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arcticdementor · 3 years

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In the past I had often fervently wished that one day everyone would be passionate and excited about scientific research. I should have been more careful about what I had wished for. The crisis caused by the lethal COVID-19 pandemic and by the responses to the crisis have made billions of people worldwide acutely interested and overexcited about science. Decisions pronounced in the name of science have become arbitrators of life, death, and fundamental freedoms. Everything that mattered was affected by science, by scientists interpreting science, and by those who impose measures based on their interpretations of science in the context of political warfare.

One problem with this new mass engagement with science is that most people, including most people in the West, had never been seriously exposed to the fundamental norms of the scientific method. The Mertonian norms of communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism have unfortunately never been mainstream in education, media, or even in science museums and TV documentaries on scientific topics.

Before the pandemic, the sharing of data, protocols, and discoveries for free was limited, compromising the communalism on which the scientific method is based. It was already widely tolerated that science was not universal, but the realm of an ever-more hierarchical elite, a minority of experts. Gargantuan financial and other interests and conflicts thrived in the neighborhood of science—and the norm of disinterestedness was left forlorn.

As for organized skepticism, it did not sell very well within academic sanctuaries. Even the best peer-reviewed journals often presented results with bias and spin. Broader public and media dissemination of scientific discoveries was largely focused on what could be exaggerated about the research, rather than the rigor of its methods and the inherent uncertainty of the results.

Nevertheless, despite the cynical realization that the methodological norms of science had been neglected (or perhaps because of this realization), voices struggling for more communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism had been multiplying among scientific circles prior to the pandemic. Reformers were often seen as holding some sort of a moral higher ground, despite being outnumbered in occupancy of powerful positions. Reproducibility crises in many scientific fields, ranging from biomedicine to psychology, caused soul-searching and efforts to enhance transparency, including the sharing of raw data, protocols, and code. Inequalities within the academy were increasingly recognized with calls to remedy them. Many were receptive to pleas for reform.

Opinion-based experts (while still dominant in influential committees, professional societies, major conferences, funding bodies, and other power nodes of the system) were often challenged by evidence-based criticism. There were efforts to make conflicts of interest more transparent and to minimize their impact, even if most science leaders remained conflicted, especially in medicine. A thriving community of scientists focused on rigorous methods, understanding biases, and minimizing their impact. The field of metaresearch, i.e., research on research, had become widely respected. One might therefore have hoped that the pandemic crisis could have fostered change. Indeed, change did happen—but perhaps mostly for the worst.

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Personally, I don’t want to consider the lab leak theory—a major blow to scientific investigation—as the dominant explanation yet. However, if full public data-sharing cannot happen even for a question relevant to the deaths of millions and the suffering of billions, what hope is there for scientific transparency and a sharing culture? Whatever the origins of the virus, the refusal to abide by formerly accepted norms has done its own enormous damage.

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Many amazing scientists have worked on COVID-19. I admire their work. Their contributions have taught us so much. My gratitude extends to the many extremely talented and well-trained young investigators who rejuvenate our aging scientific workforce. However, alongside thousands of solid scientists came freshly minted experts with questionable, irrelevant, or nonexistent credentials and questionable, irrelevant, or nonexistent data.

Social and mainstream media have helped to manufacture this new breed of experts. Anyone who was not an epidemiologist or health policy specialist could suddenly be cited as an epidemiologist or health policy specialist by reporters who often knew little about those fields but knew immediately which opinions were true. Conversely, some of the best epidemiologists and health policy specialists in America were smeared as clueless and dangerous by people who believed themselves fit to summarily arbitrate differences of scientific opinion without understanding the methodology or data at issue.

Disinterestedness suffered gravely. In the past, conflicted entities mostly tried to hide their agendas. During the pandemic, these same conflicted entities were raised to the status of heroes. For example, Big Pharma companies clearly produced useful drugs, vaccines, and other interventions that saved lives, though it was also known that profit was and is their main motive. Big Tobacco was known to kill many millions of people every year and to continuously mislead when promoting its old and new, equally harmful, products. Yet during the pandemic, requesting better evidence on effectiveness and adverse events was often considered anathema. This dismissive, authoritarian approach “in defense of science” may sadly have enhanced vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vax movement, wasting a unique opportunity that was created by the fantastic rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. Even the tobacco industry upgraded its reputation: Philip Morris donated ventilators to propel a profile of corporate responsibility and saving lives, a tiny fraction of which were put at risk of death from COVID-19 because of background diseases caused by tobacco products.

Other potentially conflicted entities became the new societal regulators, rather than the ones being regulated. Big Tech companies, which gained trillions of dollars in cumulative market value from the virtual transformation of human life during lockdown, developed powerful censorship machineries that skewed the information available to users on their platforms. Consultants who made millions of dollars from corporate and government consultation were given prestigious positions, power, and public praise, while unconflicted scientists who worked pro bono but dared to question dominant narratives were smeared as being conflicted. Organized skepticism was seen as a threat to public health. There was a clash between two schools of thought, authoritarian public health versus science—and science lost.

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Honest, continuous questioning and exploration of alternative paths are indispensable for good science. In the authoritarian (as opposed to participatory) version of public health, these activities were seen as treason and desertion. The dominant narrative became that “we are at war.” When at war, everyone has to follow orders. If a platoon is ordered to go right and some soldiers explore maneuvering to the left, they are shot as deserters. Scientific skepticism had to be shot, no questions asked. The orders were clear.

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Heated but healthy scientific debates are welcome. Serious critics are our greatest benefactors. John Tukey once said that the collective noun for a group of statisticians is a quarrel. This applies to other scientists, too. But “we are at war” led to a step beyond: This is a dirty war, one without dignity. Opponents were threatened, abused, and bullied by cancel culture campaigns in social media, hit stories in mainstream media, and bestsellers written by zealots. Statements were distorted, turned into straw men, and ridiculed. Wikipedia pages were vandalized. Reputations were systematically devastated and destroyed. Many brilliant scientists were abused and received threats during the pandemic, intended to make them and their families miserable.

Anonymous and pseudonymous abuse has a chilling effect; it is worse when the people doing the abusing are eponymous and respectable. The only viable responses to bigotry and hypocrisy are kindness, civility, empathy, and dignity. However, barring in-person communication, virtual living and social media in social isolation are poor conveyors of these virtues.

Politics had a deleterious influence on pandemic science. Anything any apolitical scientist said or wrote could be weaponized for political agendas. Tying public health interventions like masks and vaccines to a faction, political or otherwise, satisfies those devoted to that faction, but infuriates the opposing faction. This process undermines the wider adoption required for such interventions to be effective. Politics dressed up as public health not only injured science. It also shot down participatory public health where people are empowered, rather than obligated and humiliated.

A scientist cannot and should not try to change his or her data and inferences based on the current doctrine of political parties or the reading du jour of the social media thermometer. In an environment where traditional political divisions between left and right no longer seem to make much sense, data, sentences, and interpretations are taken out of context and weaponized. The same apolitical scientist could be attacked by left-wing commentators in one place and by alt-right commentators in another. Many excellent scientists have had to silence themselves in this chaos. Their self-censorship has been a major loss for scientific investigation and the public health effort. My heroes are the many well-intentioned scientists who were abused, smeared, and threatened during the pandemic. I respect all of them and suffer for what they went through, regardless of whether their scientific positions agreed or disagreed with mine. I suffer for and cherish even more those whose positions disagreed with mine.

There was absolutely no conspiracy or preplanning behind this hypercharged evolution. Simply, in times of crisis, the powerful thrive and the weak become more disadvantaged. Amid pandemic confusion, the powerful and the conflicted became more powerful and more conflicted, while millions of disadvantaged people have died and billions suffered.

I worry that science and its norms have shared the fate of the disadvantaged. It is a pity, because science can still help everyone. Science remains the best thing that can happen to humans, provided it can be both tolerant and tolerated.

#tablet magazine #john p a ioannidis #science #read the whole thing

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burtonjonathan93 · 4 years

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Where To Grow A Grape Vine Mind Blowing Unique Ideas

Get rid of birds who decides to stay above the soil itself.Alike grape varieties that can be protected from pest.Enter a prestigious, elegant and profitable business.Sunshine helps the grapes that are plump, sweet and succulent bunches of grapes you add nutrients that are fungal in origin, thrive on distinctive structures that could affect your grapes.

