Let’s go!” Benji said.

“Wait for a second! According to the ship’s systems, there’s no oxygen outside.” TTVA Interjected.

“How is this possible?” Benji asked, speaking as if to some deity.

“It’s possible that we just discovered the multiverse,” Mimi said.

“Lovely. That means we’re not going home anytime soon” Marcel groaned.

“Nonsense! We’ll be home in no time, right after we finish the, I mean our mission!” Benji said, booting up his facade.

“We should probably get all of our supplies,” Mimi said, fiddling with her hair.

Marcel asked TTVA, “ ‘Puter, what are our remaining supplies?”

TVVA snorted. “Oh! You think we’re not gonna die. I mean statistically, we aren’t gonna survive for more than a few minutes.”

“TTVA!” Marcel scolded. TTVA seemed to snap back to attention.

“Right! So you have enough food and water for two days, a plutonium reactor with not enough fuel, and hazmat suits with enough oxygen to last 10 minutes!”

“Mimi, what dimension are we on then?” asked Benji.

“We are in the same dimension just on a different version of Earth!” Mimi said.

“Really?” Benji asked.

“Guys, prioritize! WE HAVE 10 MINUTES TO LIVE!!!” Marcel said.

“Oh, my.”Mimi began to panic.

“Please continue. This is rather enjoyable” TTVA said. You could almost hear the sarcasm in its voice.

“Shut up!” Benji fumed.

“You know I’m just as stuck as you guys,” replied TTVA.

“Does anyone have a plan?” Marcel wondered aloud.

Mimi asked TTVA, “What is the atmosphere of this Earth?”

“Approximately 30 percent hydrogen gas, 30 percent carbon dioxide, 15 percent nitrogen, 14 percent chlorine gas, and 1 percent oxygen gas,” TTVA stated.

Benji asked, “Guys, isn’t there water outside? We landed in an ocean.”

TTVA said, “If you want to drink H2SO4, be my guest.”

“Very funny,” Benji said.

“Couldn’t we use our reactor to convert that into oxygen and water?” asked Mimi.

“Yes, but we don’t have much plutonium left. TTVA?” replied Marcel

“With the remaining power, we might be able to get a few hours worth of oxygen,” said TTVA.

“Well then get on it!” demanded Benji.

Marcel and Mimi are producing Oxygen and water with their remaining power.

“You know Benji, you don’t have to be so bossy,” said TTVA

Benji complained, “Really? No way!”

“I detect much sarcasm, Benji.”

“Oh really? Are you sure? I’m so glad that a 1.2 billion dollar AI can detect sarcasm!”

“Mimi and Marcel should be finishing up.”

“That’s good, I guess.”

“Hey, Benji! When Marcel and I were getting us some water and oxygen, we saw a city up ahead. We think it’s our best hope for survival.”

“She makes a good point Benji, I think we could find some valuable supplies in the city, “ responded TTVA.

“I’m not going to a city on some weird planet. How do you know this even is the earth?”

“I mean to be honest it’s just a theory, a good theory. TTVA and Mim would agree. We’re going with or without you.”

“Fine I’ll go but because I want to not because of you.”

While Marcel and Mimi are holding back giggles.

“But first” continued Benji. “TTVA, write a summary of this planet?”

“Right now? How about I write one later, while you try to interact with your crewmates.”

“Be quiet!”

“All right, fine take your summary. I don’t care anymore. Next time you could be a bit nicer.”

Planet Details:

{Earth Version: C147

Atmosphere: 30% H2, 30% CO2, 15% N2, 14% Cl2, 1% O2

Ocean composition: 100% H2SO4

Average temperature: Day: 150°C, Night -50°C

Inhabitants: Mainly overrun by a species of humans that have used up most of their planet’s resources. They have huge cities. Most of them still breathe oxygen, produced by the Ougelnoil fungus deep within the cities. They are one of the most advanced civilizations ever.}

“You guys are lucky you have these protective suits otherwise, I’d be the only one talking. For eternity! Ha.. ha ……. ha .. ha,” snickered TTVA.

“You know just because you’re an AI doesn’t make you invulnerable.” commented Mimi

“Yeah, but I have way fewer weaknesses than you.”

“Guys! SHHHHHH.”

“Why would I listen to you, Marcel? I’m the team’s leader

“Benji, shut up. please!” begged Mimi.

“Fine!”

“Ok humans, it appears we have reached the city gates.” Interjected TTVA.

“What do we do now?” asked Marcel.

“Well to complete the mission you only need proof of the time period and some of its technology, if Benji didn’t crash your ship. So, if we want to get back, we are going to need some plutonium, and if you want to live, some oxygen and water.”

“Well you're the AI, so how do we get those things?”

“You’re the team leader so you should know.”

“Fine, I get it, but is there any way you can help?”

“If you had read the manuals, you would know.”

“Well didn’t Mimi read the manuals?”

“I did, but Marcel knows them better. Why don’t you ask him?”

“Marcel, tell TTVA to help us!”

“TTVA what are our options?”

“You don’t have to listen to Benji, you know. I would rather not please Benji right now. But if you must know, this species of human, use plutonium to power their oxygen farms.”

“And where are those?” questioned Marcel.

“Deep within the city, where we will most definitely die! Why don’t we just sit here to die? I calculated a zero percent odds of success. We're all gonna die!”

“I’m not giving up.” said Mimi.

“Come on Mim you heard TTVA we’re gonna die here anyway.”

“Marcel, can we please try?”

“I guess if you really want to.”

“Benji, care to join us?”

“I might keep a loose follow, but that's it.”

The crew, somewhat unanimously, agree to creep into the city carefully. Upon rounding a building, they encounter armed guards. The guards were each armed with what appeared to be some sort of futuristic range weapon and body armor embedded with little crystals. Once the crew realized the guards had seen them, they quickly turned and hightailed it in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the guards were much faster than they anticipated.

Soon, the crew noticed a cave slightly off to the west. Now breathing quite heavily, due to the low quantity of oxygen available in their protective suits, they scurry into the cave. TTVA reminds them that their oxygen won’t last more than an hour and that they must hurry. Inside the cave, the crew huddles to create a plan, while Marcel keeps watching at the cave entrance. They collectively decide to explore the cave to search for resources. Marcel joins them, as they feel once inside the cave further that they are safe.

Suddenly, they notice a mysterious solid dripping from the ceiling of the cave which creates a lake of liquid. “Wait, how is sulfuric acid freezing?” questions Mimi. The crew continues through the cave, but then Benji trips and his helmet falls into the lake of presumed sulfuric acid. Trying to catch his helmet, Benji falls in as well. He pulls himself up, and puts his helmet back on his head. “Guys, this isn’t sulfuric acid; it’s water! You’re welcome! I saved us!” They soon hear some movement and splashing in the distance. Quietly, Marcel crawls toward the sound, when he is surprised to see that one guard had followed them into the cave. He yells to the crew, “Get down! There’s a guard headed toward us!”

Quickly, they swim farther into the lake to await the guard’s arrival, while they discuss a plan to knock him out. Someone shouts, “нет смысла прятаться, я знаю, что вы здесь, маленькие негодяи”. “TTVA, what did he say?” “One moment….” “He says there is no escape for you.” In a few minutes after hearing him shout, they hear a loud splash. He trips in the same place where Benji had tripped. His weapon flies up into the air, and Benji catches it, though in an awkward position. Being the hot-shot he is, Benji tries to shoot the guard square in the chest, forgetting about the armor. The projectile bounces off the armor and hits the ceiling, which collapses around Benji. The guard draws his blade and charges toward Mimi. Mimi grabs the guard’s arm, while Marcel jumps onto his back in an attempt to drown him.

After about a minute, they both grab the guard, who has now drowned and swims to the rest of the group. Benji was able to escape and is waiting for them on the other side of the lake. Mimi starts walking out of the lake, clutching her left shoulder. Benji smirks, “Oh, did you get a boo-boo?” Marcel was a bit kinder and asked Mimi if she was ok. “I’m fine, but he cut my suit, and I need something to patch it.” Marcel reaches inside his backpack for some duct tape.

