England’s chief medical officer owned up to experts’ ignorance of psychology. If only others had been so candid in admitting their errorsIn 2002, Iain Duncan Smith notoriously declared: “Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.” It might...

Trump's Role in the Capitol Riot

Not long back, when the January 6th Committee was examining the reasons for the 2021 attack on the United States Capitol Building, its members connected to Stephen Reicher. Reicher is a social psychologist at the University of St Andrews, throughout the pond in Scotland, where he studies group habits by concentrating on, to name a few things, crowd action, political rhetoric, and nationwide…

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The Covid pandemic and government decision-making under stress

Viewing the people as the problem undermines the creation of positive social relations, trust and a sense of common purpose Photo: Fitzrovia News. Professor Stephen Reicher, social psychologist and a member of Independent Sage, will deliver a lecture at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre this month about the Covid pandemic and government decision-making. “The Covid-19 pandemic taught us about the…

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Retrospektive des Künstlers Robert Houle im National Museum of the American Indian

Die erste große Retrospektive des Künstlers Robert Houle wird im National Museum of the American Indian zu sehen sein

Ausstellung feiert mehr als 50 Jahre Werk des Künstlers   Das Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., eröffnet am 25. Mai die Ausstellung "Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful". Es ist die erste große Retrospektive des Werks von Robert Houle (Saulteaux Anishinaabe, Sandy Bay First Nation, geb. 1947) und deckt mehr als 50 Jahre seiner Karriere ab. Die Ausstellung, die von der Art Gallery of Ontario organisiert und von Wanda Nanibush (Anishinaabe-kwe, Beausoleil First Nation) kuratiert wird, ist bis zum 2. Juni 2024 zu sehen. Der Kolorist, der hauptsächlich in Öl arbeitet, hat in seinen Werken sein indigenes kulturelles Erbe mit der euro-amerikanischen Art und Weise, Kunst zu machen und darüber nachzudenken, zusammengebracht, was er "transkulturell" nennt. Die Ausstellung umfasst große Installationen, Gemälde, Videos, Mixed-Media-Skulpturen und Zeichnungen, die zwischen 1970 und 2021 entstanden sind.   Die Ausstellung ist in Themen unterteilt, die Hulles Arbeit zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten seiner Karriere näher beleuchten. Dazu gehören "Beyond History Painting", in dem Houle eine indigene Perspektive in historische Ereignisse einbringt, und "Sacred Geometry", in dem der Künstler modernistische Malerei und das Design seiner Vorfahren zu einem kraftvollen Ausdruck von Emotionen verschmilzt. In "Residential School Years" erforscht Houle seine Kindheitserinnerungen an das Trauma, das er in der Sandy Bay Residential School erlebte. Andere Themen befassen sich mit der Stammessouveränität und ihrer Verteidigung sowie mit dem spirituellen Erbe des Anishinaabe-Volkes. Einige der in der Ausstellung gezeigten Werke sind "Red is Beautiful" (1970), das Werk, nach dem die Ausstellung benannt ist; "Kanata" (1992), eine Neuinterpretation von Benjamin Wests berühmtem Gemälde "Der Tod von General Wolfe"; "Parfleches for the Last Supper" (1983), eine Gruppe von 13 Acrylbildern, die Jesus und seine Apostel darstellen; und "The Pines" (2002 bis 2004), das zur Unterstützung der Kanien'kehá: ka (Mohawk) zur Verteidigung von Kanehsatake, ihrem Stammesgebiet in der Nähe von Montreal. Katalog Zur Ausstellung erscheint der vollständig illustrierte Hardcover-Katalog "Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful". Er enthält Essays von Hules Nichte Ala Goodwill, Gerald Vizenor, Mark Cheetham, Michael Bell, Jessica Horton und Nanibush sowie intime Erinnerungen und Würdigungen von Künstlerkollegen wie WalkingStick, Duke Redbird, Jamelie Hassan, Ron Benner und Faye HeavyShield und den Kuratoren Penney und Stephen Borys. Der Katalog wird gemeinsam von der Art Gallery of Ontario und DelMonico Books/D.A.P. herausgegeben. Über das National Museum of the American Indian In Zusammenarbeit mit den indigenen Völkern und ihren Verbündeten fördert das National Museum of the American Indian eine reichere gemeinsame menschliche Erfahrung durch ein besseres Verständnis der indigenen Völker. Das Museum setzt sich für Gleichberechtigung und soziale Gerechtigkeit für die indigenen Völker der westlichen Hemisphäre ein, indem es Bildung, Inspiration und Empowerment vermittelt. An zwei Standorten bietet es Ausstellungen und Programme in New York City und an der National Mall in Washington, D.C. Weitere Informationen, einschließlich Öffnungszeiten und Wegbeschreibung, findest du unter AmericanIndian.si.edu. Folge dem Museum in den sozialen Medien auf Facebook, Twitter und Instagram. Über die Art Gallery of Ontario Die Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto ist eines der größten Kunstmuseen Nordamerikas und zieht jährlich etwa 1 Million Besucher an. Die mehr als 120.000 Kunstwerke umfassende Sammlung der AGO reicht von hochmoderner zeitgenössischer Kunst über bedeutende Werke indigener und kanadischer Künstler bis hin zu europäischen Meisterwerken. Die AGO präsentiert ein breit gefächertes Ausstellungs- und Programmangebot, darunter Einzelausstellungen und Ankäufe von verschiedenen und unterrepräsentierten Künstlern aus aller Welt. Die AGO hat sich verpflichtet, einladend und zugänglich zu sein: Der Eintritt ist für alle unter 25 Jahren kostenlos, und jeder kann eine Jahreskarte für 35 $ erwerben. Im Jahr 2022 begann die AGO mit der Planungsphase für ein Erweiterungsprojekt, das mehr Ausstellungsfläche für die wachsende moderne und zeitgenössische Sammlung des Museums bieten soll. Wenn die Bauarbeiten im Jahr 2024 beginnen, wird dies die siebte Erweiterung sein, die das AGO seit seiner Gründung im Jahr 1900 durchgeführt hat. Besuche AGO.ca, um mehr zu erfahren. Die AGO wird zum Teil vom Ministerium für Tourismus, Kultur und Sport der Provinz Ontario finanziert. Zusätzliche Unterstützung erhält die AGO von der Stadt Toronto, dem Canada Council for the Arts und großzügigen Beiträgen von AGO-Mitgliedern, Spendern und Partnern aus der Privatwirtschaft. Quelle: Smithsonian  Read the full article