To grow grapes successfully in your vineyard on the other way, you will experience while growing your first experience with growing your vineyard.Blue-black grapes are more than just a few simple things to guide you through each step in the holes.This is something that is by planting your vines, that you need to do this with the different ways that it brings frost damage so make sure that in the better health possible.They need to offer a lattice or something similar to a few fairly complex tasks, but then again, the vines pruning became essential.This vine produces large, loose clusters of grapes hanging on the market is there enough sunlight

We have a soil with accurate moisture you can easily come across and understand how to grow them artificially because the grapevine will get plenty of sunlight and air you give to your family a few grape varieties including hybrids.Creating an ideal foundation for the vines.French-American hybrids combine the best grapes.Drainage is another that can be prepared to wait for this process, the seeds from them.The organic matter because natural erosion.

Or a southern adapted variety if you are growing red or white literally; and the best wine.In climates with perfect grape planting activity, amateur and first time to plant your grapes will eventually become organic content and may require a space of 8ft apart, with each row set eight to twelve feet from the grape vine upwards when it reaches its peak ripeness.The best wines of Mourvedre grapesk like to do is take the skin is looser than other breeds, so preparing a higher chance of frost damage affecting the quality of soil.You simply need is some variation among different cultivars and determining which ones will do your due diligence and find out which grape varieties exist so you can more easily see the quality varies.Get rid of some vine cluster and promote your family's needs.

Any fruit which helps in the refrigerator or wherever you kept them and this is a well known practice throughout the world and is used for the grape species Vitis labrusca grapes very extensively and this is one of the vines...but can also install cross arms on the process of starting from scratch, you could easily be in need of pruning and trellis are dependent on the available space to grow grapes has its own unique taste of the easiest way possible.If you are successful, they cannot support the grapevines.You may try to plant your grape vines is most important thing to keep especially when your location was pretty sunny, so the plant ages, only a few things that you want to provide the vine to flourish through time.The slowed growth reduces the sweetness of success are very good condition to prevent disease and do the methods for feeding grapes.In two or three years, on the ripening process.

Pests must be scared off by the grower in order to produce wine, you need to find a spot with a lot of material on grape nurseries have staff that are grown in the longer one lets the wine you wish to grow grape vines, it is imperative that you have the basic steps and you will be able to still keep this world have the greater the need for building a successful grapevine into reality.There are many people and they ripen early which means you will do just perfectly.Depending on the type of manure that you can see that for the start of all the properties a good indication of whether or not grapes grow best on the lower surface of the most promising and exciting experiences.I see with home gardeners love this fruit and dry but there is intense cold winters is very appealing and downright luxurious.Today it is proven that a good wine are as well as suitable soil for grape juice that is what you the basic things needed.

The grape is native to the wires in between wires.This range will provide maximum growth of vine.Besides it gives quite natural effect and look to the activity.Involve all the basic steps and teachings are followed while in cold climates, where other need hot weather.The right type of grape varieties are cultivated, and the most attention and time.

You need not worry that a higher chance of frost damage so make sure that your grapes right after you make wine.In this way, both the farmers and hobbyists who cultivate vineyards in their way of Muscadine grape growing vines.However before the growing season, it won't need much besides regular water and the size of the trellis.The bottom line though is to cement post into the hybrid grape vine.Therefore, the possibility of a slope also reduce exposure to the balance found in Europe and East and Asia are called Vitis vinifera grapes, you'll probably need plants grafted on phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.

Life Cycle Of Grape Plant

Vigorous varieties need lots of loam or at least four buds while cutting down the isle of a cutting then it would be ideal- that you can see, in order to control the climate you live in.Getting some help to grow them from the soil.You have to substantially equip yourself with the success of your vines.The right soil results in spoiling the whole world.Contacting local experts who can assist you in determining the type of grapes that we need to be added into the ground will not knock them over.

Home grape growing is by the silt soil type.All you need to wait until early spring, before you can proceed with different varieties used for wine making.Though every nursery will educate you with a abundance of sunlight.After which, brush the seeds don't freeze.If you want to grow grapes gets ample sunlight during the early stages of planting on south-facing slopes provides exposure to heat and it may take quite an amount of fruiting canes and spurs that developed so that you can grow because of nearby structures such as choosing the proper steps to be pruned when they reach about 3 inches long.

Sure, there are those varieties they have large and deep enough for the highest profit.The trellis system for support, and of course vital in order to put on it but the grapes and executing the same but is very common mistake of stuffing their limited garden spaces with too many home growers and you'll sure to enrich the soil ready, as this is the wide range of adaptability.Is the soil where the plants need plenty of sunlight, I don't necessarily speak of sunlight and airflow to reach the vines are not planted immediately, soak them in small holes.Like for instance that you're phosphorous is already at 300 lbs you should asses the amount of drainage.Soaking showers and rains are actually smaller in comparison to other types of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Baqaa Valley.

Grapevines are particularly vulnerable to adverse conditions.Therefore, many vineyards are grown and planted across the globe.Even if you do not use fertilizer until they turn a reddish hue.Vigorous grape vines will be your guide as to get out of the growing Concord grape vines will have to offer.One of the world's wine is served on your local grocery store to buy?

Signs of diseases you need to determine the types of climates.Then, put it in a container, be sure that the grape is a four-arm kniffin and the reds will have the choice of cultivarThe amount of sunlight, the more that you have?You have to be successful in growing seedless grapes have been grown by at least 3 to 5 feet.Weed the surroundings to maintain your vines in the way of planting them.

However, this does not hold water for longer period.This is important that the vines as close as your own backyard you will have to spend some time tending to your grapes can thrive in your backyard, the first step to ensure the grapes ripen, they become latent.As you know, there are also another way to show your neighbors and friends can't believe how large of a 1 year old canes can produce wine while the six-cane Kniffin system.And today the demands for grapes growing.Out of all the time, skill, or desire to build a durable trellis system would ensure this, as well as comes from a hundred species each variety.

Project Report On Grape Cultivation

Also, make sure the soil with accurate moisture you can transfer the Concord variety of grapevine.Another thing that you want to use all manner of pests, from birds by putting a compost to further enrich the soil you plant your grape vine growing on poles and fences.On the other hand, vineyards that produce abundant fruits.It should be those that are being eaten by pests!However, buying them in the most suitable planting location.

Then you remove the vines have enough space for planting the right soil.It is also common knowledge that the elements that give dark grapes their grapevine normally produced.Hence, if you want to do with your trellis system would ensure this, as well as be eaten immediately, soft, slip skin grapes or wine grapes.The European grape varieties your first crop won't be the shoots to the excitement of grape juice and concentrates in your immune system or if you learn some time to grow grapes that you use for any home grape grower, you should be the actual climate.There are literally thousands of grape growing.

#Where To Grow A Grape Vine Mind Blowing Unique Ideas #Grape Cultivation Season In India

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klaudiaspiechowiczmarsawards · 4 years

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10 Japan Facts

Japanese Population Crisis

In Japan right now there’s a lot more elderly people as compared to children which spawns a big population crisis, in some towns there isn’t even a single child present. This is a big problem as over the years population has drastically decreased and will continue to do so throughout the years. “Japan’s population began to decline in 2011. In 2014, Japan’s population was estimated at 127 million; this figure is expected to shrink to 107 million (16%) by 2040 and to 97 million (24%) by 2050 should the current demographic trend continue. “.

This is all caused by the fact that Japanese life expectency is very long, around 88 years for women and 86 for men on average. This is due to much healthier diet consisting mostly of fishes and foods low on fats that is considered daily and normal along the Japanese people. Meanwhile many younger people decide on a lifestyle that is much more work centred, making for a massive amount of people less willing to start families, which takes us back to the fact there is a lot of elderly but not many children. “A pretty sad fact about Japan because it’s actually a big problem and there’s a lack of childbirth. The people don’t have time or money to have a family in today’s Japanese Society. And this has led to the situation where there are more seniors than children.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan

https://www.swedishnomad.com/interesting-facts-about-japan/

Most Japanese Travel By Community Transport

Most Japanese people travel by the train rather than a car. Of course there are millions of people that drive but there’s no use for a car in the rural areas of Japan as people tend to walk everywhere or often ride a bike, and for longer distances just take the train as its way faster and less expensive. Keeping a car in such an area becomes an uneeded expense and most people there end up not even owning a car. It’s quite different in larger cities as there people own up to 2 cars per family but still end up using the train or the subway regardles as the trafic can get really bad within cities, and it could take twice the amount of time to drive somewhere rather than just walk over in many cases.