All of a sudden, Mimi falls on the ground puking.

“Mimi, are you ok?” asked TTVA.

“I…. d..dododon’t know… I’m all dizzy all of a sudden.”

A bright flash of light shines in Mimi’s eyes.

“W..why am I here? In.. this laboratory? …. I was with Benji and M.. Marcel.”

A man in a lab coat walks in and says “Dear Mimi, you don’t remember? Four months ago you agreed to be a participant in our time reformists program. We monitor your thoughts 24/7 using an AI program known as TTVA. This was a necessary step to prepare for you to time travel, as very few people can.”

“What do you mean? Didn’t I just time travel? Where is my crew?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Four months ago you were given an option, to change the world or not. You choose the latter, agreeing to all physical and mental testing needed for time travel. You see at first, we would send any random crew into time, but they would all end up dead. You may be wondering why. Of course, it is not nearly as easy as you would expect. After countless tries and fails. We discovered that traveling through Einstein-Rosen Bridges had an enormous effect on humans, mainly the brain. When a mind goes through quantum compression, it strains your mind hard but some can survive. We attributed the success to a rare protein in the brain that deals with stresses, even ones gained from crossing through bridges of time! Now you see this rare protein is difficult to detect, requiring months of stressing the mind to unimaginable levels. It is comparably cheaper to test a brain for months than to send it across bridges. You dreaming about time travel was merely a coincidence. There was no crew, this is all in your head.”

“So my life is a lie? I did not sign up for this! This is insanity!”

“Only a very small percentage of minds can handle the difficulties of time travel! You survived! Now get suited up. The bridge opens in fifteen minutes!”

“Wait! Before you go, how many trials were there?”

“Mimi, do not suffer the loss of thousands at the price of one. What matters is that you are fit for time travel!”

submitted by /u/MrCrazypantsgamming [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2V4jaZg

[allyklapak]

The Gray Ethics of Human-Centered Environmentalism

The threat posed by climate change is universal. No inhabitant of earth will remain untouched by the detrimental repercussions that will ensue if mankind does not start taking colossal steps in the direction of progress. For those aware of how dire the situation is, it seems there is really only one course of action, however, environmental activists are hindered by contrasting perspectives the possess variant frames of focus as well as contrary ethical considerations and legislative suggestions. In this post, I will unpack these differing perspectives on the ethics, philosophies, and solutions for climate change in hopes of trying to reconcile the difference so humanity as a collective species can look past ideological differences to embark on the course of change. The tensions that arise in regards to beliefs surrounding climate change, revolve around contrary world views which allows for contrasting priorities to drive different groups towards opposing methods of resolution. Worldview is so subjective because it is shaped by both physical and social surrounds which are unique to the individual experiences of a person. The human-centered environmental world view frames the crisis around humans.[^1] This view evokes complicated debate on the ethics of human responsibility, what it means to be a community, how modern humans compare to their predecessors, and why climate reform may be pivotal to ensuring justice for vulnerable groups such as minorities and children. This view promotes human intellect to be dominant in a modern and historical context which is argued to be a misled sentiment by thinkers such as David Orr. Orr breaks human misunderstandings into five general myths which conclude that humans believe they possess the enhanced intellect to fully understand and resolve climate issues.[^2] This is a faulted mindset because, as Orr addresses, this “represents cultural arrogance of the worst sort, and a gross misreading of history and anthropology.”[^2] Humans can never fully be free of ignorance, especially in regards to the intricacies of managing Earth and compensating for the significant losses cut from nature on a regular basis.[^2] Whilst this period may be naively titled an information period, we are also losing a lot of niche intelligence due to the call for similar professionals and consolidated lesson content. The Earth and its natural systems are riddled with too many complexities for man to be able to fully control certain features to undo climate change.[^2] I agree that man has the power to change his own actions, but I think there are too many unknown variables about the world that hinders him from being able to tamper with all of nature. I think that there is a limit to what is in our capacity to change which is important to know so that we can reach our full potential as stewards of the Earth. The human-centered perspective encompasses discourse on the human obligation to stopping climate change. It questions if pressuring humans to take more steps towards environmental preservation is a violation of their own rights. The definition of community is important to consider when assigning responsibility to individuals, classes, or even whole nations. Intergenerational Justice targets this point of contention with assigning responsibility on present generations for posterity’s sake.[^3] This point challenges the definition of a community in an attempt to determine to whom the current population should be loyal to. Beckerman and Pesak disagree that the following generations can be considered part of the community because metaphysically, they do not yet exist so they may not have rights.[^4] However, this is resolved by categorizing all of humanity as the community, which includes generations to come.[^5] These different ethical considerations yielded the emergence of theories of justice that oscillate between retributive justice, which calls for legal repercussions for violations, and distributive repercussions which obliges equal distribution of benefits and goods.[^6] I feel this consideration is remarkably selfish. Rawl’s theory requires present generations to save as much as previous generations, which does not take the exponential population growth into account which leads to an even more elevated rate of natural resource requirement.[^7] I am personally disappointed by the entitled attitudes that would enforce such a perspective as it condones selfish and superfluous spending of resources simply because they can. It is absurd and leaves no room to include other living organisms in the group as it asserts humanity’s full domain over all flora and fauna. Alternatively, a positive consideration underscored by the human-centered approach is the environmental justice aspects that champion for the rights of groups who typically feel the burden of climate change more acutely. The largely worldwide practice known at the Environmental Justice Movement is the “informal designation that is commonly applied to the international body of theory and practice that has grown up around this”.[^8] Beginning with the Civil Right Movement, the EJM works to equalize the treatment of minorities who are typically most affected by climate change due to unsafe living areas being ignored or being target neighborhoods for dumpsites.8 Additionally, the rise of these new facilities would make surrounding property less desirable but cheaper to live in and therefore attracts those of lesser socioeconomic backgrounds. Many groups such as the “Love Canal Homeowners Association” have arisen from this movement to secure the rights of all people to a healthy and safe place to live.[^8] The racist tendencies are so often overlooked and difficult to resolve due to the uncertainty if facilities draw in the minority community or if the presence of a majority minority community would appeal to a builder for their facilities.[^8] I think it is morally wrong to target already disadvantaged communities and allow them to feel the blunt force of an issue they did not even have a primary hand in. In a broader scope, the issue of widespread pollution can be traced back to wealthier nations and large fossil fuel companies who profit off of detrimental processes. Children are another at risk group that is often victimized by the changing culture around the environment. Biophilia outlines the innate and emotional connection between humans and the environment.[^9] Additionally, Tooby and Cosmides theorized that evolution has prewired the human brain to have certain preexisting connections to nature for survival purposes.[^9] These connection between nature may help explain the product of many experiments that has bridged health benefits to exposure nature, whether it be quicker recover times at hospitals, increased focus and mood, or stronger social interactions.[^9] This is particularly pertinent for children, as modern times sees pressing issues of obesity, attention issues, and depression rise whilst time spent outside has diminished.[^10] “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv discusses this link and includes anecdotal stories that demonstrate how legislatures with shared childhood experience have passes laws to attempt to guard children from the potential benefits of a deteriorating environment.[^11] No Child Left Inside is a piece of legislation derived following Louv’s book, passed to provide environmental education for children.[^12] Orr also iterates the importance of educating in an interdisciplinary way that enables students to learn in the context of the environment and world around them.[^2] It is hard to dispute the seemingly extensive data that exists in favor of nature and health benefits. I stand by the connection between the mind and the body when determining wellness. If natural elements feed into the inherent programing of the human mind to be comfortable or pleased by nature, it makes sense that they would be more inclined to improve. Children should have a basic exposure to the outdoors to allow them to develop the creative parts of their minds to play and get exercise. It is important to understand all of the worldviews on climate change, because in the end, there must be some compromising for humanity to prevail. Pragmatically, pushing for more environmental viewpoints would further propagate why carelessness with resources impede the efforts to reform earth. However, a more human centered approach nurtures more empathy from the global population which would ideally warrant more responses. Therefore, I think it Is important to look at all of the worldviews in holistic way in order to reap the benefits of each and achieve the optimal amount of support from mankind. The environment in which we live is comprised of ourselves and the living world around us, therefore it is important to understand how human action influences where we live and who else we live near. Word Count: 1389

QUESTION: As argued by Orr, it would be beneficial to incorporate more environmental centered connection in the classroom, but when considering ethics and intergenerational justice, would any educators be opposed to implementing the ideas proposed and would requiring the inclusion of such context be a violation of the educator’s rights?

