Put Down the Phone, Catch Better Zzzzs with Michael Grandner – University of Arizona

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Michael Grandner, PhD, MTR, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson, is a social media juggernaut when it comes to healthy sleep and the behaviors behind sleep disorders.

His online profile, cultivated largely on Twitter, caught the attention of producers who were filming a documentary on sleep. Dr. Grandner is featured in The Quest for Sleep, which will be screened at The Loft Cinema in Tucson on Aug. 21.

Social media use before bedtime can be one reason people lose sleep. Dr. Grandner knows moderation is key.

Social media isnt there to calm you, he said. Its there to sell you stuff, distract you and keep you engaged. What often happens is people get all worked up and mentally engaged, where they then have to detach and wind down. That mental activation becomes as much a barrier to sleep, or more, as light. And distraction in itself causes a lost sense of the passage of time.

Fear of missing out, or FOMO, can drive social media engagement and often leads to excess screen time that contributes to poor sleep. Thats due to artificial light from electronic devices, mental activation and a lost sense of time that screens engender.

You should not look at sleep as a cost of time. You should see your sleep as your commute to tomorrow.Michael Grandner, PhD, MTR

Pace yourself, and set limits on how much time youll spend online and when youll stop, said Dr. Grandner, who is an associate professor, BIO5 Institute member and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at Banner University Medical Center Tucson. Ironically, some smart phones track and inform you of your screen time, allowing you to do just that. Fitness watches that connect to your phone will allow you to track the quality of your sleep.

Even so, Dr. Grandner says, he struggles with screen-time limits for his two sons, ages 13 and 10.

Theyre both pretty good sleepers, he said. But thats because they know what to do. In our house, there are rules around sleep. We have a routine. We turn the lights down at a certain time. Sneaking screens is a perennial battle, but thats their generation. For me, the only time we could sneak screens was Saturday morning for cartoons.

Dr. Grandner was born in New York City and as a child moved to Pine Valley, a rural hamlet near Ithaca, south of New Yorks Finger Lakes area. The experience of moving from the multicultural melting pot of the city to the country, where his family bought a house next to a dairy farm, broadened his perspective and enhanced his insights as a psychologist, he said. His career in sleep health began as a fascination with dreams in high school.

I got very interested in dreams as a way to understand things we cant understand when were awake. I would read books on dream interpretation, which got me into knowing a little bit about sleep science. The idea of that as a career, though, was not even on my radar yet.

Dr. Grandner, who played piano and guitar, initially wanted to major in music composition at the University of Rochester but switched to psychology his sophomore year. Then, a classmate got a job as a tech in a sleep lab at the medical school.

My reaction was, Wait we have a sleep lab on campus? Like, this is a thing? Why did I not know this?

He signed up for a class on sleep and dreams with Michael Perlis, PhD, a behavioral specialist in sleep health who became one of his mentors and one of the biggest names in the field of insomnia research. A UArizona graduate, Dr. Perlis studied in Tucson under Dick Bootzin, PhD, a psychologist and renowned pioneer in sleep and sleep disorders research. Dr. Bootzin, along with Stuart Quan, MD, a former UArizona pulmonologist and professor emeritus whos now the Gerald E. McGinnis Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, established UArizona as a powerhouse in sleep health research.

Dr. Grandner worked in Dr. Perlis lab prior to graduating, then did his masters and doctoral work in psychology at San Diego State University and University of California San Diego. He reconnected with Dr. Perlis as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. There, Dr. Grandner earned a second masters degree, this one in translational research, under Allan Pack, MBChB, PhD, who launched the countrys first division of sleep medicine and grew it to become one of the largest sleep research programs in the world. Dr. Perlis arrived at Penn the same year, and he and Dr. Grandner remain collaborators today.

This is where my connections to UArizona started, Dr. Grandner said. The other connection his wife is from southern Arizona made it natural for him to apply at UArizona when looking for a faculty position in 2015.

When it comes to sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Grandner said the biggest impact came at the start, when most people stayed up later and woke up later during lockdowns. Schedule disruptions and less natural light exposure threw off many peoples circadian rhythms, affecting their sleep. Flexible time, work-from-home and hybrid schedules allowed people more sleep time that otherwise would go to the morning office commute, he added.

Weve found people can do all kinds of things remotely and more flexibly. And that way, we can protect natural sleep patterns, Dr. Grandner said, referring to related American Academy of Sleep Medicine- and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded research he participated in. Some people commute a long time in the morning and some dont have to, and being flexible about some of these things is great.

Many sleep issues, which are often tied to ongoing, persistent health issues, could be overcome by better sleep routines and sleep plans, he said.

People think about going to bed as, How much time do I have left in my day to devote to sleep before tomorrow? How much do I have left to do to be able to put everything down so I can be done? And that is the wrong way to look at it, Dr. Grandner said. You should not look at sleep as a cost of time. You should see your sleep as your commute to tomorrow. We should be thinking of sleep as an investment in our performance the next day.

And, he added, remember to relax. Take a deep breath. Exhale.

Nobody got to sleep faster by trying harder.

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Put Down the Phone, Catch Better Zzzzs with Michael Grandner - University of Arizona

Oklahoma history: Why the Tribes sided with the Confederacy – Norman Transcript

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When it was all over, about one-third of the women of the territory were widows, and 14% of children were orphans.

Why did the Native American tribes even care about the great conflict, which took hundreds of thousands of lives in the North and South? It had little to do with the issues like the tariff and slavery that led to the secession of 11 southern states and then to the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln moved to bring the seceding states back into the Union by military force.

There were few slaveowners in Indian Territory probably 1% and while they no doubt held much greater influence over tribal government than the average member of their tribes, it is doubtful that they viewed the conflict as having anything to do with the institution of slavery within their borders.

Actually, there were multiple reasons tribal governments cast their lot with the Confederate States of America.

First of all, most Indian agents were southerners, and they no doubt influenced tribal leaders to side with the South. Albert Pike was commissioned by the Confederate government to make treaties, and he was very successful.

After the mostly southern agents resigned, the newly-appointed agents remained in Kansas, wary of going south into Indian Territory. They would have no protection, as federal troops had pulled out of the seven federal forts that had been established to keep the peace between the Five Civilized Tribes to the east and the Plains Indian tribes to the west.

Other than Kansas, Indian Territory was bordered by southern states Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Although Missouri was officially still in the Union, southwestern Missouri was very sympathetic to the Confederate cause.

The Five Tribes Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole had come from the southeast, and the cultural ties were still quite strong.

While the Five Tribes had been removed from the southeast a generation earlier, at the behest of the white population of that region, it had been the federal government that actually carried out the removals.

And then there was William Seward, the campaign manager and eventually the secretary of state for the new president, Abraham Lincoln. When Seward was making his own bid for president in 1860, he had vowed to open Indian Territory to white settlement and the tribes, who followed national politics, knew it.

Finally, the Confederates promised to honor Union treaties.

For the Confederacy, the advantage of an alliance was clear: the territory was a source of grain, meat and lead and salt mines. It would also provide a buffer between Union Kansas and Confederate Texas.

In that regard, the tribes fulfilled their part of the agreements, as Union forces were never able to make it to Texas.

Steve Byas teaches Oklahoma History at Randall University in Moore, and lives in Norman.

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Oklahoma history: Why the Tribes sided with the Confederacy - Norman Transcript

US Army division to keep patch referencing the Confederate Army – Fox News

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The U.S. Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Division is keeping its patch that honors service in the Confederate Army.

"We applaud the decision of the Naming Commission to recommend the 29th Infantry Division patch symbol remain unchanged, and the Virginia National Guard will work with the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry on any appropriate modifications to the descriptive language," Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the adjutant general of Virginia, said in a press release Monday.

The decision comes as a congressional commission established to remove references to the Confederacy from the military put the 29th Infantry Division up for review and potential retirement in December, according to Military.com. But the unit's leaders strongly opposed the retirement of the patch. Williams argued that the patch represented the division's rich history.

"We are currently preparing historical documentation and letters of support to educate the Commission about the importance of 29th ID patch," Williams said in a statement at the time. "We want them to understand what it means to the thousands of veterans who have worn the patch in service to our country, as well as how it serves as a symbol of liberation to our Allies in France."

PENTAGON MOVES FORWARD WITH RENAMING OF BASES HONORING CONFEDERATE LEADERS

Members of the 29th Infantry Division stand in formation holding a guidon with the division patch. (29th Infantry Division)

The patch, introduced during World War I, is a blue and gray yin and yang that references the merger of the Union and Confederate units after the Civil War. The division is headquartered in Virginia, but has formations in the Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and Florida National Guards.

The 29th Infantry Division wore that patch when its soldiers stormed the beaches of Nazi-occupied Normandy, France, in 1944, becoming one of the military's most legendary units for its actions on D-Day.

But that symbol was put at risk by the commission, whose focus has mostly been on renaming military posts named after Confederate leaders such as Fort Lee, Virginia.

"Heraldry is indeed part of the Naming Commission's review, which includes patches such as the 29th Infantry Division patch. This is part of the commission's duty," a spokesperson for the commission told Military.com in December.

Members of the U.S. Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Division take part in ceremonies on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. (29th Infantry Division)

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Instead of doing away with the patch altogether, the commission recommended removing the references to service in the Confederate Army from the description of the patch.

"The Commission believes that identifying the symbol of the 29th Infantry Division patch as a Confederate symbol is a subjective determination," a spokesperson for the commission said Monday.

Williams welcomed that decision, saying that the division would take the opportunity to honor its history of service since WWI.

Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams of the Army National Guard (Army National Guard)

"This is an opportunity for us to update the heraldry description to reflect not just the 29th's remarkable service in World War I and World War II, but also through the Cold War and over the last 20 plus years in the Global War on Terror," Williams said.

Michael Lee is a writer at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee

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US Army division to keep patch referencing the Confederate Army - Fox News

62nd N.C. infantry: The remnant who fought on – The Mountaineer

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Fourth in a series on the 62nd N.C. Infantry, which organized in Waynesville 160 years ago this month

The history of the N.C. 62nd Infantry, dismal as it was, would be even more so were it not for a remnant who escaped surrender at Cumberland Gap, to fight another day.

This remnant would endure to the end of the war, facing off in the Battle of Asheville in April of 1865 and then heading for Waynesville for a very different kind of surrender than the one demanded at Cumberland Gap.

The unit had formed in July of 1862, a month after Robert G.A. Love had advertised the plans to create another infantry unit for the Confederacy, one comprised of men from Western North Carolina. Those who joined came from Rutherford, Clay, Macon, Jackson, Henderson and Transylvania counties as well as Haywood, with Haywood men comprising four of the 62nds nine companies. These men had fought Union sympathizers, bushwhackers and Union soldiers in eastern Tennessee and had guarded Cumberland Gap against Union siege until Brig. Gen. John Frazer surrendered his 2,300 Confederates to Gen. Ambrose Burnsides army without a fight on Sept. 9, 1863.

But another portion, about 180 men, chose to go with their field commander at the time, Col. Byron Gibbs McDowell, who had told Frazer he would not surrender. McDowell, a Macon County native, called up the men of 62nd and invited them to join him in making a run for their lives. About 180 of his men were among the 300 to 600 at Cumberland who defied the order to surrender.

While most of their comrades starved, sickened and suffered as prisoners of war, this 180 would keep the adventures and the military activity of the 62nd alive. Their first challenge was to escape Union-held territory and return across the mountains into North Carolina, which was still held by the Confederacy. According to McDowells account, all of those who refused to surrender started out together.

In all about 600 responded, and led by Colonel Slemp and a man from Abingdon, Virginia, whose name was Page, as I remember, both of whom were perfectly familiar with the country, we moved out of the Gap, eastward, passing Kains Battery (a fortified point high on nearby East Mountain) and pushing one rifle piece over the cliff as we went along, McDowell later wrote.

We made our way along the north side of the mountain, on the Kentucky side, until we reached a point opposite Jonesville, where we encountered a pursuing force of Federal cavalry.

Our entire escaping force had kept their guns and ammunition, expecting a collision as we went out, and being thus prepared, an immediate dash was made by our men. Having the decided advantage of position, we forced the Federal cavalry to retire and were permitted to pass on, the Federals returning to the Gap, after burning the little town of Jonesville, in Lee county, Virginia, We made our way to Bristol, Tennessee, and Zollicoffer (a town now known as Bluff City), and I at once reported the surrender to Major C. S. Stringfellow, Adjutant-General, and awaited further orders from the General commanding.

With all the disasters surrounding the 62nd, McDowell found time for romance. His biographical sketch states that during the war Major McDowell met Miss Margaret Rhea near Bristol, Tennessee. They were married at Bluff City, Tennessee. Their first encounter may well have taken place at the time McDowell describes, as his remnant retreated into Confederate held territory in that area.

At some point after reaching Confederate-held territory, McDowell and his fellow soldiers returned to North Carolina.

After the surrender of Cumberland Gap, the men of the Sixty-second Regiment who were at home on furlough, and all those who escaped capture went into camp at Pigeon River, in Haywood County, N.C., McDowell wrote. After remaining there for a few days, they entered again into active service and never for one moment flinched from any duty assigned them, nor from constant danger to which they were exposed, to the end of the war.