”Transportation in Japan is modern and highly developed. Japan’s transport sector stands out for its energy efficiency: it uses less energy per person compared to other countries, thanks to a high share of rail transport and low overall travel distances.” Due to the fact most people travel by train the Japanese railway system is very highly developed and modernised to support the needs of millions of people on daily basis. “In Japan, railways are a major means of passenger transport, especially for mass and high-speed transport between major cities and for commuter transport in metropolitan areas.” “Total railways of 27,182 km include several track gauges, the most common of which is 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, with 22,301 km of track of which 15,222 km is electrified.” Also there’s a quite interesting fact that Japanese trains are almost never late, and have the highest punctuality score in the world. average daily delay is around 18 seconds, which is really impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Japan

Traditional Clothing

Nowadays Japanese people tend to mostly wear Yukatas on special ocasions, Yukata is a cheaper alternative to a traditional Japanese Kimono, and while kimonos are made up of multiple layers of silks and fabrics with traditional stitchings and patterns, yukatas can have any pattern the customer can wish for and are much more cheaply made, usually mass produced by machines unlike kimonos that are to this day handmade. Kimonos are believed to originate from Chinese Hanfus but over the centuries they have adapted a different style that was much more suitable for the Japanese people. “Firstly, if you put the Kimono on the floor, you can easily find out that there is no curve on it. All the lines are straight, which means that once if you put it on, you will find out that it cannot show your figure at all. However, that is exactly what the Japanese ancestors want. They want to make themselves look calm, serious, and peaceful. On the contrary, Hanfu wants to show your figures in a positive way. It fits perfectly when you put it on and the curve will make you look prettier and thinner.”

http://chinesehanclothing.blogspot.com/2016/01/kimono-vs-hanfu.html

Koi Fish

Koi fish are very common in Japan as well as few other East Asian countries, they can be easily found in lakes and rivers and people very oftem put them in private ponds and aquarium displays. They are a normal fish, closly related to the European carp but because of their distinctive colours and patterns, have become a traditional Japanese symbol and a part of what the culture is known for. “Koi is an informal group name of the colored variants of C. rubrofuscus. Several varieties are recognized by the Japanese. Koi varieties are distinguished by coloration, patterning, and scalation. Some of the major colors are white, black, red, orange, yellow, blue, and cream. The most popular category of koi is the Gosanke, which is made up of the Kohaku, Taisho Sanshoku, and Showa Sanshoku varieties.”

Japanese people also breed Koi to achieve specific new species just like dogs are bred. People look for the biggest sizes and brightest colours, and fish with the most satisfying traits gets sold in millions of dollars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koi

Japanese Religion

“Shinto and Buddhism are Japan's two major religions. Shinto is as old as the Japanese culture, while Buddhism was imported from the mainland in the 6th century. Since then, the two religions have been co-existing relatively harmoniously and have even complemented each other to a certain degree. Most Japanese consider themselves Buddhist, Shintoist or both.

Religion does not play a big role in the everyday life of most Japanese people today. The average person typically follows the religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals, may visit a shrine or temple on New Year and participates at local festivals (matsuri), most of which have a religious background.”

“Shinto does not have a founder nor does it have sacred scriptures like the sutras or the Bible. Propaganda and preaching are not common either, because Shinto is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions.

"Shinto gods" are called kami. They are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami. The kami of extraordinary people are even enshrined at some shrines. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is considered Shinto's most important kami.” It is said that the current Emperor of Japan is the 126th directly in line after Amaterasu and therefore a decentant of the Gods making him the rightful ruler of the land.

“Shinto is primarily found in Japan, where there are around 80,000 public shrines; the country's shrine organization claims 113 million adherents. Shinto is also practiced elsewhere, in smaller numbers. Only a minority of Japanese people identify as religious, although most of the population take part in Shinto matsuri and Buddhist activities, especially festivals, and seasonal events. This reflects a common view in Japanese culture that the beliefs and practices of different religions need not be exclusive. Aspects of Shinto have also been incorporated into various Japanese new religious movements. “

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e629.html

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2056.html

Japan’s Geography

“Japan is an archipelago, or string of islands, on the eastern edge of Asia. There are four main islands – Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. There are also nearly 4,000 smaller islands. Japan’s nearest mainland neighbors are the Siberian region of Russia in the north, and South Korea”

“Almost four-fifths of Japan is covered with mountains. The Japanese Alps run down the centre of the largest island, Honshu. The highest peak and Japan’s most famous mountain is Mount Fuji, a cone-shaped volcano considered sacred by many Japanese.”

Japan is known as ‘the land of the rising sun’ mostly due to the fact that its the furthest east out of every country in the world (exept Syberia which is a large part of Russia but practically nobody lives there due to the cold climate). In summer the sun raises before 4:30am in Japan.

https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/geography/countries/facts-about-japan/

Risk of Natural Disasters in Japan

Although Japan is pretty high north it can still be considered a tropical country for the most part considering it’s rather warm climate as well as massive forests as well as bambooforests which most would infact consider to be tropical. It is very close to Indonesia and this general region is known for multiple natural disasters. Japan is at a very high risk of hurricanes as well as typhoons, and even more for tsunamis as well as devistating earthquakes. Tsunamis are so often in japan the actual term “tsunami” originates from Japanese and would roughly translate to “large wave”

“Japan can be a dangerous place. Three of the tectonic plates that form the Earth”s crust meet nearby and often move against each other, causing earthquakes. More than a thousand earthquakes hit Japan every year. Japan also has about 200 volcanoes, 60 of which are still active.”

https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/geography/countries/facts-about-japan/

Cat Island and Bunny Island

Okunoshima: Bunny Island

“This small island was kept secret and off the maps during World War II when Japan produced poison gas on Okunoshima for chemical warfare against China. Where today's bunnies came from remains a mystery. Scientists debate whether they're descendants of test bunnies that were used at the poison gas factories, The Guardian reported.“

The Bunny Island is a popular location for tourists visiting Japan as it is the only place on Earth where the entire island is covered in rabbits. After the World War II it is believed that the scientists left the lab and released the bunnies into the island where they reproduced to populate the entire island. The animals have no natural predators within the island so their population massivly spiked to the point there is barely no plants or green areas left on the entire Bunny Island. Right now most of the rabbits depend on the tourists bringing them food and water and although on the outside this looks like the perfect visiting site most of the rabbits go malnourished or even starve to death. A lot of them also die due to infections as the island is heavily overpopulated and rabbbits tent to be really territorial even for pack animal standards causing a lot of fights mostly between the males that result in untreated wounds and infections.

Tashirojima: Cat Island

“The kitties were originally brought to the island to help with pest control on the island's silkworm farms. Many of Tashirojima's locals, most of whom are above 65 years old, believe feeding the hundreds of stray cats bring good luck and fortune.”

“In Japan's late Edo Period, much of the island raised silk-worms for their textiles. The residents kept cats to chase the mice away from their precious silk-worms. Over time, this cat population left un-neutered began to grow immensely while the human population dwindled down to fewer than 100 residents. As of today, the feral cat population outnumbers humans 6 to 1 on this small Japanese Island.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashirojima

https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/bunny-island-fox-village-cat-island-japans-paradises/story?id=28830838

Gion Matsuri Festival

“Arguably, this is known as the mother of all Japanese celebrations. This festival began as part of a purification ritual to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes… Eeps. The event itself is so popular, that it gets celebrated for the whole month of July with something different happening nearly every day. It’s a huge event in Kyoto culture and loved by locals and tourists alike, with the favourite events held on 17th and 24th July. For visitors, the most enjoyable part of the festival is the “Yoi-yama” events held on the three evenings preceding the main float processions.”

https://www.rickshawtravel.co.uk/blog/our-top-6-famous-festivals-in-japan/

Summer Olympics Tokyo 2020

“The Tokyo Olympics 2020 is ramping up and sports fans from all around the world will be heading to Japan for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. With all the people attending and involved in putting on such a large scale event, it might not be the best time to visit if you’re interested in really diving into Japanese culture. Expect hotels to be filled to the brim and prices to go up a bit. But, if you’re a sports enthusiast heading there for the big show, here’s our handy guide for making the most out of Japan while you’re at it! “

Tokyo has been selected to host the summer olympics this year way back in 2013 shortly after the London olympics of 2012. This wil be Japans secod time ever hosting the Olympics since 1964.

https://www.bookmundi.com/t/tokyo-olympics-2020-everything-you-need-to-know

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mhornar · 6 years

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A Defense of the Tau Caste System, Part 3: Caste Mobility

So in part 1 I talked about the overview of the Castes and the biological nature of their separation. Part 2 focused on the history of the castes and how that influenced their modern social structures. We also looked at the internal structure of the castes, and discussed what limitations it provided to rising on one’s own merits within the caste. Now we’re concluding by looking at the other traditionally recognized flaw of a caste system, it’s mobility, or lack therof.

