To understand how rich billionaires really are, use this calculator – The Guardian

Posted on by

We all know Jeff Bezos is very rich but wouldnt you love to know how long it would take him to, for example, earn your entire years salary, tackle your entire student debt or pay off your mortgage?

A new website will you give you these exact numbers, as they apply to Bezos and 14 other tech moguls. The company a text messaging company says it uses data on salary, bonuses, earnings from equity and other forms of compensation from 2019 SEC filings to let you calculate just how quickly people like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Susan Wojcicki of YouTube and Reed Hastings of Netflix could pay off all of your expenses.

The data tells us the 15 best-paid CEOs in tech have a combined annual income of over $83bn which is greater than the entire gross domestic product of hundreds of countries.

Tech moguls are now so rich that its not unusual to see shocking comparisons that demonstrate exactly how egregious their salaries are. When Bezos was touted to soon become the worlds first trillionaire (he isnt yet but his net worth of $144bn puts him on track to become one by 2026), we learned he was richer than entire countries and later also found out he was richer than combined countries (to take an example: Jamaica, Iceland, Tunisia and Estonia).

Remember when Elizabeth Warren helped billionaires calculate how much they would pay under her ultra-millionaire tax proposals, and it was pointed out that under her plan, even after tax, Bill Gates would still be a billionaire 60 years from now? Oh, and that time we learned that Zuckerberg takes about two minutes to earn the average US yearly wage?

Now that I know Bezos earns my entire salary in under a minute, it does make the additional $2 an hour that Amazon employees briefly received for working during the pandemic seem even more paltry. (Bezos has now ended that entitlement, despite the virus still raging across the US.)

As for Elon Musk, he could pay my monthly rent after less than 30 minutes of work which makes you wonder why he violated Californias stay-at-home order to keep Teslas factory open, and why he sued local authorities after he was forced to shut it. We can all understand how eager he must be to continue his work (particularly his pressing mission to, er, colonize Mars) but a global pandemic feels like a good moment for pause.

Then again, when you have so much money, it may just not matter: Musks net-worth is almost 20 times the entire budget of the county he sued.

Continued here:

To understand how rich billionaires really are, use this calculator - The Guardian

Elon Musk’s SpaceX: We now want to bring Starlink internet from space to 5 million in US – ZDNet

Posted on by

Elon Musk's SpaceX has applied for a license to roll out five million 'UFO on a stick' end-user terminals, after 700,000 US residents signed up to be updated about the service's availability.

"SpaceX seeks to increase the number of fixed earth stations authorized under this blanket license from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000," the company said in an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The FCC in March approved SpaceX's request to operate one million end-user terminals in the US. Then in June the company invited potential customers to register their interest in Starlink broadband by providing their email address and zip code.

SEE:Hiring Kit: Autonomous Systems Engineer (TechRepublic Premium)

SpaceX told the FCC it is applying for five million end-user terminals "due to the extraordinary demand for access to the Starlink non-geostationary orbit satellite system".

The invite was opened as part of SpaceX's plan to launch the Starlink public beta in North America in the coming month, by which time it will have put into orbit just 600 of the 12,000 satellites the FCC has approved for launch.

"Despite the fact that SpaceX has yet to formally advertise this system's services, nearly 700,000 individuals represented in all 50 states signed up over a matter of just days to register their interest in said services at http://www.starlink.com," SpaceX said in its new application.

"To ensure that SpaceX is able to accommodate the apparent demand for its broadband internet access service, SpaceX Services requests a substantial increase in the number of authorized units."

SpaceX filed for the new authorization on July 31, one day after the FCC approved Amazon's Project Kuiper application to launch 3,236 broadband beaming satellites. Amazon plans to open its service once 578 Kuiper satellites have been launched.

While none of the nearly 700,000 people is yet a Starlink subscriber, the volume of early interest in Starlink satellite broadband reflects both Musk's marketing nous and the number of people in the US population who aren't satisfied with existing broadband options.

House Democrats in June announced a proposal to overhaul the current FCC definition of broadband by reclassifying 25Mbps download speeds as 'unserved' as part of a $100bn fiber broadband rollout.

SEE: From Earth to orbit with Linux and SpaceX

Elon Musk has said SpaceX needs about 400 Starlink satellites to provide "minor" coverage and 800 for "moderate" coverage in North America. He's also said that Starlink will cater to just 3% to 4% of the population in unserved and underserved areas, but that it would not be suitable for dense urban environments due to bandwidth limitations.

For the section of the population it does serve, SpaceX claims it will offer high-speed broadband with an estimated latency of less than 50 milliseconds.

Also in June it asked the FCC for approval to launch a further 30,000 second generation satellites.

Originally posted here:

Elon Musk's SpaceX: We now want to bring Starlink internet from space to 5 million in US - ZDNet

Russian Indigenous groups call on Elon Musk not to buy battery metals from Nornickel – The Independent Barents Observer

Posted on by

The company that recently made international headlines for causing environmental disasters on the Taimyr Peninsula by spilling 20,000 tons of diesel fuel into a river in the fragile Arctic ecosystems is under increased pressure.

In a letter to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the Aborigen Forum urgehim not to buy nickel, copper and other products from Nornickel until the company conducts a full and independent assessment of the environmental damage caused by its production.

This week, The Barents Observer could tell the story about dying tree leaves caused by massive air-pollutionover a several square kilometers large area near Nornickels smelters in Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula.

In the letter, the Aboriginal-Forum describes environmental pollution as routine occurrencepointing to the river oil spill on the Taimyr Peninsula as an on-going environmental disaster, but not an isolated incident.

The lands of indigenous people appropriated by the company for industrial production now resemble a lunar landscape, and traditional use of these lands isno longer possible, the letter to Musk reads.

Indigenous peoples in the Murmansk region is the Smi, while the Nentsy, Nganasan, Entsy, Dolgan and Evenki live on the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia.

With mines and metallurgical factories one the Taimyr Peninsula and in the Murmansk region, Nornickel is the worlds largest nickel producer and ranks among the top ten copper producers. It also produces cobalt. All three minerals are important components in the current booming battery production for electric vehicles.

Teslas Elon Musk recently called on miners to produce more nickel. Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,he said in a plea tomining companies quoted by Bloomberg.

It is about 75 kilograms of nickel in an average Tesla Model S battery pack. The metal makes batteries energy dense so vehicles can drive further on a single charge. Tesla sold 367,500 cars last year and production is ramping up with new factories in China, Germany and Texas.

Other carmakers, like VW, BMW, Hyundai and others, are all rushing to secure raw materials for battery cars believed to count for millions of new vehicles annually within the next few years.

Dmitry Berezhkov is one of the experts working with the Aborigen-Forum network in Russia. He says to The Barents Observer it is difficult for the indigenous peoples to have their voices heard.

It is not only difficult, It became impossible during the recent years,he says.

Russia is building a new Arctic industrial reality rapidly and indigenous people are not considered in these activities at all.

Berezhkov names Russian authorities international statements about respect for indigenous peoples as propaganda, and especially so in the Arctic Council where Kremlin, according to him, has full control of the voices from the official Russian indigenous peoples representatives.

Moscow takes over the Chair of the Arctic Council in 2021 for a two-year period.

In reality, they dont pay any attention to indigenous peoples rights on the ground, Dmitry tells.

He hopes the letter to Elon Musk could help.

Nobody knows where Tesla gets the battery metals from as the company doesnt disclose its suppliers. But we consider Musks request to nickel producers as an occasion to pay attention to the environmental degradation of indigenous peoples traditional lands, Dmitry Berezhkov says.

The Aborigen Forum asks battery car makers not to buy metals from Nornickel until the company prepares and implements a plan for re-cultivating contaminated lands on the Taimyr Peninsula and in the Murmansk region.

Also, Nornickel should revise its policies for engaging with indigenous peoples, making new guidelines based in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the network writes.

As previously reported by The Barents Observer,Nornickel is cooperating with German chemicals producer BASF on a factory in Finland for battery components to carmakers in Europe. Nornickel will supply nickel and cobalt.

Visit link:

Russian Indigenous groups call on Elon Musk not to buy battery metals from Nornickel - The Independent Barents Observer

The NY Times and Elon Musk Deal With Bolivia – Fair Observer

Posted on by

Maria Silvia Trigo and Anatoly Kurmanaev have penned an article for The New York Times that describes the dramatic protests in Bolivia against the interim government. As so often in NYT articles, the content reveals more about the newspaper itself than about the topic it analyzes.

Treating the current instability in Bolivia with the perspective acquired 10 months after the ouster of Evo Morales, the former president, should have provided a perfect opportunity to review the complex drama surrounding that coup. Instead, the authors chose to describe the dramatic events unfolding today as a simple contest between two opposing groups. The article reports on the roadblocks organized by anti-government protesters that have paralyzed several cities in Bolivia. It cites two motives behind the protests: to challenge the delay of general elections and rebuke the governments poor response to the coronavirus pandemic.

READ MORE

The authors have reduced an existential geopolitical drama to little more than a vigorous election campaign between two sides with contrary views of the best way of governing. They do take the trouble to mention, in a single sentence, the crucial spark that set off the crisis: Mr. Morales, Bolivias first Indigenous president, was ousted from power in November after a fraught bid for a fourth term.

Here is todays 3D definition:

Fraught:

A convenient adjective to describe a situation characterized by factors that cause anxiety and stress leading to suffering while creating the impression that the reasons for the anxiety are inexplicable, there being no identifiable party responsible for either the stress or the suffering, which also may simply be imaginary

The New York Times has an excellent reason for avoiding to delve into the complex facts behind Morales fraught bid for a fourth term. The Times itself not only misreported those facts at the time of Morales ouster, but the journal actively contributed to justifying a right-wing, anti-indigenous coup led by a fanatically evangelical Christian faction that the US government and its media supported under manifestly false pretenses.