By April 1864, seven months after the Cumberland Gap surrender, the escaped portion of the 62nd was stationed at Asheville. Its numbers would fluctuate from the time of the surrender until the end of the war like many Confederate soldiers, those in the 62nd were embittered by what seemed to be a rich mans war, and being so near their homes, some would slip off for a time to care for their families. At one time, one officer recommended the 62nd and 64th be sent to Charleston for service, as they would never be efficient so near their homes. That did not happen.

Meanwhile, the organizer of the unit, Col. R.G.A. Love, who had battled ill health throughout the war, became too ill to continue, and resigned as colonel of the regiment. George W. Clayton was promoted to colonel, and McDowell became the units lieutenant colonel. Asbury Thornton Rogers, from Upper Crabtree, was promoted to major, though Rogers was in a prisoner of war camp apparently his superiors thought he might be included in an officer exchange, though that did not take place.

This remnant went back and forth across the Tennessee-North Carolina line, much as it had done in its early days, fighting in the divided mountain regions against both Union forces and sympathizers with the North, not to mention deserters from both armies.

In March 1865, those left of the 62nd went under the command of Gen. James Martin, who was the Confederate commander in charge of troop movements in Western North Carolina. At times, some of their companies would be stationed at camps along the Pigeon or Tuckaseegee rivers, or even on Spring Creek in Madison County. As part of Martins forces, some of these men would see one more battle, followed by one last skirmish.

On April 6, 1865, Col. Isaac Kirby led 900 Union troops from Greeneville, Tenn. into Asheville, coming along the French Broad River Valley. Gen. Martin was not in the area, having taken some of the 62nds troops and gone off in pursuit of Union raider Col. George W. Kirk. Col. Clayton, the lead officer for the 62nd, gathered what troops he could, probably about 300 men, and they hunkered down with two cannons behind earthworks constructed along the river.

It was, in reality, a bluff. But the earthworks and trenches, combined with the cannon fire, may have convinced Kirby that he was facing a large force. He ordered a retreat, rather than trying to take the city. The historical marker in Asheville commemorating the battle credits the victory in which the only death was that of a Union soldier who reportedly drowned in the river to the forces under Claytons command.

For Asheville, the Kirbys retreat was a reprieve rather than a victory, for two weeks later Maj. Gen. George Stoneman moved through Asheville. Despite an agreement that the Union forces would march unchallenged and leave the city unattacked, Stonemans forces later turned back and pillaged the city.

After witnessing Stonemans treatment of Asheville and its citizens, Gen. Martin and his men, likely including that remnant of the 62nd, retreated westward, where they would meet up with William Holland Thomas and about 200 members of Thomas Legion. There, Thomas and Martin would negotiate a surrender that would allow their troops to keep their weapons as well as protect Waynesville from the ravages that had befallen Asheville.

A few of the members of the 62nd who had escaped the surrender at Cumberland Gap likely witnessed the last surrender of Confederate forces in North Carolina. But this surrender was different Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia the month before, and leaders recognized that the Civil War was practically over. This time, the men left fighting for the 62nd could accept the terms of surrender, knowing their next destination was not a prison camp, but home.

The men of this regiment were the very last men to lay doawn their arms, McDowell wrote. No braver or more noble hearted men ever lived than those composing the Sixty-second North Carolina Regiment of Infantry.

Sources for this story include the websites thomaslegion.net, which includes the history of the 62nd by B.G. McDowell and carolana.com: North Carolina in the American Civil War.

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62nd N.C. infantry: The remnant who fought on - The Mountaineer

Confederate flag spurs Olmsted County rental change, but commissioners don’t see need for further action – Rochester Post Bulletin

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ROCHESTER A pair of Olmsted County commissioners said a specific policy targeting hate symbols on county property is not needed.

I dont want to be the morality police, County Board Chairman Mark Thein said Tuesday morning, citing concerns about a potential policy becoming overly broad.

The issue was raised following a 2021 complaint about a flea market vendor who was displaying a confederate flag at Graham Park.

The complaint spurred a review by the countys ethics committee, which recommended changes to county rental agreements, posting of signs stating the county doesnt support all vendors actions and consideration of a policy opposing hate symbols.

The committee referred to Red Wings recent adoption of a proclamation against hate symbols as an example of what the county could do.

The Red Wing City Council, while citing First Amendment rights, unanimously adopted a resolution on Aug. 9, 2021, denouncing the display of hate symbols on public property. It pointed to Confederate flags, neo-Nazi imagery and symbols of white supremacy as hate symbols that elicit fear and create pain for many people, especially those in vulnerable communities.

On Tuesday, County Administrator Heidi Welsch said a similar resolution by county commissioners would support the countys One Olmsted effort, which seeks to promote community diversity and inclusion.

At the same time, she acknowledged the issue comes with legal concerns.

It presents an ethical question, she said.

First Assistant County Attorney Brent Walz, who sits on the countys ethics committee, said laws about what can be banned from government property vary, based on the type of property.

Minority viewpoints can be expressed on courthouse steps with essentially no restrictions, other than you cant incite violence or you cant be obscene, generally speaking, he said. People displaying what most people would consider symbols of hate on the courthouse steps or in a parade, you cant really regulate that.

The county could place added restrictions in Graham Park and other areas that are routinely rented for private use.

We are looking at where those lines are drawn, he said, pointing out the county already restricts what can be displayed on its electronic billboard in Graham Park.

County Commissioner Gregg Wright said he worries about the potential for a lawsuit, if further restrictions are implemented, especially without clear definitions.

Its a long and winding road, he said, pointing to a willingness to allow added discussion, but stopped short of directing staff to do further work on the issue, unless another concern is raised.

Wright and Thein were serving as the county commissioners administrative committee in reviewing the issue. While saying a resolution is not needed, both supported efforts to draw a line to show a vendors actions arent necessarily endorsed by the county.

Welsch said county staff has already taken steps to adopt changes for county rental agreements, pointing out that the county doesnt endorse all statements, symbols and actions of the people renting public spaces.

Its sort of a disclaimer, she said.

County staff considered posting similar statements at Graham Park, but determined the action could be problematic without specific context.

Its going to raise a whole lot of questions, Welsch said, pointing to the potential for the signs to be misinterpreted, if specific incidents arent cited.

It means any complaints about vendors displays will continue to be referred to the person or organization renting park space.

If enough people go to that vendor, either the vendor will change who they allow at the sale or people will just not show up, Thein said. Let the market decide. I think thats the way to go.

What happened: Olmsted County commissioners opted not to seek a resolution aimed at hate symbols that could be displayed on county property, but supported clarifications added to rental agreements.

Why does this matter: The county's staff-led ethics committee reviewed a complaint regarding the display of a confederate flag during a 2021 flea market.

What's next: New county rental agreements will include language stating the county dosn not endorse all actions and displays presented by groups that lease space at Graham Park and other county facilities.

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Confederate flag spurs Olmsted County rental change, but commissioners don't see need for further action - Rochester Post Bulletin

Warren Buffett’s company part of historic deal after claims of racist jokes and redlining – Daily Kos

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Under theagreement with the Justice Department,Trident must invest more than $20 million in impacted communities of color in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware," Clarke said in prepared remarksshe gave on Wednesday at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia.

The funds will be used to provide credit opportunities in areas that were redlined by Trident, including neighborhoods around this park, she said.

RELATED STORY:Despite outstanding rating, banks still arent lending to black business owners like they should be

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the news releaseannouncing the historic agreement that the Justice Department probe follows his announcement last fall promising to mobilize resources to make fair access to credit a reality in underserved neighborhoods under the departments Combatting Redlining Initiative.

RELATED STORY: Redlined Black and brown neighborhoods are now targets for oil drilling, studies show

As demonstrated by todays historic announcement, we are increasing our coordination with federal financial regulatory agencies and state Attorneys General to combat the modern-day redlining that has unlawfully plagued communities of color, Garland said.

Read every word of Clarke's prepared remarks:

Good morning. My name is Kristen Clarke, and I am the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. I am joined today by Josh Shapiro, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania; Rohit Chopra, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Jacqueline Romero, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Lyndsay Ruotolo, the First Assistant Attorney General of New Jersey; and Kathy Jennings, the Attorney General of Delaware.

Im pleased to be standing with you all today at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia to announce that the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have secured an agreement with Trident Mortgage Company to resolve our claims of redlining discrimination in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, including communities in Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. In addition, our state partners in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have reached agreements with Trident and its affiliate company, Fox and Roach.

Our complaint, filed in federal court today, alleges that Trident violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Specifically, our complaint alleges that Tridents office locations were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods, that Tridents loan officers were not directed to serve and did not serve the credit needs of neighborhoods of color and that Tridents outreach and marketing avoided those neighborhoods. The complaint also alleges that Trident employees exchanged emails where they referred to neighborhoods of color as ghetto and made racists jokes; theres even a photo of a senior Trident manager posing in front of a Confederate flag. Our complaint was filed along with a proposed consent order outlining the relief that we have secured.

Todays agreement is historic for two reasons. First, this is the first redlining agreement that the Justice Department has secured with a mortgage company. Mortgage companies like Trident issue over 50% of the mortgage loans in the United States, so they are important players in the credit market and their lending practices have a significant effect on the availability of credit. Other non-depository lenders should be on notice that the Justice Department will continue to enforce federal housing laws to ensure equal opportunity to access credit.

Our agreement with Trident is also the Justice Departments second largest agreement in history. Under this agreement, Trident must invest over $20 million dollars in impacted communities of color in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The funds will be used to provide credit opportunities in areas that were redlined by Trident, including neighborhoods around this park. This infusion of lending resources into neighborhoods of color, including here in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, will help redress the harm caused by Tridents unlawful activity.

West Philadelphia has long been the home of strong and vibrant Black and Latino communities. Unfortunately, it also been the home of prolonged residential racial segregation, just like so many other communities across the country. Even with the passage of the Fair Housing Act more than 50 years ago, banks and mortgage companies, like Trident, continue to find new ways to alter their lending practices in ways that cause harm to communities of color. These discriminatory practices exacerbate wealth disparities and promote economic injustice.

And we know that the current wealth disparities between Black and white families are staggering. Today, the median wealth of a Black family is approximately $24,000. The median wealth of a white family is approximately $188,000. A white family is 30% more likely to own a home than a Black family, meaning the homeownership gap is larger today than it was in 1960, before the passage of the Fair Housing Act.

Despite these grim statistics, the Justice Department is committed to aggressively enforcing our nations civil rights laws to ensure equal opportunity and economic justice for all Americans. Todays agreement demonstrates that commitment.

Our enforcement action against Trident is part of the Justice Departments Combatting Redlining Initiative. The initiative is drawing on the strengths of the departments partnerships with the U.S. Attorneys Offices, CFPB, other financial regulatory agencies, as well as State Attorneys General. Together, we are sending a strong message to banks, mortgage companies and other lenders that they will be held accountable for engaging in unlawful, modern-day redlining.

I want to thank our team inside the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department for their work on this matter. I also want to commend our partners at CFPB, the U.S. Attorneys Office in Eastern Pennsylvania and the State Attorneys General for Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey for their work on this case. Together, we mark a significant step forward in our collective efforts to ensure all people have equal opportunity to access the American dream.

I will now turn it over to Josh Shapiro, the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

RELATED STORY: Kristen Clarke confirmed and either Republicans are eerily quiet or their voices aren't registering

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Warren Buffett's company part of historic deal after claims of racist jokes and redlining - Daily Kos

CoastLine: Tony Rivenbark, 1948-2022: "All I’ve done is theater my whole life." – WHQR

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I love stories. The theater is stories. But life is stories. Thats what your life is, really, a string of stories. And then they stop, and its sad when those stories disappear because someone didnt tell them to someone else.

Tony Rivenbark passed away in mid-July of 2022. Some of the stories he wanted to tell are captured in his book, Images of America: Thalian Hall. Published by Arcadia in 2014, he dedicated the work to Doug Swink, in his words, actor, director, teacher, designer, playwright, historian, and the theatrical father of hundreds of thespians.

Many of those titles, in fact most, apply to Tony Rivenbark.

Within those titles are more stories, many of which we will never hear, his own biography and that of the Cape Fear region forever intertwined. While its likely there are private recordings done by those in his inner circle, we know of no comprehensive narrative that weaves together his biography and local history.

Tony and I had an appointment to begin such recordings, a project conceived of by his close, and, he liked to joke, oldest friend, Suellen Yates. He passed away the day before we were to begin.

Tony Rivenbarks most public-facing and prominent legacy: shepherding downtown Wilmingtons Thalian Hall from a disused building that had fallen into disrepair into one of the most beautifully restored historic theaters in the U.S. Under his direction, the Hall became a thriving center of cultural arts in the Cape Fear region. He served as Executive Director from 1979 until his passing in 2022.

He also acted in more than 200 plays, in theaters around town but mostly at the Hall, either on the mainstage or in the upstairs studio theater, now known as the Ruth and Bucky Stein Theater.

He mentored the younger generation: artists, actors, historic preservationists.

An historian in his own right, Tony Rivenbark understood previous centuries in the region in a way that few people do. Ben Steelman is another one of those special local citizens, and in fact, well hear part of a historical exploration with the two men from a 2015 CoastLine episode.