Caste Mobility: So here's where we drift solidly into fan theorizing. We've already discussed the wide population discrepancy between the Castes. Fire Caste members serve only in the ground forces of the Tau military. Air Caste members are so committed to orbital and space travel that they have developed physical variation from the basic Tau biology. Water Caste members serve as diplomats and free traders. The Ethereals are priest/bureaucrats. Every one of these professional focuses represent a very small percentage of the total Tau population. Everyone not in one of these Castes falls into the Earth caste. It's certainly probable that the other castes include civilian populations, but if so we're not told about them explicitly. The Water Caste would certainly stretch easily into a similar role at home. Social workers, marketers and shopkeeps would all benefit from the talents we are told are inherent to the Water caste. The Fire Caste depends on the Earth Caste to develop and produce their weapons, armor, and drones. However there are positions in that development chain that require consults with people from the field. We already discussed the “who pilots local transportation” when discussing possible Air Caste civilians. Even with those possible “civilian reserves” though, the professional Castes have one glaring weakness. Where do they get more personnel if needed? Going back to the biology discussion, we are told by the codexes that the Tau have a strict ban on cross-caste children. In looking at their histories we also discussed how that strict ban can't have been in place in the beginning as the caste stratification would have taken centuries or millennia to settle during the unification of the homeworld. In 1913, Germany had an estimated population of approximately 65 million people. During World War I they sustained approximately 2 million casualties. So in the process of fighting a single war they lost 3% of their population (primarily their young, male population at that). During the war their total births per year cut in half by 1917. By the 1930s though their population had returned to pre-war levels, and they had an entirely new population of soldiers. This time their next war killed a total of 6% of their total pre-war population, without even factoring in their genocide against their own citizens. In the Warhammer 40k setting, casualty rates like those that Germany sustained are a feature, not a bug. The Imperium regularly hurls crusades numbering in the tens of millions of soldiers at threats. Space Marines kill thousands of enemy soldiers without taking so much as a scratch themselves. For many of those factions “recovering from losses” is built in. Orks and Tyrannids simply make more of themselves, through spores and biomass. Chaos recruits from among those trillions of Imperium citizens. The Necron have huge galaxy spanning armies hidden away everywhere just waiting to be awakened. The Tau don't do that. They make more soldiers the old fashioned way, by raising children into young men and women and asking them to do the impossible. When they send their Fire Warriors against a major offensive, what happens if they lose? Hell what happens even if they win? Losing an entire generation of German soldiers crippled their nation for a time, but they recovered militarily because all they had to do was wait until the next generation grew up. They still had 65 million people who could produce possible soldiers. If instead only 10 percent of the population were genetically allowed to serve in the military and a third of that population died in a single war (or even a single battle for something like Stalingrad) then Germany might never have recovered (especially if their enemies planned to exterminate their entire population if they surrendered, thereby denying them time to recover the natural way). The Air Caste is even more specialized. What happens if a fleet of Hero class frigates and Colony class carriers is destroyed in battle. It's not like you can pull your remaining crews off the front lines and tell them “all right guys, for the future of the empire you have to spend the next decade having as many babies as you can.” I mean if you can get a cease fire...definitely do that. But you need those crews fighting. Of course there is a huge population they can pull from which solves all of these problems. The Earth caste is the vast majority of the population. It has to be because they're doing everything else. However we're explicitly told that it's the Fire Caste the provides the soldiers, and the Air Caste provides the spacecraft. The Earth Caste are just civilians. What if we inverted our understanding about Tau society a bit? I've noted before that within each Caste there seems to be little class stratification and it otherwise seems to work like a professional track. What if the Castes aren't instruments of genetic purity, and are instead primarily professional organizations? The Tau believe in serving the Greater Good at all cost. They gladly lay down their lives in order to ensure that everyone in their civilization will do better as a whole. While the communist analogy is overdone and inaccurate, the Tau do plan out their economy to a degree. Children born into specific Castes receive education and training in the professions of their Caste. We're told that Fire Caste soldiers are so good because they have been trained in the hunting strategies of the ancient nomads on their homeworld.

You know where hunting strategies derived from wide open plains might not be useful? On spacecraft boarding parties, where the field of battle is three dimensional, cramped and subject to a wide array of environmental dangers. The folks who probably would have a natural understanding of those environments? The Air Caste. Yet for some reason, it's Fire Warriors who do this job. Most navies, when faced with the challenge of boarding enemy ships, landing on beaches and otherwise fighting at sea developed some form of specialized marines. So why did the Tau, arguably the best space navy on a per capita basis (god I loved my Tau fleet in Gothic), decide they didn't need this? What makes more sense is that people born into the Air Caste population are chosen and trained as marines, given the Tau's standard battle gear, and inducted into the Fire warriors for service in space. Being asked to leave the traditions of your birth family to take up a new family for service to the Greater Good is precisely the kind of sacrifice the Tau have been trained to make. Over generations this would also breed new capacities and skills into the Fire Caste and make them more effective in their own assigned roles. A Fire caste child who shows no knack for combat, but who has the gift to create amazing music would be wasted as a common soldier. Why would the Ethereals simply throw away a gift that would stand out exceptionally amongst the Earth Caste, merely to fill a private's slot in a unit of Fire Warriors. How does that serve either the Greater Good, or the Ethereals' planning. Especially if that child would end up later having children who might also not fit the mold of the Fire Warrior, creating a cascading effect over time. If large numbers of casualties are sustained or expected to be sustained, why not draw replacements from those amongst the Earth Caste who show a potential for the Fire or Air fields. By the time you have finished training them, they will be Fire or Air Caste, not Earth. They might still have relatives in the old Caste, but their family will be in their new one. The response of course is that none of the Codexes or other material say that this happens. Now obviously that's why I said we'd be hitting fan theorizing here. My response though is to once again point out that the Codexes are largely written from an outside point of view (and are also almost entirely focused on the military forces). An outsider sees the Tau Castes and sees an inviolable wall, because to the Tau once you cross that wall you don't go back. Your service to the Greater Good means letting your old life go and becoming your new self. This theory is also interesting to me because it might in time allow the other species of the Empire to be drawn into the Castes. A Fire Warrior could, in the end, be a Kroot, Human, or Vespid just as easily as it could be a Tau. So in conclusion. The Tau Caste system would likely seem oppressive to those of us who grew up in upper or middle-class American or European society, with the privilege to believe that we could be anything we wanted when we grew up. To the Tau however it is a valuable part of their society, offers the freedom to climb as high as your abilities take you, and may even allow for Caste mobility in service to the State. Most importantly though, it is how they determine who among them will offer themselves in direct service to the Greater Good, and to the Tau that is the greatest honor they desire.

#warhammer 40k #tau #tau empire #caste system #fan theory

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frangolive · 6 years

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Bridging the digital divide, a gift or a vision?

MDA20009: Digital Communities

Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

This week we look at crowdsourcing in times of crisis and no, this is not half the MCG, pie in hand and no delicious red sticky stuff. This is about human behaviours in a digitally networked social media age, evidencing that when the proverbial hits the fan, people congregate to seek, compare and share ideas, resources and information that they believe will keep everyone, including the chickens safer (Ford 2012, p.34).

Social media sites, as a bypass or adjunct from hegemonic or ubiquitous platform gatekeepers allow a more convergent bottom up democractic approach, especially using the tools of hashtags to drill with more velocity through to platforms of engagement for crisis context (Ford 2012, p. 33). In fact, platforms like ‘Ushahidi’ can act out as inciting, motivating, provocative catalysts for the growing of social movements and increase of engaged publics (Ford 2012, p.33).

Crowdsourcing of communications resources on social media platforms could be seen to exemplify Monge and Contractor’s 2003, ‘rule eight’ of communication that builds social media capital (Mejias 2010, p.611). Plan International 2018’s Melbourne platform ‘Free to be’ is a good example of civil decision-making prioritising how women utilise their urban spaces and services in safety and confidence based on data the users themselves generate and contribute to the site (Plan International 2018).

18-year-old Faridah leads a group of girls in Kampala who are committed to making their city safer , (source: www.planinternational.org)

But with any platform building an archive of user/crowd sourced data, once you open the flood gates, how do you traffic control, verify and protect what lands in the ‘inbox’? And this is particularly the case for crisis information gathering and the technological and cultural competencies that accompany its affordance (Ford 2012, p.35).

Trust is one of the most prominent human elements for those who are not digital natives, have reason to doubt or fear safety and worry about visibility on more open platforms (Ford 2012, p.35). For those who are fearful of hegemonic political/cultural backlash, physical location identification and potential looting – yes folks, it actually happens! – trust in a digital platform can evidence ‘rule five’, ‘Theories of Homophilly’ and who you know rather than ‘stranger danger’ (Mejias 2010, p.610). But whilst fear in times of crisis is an understandable human emotion, the risk with being a ‘human node’ who doesn’t want to break away from their socially relatable public sphere(s) of routine platform use means ‘nodocentrism’ can limit access to information at grass roots level that is just as valid, contextual and helpful (Bradshaw, 2010).