The authors are skilled in The Times art of crafting reporting to get a political message across while hiding their own allegiances from view. In the sentence cited above Mr. Morales. was ousted from power the authors deftly use the passive construction to exclude any reference to how the ousting took place, by whom and with what objective. It was just something that happened, possibly on its own. The ouster was successful and now belongs to history. The passive mood removes any consideration of accountability.

In an earlier article published in June revealing the uncomfortable truth that the pretext for removing Morales was flawed, the authors also demonstrated their talent at carefully designing their wording to remove the question of agency: Mr. Moraless downfall paved the way to a staunchly right-wing caretaker government, led by Jeanine Aez, which has not yet fulfilled its mandate to oversee swift new elections.

Calling it Mr. Moraless downfall implies that, like Humpty Dumpty, the president teetered and fell off the wall. Nobody pushed him. The metaphor paved the way implies that the Anez government simply wandered innocently into a situation of Morales making and profited from it. Continuing to call it a caretaker government denies what most observers had noticed at least since January: that the right-wing former senator entered the presidential palace claiming a much bigger mandate, as Angus McNelly put it.

Finally, adding yet to the observation that the Anez government has not fulfilled its mandate fails to recognize the increasingly evident fact that it has no intention to keep its promise. The very idea of a mandate also obscures the more egregious fact that nobody actually issued a mandate. Back in the thick of events in November 2019, Kurmanaev, quoting Javier Corrales of Amherst College, described the position of the Anez faction: Without a popular mandate, they are pushing forward some of the most objectionable aspects of their agenda.

Then theres the question of possible US involvement, which The New York Times famously dislikes mentioning whenever left-wing governments fall. In the June article, the authors offered a single hint at the US State Departments likely involvement in the coup. The United States State Department quickly reacted to the O.A.S. [Organization of American States] statement, accusing electoral officials of trying to subvert Bolivias democracy, they wrote.

This leaves the impression that the US was nothing more than a neutral observer of the events that played out and that its only interest in the affair is safeguarding democracy. The same article highlighted the flawed accusations of electoral fraud that led to Morales ouster accusations put forward by the OAS, which is largely obedient to the US. Clearly, with hindsight, the US was quite content to see Bolivian democracy not only subverted but canceled.

The article concludes with the now traditional false balance or bothsidesism characteristic of NYT journalism. Referring to the strategic implications around the current protests and their possible political consequences, the authors quote Filipe Carvalho, a Washington-based analyst. Both sides are playing the pandemic for electoral gain, adding a new level of tensions, he said. This leads the journalists to the melancholy conclusion: Whoever wins will take control of a highly divided country in deep recession and few options to restart economic growth.

Anatoly Kurmanaevs article on December 5, 2019,began with this sentence: An independent international audit of Bolivias disputed election concluded that former President Evo Moraless officials resorted to lies, manipulation and forgery to ensure his victory.

On June 7 of this year, Kurmanaev and Maria Silvia Trigo provided an update with this explanation: A close look at Bolivian election data suggests an initial analysis by the O.A.S. that raised questions of vote-rigging and helped force out a president was flawed. Instead of pointing to politically interested deceit, they attributed everything to the fault of undue haste. Quoting Calla Hummel, a Bolivia observer at the University of Miami, they write, The issue with the O.A.S. report is that they did it very quickly.

As The Times reporters consistently skirted around the facts concerning Morales ouster, two other reporters, Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano, writing for Salon, have provided a more complete historical background. They have updated the history with a revealing story about how American interests have been involved in the Bolivian economy well before the dramatic events of 2019.

The authors call Morales ouster the lithium coup. In July, Elon Musk stepped up to the public witness box with a tweet that inadvertently provided evidence of the economic and political intrigue underlying Bolivias drama. The billionaire entrepreneur began by advising the American people against the evils of too much generosity. Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo, Musk opined on Twitter. This provoked the following response from a user called Armani: You know what wasnt in the best interest of people? the U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.

Instead of denying any connection with the coup, Musk defiantly tweeted: We will coup whoever we want. Deal with it. Apparently realizing that this might be interpreted as a confession of collusion, he later deleted the tweet.

This battle of tweets could be dismissed as just another example of Musks Trump-like irresponsible addiction to Twitter. It doesnt prove Teslas CEO had any hand in or knowledge of the events that led to the coup in Bolivia, though the lithium factor and Musks initiatives in South America would seem to point in that direction.

But Musks formulation of his message is revealing. He claims we have the right to foment coups. He begins by claiming to speak in the name of the interests of the [American] people. But the we he identifies with is not the people. Its US imperial power, a force that for more than a century has intervened against whoever we want as it has both successfully and unsuccessfully sought to overthrow any government guilty of showing a preference for the interest of its people to the detriment of American businesses.

On the day following Musks original tweet advising against a stimulus package following the economic downturn in the US, The New York Times Maureen Dowd published an interview with him in which she affirmed that he also really does want to save the world and make products that bring joy. In the end, thats how The Times has treated all the coups of the past. The rest of the world simply has to learn to deal with it.

*[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devils Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of The Daily Devils Dictionary on Fair Observer.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

The rest is here:

The NY Times and Elon Musk Deal With Bolivia - Fair Observer

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Chip Could Lead to a ‘Black Mirror’ Episode in Real Life: Experts Warn It Could be Hacked – Tech Times

Posted on by

The hype around Elon Musk's mysterious Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) is getting bigger as the billionaire tech CEO is slowly detailing how the chip would work, but experts have a warning: the chip, along with other neural interfaces, could be hacked.

(Photo : Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)Experts warn that brain-computer interface like the Neuralink chip could be hacked.

According to a Daily Mailreport, experts have issued a warning that hackers could target these BCIs, including Musk's Neuralink chip, to create a worse breach than anything else.

Based on the report, hackers could exploit the tech, read and steal thoughts and memories, and delete your skills, which could be easily mistaken for a Black Mirrorepisode--only that it could happen in real life.

Elon Musk has been working on Neuralink since 2016 when he first founded it.

Not much has been said about the company, nor the brain chip they have been working on except a few details that Musk has announced over his Twitter account.

Read Also: [BEWARE] China's All-Seeing Massive Surveillance Could Monitor Every 'Millimeter' of an Entire Population

But one thing is for sure: Musk said he has been developing the neural interface so that humans could compete with artificial intelligence and avoid a looming Singularity apocalypse, which is the theory that AI and robots will soon overtake people.

In a previous interview with the New York Times, Musk predicted that in the next five years, humankind could already be overtaken by AI, and although humanity won't become extinct, it could be "uncomfortable."

A few of the details that the tech CEO has shared via social media is the chip's ability to cure depression, change the wearer's mood, hear thingsthey weren't able to hear before, and even cure mobility problems, which could be helpful for people who have paralysis due to injured spines.

But while BCIs, specifically the Neuralink's chip, appears to be a great answer to many problems with our bodies, security experts are worried.

ZDNetreports that experts believe that cybercriminals would try and hack into these types of technologies, especially as they could use it to bring down large corporations to even nations as they could read the minds of political leaders, business executives, and such.

Furthermore, experts could soon use these neural chips as an authentication mechanism as our brain activities' patterns are incredibly unique.

They believe it could be used to permit access to sensitive data, which is why cybercriminals think it would be worthwhile to hack into these systems, despite the challenge they would face in replicating brain waves.

But in the event a hack takes place, what are the repercussions?

"What type of damage will [an attack] do to the brain, will it erase your skills or disrupt your skills? What are the consequences - would they come in the form of just new information put into the brain, or would it even go down to the level of damaging neurons that then leads to a rewiring process within the brain that then disrupts your thinking," said director of research Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam from the Waterford Institute of Technology's Telecommunication Software and Systems Group (TSSG).

To avoid these worst-case scenarios, manufacturers such as Musk's Neuralink would have to ensure the security of these interfaces by using all sorts of familiar measures to "ensure that no unauthorized person can modify their functionality."

Read Also: [VIDEO] Human Tongues Could Control Games, Phones, or Computer Through This Device!

This article is owned by TechTimes.

Written by: Nhx Tingson

2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

The rest is here:

Elon Musk's Neuralink Chip Could Lead to a 'Black Mirror' Episode in Real Life: Experts Warn It Could be Hacked - Tech Times

How did the American Jewish Congress hire a budding white nationalist? – Forward

Posted on by

A political activist with ties to white nationalists, who in June led a rally defending a statue of Teddy Roosevelt, worked recently as the marketing director of the American Jewish Congress, a century-old organization that was once the voice of working-class Jews on anti-Nazism and civil rights.

Gavin Wax, 26, is a graduate of Baruch College who became marketing director of the Congress in November, according to his LinkedIn page.

Wax declined to comment after being reached by phone.

Image by Twitter

Gavin Wax

He no longer works at the American Jewish Congress, although the organization did not fire him because of his political views, wrote Akri Cipa, a policy analyst at the Congress, in an email. Those views include strong anti-immigrant sentiment and support for white nationalist and right-wing extremist groups.

Cipa said the organization only learned about Waxs far-right views after being contacted Tuesday by the Forward. Cipa did not respond to a question about when Wax had been terminated.

But Waxs far-right views and affiliations were already a matter of public record when he was hired. Since October, 2018, he has been listed as a partner in the Yorkville Group, a political consultancy firm whose founder bragged about advising the anti-Muslim, Nazi-sympathizing German political party Alternative fur Deutschland. (The firms offices are located near the historically German Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville, which was the stronghold of the pro-Nazi German American Bund organization in the 1930s.)

Also in October, 2018, Wax also called the Proud Boys described by the ADL as a violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic extremist group as a patriotic fraternal group who like America and beer, in an American Thinker article.