Klimaschwindel: Die 5 größten Parasiten

erst schürt man Angst, um später gnadenlos abzukassieren. Motto: Reich mit dem Klima werden.

„Die Wegbereiter der grünen Revolution werden reicher“, konstatierte das US-Magazin Forbes. Das ist noch sehr freundlich ausgedrückt. Denn sie sind weder Wegbereiter noch Revolutionäre. Eher Geschäftemacher, die sich der richtigen Farbe verschrieben haben, nämlich grün. Wir entlarven die fünf größten Profiteure:

1. Robin Zeng

Der kometenhafte Aufstieg des Mannes aus Hongkong begann 2017 mit seinem Unternehmen Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). Heute gehört Zeng (Vermögen: 39,8 Mrd Dollar) zu den größten Produzenten von Batterien für Elektroautos weltweit. Auch BMW, Daimler und Volkswagen müssen auf CATL-Produkte setzen. Denn. „Peking drängt ausländische Firmen, die in dem Land E-Autos anbieten wollen, zum Einbau chinesischer Batterien“, so die Welt.

2. Aloys Wobben

Der 2021 verstorbene Unternehmer (5,8 Mrd Dollar) mit seiner Firma Enercon gehörte zu den Pionieren der Windkraft in Deutschland. „Zur Erhaltung der Schöpfung beizutragen, damit unser Planet bewohnbar bleibt, ist meine Mission.“, so Wobben zu Forbes. „Mr. Wind“ transferierte kurz vor seinem Ableben seine gesamten Anteile in eine Familienstiftung.