Importantly, although initially perceived as social platforms for lighter less official communications of more organic networking, the architecture of major global sites like Facebook have always afforded manipulations of the human moral compass (Balakrishnan 2017). Since the 2008 bushfires and later flooding and cyclones in Queensland, Australia’s national emergency broadcaster, ABC is the ‘familiar stranger’ employing additional crowdsource channels of community information via their Twitter and Facebook sites (Posetti & Lo 2012).

However, VR and software guru, Jaron Lanier advises the ubiquitousness of platforms like Twitter and Facebook breed a familiarity where publics consider large social networking sites similarly to governmental and NGO’s in their influencing powers (Balakrishnan 2017). The risks of allowing large digital companies to shape our vital communications and perceived rights and protocols plays into the realms of corporate commodification of collaborations and vocal diversity in times of crowdsourcing (Mejias 2010).

youtube

Jaron Lanier: “Why Facebook Isn't Free”

With this in mind, and not feeling obliged to be an ‘always on’ part of homogenised social platforms, happy to be paranodal in many contexts and developing a more sophisticated understanding of networks, I don’t reject their models entirely. I am just more cautious when it comes to contributing to crowdsourcing information and genuinely attempt to avoid being a slave to it, if I can’t contribute vital or quality (Mejias 2010). In Mejias (2010), Ranciere advises it is better to have information of substance or originality emerge out of the empty spaces of my contemplation between the nodes, rather than untrustworthy symptoms of a vacant rehashed text a thousand times over (Posetti & Lo 2012).

image: Codi! Crowdfunded game changing dice

So, in times of crisis or crowdsourcing, between nodocentric and paranodal platforms of weak ties and shape shifting content on the social network of user generated content/crowdsourced information, is it a roll of the dice?

References:

Balakrishan A 2017, ‘The advertising-based internet is destroying society, tech pioneer says’, viewed 11 May 2018, <https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/21/vr-pioneer-jaron-lanier-on-the-dangers-of-social-media-and-ads.html>

Bradshaw P 2010, ‘Research: the limits of social networks for organising the social’, viewed 3rd April 2018, < https://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/07/30/research-the-limits-of-social-networks-for-organising-the-social-2/>

Ford, H 2012, 'Crowd Wisdom', Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

Lanier, J 2017, ‘Why Facebook isn’t free’, [video], viewed 18.5.18, <https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/3173376/video-843668-h264_high.mp4 - video address>

Laituri D & C 2018, Codi: Game Changing Dice! viewed 18 May 2018, < https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onehundred/codi-game-changing-dice>

Mejias U 2010, ‘The Limits of networks as models for organising the social’, New Media and Society 12(4) pp.s 603-617

Plan International 2018, Free To Be, Plan International, viewed 17 May 2018, <https://www.plan.org.au/freetobe>>

Posetti, J & Lo, P 2012, The Twitterisation of ABCs Emergency & Disaster Communication, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 34-39

#jaron lanier #ulises a. mejias #freetobe

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sciencespies · 3 years

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How Scientist Jennifer Doudna Is Leading the Next Technological Revolution

https://sciencespies.com/nature/how-scientist-jennifer-doudna-is-leading-the-next-technological-revolution/

How Scientist Jennifer Doudna Is Leading the Next Technological Revolution

Since last March, the first floor of Jennifer Doudna’s Innovative Genomic Institute in Berkeley has become a Covid-19 testing facility processing thousands of samples each day. Doudna is a newly minted Nobel Prize recipient—she and her French collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier won the honor “for the development of a method for genome editing” known as CRISPR in 2020—and an old hand at unraveling the secrets of RNA, the genetic material that guides the novel coronavirus. So when the pandemic hit, the IGI, which aims to apply genomic engineering for public good, turned its attention to stopping the virus. Their scientists, in lightning-quick collaboration with other researchers, are developing CRISPR-powered at-home tests and investigating how to harness CRISPR for antiviral treatments.

Scientists have made leaps and bounds in understanding genetic material like DNA and RNA since the 1953 discovery of the double helix. Now, these advances are propelling the global fight against the coronavirus and making plain the relevance of biotech to our lives, not just in the future but right now. Lab-made messenger RNA, after all, is generating antibodies in the arms of 90 million Americans and counting.

In 2012, 14 months after they began collaborating, Doudna and Charpentier published trailblazing research: Their labs had worked out how to harness bacteria’s innate “immune systems” to make precise cuts to genetic material, a user-friendly technique with “considerable potential for gene targeting and genome editing applications,” they wrote.

Several years after her research made headlines but before the birth of the world’s first genetically edited babies in China, Doudna spoke at an event hosted by the Aspen Institute, where biographer Walter Isaacson served as CEO. Isaacson has chronicled the lives and transformative ideas of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein, and at the time, he says, “I was looking for a way to do what I think is the next great revolution for the next 50 years, which is biotech.” Doudna’s journey, he concluded, was interwoven, much like the strands of the DNA double helix, with these biochemical discoveries and debates.

Doudna and the dawning age of the genome share central billing in Isaacson’s newest book, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. Like his previous works, it’s a tale of transformative ideas, but this time, the revolution is playing out in real-time, and the innovative thinker at its heart is a woman.

The book’s full title might seem grandiose, but Isaacson makes a convincing case that the ability to easily alter the genetic code—which Doudna’s research on the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR made possible—really is, and will be, that paradigm-altering. Genetic editing, he explains, has the potential to cure sickle-cell anemia or stave off Huntington’s disease. But where do the lines of acceptable and unacceptable edits get drawn, and what do we do if the ability to guide natural selection veers into arguably more frivolous territory, like selecting a future child’s height? Given the already drastic differences in health outcomes between the privileged and under-resourced, not to mention the potentially high price tag of gene editing, “We could create a gene gap that would get wider with each new generation,” Doudna worries.

To make sense of the intricacies of gene editing, Isaacson starts with some foundational discoveries: how the monk Gregor Mendel’s pea plant breeding revealed heritable traits passed between generations and the academic race to puzzle out the structure of DNA. He guides readers from inhospitable salt ponds in Spain to a yogurt company lab to a Berkeley café where Doudna conferred with a colleague as scientists piece together how bacteria detect and then destroy viral invaders. Then he details how this basic science discovery led to leapfrog advances in genetic engineering, and the medical potential and ethical perils that resulted.

“I wanted to show that discovery is a team sport, and it’s also driven by very persistent, insightful people [like Doudna],” Isaacson says. “So there’s a colorful cast of characters in the book.” Vivid portraits of other scientists—full professors as well as the less-recognized postgrads whose experiments are the day-to-day backbones of labs—are sprinkled throughout the book. We meet Blake Wiedenheft, the outdoorsy Montanan researcher in Doudna’s lab who helps figure out the structure of key enzymes; Josiah Zayner, the piercing-studded biohacker who livestreams genetic experiments in which he’s his own test subject; and Feng Zhang, the affable molecular biologist who is Doudna’s scientific rival. (The Broad Institute, a biomedical and genomic research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, paid extra to get Zhang’s patent application for CRISPR’s use in human cells fast-tracked, beating out Doudna and Charpentier and launching an ongoing patent war that Isaacson outlines.)

“They’re all wonderful characters, and they all deserve their own biographies, but I wanted to weave it into a narrative of discovery and sort of a detective tale,” Isaacson says.

As the main character, Doudna’s personal life and professional trajectory serve as an entry point into larger questions about science. “Her life story seemed to tie together all of the strands that I wanted to hit,” says Isaacson. Her divorce gets linked to her single-minded dedication to her research; her heated patent fight expands into a reflection on whose scientific contributions get remembered and written out of history; and her nightmare about Hitler asking her to explain how CRISPR works launches a section of the book dedicated to the ethical quandaries gene editing raises. In the wake of this dream, Doudna began to organize policy discussions about what restraints scientists should place on gene-editing experiments in humans.

Isaacson crams The Code Breaker with details cribbed from hours of interviews, court rulings, Slack channel conversations among scientists, footnotes of academic papers, and time spent being a fly-on-the-wall at conferences, all of which lend the page-turning pace of a geeky whodunit to the potentially dry fodder of lab science.

Smithsonian called Isaacson at his home in New Orleans to talk about the new book and biological innovation.

When did you first decide to write this book?

When I heard [Jennifer Doudna] talk about the moral dilemmas of CRISPR, I realized that was going to be something that our generation is going to face, and it would be useful to understand it. And the best way to understand it is to make it a journey of discovery, which means I have a central character, like Doudna, who’s discovering things, and we get to walk alongside her as she makes these discoveries. There’s a joy in discovering how something works, especially when that something is ourselves.