More recently, Wax earned media coverage for planning and leading a rally defending the statue of Teddy Roosevelt on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History. The museum has asked permission from the city to remove the monument because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.

This is about much more than a statue, Wax said at the June 28 rally. You cant judge premodern people by postmodern standards of morality, because at that rate you wont have a history.

Image by Getty

The rally Wax planned on June 28 in defense of a statue of Teddy Roosevelt.

Cipa said Wax identifies as Jewish, and on Twitter Wax has called himself an Italian Jew.

In an emailed statement, the Congress wrote of Wax: We certainly never had any impression that he held any far-right, white supremacist sympathies nor would we have tolerated such views as this organization not only abhors extremism but actively works against its perpetrators. It strikes us as being unusual that someone with extremist views would want to work for a civil rights organization like the American Jewish Congress.

Waxs ties to far-right figures have grown stronger in recent months, according to a lengthy report on him in the blog Angry White Men.

In July, he appeared on a podcast run by VDARE, a white-nationalist and anti-immigrant website. He was interviewed by John Derbyshire, who was fired as a columnist at National Review in 2012 after including a racist statement about Black people in an article and who has written sympathetically about white supremacy.

On Twitter, Wax has praised Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Enoch Powell, the British politician who delivered the violently anti-immigrant Rivers of Blood speech in 1968, and has parroted conspiracy theories about George Soros, the Hungarian Jewish businessman and philanthropist.

Other Jews move in far-right activist circles. Laura Loomer emerged in 2016 as a far-right provocateur. (Loomer is currently running to unseat the Jewish Democrat Lois Frankel in Floridas 21st Congressional District.) Stephen Miller, a top White House aide, has pushed white nationalist ideas to the Conservative website Breitbart.

Waxs bio also lists that he is the publisher of The Schpiel, a right-wing news site.

The American Jewish Congress was once a major Jewish advocacy group that supported civil rights, and it remains in the Conference of Presidents, a consortium of the largest and most influential American Jewish organizations.

Jack Rosen, an investor and businessman, took control of the Congress in 2010 the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal, which crippled the organizations finances. Rosen retains a small staff for the Congress and has focused the organization primarily on support of Israel.

Rosen did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

Excerpt from:

How did the American Jewish Congress hire a budding white nationalist? - Forward

Recruiting for Utopia: Print and the Imagination Opens Next Month at Fruitlands Museum – ArtfixDaily

Posted on by

After design by Charles Fitch & Apollos Hale, Detail, A Chronological Chart of the Visions of Daniel & John, 1842, hand-tinted lithograph on cloth, 55 x 39 inches, J.V. Himes, Boston.Fruitlands Museum collection.

Boston & Harvard, MA Shana Dumont Garr and Fruitlands Museum have announced their newest exhibition, Recruiting for Utopia: Print and the Imagination, opening to the public September 5,2020 and running through March 2021. Recruiting for Utopia considers the influence of printed matter on Utopian thought in 1840s New England and encompasses both historical and contemporary sections.

Recruiting for Utopia is about how and why people share ideas that feel urgent and of the utmost importance in their time, notes organizing curator, Shana Dumont Garr. Today, in a relatively secular society, we might consider climate change to be comparable to the Biblical apocalypse that loomed in the fears of many nineteenth-century New Englanders. The exhibition focuses on the power of design to share a particular ethos and influence others.

Radical and alternative ideas were among the first to be distributed via the growing industry of print facilitated by new technology in the early 19th century. Inspired by the Millerite banners in the Fruitlands Museum collection, the focus of the historical portion of the exhibition illuminates the use of and message it shared, specifically the imminent, apocalyptic end of the world. Banners hung on tents and pamphlets shared at meetings were an important part of the Millerite message, with the group effectively sharing their message through print in the United States.

In addition to Millerite ephemera, subject matter from the Shakers and Transcendentalists are included in the exhibition. New England has always served as an incubator for alternative ways of society and Recruiting for Utopia incorporates wider themes, including early female spiritual and lay leaders in the United States whose influence we can trace with early testimonies, biographies, and even an anonymously published narrative. At a time when females having influence outside of the domestic sphere was rare, figures including Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) and Jemima Wilkinson (1752-1819) provide inspiring examples of early leading female leaders.

Accompanying the historical materials show, the contemporary section showcases the priorities of activism and community building still prevalent in New England today. Contemporary publications include the print of an Auction Block Memorial by Steve Locke, a Repatriation Comic by Sonya Atalay, Jen Shannon, and John G. Swagger, and a poster by Demian Dineyazhi. These materials will appear throughout the museum, including historical spaces. This part of the exhibition is co-curated by art historian Paige Johnston.

In addition, site-specific artwork by artist-in-residence Jane Marsching complements the significance of print both historically and now whilereferring directly to history reflected in Fruitlands Museums permanent collection. Marschingcreates large-scale banners with ink she made from plant materials foraged from the Fruitlands forest and printed on Tyvek, a collaborative process executed on the museum grounds. The banners feature quotes from authors in the Museums Transcendentalist archives as well as utopian thinkers from the mid-nineteenth century and today. These banners hang in trees through the landscape and connect the cultural landmarks of the Museum with its trail system.

Artist-in-Residence Maria Molteni creates a performance video within the museums 1790s Shaker Office. Developed in coordination with artists Allison Halter and Gabe C. Elder, the film incorporates the imagery of Shaker gift drawings or sacred sheets, spiritualism, and nature.

In conjunction with Recruiting for Utopia, concurrent and related exhibitions are also on display at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, also a Trustees reservation located in Lincoln, and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Visionary New EnglanddeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park | Lincoln, MA | October 8, 2020 March 14, 2021

Visionary, mystical, and utopian practices are crucial to New Englands culture, history, and character. From the experimental agrarian communities founded in the 1840s, such as Brook Farm andFruitlands, to the intersections of spiritualism and experimental psychology at the turn of the 20th century, New England has long developed alternative ways of nurturing community, personal growth, and societal reform. Related artists and writers frequently united their intimate connection to nature with a search for access to alternate dimensions or higher powers.

After Spiritualism: Loss and Transcendence in Contemporary ArtFitchburg Art Museum | Fitchburg, MA | Through September 6, 2020

The group exhibition offers an occasion to reflect on personal and shared losses through varied contemporary art practices. The works on view focus on trauma and mourning and is inspired by Spiritualisms aims to connect the living with the dead for comfort, guidance, and enlightenment.

About Fruitlands Museum

Fruitlands Museum, a property of the Trustees since 2016, is a historic, natural, and cultural destination in Harvard, MA. Founded in 1914 by author and preservationist Clara Endicott Sears, the Museum takes its name from an experimental utopian community that existed on this site in 1843 and was led by Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane. Fruitlands is dedicated to New England history, art, and nature, and its collections include: The Fruitlands Farmhouse, The Shaker Gallery, The Native American Gallery, and The Art Gallery. It is located on 210 acres of land with panoramic views of the Nashua River Valley, including 2.5 miles of meadows and woodland recreational trails. http://www.thetrustees.org/fruitlands.

About The TrusteesFounded in the city of Boston by landscape architect and open space visionary Charles Eliot in 1891, the Trustees is the nations first and the Commonwealths largest preservation and conservation non-profit. For more than 125 years, we have worked to preserve and protect dynamic natural and cultural sites from beaches and community gardens to farms, historic homesteads, designed landscapes, and hiking trails for public use and enjoyment. Today we are working to engage a larger constituency of Massachusetts residents, members, visitors, and public and private partners in our work to help protect our beloved and fragile natural, ecological, cultural, and coastal sites for current and future generations.

Excerpt from:

Recruiting for Utopia: Print and the Imagination Opens Next Month at Fruitlands Museum - ArtfixDaily

Utopia: Amazon Preview Shows Some Conspiracy Theories Are Real – Bleeding Cool News

Posted on by

WhileGone Girl author-screenwriter Gillian Flynn's upcoming Amazon Studios adaptation Utopia may still be listed as "Fall 2020" as its premiere window, that doesn't mean it's too early for a new set of preview images that we would like to say clear up everything and give us an easier understanding of what the series is all about. But they don't, and we don't think they were intended to. What they did do was confuse us in all the right ways, and curious to see how it all connects- so we're guessing "mission accomplished" (and just in case you don't believe us, there's something waiting for you mid-article that makes our case for us).

Utopia follows a group of young adults who meet online that are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel. Within the comic's pages, they discover the conspiracy theories may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique, and ironic position of saving the world. John Cusack(High Fidelity), Ashleigh LaThrop(Fifty Shades Freed), Rainn Wilson(The Office),Sasha Lane (American Honey), Javon "Wanna" Walton (Euphoria), Jessica Rothe(Happy Death Day 2U), Ashleigh LaThrop (Fifty Shades Freed), Dan Byrd (Cougar Town), Desmin Borges (You're The Worst), Farrah Mackenzie (Ascension), Christopher Denham (Billions), Felisha Terrell (Shooter), andDustin Ingram (Watchmen) star.

But that's not all. We're taking a brief break from the preview images to offer up the next two cryptic teasers, with their ominous captions: "First we reap, then we sow" and "A vial a day keeps the doctor at play."

Cusack's Dr. Kevin Christie is a charismatic, media-savvy, and brilliant biotech mind who wants to change the world through science. Wilson's Michael Stearns was once a promising virologist, now a forgotten scientist who's lost his edgeunder-appreciated and underfunded in his laboratory work. When a nationwide outbreak of a deadly flu arises, Michael offers his expertise, and soon finds he has landed smack in the middle of something much bigger. Lane's Jessica Hyde: tough and feral after a life on the run from a mysterious and dangerous group, Jessica believes all the answers about her perplexing life story may be hidden in the graphic novel Utopia. Walton's Grant is streetwise beyond his years, independent, fearless, crafty, and charming. Raised in the Kansas City projects by an alcoholic single mother, he's now roaming the streets alone.