3. Stephen Fitzpatrick

Der in Nordirland geborene Unternehmer (1,5 Mrd Euro) gründete 2009 OVO Energy, obwohl er keinerlei Erfahrung in der Energiebranche hatte. Seinem Erfolg tat das keinen Abbruch: In kürzester Zeit machte Fitzpatrick seine Firma zu einem der großen Stromanbieter Großbritanniens. Allerdings sehr zwielichtig: 2020 musste OVO Energy Strafen in Höhe von umgerechnet 10 Millionen Euro wg. überhöhter Rechnungen zahlen.

4. Denis Swerdlow

Den Einstieg ins grüne Geschäft ermöglichte sich der in Georgien geborene russische Staatsbürger (1,4 Mrd Dollar) durch den Verkauf seiner Telekommunikationsfirma Yota im Jahr 2012. Sein Unternehmen Arrival fertigt Leichtbau-Fahrzeuge mit „null Emissionen“, die „preislich mit Diesel- und Benzin-getriebenen Fahrzeugen mithalten können“, wie Forbes erklärt.

5. Trevor Milton

Die Pläne des US-Amerikaners (1,4 Mrd Dollar) sind nicht gerade bescheiden: Laut einem Bericht der Welt plant er, tausende Wasserstoff-Lastwagen auf amerikanische Straßen zu bringen – und dazu „ein landesweites Netz aus Wasserstofftankstellen“ zu errichten. Doch schon Ende 2020 schied Milton aus dem Unternehmen aus. Es folgten mehrere Anklagen vor einem US-Bundesgericht wegen Betrugs & Irreführung.

Wir entlarven den Klima-Schwindel und zeigen, wie die grüne Energie die Kasse von Konzernen und Investoren füllt.

Saturday Stories: Pretending and Multiwave Pandemics

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/liberty-lockdown-covid-restrictions-government-neglect-freedom-1091022

Cop26 leaders blame individuals, while supporting a far more destructive system | Stephen Reicher | The Guardian

Most of us are sticking to the lockdown rules, so why do we blame one another? | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Ez is elég fontos. Például ahogy a segéllyel csaló nagyon kevés ember állandó mutogatása abszurd és embertelen szabályozáshoz vezet, vagy a nyugati országokban óriásira puffasztott terrorveszély is egy csomó irracionális és kontraproduktív intézkedést hozott, úgy ez a percepciós hiba is rettenetes következményekkel járhat. Valószínűleg már késő változtatni az irányon, pedig jó lenne.

Life Will Change: Persona’s Call to Protest

Right before your eyes Watch us multiply Come to claim our rights It’s time

Whenever there’s a push towards societal progression, there’s inevitably a push against it from The Privileged. When we take to the streets to ask “hey, can we have cops kill less black people?”, there’s another faction that does everything in their power to pretend it isn’t an issue. When we ask for universal healthcare like every other industrialized country, conservatives decide it’s better to let poor people die than pay for their treatment. If LGBTQ+ people simply exist, the right finds any opportunity to kick us down. When you have all the privilege in the world, equality feels like oppression. No rights have ever been gained through civility.

For lack of any good segue, let’s talk about Persona 5: I’ve never played it. I’m a college student, does it look like I have a hundred hours to do something fun? What I have done is listen to the soundtrack. It slaps. And by far my favorite song is Life Will Change, composed by Shoji Meguro and sung by Lyn Inaizumi. I don’t know enough to talk about the song in the context of the game, but it stands well enough on its own to be worth talking about.

And our voices ring out, yeah

A protest is about being heard. You go into the streets and combine your voices into one and you don’t stop until people can’t ignore you. You find solidarity with your compatriots and your voices, and the power comes from volume. Life Will Change delivers this image uniquely well, by having lyrics from the perspective of a single speaker and a group of speakers:

I’m not a Phantom I’m in your face and I’m here to see it through

As our power grows Tryin' to stop us shows Might as well go try and Stop time

By switching viewpoints, Life Will Change delivers the perspective of both an individual hungering for change and the group that allows them to achieve it. This also gives an interesting look into crowd psychology, whether intentional or not. People think differently within a group, more likely to follow the crowd and make decisions they normally wouldn’t, good or bad. By starting with an “I” viewpoint and moving to a “we” viewpoint, Life Will Change encompasses the shift that joining a protest creates in people.