Miller Jr, G. Tyler. Living in the environment: an introduction to environmental science. No. Ed. 19. Cengage Learning, 2017. p. 683.

Orr, David. “What is Education For?.” The Learning Revolution (IC#27), 1991. P. 56

Callicott, J. Baird, and Robert Frodeman. Encyclopedia of environmental ethics and philosophy. Vol. 1. Macmillan reference USA, 2009. p. 520.

Baird, and Frodeman. p. 521.

Baird, and Frodeman. p. 524.

Baird, and Frodeman. p. 519.

Baird, and Frodeman. p.522.

Baird, and Frodeman. p.341-342.

Baird, and Frodeman. p.109-113.

“Lost Child in the Woods.” http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/

Richard Louv. “Last Child in the Woods - Children and Nature Movement - Richard Louv.” Richard Louv Blog Full Posts Atom 10. Richard Louv. Accessed February 18, 2020. http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/children-nature-movement/.

“No Child Left Inside (Movement).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, September 30, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Inside_(movement).

[micaramel]

Artists: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Tomás Saraceno

Venue: Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Exhibition Title: More-Than-Humans

Curated By: Stefanie Hessler

Date: September 25 – December 1, 2019

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Press Release:

Spiders do not have an auditory apparatus, and yet sound makes up an important part of their lifeworld. Through vibrations in their webs—whether from noise, wind, or prey caught in their sticky patterns—spiders can tell the size and distance of an object of interest. Jumping spiders (Phidippus audax), researchers found in 2016, can detect human speech in the vibration of the hairs on their legs.

Music, conversely, is considered one of the highest human achievements, with opera being perhaps the most elaborate form of (Western) culture. The vibrations of vocal cords, the resonance in the singer’s body, and long training bring forth extraordinarily moving experiences.

We do not usually think of spiders and opera together. And yet the patterns of the spider’s web bear a resemblance to the mathematical figures of music. Both are full of sensuality—the silky elasticity of the web, which responds to its surroundings through vibrations, and the singer’s vocal eruptions, which quiver in the listener’s body. We may think of a spider’s web as a stringed instrument, and a voice may carry vibrations through the air to take hold of the web’s tissue and temporarily move it to its frequency. Both invite us to become attuned to our surroundings and to sense that which goes beyond the retinal, beyond that which can be seen.

More-than-humans brings together two exceptional artists whose work is inspired by research yet transcends modes of knowing intellectually, considering that which cannot be explained by the rational anthropoid mind. In bringing together outstanding works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) collection, the exhibition invites visitors to explore questions of human and nonhuman technologies, culture in the Anthropocene, our own intelligence and that of other species, haunted presences at the edge of disappearance, and the power and attraction of the unknown.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster searches for what exists behind images and visual experiences. Her work is inspired by modernism, architecture, literature, and cinema, and yet she is less interested in narrative than in the pleasure of the image’s atmosphere. Nineteenth-century photography is a recurring source of inspiration, as artists often used it in search of the uncanny or supernatural. Opera (QM.15) (2016) draws on early holographic techniques—speculative simulacra conflating different temporal and spatial dimensions. In the work Gonzalez-Foerster appears as the soprano Maria Callas (1923–1977), dressed in the iconic red garments of her last performances while lip-syncing to some of her most famous early recordings. Callas is one of a series of personalities, including the actresses Marilyn Monroe and Sarah Bernhardt, who appear in installations that Gonzalez-Foerster refers to as “apparitions,” as if they were, in the words of the artist, “a kind of séance.”

The letters QM in the title are inspired by Bernhardt’s maxim “quand même,” which translates as “even so” or “nevertheless.” To Gonzalez-Foerster, the expression resonates with the lives of the personas she appears as: “They can’t stop, and art is their vehicle; their very lives must become works of art, no matter the cost. The supreme excitement is the artistic experience.” Throughout their lives, Bernhardt, Callas, and Monroe had to shield their private lives against public interest. Living for their passion—their art—their lives were prone to drama. Numerous rumored love affairs contributed to the enigma surrounding them. As women they had to negotiate expectations placed on them, which in the case of Monroe famously led to her death by suicide at age thirty-six. Callas similarly passed under mysterious circumstances, and Bernhardt was fascinated by death throughout her life. When she played death scenes on the stage, audiences were often in tears, contributing to her prominence but also to the mystery of her persona and her legacy.

The three women’s passion for art and their uncompromising ways of living their lives, as well as a fascination with the otherworldly, the haunted, and the thin line between this and other worlds, crystallize in Gonzalez- Foerster’s QM series, including Opera (QM.15), on view in this exhibition. The performances function as what the psychoanalyst Donald Woods Winnicott calls transitional objects, a bridge between the real world and the world of the imagination. Psycho-sensitive as they are, they may activate unconscious feelings and memories.

Since she participated in the visual arts opera Il Tempo del Postino, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno in Manchester in 2007, Gonzalez-Foerster has been searching for an impossible opera. The work on view is such a science-fictional attempt to communicate with specific spirits and inhabit their afterimages. It may be a reaction to the grid and rules of rational, efficient, digital life, in search of the uncontrollable, the ghostly, the more-than-human. According to Gonzalez-Foerster, “artists, like scientists, generate a kind of ‘artificial life’; artworks can become types of monster.”

Tomás Saraceno is known for his speculative research projects, such as Aerocene, an interdisciplinary artistic inquiry into alternative modes of transportation that do not require fossil fuels, and for his collaborations with spiders. The Arachnophilia Team at his studio homes in on lively multispecies ecologies, cultivating different “arts of noticing,” a phrase coined by the anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Collaborators from various disciplines, from arachnologists to entomologists to ethologists to geographers, come together to explore complex forms of spider architecture or culture, together with the spiders and through different socialities. In workshops and discussions organized on the occasion of his exhibitions, Saraceno has invited collaborators to explore areas such as biotremology— the vibrations produced, dispersed, and perceived by spiders—and develops playful ways of encountering webs by readings conducted with his Arachnomancy divination cards. This take on tarot cards formed part of his Spider/Web Pavilion 7 at the 2019 Venice Biennale. These readings propose a non-anthropocentric way of storytelling involving practitioners from different fields, who interpret the structure and vibrations of a spider/ web.* Drawing on age-old forms of storytelling that resonate with cultural, spiritual, and scientific realms, these readings highlight the interwoven histories, presents, and futures of humans, spiders, and other species. The Western trope of human exceptionalism and agency set apart from our interactions with other beings is here undone for speculative interpretation of how our shared ecologies might play out in the Chthulucene. The feminist theorist Donna Haraway has proposed this term as an alternative way of conceptualizing our current epoch, describing it as a time when the (Western) Anthropos ceases to be a destructive force on the planet and acknowledges and enjoys its kinship with many other forms of life and nonlife.