Grant embarks on a dangerous mission to uncover the secrets from Utopia. Rothe's Samantha is extremely idealistic, sharp-witted, and a natural-born leader. She earnestly believes in changing the world through action and scoffs at cheap rhetoric about progress. She could school any comic book nerd about the graphic novel Utopia and is embarking on a mission to uncover its secrets. Terrell's Hailey Alvez is a sharp, rising star in journalism with a friendly air and affable manner. She interviews pharmaceutical giant Kevin Christie about his groundbreaking new product and asks some serious, pointed questions. Ingram's Tallman is extremely wealthy and eerily eccentric. A collector of priceless comic books, Tallman will go to great lengths to get his hands on the mysterious graphic novel, Utopia.

LaThrop's Becky is bright and big-hearted, using her kindness and empathy as a way to get closer to the graphic novel she desperately needs to save her life. Borges' Wilson Wilson is a brilliant, paranoid, and eccentric conspiracy theorist who is obsessed with Utopia and convinced that it hides more dark secrets about the very future of our world. Mackenzie's Alice is an adopted foster child who is bright and curious, with a steely resolve when challenged and thrown into the dangerous world of our Nerds. Denham's Arby is a shark-like menace who's emotionally stunted and socially disconnected but whose cold facade starts crumbling as he learns some dangerous truths about his childhood.

Created byDennis Kelly and produced by Endemol Shine Group's UK production studio Kudos, the original Utopia premiered on Channel 4 and aired for two seasons. Leadcharacter Jessica Hyde was portrayed byFiona O'Shaughnessy(Striking Out, My Mother and Other Strangers) Utopia is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America/Kudos and Amazon Studios. Flynn, Kelly, Jessica Rhoades, Kudos'Karen Wilson, and Diederick Santer, andSharon Hallwill executive produce. President of Unscripted & Scripted Television for Endemol Shine North AmericaSharon Levywill oversee production.

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought on board as staff in 2017.

twitter instagram envelope

Read the original here:

Utopia: Amazon Preview Shows Some Conspiracy Theories Are Real - Bleeding Cool News

Hey Look, There Are Some Cars In That New Animated Star Trek Show – Jalopnik

Posted on by

Screenshot: CBS / Jason Torchinsky

As you may be aware, the Start Trek franchise is finally taking a real stab at a show that doesnt take itself so damn seriously. I mean, yeah, I get that its wonderful to have a show about the future thats utopian and not the now-far-more-common dystopian hellscape, but even a utopia needs to get the piss taken from it every so often. The show Lower Decks intends to do that, and Ill let our pals at iO9 handle full reviews because I just want to talk about the fact that an actual car shows up in the pilot episode.

Of course, by actual car I mean something thats very much not an actual car, because not only is it fictitious, and wont exist until several centuries from now even if it wasnt fictional, its animated, so its just a bunch of drawings of a fake car thats from the future.

Still, it has actual (again, not actual actualwhy am I explaining fiction here? Get a grip, Jason) wheels, which, for a vehicle on a Star Trek show, is pretty rare.

Heres what it looks like:

G/O Media may get a commission

Huh. Thats kind of small. Hold on. Computer! Zoom and enhance!

Thats a little better. Lets try again. Computer! Uh, focus in on the coordinates with, um, the car, and zoom and enhance! Maximum resolution! Engage!

Oh good, much better.

Okay, so, lets see what were looking at here: its very much a utility vehicle type of design, with an open cab that I think seats four roughly human-shaped beings and with a short open truck bed at the rear.

Its got large wheels with lots of suspension travel and looks to be made to handle off-road use, which I suppose is smart since it may be used on planets without developed road networks.

If it looks kind of familiar, that may be because weve seen a vehicle like this at least once before in Star Trek, in the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis that, if I recall, kind of sucked? I dont really remember, to be honest.

The Nemesis vehicle, the Argo, was very similar in overall design, but a bit different in details. Still, I think the Lower Decks truck thing is pretty similar.

Having an open cab is kind of a strange choice for a multi-use, multi-planet ground vehicle when you think about it. If this thing could end up on all kinds of planets with all kinds of environments and climates, wouldnt you want to have an enclosed cab that could be heated or cooled as needed?

I mean, hell, at least a windshield would be a good idea, so you dont get any weird alien bugs slamming into your face, which could cause all kinds of problems. Hell, the plot of the first episode here revolves around problems from an alien insect!

The front end design is quite different from the Argo, too, with a larger, more prominent intake area for, presumably, cooling air and some lights, which of course would be useful. Theres no evidence of signal lights or anything like that, which I suppose makes sense given that these are not really designed for established road networks.

Maybe the lights are advanced enough to interface with local planetary databases and configure themselves to blink in whatever crazy alien color aliens like to use to indicate turns or other maneuvers.

Man, Id love to be an exoturnsignologist.

The instruments and controls seem to consist of a Starfleet-standard LCARS display in the center (perhaps with provision for Apple ShuttlePlay or Android Starship) and a yoke-like steering assembly that may also control throttle and brake.

If I had to guess what powered these things, Id go with some kind of microfusion reactor to produce electricity instead of batteries they seem to use those things for everything from little computers to vibrators, probably. Id imagine that these would provide power for these things for years and years of hard use.

The power from those reactors would power some suitably futuristic version of electric motors, likely one powering each wheel. Honestly, this type of machine would be absolutely trivial for Federation industry to crank out hell, we could basically build this thing today, albeit with batteries.

Aside from the open cab, I think these are smart vehicles to have available on a starship, and it always baffles me why wheeled vehicles werent more common on every other Star Trek show. How many times have we seen a team of Starfleet crewpeople in dress shoes and hot polyester pants beam down into the empty outskirts of some settlement or colony or whatever, and then have one of them look down at their little tricorder thing and announce oh, no biggie, we just have to walk five kilometers to the south or some shit?

Why dont any of them start bitching about how would it have killed them to beam them down some bikes, at least? Why dont they always beam down with a little vehicle to get around? Hell, they even had one on Firefly, and that was in a universe with much less advanced tech:

So, good for Lower Decks for including several good old wheeled vehicles on the show. We always sort of knew humble machines like these had to still have some role in this utopian future, and I suppose its fitting that it took a show about the unsung parts of the Star Trek universe to give old-school cars a place.

Maybe well get to see more alien cars! Its happened at least once before, after all.

See original here:

Hey Look, There Are Some Cars In That New Animated Star Trek Show - Jalopnik

Comforters Market with Competitive Analysis, New Business Developments and Top Companies: Utopia Bedding, AmazonBasics, Elegant Comfort, Comfort…

Posted on by

Latest Research Report: Comforters industry

Comforters Market report is to provide accurate and strategic analysis of the Profile Projectors industry. The report closely examines each segment and its sub-segment futures before looking at the 360-degree view of the market mentioned above. Market forecasts will provide deep insight into industry parameters by accessing growth, consumption, upcoming market trends and various price fluctuations.

This has brought along several changes in This report also covers the impact of COVID-19 on the global market.

Comforters Market competition by top manufacturers as follow: , Beckham Luxury Linens, Utopia Bedding, AmazonBasics, Elegant Comfort, Comfort Spaces, Linenspa, Cozy Beddings, Equinox International, Unique Home, ienjoy Home, Comfort

Get a Sample PDF copy of the report @ https://reportsinsights.com/sample/61029

Global Comforters Market research reports growth rates and market value based on market dynamics, growth factors. Complete knowledge is based on the latest innovations in the industry, opportunities and trends. In addition to SWOT analysis by key suppliers, the report contains a comprehensive market analysis and major players landscape.The Type Coverage in the Market are: SingleQueenKing

Market Segment by Applications, covers:HouseholdCommercial

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversNorth AmericaEuropeChinaRest of Asia PacificCentral & South AmericaMiddle East & Africa

To get this report at a profitable rate.: https://reportsinsights.com/discount/61029

Important Features of the report:

Reasons for buying this report:

Access full Report Description, TOC, Table of Figure, Chart, [emailprotected] https://reportsinsights.com/industry-forecast/Comforters-Market-61029About US:

Reports Insights is the leading research industry that offers contextual and data-centric research services to its customers across the globe. The firm assists its clients to strategize business policies and accomplish sustainable growth in their respective market domain. The industry provides consulting services, syndicated research reports, and customized research reports.

Contact US:

:(US) +1-214-272-0234

:(APAC) +91-7972263819

Email:[emailprotected]

Sales:[emailprotected]

Read the original post:

Comforters Market with Competitive Analysis, New Business Developments and Top Companies: Utopia Bedding, AmazonBasics, Elegant Comfort, Comfort...

David Ross Has "Addressed Some Things That Have Been Lingering for Years" and Other Cubs Bullets – bleachernation.com

Posted on by

We lost our power early this morning, and after an hour or so, it came back on. No big deal. Mustve been something minor. But two minutes after the power came back on, there was a big, ugly sound somewhere outside and the power went right back out. Hasnt come back since. That seems not great.

The Cubs are up to 9-2 on the season, the best record in the National League, and four games clear of the Reds and Cardinals in the NL Central. The Cubs pace wont last, but its also absurd that they have a four-game lead just 11 games into the season. Their playoff odds at FanGraphs are already up to 94.2% thanks to the crazy start and the expanded postseason. It already wouldve been wildly disappointing if the Cubs didnt make the playoffs when 8 teams out of 15 make it, but now it would be even more of a stunner than anything that happened the last two years.