This is the part of CoastLine where I usually welcome the guest sitting with me in the studio.

Since I cant do that, a moment of silence instead.

SEGMENT 1:

My name is Tony Rivenbark and I am 73 years old.

This is from a StoryCorps interview in 2021, 10 months before his death. You can hear him speak through a mask. He talks with his friend, Travis Gilbert, Executive Director of Historic Wilmington Foundation.

TG: When was the first time you laid eyes on Thalian Hall?

TR: I had been coming to Wilmington all my life because my mother lived to shop and so all the cities we would go in North Carolina at some point or another but I had never seen or heard of Thalian Hall, so as a freshman in college here, I saw auditions for a play and I went down to where the address was, and I walked into this incredible building that I had never seen or heard of. And it was not in great shape. It had very faded, maroon carpet that was worn and threadbare. The walls were painted gray. The ornate interior was pink and white with gold paint. It had corduroy chairs. It had radiators. It was very shabby. But it was magnificent. The bones of the structure, the architecture was very much intact. The slender cast-iron columns that supported the balcony, the ornate proscenium it just blew my mind. Blew my mind.

And so I went upstairs to the balcony and watched the audition process. I had never been in had no background in theater. I had been theatrical but no background in real theater. I had seen theater. So I just sat there and watched the process, bathed in this magnificent building, never having any idea that I would have anything to do with it or change it.

The next night, the force pulled me back again and this time I accidentally got herded in with the other auditionees, mostly college students, and auditioned for the show. And Doug Swink came and said, I see on your little form that you have had dance. Would you like to dance for us?

So I went up and did the Charleston. I do a mean Charleston. And I was cast in the show and I did every show the college drama department did for the next four years, except for two, I think.

And that changed my life and thats all Ive done is theater my whole life. So walking into Thalian Hall, for good or ill in 1966, sort of set the course for the rest of my life.

Tony grew up in Duplin County and wanted to go to college at the smallest branch in the University of North Carolina system.

So he came to Wilmington.

TR: It didnt have dorms. So you didnt have to live on campus. And the idea of living with a stranger just, you know, made me very nervous. So I lived in a beach cottage, you know. Thats the attraction to Wilmington, anyway, is the beach. And I did not know anybody but by going into the theater and becoming a part, I became part of a theater family.

A show is like a theater family. It isn't the same people all the year long. It's a different family every six weeks.

I sometimes call Thalian Hall Wilmington's living room. It's the place that people bring their guests from out of town and say, oh, well this is what's in our community. It's a place you show off.

It was 1963 when the Thalian Hall Commission was chartered for the purpose of restoring the Hall as a performing arts center.

TR: The sixties were that period where Wilmington was changing in a bad way. Economically it wasn't doing very well, but old buildings were beginning to disappear everywhere. And Thalian Hall was one of the first buildings with an organization created specifically to restore it, which is the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts. Further along was the Foundation looking at residential and what was happening there and how to get more people to preserve buildings and buy them and then find buyers to restore them. These were all important parts of making this town, particularly the historic district and downtown, be viable.

But in the sixties, it was a low ebb. By the seventies, it was beginning to change. And then, 1979 when I was hired was really kind of the beginning of downtown Wilmington becoming its own destination.

Although, says Tony, it was more than 20 years before Wilmington really got there.

Tony tells Travis that he went on to act in New York theater, did summer stock in Wilmington, and then had designs on Florida as a place to pursue acting.

TR: And then the job became available at Thalian Hall and I was hired on the spot. I was only asked to do two things: increase the income and stop the smoking in the building. That's all they asked me to do. And it wasn't very hard to create more income because somebody needed to understand the front of the house and the back of the house.

You need to understand the audience, the showroom, and understand the factory. And by making that work, and then actively trying to get people to use it, because I quickly came upon the realization that if you were going to fix the building and make it properly work for theater, which basically desperately needed a fly system for scenery and then the backstage needed to work, the auditorium was beautiful. It'd been restored, but the backstage was a disaster. And the only way was to make the building more important to more people.

It was important to a handful of people who were basically the theater folk and their audiences, but it wasn't important to the community in the same way. So it had to be more important to more people in town. That was one thing.

And so you had to get more shows in there that would bring in more different audiences. That was the first realization. And then the second one was, Wilmington, particularly in that period of time, kind of thought it was the only place in the world that was like it was, and in some ways that's true, but it was so isolated because the I-40 came in much later. Wilmington was like an island off the rest of the state. And they thought the way they did things was the way they had to be done. They didn't really look at how people did things in other places.

So I started going to theater conferences and looking at other historic theater restorations, and saw that there are many ways, you know, we are not that unique. There are other historic theaters and they have been successful and revitalized.

And so I started seeing that and then bringing some of those ideas back and then started bringing in people with the expertise from other places. So if you want to make a place important in your own town, bring somebody from somewhere else who says it's important. And then people will believe that.

And being that the building was owned by the city and the city hall was in, it was an advantage and a disadvantage. The city really didn't need a theater next to it, but it was already there. So they had to deal with it. Eventually I was trying to persuade the city government that the building was an asset to the community. That didn't just happen overnight or even in my head. But as time went on, we all came to the realization that reinvesting in that building was good for the community, was good for the city government, was good for the citizens.

Tony Rivenbark admits hes still learning about Thalian Hall.

TR: All of this is not as interesting all of the wonderful things that are in this town if you dont know the story behind it. I think. I find history the most exciting thing in the world. And every day we make more of it.

TG: The best history is a story. That's why historians fail because they aren't storytellers.

TR: I agree with that. Agree with that completely.

And Tony, the historian, DID tell his own and some of the regions lesser-known history through stories. Thats next.

SEGMENT 2:

When Tony Rivenbark, Executive Director of Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, passed away in July of 2022, he left behind a magnificently restored cultural arts center, younger generations of thespians and preservationists, local history told in ways that are quintessentially Tony Rivenbark.

In 2015, he and Ben Steelman, a journalist and local historian, came to the CoastLine studio to explore the history of the Cape Fear region. It was just two weeks after a white supremacist gunman killed nine people in an AME church in South Carolina. That shooting raised new questions nationwide among white people about Confederate history and Confederate symbols and the appropriateness of those symbols in public spaces.

Keep in mind, as you listen to this part of the discussion, it is 2015 and while 2015 may sound like recent history, local and national opinion surrounding Confederate history has undergone a profound change in the last seven years.

TR: I mean, I'm from Eastern North Carolina. My family have been there on both sides, you know, going back to before the revolution. And so certainly I had ancestors at fault in the Confederate army. I was very interested in the civil war, you know, when I was in high school and of course that was the sixties, which was the hundredth anniversary. And I was president of the Duplin County Children of the Confederacy chapter and I came to Wilmington when they had the state conference and all this stuff. So I was part of all of that stuff.

You know, I never thought of it in terms of racially, though. It all had to do with the war and, you know, young guys love playing battles, fighting battles, whatever it is.

And we just happened to do the civil war. It was a colorful and interesting period only as time went on and when going to school and then the school was integrated by then. Particularly into college, I start seeing things in a different kind of light. And most of us, or many, certainly a great many people in the south have, you know, changed a lot of those attitudes and it has become, you know, what was not acceptable when we were kids and we never question it, is something that now we do question about those things.

RLH: And you told me earlier, Tony, that you took down a picture recently of Robert E. Lee. Tell us why you decided to do that.

TR: Well, I don't know. I think, you know, one time I was talking to somebody and they made some comment about me and they said, oh, you're just like the people that ride around in a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and a, and a gun rack on your car. And it irritated me. So I went home and pulled out all my Confederate stuff and put it up.

But gradually over the years I put it away. And the other day, this recent business of this terrible situation in Charleston, and I said, you know, I don't need a picture of Robert E. Lee hanging up. You know, it was a tiny one on the shelf. I don't really need that anymore. Plus the fact I don't have enough room for everything anyway.

So I've pulled whatever little bit there was left. Like I said, because I think it belongs in a museum now. It might be important as a piece of set decoration, but personally, I don't need it anymore.

RLH: Ben Steelman, you also grew up in North Carolina.

BS: Yeah. I can actually top Tony. I'm a sort of sideways descendant of Robert Frederick Hoke, the Confederate general who was camped out at Sugarloaf while Fort Fisher was falling. That's a whole different story.

My father's name was Hoke Steelman. So, anyway, so that was a minor point of pride. White southerners need to be reminded that not all of their neighbors feel the same way about their heritage as we might. And we have to admit that yes, slavery was, slavery is a horror and yes, the right side won the war.

RLH: There are a lot of people, many of them from Northern parts or other parts of this country, people who didn't grow up in the south, who don't really have that sense of cultural heritage internalized who look at the Confederate flag and do see the emblem of the fight to keep slavery, which is, you know, a fight for human oppression. So how do you tease that apart when you're looking at it through a historical lens versus a personal lens, Ben Steelman?

BS: Probably most white southerners rationalize it by saying by, by you hear the phrase a lot, it's, it's about heritage not hate. And they saw their ancestors as fighting to defend their homes. Most southerners did not own slaves. Certainly most of the privates in the Confederate army did not own slaves and they were defending their homes. And when their homes were occupied by the Yankees, they up and deserted to take care of their families.

So, I think that's part that's part of it, but we have to admit that yes, slavery was an issue. Alexander Stevens, the Vice President of the Confederacy wrote as much. Bedford Forrest said the same thing, although not as politely as Mr. Stevens did.

It's something we have to face.

RLH: When we talk about the reasons behind the civil war, there are people who will say this was a fight over states rights. Slavery was sort of an ancillary issue. Is that true? Is that a smoke screen? Tony Rivenbark?

TR: The underlying cause it had to do with the state's rights were important because people wanted to maintain the slavery as an institution. And it was dying out in the world. In other places, it was gradually being done away with, but you can't sugar coat it and the bottom line: that's what it was about. And that was about money and money was tied in with slavery. That was the wealth of the south was based in human, uh, flesh. Uh, and you take that away then great part of the wealth is gone. So yes, money, states rights, power, the country was divided in a sense evenly to some degree, but it was beginning to shift toward the Northern manufacturing and the southerners resented that. But still you can't take that slavery's the underlying bottom, dark side of this, no matter how you slice it,

RLH: We have some rich historical sites right here in the Wilmington area related to the civil war Fort Fisher, for instance. For folks who aren't familiar with that, Ben Steelman, can you tell us what Fort Fisher is and what it was for?

BS: Fort Fisher guarded the new inlet into the Cape Fear river and up to Wilmington. The new inlet no longer exists. It was closed in the, uh, late 1800s in a massive Corps of Engineers project led by the father of Henry Bacon. Bacon later became famous as the architect of the Lincoln Memorial. And he's actually buried here in town.

But anyway, that kept the port of Wilmington, which is usually normally a very small and significant port open, even as other Confederate ports were closed. And Robert E. Lee famously wrote that if Wilmington fell, he would not be able to keep his army in the field. And, in fact, the Army of Northern Virginia lasted barely 90 days after the fall of Fort Fisher.

So, a battle that's often overlooked when the final battle occurred in January of 1865, there are only about 1800 Confederates on one side and about four times that many Union soldiers and sailors on the other, but it was a very strategic battle. And more people recognize that.

RLH: When we talk about historic sites from the civil war, Tony Rivenbark explains why Thalian Hall is key.

TR: It was the center of entertainment in that period in Wilmington with 2000 blockade ships coming in. Most of the people sat around and waited for a ship to come in. There was nothing else to do but party. And this was the party town in the south. And one of the things people did was go to the theater. And from January 1864 to January 1865, there were over 300 different productions in Thalian Hall. That's how busy the theater was, because people had nothing to do while they were waiting for these blockade runners to come in.

BS: Wilmington was a civil war boom town. Most of the old residents moved out or moved inland for safety, but there are all these speculators, all these people who are getting stuff imported on the blockade runners. There are all of these young Royal Navy officers on reserve or half pay who are commanding or acting as officers on these blockade runners. And basically they were behaving like sailors in a port.

There's a famous letter. It's in one of Dr. Andrew Howes books, recounting a witness seeing a Royal Navy officer in fox hunting scarlets riding on the back of a poor in Wilmington, constable and whipping him with his riding crop. It was just terrible.

RLH: A listener asks about an incident in Wilmington when many Black people were killed and land and wealth was taken by white people. Ben Steelman tells the story of the 1898 coup detat when elected Black officials were forced from office at gunpoint by a white mob, an unknown number of innocent Black citizens were murdered. And a majority of African-American citizens fled the city, leaving everything behind.

Tony Rivenbark sets the scene where it happened at Thalian Hall.

TR: Out on the streets were filled with armed people to essentially enforce that will, and they could see it from that window. You can't see third street from the ballroom if you're sitting at a desk, but you can from Sterling Cheathams office.

RLH: Sterling Cheatham was the Wilmington city manager in 2015.

TR: And evidently it was a very intimidating force of all these armed people and every one of the aldermen resigned. And that was one of the few examples of an armed coup detat that held and was not treated, was not disciplined in any way by the government.

RLH: Is it true That is the only coup detat that we know of in American history?

BS: Some people say that.