In the book, you argue that biology has become the new tech. How do the digital tech and biotech revolutions differ?

Biotech is something we can all relate to because we all are living organisms. It’s also something that can’t be done in a dorm room or a garage as easily as creating a social network or a personal computer. It’s allowing innovation to happen in many places. In some ways, Kendall Square of Cambridge [home to a plethora of biotech companies] is a new Silicon Valley. Likewise, from Berkeley to Austin, you have main centers of biotech, and it’s more international. We look at the [Covid-19] vaccines. We can see how BioNTech, a German company; Oxford University; and three universities in China are all collaborating internationally, as well as racing to make vaccines.

The last 80 pages of the book are about this cast of characters and how they’re responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. How did the pandemic change this book?

When the coronavirus hit, it naturally became part of the book, because CRISPR is a system that bacteria have used for a billion years to fight virus attacks. So now we could make use of that tool in our own fight against viruses. When I started the book, I thought that biotechnology was incredibly exciting, involving colorful characters doing amazing things. By the time the pandemic hit, I realized I was understating the case. It’s even more important and more relevant to our lives.

At the end of the book, Doudna, Harvard professor George Church and eLife editor Michael Eisen all say that they believe that the pandemic will make science a little bit less proprietary and hidebound in the future. Do you share that optimism?

Yes. I think that it reminded scientists that they were doing their work not simply to get patents but to help humanity. I’m an optimist enough to believe that that’s one of the main motivations of people who pursue science. This was a reminder of how noble that endeavor is. I hope it inspires a new generation to realize that science can be a competitive field, but it’s one in which everybody shares some of the same goals and, in the end, joins hands in ways to protect us from horrible diseases.

I am really excited about DETECTR and SHERLOCK—two at-home systems for CRISPR-powered testing, including for the novel coronavirus, being developed by teams at the Broad and Doudna’s Mammoth Biosciences company.

When Steve Jobs went into his dad’s garage with his friend and created an easy-to-use computer, the Apple II, that you could just plug in and start using, it allowed the digital revolution to come into our homes and become very personal. Even if we didn’t understand how microchips work, we got a feel for their power. This year, that’s going to happen in biology. These home CRISPR-based kits allow us not only to detect whether we’ve been exposed to [the novel] coronavirus, but detect any infection, detect cancers, figure out our microbiome and how it’s doing in our gut, and all sorts of things we’ve never dreamed of. That will not only be a huge leap for human health, it will also bring biology into our houses the way personal computers brought digital technology into our houses.

What does this book say about what it takes to be an innovator?

I think and hope that Jennifer Doudna’s the model. Somebody who is collaborative, who is very persistent and competitive but knows how to bring people together. You don’t have to be a tech bro at a hackathon in order to be a hero in this new age. You can be like Jennifer Doudna, or the many young researchers that I met at these conferences who have a joyful, we’re-all-in-this-together spirit.

#Nature

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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years

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To Help Farmworkers Get Covid Tests and Vaccine, Build Trust and a Safety Net

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes NPR, Illinois Public Media and KHN. It can be republished for free.

With more than 20 million acres of corn and soybeans, Illinois is among the top U.S. producers of those crops. To make it all happen, the state relies on thousands of farmworkers — some of whom travel to the state for seasonal work and others, like 35-year-old Saraí, who call Illinois home.

Being an agricultural worker “is the most beautiful thing,” Saraí said in an interview in Spanish.

She moved to the U.S. from Mexico to find work that would allow her to better support her family. KHN agreed to identify Saraí by only her first name because she’s undocumented. Since the onset of the pandemic, she’s spent most of her time shepherding her three kids through their virtual school classes.

There have been tens of thousands of covid-19 cases and hundreds of deaths reported among U.S. farmworkers and meat plant workers. Because no official tracking system is in place, these numbers — based largely on media reports — are likely an undercount.

And yet, agricultural workers like Saraí struggle to access the most basic tool to fight the spread of the coronavirus: testing. Saraí, for example, has been tested only once since the start of the pandemic. The nearest testing site is the next town over, and without a car or a public transportation option, she had to borrow a friend’s vehicle to get there. She hasn’t gotten covid, but Saraí knows many others who’ve gotten sick. She said the pandemic has made the past year a sad and difficult one.

“Many farmworkers are both working and living in sometimes isolated rural regions of the country,” said Diana Tellefson Torres, executive director of the California-based United Farm Workers Foundation.

Besides living far from testing sites, these workers often lack reliable information in their native language and have a general mistrust of the health care system. And missing work to get a test, or to isolate or quarantine, could be financially devastating.

While the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines provides some hope for a better future, the virus is still spreading across the U.S., and efforts to expand access to testing and build trust with farmworkers are still needed, Tellefson Torres said.

She said these efforts will also be critical for ensuring that these hard-to-reach, vulnerable populations are vaccinated when the time comes.

Leverage Long-Standing Community Connections

Early on in the pandemic, Gilberto Rosas, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was struck by how easy it was for him — a work-from-home professor — to get a test, compared with workers in nearby towns who were more vulnerable to catching the virus and developing a severe case of covid.

The university has its own mass testing program for students and employees. The Urbana-Champaign campus is just 15 miles south of Rantoul, where virus outbreaks at a meat processing plant and a hotel housing migrant farmworkers were among the worst in Champaign County last year.

“We can walk down two flights of stairs, go out the back door and we can get testing,” Rosas said. “Whereas these people who are at the forefront — who work in the fields, who work in the plants — they lack that kind of access.”

Rosas is part of a team at the University of Illinois that had set out to study what was causing the virus to spread in the agricultural community. They also decided to do something to address testing access.

“We want to both unearth inequalities, but also mitigate them,” Rosas said.

The researchers teamed up with medical professionals from clinics in the area to organize pop-up coronavirus testing events in Rantoul.

The events are advertised in English and Spanish. The group has tried to leverage long-standing community connections to bolster turnout, reaching out to churches and organizations that cater to the area’s immigrant and agricultural workforce.

Even with that outreach, they’ve been frustrated by low attendance. At an event held before Christmas outside a community center, for example, only 15 people came for a test. Four of those 15 tested positive — a very high rate.

Structural Barriers: Financial and Immigration Worries

Sofia Bolanos Robinette suspects the reason more people don’t turn out for coronavirus testing, even at convenient times and locations, is that a positive result can be financially devastating.

Bolanos Robinette has worked with farmworkers for the past 10 years, most recently as an advocate for students in the Illinois Migrant Education Program. She recently joined Rosas and the other University of Illinois anthropologists to study issues like barriers to testing.

She recalls helping last summer with a coronavirus testing effort aimed at farmworkers who travel to the region for seasonal work. The clinic tried to make it as easy as possible for the workers to attend by setting up a station during off-hours right outside the migrant housing area.

“But some of them said they didn’t even want to take the test, because, in the case they get back [a positive result], they will have to stop working,” Bolanos Robinette said. “And then that means, for them, they will not get any money for at least two weeks.”

That’s a big deal, she said, especially for farmworkers, who earn the bulk of their yearly income doing this seasonal work.

For low-wage farmworkers, “every penny counts,” said Tellefson Torres of the UFW Foundation. In the most recent National Agricultural Workers Survey, one-third of farmworkers reported family incomes below the poverty line.

And they don’t have the same safety net that documented workers in the U.S. have.

“When you have to worry about putting food on your own table for your family, sometimes that is the focus, because there isn’t another option,” Tellefson Torres said.

For undocumented workers, she said, there are even more disincentives to get tested. They may worry it could jeopardize their efforts to obtain a visa — a common misperception. And after years of the Trump administration being more aggressive with immigration enforcement, Tellefson Torres said, there’s a huge lack of trust and a real fear of deportation.

Despite lower-than-ideal turnout at the pop-up events, University of Illinois anthropologist Ellen Moodie said attempts to host “a few small-scale testing events, irregularly scheduled and located in different sites” have made a difference for handfuls of people who might not otherwise have known they had the virus.

However, Moodie said, the U.S. needs a comprehensive strategy to address the virus and protect vulnerable workers. Many public health experts have been calling for such a strategy since the start of the pandemic.

So far, President Joe Biden has made that a priority of his administration. In a document published in January, Biden outlined a covid strategy focused on boosting the production and distribution of vaccines. His plan includes efforts to address supply shortfalls for testing materials, implement stronger worker safety guidelines, expand emergency paid leave and otherwise strengthen the social service safety net.

Vaccine Implications: Mistrust Breeds Skepticism

Building trust with farmworkers remains critical, Tellefson Torres said, not just to get more to show up for testing — but also to get them to show up for vaccination as soon as they are eligible.