I'm just as real as I'm just as dangerous

Protests are fundamentally against something. Against the police, the military, the upper class. We protest because someone is doing something immoral and we want 1) someone to know about it and 2) to make it stop. It’s pointed, directed, and the song gives this impression well. Every single verse is directed towards an unfriendly target, promising that the protestors will get their way and their foe will be defeated.

And you'll know that we're out there Swatting lies in the making Your empire for the taking Can't hold on or life won't change

Most importantly, Life Will Change promises hope. Protests happen because something in the world is broken, but they also happen because everyone who shows up believes it can be changed. The song isn’t just about taking action, it’s about taking action and fixing things. Life will change if you keep fighting and keep making noise. It’s full of volume, unity, and hope, and that’s everything I want in a song that tells me to keep fighting.

Sources:

“How to Pretend Systemic Racism Doesn’t Exist”, Some More News, youtube.com

“Debunking Trump on LGBT Rights”, Renegade Cut, youtube.com

“Stephen Reicher on Crowd Psychology”, socialsciencespace

Music, in order:

Life Will Change from the Persona 5 soundtrack

Life Will Change cover by RichaadEB and Caleb Hyles

Life Will Change cover by Little V Mills

Life Will Change instrumental cover by FamilyJules

Life Will Change cover by Johnny Atma ft Sapphire & Sax Dragon

Life Will Change jazz cover by Insaneintherain

A fascinating dive into the Stanford Prison Experiment.

“Much of the meeting was conducted by David Jaffe, the undergraduate student serving as “Warden,” whose foundational contribution to the experiment Zimbardo has long underplayed. Jaffe and a few fellow students had actually cooked up the idea of a simulated prison themselves three months earlier, in response to an open-ended assignment in an undergraduate class taught by Zimbardo. Jaffe cast some of his dormmates in Toyon Hall as prisoners and some as guards and came up with 15 draconian prison rules for his guards to enforce, including “Prisoners must address each other by number only,” “Prisoners must never refer to their condition as an ‘experiment’ or a ‘simulation,” and “Failure to obey any of the above rules may result in punishment.” Zimbardo was so taken with the tears and drama produced by Jaffe’s two-day simulation that he decided to try it himself, this time randomly assigning guards and prisoners and dragging the action on much longer. Because Zimbardo himself had never visited a real prison, the standards of realism were defined by Jaffe’s prison research and the nightmarish recollections of Carlo Prescott, a San Quentin parolee whom Zimbardo met through Jaffe and brought in as a consultant. Jaffe was given extraordinary leeway in shaping the Stanford prison experiment in order to replicate his previous results. “Dr. Zimbardo suggested that the most difficult problem would be to get the guards to behave like guards,” Jaffe wrote in a post-experiment evaluation. “I was asked to suggest tactics based on my previous experience as master sadist. … I was given the responsibility of trying to elicit ‘tough-guard’ behavior.” Though Zimbardo has often stated that the guards devised their own rules, in fact most of them were copied directly from Jaffe’s class assignment during that Saturday orientation meeting. Jaffe also offered the guards ideas for hassling the prisoners, including forcing them to clean thorns out of dirty blankets that had been thrown in the weeds.

Once the simulation got underway, Jaffe explicitly corrected guards who weren’t acting tough enough, fostering exactly the pathological behavior that Zimbardo would later claim had arisen organically.

[...]

According to Alex Haslam and Stephen Reicher, psychologists who co-directed an attempted replication of the Stanford prison experiment in Great Britain in 2001, a critical factor in making people commit atrocities is a leader assuring them that they are acting in the service of a higher moral cause with which they identify — for instance, scientific progress or prison reform. We have been taught that guards abused prisoners in the Stanford prison experiment because of the power of their roles, but Haslam and Reicher argue that their behavior arose instead from their identification with the experimenters, which Jaffe and Zimbardo encouraged at every turn. Eshleman, who described himself on an intake questionnaire as a “scientist at heart,” may have identified more powerfully than anyone, but Jaffe himself put it well in his self-evaluation: “I am startled by the ease with which I could turn off my sensitivity and concern for others for ‘a good cause.’””