TR: Yeah, I think that there's a couple of other instances of something similar to that, but this was very specific.

TR: The collector of ports of customs was a major federal position at that point, and that was an African American.

BS: Right.

RLH: And we know that the elected officials were forced out that's pretty well documented.

TR: Oh, it's absolutely documented.

RLH: What about the loss of wealth and land for local residents, people who were African American, who were forced out of their homes?

TR: I think that gets a lot fuzzier.

BS: It does. Some people, a lot of people like Alex Manley moved north and..

RLH: Alex Manley the publisher of the newspaper.

BS: And they lost their material wealth. Others sort of hung on as long as they weren't a threat to anybody. The fact is, of course, that Wilmington's economy needed Black labor to work. So, I mean, I've always sort of felt like 1898 wasn't like a massacre. It was more like a botched lobotomy or failed attempt at a lobotomy. They were trying to eliminate the Black middle class.

RLH: And they succeeded?

TR: To a great extent. You know, there were certain families that continued to stay on and still on to this day.

BS: Like the Sadgwars, for example.

TR: Yeah, and Manly was, interestingly enough, was actually a descendant of a former white governor, which I find also very interesting.

BS: Yes.

RLH: Theres a question from a listener about a series of tunnels that run underground in Wilmington. What are they? Were they ever used to move supplies and weapons during the civil war or to help enslaved people escape? Ben Steelman?

BS: There are a lot of brick-lined tunnels dating from the late 1700s and early 1800s, the most famous being Jacob's Run, which runs under the Bricks nightclub and all the way up to St. James Church. Father Abrams once showed me a little doorway you can open up and get in there.

The sad fact, though, seems to be that these were sewers. And though you get all sorts of great romantic stories that pirates had booty in there or that the underground railroad smuggled slaves out through there or anything, uh, doesn't seem to be much evidence for that.

TR: Jacob's Run actually starts up there above what used to be the law enforcement center and it runs down. And when you look at the old courthouse, you see how low the right side is between that and the judicial building. It's really very low. You go way down to the ground. Well, that was a stream that basically ran down eventually bricked that up all the way down so they could build streets and things.

Because downtown, you know, Wilmington is built on a bluff that was a very hilly area. There were seven, basically seven large hills. Bill Reeves referred to it as the seven sand dunes of Wilmington, like the seven Hills of Rome. And gradually over the years, was trying to level this off for building.

So you had this tremendous disparity between height and low, Thalian Hall stands on one of those hills. And the bottom of that hill is on the other side of the courthouse. And evidently at one point on Third Street actually was a bridge across Second. It was that low-lying area, but gradually over the years, it sort of smoothed it off.

RLH: So Thalian Hall, when was it built and why did local leaders decide that this community could support a theater of that size?

TR: Well, first of all, it had a theater right there where Thalian Hall stands for 50 years. So it wasn't a new idea, but the city had grown. The city was the largest city in the state. The city government was operating out of rented space on Princess Street. The courthouse had moved from the center of Front and Market to the corner of Princess and Third, not where the courthouse is now, but the one where that new bank building that's where the courthouse was.

The rest is here:

CoastLine: Tony Rivenbark, 1948-2022: "All I've done is theater my whole life." - WHQR

Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? – Gizmodo Australia

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Gizmodo is 20 years old! In the summer of 2002, The Gadgets Weblog officially launched to cover all of your gadget weblogging needs. The last two decades have been a wild ride in technology, so were taking this opportunity to look back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools. Weve come a long way since the days of TiVo, Napster, and Palm Pilots. Unfortunately, were still not old enough to drink.

Like so many others after 9/11, I felt spiritually and existentially lost. Its hard to believe now, but I was a regular churchgoer at the time. Watching those planes smash into the World Trade Centre woke me from my extended cerebral slumber and I havent set foot in a church since, aside from the occasional wedding or baptism.

I didnt realise it at the time, but that godawful day triggered an intrapersonal renaissance in which my passion for science and philosophy was resuscitated. My marriage didnt survive this mental reboot and return to form, but it did lead me to some very positive places, resulting in my adoption of secular Buddhism, meditation, and a decade-long stint with vegetarianism. It also led me to futurism, and in particular a brand of futurism known as transhumanism.

Transhumanism made a lot of sense to me, as it seemed to represent the logical next step in our evolution, albeit an evolution guided by humans and not Darwinian selection. As a cultural and intellectual movement, transhumanism seeks to improve the human condition by developing, promoting, and disseminating technologies that significantly augment our cognitive, physical, and psychological capabilities. When I first stumbled upon the movement, the technological enablers of transhumanism were starting to come into focus: genomics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. These tools carried the potential to radically transform our species, leading to humans with augmented intelligence and memory, unlimited lifespans, and entirely new physical and cognitive capabilities. And as a nascent Buddhist, it meant a lot to me that transhumanism held the potential to alleviate a considerable amount of suffering through the elimination of disease, infirmary, mental disorders, and the ravages of ageing.

The idea that humans would transition to a posthuman state seemed both inevitable and desirable, but, having an apparently functional brain, I immediately recognised the potential for tremendous harm. Wanting to avoid a Brave New World dystopia (perhaps vaingloriously), I decided to get directly involved in the transhumanist movement in hopes of steering it in the right direction. To that end, I launched my blog, Sentient Developments, joined the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+), co-founded the now-defunct Toronto Transhumanist Association, and served as the deputy editor of the transhumanist e-zine Betterhumans, also defunct. I also participated in the founding of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), on which I continue to serve as chairman of the board.

Indeed, it was also around this time in the early- to mid-2000s that I developed a passion for bioethics. This newfound fascination, along with my interest in futurist studies and outreach, gave rise to a dizzying number of opportunities. I gave talks at academic conferences, appeared regularly on radio and television, participated in public debates, and organised transhumanist-themed conferences, including TransVision 2004, which featured talks by Australian performance artist Stelarc, Canadian inventor and cyborg Steve Mann, and anti-ageing expert Aubrey de Grey.

The transhumanist movement had permeated nearly every aspect of my life, and I thought of little else. It also introduced me to an intriguing (and at times problematic) cast of characters, many of whom remain my colleagues and friends. The movement gathered steady momentum into the late 2000s and early 2010s, acquiring many new supporters and a healthy dose of detractors. Transhumanist memes, such as mind uploading, genetically modified babies, human cloning, and radical life extension, flirted with the mainstream. At least for a while.

The term transhumanism popped into existence during the 20th century, but the idea has been around for a lot longer than that.

The quest for immortality has always been a part of our history, and it probably always will be. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest written example, while the Fountain of Youth the literal Fountain of Youth was the obsession of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Len.

Notions that humans could somehow be modified or enhanced appeared during the European Enlightenment of the 18th century, with French philosopher Denis Diderot arguing that humans might someday redesign themselves into a multitude of types whose future and final organic structure its impossible to predict, as he wrote in DAlemberts Dream. Diderot also thought it possible to revive the dead and imbue animals and machines with intelligence. Another French philosopher, Marquis de Condorcet, thought along similar lines, contemplating utopian societies, human perfectibility, and life extension.

The Russian cosmists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries foreshadowed modern transhumanism, as they ruminated on space travel, physical rejuvenation, immortality, and the possibility of bringing the dead back to life, the latter being a portend to cryonics a staple of modern transhumanist thinking. From the 1920s through to the 1950s, thinkers such as British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, Irish scientist J. D. Bernal, and British biologist Julian Huxley (who popularised the term transhumanism in a 1957 essay) were openly advocating for such things as artificial wombs, human clones, cybernetic implants, biological enhancements, and space exploration.

It wasnt until the 1990s, however, that a cohesive transhumanist movement emerged, a development largely brought about by you guessed it the internet.

As with many small subcultures, the internet allowed transhumanists around the world to start communicating on email lists, and then websites and blogs, James Hughes, a bioethicist, sociologist, and the executive director of the IEET, told me. Almost all transhumanist culture takes place online. The 1990s and early 2000s were also relatively prosperous, at least for the Western countries where transhumanism grew, so the techno-optimism of transhumanism seemed more plausible.

The internet most certainly gave rise to the vibrant transhumanist subculture, but the emergence of tantalising, impactful scientific and technological concepts is what gave the movement its substance. Dolly the sheep, the worlds first cloned animal, was born in 1996, and in the following year Garry Kasparov became the first chess grandmaster to lose to a supercomputer. The Human Genome Project finally released a complete human genome sequence in 2003, in a project that took 13 years to complete. The internet itself gave birth to a host of futuristic concepts, including online virtual worlds and the prospect of uploading ones consciousness into a computer, but it also suggested a possible substrate for the Nosphere a kind of global mind envisioned by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Key cheerleaders contributed to the proliferation of far-flung futurist-minded ideas. Eric Drexlers seminal book Engines of Creation (1986) demonstrated the startling potential for (and peril of) molecular nanotechnology, while the work of Hans Moravec and Kevin Warwick did the same for robotics and cybernetics, respectively. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, through his law of accelerating returns and fetishization of Moores Law, convinced many that a radical future was at hand; in his popular books, The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) and The Singularity is Near (2005), Kurzweil predicted that human intelligence was on the cusp of merging with its technology. In his telling, this meant that we could expect a Technological Singularity (the emergence of greater-than-human artificial intelligence) by the mid-point of the 21st century (as an idea, the Singularity another transhumanist staple has been around since the 1960s and was formalized in a 1993 essay by futurist and sci-fi author Vernor Vinge). In 2006, an NSF-funded report, titled Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies in Society, showed that the U.S. government was starting to pay attention to transhumanist ideas.

A vibrant grassroots transhumanist movement developed at the turn of the millennium. The Extropy Institute, founded by futurist Max More, and the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), along with its international charter groups, gave structure to what was, and still is, a wildly divergent set of ideas. A number of specialty groups with related interests also emerged, including: the Methuselah Foundation, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (now the Machine Intelligence Research Institute), the Centre for Responsible Nanotechnology, the Foresight Institute, the Lifeboat Foundation, and many others. Interest in cryonics increased as well, with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the Cryonics Institute receiving more attention than usual.

Society and culture got cyberpunked in a hurry, which naturally led people to think increasingly about the future. And with the Apollo era firmly in the rear view mirror, the publics interest in space exploration waned. Bored of the space-centric 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, we increasingly turned our attention to movies about AI, cybernetics, and supercomputers, including Blade Runner, Akira, and The Matrix, many of which had a distinctive dystopian tinge.

With the transhumanist movement in full flight, the howls of outrage became louder from critics within the conservative religious right through to those on the anti-technological left. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared transhumanism to be the worlds most dangerous idea, while bioethicist Leon Kass, a vocal critic of transhumanism, headed-up President George W. Bushs bioethics council, which explicitly addressed medical interventions meant to enhance human capabilities and appearance. The bioethical battle lines of the 21st century, it appeared, were being drawn before our eyes.

It was a golden era for transhumanism. Within a seemingly impossible short time, our ideas went from obscurity to tickling the zeitgeist. The moment that really did it for me was seeing the cover of TIMEs February 21, 2011, issue, featuring the headline, 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal, and cover art depicting a brain-jacked human head.

By 2012, my own efforts in this area had landed me a job as a contributing editor for Gizmodo, which served to expand my interest in science, futurism, and philosophy even further. I presented a talk at Moogfest in 2014 and had some futurist side hustles, serving as the advisor for National Geographics 2017 documentary-drama series, Year Million. Transhumanist themes permeated much of my work back then, whether at Gizmodo or later with Gizmodo, but less so with each passing year. These days I barely write about transhumanism, and my involvement in the movement barely registers. My focus has been on spaceflight and the ongoing commercialization of space, which continues to scratch my futurist itch.

What was once a piercing roar has retreated to barely discernible background noise. Or at least thats how it currently appears to me. For reasons that are both obvious and not obvious, explicit discussions of transhumanism and transhumanists have fallen by the wayside.

The reason we dont talk about transhumanism as much as we used to is that much of it has become a bit normal at least as far as the technology goes, as Anders Sandberg, a senior research fellow from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, told me.

We live lives online using wearable devices (smartphones), aided by AI and intelligence augmentation, virtual reality is back again, gene therapy and RNA vaccines are a thing, massive satellite constellations are happening, drones are becoming important in warfare, trans[gender] rights are a big issue, and so on, he said, adding: We are living in a partially transhuman world. At the same time, however, the transhumanist idea to deliberately embrace the change and try to aim for such a future has not become mainstream, Sandberg said.

His point about transhumanism having a connection to trans-rights may come as a surprise, but the futurist linkage to LGBTQ+ issues goes far back, whether it be sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler envisioning queer families and greater gender fluidity or feminist Donna Haraway yearning to be a cyborg rather than a goddess. Transhumanists have long advocated for a broadening of sexual and gender diversity, along with the associated rights to bodily autonomy and the means to invoke that autonomy. In 2011, Martine Rothblatt, the billionaire transhumanist and transgender rights advocate, took it a step further when she said, we cannot be surprised that transhumanism arises from the groins of transgenderism, and that we must welcome this further transcendence of arbitrary biology.

Natasha Vita-More, executive director of Humanity+ and an active transhumanist since the early 1980s, says ideas that were foreign to non-transhumanists 20 years ago have been integrated into our regular vocabulary. These days, transhumanist-minded thinkers often reference concepts such as cryonics, mind uploading, and memory transfer, but without having to invoke transhumanism, she said.