Theo Epstein spoke with the media last night, and Jordan Bastian laid out the full Q&A here for you to peruse and digest. Its nice to appreciate a leader who is so thoughtful and kind at a time like this. Epstein just always seems to hit the right notes, and on the team-pandemic-related stuff, this stood out to me, simultaneously acknowledging certain realities of this process while also underscoring that we shouldnt jump to blame: No set of protocols are perfect. Theyre designed to minimize the risk as best as you possibly can. Theyre designed to put you into a position to reduce your chances of getting the infection. And then, if someone in your organization gets it, theyre designed to try to minimize the spread. Now, obviously, in these first two examples, its proven really difficult to contain the virus once its infiltrated an organization. I think thats the focus of what we need to learn from this and try to make some adjustments. But, its impossible for any set of protocols to eliminate the chance of infection. Thats just not going to happen. So, there should be no inferences out there that everyone whos positive has violated protocols. Thats just not how this is working.

We are each of us constantly at risk for contracting the virus in ways we didnt anticipate, so even as the Cubs have had a great deal of success so far (so much that MLB reportedly reached out to get tips), that doesnt mean itll continue perfectly for another two months.

As for his rookie manager, Epstein was effusive in his praise of David Ross, and hinted that hes already seen improvement in certain areas that seemed deficient by the end of Joe Maddons tenure (and led to those many philosophical differences about organizational complacency): [The whole being less than the sum of the parts is] an area where we collectively have fallen short, I think, the last couple years. I think weve had more talent than the results would indicate the last couple years. You know, thats why there have been different attempts to change the environment. You guys that have followed the club have known that . [Ross] has stepped in and helped address some things that have been lingering for years, you know? And to do that his first month on the job essentially, his first two weeks as a regular season manager, is just really impressive. It just shows hes fearless. Hes alert, observant and has great emotional intelligence, kind of knowing when to step in to challenge a player and call him out, and knowing when to step in and offer a kind word and support and make it really clear that hes got a players back. I think thats a big part of being a leader and being a manager in the Major Leagues these days, and hes just got really good feel for it. And he has not eased his way in. Hes on it in a very, very impressive way.

As we discussed for a long time, Joe Maddon was perfect for the 2015-17 Cubs, and then he was not. It isnt a shot at Maddon or his hands-off style in fact, its more of a shot at the organization as a whole for not more quickly addressing things that fell behind the curve after winning the World Series. Ross was the right guy at this moment to come in the door and organically change player preparation, focus, etc.

Not that you would be surprised at this point, but Ross also has commanded the total respect of his players:

Similarly, from Jon Lester, who underscores that idea that guys just want to do well for Ross (NBCSC): I think the biggest thing with Rossy is just his energy. The presence that he brings when hes in a dugout or in a clubhouse, he demands respect. He demands attention to detail. And guys know that when we show up every day. So, when were out doing our work you kind of feel like hes always watching you. Not in a bad way, but you want to do the right things to keep the line moving offensively or keep the line moving as far as our rotation.

Thats two outings in a row that Kyle Ryan got lit up on the ole hard contact meter, and were it not for his velocity being way down to open this season, it might not concern you right away. But for a guy who was delayed in his start to camp, and who didnt have a lot of velocity to begin with, losing three-ish MPH on his fastball and his cutter is a serious issue. Moreover, the fact that his spin rate is alarmingly down on the cutter is also a serious issue (hes getting far less horizontal movement on the pitch than last year). I think we are already seeing the fruits of that issue in the form of rockets by expected wOBA, Ryans cutter was his best pitch last year, and this year its his worst. I know the Cubs are hard up for lefties at the moment, but until and unless Ryan gets himself right, it already seems like hes another guy that has to have a very short leash, and ideally isnt used in high-leverage moments.

The latest from the podcast, if youve not checked it out (subscribe on iTunes its free!):

Good boys:

Air fryers, writing utensils, and much more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad

Read this article:

David Ross Has "Addressed Some Things That Have Been Lingering for Years" and Other Cubs Bullets - bleachernation.com

Wild NHL playoffs move into next stage with final 16 teams – Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

Posted on by

August 06, 2020

The Wyoming Valley Conference athletic directors received two proposals Thursday for new football schedules this season.

The schedule needed to be reworked when the Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association decided to push back its season five weeks and play a five-game schedule exclusive to LIAA schools due to COVID-19 concerns. the original WVC schedule had 34 games against LIAA teams.

One proposal is for a 10-week season starting Aug. 28. The other is for a seven-week season starting Sept. 18.

The proposals also call for two divisions. Division 1: Berwick, Dallas, Hazleton Area, Pittston Area, Wilkes-Barre Area, Williamsport and Wyoming Valley West. Division 2: Crestwood, Hanover Area, Holy Redeemer, Lake-Lehman, Nanticoke Area, Tunkhannock and Wyoming Area.

The athletic directors will confer with their school administration before deciding which schedule to use if fall sports are held.

PROPOSED 10-WEEK SCHEDULE

Starts Aug. 28

WEEK 1

Dallas at Nanticoke Area

Hanover Area at Wyoming Area

Hazleton Area at Williamsport

Lake-Lehman at Wilkes-Barre Area

Pittston Area at Crestwood

Southern Columbia at Berwick

Tunkhannock at Wyoming Valley West

bye Holy Redeemer

WEEK 2

Dallas at Lake-Lehman

Hazleton Area at Pittston Area

Holy Redeemer at Crestwood

Nanticoke Area at Hanover Area

Williamsport at Wilkes-Barre Area

Wyoming Area at Tunkhannock

Wyoming Valley West at Berwick

WEEK 3

Crestwood at Wyoming Area

Hanover Area at Wilkes-Barre Area

Hazleton Area at Berwick

Lake-Lehman at Holy Redeemer

Pittston Area at Dallas

Tunkhannock at Nanticoke Area

Williamsport at Wyoming Valley West

WEEK 4

Berwick at Pittston Area

Crestwood at Tunkhannock

Holy Redeemer at Hanover Area

Nanticoke Area at Lake-Lehman

Wilkes-Barre Area at Hazleton Area

Williamsport at Central Mountain

Wyoming Area at Southern Columbia

Wyoming Valley West at Dallas

WEEK 5

Berwick at Lake-Lehman

Dallas at Wyoming Area

Hanover Area at Williamsport

Hazleton Area at Crestwood

Holy Redeemer at Nanticoke Area

Pittston Area at Tunkhannock

Wyoming Valley West at Wilkes-Barre Area

WEEK 6

Berwick at Williamsport

Lake-Lehman ar Hanover Area

Nanticoke Area at Crestwood

Pittston Area at Wyoming Valley West

Tunkhannock at Hazleton Area

Wilkes-Barre Area at Dallas

Wyoming Area at Holy Redeemer

WEEK 7

Crestwood at Hanover Area

Hazleton Area at Dallas

Holy Redeemer at Tunkhannock

Lake-Lehman at Wyoming Area

Pittston Area at Williamsport

Wilkes-Barre Area at Berwick

Wyoming Valley West at Nanticoke Area

WEEK 8

Berwick at Crestwood

Hanover Area at Holy Redeemer

Tunkhannock at Lake-Lehman

Wilkes-Barre Area at Pittston Area

Williamsport at Dallas

Wyoming Area at Nanticoke Area

Wyoming Valley West at Hazleton Area

WEEK 9

Berwick at Wyoming Area

Crestwood at Wilkes-Barre Area

Dallas at Hanover Area

Holy Redeemer at Pittston Area

Lake-Lehman at Wyoming Valley West

Nanticoke Area at Hazleton Area

Williamsport at Tunkhannock

WEEK 10

Dallas at Berwick

Crestwood at Lake-Lehman

Hanover Area at Tunkhannock

Nanticoke Area at Holy Redeemer

Wilkes-Barre Area at Wyoming Valley West

Williamsport at Hazleton Area

Wyoming Area at Pittston Area

PROPOSED SEVEN-WEEK SCHEDULE

Starts Sept. 18

WEEK 1

Berwick at Pittston Area

Crestwood at Tunkhannock

Dallas at Wyoming Valley West

Hanover Area at Wyoming Area

Nanticoke Area at Lake-Lehman

Wilkes-Barre Area at Hazleton Area

Williamsport at Central Mountain

Read this article:

Wild NHL playoffs move into next stage with final 16 teams - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

Pandemic acts as dress rehearsal for new medical school curriculum – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Posted on by

Visit the News Hub

Reaffirms emphasis on technology, community outreach

Eva Aagaard, MD, senior associate dean for education and the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrates how a lightboard in the school's Instructional Design Studio allows instructors to face online viewers while writing on the board. Nearly a year old, the studio lets faculty record lectures with supplemental and interactive features. An essential part of the school's new curriculum, the studio also was instrumental in transitioning to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dozens of faculty, students and staff at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have committed countless hours over the past three years to planning a new curriculum that will launch in September with the arrival of incoming medical students.

Although faculty, students and staff didnt know it, they also were preparing for the sudden, unprecedented jolt from in-person to remote learning that occurred in mid-March, when COVID-19 shuttered much of the country, including much of the Medical Campus.

The pandemic shutdown meant that first- and second-year medical students couldnt attend the required lectures and hands-on lab instruction in anatomy, pathology, histology, microbiology and other basic sciences. Nor could the students participate in small group classes that emphasized other essential medical skills such as communication, medical ethics and conducting patient exams.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Childrens Hospital, where the MD students train, ceased virtually all nonessential medical procedures in order to curb virus transmission, preserve hospital beds and ventilators for COVID-19 patients and protect student health. This meant third-year students couldnt finish their clinical rotations a critical experience that helps physicians-in-training gain core clinical skills and discover the specialties theyre interested in pursuing during the final year of medical school and into residency.

Everything as we knew it had stopped, and we didnt know we still dont know the length or the severity of the pandemics impact, said Eva Aagaard, MD, the School of Medicines senior associate dean for education and the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education. But we knew we had to continue educating our students so they could transition to the next year of training or to residency, and we know we have to deliver a new curriculum to our incoming students, and it all must be outstanding.