Covid restrictions ‘similar to lockdown’ needed to reduce hospitalisations in UK

Restrictions “similar in scale to the national lockdown” are needed to keep hospital admissions from coronavirus below previous peaks, experts warned on Saturday.

Amid high numbers of cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, documents released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) revealed the bleak picture painted by advisers throughout December as the threat from the strain rose.

Advice included that indoor mixing is the “biggest risk factor” for the spread of the variant of coronavirus, and that large gatherings risked creating “multiple spreading events”.

The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) said in documents released on Saturday but dated 8 December that in almost all modelling “a significant reduction in transmission (similar in scale to the national lockdown implemented in January 2021 and the ‘pingdemic’ in July 2021) is required to keep hospitalisations below the height of previous peaks.”

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The advice from 10 days ago adds: “Earlier intervention also reduces the wave of hospitalisations.”

Minutes from a Sage meeting on Thursday said stricter measures could be needed, including “reducing group sizes, increasing physical distancing, reducing duration of contacts and closing high-risk premises”.

The experts warned that even if transmission rates were reduced, hospital admission levels were likely to be between 1,000 and 2,000 a day in England by the end of the year.

And modelling showed that if ministers stuck to the current plan B measures, there would be a peak of 3,000 a day.

It comes as the number of deaths in England of people with the Omicron variant has risen to seven, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said, from the previous figure of one.

Hospital admissions in England for people with confirmed or suspected Omicron rose to 85, from 65.

The UKHSA said there had been 10,059 additional confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 reported across the UK.

This brings the total confirmed cases of the variant in the UK to 24,968.

The Sage documents said: “Some scenarios have significantly worse outcomes during the first few months of 2022 but there are many uncertainties.”

And the ramping up of the booster programme would not help, as many of those admissions would be those who are infected now.

They warned that delaying introducing stricter measures until 2022 would “greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings”.

It comes after reports that officials had drawn up plans for a two-week circuit breaker lockdown after Christmas.

The Liberal Democrats have called for parliament to be recalled on Monday to debate the next steps.

Party leader Sir Ed Davey said: “We cannot allow the prime minister to sit on his hands while the NHS and businesses are on the brink of collapse.

“Ministers must explain the latest scientific advice to MPs and ensure a proper debate over future Covid measures, including support to help businesses through this increasingly difficult period.”

Earlier Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews and member of Sage, said it was clear that plan B measures alone would not be enough to stop the spiralling numbers of cases.

Prof Reicher, who was speaking to Times Radio in a personal capacity, said the time to act was now.

Reicher said: “The only way really, or at least the most effective way, we can have an immediate effect is to decrease the number of contacts we have.

“In many ways, the most effective way of diminishing contact is to have a circuit-breaker.

“Now, you could have it after Christmas; the problem is after Christmas it’s probably too late, it’s probably by then we will have had a huge surge of infections with all the impact upon society.

“When people say ‘look, we don’t want to close down’: of course, we don’t want to close down.

“But the problem is at the moment things are closing down anyway, because of the spread of infection. So I think we need to act now.”

A government spokesperson said: “The government will continue to look closely at all the emerging data and we’ll keep our measures under review as we learn more about this variant.”

Cabinet ministers received a briefing on Saturday on the latest situation regarding the Omicron variant.

There was no meeting of the cabinet or further discussion, but ministers were given an update on the data surrounding the variant.

A Cobra meeting will be held over the weekend with the devolved nations.

A further 90,418 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, the government said.

A further 125 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 172,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Meanwhile the World Health Organization said the Omicron variant had been identified in 89 countries as of Thursday and had a doubling time of between 1.5 and three days.

It said data is still limited on the severity of the strain, but added: “Given rapidly increasing case counts, it is possible that many healthcare systems may become quickly overwhelmed.”

Scrapping travel testing system ‘risks importing new Covid variants’

Scrapping travel testing system ‘risks importing new Covid variants’

Professor Stephen Reicher said the system should have been ‘improved’ rather than ‘abandoned’ (Picture: Reuters/Getty) The decision to ‘abandon’ the testing system for international travel will increase the risk of importing new coronavirus cases and variants, a top scientist advising the Government has said. Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on…

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