Is it good that we dont reference transhumanism as much anymore? No, I dont think so, but I also think it is part of the growth and evolution of social understanding in that we dont need to focus on philosophy or movements over technological or scientific advances that are changing the world, Vita-More told me. Moreover, people today are far more knowledgeable about technology than they were 20 years ago and are more adept at considering the pros and cons of change rather than just the cons or potential bad effects, she added.

PJ Manney, futurist consultant and author of the transhumanist-themed sci-fi Phoenix Horizon trilogy, says all the positive and optimistic visions of future humanity are being tempered or outright dashed as we see humans taking new tools and doing what humans do: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Indeed, were a lot more cynical and wary of technology than we were 20 years ago, and for good reasons. The Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Edward Snowdens revelations about government spying, and the emergence of racist policing software were among an alarming batch of reproachable developments that demonstrated technologys potential to turn sour.

We dont talk about transhumanism that much any more because so much of it is in the culture already, Manney, who serves with me on the IEET board of directors, continued, but we exist in profound future shock and with cultural and social stresses all around us. Manney referenced the retrograde SCOTUS reversals and how U.S. states are removing human rights from acknowledged humans. She suggests that we secure human rights for humans before we consider our silicon simulacrums.

Nigel Cameron, an outspoken critic of transhumanism, said the futurist movement lost much of its appeal because the naive framing of the enormous changes and advances under discussion got less interesting as the distinct challenges of privacy, automation, and genetic manipulation (e.g. CRISPR) began to emerge. In the early 2000s, Cameron led a project on the ethics of emerging technologies at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is now a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawas Institute on Science, Society and Policy.

Sandberg, a longstanding transhumanist organiser and scholar, said the War on Terror and other emerging conflicts of the 2000s caused people to turn to here-and-now geopolitics, while climate change, the rise of China, and the 2008 financial crisis led to the pessimism seen during the 2010s. Today we are having a serious problem with cynicism and pessimism paralyzing people from trying to fix and build things, Sandberg said. We need optimism!

Some of the transhumanist groups that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s still exist or evolved into new forms, and while a strong pro-transhumanist subculture remains, the larger public seems detached and largely disinterested. But thats not to say that these groups, or the transhumanist movement in general, didnt have an impact.

The various transhumanist movements led to many interesting conversations, including some bringing together conservatives and progressives into a common critique, said Cameron.

I think the movements had mainly an impact as intellectual salons where blue-sky discussions made people find important issues they later dug into professionally, said Sandberg. He pointed to Oxford University philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom, who discovered the importance of existential risk for thinking about the long-term future, which resulted in an entirely new research direction. The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford are the direct results of Bostroms work. Sandberg also cited artificial intelligence theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky, who refined thinking about AI that led to the AI safety community forming, and also the transhumanist cryptoanarchists who did the groundwork for the cryptocurrency world, he added. Indeed, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, subscribes to transhumanist thinking, and his father, Dmitry, used to attend our meetings at the Toronto Transhumanist Association.

According to Manney, various transhumanist-driven efforts inspired a vocabulary and creative impulse for many, including myself, to wrestle with the philosophical, technological and artistic implications that naturally arise. Sci-fi grapples with transhumanism now more than ever, whether people realise it or not, she said. Fair point. Shows like Humans, Orphan Black, Westworld, Black Mirror, and Upload are jam-packed with transhumanist themes and issues, though the term itself is rarely if ever uttered. That said, these shows are mostly dystopian in nature, which suggests transhumanism is mostly seen through grey-coloured glasses. To be fair, super-uplifting portrayals of the future rarely work as Hollywood blockbusters or hit TV shows, but its worth pointing out that San Junipero is rated as among the best Black Mirror episodes for its positive portrayal of uploading as a means to escape death.

For the most part, however, transhuman-flavored technologies are understandably scary and relatively easy to cast in a negative light. Uncritical and starry-eyed transhumanists, of which there are many, werent of much help. Manney contends that transhumanism itself could use an upgrade. The lack of consideration for consequences and follow-on effects, as well as the narcissistic demands common to transhumanism, have always been the downfall of the movement, she told me. Be careful what you wish for you may get it. Drone warfare, surveillance societies, deepfakes, and the potential for hackable bioprostheses and brain chips have made transhumanist ideas less interesting, according to Manney.

Like so many other marginal social movements, transhumanism has had an indirect influence by widening the Overton window [also known as the window of discourse] in policy and academic debates about human enhancement, Hughes explained. In the 2020s, transhumanism still has its critics, but it is better recognised as a legitimate intellectual position, providing some cover for more moderate bioliberals to argue for liberalized enhancement policies.

Sandberg brought up a very good point: Nothing gets older faster than future visions. Indeed, many transhumanist ideas from the 1990s now look quaint, he said, pointing to wearable computers, smart drinks, imminent life extension, and all that internet utopianism. That said, Sandberg thinks the fundamental vision of transhumanism remains intact, saying the human condition can be questioned and changed, and we are getting better at it. These days, we talk more about CRISPR (a gene-editing tool that came into existence in 2012) than we do nanotechnology, but transhumanism naturally upgrades itself as new possibilities and arguments show up, he said.

Vita-More says the transhumanist vision is still desirable and probably even more so because it has started to make sense for many. Augmented humans are everywhere, she said, from implants, smart devices that we use daily, human integration with computational systems that we use daily, to the hope that one day we will be able to slow down memory loss and store or back-up our neurological function in case of memory loss or diseases of dementia and Alzheimers.

The observation that transhumanism has started to make sense for many is a good one. Take Neuralink, for example. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk based the startup on two very transhumanistic principles that interfaces between the brain and computers are possible and that artificial superintelligence is coming. Musk, in his typical fashion, claims a philanthropic motive for wanting to build neural interface devices, as he believes boosted brains will protect us from malign machine intelligence (I personally think hes wrong, but thats another story).

For Cameron, transhumanism looks as frightening as ever, and he honed in on a notion he refers to as the hollowing out of the human, the idea that all that matters in Homo sapiens can be uploaded as a paradigm for our desiderata. In the past, Cameron has argued that if machine intelligence is the model for human excellence and gets to enhance and take over, then we face a new feudalism, as control of finance and the power that goes with it will be at the core of technological human enhancement, and democracywill be dead in the water.

That being said, and despite these concerns, Manny believes theres still a need for a transhumanist movement, but one that addresses complexity and change for all humanity.

Likewise, Vita-More says a transhumanist movement is still needed because it serves to facilitate change and support choices based on personal needs that look beyond binary thinking, while also supporting diversity for good.

There is always a need for think tanks. While there are numerous futurist groups that contemplate the future, they are largely focused on energy, green energy, risks, and ethics, said Vita-More. Few of these groups are a reliable source of knowledge or information about the future of humanity other than a postmodernist stance, which is more focused on feminist studies, diversity, and cultural problems. Vita-More currently serves as the executive director of Humanity+.

Hughes says that transhumanists fell into a number of political, technological, and even religious camps when they tried to define what they actually wanted. The IEET describes its brand of transhumanism as technoprogressivism an attempt to define and promote a social democratic vision of an enhanced future, as Hughes defines it. As a concept, technoprogressivism provides a more tangible foundation for organising than transhumanism, says Hughes, so I think we are well beyond the possibility of a transhumanist movement and will now see the growth of a family of transhumanist-inspired or influenced movements that have more specific identities, including Mormon and other religious transhumanists, libertarians and technoprogressives, and the ongoing longevist, AI, and brain-machine subcultures.

I do think we need public intellectuals to be more serious about connecting the dots, as technologies continue to converge and offer bane and blessing to the human condition, and as our response tends to be uncritically enthusiastic or perhaps unenthusiastic, said Cameron.

Sandberg says transhumanism is needed as a counterpoint to the pervasive pessimism and cynicism of our culture, and that to want to save the future you need to both think it is going to be awesome enough to be worth saving, and that we have power to do something constructive. To which he added: Transhumanism also adds diversity the future does not have to be like the present.

As Manney aptly pointed out, it seems ludicrous to advocate for human enhancement at a time when abortion rights in the U.S. have been rescinded. The rise of anti-vaxxers during the covid-19 epidemic presents yet another complication, showing the extent to which the public willingly rejects a good thing. For me personally, the anti-vaxxer response to the pandemic was exceptionally discouraging, as I often reference vaccines to explain the transhumanist mindset that we already embrace interventions that enhance our limited genetic endowments.

Given the current landscape, its my own opinion that self-described transhumanists should advocate and agitate for full bodily, cognitive, and reproductive autonomy, while also championing the merits of scientific discourse. Until these rights are established, it seems a bit premature to laud the benefits of improved memories or radically extended lifespans, as sad as it is to have to admit that.

These contemporary social issues aside, the transhuman future wont wait for us to play catchup. These technologies will arrive, whether they emerge from university labs or corporate workshops. Many of these interventions will be of great benefit to humanity, but others could lead us down some seriously dark paths. Consequently, we must move the conversation forward.

Which reminds me of why I got involved in transhumanism in the first place my desire to see the safe, sane, and accessible implementation of these transformative technologies. These goals remain worthwhile, regardless of any explicit mention of transhumanism. Thankfully, these conversations are happening, and we can thank the transhumanists for being the instigators, whether you subscribe to our ideas or not.

From the Gizmodo archives:

An Irreverent Guide to Transhumanism and The Singularity

U.S. Spy Agency Predicts a Very Transhuman Future by 2030

Most Americans Fear a Future of Designer Babies and Brain Chips

Transhumanist Tech Is a Boner Pill That Sets Up a Firewall Against Billy Joel

DARPAs New Biotech Division Wants to Create a Transhuman Future

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Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? - Gizmodo Australia

Every Version of You by Grace Chan review would you want to live in the metaverse? – The Guardian

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Grace Chans first novel opens in Melbourne in the late 2080s. The planet is, to not put too fine a point on it, spent. Most people who can afford it spend their mornings climbing into gel-filled pods to log into a fun, more beautiful edition of Earth called Gaia, where advanced coding offers the sensation (or at least, a sensation) of taste, smell and even touch. The books central quartet, Tao-Yi and her boyfriend Navin, and their friends Zach and Evelyn, live so much of their lives there that when the technology arrives to allow full upload, it feels like a foregone conclusion. Except for Tao-Yi, it isnt.

Is her reluctance just nostalgia? What, exactly, is she worried about leaving behind? In digitalising the mind-body problem, Every Version of You transposes it into a literal and very material question: if you could leave your body, would you? In his unsettling 1909 story, The Machine Stops, EM Forster comes at this question from the other side: if you could return to the physical world, would you? In Forsters story, a woman lives contentedly in her small pod below the earth, washed, dried and fed while she swaps elevated ideas with like minds in other pods around the world. All her needs are met by the Machine. Her sons claustrophobia merely annoys her she thinks he is a stubborn and backward heretic. He thinks the Machine has robbed humanity of the sense of space and of the sense of touch. The storys very bleak ending is easily read especially coming from EM only connect Forster as tech-phobic. A century and a bit later, Chans relationship to cyberspace is understandably more ambiguous.

Navin has a debilitating health condition, which both complexifies and simplifies the equation. For him, uploading is a salvation, a no-brainer: only in virtual reality can he be his authentic self, not held back by the painful betrayals of his body. (Chans vision of the future includes a believably infuriating gap between advancements in consumer tech and those in more basic medical or social care.) But Tao-Yi struggles with a nebulous sadness, certain that with the loss of their tactile connection goes something fundamental to their bond. While the novel is told in third person, we inhabit Tao-Yis perspective, and her hunger for the physical sensations Gaia can never quite replicate (the taste of homemade mapo tofu, the smell of Navins neck, even the hot, toxic air of Melbournes increasingly uninhabitable streets). Distance is irrelevant to intimacy, now, she reflects after a reunion at a virtual party yet she, and so we, are unconvinced.

After upload, Navins brain expands and speeds up he becomes a digital sprite chasing interests, passions, languages. Tao-Yi sees this limitless metamorphosing as a dissolving of the self, but Navin begs her to consider the risks of lagging: ageing, decay, the possibility shes inherited her mother and grandmothers depression. Chan, whose day job is in psychiatry, probes the fascinating idea of how well its possible to know our selves at all, and what we value in their formation. Are friction, trauma and discomfort so integral? Why not wipe them out, become new humans, directly powered by solar and electricity?

Tao-Yi, looking back on the 21st century, wonders how much of her mothers illness might have been grief about the world. The elephant in the room, as in so much cli-fi, is capitalism: in Chans future, the tech has improved but the system hasnt. Apple and then Dandelion have been superseded by Neuronetica-Somners, Gaias parent company, which caters to the rich. Many are locked out by cost, stranded on an Earth with no more trees. (Its possible, after reading this book, that you never turn on a tap the same way again.) Those without homes shelter beneath UV-reflective blankets, bodies warped and broken by chronic sunburn and lung disease, ignored by those whove left them behind. (Its hard to think critically about the things that gratify your basest needs.) Even people with access to Gaias addictive consolations seem to frequently be falling apart in ways their commercial system is utterly inadequate and unwilling to address. Like Mark Fisher, Every Version of You argues that capitalism (more than say, the internet) is the cause of all the problems we keep using it to try to solve.