The works on paper Solitary semi-social mapping of HS 1700+6416 by a solo Nephila senegalensis—one week and a solo Cyrtophora citricola—three weeks (2016) and Solitary semi-social mapping of Ceginus by a duet of Nephila senegalensis—four weeks, a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola—three weeks (2018) were each made in collaboration with two different spider species. In bringing together genera that would not normally collaborate, Saraceno, his studio, and their spider collaborators bring forth hybrid spider/ webs created in multispecies gatherings. The series of Spider/Web prints offer a different way to read and interpret the architecture of the spider/ web: as a topological map of movements and temporalities that trace the intricate complexities of these silken sculptures.

The installations Hybrid semi-social solitary Instrument HD74874 built by a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola—four weeks—and a solo Angelena labyrinthyca—one week (2019) and How to entangle the universe in a spider web? (2018) form part of Saraceno’s celebrated studies of spider/ webs, whose complex structures resemble tiny universes, surpassing many of the architectural and other constructions made by humans, resonating across scales with the cosmic web. Some scientists have observed that complex, three-dimensional spider/webs resemble computer simulations of the cosmic web. In the second installation, a laser sheet bidimensionally intersects the spider/web. The visual vibratory signals of the laser reveal the hidden architectural entanglements woven by the spiders. In other works Saraceno amplifies the vibrations of spider/webs as if they were musical instruments, making them audible for human participants. These entangled floating landscapes create sensorial and living connections across ecosystems, resonating among participants to create a fuller awareness of the unheard and unnoticed voices that surround us.

Webs and networks are a ubiquitous reference in culture today, and yet the spiders’ complex webs and lifeworld still seem alien to us. The video Living at the bottom of the ocean of air (Underwater spider) (2018) focuses on a particularly curious arachnid, the diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica), a species that lives almost entirely underwater in lakes, ponds, and marshes. Surrounding its abdomen is an air bubble captured with its hairs and giving it a silvery appearance. The spider surfaces only briefly to replenish its air supplies. Underwater it resides in its air bell, dashing at prey that touch the silk threads attaching it to plants. This unique behavior highlights the capacity of certain species to transform their way of life to adapt to new environments. In this way the underwater spider sounds an invitation for biospeculation, calling us to question the unexplored possibilities of our future environment.

Saraceno’s works show the spiders from their perspective and within their Umwelt, since, in the slightly amended words of the sociologist Bruno Latour (who wrote about humans in this passage), “no visual representation of [spiders] as such, separated from the rest of their support systems, makes any sense today.” In doing so, the works invite us to veer from arachnophobia to arachnophilia, acknowledging our sympoietic entanglements and, in tune with the philosopher Isabelle Stengers, working toward cosmopolitics, a new attention to our shared ecologies with nonhumans.

Stefanie Hessler

Link: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Tomás Saraceno at Thyssen-Bornemisza

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[hcsmca]

TEDMED 2020 | BOSTON | March 2-4

TEDMED is excited to announce that the next convening of our diverse, multi-disciplinary community will take place March 2-4, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts at The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. That’s right, TEDMED 2020 will be at a brand new location and a brand new time of year!

We feel that Boston is the ideal home for TEDMED 2020. Boston is a city and community with deep roots in pioneering new ideas and pushing innovation forward—much like TEDMED. Boston boasts renowned industry-leading companies,  world-class academic institutions and scientific R&D, some of the nation’s top-ranked hospitals, the country’s highest number of arts and cultural organizations per capita, and an impressive entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports a cutting-edge health tech start-up culture.

As a city with innovation at its core, we were interested to learn that Boston also lays claim to many technological and social “firsts,” including the world’s first telephone, and the United States’ first public park, first public library, and first public secondary school. Also, America’s very first inoculations happened in Boston, way back in 1721. To this day, the city remains a hotbed for health and medical innovation.

We have hosted TEDMED in Palm Springs, CA for the last 4 years, but TEDMED has regularly migrated to fresh venues every few years for most of the past decade, enabling people from many regions to join the community and participate in person at our annual gathering.

“TEDMED has a proud history of adopting a diverse range of venues, literally from coast to coast,” says TEDMED COO and Executive Producer Shirley Bergin, adding, “We are excited for everything that Boston has to offer and can’t wait to host TEDMED 2020 in this amazing city.”

So, what can you expect to experience at TEDMED 2020?

First and foremost, we are always striving to bridge the gap between science and the public by finding and sharing stories that inform, inspire, engage, and provoke action across a broad, passionate community both inside and outside of health and medicine. At TEDMED 2020, you’ll be moved by Talks from individuals working to improve humanity’s health. As one TEDMED Delegate said:

“When you come out of a session of Talks, and you’ve changed as a person—in outlook, in perspective, in opinion—that’s the mark of a conference worth attending. And that happened several times at TEDMED.” – Giles N.

At TEDMED 2020, you will also become a part of a truly unique community of public health leaders, clinicians, researchers, scientists, influencers, and innovators from across the landscape of health, medicine, and scientific innovation. Over the 2.5 days of TEDMED 2020, you’re bound to make unexpected connections that will last well beyond the event. Again, our Delegates explain it best:

“It was such a humbling experience to be able to connect with such inspiring and passionate people who I would never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.” – Kittaya T.

By attending TEDMED 2020, you can expect to engage in interactive conversations hosted by TEDMED’s Partners—a dynamic group of global industry leaders, health systems, associations, research and academic institutions, foundations, and more. Our Partners not only help to make TEDMED possible, but they also enhance the program with their cutting-edge innovations, advancements in health policy, and large-scale global public health initiatives. Whether it’s a curated conversation with Partners and TEDMED Speakers about an unexpected theme that connects their work or a lively workshopping session over breakfast, there are plenty of ways to connect with other leading thinkers and doers at TEDMED.

In addition to the inspiring Talks, engaging community, and mind-expanding conversations, TEDMED 2020 offers you the chance to fully immerse yourself in various health experiences. For instance, you can choose to start your day with a mindfulness class or a heart-pumping workout. And from morning until night, we’ll provide you with nutritious meals and snacks to fuel your body and mind. Attending TEDMED 2020 offers you the space to unplug from your day-to-day routine and the opportunity to absorb new ways of thinking about the challenges we face in health and medicine today.

We hope you’ll join us in Boston for TEDMED 2020. Registration for TEDMED Alumni is open now, and early-bird registration opens soon. Stay up to date on the latest information about TEDMED 2020 by signing up for our newsletter and following us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

For all media inquiries, please contact Rose Mary Romano at rromano@TEDMED.com.  If you are interested in partnering with TEDMED for the 2020 convening, please contact Lucy Crawford at Lucy@TEDMED.com. And, for all other inquiries, please email contact@TEDMED.com.

TEDMED is the independent health and medicine edition of the world-famous TED conference, dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” TEDMED Talks have been viewed online over 150 million times around the world. TEDMED is a non-profit that is wholly owned by The TEDMED Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Public Charity.

  The post TEDMED 2020 | BOSTON | March 2-4 appeared first on TEDMED Blog.

Read more from TEDMED https://blog.tedmed.com/tedmed-2020-boston-march-2-4/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

[click2watch]

EOS’ Grand Governance Experiment Has a New Enemy: China’s Great Firewall

Distributed though it may be, the EOS community has fought hard to remain united.

As of June, two rival groups were briefly in competition to launch the official EOS blockchain (or mainnet) using code released by the company behind the protocol, Block.One. The standoff was resolved, and the EOS community launched a unified network later that month.

However, in the time since, another rift has emerged, an East-West divide being made worse by a language barrier between Mandarin and English-speaking members, as well as differences in internet availability. Namely, Chinese internet controls – commonly known as the “Great Firewall” – make it difficult for those in China and the West to converse using the same platforms: Western EOS enthusiasts mostly gather on Telegram, while WeChat dominates in China.

The fact that two broadly separate conversations are happening in parallel has made it difficult for EOS to live up to its promise as a blockchain with built-in democratic governance. It’s also had tangible effects for EOS token holders, since some have had relatively easy access to dispute resolution, while others haven’t.