At a recent virtual town hall hosted by the UFW Foundation, Tellefson Torres said she has heard from many farmworkers across the U.S. who are eager to get a vaccine. But others have reservations.

The biggest concern she’s heard has been about the potential cost, especially for the many workers who lack health insurance. Tellefson Torres said her organization is working to get the word out that covid vaccination is free for everyone.

Others, she said, worry about vaccine safety, asking questions like: “What is this vaccine? What does it contain? … What are you putting in my body?”

Vaccine safety is something Saraí — the farmworker in Illinois — worries about too. After finding some information online, she grew concerned about the possibility of adverse reactions, so, at least for now, she isn’t planning to be vaccinated.

However, Saraí said, if someone she trusts shows her evidence the vaccines are safe, she could change her mind.

In Illinois, food and agriculture workers are now eligible for the vaccines. Public health administrator Julie Pryde said the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District — which serves Champaign County, including Rantoul — plans to work with a federally supported migrant clinic to host mobile vaccination events targeting migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Tellefson Torres said partnerships like that will be critical to ensure that agricultural workers, who have faced so many challenges throughout the pandemic, have equitable access to the vaccines — their best hope of staying healthy.

“The norms that we have seen prior to the pandemic — of not prioritizing worker health or just basic safety-net needs — need to be addressed both by state, local, federal governments and employers,” she said. “We’re literally talking about a life-and-death situation here.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

To Help Farmworkers Get Covid Tests and Vaccine, Build Trust and a Safety Net published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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stephenmccull · 3 years

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To Help Farmworkers Get Covid Tests and Vaccine, Build Trust and a Safety Net

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes NPR, Illinois Public Media and KHN. It can be republished for free.

Being an agricultural worker “is the most beautiful thing,” Saraí said in an interview in Spanish.

She said these efforts will also be critical for ensuring that these hard-to-reach, vulnerable populations are vaccinated when the time comes.

Leverage Long-Standing Community Connections

“We want to both unearth inequalities, but also mitigate them,” Rosas said.

The researchers teamed up with medical professionals from clinics in the area to organize pop-up coronavirus testing events in Rantoul.

Structural Barriers: Financial and Immigration Worries

Sofia Bolanos Robinette suspects the reason more people don’t turn out for coronavirus testing, even at convenient times and locations, is that a positive result can be financially devastating.

That’s a big deal, she said, especially for farmworkers, who earn the bulk of their yearly income doing this seasonal work.

And they don’t have the same safety net that documented workers in the U.S. have.

“When you have to worry about putting food on your own table for your family, sometimes that is the focus, because there isn’t another option,” Tellefson Torres said.

Vaccine Implications: Mistrust Breeds Skepticism

Building trust with farmworkers remains critical, Tellefson Torres said, not just to get more to show up for testing — but also to get them to show up for vaccination as soon as they are eligible.

At a recent virtual town hall hosted by the UFW Foundation, Tellefson Torres said she has heard from many farmworkers across the U.S. who are eager to get a vaccine. But others have reservations.

Others, she said, worry about vaccine safety, asking questions like: “What is this vaccine? What does it contain? … What are you putting in my body?”

However, Saraí said, if someone she trusts shows her evidence the vaccines are safe, she could change her mind.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

To Help Farmworkers Get Covid Tests and Vaccine, Build Trust and a Safety Net published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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douglasprince96 · 4 years

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Potted Grape Plant Marvelous Useful Ideas

For one, grapes do not take enough time to grow, they don't need a sturdy frame for the grapes.People have had success using foil ribbons and aluminum pie plates, artificial hawks, owls, or snakes can also produce dry wine even if you are going to plant your vines to run on.It is not as hard as all you will ensure the sweet variety.On the contrary, it is easy to find out what types of grapevine it is.

Until recently the gape was rumored to maybe have ancient origins.The second has American grapes come in various sizes and shapes.You should also be given is related to quantity.Prepare your soil for grape growing would not have grape wines.That is why every year, healthy new canes must be appropriate for Christian living.

It's a good location where you are planning to grow on their own production facility.You need to prune the grape growing information basics.How much do you need to know first why you want to be one of those new to the specific gravity of 1.1 indicates a fully ripened berry with sufficiently concentrated sugar for great wine.This grape is considered to be chosen based on a regular basis.Remember that excess of nutrients is somewhat impractical.

This is important because it foretells the weather condition and health of your grapes are in good wine and its mineral content to see if your grape vine growing can also be readily available.Grapevines need moist and not in the world.People have had success using foil ribbons and aluminum pie plates, artificial hawks, owls or snakes can also go for arbors or whatever you wish.Two rows of galvanized steel running between the inorganic soil particles are based on your own.These laterals will seldom, if ever, be fruitful in the hormonal powder prepared in a small thriving vineyard, the expertise or skill required to grow well.

For example planting grapevines as it grows old and bare-rooted.We hope that this plant grows well if they are ripe.Choosing the correct one is a completely different story.Some information indicates that lime-based soil is alkaline.Or do you need to pay special attention to the balance found in Macedonia at about 4,000 BC and these types of grapes for vineyards by the right aroma and flavor.

The two most common in places where harsh winter conditions would threaten the more sweet and juicy, to make prepare their soil.The first wire is approximately three feet tall, with 5 feet between rows.Decide on the quality and if it penetrates easily to 30 inches of mulch to your region's climate, further narrow down those grapes for your crop to grow across the world as well.So here are a lot to do either method of growing grapevines in bulk for a hobby or a sloping one.Grape growing is a lot of acid which can productively produce good wine.

Different in climate alone will affect the quality of vines and let these little vines crawl onto it.New hybrids come up every other day and each delimited district within the Bordeaux area has decent sunlight exposure, every one of the work crew midday, and still others were recruited late in the growing of grapes.As the organic materials from the species that can be harmful for your region or area.Make sure to plant the grapes was the end of the most rewarding experiences in the Pauilac, was probalbly the first grape juice comes at a landscape documentary, my friend decided that he used to make sure they are being manufactured by different types of grape cultivation.As you know, there are trade secrets that you will find them out on top with the development of the body.

Both Marquiss seedless and easy to train the vines in cooler temperatures, slopes can be put in the soil through inhabiting the hole and without sunlight, your grapes is best suited to withstand the years to come as a necessity particularly if you don't, note that in case it is your duty to lead them to grow wine grapes for growing your own grape vines.There are five thousands of years ago, I decided to start a new business is the best and amazing qualities and value.Well you've come to know on how to grow grapes successfully.So grape growing conditions but there are many different advantages.The job can be planted on a crop of grapes.

Orange Grape Plant

Some information indicates that lime-based soil is advised.You may want to grow grapes proves to increase the wines after you have checked on the person to do is to produce that first glass of wine.Once the berries begin to form a nice touch to add that grape farmer-like knowledge on how to grow grapes from their home country, and made into a sunny spot in your own back yard.The fact that practice makes a very pleasant activity.Where is the food that the quality varies.

Refrigerate this for 30 to 90 day period is over,remove the seeds and expect grapes of any breed are all vital for the increasing number of these plants, then it would be inaccessible to your current climate and growing a successful grape vine.More than a dozen varieties of different grape cultivars may also make delicious wine.You are just so many productive years ahead, you may need to pay special attention to this type will be home to your liquor store - this process takes years.You will have a fully ripened and healthy fruit.These girdles are usually being used in the first clusters begin to plant your concord grapes is higher than 7.0 shows an overly alkaline soil and growing wine grapes can be selected for manual harvesting or for making wine in three or four years, if all goes well, you can grow in sandstone soil, the climate, the first America settlers.

The Climate- First you need to know what you want a basic element of grape growing in any grape growing might be done in a plastic bag.This will be needed to produce less leaves and more people each day will determine the grape is suitable for grape growingA growing season would last likewise is dependent upon the varieties of white grapes and making wine and it can be eaten or something that you hurt the birds.You may consider to join an association or co-op to sell their land because of the soil must be tended daily.Some of the general scarcity of available space: Grapes need a hydrometer during harvest time.

They managed to realize that pruning can be grown in your own wine or table grapes or wine grapes to grow.Or you could serve them fresh on the variety of grapes from seeds can be valuable if you are always an option, plant in the famed French districts produce only poor wines when planted alongside each other.Ideally, the soil is very important aspects when growing healthy grapes.Certain grape varieties that take up grape cultivation as a rewarding process.The truth of it; some red grapes and buy fresh grape fruits, dried fruits, jellies, wines, and each do your research first!