Chans novel is laden with a feeling of precipice and inevitability, a quiet doom. As all her friends upload, Tao-Yi is swamped by the perpetual homesickness shes felt since her teenage move from Malaysia. She cannot see Gaia as a home, and in pulling away from it, she is reaching for something linking her to her roots but they are also broken, or only ever half-built. In a recent essay, critic Cher Tan writes that comparing life on and offline is asking the wrong question and falling into the (false) rut of digital dualism because most of contemporary life is simultaneously woven of both.

Thats not what Tao-Yi or Chan is doing. Confronting what might one day be left on a ruined, offline Earth is a powerful way to refocus the lens on the world we are presently creating, and the politics informing what we build whether its from bricks or code.

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Every Version of You by Grace Chan review would you want to live in the metaverse? - The Guardian

Elon Musk confirms he already uploaded his brain to a cloud, he spoke to himself – Marca English

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Imagine you are the wealthiest person in the world and you think having one of you is not enough for the world. Elon Musk seems to think two of his brains are better than having just one, but this goes into a deep philosophical question we all have. Can consciousness be transferred to a machine? Musk has the technology and the means to at least give it a shot but we still had no idea if he has done it until today.

Musk just responded to a Twitter question where he confirms he has already uploaded his brain to a cloud on the Internet. He wasn't specific about it but the question was pretty specific. A Twitter account that goes by @BillyM2k asked: "If you could upload your brain to the cloud, and talk to a virtual version of yourself, would you be buddies?" Musk quickly responded: 'Already did it," withuot offering any type of explanation.

The mere concept of the mind is already a puzzling one, humans have been trying to explain it for millennia. To this day, there are many different interpretations and nobody can come up with a scientific definition of what the mind is. So, Elon Musk confirmed he uploaded his brain to the cloud but he didn't specify whether his other self has similar trades or if it's just the mathematical knowledge he uploaded.

Also, uploading his braing to a cloud and talking to himself probably means he is getting closer to solving Artificial Intelligence. Certainly, we all would like a better explanation about this rather than a short answer. WIll Elon Musk find time to explain exactly how he uploaded his brain to the cloud and what the conversation with himself was all about? We still have so many questions about this.

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Elon Musk confirms he already uploaded his brain to a cloud, he spoke to himself - Marca English

Tips & Tricks: How to get more likes on Instagram? These tips will guarantee you glory – News84Media – News84Media.com

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Strong pointsIf you want to get likes on Instagram, start posting in a specific time slot. Instagram pays more for reel uploaders than for photo posts.You can also use Instagram Auto Liker to increase likes on posts.

New Delhi. Instagram has become the favorite application of all young internet users these days. Facebook i.e. Meta company has made many such changes, users can easily become popular by using it. It has millions of active users in India. Many people want to get more likes in less time.

Here we are going to tell some of those things, which if you follow you will get more likes on Instagram. Before following these tips, you must keep this thing in mind, your content must have power. Whatever you put in it, people wont like it if its boring.

Select a specific time slotIf you want to get likes on Instagram, start posting in a specific time slot. Posts posted on Sundays at 5 p.m. are thought to be the most popular. At the same time, a lot of likes can also be found on the post made at 2 p.m. Most posts are seen on Mondays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Also Read: OnePlus 10T 5G Launching Today, These Features Already Confirmed and Price Leaked

Publish reels in HDYes, if you are an Insta user, keep that in mind. Instagram pays more for reel uploaders than for photo posts. For example, when you record a maximum 30 second video of your fun or action and upload it in HD quality along with all the music lyrics from the reels section on Insta, its quite possible that you get likes in a short period of time. time. Even when uploading a reel, you need to understand when Instagram users are most active. If you live in Delhi-Mumbai, the right time to post reels is considered to be 6-9 PM. Can download at 9 am.

One of the benefits of posting Reels to Instagram is that your Reels also play automatically on Facebook. Since Facebook is one of the most widely used apps in the world, Facebook itself also wants to promote Instagram. So if you post reels on Instagram, Facebook will help you too.

Please enter hashtagsWhenever you post on Instagram, definitely enter the hashtag related to that post. Use hashtags that are used more often. Even if someone uses the #instagram hashtag in their post, Instagram will trend it. Also note that some selected hashtags on Instagram that Instagram promotes must use them. Like #flowerstagram #flowersofinstagram #Reelsinsta #InstaReels #Instavideo #instagramchallenge #instachallenge #trend #instagood #explorepage #goodvibes

The size of the photo-video must be in HDInstagrams photo size is larger than other social media platforms. Also, if you took a fresh photo or video, you can post it. Dont use a lot of editing or filters. To get maximum likes, your post needs to look good, which attracts people. You must post within a week. Since then, Instagram also works with an algorithm, so when you post daily, your post will reach more and more people.

Also read: Launched Xiaomis smart glass, the product is equipped with powerful features such as a 50MP camera

keep the account publicAs an Insta user, the first thing you need to keep in mind is that if you keep your Instagram account private, people outside your circle wont be able to see your posts. Therefore, the account must always be public. You can also use Instagram Auto Liker to increase likes on your posts. This is an online tool that you need to link to your Instagram account.

Show Instagram ID on your other platformsYou will have accounts on many social media sites, display your Instagram username or URL as well. With this, people connected on your other platforms will start coming to your Instagram. Along with this, they will also start appearing in your session. You can also enable smartphone contacts in Instagram, so people who are on Instagram can connect with you.

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Tags: Instagram, instagram template, Instagram post, Instagram Video, Tips and tricks

FIRST POST: August 04, 2022, 4:38 PM HST

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Tips & Tricks: How to get more likes on Instagram? These tips will guarantee you glory - News84Media - News84Media.com

India versus West Indies second T20 highlights: Fancode yesterday match 2nd T20 highlights where to watch – The Sportsrush

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India versus West Indies second T20 highlights: India continue to remain without a victory at the Warner Park.

During the second T20I of Indias tour of West Indies 2022 in Basseterre, West Indies beat India by 5 wickets to end their 12-match losing streak against this opposition in white-ball cricket. It is after almost 33 months that West Indies have been able to defeat India in any format.

Chasing a 139-run target, West Indies wouldve ideally wanted to have registered a victory way before they eventually did. Having said that, considering their recent form, the hosts wouldnt mind winning with four balls remaining in the match.

Opening batter Brandon King, who brought up a fourth T20I half-century to score 68 (52) with the help of eight fours and two sixes, was the pick of their batters.

Having said that, it was Devon Thomas (31*) who kept calm in a tense situation to be able to register a last-over finish at the Warner Park. Needing 23 runs off 14 balls to win the match, Thomas hit India vice-captain Hardik Pandya for a six to bring the asking rate down.

Further requiring 10 runs off the last Avesh Khan over, the right-hand batter hit a six and a four off consecutive deliveries to avoid any last-minute error. One of the two changes made by West Indies for this match, Thomas justified the decision of playing an extra batter on the back of hitting a four and two sixes.

That being said, the real architect of this West Indian victory was fast bowler Obed McCoy. Banking on his current form, McCoy not only registered career-best bowling figures but also picked the best figures for a West Indian bowler. McCoys six-wicket haul, only the 11th in this format, earned him a second Player of the Match award in international cricket.

Streaming platform FanCode, onlyofficial streaming appof this tour for the Indian audiences, has an option of watching highlights but only for itssubscribers.However, non-subscribers can watch selected video highlights on theTwitter handleorYouTube channelof FanCode.

While the official YouTube channel of West Indies Cricket will also be uploading highlights of this match but that might take some time especially for the Indian audiences who would be looking for highlights upon waking up in the morning in a few hours from now.

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India versus West Indies second T20 highlights: Fancode yesterday match 2nd T20 highlights where to watch - The Sportsrush

Identify emerald ash borer and native lookalikes differences – The Register-Guard

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Lea Nash was talking to her neighbor about Oregon's newest pest when one flew into her neck or so she thought.

Standing near their Eugene homes close to River Road, the bug bounced off her neck and she assumed it was a bee. But looking down to where the bug lay stunned, she thought she recognized its color from a recent article in The Register-Guard.

Nash caught the metallic green bug in a jar. She was sure it was an emerald ash borer, the invasive beetle species that has decimated North American ash tree populations over the past 20 years and recently was found in Oregon for the first time.

Though Nash wrongly identified the insect she'd captured, Nash can be forgiven for missing the subtle differences.

The bug was a brilliant metallic green, just like the invasive emerald ash borer, scientific name Agrilus planipennis. But with just a bit more information at her disposal, Nash may have noticed the black spots on her specimen's wing covers.

What actually crashed into Nash's neck that day was later identified a western cedar border, scientific name Trachykele blondeli, another in the buprestidae family of wood-boring beetles often called "jewel beetles" for their metallic hues.

"I've got it in the jar and I'm thinking, 'This really looks like that thing,'" Nash said. "You've got to have your glasses on."

Though the western cedar borer is one of the insects most commonly confused with emerald ash borer, it's an Oregon native and doesn't create the kind of ecological disaster local foresters now are expecting its invasive cousin to cause.

Emerald ash borer, sometimes referred to as EAB, was reported in Oregon for the first time in late June. Though there's little hope the invasive Asian insect can be rooted out of Oregon before it spreads through the state and kills off most ash trees in coming years, state and municipal foresters want to keep track of it so as to mitigate or slow the damage.

"EAB has become the most destructive and costliest forest pest ever to invade North America, ODF Invasive Species Specialist Wyatt Williams said in the July announcement. At least fiveashspecies native to the central U.S. have become critically endangered as EAB spreads across the country killing hundreds of millions of urban and wildashtrees.

Extinction-level threat:Invasive beetle expected to decimate Oregon ash trees

EAB over the last 20 years has killed more than 100 million North America ash trees, with nearly 99% of infested trees succumbing to the beetle.

Only the Oregon ash is native to Oregon, a species important to riparian areas across the Willamette Valley and beyond. But dozens of other ash species are planted throughout Oregon cities, and all are at risk.

In Eugene alone, there are more than 9,000 ash trees on city streets and in city parks, according to EugeneUrban Forestry SupervisorEric DeBord. Ash trees make up about 8.5% of the city's approximately 65,000 street trees, or about 5,500 of the total.

In Salem, about 1,700 of the 32,000 street trees the city urban forester has inventoried are species of ash that are vulnerable to the emerald ash borer.

It is not known exactly how many ash trees are growing throughout the state or in local natural areas.

The discovery of EAB in Forest Grove in Washington County triggered the use of a statewide response plan to contain the damage. As of July 26, the Oregon Invasive Species Council Hotline had received 174 potential reports of EAB, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. ODF is not tracking reports made to other agencies, but is aware that many have been made.

A major focus this summer is determining the extent of the EAB infestation in Washington County and following up on any leads about other possible locations as they are reported, according to ODF. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is placing traps in the Forest Grove area and engaging withODF,Tualatin and Columbia Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Clean Water Services and the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Center.

ODFs urban forestry program is also working to get information to urban foresters in cities and towns, according to ODF. Staff hosted a well-attended webinar on EAB July 21 for urban foresters around the state. ODF is encouraging cities that dont know how many ash trees they have to quickly inventory their trees to help them assess their risk from EAB.

ODF has also held in-person information-sharing meetings at the first-reported infestation site with OSU Forestry Extension, local officials from Forest Grove and Washington County conservation and soil and water agencies, he said.

While ODF and other agencies want help from the public tracking down EAB, resources are limited and the hunt can be best helped when reports are made by those who know what to look for. The OISC hotline online allows uploading of photos of tree damage and specimens so reports can be evaluated and specimens passed to experts for confirmation.

ODF reported one additional emerald ash borer-infested tree has been discovered near the original detection in Forest Grove because of a hotline report. No other investigated reports as of July 27 were confirmed to be EAB, according to ODF.

To the layperson, many other beetle species that are metallic green can look similar to invasive emerald ash borer, ODF forest entomologist Christine Buhl said in an email.

Keep in mind:

The most common beetles that people confuse with EAB are some of our natives, such as:

"Look closely at side-by-side images and you can see there are size, shape and color differences. These two beetles also do not attack ash. Instead, they feed on conifers, but are not major pests," Buhl said.

A number of species native to Oregon are in the same genus (Agrilus) as emerald ash borer and are also confused for them include:

"These other species closely resemble EAB in shape and size but are brown or blue-ish (not green), and none attack ash. They are considered secondary pests of other kinds of broadleaved trees. Buhl said they're viewed as indicators of preexisting tree stress on their preferred hosts, not primary causes of tree death," Buhl said.

"Color is a key identifier since EAB is the only beetle in the Northwest that is entirely brilliant emerald green," Buhl said. "The rest are more pale green, brown or green with stripes of other colors. Entomologists use keys based on physiological features to more accurately make an identification."

The preferred hosts of non-EAB beetles that look somewhat like EAB are other broadleaved or cone-bearing trees.

"Some are generalists feeding on a variety of trees and others feed only on one type of tree," she said. "Typically they infest trees that are already dying or dead. They help decompose those trees, speeding up the recycling of nutrients from the dead wood into the forest. Bronze birch borer, however, can attack stressed birch trees and cause their death."