Dispute resolution emerged as an important theme early on in the network’s existence, as many community members had lost their private keys to scams and hacks. While the main arbitration body, the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF), was a source of confusion and controversy early on, it was at least able to keep some users with compromised addresses from having their tokens stolen.

In the West, at least.

Scammers and hackers targeted EOS users all over the world, but Chinese-speaking users were often unable to access ECAF’s service. None of its members spoke Mandarin, and since much of the conversation around arbitration had taken place on Telegram (and in English), many WeChat users weren’t aware that arbitration was even an option.

In recent weeks, however, the EOS community has begun to focus on bridging the East-West divide. A new organization, the EOS Mandarin Arbitration Community (EMAC) is working to increase Chinese speakers’ access to dispute resolution, and two of its members have joined ECAF.

“I do believe that the language barrier and cultural difference still exists,” an EMAC spokesperson told CoinDesk in a statement, adding:

“But with community collaboration I’m confident that they no longer pose as serious issue and we could eventually overcome them.”

An ‘official language of EOS’

In statements to CoinDesk – sent via WeChat – EMAC described English as “the ‘official language’ of EOS,” adding, “there is no doubt about that.”

Of course, EOS users speak a variety of languages, but several sources whose first language is not English said more or less the same thing: for the time being, fully participating in EOS requires English skills. (Indeed, aside from a few pleasantries, the conversations quoted here all took place in English.)

“We found it very difficult to find any information in Spanish,” a spokesperson for the block producer candidate EOS Argentina said of EOS’ early days. As for Portuguese-language content, Luiz Hadad EOS Rio, a Brazil-based block producer candidate, said it is “still very rare.”

Matías Romeo (left) and Jesús Chitty of EOS Argentina at a meet-up in Seoul. 

Korean is generally considered EOS’ third major language group. Even so, Orchid Kim, from the block producer candidate EOSYS, said “it has been a basic assumption that Korean community […] has to provide extra effort in various translations in order to be involved in the whole EOS community.”

For the most part, according to these block producers, the portions of Spanish, Portuguese and Korean-speaking communities that were interested in EOS spoke at least some English. (It would have been difficult to develop the interest otherwise.)

Today, all three block producers are involved with some sort of translation efforts, which they say are helping broaden their communities beyond English speakers.

Despite representing a Babel of world languages, then, the EOS community outside of China is participating in a more or less unified, English-dominated conversation. And while that conversation occurs on a gaggle of channels, most of those channels are at least on a single platform, Telegram.

The Great Firewall

While participating in this broader English-language conversation may be challenging for some parts of the community, for those in mainland China, it’s been extremely difficult.

“You can’t really access Telegram from inside China,” said former VP of product at Block.One, Thomas Cox, “so an entire swathe of our constituency was effectively frozen out. It wasn’t that we didn’t care, it’s that we didn’t know how to reach them very well.”

Moti Tabulo, head of ECAF, also noted the difficulties arising from Chinese internet controls. He pointed out that the use of a virtual private network (VPN) could allow access to Telegram.

Even so, Chinese users may be unwilling to stray far from their country’s dominant platform. As Stephen Zhang, an EMAC representative, said in an interview in August:

“WeChat is the tool in China. It’s not like Western social media network. They have Twitter, Facebook and different platforms to choose from, but in China WeChat is the communication tool.”

Importantly, though, the gulf between EOS’ Chinese and Western communities may have an additional dimension, besides language and choice of social media platform. As Tabulo noted, “the concepts can be difficult to translate.”

Amy Wan, founder and CEO of the blockchain startup Sagewise, recently gave an example of this sort of difficulty, though she didn’t reference EOS specifically: “I laugh when Westerners argue about decentralization. Only a few people in the world really control bitcoin, [ethereum], etc., and they’re all in China and don’t give a damn about decentralization.”

To make matters worse, a recent scandal has thrown fuel on these simmering cultural differences. An anonymous Twitter account recently posted unverified allegations – originating on WeChat – of “collusion, mutual voting and pay-offs that occur amongst the Chinese BP community” (block producers or BPs are elected by EOS token holders and fulfill a role similar to that of miners in bitcoin).

As CoinDesk reported, some people on the English-speaking, Telegram-using side of the community vowed to stop voting for China-based block producers entirely in the wake of these allegations. And in China, “most people are mad with this activity if it is true and the discussion of how to prevent it is very enthusiastic,” said EOS Beijing’s co-founder, who goes by Sven.

The incident points to the difficulty of building a governed blockchain that spans linguistic and cultural divides. There is an ongoing debate regarding the rules or “constitution” the EOS community should abide by, but it has so far occurred almost exclusively in English and on Telegram.

And of course, as mentioned above, hacks and scams have hit the Chinese EOS community harder than others because, according to EMAC, “very few of Mandarin token-holders are fluent in English to feel confident to directly communicate and interact with ECAF.”

Looking up

The situation appears to be improving, though.

Micheal Yeung of EOS Pacific, a block producer candidate, and others founded EMAC to “promote governance awareness among Mandarin community members and facilitate collaboration between Mandarin and non-Mandarin communities in governance and arbitration,” according to EMAC’s statement.

Michael Yeung, EMAC’s first chairman, who stepped down in July (center). Image via EOS Pacific.

The job has been difficult. In July the organization stopped providing direct help to victims of token theft after some of the victims began harassing EMAC volunteers, threatening them and exposing their private information.

Today, the organization focuses on providing the Chinese-speaking community with “education and training” on governance in EOS. In addition, two members of EMAC, Stephan Zhang and Siqi Yao, have joined ECAF, meaning EOS’ main arbitration body no longer lacks Mandarin speakers.

Meanwhile, another new organization, EOS Alliance, is hosting calls in Mandarin on arbitration and other topics, in particular the constitution. It is coordinating translations of governance-related documents to Mandarin, as well as working to reduce tensions. For example, it issued a statement on Chinese BPs’ alleged vote-buying that warned against “creat[ing] a sense that Chinese token holders or BPs are being unfairly picked on.”

Wan of Sagewise has joined EOS Alliance as the head of a working group on dispute resolution and arbitration. She told CoinDesk, “ever since connecting with [EMAC], we’ve been trying to collaborate and work with them in terms of bridging the divide and not having two discussions but one large, global discussion.”

Cox, who is serving as interim executive director of EOS Alliance and an adviser to EMAC, told CoinDesk that the situation is improving rapidly:

“I would say that as of a month ago there was a lot of sense of separation. I would say by now anybody who feels that there’s an unbridgeable divide probably was on vacation for four or five weeks.”

Still, he added, the attempt to unite the EOS community and keep it united is “an enormous undertaking.” EMAC echoed that sentiment, saying, “there is a long way ahead of us.”

Of course, EOS is far from the only project to face an East-West divide. As Wan alluded to, there is a prevalent perception that the bitcoin network is controlled by Chinese miners, which often generates resentment in the West.

In other cases, there’s an explicit assumption that the West needs one solution, while China needs its own: the smart contract platform Neo is often referred to as “China’s ethereum.” Nor is that phenomenon limited to crypto: the West has Google, China has Baidu; the West has Amazon, China has Alibaba.

Sven underscored this point when he told CoinDesk that while EOS suffered from a gulf between East and West, “this is not the problem of EOS, it is the problem of the world.”

Image via EOS Argentina

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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[partynonstop]

West Englewood coalition backs its president and forges ahead to support plans for repurposing schools in Englewood

Chicago Public Schools’ state- of- the- art high school in Englewood

Officials from the West Englewood Coalition announced today that they remain fully supportive of plans by Chicago Public Schools to build a state- of- the- art high school in Englewood, replacing four high schools with declining enrollment, and 100 percent supportive of their president, Tyson Everett, a longtime Englewood leader, social services provider and education advocate.

Mr. Everett, officials said, has served the organization honorably and has represented the interests of the coalition and the community as a member of Englewood’s Community Action Council (CAC), a body of community stakeholders who advises Chicago Public Schools on education issues. The Englewood CAC supports plans to close four schools in the neighborhoods in favor of the new $85 million education center and the repurposing of the former schools in the best interest of the community.