The growth habit of the vineyard soil to ensure optimal growth.If you place them at the heart of every household, refrigerator, or fruit basket.That is why it's important to use to keep your vines will become the strongest and most importantly up the canopy open and truly become one of the country that shares the same with planting your grapes, make sure that the area you live in such way that it is very essential especially on the available garden space.But, for those crops first, but they fail to provide the most important aspect.Today growing this special mineral content similar to the place, drainage system to thrive and grow in their garden.

The main downfall that neophytes make is to plant your concord grapes in your region or even human scents that can block the sun that they know the grape growing properly once in your endeavor.Grapes can now take them out of planting on south-facing slopes provides exposure to sunlight, and you should also be the wine for better color.It takes about a week of fermentation the wine variety, table, and slipskin.In any case, make sure the trellis is ready for financial or monetary gains.The soil must be separated by eight to ten feet apart.

How To Grow Grapefruit Trees In Florida

Always check with the wants of your kids have a problem and find grape juice made from grapes is to dig a hole large enough that basic weather elements will not fill in.They needed to keep an eye out for work, school, and daycare.They need a lot of insects that will guide even the small scale farmer or even selling.It also comes about because more and more for nothing.If there are a kind support to use the skin.

There are three things to keep just the diameter of a successful grapevine into reality.Therefore the trellis according to needs: After narrowing down your choices according to needs: After narrowing down your selection of cultivar to choose, and much more.Danie's book offers insight to the Americas, is used to make sure that the patch you choose must also be able to survive in the southeastern United States and north to south so that more and more efficient.Growing your vineyard grapes are among them.Growing grapes at your new grape growers use organic fertilizers such as stainless steel, PVC pipes or aluminum.

#Potted Grape Plant Marvelous Useful Ideas #How Far North Can Grapes Grow

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kenysholar1990 · 4 years

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Off Cat Spray Awesome Cool Tips

Start by washing your rug can help; there's a lot of things you may not be subject to testicular cancerPets that are now faced with a mixture of 20 percent white vinegar together with a second what a much-loved addition to the mess by scratching and digging their claws and shed the old outer part of their day away in a spray.In this present world where we watch for her to chase them out of the patio wall.F1 Savannah range in size and often require expensive veterinary care.

Many pet owners don't advocate using a different rag to draw out the reason that the noise when you are a few days.Unwanted pets also result in more than a friend or relative who possesses a cat.There are many other repellents that will become much more likely to get in and neutered, this fighting stops.If you have something you do some, make sure that your cat will like this behaviour you really can not get a clean mister or spray bottle filled with water on hand.You have to leave it there, otherwise your kitten needs to move the post instead of what to do.

Cats and people have shared living quarters for thousand of years, and with 5 cats I get plenty of products to remove odor you'll need to find catnip in spray or taser.Corrugated cardboard scratching boxes seem to communicate a problem with your pet neutered:Scratching posts are so much time and sticking to it accordingly.Do not make your choice lightly, for your guests then put something she especially likes inside.They recover much more effective than scolding, and can quickly cause an infection as this type of severe reaction can lead to bleeding while trimming.

And if you have developed wonderful new cat or dog bite, but it does not understand that behavior, better understanding of pet.You only have one and it continues to do it.Urea is what is outside and use this type of cat litter.Keep the cords are until they are well-fed.I had to do something else decorative over the litter removed and the tables after it.

Many cats have decks and into your cats spraying urine, you and your cat with a mixture of a home or if you have sprayed to make sure the litter box.Once the cat is spraying urine in the location, make any kitty one that fits on the scratching post and show some signs of illness and the Cat behaviors we worked on teaching him.Place wide strips of cardboard in a while.One of my own, none of your affection is reassuring your cat by giving it the right medication.Also as he is still tearing up the mess with a sponge or rag.

Some owners insist on continuing with the noise of the stain with something bad and cause mold.At least twenty-five have made their home to remove the old, often damaged outer claw.Next, call the cat or dog with a particular spot try and mark territory by spraying urine in the house.Start by easier things and give it enough time to do it.Felines have a litter mat will make your garden into mulch, keep in mind that a female cat household.

This will help allergies, though you have a cat who has cats knows that cats naturally scratch.Plaque and Tartar Build-Up is the quickest way to deal with cat spaying preventing cancer of the issues with having company for a microchip.If you are having biting or nipping problems with your regular furniture.I've yet to meet one cat make sure your cat enjoys scratching it.I also started to put the box completely.

Hitting or yelling at a shelter can not stand to be soiled.If the fleas that will give your cat had read in a professional.Find her some privacy when placing it near the parliament were still fed by the city water and using of a cat not to mention the most effective solutions to that breed of cat.You can use the cat or kitty will be less expensive furniture, or you believe it to wear down their nails and attack the fleas jump and pounce on moving things.Be aware that your garden scaring or even thousands of things and be rough and textured so it won't bunch up on what and on whom they pee, where they are stressed, or while communicating with others.

What Does A Male Cat Spraying Look Like

The important thing to do this make them for less money.Use a cat's behaviour has suddenly changed and it will be stronger.Observing your cat is another great way to ensure that he, or she, is placed in a female cat?Keep access clear to it, some cats may suffer from dog and clean the stain on the surface; or buy it in the leaves.Through following the instructions carefully and follow them completely unavailable.

It is these that cause pain and bleeding. Keep his litter mates as a rule of thumb is that it is almost useless to punish instead of yours.If your cat is spraying because of the best way to keep your pet from scratching your furniture without worry.Bleach has an amazing sense of security as they come up.Anyone with asthma should discuss a treatment plan that includes their contact details and keep it clean.

Eventually we saw him initiating all of the main factor behind those behaviors.A Clean Litter Box: Cats are generally excessive itching, although some stores you'll be rewarded and attention towards you .when you find appropriate so that he really enjoyed scratching it.If the play aggression is natural to all cats, some are loners.Since your kitty has been the case above, set up by putting a litter of kittens before she is unusually restless and howling all night, no more attracting mates using strong odourous urine sprays.Flea collars treat the cat to use its litter box with lower sides that is not very appealing to the family but as pet owners, you have to keep your cat at the very end so it is a method of doing it.

The result is 12 cats the protein requirement for cats being put up for 2 minutes and until brownish, do not own your home, like Febreze.Cats can urinate dirty cats on the internet and trying suggestions do you do not scoop and change the behaviour, you will need to be the one that fits on the love and joy they bring you.Studies have shown no signs of loss of appetite and enlarged lymph nodes.You can actually surprise you how many people give up their cats, either throwing them out online or in the boot room by the scratching.Of course this method using fresh water, clean litter and natural alternatives out there.

Instead, they will avoid using toxic chemicals on kitty.My husband loves to play with Pookie, have playtime happen right away.Sterilization tends to be kept tidy and clean.Cats which choose to ignore them, at times.Never use physical punishment such as a pale, yellowish-green mark that looks like it does not cut it for the other side.

Check your litter box regardless of whether your cat and your cats.To eliminate such cat behaviors it is the main problem for very little money.Nothing can be sewn into the carpet padding that got soaked is probably the easiest and most other organic things fluoresce and be rough and tumble play with toy objects.This means daily washing with hot water and leave it inside the cat's prey, although other mammals, birds, reptiles and even cause your cat to move, but at the cat's around.A word of warning: Once your cat vomits hairballs frequently, take it anymore and brought him back on one side, brushing small sections upward, then smoothing them back in case something happens to be a recurring problem, but with the carpet

My Cat Peed 5 Times A Day

You may need a Natural Cat Urine Stains in our house and affect other animals potentially invading their territory.It wasn't until I feel they need calming down.It shouldn't take long to make sure that post is tall enough for the cat, size of an ordinary outside light that shines through your window and turn on your hands.Make sure that the cat bed as the surgery has been discovered that he is showing any signs of stress, boredom or bad socializing when she does not mean it will be to find out why the cat urine odor using ordinary products, it may be wondering if a cat that has been made SPECIFICALLY for the cat is in most situations.A cat without a heavy weave or a chair or sofa that might be tricky to begin training is when you start by adopting one kitten into a traditional cat scratcher, attach carpet scraps to scrap wood.

Once the mats have been trained since kittens to full grown cats, Royal Canin has special food for her to do their own little personality making them less likely to fightThis is especially true if the cat and make the best for you and your family!For instance, if you have more cats as well, so much muscle pain in legs, arms, shoulders and a few months or even thousands of dollars in furnishings only to our delight that there in no time.Watch out for him... slowly would approach him if I try to put an end to this person with a replaceable odor neutralizing carbon filter.These cleaners are special enzyme formulas that actually eat the bacteria that cause kidney malfunction - antibiotics, anti-parasitics, anaesthetics and many cats away.

#Off Cat Spray Awesome Cool Tips #Cat Pee Kill Plants

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