"All of these non-EAB species are harmless to people, pets and animals. In some cases they are beneficial in helping break down wooden snags to build forest soils," Buhl explained.

"Some, such as bronze birch borer and flat-headed fir borer, are often found in stressed trees and can add to a trees stress. But they are usually unable to develop in healthy trees and must take advantage of dead, dying and heavily stressed trees. Bronze birch borer is attracted to drought-stressed birch trees and can hasten their death. But those trees would likely have died eventually on their own due to heat and drought stress."

"Definitely not," Buhl said. "They are harmless to people, pets and animals. Some wood-boring insects can be found in dying trees but they arent the cause of the trees death they are only in the trees because those trees are dying or died from other causes.

"Also, many wood borers are useful in helping wood decay faster to return nutrients back to the forest floor for other plants to use.

"In addition, the metallic wood-boring beetle family includes some of Oregons most spectacular insects, well-deserving of the other name for the family: the jewel beetles."

It's expected EAB will continue to spread throughout Oregon over the coming years, though the peak season for the beetle to emerge from trees will end with the summer.

Ash trees that look to be in decline may be an indicator EAB is present, and D-shaped holes on the truck are clear signs the invasive beetle has emerged from the tree.

Oregonians who suspect they've found an infested tree or an specimen they are confident is EAB should contact the Oregon Invasive Species Council Hotline. Reports can be made by calling 1-866-INVADER or online at https://oregoninvasiveshotline.org and click on "Report Now."

Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.

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Identify emerald ash borer and native lookalikes differences - The Register-Guard

Where to Watch and Stream Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics Free Online – EpicStream

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Cast: Nick OffermanSarah SilvermanAdam ScottRosie PerezAdam Horovitz

Geners: Documentary

Director: Donick Cary

Release Date: May 11, 2020

Celebrities recall their most mind-bending trips via animations, reenactments and more in this comedic documentary exploring the story of psychedelics.

This one's easy. Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is currently available to stream on Netflix. The popular streaming platform is home to many original series as well as classic movies and television shows.In the improbable case that you don't have Netflix, and don't know someone who does, a subscription starts at $9.99.

At the time of writing, Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not available to stream on Hulu through the traditional account which starts at $6.99.However, if you have the HBO Max extension on your Hulu account, you can watch additional movies and shoes on Hulu. This type of package costs $14.99 per month.

Disney Plus is expanding, but their branding is still quite specific, and Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is currently not available to stream there. With Disney+, you can have a wide range of shows from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney+, Pixar, ESPN, and National Geographic to choose from in the streaming platform for the price of $7.99 monthly or $79.99 annually.

Sorry, Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not available on HBO Max. There is a lot of content from HBO Max for $14.99 a month, such a subscription is ad-free and it allows you to access all the titles in the library of HBO Max. The streaming platform announced an ad-supported version that costs a lot less at the price of $9.99 per month.

Unfortunately, Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not available to stream for free on Amazon Prime Video. However, you can choose other shows and movies to watch from there as it has a wide variety of shows and movies that you can choose from for $14.99 a month.

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not available to watch on Peacock at the time of writing. Peacock offers a subscription costing $4.99 a month or $49.99 per year for a premium account. As their namesake, the streaming platform is free with content out in the open, however, limited.

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not on Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus has two subscription options: the basic version ad-supported Paramount+ Essential service costs $4.99 per month, and an ad-free premium plan for $9.99 per month.

No dice. Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics isn't streaming on the Apple TV+ library at this time. You can watch plenty of other top-rated shows and movies like Mythic Quest, Tedd Lasso, and Wolfwalkers for a monthly cost of $4.99 from the Apple TV Plus library.

No luck. Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics is not available to watch on Direct TV. If you're interested in other movies and shows, Direct TV still has plenty of other options that may intrigue you.

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Where to Watch and Stream Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics Free Online - EpicStream

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychedelics, Neurodevelopment and Electrophysiology job with UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY | 303322 – Times Higher Education

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About the opportunity

The Drug Discovery Initiative and the School of Chemistry is seeking a motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow with prior experience in behavioural and molecular neuroscience. This exciting opportunity involves investigating how psychedelic molecules impact the neurodevelopment in preclinical models of disease. The successful applicant will work under the supervision of Professor Michael Kassiou, and Dr Eryn Werry from the Drug Discovery Initiative in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

The Drug Discovery Initiative aspires to enable improved health outcomes through innovative drug discovery. Its mission is to design and develop innovative tools and techniques for identifying novel therapeutic targets, delivery mechanisms and bioactive molecules with high potential for industry uptake and clinical translation. By providing an overarching framework that links aligned areas of research strength from across the University, the Initiative will accelerate impactful research and enhance multi-disciplinary collaboration both within the University community and with broader health industry partners.

The School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney is a leading Chemistry department in the country, with outstanding staff and students undertaking world-leading teaching and research. With more than 30 academic staff, 100 research staff, and 100 research students we conduct research across the full spectrum of pure and applied chemistry. Our research excellence is recognised by numerous prizes and awards to individual staff members and the award of almost $10 million in research funding each year. With the support of over 30 professional, technical and administrative staff, the School of Chemistry administers and delivers undergraduate teaching for more than 3 000 students. We are committed to creating a diverse workplace by improving equity, access and opportunity, and we are continuously working to identify and remove biases and barriers in an effort to make our workplace open, supportive and safe for everyone.

To learn more about the Drug Discovery Initiative, click here

About you

The University values courage and creativity; openness and engagement; inclusion and diversity; and respect and integrity. As such, we see the importance of recruiting talent aligned to these values and are looking for a

Postdoctoral Research Fellow who has:

Essential Experience:

Preferred Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

To keep our community safe, please be aware of our COVID safety precautions which form our conditions of entry for all staff, students and visitors coming to campus.

Sponsorship / work rights for Australia

Please note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Australian Temporary Residents currently employed at the University of Sydney may be considered for a fixed term contract for the length of their visa, depending on the requirements of the hiring area and the position.

Pre-employment checks

Your employment is conditional upon the completion of all role required pre-employment or background checks in terms satisfactory to the University. Similarly, your ongoing employment is conditional upon the satisfactory maintenance of all relevant clearances and background check requirements. If you do not meet these conditions, the University may take any necessary step, including the termination of your employment.

EEO statement

At the University of Sydney, our shared values include diversity and inclusion and we strive to be a place where everyone can thrive. We are committed to creating a University community which reflects the wider community that we serve. We deliver on this commitment through our people and culture programs, as well as key strategies to increase participation and support the careers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, women, people living with a disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and those who identify as LGBTIQ. We welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds.

How to apply

Applications (including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation) can be submitted via the Apply button at the top of the page.

For employees of the University or contingent workers, please login into your Workday account and navigate to the Career icon on your Dashboard. Click on USYD Find Jobs and apply.

For a confidential discussion about the role, or if you require reasonable adjustment or support filling out this application, please contact Helen Efstathiou, Recruitment Consultant. Recruitment Operations, Human Resources on +61 2 8627 7137 or by emailrecruitment.sea@sydney.edu.au

The University of Sydney

The University reserves the right not to proceed with any appointment.

Click to view the Position Description for this role.

Applications Close

Wednesday 17 August 2022 11:59 PM

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychedelics, Neurodevelopment and Electrophysiology job with UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY | 303322 - Times Higher Education

COVID-19 Daily Update 8-4-2022 – West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

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The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of August 4, 2022, there are currently 3,036 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There have been four deaths reported since the last report, with a total of 7,173 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 93-year old female from Marion County, a 75-year old male from Harrison County, a 78-year old male from Mercer County, and a 98-year old female from Harrison County.

Each death of a West Virginian is a loss felt by all, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. We extend our sincere condolences to these families and encourage all eligible individuals to get vaccinated and boosted.

CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (48), Berkeley (161), Boone (50), Braxton (17), Brooke (28), Cabell (144), Calhoun (8), Clay (6), Doddridge (8), Fayette (83), Gilmer (9), Grant (8), Greenbrier (69), Hampshire (33), Hancock (32), Hardy (47), Harrison (109), Jackson (41), Jefferson (77), Kanawha (267), Lewis (21), Lincoln (45), Logan (81), Marion (91), Marshall (62), Mason (53), McDowell (50), Mercer (137), Mineral (37), Mingo (56), Monongalia (123), Monroe (45), Morgan (21), Nicholas (38), Ohio (73), Pendleton (7), Pleasants (7), Pocahontas (13), Preston (23), Putnam (113), Raleigh (180), Randolph (17), Ritchie (13), Roane (37), Summers (22), Taylor (25), Tucker (12), Tyler (13), Upshur (35), Wayne (55), Webster (19), Wetzel (13), Wirt (9), Wood (198), Wyoming (47). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.

West Virginians ages 6 months and older are recommended to get vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19. Those 5 years and older should receive a booster shot when due. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over who are 4 months or greater from their first booster are recommended, as well as for younger individuals over 12 years old with serious and chronic health conditions that lead to being considered moderately to severely immunocompromised.

Visit the WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator, a free, online tool that helps individuals figure out when they may be due for a COVID-19 shot, making it easier to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.

To locate COVID-19 testing near you, please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 8-4-2022 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

COVID-19 update as of Aug. 4: Cook County stays in high community risk level, Evanston in the medium risk level – Evanston RoundTable

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The total number of new cases of COVID-19 in Evanston was 163 for the week ending Aug. 3, compared to 185 for the week ending July 28, a decrease of 12%. The seven-day average of new cases in the state also decreased by 12%; hospitalizations declined by 4%.

Cook County, including Chicago, remained in the high community risk level. City officials say Evanston is in the medium risk level.

The number of new cases being reported is significantly lower than the actual number of new cases being contracted because many new cases are not being reported. [1] Some researchers estimate that the actual number of new cases is between six and ten times higher than the number being reported.

Illinois: On Aug. 4, the number of new cases in the state was 4,149.

The seven-day average of new cases in Illinois on Aug. 4 was 4,345, down from 4,962 on July 28, a12.4% decrease. The chart below shows the trend.

Evanston: Evanston reported there were 28 new COVID-19 cases of Evanston residents on Aug. 3. (Evanston is reporting COVID-19 data with a one-day delay.)

There was a total of 163 new COVID-19 cases of Evanston residents in the week ending Aug. 3, compared to 185 new cases in the week ending July 28, a decrease of 12%.

The chart below shows the trend.

No Evanstonians died due to COVID-19 during the week ending July 28. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at 155.

Northwestern University. The latest data reported on NUs website shows that between July 22 and July 28, there were 65 new COVID-19 cases of faculty, staff or students. Cases of Evanston residents are included in Evanstons data for the relevant period, Ike Ogbo, Director of Evanstons Department of Health and Human Services, told the RoundTable. NU will update its data tomorrow.

The weekly number of new cases per 100,000 people in Illinois is 239 in the seven days ending Aug. 4.

As of Aug. 3, the weekly number of new cases per 100,000 people in Evanston was 220. As of Aug. 4, the number was 211 for Chicago, and 226 for Suburban Cook County. An accompanying chart shows the trend.

There were 1,416 hospitalizations in Illinois due to COVID-19 on Aug. 3, compared to 1,476 one week ago.

The chart below, prepared by the City of Evanston, shows the trends in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 at the closest two hospitals serving Evanston residents.

The CDC and IDPH look at the combination of three metrics to determine whether a community level of risk for COVID-19 is low, medium, or high. They are: 1) the total number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last 7 days; 2) the new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 in the last 7 days; and 3) the percent of staffed inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. [2]

The City of Evanston reported this evening, Aug. 4, that Evanston is in the mediumrisk category. IDPH reported today that Cook County, including Chicago, is in the high risk category. Lake, DuPage, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties are also in the high risk category.

While Evanston has more than 200 new cases per 100,000 people, the city reported this evening that Evanston has a 7-day total of 5.12 new hospital admissions per 100,000 people, and that it has 2.61% staffed inpatient hospital beds that are occupied by COVID patients (using a 7-day average).

The city has not said which hospitals or how many hospitals it is considering in making its analysis of community risk.

The CDC and IDPH recommend that people in a community with a high transmission rate should take the following precautions:

FOOTNOTES

1/The City of Evanston says that the State, the County and the City do not have a mechanism to report, verify or track at home test results. Because a positive at home test is regarded as highly accurate, most people who test positive in an at home test do not get a second test outside the home that is reported to government officials. The number of new COVID-19 cases reported by IDPH and the City thus significantly understates the actual number of new cases that are contracted. Some studies estimate the cases are underestimated by 600% or more.

2/ CDC recommends the use of three indicators to measure COVID-19 Community Levels: 1) new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the last 7 days; 2) new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population in the last 7 days; and 3) the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by patients with confirmed COVID-19 (7-day average).

The chart below illustrates how these indicators are combined to determine whether COVID-19 Community Levels are low, medium, or high. The CDC provides many recommendations depending on whether the COVID-19 Community Level is low, medium, or high.