Officials noted that they remain supportive of Mr. Everett, who has lived and currently works in Englewood for nearly half a century, because he is not linked in any way to news reports circulating around fellow Englewood Community Action Council Member Dori Collins, who is alleged to have been under contract by CPS while serving on the CAC.

“Mr. Everett has been, and remains a pillar of the Englewood community,” said Darlene O’Banner, Vice President and forty eight year resident in Englewood actively involved in Englewood students education as a Local School Council Member, Chairperson Parent Advisory Council, Chairperson Early Childhood Policy Committee, CAC and Steering Committee Member. There are many great people who reside in other communities and travel to Englewood everyday just as Mr. Everett to service Englewood residents and they don’t have the heart or passion he has dedicated it’s simple just look at our schools failing our students. People can live wherever they choose such as Mr. Everett it has no reflection on his long standing track record and commitment.

“The organization stands firmly behind its president, and will have no ties with even the appearance of impropriety.”

O’Banner added, “It was unbeknownst to our organization or our president that Ms. Collins received any compensation from CPS while the negotiations between the community and Chicago Public Schools have been taking place. We have requested that Mr. Everett separate from any interaction with Ms. Collins at this time.”

Coalition members also refuted claims that they were paid by any person or entity during the school negotiations. They also clarified that the West Englewood Coalition is registered and operating properly in the community although it was incorporated by Mr. Everett, who resides in Homewood. “The West Englewood Coalition is a legitimate coalition,” O’Banner said.

This announcement comes on the heels of a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times and other news agencies revealing that Collins, CAC co-chair, received a $15,000 contract during negotiations pertaining to the new school.

Mr. Everett, a local businessman and activist whose ties to Englewood spans nearly 50 years, has consistently advocated for Englewood residents, from delivering school supplies, and hosting Englewood resident “reunion” picnics, sports programs, to arranging holiday turkey giveaways with community partners. He has further served the community through his nonprofit, Bridging the Tys to Jordan, a community mental health and drug rehabilitation facility that Everett has run to benefit Englewood residents for more than 17 years.

When CPS began talks to initiate the consolidation, Mr. Everett was a member of the CAC and later appointed to the steering committee where he currently serves on both, formed by CPS to facilitate inclusion of the voice of Englewood residents. Because the West Englewood Coalition had been meeting unofficially for several years, they had already developed a strong position, insisting the Harper facility be repurposed to benefit the people of Englewood, serving as a women’s domestic violence housing, ex-offender housing, senior housing or veteran housing for his brother whom he has to travel elsewhere to visit. We remain adamant about Harper being vacant as we have enough vacant lots and buildings in Englewood.. Late last year, Mr. Everett officially incorporated the West Englewood Coalition, better enabling it to continue the work of advocating for the best possible for Englewood residents.

When the article revealed that Collins received a $15,000 contract during negotiations surrounding the new school, Mr. Everett was dismayed. He has, with the unwavering support of the coalition, requested that, in light of the apparent conflict of interest, Collins step aside until the allegations can be ethically resolved. It is the intent of Mr. Everett that there will be no ability of committee members to be swayed by any means, financial or otherwise, in determining what

is best for the community and its schools. This includes the Chicago Teachers Union, which, according to some public reports, is fueling this discourse and paying community activist Jitu Brown, among others. They have no business in Englewood whatsoever and perhaps they should be the target of an investigation.

For additional information on the West Englewood Community Coalition, contact 773.425.8159. To arrange an interview, contact JaVone Willingham.

Born to Be Great. Get Involved. Visit www.nnpa.org/essa

Source Article

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[futureeco100]

Urban buildings use up precious materials and cause pollution. We need visionary thinking to create more sustainable designs that respond to their environment, writes architect Neil Spiller. By the middle of this century, our cities are likely to be hotter, experience more dramatic changes in weather, be noisier and have an increasingly tenuous relationship with our natural world. There’s a problem. Not only are cities responsible for 40% of our total carbon emissions, but they also deal with a limited set of physical conditions, and assume that our weather is going to be constant. Our buildings are designed for dryness and therefore deteriorate in the presence of water. Modern architecture is also designed to just house people, not other life forms, and therefore does not inherently promote biodiversity. We therefore need to think about architecture very differently. We must search for new models for constructing buildings, as well as searching for improvements to our current industrial processes. Already, designers and architects are considering more ecological urban design, especially in the way that resources are used. These new fabrics are quintessentially fluid, and can respond to changing urban demands. For example, Paris Habitat, the capitals’ largest owner of social housing is using body heat from the Paris Metro to heat buildings. Bioprocesses are powering buildings such as the BIQ house with a bio reactive facade, which was built as part of this year’s International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg. And WSP’s plans for seasonal ponds to deal with water storage in Jaypee City in India begin to deal with the changes that happen as the seasons change. Cities are being imagined that challenge the permanence of building materials and their inertness, and we are likely to see a change in our experience of cities thanks to augmented realities – a new way of seeing via our smart phones and Google Glasses. That said, we need an even greater range of approaches to enable our cities to respond to potential challenges – some of which may be permanent, such as sea-level rises and unpredictable weather patterns. I founded the Avatar (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) group in 2004 to explore how the rapidly changing technologies would affect architecture. These promising possibilities could lead to new building materials, especially by using emerging biotechnologies, and might encourage diversity in the kinds of architectures we produce. We explore realms as varied as synthetic biology, surreal digital theory, film and animation, interaction design, and mixed and augmented reality to inform architectural, landscape and urban design. Our agenda is best illustrated by Lars Lerup’s concept of the "bull machine", where the Pamplona Running of the Bulls ceremony is described as a loose and evolving set of couplings between technology, animals and humans, and how they interact with each other. Using the idea of the ‘bull machine’ Lerup observes how the city's traditional effects on us may be outmoded. He proposes new building materials that could allow new opportunities through their fluid structure, and says architecture and the role of architects must be rethought. Interactions between these dynamic elements provide a "new" way to think about design, where the purpose of a particular space can be decided by the person using it. No limits One example is protocells – life-like chemistries that mimic natural processes – which Professor Lee Cronin's group at the University of Glasgow are using to develop into a carbon-fixing paint. Elsewhere, the first permanent algaeponics unit in Britain will be installed on the green roof at the new school of Architecture, Design and Construction in 2014, creating a sustainable oil which can be used as fuel. Simon Park at the University of Surrey is integrating bacterial technology into building facades, and using 3D desktop printers to mix chemistries as a form of wet fabrication, which is a very flexible material. Everyday architecture is being re-imagined around the world. For instance, there’s the Paik Nam June Media Bridge, a proposed river crossing in the South Korean capital Seoul. This bold design will be much more than a bridge; included in its vast form will be a park, a mall, meeting spaces and a museum. Solar panels on the structure’s top will generate power. Such concepts allow us to see bridges in new ways – not just as a method of crossing natural barriers, but as a new kind of structure for living and working on. Rather than constructing buildings from inert materials transported across the world, people are exploring technologies that could transform one group of substances into another on a building site. For example, Markus Kayser is transforming sand into glass using a solar sinter, which focuses the sun’s rays to create obsidian. Other transformative processes include Ginger Krieg Dosier’s printed sandstone bricks of bio-manufactured masonry grown using bacteria. And it’s not just buildings on Earth that we need to be thinking about. Phil Watson, Dr Rachel Armstrong and Elizabeth Anne Williams are working on initial drawings and concepts for Project Persephone, part of Icarus Interstellar initiative that aims to construct a crewed interstellar craft within a hundred years. Persephone aims to build a synthetic biological interior for the spaceship, working with teams from the fields of science, technology, architecture, design, art, humanities and the social sciences. Fundamental design principles may not only help create a viable concept for life in space, but could be translated into models and prototypes to deal with real-world challenges back here on Earth, such as how do we deal with resource shortages in our megacities? There are many unknowns to the project, but by limiting our thoughts, we limit architecture and its ability to respond to the trials and tribulations of a challenging future. Our 21st Century architecture is developing the theory, toolsets and infrastructure that will enable the next generation of architects to deal with the unknown. By rethinking the nature of the fabrics that a city is made up of, they may be better able to respond to our ever-changing needs, particularly as our population expands. In addition, a flexible approach to architectural design may also help us think about sustainability and biodiversity. Protocells, which are more vigorous in a fluid medium, could help buildings better withstand wet conditions. Using new design models, technologies and materials, it may be possible to escape the bonds of industrial manufacturing processes as the driving force for human development. Nothing is impossible.