The new curriculum ensured such goals were met. Not to say there werent bumps, because there were. But the foundation of the new curriculum helped to ease the transition to remote learning while also providing an impromptu dress rehearsal that has allowed educators to troubleshoot, tweak and improve the curriculum before its rollout.

Designed to reflect the fast-moving changes in the health-care industry, the new curriculum was less than a year from launching when the pandemic hit. Two of its main pillars include expanding and enhancing technologyto promote innovative and effective teaching and learning, as well as fostering a better understanding of the social and economic factors that influence health.

Already in place was much of the medical schools upgraded, state-of-the-art technology supporting video-based education, as well as its commitment to ending health inequalities and expanding community health efforts. Planning for the new curriculum also had driven the medical schools collective mindset toward innovation and creativity.

The time we have spent on designing the new curriculum, and the investments in technology and other resources to support it, meant we were prepared in a way that many other places werent, Aagaard said.

Nearly a year ago, for instance, the medical school debuted the Instructional Design Studio, a 700-square-foot space in the lower level of Bernard Becker Medical Library. The studio includes a formal sound-proof video-recording studio with green-screen technology, as well as a smaller do-it-yourself studio. This allows faculty to record lectures with supplemental and interactive features that the medical school can archive in a digital library and students can access at any time.

Few medical schools have a studio and dedicated resources to develop and produce educational videos, said Carolyn Dufault, PhD, assistant dean for educational technology and innovation in the Office of Medical Student Education. We have spent the past few years working closely with faculty to examine how and why we will deliver parts of the new curriculum through video resources, and to create and produce dynamic, high-quality, clinically relevant video resources to enhance student engagement with course materials and promote meaningful, durable learning.

The relationships formed between faculty and the Instructional Design Studio team which includes Dufault; Erin Morris, an educational specialist and instructional designer; and Matt Rice, a veteran videographer have been invaluable during the pandemic, Dufault said. Mutual trust and respect had already been established, she said. This allowed for a quick pivot when we needed to help faculty move entire classes to a distance-learning format.

Added Morris: It especially helped because many of the faculty I had been working with already had the mindset of pushing creative boundaries and trying new things.

In March, the now ubiquitous Zoom was a novelty for many faculty, students and staff. Everyone just had to use it and learn, Morris said. But because the curriculum-building process has heavily emphasized innovation, faculty embraced ideas about customizing Zoom to their instructional needs for instance, accessing breakout rooms for small group discussions.

Third-year students used the breakout features on Zoom and other online technologies as private rooms to take summative exams, attend office hours with instructors and brainstorm with fellow students.

They trained via Zoom in the Wood Simulation Center, which comprises four rooms of the Farrell Learning and Teacher Center that resemble clinical settings and offer mannequins as patients. Led by registered nurse Julie Woodhouse, director of the medical schools immersive learning centers, the simulation classes involved quadrants on students electronic screens offering multiple vantage points of the patient and vital signs.

The formative, simulated clinical experiences gave students an opportunity to work through some acute scenarios in a safe setting and without a faculty or resident telling them how to manage the situations, Woodhouse said. They are allowed to determine diagnosis and patient management by relying on themselves. After each scenario, a faculty member debriefs the actions in the scenario what the students did well and what they could do to manage the situation better.

Brittany Novak, a simulation technician, operated the simulator and acted as the patients voice, while Woodhouse served as the bedside nurse, following the students patient-care instructions.

Students also participated virtually for the Objective Simulated Clinical Exams, which are required after each clinical rotation. They treated patients one on one in Zoom breakout rooms. Their patients were actors who followed a script. After the exam, students wrote patient assessments in an online learning management system called Canvas, while the patients scored students using a checklist in Qualtrics, an online survey platform.

The experiences may have felt artificial or awkward, but I asked the students to think of it like telehealth or an electronic intensive care unit, where the physician is in a separate location from the patient and bedside staff, Woodhouse said. The pandemic has put a spotlight on telehealth. Its likely to continue to play an increased role in patient care.

Besides the importance of telehealth, the switch to remote learning offered additional lessons for the new curriculum, said Thomas M. De Fer, MD, a professor of medicine and associate dean of medical student education. For example, students favor technology for lectures and test-taking, but they also crave in-person communications. Constant online meetings, known to cause whats referred to as Zoom fatigue, is real.

A positive point is that we can make these adjustments to the new curriculum, De Fer said. We can better provide a combination of virtual learning that involves interacting with others on Zoom, for example, and virtual learning that allows students to work on their own time, such as video lectures.

Additionally, the new curriculum will offer students a flexible learning format called hybrid, because it combines face-to-face learning and online learning. The emergent transition to teaching via an electronic platform did not give us months to think about fancy-schmancy things we might want to do, De Fer added. It was a crash course that gave us experience and confidence in online learning, and it taught us important lessons that we will use moving forward.

The suspension of clinical rotations caused logistical headaches and high anxiety among faculty and, especially, students. But during the three months from mid-March to mid-June, when the third-year students were authorized to complete final rotations, students were provided numerous opportunities in compassionate medicine through assisting community organizations and health-care workers responding to the pandemic.

From first years to fourth years, scores of Washington University medical students volunteered to deliver meals to at-risk quarantined people and COVID patients, babysit the children of health-care workers, and create thousands of face shields and masks. Among other activities, they also assisted with contact tracing at area health departments and offered educational outreach to St. Louis African-American and Latino residents, who are most vulnerable to COVIDs adverse effects.

As a medical student, it was difficult to watch from the sidelines as the pandemic became a worldwide crisis, said Connie Gan, a rising fourth-year student and president of the Class of 2021. Other students had similar feelings. This spurred a massive COVID-19 volunteer effort, and, though it wasnt patient care, it was satisfying to provide public health support to front-line health-care workers. We learned important skills individually and, as an institution, we saw firsthand the enormous impact of community engagement in the region. I believe this momentum will grow as we roll out the new curriculum.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally posted here:

Pandemic acts as dress rehearsal for new medical school curriculum - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

A bill would spend $1 billion on diversifying medical schools to close the racial health gap – NBC News

Posted on by

Black doctors make up less than 6 percent of the physicians in America, and a recently introduced bill seeks to help encourage more young doctors of color through a $1 billion grant to several medical schools.

The Expanding Medical Education Act, introduced in the Senate last week by Tim Kaine, D-Va., was drafted to offer a pathway to "tackle the lack of representation of rural students, underserved students, and students of color in the physician pipeline," it says. The goal would be to reduce mistrust in doctors and health care institutions among marginalized communities, thus narrowing the gap in health care.

The legislation would encourage recruiting, enrolling and retaining Black students in medical schools and help fund programs for schools that mostly serve students from marginalized backgrounds.

The ultimate goal, Kaine said, is to increase the talent pool by making the path to medical school less arduous and more affordable. The idea is that if there are more Black doctors, more of them could tend to underserved communities.

"If this bill will add to the number of brown and Black doctors, then that's a good thing," said Donald Alcendor, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Meharry Medical College, a historically Black institution in Nashville, Tennessee. "There simply are not enough doctors who look like the patients in the underserved communities. And this systemic distrust [these] communities have for the medical system is something that is long-standing and has at least a chance of being overcome with Black doctors' presence to create a better patient-doctor relationship."

As a 2006 study cited by the National Institutes of Health outlines, Black populations say they distrust medical providers because of factors like perceived racism or greed. More broadly, systemic racial segregation cultivated a gap in health care, and several high-profile cases through American history were found to have used Black people for medical experimentation against their will or without their consent.

Black doctors agree that the need for more physicians of color is critical, for many reasons, and that funneling money and attention to historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, is "a start," said Dr. Pierre Vigilance, an adjunct professor of health policy and management at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health.

"There's almost no choice but to diversify the pool," Vigilance said. "Teams that are diverse create better results. If you have only one type of demographic in physicians, you will get a certain set of outcomes. But if you have a diverse team that is willing to go into distressed areas, you can address some of these concerns. You can break barriers and you can improve outcomes."

The Morning Rundown

Get a head start on the morning's top stories.

The Expanding Medical Education Act would:

The House version of the bill was introduced in January by Jim Costa, D-Calif., but it has not made any progress.

Javaune Adams-Gaston, president of Norfolk State University, the largest HBCU in Virginia, which boasts a renowned nursing program, said in a statement that she supports the bill and that it "will help to address these disparities and diversify the physician pipeline by providing the financial resources."

The four historically Black medical colleges Meharry, Morehouse School of Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science pride themselves on serving Black communities. Morehouse recently received a $40 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to work with communities of color in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts

Vigilance, who led the District of Columbia's response to the H1N1 swine flu virus in distressed areas in 2009, however, warned against assuming Black doctors will want to work in poor or underserved areas.

"The assertion often made that these providers will go back to the community they serve also makes the assumption that they come from low-income communities," he said. "That's true for some but not all."

In the end, he said, the two goals remain to "make opportunities for more doctors of color and to build teams that are diverse because teams that are diverse create better solutions to challenges or problems. If you diversify that health care provider group or health system, and if you're truly about this notion of population health and community wellness. . . now have no choice but to diversify the provider pool."

Medical school enrollment was up by 31 percent last year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. But Blacks made up about 7 percent of medical college students in 2017 and Hispanics made up 6 percent. Enrollment in rural medical programs is also on the decline, which is a concern since the existing doctors in more remote areas are aging and retiring, and not being replaced fast enough.

The cost of medical school averaging at about $60,000 a year at a private college could also deter prospective Black students.

"Just applying for medical schools can be cost-prohibitive, let alone the interviewing process, pre-COVID-19, flying around the country," Vigilance said. He added that a typical student would apply to at least 10 medical colleges at $170 per application, with a second fee of around $41 for a secondary application. "So you're already well into the thousands of dollars just to apply."