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COVID-19 update as of Aug. 4: Cook County stays in high community risk level, Evanston in the medium risk level - Evanston RoundTable

Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care after COVID-19 – Knox College

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The Mellon Foundation awarded $150,000 to Knox College for a research project entitled Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care after COVID-19. Cate Denial, Bright Distinguished Professor of American History, chair of History, and director of the Bright Institute, is the principal investigator.

Over the past two years, administrators, faculty, and staff have held higher education together with willpower and determination in the face of a global pandemic. The result, for many, has been burnout and exhaustion. This project responds to that crisis with a plan to identify, cultivate, and support national leadership in applying practices of compassion and care to working conditions in higher education. Denial will coordinate 36 individuals from community colleges, four-year institutions, regional states, and flagship research institutions, including online educators. These individuals, representing diverse social identities, will explore the meaning of, and opportunities within, a practice of care in the academy.

Im so grateful for the encouragement and support of the Mellon Foundation in funding this project, said Denial. Care and compassion offer a strong foundation from which to build, change, and rethink community as the pandemic continues. Faculty and staff working conditions are student learning conditions, making it particularly important to think critically about the ways in which we labor, and new approaches to work that will increase accessibility, employ trauma-informed practices, and evolve our pedagogies to affirm that care is at the center of what we do.

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Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care after COVID-19 - Knox College

Monkeypox can’t use the same at-home testing playbook as COVID-19 – The Verge

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After two years of COVID-19, the conversation around monkeypox testing gives off an unnerving sense of deja-vu. The similarities are right there: painful swabs, the struggle to even find a test, bottlenecks, and a long wait for results. But the diseases are different enough that experience with COVID-19 didnt give researchers much of a leg up in their efforts to improve the monkeypox testing process.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts bemoaned the lack of investment in rapid, at-home testing for various diseases in the United States. The thought was that if the infrastructure had been in place before the coronavirus emerged, it would have been easier to scale up testing and maybe help control the pandemic. Eventually, that scale-up happened anyway. Money and resources flooded into testing projects, and soon, at-home COVID-19 tests became ubiquitous. That experience was supposed to set the stage for a future with easy access to home tests for any number of diseases once they popped onto the scene.

Against that backdrop, it would seem that monkeypox might offer a perfect test case. Its an unfamiliar disease spreading rapidly, and theres high demand for tests. But monkeypox isnt the best benchmark for whether that future is going to materialize, says Ben Pinsky, the medical co-director for point of care testing at Stanford Health Care. Its a different enough infection, he says.

Monkeypox isnt a respiratory disease like COVID-19, where the nose and mouth are the clear targets both for the virus and for testing. Monkeypoxs telltale signs are painful, blister-like sores, and it can come with other symptoms like fever and muscle aches. Right now, monkeypox tests involve swabbing the sores that appear over the course of an infection. There arent at-home tests for other lesions like herpes, for example, Pinsky says. There is still a lot of work to do to figure out if people are able to successfully swab their own lesions, which could be painful or difficult, he says.

The reliance on lesions means that patients can only be tested once the telltale signs of the disease appear which is a sign they probably should be isolated from others anyway. Someone who was exposed to monkeypox and has a fever but no lesions wouldnt be able to take a test. People can test for COVID-19, on the other hand, without waiting for any specific symptoms to appear. Im a strong advocate for home testing of diseases, but you have to have the right sample at the right time, and we arent there yet, says Paul Yager, a professor in the department of bioengineering at the University of Washington, in an email to The Verge.

It might be possible to test for monkeypox through saliva or semen, according to one small study of 12 patients done in June. And some companies are working on tests that dont involve lesions at all. A California-based company, Flow Health, developed a saliva-based molecular test for monkeypox, which asks people to spit in a tube and then send in the sample for PCR testing.

The test is not authorized or approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Its offered through a program that lets certified labs develop and run their own in-house tests without going through the normal regulatory process. Right now, the FDA still says monkeypox tests should be run on lesions. The company is sharing its saliva test data with the FDA as the agency checks to see if it should update its guidance, Flow Health CEO Alex Meshkin told The Verge.

Theres still a lot of work to do in order to figure out how and when the monkeypox virus shows up in different parts of the body over the course of the disease, which will influence how effective and accurate tests that dont use lesions might be. If the monkeypox virus shows up in saliva before lesions develop, for example, then a saliva-based test could help flag the disease early on. But if it doesnt, that type of test might not be as useful. Meshkin says Flow Health has tested someone who closely interacted with monkeypox patients but didnt yet have lesions and that the tests of that person came up positive. Itll take testing more patients, though, to know for sure when and how the virus shows up.

Along with the science being different, the regulatory and political landscape around monkeypox also breaks from COVID-19. At the moment, monkeypox hasnt been declared a federal public health emergency in the United States. That changes the way various groups might go about developing tests. Right now, COVID-19 at-home tests are primarily available under emergency use authorizations an accelerated process that lets tests come to market more quickly during an emergency. Meshkin says Flow Health is prepared to file for an emergency use authorization if a public health emergency is declared, which reports say could come this week.

Without the emergency authorization, companies that do home testing arent able to take some of the same steps that they did during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also cant take the approach of Flow Health, which doesnt need FDA signoff to run saliva tests at its lab. An at-home test, by definition, doesnt use a lab to start diagnosing patients. Those factors may contribute to why many rapid testing platforms that sprang up in response to COVID-19 didnt pivot straight to monkeypox. Cue Health, which has a rapid molecular COVID-19 test, is working on a variety of diagnostics tests but didnt specify which they were, spokesperson Shannon Olivas said in an email to The Verge. Detect, which also has a rapid molecular COVID-19 test, said its in the concept phase for a monkeypox test, chief technology officer Eric Kauderer-Abrams said in an email to The Verge.

Those are all reasons why monkeypox testing takes more work than building directly on the COVID-19 experience. But they arent excuses. The health system could still have been far better prepared for this particular outbreak. The disease has been common in Africa for years, but global public health has largely failed to devote resources to understanding and preventing it. A Nigerian doctor who tried to raise alarms about the disease in 2017 wasnt taken seriously by officials and the international medical community. If thered been more attention to the disease over the past few years, infectious disease experts might have a better understanding of how the virus affects the body giving them the type of information theyd need to develop easier home tests more quickly.

Even if we set aside home testing and the logistical differences between the two diseases, youd think that, after two years of a brutal pandemic, the US would have learned how urgent testing can be to get a handle on an infectious disease outbreak. Theres still more demand for testing than there are tests available, and some people who suspect they have the disease are being dismissed by doctors while they struggle to manage painful symptoms. Unlike the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, monkeypox is a known disease with existing tests, treatments, and vaccines, but the sluggish response to US outbreaks shows just how few lessons the public health system has learned even after a two-year crash course in how disease can disrupt the world.

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Monkeypox can't use the same at-home testing playbook as COVID-19 - The Verge

Covid-19, Gender And Immune Response: What’s The Relationship? (Part Two) – Forbes

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This is the second installment in a two part series which analyzes biological sex differences in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Part one focuses primarily on Covid-19 related viral entry, innate and adaptive immune responses to Covid-19 and their correlation to epidemiological evidence. This article will highlight the role of sex hormones in SARS-CoV-2 immune responses, examine sex differences in response to vaccines, and consider their possible therapeutic implications.

Paper cut out illustration of a man and a woman facing each other

Covid-19 disease severity and mortality differ between men and women, but the reasons for such differences are not well understood. Part one of this series delves into sex differences in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and notes how stronger immune responses seen in females likely contribute to the better outcomes observed. This second and final installment will analyze two more elucidating factors: the role of sex hormones on SARS-CoV-2 immune responses and sex differences in immune responses to vaccines. These components, in particular, pose potential therapeutic directions for treating and understanding Covid-19.

Sex Hormones and SARS-CoV-2 Immune Responses

FIGURE 1: Men possess higher levels of androgens such as testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Women, in contrast, have elevated levels of estrogen and progesterone. The first section of this article will concentrate on the role of androgens, estrogen and progesterone on Covid-19 disease progression and outcomes.

Androgens

In their review The Immune Response to Covid-19: Does sex matter?, Ho et al. analyze the complex relationship between sex hormones and SARS-CoV-2 immune response. They first consider androgenssuch as testosterone and dihydrotestosteronewhich males possess higher levels of than females.

Ho et al. find that androgen receptor expression may impact two essential enzymes to SARS-CoV-2 viral entry: furin and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2). Furin is a calcium-dependent enzyme which cleaves the spike protein into the configuration needed for priming and activation. Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) primes the SARS-CoV-2 protein for entry into host cells. The theory is, since increased androgen receptor expression can upregulate furin and TMPRSS2, the higher androgen receptor expression seen in men increases their susceptibility to severe forms of Covid-19.

Although the clinical association observed between androgenic alopecia and severe Covid-19 would suggest this mechanism to be true, studies on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in prostate cancer patients with Covid-19 do not necessarily support this claim. Androgen deprivation therapy reduces the number of androgen receptors available for activation through medicine or surgery. The therapy was expected to decrease androgen receptor expression in prostate cancer patients with Covid-19, thereby restricting androgen regulation of TMPRSS2 and reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In contrast to this notion, the treatment did not improve infection risk, ICU admission, hospitalization or mortality in comparison to controls.

Randomized clinical trial results with antiandrogens, medicines which block androgen receptors and inhibit androgen synthesis, further complicate these associations. One randomized controlled trial revealed that Covid-19 patients given nitazoxanide/azithromycin therapy with antiandrogen dutasteride experienced decreased viral shedding, inflammatory markers and time-to-remission compared with placebo; another found that antiandrogen proxoludamine reduced the 30-day hospitalization rate and risk ratio amongst men with Covid-19. On the other hand, a third trial with enzalutamide increased Covid-19 related hospitalization stay.

Male sex steroids seem to perform varying roles with respect to Covid-19. The culminating conclusion from these studies suggests that both low and high androgen levels can correlate with poor Covid-19 prognoses. As Ho et al. state in their review, further investigation in this arena is needed.

Estrogens

Female sex hormone estrogen appears to mediate several beneficial immune responses. A study of hospitalized Covid patients correlated higher estradiol levels to decreased disease severity. And as mentioned in part one, estrogen promotes strong immune responses in women and likely contributes to the observed discrepancy in innate and adaptive immune responses between sexes.

Inflammation in female innate immune responses reduces when estrogen activates anti-inflammatory cytokines, inhibits the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-B) pathway, and decreases the release of inflammatory cytokines. Women also have better priming of adaptive immune responses to viruses. This is thought to be influenced by estrogen; estrogen can help regulate immune cells called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) which, in turn, promote the production of interferon alpha, an important antiviral cytokine in innate immunity. These mechanisms may translate to the better disease outcomes witnessed in women than men with Covid-19.

Estrogen has also been found to regulate several proteins which are involved in SARS-CoV-2 viral entry: furin, TMPRSS2, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and a disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17). It, too, suppresses immune enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), thereby blocking another potential means of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry.

Researchers are exploring possible therapeutic applications for estrogen in Covid-19 interventions. Two examples include a study on the effect of selective estrogen receptor modulators on Covid-19, and a randomized control trial analyzing the efficacy of an estradiol/progesterone therapy in reducing disease severity in hospitalized Covid patients.

Progesterone

Ho et al. complete their study of sex hormones in Covid-19 with progesterone. Progesterone levels tend to be higher in women than men and are associated with general anti-inflammatory effects. These anti-inflammatory effects include but are not limited to the ability to increase T regulatory cells, enhance antiviral immune pathways and disrupt endocytic pathways used by viruses to enter host cells. It is hypothesized, therefore, that progesterone may decrease the risk of hyperinflammation and SARS-CoV-2 related cytokine storm.

There is therapeutic potential in administering progesterone to treat Covid-19. A study of hypoxemic men hospitalized with Covid-19 observed that short term subcutaneous progesterone decreased hospitalization stay and supplemental oxygen needed. Additional research is needed to understand the specific mechanisms at work and its promising impacts on Covid-19 treatments.

Sex Differences in Vaccine Immune Responses

Vaccines are crucial to Covid-19 control and have been invaluable in reducing lives lost to severe forms of the disease. As a result, Ho et al. emphasize the importance of understanding sex differences in response to Covid-19 vaccines. They state, sex differences should be taken into account as a biological variable for adjusting sex-personalized vaccine dosage and considering vaccine efficiency.

These considerations seem most pertinent to women. Two studies, one systematic review and one meta analysis, found that vaccination prevented Covid-19 disease less effectively in women than in men. Similarly, a 2021 CDC report observed that women received 61% of administered Covid-19 vaccines at the time yet accounted for 79% of adverse events. The discrepancies in vaccine response could be due to several factorsage, hormonal differences (as explored in this article) and sex differences intrinsic to SARS-CoV-2 immune response (see part one of this series)but more studies are needed to clarify these possible correlations.

Conclusions

Contemporary research reveals that sex hormones and biological sex do influence immune responses and vaccines, although specific mechanisms have yet to be fully understood. Ho et al. call for biological sex to be considered in basic, translational and clinical Covid-19 research. More extensive research on biological sex and Covid-19 could open potential therapeutic avenues and improve the specificity of those strategiesbe it through the use of sex hormone therapies or through the adjustment of vaccine dosage based on gender.

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Covid-19, Gender And Immune Response: What's The Relationship? (Part Two) - Forbes