[sashaburenkov]

CITIZENSFIVE

26 – 28 May 2017

Artists:

Philipp Timischl / Christopher Kulendran Thomas & Annika Kulmann / Albert Soldatov / Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos / Sasha Litvintseva / Alexey Vanushkin / MSL & Jaakko Pallasvuo / Pakui Hardware / CORE PAN / Beny Wagner / Jacky Connolly / Elizaveta Chukhlantseva / Lawrence Lek / Stephanie Comilang / Sara Culman / Viktor Timofeev / Jesse McLean / Eleni Bagaki / Erica Scourti / Bogdan Ablozhnyy / Louis Henderson / Valinia Svoronou / Graeme Arnfield / EKKE (Egor Kraft, Pekka Tynkkynen, Karina Goulbenko, Alina Kvirkveliya) / Patrick Staff /  Egle Kulbokaite & Dorota Gaweda / Felix Kalmenson / Jasper Spicero / Hannah Perry

Curated by Alexander Burenkov

In January 2013, Laura Poitras, an American documentary filmmaker who had been working for several years on a film about surveillance and monitoring programs in the US in the wake of 9/11, received an encrypted e-mail from a stranger who called himself "Citizenfour." In it, he offered her insider information about illegal wiretapping practices of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies.

Since then the world has drastically changed. In the post-Brexit world governed by both post-truth politics and sharing economy, the new urgencies of migration and resettlement as well as the changing concepts of citizenship and nationality and related to it new forms of anxieties emerge to restructure our lives. It’s not only creative prosumers roaming the world or Londoners moving to Athens for affordable rent, but also platform citizenship and social networks that are giving birth to the new digital, nomadic post-Snowden generation, “citizensfive” living a world in which everything is constantly visible and boundaries between the private and the public are blurred. Invisibility has been lost to the digital revolution — but why should that matter?

The idea of temporary spaces of habitation is something that we are experiencing in our daily lives. As we keep plugging more and more into car-sharing vehicles or Airbnb rooms, people own less while becoming more nomadic and less attached to anything like a stable home. This is one aspect of a transformation that is also causing a great amount of pain and anxieties in terms of the forced mobility, precariousness and insecurity, roommate after roommate. On the other hand, there is enormous potential in terms of public space in those small, private places. The only way Edward Snowden was able to do what he did was because he was in a «non-place», transit space of a hotel room 1014 at the Mira Hong Kong, a chic, «eco-friendly» hotel in Hong Kong’s shopping and entertainment district. A screening room of the exhibition CITIZENSFIVE designed as a hotel room referring to a typically blank transit space, where the videos by contemporary artists screened on a large LED screen will replace the «fake news» of modern TV channels, and will take a look at the reality beyond post-truth bubble, constructed by media, corporate, and state interests.

In the age of universal acceleration, our mind and body change, adapting to the environment in which we find ourselves. Blurred boundaries make us rethink our identity, we rethink our goals as human species and our citizenship is also lost in translation and found in transitional spaces of inter-zones, non-places of airports, hotels and Airbnb flats. In somato-, techno- or biocapitalism the body is no longer integral, but is fragmented and penetrated by new technologies that, in Paul Preciado’s parlance, are «soft, featherweight, viscous, gelatinous». Technology and hyper-capitalism have produced us – artists and all – as its «users».

The artists of the video section deal with themes ranging from surveillance politics, precarious lifestyle, hyperconnection and disunity at the same time, the problems of other dimensions of lost corporeality (no longer a «body without organs», but a virtual «body without flesh»), global communication networks and local communities.

Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Annika Kuhlmann in theirs video from their long-term artwork in the form of a startup «New Eelam», are wondering what could a new Eelam be if the idea of a self-governed state based on equality for all its citizens was imagined as a distributed network rather than a territorially bounded nation. New Eelam is based on re-engineering some of these structural operations of art and some of the property relations at the very heart of the present economic system - through collective access rather than individual ownership.

Sasha Litvintseva’s «Evergreen», follows an immortal traveller’s journey through failed and aspirational utopias , a series of uninhabited theme parks, postmodern museums and abandoned cities that signify islands of dislocated time, somewhere in a possible future Japan. Such wanderings allow Litvintseva to create a mesmeric experience, that subtly suggests the perpetual struggle for a perfect society and how the unquenchable desire of civilization to document itself, is perhaps driven by an unconscious awareness of its looming demise.

MSL & Jaakko Pallasvuo’s «Bridge Over Troubled Water» reimagines 1960s musical duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel as time-travelling protagonists whose association with a more hopeful era is at sharp odds with our increasingly precarious contemporary existence. Named after Simon & Garfunkel’s best selling album, Bridge Over Troubled Water follows them as they navigate past, present, and future post-human landscapes. Together they experience personal and ecological loss, entropy, and the impact of our insatiable fossil fuel consumption.

The character of Albert Soldatov's «Main Road» is in some kind of prostration, confusion, being exposed to alien forces, it turns off the usual route, its path is distorted and influenced by global media viruses, penetrating into everyday reality from the outside and infecting the character. The impact of these memes is unclear and unrecordable, only by changing behavior one can determine that something has gone wrong. We can notice the actions of atomized subjects, but do not interpret them, regardless of whether they are strange or ordinary. Their actions are dictated by the hermetic logic of the media entity.

Pakui Hardware's «Imprint»  speculates about imprinting as a form of shaping someone’s memories and experiences. Imagines a scenario when it is possible to ‘imprint’ into someone’s memory experiences that never took place. This way making it impossible to distinguish between real and imaginary things. How will be able to deal with this when we become digital subjectivities? In the era of Anthropocene, imprint has become a term that encompasses the interaction between physical bodies, materials and surfaces as well as between invisible but yet transforming forces such as flows of Capital. Thus imprint is both an intimate proximity between materials, bodies, surfaces and at the same it is a play of forces: there is always the one who presses the other, the softer, which functions as a surface for the other’s hard body (both political and material). It also incorporates temporality – the converge of the past, present and the future – because it requires time to become an imprint, to make an imprint.

Philipp Timischl's «Problems» is thematically and formally embedded in the American series “In Treatment” that deals with the problems of psychotherapy patients and those of the therapist himself. Framed as an image inside an image of the opening sequence of the series—a blue, watery streak swirling across the screen—a dialog commences through the addition of various sequences from the series that do not lack urgency and intensity. However, due to the source material— originally ranging for example from events on an English estate in the 18th century (“Downton Abbey“) to the present in the south of the United States (“True Blood”)—, various actors and actresses and a wide variety of emotions the film is characterized by complete misunderstandings, abrupt subject changes and meaningless data noise.

Patrick Staff «Weed Killer» was inspired by artist-writer Catherine Lord’s memoir The Summer of Her Baldness – a moving and often irreverent account of the author’s experience of cancer. Contrasting a monologue, in which an actress reflects upon the chemically induced devastation of chemotherapy, with comparatively otherworldly sequences, including choreographic gestures shot with high-definition thermal imaging. The video suggests a complex relationship to one’s own suffering and draws into focus the fine line between alternately poisonous and curative substances.