Alcendor agrees. "If this bill can reduce some of the medical school debt that you incur going to medical school, this could be very helpful," he said. "To increase the possibility of people who don't have the means but have the talent to go to medical school is important. We had a student making straight As but couldn't pay for medical school and had to sit out."

As for Black doctors helping build trust in the medical system, it will always be a tough hurdle with African Americans people. "This bill is a start to perhaps making some inroads on a lot of areas," Vigilance said. "It doesn't have all the answers but it's a good piece. And that would be better than where we are."

View post:

A bill would spend $1 billion on diversifying medical schools to close the racial health gap - NBC News

Testing is the key to a successful fall reopening on campuses (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

Posted on by

Hardly a day goes by without a story in the news media on the unsettled state of higher education this fall. The importance of opening our campuses is not in dispute. The question is: Can we do it safely?

Colleges and universities are implementing an array of programs to answer that question affirmatively, limiting classrooms to half or a quarter of their capacity, investing in online education for hybrid teaching, banning athletic events and other large gatherings, re-engineering dining services and residence halls, and putting programs in place that test for the virus.

As public health experts have pointed out, however, these preventative measures do not all carry the same weight. One element looms over the others in importance: effective testing. Without it, campuses are blind, and the virus -- no matter what other steps are taken -- has a good chance of taking hold.

How do colleges and universities measure up on the all-important testing front? Most programs are woefully inadequate, the experts say, making moot the many other costly precautions they are putting in place. Comprehensive testing may appear too logistically challenging and financially infeasible for these institutions or they may not recognize its significance as the keystone of their safety programs.

Yet some institutions, including Colby College, Columbia University, Yale University and the University of Vermont, have overcome these barriers and put in place the kind of testing protocols that stand a good chance of keeping the coronavirus at bay.

How did they manage?

The testing program at the University of Vermont, developed in concert with public health and infectious disease experts on the faculty in our medical school, is one of the most comprehensive in the country. I hope that by enumerating its components -- and costs -- others can see that such extensive programs are more feasible than may be generally thought.

At the advice of our faculty, our testing program begins at the beginning, keeping sick students home and away from campus. In the coming weeks, we will test all of our returning 12,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students in their homes and require them to have a negative result before they set foot on campus. To assist in this effort, we have retained Vault Health, which has expertise in the delivery, retrieval and accurate cataloging of a variety of health tests. Rutgers University will process the tests and share the results with us.

Once they arrive, our program tests all on- and off-campus students, not just symptomatic ones. We know nearly half of all COVID-19 transmission comes from non-symptomatic carriers; testing only those with symptoms -- as many colleges will do -- is no way to stop the spread of the virus. The Broad Institute, affiliated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will assist us in this effort and expects to return test results within 24 hours.

Testing at our university will be frequent and free for users, so there are no cost barriers. Since it takes about a week for the virus to take hold in the body, we will test all 12,000 students when they arrive on campus and once a week thereafter -- a rate recommended by our medical school faculty -- for five weeks and then at a frequency dictated by the data generated by earlier tests.

And we have provisioned space for students who test positive, so they can be placed in supportive isolation.

All employees working on campus can also access our testing free of charge.

The testing program is not inexpensive, but we believe we must not hesitate to spend on this critical enabler of safe fall operations. We estimate that it will cost the university $8 to $10million over just the fall semester. (All told, the COVID-induced financial impact for the year could exceed $60million at our institution.)

Why? We view the cost of testing as an investment, and measure ROI both educationally, in the quality of the experience we'll be able to offer students, and financially, as more students are persuaded to persist this fall in a safe on-campus setting. In simple cost-benefit terms, it is money well spent.

Even with an effective testing program, not all colleges or universities will be able to welcome students back to campus. For those in densely populated cities in areas of the country where the virus is surging, an online semester may indeed be the only safe option. And some institutions will be unable to afford the expense, given already precarious finances across higher ed.

But for many others, an ambitious, science-based testing program just could make possible the experience we all desire: a full semester of rich on-campus learning. Without it, even the most well-intentioned efforts are destined to fail.

Here is the original post:

Testing is the key to a successful fall reopening on campuses (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

The Unnamed Hero – Pager Publications, Inc.

Posted on by

As I sat down to reflect on my third year of medical school, I was once again unhinged by the feelings I thought I had suppressed only a few months prior. My monthly emergency medicine periodical had arrived, and I was looking forward to reading the unique case reports. It didnt take me long to see this would be a more earnest edition; the topic was the familiar COVID-19.

I made it to the periodicals more subjective pieces and was struck with a moment of stillness; maybe it was the impending rain outside. Two words from the page jumped out significantly: vulnerability and courage. These words have always had different meanings to me. Until recently, vulnerability meant weakness, allowing oneself to fall behind without a chance for recovery. Courage, on the other hand, had the opposite meaning: betting all my chips on prevailing at any cost.

These two words vulnerability and courage placed closely together reminded me of a particular patient I encountered not too long ago. Until that moment, I had not realized that she remained quietly in the shadows of my mind, watching to see if I would be vulnerable for my future patients. As the clouds darkened outside my dining room window, I began to relive this patient experience.

It was a night in early January, during my obstetrics and gynecology rotation. One of the weeks I spent there was a night call on labor and delivery. In retrospect, this was my favorite week of medical school besides being in the emergency room. The residents were cheerful, despite our lack of sleep. The nurses seemed to always be well-rested, maybe their secret brand of coffee. and even the patients, despite me being unable to understand what they were going through, made me feel as if I was doing them a rewarding service. My first night went well, three successful deliveries. It was the third night shift that upended everything I thought I knew and worked for.

I will never know her name because she never had one. The only history I was given from my resident was: This mother is in labor, any minute now. She came to her first prenatal appointment with us last week. She lives miles away in a very rural town and had little access to care. Maybe you should just wait for the next delivery.

I could not just give away a good learning opportunity. I had spent the previous week on day shift labor and delivery, so I was feeling more comfortable around childbirth. I was even beginning to enjoy the adrenaline of donning PPE and preparing for this challenge. Handing a baby over to mom is undeniably worth all of the time spent to get to this point. So, for this delivery, I did all the normal actions to prepare: shoe covers, gloves and gown. What I did not have was a contingency plan in case I experienced a personal emergency.

As we approached the room, my resident said, prepare yourself. She knew the seriousness of the situation long before but there was no time to explain. We walked in and the family was already crying. This was a natural reaction I had witnessed among other families during childbirth, but the air felt heavier than normal. Most rooms I previously entered had a board of patient demographics and the babys name. Some rooms even were scattered with beautiful flowers and balloons to celebrate the upcoming joy. This room had nothing besides moms name on the board. There was no indication of excitement centered around a newborn. While everyone sat quietly, I delivered a baby girl, at term, whose blood had stopped circulating long before we met.

I had never seen a family weep this severely, and I wanted to weep for them. Internally, I did, long enough to finish all stages of birth. I remember, as the resident and I delivered her, it seemed as if the air was sucked out of the room and the temperature rose drastically. I did not hear a cry as her head passed the perineum, nor did I feel the usual active movements of body tone.

What I saw was a lifeless, innocent face with blistered and discolored skin. We made eye contact for a brief moment; she looked perfect and still and had no way of knowing what occurred. The neonatal team stood ready for transfer to the warmer and quickly wrapped her in blankets and a homemade knitted hat. As I stayed to deliver the placenta. I heartbreakingly witnessed the family break down in tears at the sight of this baby girl. I stayed in the room for a brief period to console them, and then quickly excused myself so the family could have their time alone.

After I left the room, I was at loss as to what to do next. I sat and took the time to recover my thoughts. I knew the family would be assisted to a different unit with more privacy. I went back one last time to be a body of presence and hugged each of them. I honestly didnt know what to say, which may have been for the best because they didnt say anything either. Some moments in life speak for themselves.

For some time afterward, I was not quite sure what the lesson behind this experience would be. Why should I make a lesson out of an innocent life lost, I thought to myself. I am still seeking those answers. This morning, sitting in my dining room, those feelings re-emerged. I dont know if this nameless infant walks the hospital halls at night, visits her family to support them or even holds my hand and guides me to ensure that I continue the right path. All I can say is that I felt an overly visceral reaction to those two words on the page: vulnerability and courage.

I cannot for one second say I was prepared for that situation, and I admit I could never be prepared for a moment like that again even if I was pre-briefed. What I can say is that it was those same two words, vulnerability and courage, that allowed me to share this experience and will allow me to continue to fight for my patients. In desperate times, families need us. They look to us for courage even when we are just as broken on the inside as they are. In that context, we must remain vulnerable for them. We are equally as human as the patients we treat.

As COVID-19 is the word on everyones mind, I hope sharing my experience of vulnerability can help others as we continue to face these daily challenges. In truth, the future will never be certain. As I prepare for my return to the clinical setting, my nameless hero stands with me. She will be there in good times and in bad. She will always have the same gentle, innocent demeanor and will carry this message: stay vulnerable, even when scared of the future and maintain courage in the face of adversity.

Contributing Writer

University of Central Florida College of Medicine

Robert is a fourth year medical student at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando, Florida class of 2021. In 2017, he graduated from University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science in health sciences and Minor in chemistry. He enjoys traveling, hiking, landscaping and personal finance in his free time. After graduating medical school, Robert would like to pursue a career in emergency medicine.

Go here to see the original:

The Unnamed Hero - Pager Publications, Inc.

TUNE IN: Alexandria Addressing Back-to-School Worries in Virtual Town Hall – The Zebra

Posted on by

Pixabay photo by Wokandapix

ALEXANDRIA, VA Have your kids expressed anxiety about returning to school, whether it is in-person or virtual, during this uncertain time? Do you feel like you need a little bit of guidance to help navigate the situation and lessen their concern?