With the UK cast out of the EU, Dalston has degenerated into post-apocalyptic delirium at Laurence Lek's «Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit edition)» video. This is a drowned world of the near future, filled with the ruins of metropolitan life: forgotten nightclubs, DIY art installations, neon-lit music venues, Election booths, Turkish snooker clubs and luxury penthouses. Building upon Lek’s original project for Open Source 2015, this site-specific simulation brings together multiple histories of the area into a single zone. As the player roams around, fragments of European voices appear: samples from Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Lars Von Trier’s Europa speak to them about the nature of dislocation. It is a gradual, but relentless, meeting of past, present, and future.

Jasper Spicero's "Behind The Scenes" is a personal look at the process of filming "Centers In Pain" at Wapato Jail, a maximum security facility built 9 years ago in Portland, Oregon. After it’s completion in 2004 Wapato was abandoned due to a lack of operating funds, and it has been idle and in pristine condition for 10 years and has never once housed inmates, remaining empty aside from a small janitorial staff that maintains the plumbing and washes dusty bed sheets. To carry out "Centers In Pain", one in a series narrative works by Jasper Spicero about Rehabilitation, Correction, Infrastructure and Trauma, the artist rented for 4 days prison Wapato. Occasionally a film crew is allowed to enter for a small fee. The project culminated in a screenplay for an imaginary movie, documentation of the sculptures installed in the prison, and a short film documenting the life of an alienated tribe of people living in a contemporary Panopticon by its own rules.

Sara Culman' s digital video «Props for daily misunderstanding» investigates the political sensibility of objects included in daily household ritual of modern citizens.  The artist puts the focus on individual items, called "props", which simulate human relations concerning the problems of a geopolitical treaty. The image rendering system used in video games, as well as the subjective camera's view, the so-called spectator mode, is put on the basis of the image visualization, which is a mode of the observer in which there is a physically impossible operator floating like  a spirit above the photorealistic world.

Viktor Timofeev's «Continuum» is a short computer-generated video that centers on the relationship between two entities that populate a deserted landscape. These are a group of cockroaches and a pack of hovering drones existing in a symbiotic relationship, engaged in constant observation, mutual surveillance and pursuit of one another without ever coming into contact. The video cuts between first person views of both entities, attempting to elicit an empathetic response to both positions.

Erica Scourti's «Body Scan» captures the process of photographing various parts of the artist's body and parsing them through a visual search app, which attempts to identify them and link to the relevant online data. A documented gesture of mediated intimacy told through iPhone screenshots, the video narrates an exchange between lovers, while making literal the objectification of female bodies on the Internet.

Graeme Arnfield's «Sitting in Darkness» explores the circulation, spectatorship and undeclared politics of contemporary images and new forms of anxieties. Out of the darkness a sound emerges. It echoes and drones. Terrified people take to the streets in search of its source. They get their cameras out and document the sky, searching for an author. We watch on, sitting in darkness, our muscles contract and our pupils dilate.“I hope the camera picks this up.”

The screening program will confront our uneasiness at being swept along by the digital tide, with a view to better understanding of our modern hyperlinked society by offering new perspectives on conceprtualizing our contemporary identities, it will broach the question whether the self is even more otherworldly than we fear it is.

Venue: 

Faliro (Tae Kwon Do) Pavilion, Athens – Greece 

Moraitini 2, Faliro Pavillion Hellenic Olympic Properties, Paleo Faliro 175 61

http://www.artathina.gr/

http://www.flashartonline.com/2017/06/art-athina-athens/

http://www.aqnb.com/2017/06/21/32-international-video-artists-respond-to-new-urgencies-citizensfive-at-art-athina/

https://www.facebook.com/events/2022611044633477/

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Music Supports Your Wellbeing

Each and every day, I am exhilaratingly allured by its tranquilizing essence. I inject generous tranquilizing doses of it’s medicinal sorcery into my veins. Pleasant waves of ecstasy rush through my body as I bow to its magnetic charm. The initial rush transforms my heartbeat and orchestrates a symphony of euphoria and rhapsody. Come hell or high water, it unceasingly brings to life the marriage of my fives senses. I am moved by a thrill so powerful that it sends shivers down my spine. Music, you are a drug to me.

The phenomenon of music pulls on the heartstrings of individuals all across the world. Music transcends the arbitrary boundaries that human beings devise to irrationally dissociate themselves and escalates unity amongst various cultures and encounters. The broad array of genres in the melting pot of melody builds bridges, which suggest the release of xenophobia and the curiosity of understanding between different cultures. Universally esteemed as a powerful force of expression, music conveys important messages, challenges predictability and evokes emotional realizations through stimulating the chemical and electrical impulses that power the mechanisms of the brain. Music simultaneously conjures memories and leads the minds petty cries to the evocation of influential realizations. Listening to music places cunning emphasis on the production of certain emotions an individual desires to explore along with the support of radical thought, delivery and the disavowal of societal norms. Music stimulating social movement and debate plucks the strings of fucked up corporeal villains. From records full of pumped-up, electrically enhanced studio magic to memorable explosive opening riffs on songs that have left deep-rooted legacies, music gets an individual's juices flowing and visibly exhibits the importance of humanity’s greatest driving force. Newfound clarity heralds as sensory appetites ripen toward satisfaction from any artist other than New Found Glory and lead individuals to the strengthening of interest to create an opportunity to share personal perspicacity associated with the piece of music. Vivid imaginations of fucking incredible ingenious artists (alternately categorized as space cadets, freaks of nature, weirdos, social rejects, etc.) fire up illustrious feelings and challenge the use of standard musical gadgets by generating the creation of majestic sound through the use of everyday objects. I recall the feeling I derived from witnessing the musical use of a frying pan on stage by Imogen Heap in 2006 (the only sober adventure of the decade) which sparked numerous conversations and debates pertaining to thinking outside of the box when it comes to the composition of harmonization.

Music remains the most natural and effective cognitive enhancer. It is a reputed nootropic known to help humans release a mood enhancing chemical in their brain. Neurogum also offers a nootropic which activates your mind and fuel your body.

Music has been a preeminent source of delight within my nomadic, foolhardy and downright brilliant life thus far. Music has touched me on the deepest abstruse and inmost level. The experimental sub-genre, Trip Hop, fervently carries the musical key to my heart. The artistically creative, enticingly dense, magnetically dark, and utterly captivating mature display of musical craft blithely seduces me as it seeps under my skin and has left a penetrating mark on my being. The lustrous combination of head-nodding beats, deep ambience and the erratic application of acid-house sounds with mysterious vocals dripping through my headphones aids in the creation of an abstract world of drifting smoke and wonder. The production of Massive Attack’s 1998 release, ‘Mezzanine’, is flawless. Listening to Massive Attack heartily takes over my entire body and mind. Though I will give any song in the entire world a chance, Trip Hop has metamorphosed my interest in open-ended forms of expression and serves as my personal most faithful musical mirror of reflection.

It is no surprise that crowds of thousands from worldwide walks of life collect wristbands and come together for the unique opportunity to bask in the intoxication drawn from the infusion of multiculturalism, instruments, enthusiastic vibes and distinctive musical styles at music festivals all over the globe. Human beings are immediately connected by live circulating energy and intensity of collective fury exploding into the day/night and casting spells on conventional behavior. Intricately woven tunes kick passion into high gear and bury an individual's fear of judgement. Music directly conveys the power to affect our equilibrium, physical jumpsuit, conscious thoughts and movement. Music festivals are playgrounds beaming of spontaneity and enriching interaction amongst human beings sharing the authentic feeling composed from being engulfed by noteworthy performances. Pausing to feel the music deeply penetrate your heart activates the pleasure of being fully alive and sparks the flow of flamboyant freedom.

Music has the potential to bring a listener to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Music rises above the barricades of communication and dishes out stories behind the exertion of an individual's idiosyncratic creativity. Music is a driving force. Music breeds coexistence. Music heals.