On Thursday, August 13 at 7:30 p.m., the City of Alexandria and Exploration Kids are holding a virtual meeting to address concerns surrounding the start of school and child mental health. Back-to-School Worries: How to Protect Your Kids Mental Health is designed to give parents tools to help their children through the beginning of this very different school year.

Families and teachers have an important opportunity to partner together and deepen their relationships and trust with children learning from home, said Dr. Lacey Hilliard, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Suffolk University. We hope this discussion provides the support families need to address questions or worries children may have at this moment.

Attending the virtual meeting with Hilliard will be Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson; Alexandria Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.; Dr. Stuart Ablon, Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Stacey Hardy-Chandler, who works with the City of Alexandria; and Susan Keightley from Child & Family Network Centers.

This free event is expected to reach almost 20,000 families and 2,000 teachers. It will be provided in English and Spanish To attend, register HERE.

Families are looking for reliable information and better ways to support their kids mental health while they learn from home this fall, said Michelle Millben, event moderator and founder of Explanation Kids.

For parents with young children, this sounds like a cant-miss opportunity. Soon after signing up, registrants will receive a Zoom link with appropriate credentials.

Event sponsors, seen in the above flyer, are providing donations to help families most affected by the pandemic.

ICYMI: Virginia Supreme Court Halts Eviction Proceedings Statewide Until September 7

Continue reading here:

TUNE IN: Alexandria Addressing Back-to-School Worries in Virtual Town Hall - The Zebra

Community Healthcare honored during National Health Center Week – Times Record News

Posted on by

Claire Kowalick, Wichita Falls Times Record News Published 12:31 p.m. CT Aug. 10, 2020 | Updated 12:37 p.m. CT Aug. 10, 2020

In this 2019 photo, Community Healthcare Center celebrated their 25th anniversary. The center had added new locations throughout Wichita Falls and is now able to treat about 400 patients daily - twice their capacity previously.(Photo: CHRISTOPHER WALKER/TIMES RECORD NEWS)

Representatives from the Community Healthcare Center were honored with a proclamation from Wichita County Monday for National Health Center Week.

CEC CEO Alan Patterson said they are very proud of the work the health center does for the Wichita Falls area community.

In the past three years, the CEC has expanded greatly and now assists about 400 patients a day twice their previous patient capacity.

Recent projects include a CEC location near Zundy Elementary that opens this week and another location at the Wichita Falls campus of Vernon College, which will open in about two months.

Patterson said directly after the Wichita County Commissioners Court meeting, hewas headed to their CEC Third Street campus to oversee the start of a new medical student program for Wichita Falls.

On Monday, the first nine students began their orientation. Ten more students will be added in 2021 and another 10 the next year. The new medical school will have a capacity of 30 students where they can complete their second, third and fourth years of medical school right here in Wichita Falls.

In the past 21 weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic in the area, Patterson said the CECis the front line for many local patients.

In this time frame, the centers have seen about 38,000 patients and about 1,400 were tested for COVID-19. Patterson said of the patients tested, about 85 percent were negative and 15 percent positive for the virus.

In many cases, the CEC can treat COVID patients from start to finish, following the most recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patterson credited Dr. Ellaheh Ebrahim at the center for doing an excellent job of treating patients by rigidly following the CDC guidelines, which can change daily.

Patterson said they conduct three different kinds of COVID-19 testes, PCR or advanced DNA testing, antibody and antigen. The most accurate COVID test, he said is the PCR, which they have luckily been able to conduct for most patients.

Unlike some other areas of the country, Patterson said the CEC is fortunate to get tests processed in less than two days in most cases.

While he did not want to go into exactly what course of medications patients are given to treat COVID-19, Patterson did say they do not use hydroxychloroquine, as it is not recommended by the CDC to treat COVID-19.

Masking is the most important vaccine the country has now, the director said, in preventing the spread of the virus.

Claire Kowalick, a senior journalist for the Times Record News, covers local government, military and MSU Texas. If you have a news tip, contact Claire at ckowalick@gannett.com.

Twitter: @KowalickNews

Read or Share this story: https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2020/08/10/community-healthcare-honored-during-national-health-center-week/3336413001/

Here is the original post:

Community Healthcare honored during National Health Center Week - Times Record News

When Things Arent OK With a Childs Mental Health – The New York Times

Posted on by

Dr. Spinks-Franklin suggested a free downloadable ebook about coronavirus for children, put out in collaboration with the American Psychological Association. I actually read that with one of my patients through our online call, she said. She was just so anxious about coronavirus and we read the book together. Afterward, she said, she was able to articulate how much she learned from the book and what she can do and what her family can do to keep them safe.

If youre worried about your child, you may need some guidance in finding help in this changing landscape of remote therapy and tele-mental health. Often Ill tell people to start with their pediatrician, they often have a sense of whats available, and recommendations around mental health providers, Dr. Vinson said. Insurance companies have really lowered barriers around providing tele-mental health services, she said.

The summer may be a good time to look for a therapist if a child is struggling; as the school year picks up, schedules may fill. Talk to your childs primary care provider, talk to the school, consider reconnecting with a counselor or therapist who has seen your child before. If your child is already taking a medication for anxiety, for attentional issues, for depression talk to the doctor who prescribed it to see if an adjustment is indicated.

Remote mental health may be harder with young children, Dr. Kaslow said, though many therapists are finding ways to be really creative, asking children to show their favorite toys and how they play with them, and to talk about their home environments and how theyre feeling.

Dr. Vinson said that for many children with mental health problems, symptoms have gotten more severe. If they were anxious, theyre more anxious, if they were depressed, its harder, if its schizophrenia, the voices went up. Her own work as a child and adolescent psychiatrist has increased, she said, with children needing more help during the pandemic.

Updated August 6, 2020

Parents need to take their children seriously, Dr. Spinks-Franklin said. This is a very stressful time for adults and children, and we dont want to disregard it when a child tells us how stressed they are, how worried they are.

Cindy Liu, an assistant professor of pediatric newborn medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the director of the developmental risk and cultural resilience program, said that in a setting in which we are all now accustomed to thinking of the risks of viral infection, its important to consider stress contagion and the risks to those who are most vulnerable, and to families at higher risk because of structural racism and socioeconomic disparities.

Original post:

When Things Arent OK With a Childs Mental Health - The New York Times

Making sure patients, physicians know about the advances in treating female cancers – Norton Healthcare

Posted on by

Lynn Parker, M.D., gynecologic oncologist with Norton Cancer Institute, is on a mission. Shes doing whatever she can to spread the word: Theres a lot that can be done to prevent and treat female cancers.

What drives me is we can cure people; we can help people. What drives me every day is to see patients do well, said Dr. Parker, who trained at the world-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Rapid medical advances are improving the odds significantly for ovarian, uterine, cervical, endometrial and other cancers in the reproductive organs. Unfortunately, even some physicians may not know about many of the new treatments, according to Dr. Parker.

We can be very successful, she said. Its just a matter of making sure people are aware of the options they have and that our specialty exists. Its a really exciting time in gynecologic oncology. I dont want people to get misinformation that theres not something that can be done to help them when there is.

To that end, Dr. Parker is on the Communications Committee of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, an international professional organization.

We try to get the word out, either through social media or websites, Dr. Parker said. To me its not only about getting the word to the patients but to the primary care doctors.

Dr. Parker recalled a patient who was told by her doctor to go home and get her affairs in order because nothing could be done. Dr. Parker saw the patient and started treatment.

She lived another six years. She had six years with her kids that she otherwise would not have had, Dr. Parker said.

As a gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Parker performs surgery and sees patients in the office.

Dr. Parker grew up in a small town in southern Illinois, the daughter of a dentist. Her grandparents lived close by, and she helped care for her grandfather, who had rapidly progressing rheumatoid arthritis.

I loved science. I loved caregiving. That was a way I could make an impact and help people, she said.

Dr. Parker completed a combined six-year undergraduate and medical degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before doing her medical residency at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. She then completed a fellowship in gynecology/oncology at MD Anderson.

Dr. Parker is passionate about keeping up with research and what the latest treatments can do for patients.

I have patients, in the old days, we would say you have nine to 12 months to live. Now I give them a new chemotherapy combination and the tumor goes away. To me thats very exciting, she said.

With more than 100 specialists at locations around Louisville and Southern Indiana, Norton Cancer Institute is the areas leading provider of cancer care.

(502) 629-HOPE (4673)

Other new treatments include immunotherapy, which uses a patients own immune system to fight cancer; PARP inhibitors, which kill cancer cells by stopping them from repairing themselves; and so-called VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor)

drugs like bevacizumab, which starve tumors by preventing them from forming new blood vessels.

Research also has shown that most cancers that were once thought to arise in the ovary have their origin in the fallopian tubes, according to Dr. Parker. That means cancers potentially can be prevented. For example, if a woman is having a hysterectomy for reasons other than cancer, the fallopian tubes also can be removed.

Genetic testing also is improving, which will help pinpoint which women are most at risk.

Now we can do very significant profile testing and potentially protect women from ever getting cancer, Dr. Parker said. I would love to go out of business for that reason.

Even with an eye on the latest research, Dr. Parker never loses sight of her patients.

My patients are amazing people, Dr. Parker said. Im very proud my patients feel at home when they come see us. So much of that is lost in modern medicine. To me its about making patients feel like theyre part of a team, part of a family.

Cancer is so overwhelming you want to know they can always reach you to talk to you. They can ask us all the questions they want. If I dont know the answer, I will find someone who does.

In medical school, Dr. Parker met her husband, John Parker, M.D., a neuropathologist who teaches medical students and neurosurgery residents at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Together, they have a teenage daughter. In her free time, Dr. Lynn Parker likes spending time with her family and spending time outdoors.

See the original post here:

Making sure patients, physicians know about the advances in treating female cancers - Norton Healthcare